#Single Review: Day 75

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Audio: Montreal Chill Panic Shares Vibey and Brooding "Day 75"

New Audio: Montreal Chill Panic Shares Vibey and Brooding "Day 75" @mtlchillpanic @heygroover @romainpalmieri @DorianPerron

Montreal Chill Panic is the moniker of a mysterious Trois-Rivières, Québec-based instrumental electronic music producer and artist. Since the project started about 18 months ago, the mysterious Canadian artist and producer has managed to release three albums, last year’s Playing With Time, and this year’s Another Midnight and Journée de travail, all of which have amassed over 350,000 streams on…

[kirbyoctournament]

Hello again all! After the riveting finale of last year's tournament, we've spent a few months collecting a selection of fun stats into our final 2024 Tournament Review!

From which participant had the most propaganda posted, to the total number of votes cast across the event, to which canon Kirby species was most represented, we hope you'll enjoy this send-off for the 2024 tourney!!

. · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ . . · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ .

★ POLLS WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF VOTES a selection of the highest performing polls that attracted the most public attention

Mama D vs J: 848 votes

★ Dawn vs Starry Dee: 749 votes ★ Fylass vs Clark: 741 votes ★ Astro vs Noir Fontaine vs Techie: 592 votes ★ Sir Meteor vs Life: 554 votes

★ CHARACTERS WITH THE MOST PROPAGANDA characters who had the most propaganda posts for them, either from their own creator or from other artists

Fecto Flora 155 posts

★ Valfrey 112 posts ★ Sir Uther 108 posts ★ Noir Fontaine 98 posts ★ Dotty 95 posts

After applications closed at the end of April, the tournament ran from May 10th, 2024 to October 28th, 2024, just a few days shy of six months! During this time...

★ 143 competitors joined the tournament and made friends ★ 1,813 Propaganda posts were made by the community supporting those competitors, and reblogged to the @kirbyoctournament blog ★ 202 polls were made pitting your favorites against each other ★ across those polls, 43,165 votes were cast ★ and of all these, winners starstruck dee and Rope MF received 1179 votes and 699 votes respectively over the course of the event

★ RANDOM STATS

★ 36% (52) of entered OCs were of the "orb" species, with 33 of those taking up the mantle of "knight" specifically. far and away the most represented species ★ Waddle dees were the next most common entrant, with 17 OCs. ★ Ripple Fairies were the least showcased non common-enemy/custom species type, with only a single representative! ★ Of all OC names, "S" was the most common initial at 16 OCs, a statistic we do feel is influenced by the frequency of "sir" before names. Removing those, it was the letter "A", with 13. ★ The least successful initial was the letter "J", with all but one of their 4 representatives (75%) falling in the first round.

★ PROPAGANDA WITH THE MOST CHARACTERS INCLUDED most tournament characters included in a single piece (or single series) of propaganda

★ Tournament OCs Part One and Part Two by @ivynajspyder with a total of 60 competitors

★ 55 competitors Havent You Noticed I'm A Star? by @giantchasm ★ 29 competitors and 2 non competitors (total 31 characters) Congrats To Fecto Flora! by @ceoofmetagala ★ And an honorable mention with 13 competitors and 15 non competitors (total 28 characters), Stargate Commemorative Piece, by @moonverc3x

During the tournament, creators and fans of all kinds arrived to showcase their best skills in support of their own ocs, their friends, and even brand new favorite characters they had found. While it's of course impossible to pick just one stand out piece -and we strongly recommend you check our full propaganda tag to see many more of these incredible works- here are some notable and unique highlights suggested by the Kirby OC Tourney community!

★ Propaganda Hijack; Music cover by @boa35 ★ Vote Dotty; by @cauliarty ★ Vote Flora; by @metagalacafe ★ Valfrey icon; by @gethoce ★ Friendly Talk; by @sacrificecage

★ Dont Stop Rope MF Now; Animated music video by @mint-termsandconditions ★ Just another Astral; by @aseuki ★ Tea Time; by @quanblovk ★ Nighty Knight Mod; by @windstriker427 ★ Tournament armours; by @rosiegardenlove

★ Havent You Noticed I'm A Star; Animated music video by @giantchasm ★ Motifs and Symbols; by @kirbybecomesastarwarrior ★ Surprise propaganda; by @poppybros-jr ★ Go Life!; by @shippyo ★ Not In The Lead; by @hnm-tech-support

★ Noir's Field Trip; Masterpost of art, comics and asks by @desultory-novice ★ Space battle; by @pinkestmenace ★ Only In Passing; by @what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me ★ Wolfbell's Illustrated Roleplays; by @zombiecicada ★ Not Over yet; by @a-stardusted-sky

. · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ . . · ͙ * ̩̩͙˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩̥͙ ✩ * ̩̩̥͙ ˚ ̩̥̩̥ * ̩̩͙ ‧ ͙ .

And with this, we officially conclude the 2024 Kirby OC Tournament event!

Over the next few days we will reblog a few final propaganda posts we received notifications for since October. We also have a new pinned post with an FAQ regarding the tournament and when things may be picked up next!

Thank you for coming along on the ride with us, for sharing your creativity and supporting OCs, and for helping us to make this into a wonderful and enriching community event!

See you around!

[ostdrossel]

Ostdrossel, how do you get started with a bird camera? Is there an affordable camera you would recommend for a beginner?

It depends on what you want. There are always options that are better or worse or more pricey or cheaper. I use different systems for different things.

My homemade "feeder cam" with an action camera (the camera has the photoburst with motion detection function but any with photo timelapse works too). I have to harvest the photos from the SD card every day and take the cam in over night. The motion trigger is hyper active, so there will be tons of unusable photos and it takes a while to go through all.

IP cameras - I am still using my old Birdsy cameras in some spots, recording and livestreaming with the help of youtube and OBS.

Wyze cameras - I use them mainly for nestboxes but they are also a cheap option for feeder or baths, maybe. They come with an app. I pay 45 bucks a year for three cam pro licenses so I don't have videos restricted to 12 seconds. The v3 and v4 are pretty good quality, and I have also used them to "stake out" locations for other cams.

An actual "feeder cam" - I use a Birdfy 2, which is quite fantastic but expensive. (I posted a more thorough review on my website and here too last year.) I think similar quality you may get from Bird Buddy and the one that WBU sells (Feather Snap?) but I cannot vouch for any of these.

Trailcams. I have started using trailcams last year and have been enjoying playing around with them a lot. The positive side is that you may get better image and sound quality than with the smart feeder cams and don't need internet or data or even wiring for them to work but you will have to harvest your footage from the SD card. Cellular ones seem to work from afar but I have not tried any because I am too cheap to pay for extra data. I have been usng three models from the Chinese company Ceyomur (the CY65, 745 and 95), and they are all three a lot of fun to work with. The best of the lot is the 75, IMO, it has the fastest reaction time, a solar panel and takes good photos and videos. All three come with a practical app (great for positioning!) and can take photos and videos at the same time (great for the harvesting stage so you don't have to watch every single video, the photos act as preview). they are all well-priced on Amazon. I also use the more expensive Browning Spec Ops elite, which has stellar video quality but does not come with an app, is not great with photos and cannot take video and photo simultaneously. I usually try to say which one I used on my posts.

Last but not least you can use a regular photo camera.

[democracyunderground]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”

The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.

Clemency is the term for the power the president has to pardon, in which a person is relieved of guilt and punishment, or to commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates the punishment but doesn’t exonerate the wrongdoing. It’s customary for a president to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe away records or end prison terms.

Those pardoned Thursday range in age from 36 to 75. About half are men and half are women, and they had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses, fraud or theft and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters; a church deacon who has worked as an addiction counselor and youth counselor; a doctoral student in molecular biosciences; and a decorated military veteran.

Louisiana resident Trynitha Fulton, 46, was one of the pardons; she pleaded guilty to participating in a payroll fraud scheme while serving as a New Orleans middle school teacher in the early 2000s. She was sentenced to three years of probation in 2008.

“The pardon gives me a sense of freedom,” Fulton said in a written statement to the AP. “The conviction has served as a mental barrier for me, limiting my ability to live a full life.”

“The pardon gives me inspiration to make more impactful decisions personally and professionally,” she added.

After her conviction, Fulton went on to earn a master’s degree. She helps lead the nonprofit Skyliners-Youth Outreach, which supports New Orleans youth by providing hot meals, clothing, shelter and mental health referrals.

The president had previously issued 122 commutations and 21 other pardons. He’s also broadly pardoned those convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, and pardoned former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and 34 other lawmakers are urging the president to pardon environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who was imprisoned or under house arrest for three years because of a contempt of court charge related to his work representing Indigenous farmers in a lawsuit against Chevron.

Others are advocating for Biden to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, paused federal executions. Biden had said on the campaign trail in 2020 that he wanted to end the death penalty but he never did, and now, with Trump coming back into office, it’s likely executions will resume. During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented number of federal executions, carried out during the height of the pandemic.

More clemency grants are coming before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, but it’s not clear whether he’ll take action to guard against possible prosecution by Trump, an untested use of the power. The president has been taking the idea seriously and has been thinking about it for as much as six months — before the presidential election — but has been concerned about the precedent it would set, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

But those who received the pardons would have to accept them. New California Sen. Adam Schiff, who was a part of the House committee that investigated the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, said such a pardon from Biden would be “unnecessary,” and that the president shouldn’t be spending his waning days in office worrying about this.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., another target of Trump’s threats, said in a statement this week that his suggestion that she and others be jailed for the investigations “is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

Before pardoning his son, Biden had repeatedly pledged not to do so. He said in a statement explaining his reversal that the prosecution had been poisoned by politics. The decision prompted criminal justice advocates and lawmakers to put additional public pressure on the administration to use that same power for everyday Americans. It wasn’t a very popular move; only about 2 in 10 Americans approved of his decision, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

[graysoncritic]

A (Negative) Review of Tom Taylor's Nightwing Run - What Went Wrong? Bea Bennett

Introduction Who is Dick Grayson? What Went Wrong? Dick's Characterization What Went Wrong? Barbara Gordon What Went Wrong? Bludhaven (Part 1, Part 2) What Went Wrong? Melinda Lin Grayson What Went Wrong? Bea Bennett What Went Wrong? Villains Conclusion Bibliography

I wish to spend this part of the essay examining how Taylor’s appropriation of Bea’s character betrays his complete disregard towards the ordinary people. Admittedly, this section is a late addition to the essay. As I was going through my edits, Nightwing #107 was released and Taylor’s handling of Bea was simultaneously so atrocious and so relevant to the topics I wish to discuss that I was unable to leave it untouched. 

I should also note that this section was written and edited long before the Nightwing Annual written by Travis Moore was released. I considered completely cutting this section as a result, or to add a section addressing Moore’s (very bad, in my personal opinion) retconning of Bea, as well as how it tainted Bea and Ric’s relationship (what, in the view of many, was one of the few redeeming qualities of the Ric arc). But I decided to instead leave this section intact, for while Moore’s Annual adds additional context for this section, it does not change the point I wished to make. 

Bea was always a complicated character when it came to Taylor’s run. She was the elephant in the room, her absence felt yet unspoken. Dick loved her not too long ago. She was there for him when Babs and his family abandoned him because he could not meet their expectations. She gave him a place to belong, she gave him the support he needed, and she fought for his well-being not because Nightwing needed to return, but because she loved him. 

And yet, when Dick regained his memories, Taylor completely ignored her existence. Rather than dealing with the aftermath of regaining his memories and dealing with the incredibly complicated ordeal of sorting through who he was before losing his memories, who he was as Ric, and who he is going to be now that those two parts of him are combined, Taylor decided that he would instead create a soft reboot. This meant that while the Ric arc was acknowledged as having happened, its consequences, events, and characters were, for the most part, ignored.

And that included Bea.

We can see this in how Taylor decided that rather than allowing Dick to be single for a while as he regained his footing, he immediately started to lay the groundwork for Dick and Babs’ romance, making it clear as early as #79 that this would be a major point in his story. 

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Leaping into the Light Part Two. Nightwing: Rebirth. 79, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 05)

Never, during those early days of Dick and Babs’ romance, was the fact that Dick just got out of a serious relationship with another woman whom he was deeply in love with acknowledged.

(Jurgens, Dan, writer. Cliquer, Ronan; Moore, Travis, illustrators. Who is Dick Grayson? Nightwing: Rebirth. 75, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2020. pp 36)

Never did Dick have the time to process the way Babs treated him while he was Ric, nor did Babs get a chance to apologize for the unreasonable demands she made of him while he recovered from a traumatic brain injury.

(Castellucci, Cecil, writer. Sauvage, Marguerite; Lupacchino, Emanuela; Aneke, illustrators.  Little Wonders. Batgirl: Rebirth. 50, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2020. pp 14)

Never did Dick and Babs have a conversation about whether they should wait for Dick to heal before proceeding forward with a serious relationship, what it meant for Dick to be with someone who only knew a version of him from years ago, and if the him of now could be the same person Babs once knew and loved. They never had to reconcile their time apart. They never had to wonder what Dick’s relationship with Bea meant now that he recovered his memories. They never had to have a serious and mature conversation where they figure out what is best for them as individuals and if what they wish to have now is even possible given their circumstances.

Just as important, never did Dick seek Bea, who is a Bludhaven native who worked with homeless individuals, for her opinion on the best ways in which this problem could have been addressed.

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Leaping into the Light Part Six. Nightwing: Rebirth. 83, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 13)

There are ways in which a Dick and Babs romance could have developed slowly while taking all of these conversations into consideration. There are ways in which Dick could have examined his relationship with his family and friends from years as Dick Grayson and the friends he made as Ric, and if those two worlds could exist as one. There were a myriad of ways in which the aftermath of Ric’s existence could have not only been acknowledged, but also addressed in a mature story about recovery and healing while still giving Dick a fresh start and treating Taylor’s run as a good onboarding point for new Dick Grayson readers (the memory recovery and reassessment of relationships could have provided ample opportunities to explore Dick’s history and provide context and information for new fans). But rather than doing any of this, Taylor decided to ignore all of these complicated affairs and treat his run as if it were Nightwing’s very first issue.

As I said before, I do not wish to go into the merits of whether this was the right or wrong decision. But it was a decision nonetheless, and nowhere else was its effect more felt than in not only Bea’s absence, but the complete erasure of her character. Rather than making it so she just wasn’t a part of Dick’s life anymore, her existence was never acknowledged, never commented on, her absence never mentioned. When Taylor started his new run and decided to skip Dick’s healing process and to start a new romance between Dick and Babs he also, as a result, removed Bea from existence.

Now, I cannot know why he recently decided to walk back this decision. My best guess is that he witnessed the push back against it and decided that rather than stick to his plan, he would quickly and, quite frankly, messily deal with said criticism by having Bea play a part in a story arc.

The warning sign that this was going to be handled poorly appeared early on, when the narrative mentioned that it had been two years since Dick recovered his memory. Again, I cannot know for certain why Taylor made such a decision, especially as there had been no indication of time passage up until that point, but my best guess is that once Taylor decided to bring Bea into the narrative, he realized how badly it would reflect on Dick to have gone from his romance with Bea to one with Babs.

However, what was far more offensive was how Taylor took a character whose big draw was the fact that she was just a regular person and decided that, in order to make her worthy of his narrative, she must have been a vigilante as well.

When Dick was confused, hurt, trying to discover who he was and trying to distance himself from vigilantism, Bea was a safe harbor. In an universe so filled with super-powered individuals, with humans capable of taking down monsters by themselves, with individuals whose hacking skills are so great they could shut down governments, Bea’s ordinariness was a breath of fresh air. She grounded the narrative and became a guide to the regular world of Bludhaven, the world that Nightwing once protected and that Dick and Ric both belonged to. Through her volunteering, she showed that you can still help others even if you’re not in a position of power; through her compassion towards Ric she showed that even when someone is at their lowest, they are still worthy of love; and by taking on Joker and Court even though she was just a regular person, she showed that even the most ordinary person can be brave, can be heroic, can protect those they love.

(Jurgens, Dan, writer. Cliquet, Ronan, illustrator. War for the Mind Nightwing: Rebirth. 71, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2020. pp 19)

A lot of Bea’s importance in the narrative came from the fact that she was just an ordinary citizen. Her “lack” of specialness was what made her special. She gave the ordinary people of Bludhaven a face and a voice, and she served as a reminder of what it is that the heroes we love fight for. As someone who was also not involved in vigilantism, she could also give Dick a form of unconditional support that it would be difficult to get from those whose lives are often dictated by life-or-death stakes. As someone who was not involved with the Bats, the Supers, the Titans, or any other hero, she had just the right amount of distance to offer him impartial advice that is not colored by a complicated history with either characters or the conflicts of being a vigilante. She could give him an alternative perspective that he, his family, and other heroes would ordinarily have lacked. She could remind him and the reader of the importance of the little things, she could be his anchor, and she could be his friend and his friend only. She could be the person who was always on Dick’s side. Not Nightwing, not Robin, not Batman, not Agent 37; not the detective, the superhero, the leader; not the boyfriend, the older brother, the mentor, the son. Just Dick.

But instead of realizing the specialness in her “lack” of specialness, Taylor instead decides to make her into a secret pirate queen, with a long and troubled family history that involves all those high stakes. Most insultingly, not only does Taylor physically remove Bea from Bludhaven for her vigilantism operations by making her operate in the sea rather than on land, he also has Dick specifically call out that Bea’s incredible actions are now explained because she was a pirate queen. 

(Taylor, Tom; Conrad, Michael, writer. Byrne, Stephen; Acuna, Serg, illustrator. The Crew of the Crossed Part Three. Nightwing: Rebirth. 107, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2023. pp. 08)

This one line is truly revealing of Taylor’s thoughts of ordinary characters and the ordinary people of Bludhaven. He insults Bea and destroys her character by very blatantly stating that her “ordinariness” made her a liability in his story. Bea could not have been helpful to others despite lacking power because she cared, because she wanted to help, because she realized that even regular people can make a difference — she had to be a pirate. Bea could not have taken on the Joker and the Court because she loved Dick and that love gave her courage to fight for him — she had to have been a vigilante. Rather than empowering, now Bea’s strength and capabilities are waved away as her being another vigilante. 

In trying to “make her special,” Taylor took away what made her special. Not only that, by having it Dick state this sentiment in these words, Taylor is making it so rather than believing that we all have the power to make the world a better place, no matter how “ordinary” we may feel, we can only do so if we are one of the few who have this specialized training and abilities. Ordinary people, according to Taylor and to Dick, do not have the courage to face difficulties or take on bad guys for the sake of our fellow humans or for those we love. We are incapable of doing that. It is only once someone is “special” that such traits “can make sense.”

This complete disregard towards the value of ordinary humans can also be observed during the brief time in which Dick gained power during Taylor’s run. Rather than using this as an opportunity to emphasize that Dick does not need powers in order to be great, the entire arc has this wistful tone, as if Taylor wished he could permanently make Dick into a superpowered individual. “Wouldn’t it be cool,” the arc implies. “If Nightwing could have all of these superpowers?” Taylor goes as far as having Clark, a character who has known Dick since he was a child and who would have known that Dick never needed the assistance of powers to be a hero, lament the fact that Dick’s talents were only temporary.

(Taylor, Tom; Pacat, C. S., writers. Pansica, Eduardo; HDR, Daniel; Moore, Travis, illustrators.  Superwing in Rise of the Underworld Finale. Nightwing: Rebirth. 104, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2023. pp 11)

Once more, I feel the need to draw a comparison between the implications of this panel and how, in World’s Finest #12, Waid had Kara emphasize how awe-inspiring it was that Dick could save himself while still being an ordinary human.

(Waid, Mark, writer. Lupacchino, Emanuela, illustrator. Scream of the Chaos Monkey. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest no. 12, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2023. pp. 06 - 07)

This disrespect and disregard towards “ordinary” humans explains why, rather than building a supporting cast with Bludhaven-natives, and rather than having Dick bond with the citizens, Taylor instead decides to move the Titans into Bludhaven, move Dick into the Titan’s Tower, and impose a physical and emotional distance between Dick and those he is meant to protect. It is as if Taylor does not think that ordinary citizens are worthy of writing about. While their flaws are scrubbed away so they can be “perfect victims,” their troubles can be used as backgrounds, to make the heroes look socially progressive, but any opportunity for meaningful interaction is cleanly removed from the story. 

The ordinary people of Bludhaven are denied agency, denied voices, faces, individuality, diversity, and even names because Taylor’s narrative deems them invaluable due to their “ordinariness.” Their lack of “specialness” makes them unworthy of Taylor’s time and of Nightwing’s time. In Taylor’s story, ordinary people do not deserve screen time, they do not deserve to interact with Nightwing, Batgirl, or the Titans. Bea’s transformation is but the embodiment of Taylor’s complete lack of regards towards the people of Bludhaven, towards the city of Bludhaven, and, by extent, towards their hero. 

To treat the ordinary people of Bludhaven with so much disregard is to fundamentally misunderstand what is so incredible about Dick Grayson. The appeal of most Bat characters is that, though they are just ordinary people, they are able to rise above the odds to do what seems impossible, and in doing so, they inspire us to take on the challenges we face in our lives. Dick, specifically, has always been a voice for those who felt ostracized by society. He defied all sorts of expectations, not just as a hero, but as Batman’s partner, and showed that one could still be different and be great. He empowered individuals who felt otherized not by being super-powered, but by being compassionate. Dick sees the value in every single individual, his compassion is unparalleled, and his desire to help everyone, in both big ways and small ways, is why he so often worked among the citizens of Bludhaven, and not apart from them. He was not better than them, he was not above them. He was one of them. He was Nightwing, yes, but he was also a bartender, a police officer, a gymnastics instructor, a taxi driver. 

But Taylor does not allow Dick to be any of that. Just like Taylor does not allow Dick to have his toxic perfectionism or obsessive tendencies. Just like Taylor has Dick recite online-rhetoric without considering if that would be fitting of his character. Or how he has so Dick’s competence and individuality is sacrificed for a heternormative romance with Babs. In trying to paint himself as progressive while responding to online discussions, Taylor demonstrates his, at best lack of interest, at worst disdain, for who Dick Grayson is and what Dick Grayson fans love about him so much. Rather than embracing the uniqueness of Dick and of Nightwing, Taylor instead strips away everything that differentiates him from others, taking him away from those who love him and appropriates him, his values, and his relationships. In Taylor’s Nightwing, Dick is only a blank canvas stand-in protagonist for audiences to project themselves into, a wish-fulfillment fantasy that has nothing of Dick Grayson in sight.

[stjohnstarling]

I did a little googling about Fifty Shades of Grey's origins as a fanfic and oh my god I have opened a terrifyingly deep rabbit hole. It's so much more than Fifty Shades. I think all of self-publishing might be an offshoot of the Twilight fandom. I'm going insane.

This essay explains a lot. Twilight fans got sick of Twilight but still wanted to participate in the fandom, so they got creative:

There were stories where vampires didn't exist (like Fifty Shades of Grey). They got CRAZY popular within the community because they were essentially just generic romance novels with characters we already knew (made it easy to write and consume, as we already liked and cared about the characters). Though there were always nods to the original Twilight series within them, you didn't even have to know Twilight to enjoy an All Human-AU. I've gotten tons of reviews on my fanfic where readers say they've never even picked up the book. By 2010, probably a good 75% of Twilight fanfic being produced was All-Human. It was literally a chore to find a fanfic that had anything to do with vampires.

Twilight fanfiction diverged from its source material to the point where it was only a minor tweak for most popular authors to drop the Twilight link entirely and publish their fanfic as original novels. From a comment on that essay:

Seriously, Twilight fandom got really crazy big for a few years there. It was not totally uncommon to get multi-million clicks on a semi-popular story. It's weird looking back on it and calling it "Twilight fandom" because it was really more like "Romance Novel fandom". For real, for a period there, calling a Twilight fanfic author a 'Twilight fan' would be the ultimate insult. But they never stopped writing about Edward and Bella! It's so weird

And from the main Twilight article on Fanlore:

So what we've created in our neck of the woods are people using their fanwork to gain a huge audience, then removing the fanwork, filing it, publishing it, and sending cease and desist letters if the fanwork is shared. (The published works are then marketed back to the fandom via author profiles and banner ads on the archives.)

Fifty Shades of Grey was the first of these to explode, but it's far from the only one. Every single one of EL James' fanfiction contemporaries I've looked into is not just a self-published author but among the biggest self-published authors in the world, many of whom were foundational to shaping the look and feel and tropes of the medium. Twilight fanfiction is absolutely foundational to all of self-publishing.

This explains so much about the mainstream parts of the industry to me. I don't think they've ever fully gotten out from under the weight of the Twilight fandom, even to this day. It's still the same stuff, look at this. From a former fan's ff.net profile:

My BFF Angel and I (who met through [writing Twilight fanfiction]!) are co-writing writing a dark YA series of standalone romances, with so many of my fave themes. Trauma, bullying, addiction, social issues, violence, pretty rich high school boys being douchebags, hurt/comfort, frantic dry humping, you feel me you feel me.

The resulting book series from 2021 has tens of thousands of Goodreads reviews.

[vintagelasvegas]

New Town Tavern, 600 Jackson Ave, Las Vegas, in 1967. Photo by Clinton Wright. One of the oldest clubs in Las Vegas, destroyed by fire 10/15/2023.

Town Tavern was opened Jul. ‘55 by owners Marie and Earl Turmon, locals who lived at nearby 708 Madison. In its heyday of the late 50s the 24-hour bar, casino, and coffee shop was central to Westside’s nightlife scene. After the closure of the Moulin Rouge in Fall ’55, Town Tavern became the main Westside destination for black performers who were headlining the segregated Strip hotels.

Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr, Cab Calloway, Arthur Lee Simpkins, Bob Bailey, Dorothy Dandridge, and the Ink Spots all performed in a single night during an NAACP cocktail party in Dec. '55. Review-Journal columnist Forrest Duke wrote of another night when, “Pearl Bailey and her Flamingo gang sashayed over to Earl Turmon’s Town Tavern Wednesday night, and the joint was, to put it rather mildly, jumping.” Another columnist’s blurb describes an employee’s going-away party with music by jazz musicians Christine Chatman (singer, piano), Al Morgan (bass), Chuck Hampton (drums), and Bob Bailey as emcee, “there with his lovely wife Anna who dances in the Pearl Bailey’s Flamingo show.”

The club became “New” Town Tavern in late ’59 and operated more or less continually until 2013. Westside's nightlife scene deteriorated in the 60s – the unplanned byproduct of integration was the decline in black gaming establishments, but Town Tavern remained. Florence Elmore owned the club in '70-71. Danny Curtis & Elijah Green bought the club in '71; Green was still the owner in the 80s, renovating and enlarging the club after a fire in '81. In the 90s it became “Ultra New” Town Tavern and continued operated under this name until closing.

Town Tavern originally had a top hat-shaped sign. Its second sign with "Town Tavern" in a ribbon and "Casino" in a circle, was installed in the early 60s and remained until 2023. In 2016 the words "Town Tavern" were replaced with "Tokyo" for a casino which ultimately never opened. The sign was removed from the building on 8/16/2023.

1967 photos from Clinton Wright Photographs (PH-00379), UNLV Special Collections & Archives.

Sources: "Opening.” Review-Journal, 7/6/55; “NAACP Plan Party for Sunday.” Review-Journal, 12/24/57; Forrest Duke. Review-Journal, 1/16/59; “Take Pickets Off Westside Casino Beat.” Review-Journal, 9/7/59; J. Berger. Black casinos flourished during days of segregation. Review-Journal, 11/10/75; “Arson suspected in tavern fire.” Review-Journal, 5/25/81; “West Las Vegas Casinos Have New Look – And Dreams.” Las Vegas Sentinel Voice, Vol. 4, Issue 25, 10/20/83; C. Drummond. 'It's a legend gone': Fire destroys Historic Westside building, and Clean up of Historic Westside building destroyed by fire. News3LV, 10/17/2023.

Note. Prior to Town Tavern, this corner 1400 F St. was the site of the earliest known Westside casinos. It was Shady Rest Barbecue, licensed for slot machines on 9/17/42, and Club Alabam, aka Smokey Joe's Club Alabama the following year. Fuller's Index of Nevada Gaming Establishments says the Club Alabam was licensed for 21 from 5/1/43 to 7/2/43. City Commission Meeting Minutes of 7/2/43 (p97) states that the liquor and gaming license of Joe LaDue at Club Alabam was denied. The club burned down 9/29/43. Liquor License. Review-Journal, 9/17/42; Westside Club Burns, Officers Say Incendiary. Review Journal, 9/29/43.

[lgcmanager]

LGC TEMP AGENCY ( WINTER 2025 )

SCHEDULE TYPE: ONE TIME GIG

this year, JTBC is lauching their variety in collaboration with legacy, LGC TEMP AGENCY. through this show, participants will get to try a variety of part-time jobs. each season will focus on a single industry. this season: ENTERTAINMENT. here are this season's part timers and what they will be doing:

• BAEK SEONA and CARTER JAEJIN: assistant cordi for a stylist. the part-timers will be assisting STYLENANDA's cordi during the photo shoot for their summer campaign. it will be their duty to unbox all the clothes, steam them and prepare all the outfits as instructed by the cordi. be careful not to lose or break any accessories! the part-timers will only help during the morning, during which they'll have to process around 75 outfits.

• CHEN MAYLIN and KIM SEYOON: INKIGAYO's cafeteria part-timers. years ago, INKIGAYO's eating area became famous for its sandwiches. those might not exist anymore, but the cafeteria is still there! from 9AM to 3PM the duo will be in charge of it. make sure to fulfill everyone's coffee orders properly, keep the shelves stocked and the area clean (most of the food are what you'll find at a korean convenience store)

• MOON HAYOUNG and KANG YOOJOON: assistants managers to the rookie group 'RIIZE' who are currently promoting their new song 'HUG'. fans always look forward to fanmeetings during their favorite's promotion period. the part timers will be in charge of setting up a gymnasium for such an event. 200 lucky fans are expected to attend. not only will the part timers have to set up the space, they will also need to decorate the room, come up with fun games for the boys to play and lastly, get all the fans seated. their day will end once the fanmeeting will have safely begun.

• MOON JINO and KUROSAWA AKIO: assistant managers to newly debuted group 'KICK FLIP'. they will be tasked with waking the members up at 4AM and having them are fed and dressed by 5:30AM. the manager will then drive them all to the salon for the boys to get their hair and makeup done. the assistants of the day will be in charge of any food/beverage orders and ensuring that everybody is ready and accounted for by 7AM. finally, their day will end after safely dropping all the members at SBS headquarters.

• PARK SEOJIN and SEO MINSEO: assistants for a CF agency. the part-timers will be assisting the photographer and director during a photoshoot with DOGS. it'll be their task to keep the three dogs happy, at the right spot, and properly distracted for the money shot to be captured

• PARK TAEHA and CHOI JUNKYU: assistant directors for a stage play. as it turns out, there's a lot of assembling and decorating to do! unfortunately, all the furniture for the bedroom area are from IKEA and the new part-timers (taeha and junkyu) have been volunteered to assemble the bed, desk and chair! good luck !

• SEO NINA and XUE YICHEN: assistant pds for a variety producer. when it comes to variety shows, producers must always test the difficulty of the games and challenges artists are going to have to do. the part-timers will be the ones in charge of… quality control of the games a mid-size agency idol group will have to do for their variety! (games tests are up to you, however, they should be games that can be done in pairs)

• YAMASHITA ICHIKA and OH EUNHYE: assistant teacher. a company is preparing to debut a new girlgroup. prior to their debut (and even after) idols have to take several classes. the 'manners teacher is requesting part-timers to teach his charges industry tips, know-hows and junior-senior interactions. the pair will be tasked to come up with the content of the lesson and prepare an interactive presentation.

REQUIREMENTS

WORK: write one thread with your partner(s) while they are working in front of the cameras for every four (4) replies (two posts per muns, 8 lines minimum) you’ll receive +3 VARIETY, +2 NOTORIETY for up to +9 VARIETY, +6 NOTORIETY !

REVIEW: write a 300+ word solo of your muse reflecting on the job they tried and reviewing their performance in the role for +5 SKILLS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE, +2 NOTORIETY !

make sure to use the hashtag lgc:tempagency on your threads and solos !  to validate your skill points and collect your notoriety points, please submit the following form ONCE on the points blog before APRIL 12, 2025 11:59 EDT.

TITLE: MUSE NAME ∙  LGC TEMP AGENCY 001 - WORK: +3/6/9 variety, +2/4/6 notoriety [ LINK ] - REVIEW: +5 ( skills points distribution ), +2 notoriety [ LINK ]

[thecomicsnexus]

SWAMP THING #69-75

FEB - AUG 1988 By Rick Veitch , Brett Ewins, Alfredo Alcala, Tatjana Wood, John Costanza, Dave McKean, Tom Yeates, John Totleben, and Mike Kaluta.

After refusing to destroy his successor, Swamp Thing accidentally puts his world at risk. Now with the help of John Constantine, he will need to find a new soul for the sprout, and finally retire to live with Abby.

SCORE: 9

The only thing stopping this review from being a 10 is the very complex lore that is starting to make the book very dense. Especially if you come back to the back after a long break. And it's not just the lore, it's also how long these stories are running.

In any case, reading these issues was very refreshing. It was back when stories, no matter how serialized they were, still had a good sense of pacing. And Rick Veitch made sure to give you something back for your money every month.

To me the best episode of this batch was the one with the plane accidents. Looking for a successor for Swampy, John Constantine does all kinds of risky things, just to be able to single out a person who was about to die who was somewhat related to Alec Holland.

But this Gary Holland immediately realizes he is about to die, and every single moment of his last day is plagues with bad omens. Still, John has no other choice but to get in the plane that was about to crash, just to save the world. John survives the plane crash, but then find out that Swampy found the souls of the plane crash and helped move on to the afterlife (he was unaware of John's plan). It was so dark and funny, that it really reminded me of Vertigo comics (or perhaps the average Alan Grant story).

The next episode had also a very creative narrative device. With the panel orientation being taken over by the line of captions, making every page with the character, technically a maze.

These are all very thought-provoking stories with a lot of poetry in the art itself.

But I have to repeat myself here. The great moments were possible thanks to the super long arc, which doesn't even end with issue #75. However, I felt it was the right time to finish the binge. I already knew that Abby was going to try to be a mother, so it didn't come as a surprise.

And here's another thing that's going to make this story even longer. It will crossover with Hellblazer. And I am not sure how much it will matter for the book, but Invasion will also tie in with this book.

Nevertheless, I'll take that small flaw (same problem the Legion books always have), in favor of stories like these.

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

Big fat teaching rant under the cut

Unlike last year where the kids were just jerks, kids this year are really really low as far as achievement and grade level.

I have no idea what they were taught in elementary school but they're just so far behind in everything. And it's not just intellectually they are emotionally like second graders.

I am honestly thinking about maybe next year studying to get certified in early childhood development because I don't feel like I'm equipped to teach kids at such a low level.

Being certified to teach 4th grade through 8th grade I assumed I will reach a happy medium of teaching maybe 6th grade.

But for the last 2 years the kids that are coming in are not at grade level. And it seems like each year they are lower and lower. I would really have to know how to teach and manage a class of first and second graders in order to be able to teach fourth grade.

Physically they are 4th graders but mentally, emotionally and behaviorally they're in first and second grade. I have one that can't count past 15. In another class, one couldn't tell me which number was bigger between 22 and 27.

It's to the point where the kids that are on the gifted and talented list are just regular 4th graders. There is nothing exceptional about them, the other kids are just that low.

As far as behavior, some days are good and some days are bad. I have spent so much time and just trying to get my 10th period(last class of the day) kids to stop talking long enough for me to even give them instructions, they are almost a week behind everyone else.

The other classes have good and bad days and one day I think I've got them corraled, they're quiet and they're listening and then the next day is chaos again.

I can't even get them to put their notebooks back in the same place every day. I can tell them where to put it. I can stand there and show them where to put it and the minute I move away they are putting it on a different shelf.

Today I gave the following instructions:

" get out your composition books. Turn to page 7.

Then you are going to copy down the I can statement from the board."

The I can statement said I can review this chapter by answering questions on page 79.

In EVERY SINGLE CLASS;

"Miss!!! We don't have a page 79 in our composition books"

"No. You are WRITING this on pg 7 of your composition book. The questions are on pg 79 of your TEXTBOOK."

(10 seconds later)

"Miss! I can't find page 79 in my composition book cuz you didn't tell us to number the pages that far!"

"No. I JUST SAID, you write on PAGE 7 of your composition book. The questions are on pg 79 of your TEXTBOOK."

"Miss!! I don't see any questions on page 7."

I am not kidding and I am not embellishing. I had to answer that question about 75 times in one day.

I'm guessing these kids were in preschool and kindergarten when covid hit and they never made it up. They are at such a deficit that I worry about them even being able to go through school and complete it. I see them getting frustrated around freshman year and just dropping out and never coming back.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 08/02/2025 (Lady Gaga, The Weeknd's Hurry Up Tomorrow, Morgan Wallen)

Lola Young sticks to #1 for a third week with “Messy” as we get another exciting week on the UK Singles Chart with several top 10 debuts, a big album release,  Welcome back to this “intriguing” series, REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

content warning: uhhh nothing this time actually

Rundown

As always, we start the week with our notable drop-outs, songs exiting the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid adieu to “Bug” and “Favourite” both by Fontaines D.C., “2 hands” by Tate McRae, “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan, “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen and, temporarily of course, “Mr. Brightside”.

As for our gains and returns, it’s quite a scattered week, with the GRAMMY Awards ceremony this past weekend definitely leading to some boosts, having the whole week of post-award gains to let them surge higher, though how long that’ll last, I don’t know, and there are other gains not connected to the GRAMMYs. Lady Gaga sees residual streams for “Disease” back at #68, and Chappell Roan’s “Casual” slips back to #62, whilst there are top 40 re-entries for “Guess” by Charli xcx featuring Billie Eilish at #31 and “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar at #27, whilst The Weeknd’s #1 album Hurry Up Tomorrow brings “São Paulo” with Anitta back to #21. Then there are notable gains for songs already charting, those being “No One Noticed” by The Marías at #55, “tv off” by Kendrick Lamar featuring Lefty Gunplay at #46, “Raving in the Studio” by Aitch and Bou sadly at #40, “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone at #33 with a virally embarrassing GRAMMYs performance, “DENIAL IS A RIVER” by Doechii at #16, “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan at #14 and, again, thanks to the album, “Timeless” by The Weeknd and Playboi Carti at #7. More on Abel and Gaga shortly.

As for our top five, it’s still very standard: “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez at #5, “The Days” by Chrystal at #4, “That’s So True” by Gracie Abrams at #3, “APT.” by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars at #2, and of course, it’s getting messy at #1 but now it’s time to clean up the mess down below.

New Entries

#74 – “Say My Name” (Remix) – Morgan Seatree featuring Florence + the Machine

Produced by Morgan Seatree and Paul Epworth

Okay, I’ll bite: who the hell is Morgan Seatree? Well, turns out he’s a Manchester DJ signed to Sony, active for a while in the house scene but particularly as a remixer, with this song itself being yet another one of those remixes, a remix of a remix in fact. English indie darlings Florence + the Machine first released the song “Spectrum” on their 2011 album Ceremonials, and though as I repeat on this blog, I’ve never been a big fan of Florence, this one I find pretty undeniable thanks to the detail in the instrumentation: that sharp rise in the intro, the overbearing reverb and echo that drowns the mix, the buzzy glitch in the back of the second verse, it all speaks to an unkillable spirit that is already more danceable than their usual fair thanks to a marching band-turned-disco hybrid groove and what is basically already a diva house vocal from Ms. Welch. The squelching synth in the back of the bridge, where the fluttering harps dip in and out around her vocal, already makes for a great pre-drop build, it’s already prepared for the inevitable Calvin Harris remix that it got in 2012. Said remix is a festival banger with a classic piano house hook that debuted at #1, sitting there for three weeks and becoming the band’s first UK chart-topper, knocking Maroon 5’s “Payphone” off the top and charting well into 2013. Because the chart is in some kind of early 2010s revivalist period currently, Morgan Seatree has come to remix it yet again and… it’s kind of bizarre, in a subtle way.

Seatree has stripped the song of nearly everything except the powerful vocal, which sounds like it’s gone through stem separation despite the co-credit, so he wasn’t given access to a quality vocal here and it hurts the song. He then just implants his old-school Chicago house beat behind it and… it works? It’s got more bounce and originality to it than PAWSA, and the main synth lead is actually sprinkling all over the place like the original harps, it’s just a culture shock to have the pounding drums and maximalist detail completely replaced, with Florence’s vocal chopped up in the post-chorus as well. The power hasn’t left the vocal though, taking on this new feeling of being trapped under the dancefloor and rising out of the ground triumphantly, the victory lap of the military regiment the original empowered. It may not be an original idea to remix this song into a house track, but it’s a surprisingly original take that doesn’t modify the structure too heavily from Harris’ version yet does enough to separate and recontextualise itself, remaining pretty powerful. I didn’t expect to enjoy an up-and-coming DJ’s remix of an already popular song, that’s often a recipe for laziness, but I do think this is pretty great execution.

#67 – “I Don’t Want to Live Like This” – James Marriott

Produced by James Marriott, Aleksi Kiiskinen, Jono Suter and Eeli Savolainen

Unlike the other non-KSI YouTubers that end up on this show, I actually know who this is prior to encountering them here and cannot act like I’m above them and their chosen career like I always do. To be fair, I know little about English influencer Mr. James Marriott apart from his association with a guy called “Memeulous”, so my hopes weren’t exactly high for his musical output. I was right to lower them as well because this is smug indie landfill garbage in the same vein as fellow English YouTuber Wilbur Soot and his band Lovejoy, though they’re much more adventurous than this, with a monotonous guitar pluck, a seriously limited vocal performance that comes off more as drunken karaoke than anything and a layer of basic, unbefitting synth that does not clear this from being an absolute droll. The vocal melodies are uninspired and sound comical from Marriott, who leaves so much empty space that extra piano flutters or aborted guitar solos have to fill up space and don’t do very well given how flatly the song is produced. The song is about audience expectations and not living up to them, which can work – we’ll see it working later today – but wrapped up in faux-poetic analogy that runs well out of steam by the second verse and just sounds so disconnected. It also can’t hit that powerful of a note when said audience is a couple hundred-thousand kids on YouTube but that’s far from the song’s fault. What the song is at fault for is frankly being basic and awkward – I was surprised that this isn’t his very first song because that’s how it appears. Regardless, I hope his musical side gig takes him somewhere or at least improves, but this first chart hit is definitely not impressive.

#64 – “Love Hangover” – JENNIE featuring Dominic Fike

Produced by JENNIE and Ido Zmishlany

The BLACKPINK girls are all making separate moves as solo acts – it’ll be interesting to hear who Jisoo teams up with, as ROSÉ’s with Bruno, LISA has a duet with RAYE and Doja Cat coming for next week’s chart and JENNIE has decided to collaborate with someone so unbelievably worse that it’s ridiculous, Mr. Dominic Fike. Friends don’t always have the same high standards, even if you tour the world as a girl group together. Anyway, with surprisingly no relation to the Diana Ross classic of the same name – you know how sample nostalgia bait gets – this song goes for a moodier, alt-pop vibe fully in Fike’s territory. There’s a faux-organic soul backing, scattered pitch-shifted backing vocals and a sing-rap flow that sounds really awkwardly staccato, borderline off-beat with JENNIE’s overly manufactured vocal. The toxic relationship content is fine, but the chorus isn’t impressive and the one part I do really like, that laidback electric guitar lick, is suppressed so far back into the mix. Fike goes for a rap verse for… some reason, and he sounds so clumsy that I’m almost embarrassed for him. I suppose that the floaty, comical nature of JENNIE’s approach to the relationship is interesting, especially in the malformed outro that glitches her vocal and leads up to a resounding nothing, but the production is too stiff, as is JENNIE as a vocalist, to account for that. If it reminds me of anything, it’s that last BROCKHAMPTON album where everyone was checked out and wanted to leave. What a great comparison point when you’re still proving yourself as a solo artist.

#44 – “I’m the Problem” – Morgan Wallen

Produced by Joey Moi and Charlie Handsome

Interestingly, this is the only track this week where the lead artist isn’t credited as a co-producer, instead with Wallen’s common collaborators Mr. Moi and Mr. Handsome (to be confirmed) on the boards. To make a joke at this song’s expense is pretty cheap, falling into Morgan Wallen’s trap if anything. It won’t stop me, of course, and many others, but the idea that he’s now self-aware of his life’s issues feels quite reductive of his work up until now which has been very commonly and sometimes overly honest and self-deprecating. Sure, he complains about women all the time, but Morgan’s alcoholism and recklessness isn’t news to him, and this song isn’t even an instalment in that. It’s actually a bit of rage-bait as the song probably should have been called “If I’m the Problem”, as he whines incessantly about this vindictive woman but does cut to some remarkably deep cuts: “you hate that when you look at me, you halfway see yourself”. Wallen’s vocal feels more stable and driven than it has recently, even if his vocal production hits some weird notes, it’s not the best recording, and there is an attempt at making it sound like a dustier revenge song with all the reverb, western sound effects and fast acoustic guitar picking fit for a cowboy entering a saloon… but that still doesn’t make the airy R&B percussion fit the mix, it’s like Boi-1da showed up at the saloon uninvited. The song’s also ultimately just a heated, pissy vague-post about some ex, and without something that really resonates sonically or really, lyrically, it’s easier to ignore than it should be. Kind of an easy skip, this one, which is a shame after “Smile” was so enjoyable.

#8 – “Cry for Me” – The Weeknd

Produced by The Weeknd, Metro Boomin and MIKE DEAN

I may need to issue a formal apology to Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. The singles for this extended, messy album rollout were, and still are, pretty rough and derivative, so much so that I’d assumed that he was kind of out of ideas, that it would be a sad and pathetic end to the trilogy, that he’d lost the passion. This feature-length album of cinematic, immersive production, layers of actually effective MIKE DEAN synth ejaculate, delicate soul samples and a great theatrical theme that carries into the song titles, audience sounds, interludes and the features coming in and out to play their roles… yeah, it shut me up, it’s brilliant, it debuted at #1 because of course it did, and I’ve yet to even begin unpacking it because, well, come on, it’s an hour and a half. It’s not a perfect album, it still has that hunk of trash “Timeless” on it, but there are only small cracks in an otherwise solidly put-together album. As for my favourites, it’s most of the tracklist but “Baptized in Fear”, “Enjoy the Show” with Future, “Niagara Falls” and “Drive” come to mind, alongside this very song.

With the enlisting of close collaborators like Metro and MIKE DEAN, who seems particularly proud of this record over on X, “Cry for Me” follows the extended Justice-assisted intro track and focuses like many of his pop hits on a failed relationship. Here, that desperate plea for reciprocated feelings and lamenting their distance doubles as his back-and-forth with his audience, particularly in reference to him losing his voice at a concert, disappointing the crowd that came to see him – “the crowd’ll scream / I block my ears to stop the cheers ‘cause the stage took a toll”, and the potently helpless lyric, “I can’t see myself and I’m not breathing”. Abel is using theatrical and performance analogies throughout the album and given this may be his final record, his anxieties about the stage cut with more melodramatic stakes than ever, especially with the track buzzing immediately with the inhuman growls and pitch-shifted soundbites that follow from where the intro track’s build-up started. Those high-pitch backing vocals are both a reminder of the audience and really, his inner child, the naivety that he’s lost over time, replaced with a thumping, Brazilian funk-adjacent percussive stomp. Abel always sounds great, this chorus is one of his catchiest, and you can easily tell when Metro came into the fold because of the cathartic trap breakdown in the second chorus, leading into a bridge wherein Abel can’t continue deflecting his pain onto others, he’s able to admit that it’s him “burning up [his] home” – the usual release of the signature “ooh, yeah!” hits a deflated note after a pitched-down final chorus. As an individual song, it’s a layered synthy jam, and as part of the album, it’s the ultimate tone-setter, plotting out the narrative for the rest of the record. It may seem like a long listen especially in the rockier early stages, but it’s worth diving in.

#6 – “Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga

Produced by Lady Gaga, watt and Cirkut

To have the highest debut after only three or so days of tracking is impressive – once again, I may need to apologise here because I had thought that Gaga’s solo work would mostly continue to have disappointing returns but turns out she just needed the right song and video to deliver a smash again. And this is a smash hit, not just statistically, it sounds like one. Of course, our story actually starts in 1981, with goth rockers Siouxsie and the Banshees and their song “Spellbound”, a witchified rollick that peaked at #22, whilst Michael Jackson’s “One Day in Your Life” was #1. Gaga’s taken melodic hints of that song to add a darker, theatrical bombast to what is already pretty explosive. Reminiscent of ARTPOP, ugly industrial-adjacent bass synths seem to immediately halt the song’s momentum into a warped, staggered rhythm, before being replaced by 90s house pianos and choppy drum fills that end with a stark, haunted vocal clip, as Gaga delivers a surprisingly motivational set of lyrics aiming to burn bridges and start anew. In what appears initially as a nod to her nonsense, name-dropping hooks from, say, “Bad Romance”, the chorus actually features her casting spells in Latin over a great buzzy synth bass that creeps around the bottom of the track like a frog being added to the pot, boiling into the potion that is that awkward post-chorus, Gaga stretching the words to a whimsical, almost bratty melody that echoes a cheerleader chant as much as it does her last words before the room collapses with her in it. I’d prefer if the song had a more developed bridge than just a euphoric high-register vocal, in fact, the entire final moments feel quite abrupt with the chopped-off final chorus and late entry for some strings that crowd the mix, but overall, this is still a great song, an immediate anthem that Gaga just has not had in this vein for a while. Whatever comes out of that next album, Mayhem, I’m definitely more intrigued than I was with only “Disease” and “Die with a Smile” preceding it. Now I just want to know what branches these sounds together.

Conclusion

It was a real mixed bag this week but far from an uninteresting or frustrating one. In fact, there’s a lot of great stuff and The Weeknd just barely hits that Best of the Week with “Cry for Me”, with a tied Honourable Mention to Lady Gaga for “Abracadabra” and Morgan Seatree’s remix of Florence + the Machine on “Say My Name”. It’s also a pretty close run to the bottom, but what separates the two is that JENNIE and Fike are allegedly professionals, and “Love Hangover” is straight-up depressingly bad, so that takes the Worst of the Week, with James Marriott taking a pity Dishonourable Mention for “I Don’t Want to Live Like This Anymore”. As for what’s on the horizon, we’ll see the aforementioned LISA track for sure, and potentially Mr. Tommy Richman, Caity Baser, Alex Warren, Sonny Fodera or even that Elton John/Brandi Carlisle collab. For now, however, thank you for reading, rest in peace to Irv Gotti, pioneer of the “Murder Remix” that were actually completely different songs entirely, and I’ll see you next week!

[seerofmike]

Mike's Media Medley--Jan 2025

this one should be quick and easy...because february will NOT be quick and easy for me, as i plan to watch all the oscar nominees (except emilia perez lmfao) this month + some other new movies that have come out like Companion and Love Hurts. i've got a free ticket as part of my movie rewards so im gonna take one for the team and see Heart Eyes or Brave New World when it comes, whichever one looks worse, because i like to torture myself

but enough about february--what did i watch/play for the very first time this january 2025?

Movies-- The Substance (2024), One of them Days (2025)

Games-- Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (2022), Ballionaire (2024)

One of them Days (2025)

I LOVE YOU KEKE PALMER

just. some good straight up fun. some of the humor wasn't for me (particularly a scene involving lots of blood i hate anything to do with IVs) but for every joke that did not work for me there were 2 more that did. its honestly kind of hard to review it because its just straight up a lot of fun and i dont wanna spoil the gags

that being said....

I FEEL LIKE THE MOVIE COULDVE GONE HARDER !!! i LOVE absurdist comedies and this movie HAS absurdist comedy like the villain is named smth like. Big Booty Bully Bitch Berneice. there is a loaning agency that hunts people who default on their loans for sport. theres some wacky stuff that happens in here but as a lover of movies like bottoms and scott pilgrim i wish it had gone a teensy bit harder on the absurdism because sometimes it almost felt out of place whenever it did happen becuz the rest of the movie isnt as absurdist

also sza did good but her character was soooo in the wrong and it annoyed me a bit but otherwise. solid good time.

75/100

The Substance (2024)

so i have this weird thing where i fucking loved the substance but also i had to cover my eyes for 25% of the movie lmfao

ignoring what i said abt the IVs earlier (idk veins just bother me) im usually prettyyyyy good at handling gore . or so i thought. i made the mistake of eating while watching this movie and i thought i was gonna be sick and honestly the stuff that did me worse wasnt even the hardcore gore the fucking stabilizer stuff got me the most 🤮

GROSSNESS aside. this movie had shit to say and it did so without any pussyfooting about it and honestly i appreciate that. and even more than that i appreciate the way this movie was MADE. it had style, so many shots / scenes in this movie were clearly inspired by other movies like the Shining and the soundtrack was going hard and the COLOR GRADING rahhhhhhhhhhh i kind of wish i saved watching this for next month because i was gonna rank all my best picture noms but i cant do that with the substance rn since i have seen none of the others (except wicked) but man. i already kind of hopes it wins. we need more of this kind of angry almost borderline unappealing to mainstream audiences film making.

i have NOT been unable to stop thinking abt it. monstro elisa sue deserved everything.

90/100

games

Ballionaire (2024)

this is like a. pachinko roguelite? and i see the vision. and i want to like the vision. however like. theres a billion items and as far as i know the game never explains what it does. like. im making some shit up but it'll, give you, lets say, a single pair of tits. and the pair of tits' item description will be "Dispenses Milk. Can be sucked unless Drained or Carcinogized. 2x multiplier if there is a Piggy Bank nearby but not if the Piggy Bank is stoned. Ride to the maternity ward when triggered after cooldown." you only understand what 25% of that means. and you have to choose between THREE things like that so it gets kind of reptitive if ur trying to optimize and ur trying to pick stuff that u dont understand the function of.

i could be stupid and theres a guide in the game that tells u all the status effects but for now. eh

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered

i am only 4 hours in so i dont think i can say much except for WOW I FUCKING LOVE BEING SPIDER-MAN

[manonamora-if]

September Check-In

WoW another month has passed already... Is time getting faster or my sense of impending end is just getting stronger...

ANYWAY, existential dread aside... August kinda felt like a mix bad. I did do things, but many days I felt like I didn't do enough (prob that dread again - also injury yay). So let's get into it!

Long post ahead again:

Recap of last month's progress

Recap of last week's stuff

Other IF stuff done

Other IF events

Plan for September

- _ -

The plan for the past month was to:

play more IF: ✅, see reviews in @manonamora-if-reviews

whip out something for the Single Choice Jam: ✅ The Dinner*

fix the website: ✅, new and improved*

write for a WIP: 😐not for a WIP but Goncharov Escapes! was remastered (shelved!), and currently working on DOL-OS.

add to the SG guide: ❌, I have a list though

code TTATEH: ❌, MelS isn't done with the edits (long shot).

*still kind of a WIP

I did kind of predict I wouldn't be able to write much in new content...

- _ -

So what about this week:

DOL-OS has been the main think I've been working on this week. And quite a bit of effort has been dumped in there. Since last week progress update:

the translation has been fully completed, and added to the game files (not all is properly coded)

I added some keyboard QoL for the starting puzzle

the UI re-design 75% complete (like coded complete) <- this is taking so freaking long, but it's worth it

I corrected some bugs (padlock, links)

I've been thinking in more details how the added content would look like (text mainly) and how much writing would be needed (a few thousands, I'd wager).

Obviously, I am not done with the project, but I am getting closer. The current hurdle is the finishing the UI-redesign: I really want things to be pristine in terms of visual quality and that requires a lot of testing and detail change. I have a few minor block of passages left and the booting screen to fix, before I can focus on the final beat of the game (not much UI-wise, more regular coding).

This final part will take quite a bit of time as well, because it too requires a bunch of testing (and there's a few accessibility concerns I need to take care of...). I'm confident it won't be too difficult, just... tedious.

But I really want to do a good job with this remaster, adding all the stuff I couldn't the first time before of time constraint (fun fact: DOL-OS was completed in a month...) and coding capabilities (I learned a ton since). I know people really enjoyed it the first time around, but I know it can be even better. Like it should really have that first-place vibe it deserves :P

I am hoping to be done by next weekend, but depending on how polish I can make it, I might need an extra week on top of it. (This would track: 4-ish weeks to make the OG version, 4-ish weeks to remaster it...).

In the meantime, I might post a few screenshots of the redesign and show it in comparison to the current version.

Some of you have noticed the blog has kinda disappeared. It's not gone, just... password locked. The notifications have been run over a bit by bots, the inbox received a few impatient guests, and it's in need of a good cleaning anyway.

I still want to work on the project (I have so many plans), but since writing anything for it has seemed impossible for the past months, I needed a cleaner break from it.

This project is not over, or abandoned. I kind of see it as my magnum opus (because of the sheer size it should have at the end). But because of this, I've realised I need to plan and re-plan things around the project more carefully. And that includes the blog and its content (original or reblogged). I probably should have made a post, huh... but then again, I always to things on a whim :P

Until things have calmed down, it will stay locked. The game, however, is still available to play.

MelS has been doing his best with progress, but lots of IRL work ahead of him, so he's been pacing himself and write when he can. He's kind of sad our hope to wrap up the game by Halloween probably won't happen, but he's trying his best to finish it as soon as possible!

Slightly related: one ending of the game has been written :P (MelS got tired of writing variation, so to do something new he wrote a bit on the last chapter).

Over at @manonamora-if-reviews, I finished reviewing all Single Choice entries. It was loads of fun to see how people interpreted the restrictions. The Jam was even mentioned on Emily Short's blog (patron saint of IF)!

Also in the reviewing department, I'm taking a crack at the Goncharov jam. I had reviewed a few already, but I thought this might be a good time to tackle on the rest! I think I am about half with them. It's nice to get back into the Gonch meme, especially after the remaster

The upload time will be sporadic, like is was the past month.

After that, I think I'll play from French games...

- _ -

Some IF Stuff:

Today is the last day to submit your list of best IF to the TOP 50 list.

Have an IF ghost in your project drawer? Come share and submit it to the Bring Our Your Ghost Jam. Deadline is September 15th!

The IFComp intent deadline has passed, but if you plan on voting for the entries, you can still create an account!

Similarly, if you are planing on reviewing the IFComp entries, you can get your account settled on the IFDB (many peeps create one at the same time during the voting period, and the system sometimes flags it as spam, and hide ratings/reviews).

September is usually a pretty quiet time... unless you are submitting something to the IFComp... But also, I've been trying reeeeaaaaallllyyyyy hard not to look at the Jam tab on itch, so not to be tempted to do a new thing. I've already put out more games this year than last year (counting the tiny ones).

- _ -

The PLAN tm for September

It will essentially be very similar to August...

continue to play and review games (that front page spot is getting closer...). It gives me an opportunity for a break, and I get to think more about game design or writing, or where I could improve. And I get to give the authors some (hopefully) thoughtful words about their games.

finish the DOL-OS remaster. By mid-September, I think I could swing that. Then it will be another shelved game!

either continue a WIP or fix another semi-completed game. I might try to get La Petite Mort in proper shape and translated for the EctoComp? (I need to check if they accept translation, since it was submitted last year)

maybe try to add another block to the SugarCube Guide? I have a few ideas on what to include, but it is mainly a matter of sitting down and doing it. Though I have another template I've been toying with... maybe that might happen first.

That would be neat if I could manage that :P I need to fix the loading screens of Twine games too...

Taking the list of last month...

To-Do not require much of new stuff:

translate Escape Goncharov! into French. ✅

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (mayyyybe translate into French?)

fix the formatting of DOL-OS + translate into English ✅ (ongoing)

update LPM with the missing content + translate into English

The rest of the To-Do pile:

Finish The Rye in the Dark City (and maybe translate?)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (and try to translate)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (translation unlikely, current gameplay too complex to port for French)

Add a chapter to CRWL + fix the blog

Re-working TTTT to its originally planned state (lol, not likety)

Re-working SPS Iron Hammer (samesies)

Coding TTATEH (MelS dependent)

Emptying my inboxes

(I am pretty sure the focus for the rest of the year will be to finish the first list. With the addition maybe of a small jam entry or two.)

[hihigherdi]

Sleepy Sunday. It was lovely.

For several weeks, I had a dry, hacking cough that wouldn’t stop. One morning in particular I woke up and I was so lightheaded and dizzy, I stumbled walking down the hall. Both really scared me. I started reading about the 75 hard challenge where for 75 days straight, people do two 45 minute  workouts a day. One has to be outside and you can’t break them up. You drink a gallon of water you follow some kind of diet and you read 10 pages of a nonfiction book a day. If you don’t follow one of those things, you start over until you get to 75 days in a row.

That kind of stuff typically doesn’t motivate me, but I was intrigued, so for the last few days I’ve done the exercise part and water part of the challenge. I pop up out of bed and use the elliptical, then I take a long walk at night.  The difference already in my energy and my mental well-being is pretty incredible. My cough is totally gone, I’m not sure if that’s the water or the exercise but I really hope I keep it up. Today was kind of a tough test, I couldn’t fall asleep so I only got about five hours, but popped up. Did the elliptical and I’m feeling really good. 

The kittens had their that visit on Friday and I’m expecting their labs to come back today. I’m pretty concerned about Minnie’s kidneys but I’ll deal with it when it comes. I remember being so terrified every single year that Bud’s feline leukemia comes back as active but she’s so healthy and full of energy, I’m not worried about it.

I had an early morning meeting that I set up to review a pretty big plan that’s not quite done yet. I tried to get up early to spend a couple of hours on it and then I thought to myself, why am I putting myself through this? Just shift the meeting to later on in the week.  I love my boss not being here, I have more autonomy over my schedule. 

[xxxjarchiexxx]

"A Google employee protesting the tech giant’s business with the Israeli government was questioned by Google’s human resources department over allegations that he endorsed terrorism, The Intercept has learned. The employee said he was the only Muslim and Middle Easterner who circulated the letter and also the only one who was confronted by HR about it.

The employee was objecting to Project Nimbus, Google’s controversial $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and its military to provide state-of-the-art cloud computing and machine learning tools.

Since its announcement two years ago, Project Nimbus has drawn widespread criticism both inside and outside Google, spurring employee-led protests and warnings from human rights groups and surveillance experts that it could bolster state repression of Palestinians.

Mohammad Khatami, a Google software engineer, sent an email to two internal listservs on October 18 saying Project Nimbus was implicated in human rights abuses against Palestinians — abuses that fit a 75-year pattern that had brought the conflict to the October 7 Hamas massacre of some 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. The letter, distributed internally by anti-Nimbus Google workers through company email lists, went on to say that Google could become “complicit in what history will remember as a genocide.”

“Strangely enough, I was the only one of us who was sent to HR over people saying I was supporting terrorism or justifying terrorism.”

Twelve days later, Google HR told Khatami they were scheduling a meeting with him, during which he says he was questioned about whether the letter was “justifying the terrorism on October 7th.”

In an interview, Khatami told The Intercept he was not only disturbed by what he considers an attempt by Google to stifle dissent on Nimbus, but also believes he was left feeling singled out because of his religion and ethnicity. The letter was drafted and internally circulated by a group of anti-Nimbus Google employees, but none of them other than Khatami were called by HR, according to Khatami and Josh Marxen, another anti-Nimbus organizer at Google who helped spread the letter. Though he declined to comment on the outcome of the HR meeting, Khatami said it left him shaken.

“It was very emotionally taxing,” Khatami said. “I was crying by the end of it.”

“I’m the only Muslim or Middle Eastern organizer who sent out that email,” he told The Intercept. “Strangely enough, I was the only one of us who was sent to HR over people saying I was supporting terrorism or justifying terrorism.”

The Intercept reviewed a virtually identical email sent by Marxen, also on October 18. Though there are a few small changes — Marxen’s email refers to “a seige [sic] upon all of Gaza” whereas Khamati’s cites “the complete destitution of Gaza” — both contain verbatim language connecting the October 7 attack to Israel’s past treatment of Palestinians.

Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini told The Intercept, “We follow up on every concern raised, and in this case, dozens of employees reported this individual’s email – not the sharing of the petition itself – for including language that did not follow our workplace policies.” Mencini declined to say which workplace policies Khatami’s email allegedly violated, whether other organizers had gotten HR calls, or if any other company personnel had been approached by Employee Relations for comments made about the war.

The incident comes just one year after former Google employee Ariel Koren said the company attempted to force her to relocate to Brazil in retaliation for her early anti-Nimbus organizing. Koren later quit in protest and remains active in advocating against the contract. Project Nimbus, despite the dissent, remains in place, in part because of contractual terms put in place by Israel forbidding Google from cutting off service in response to political pressure or boycott campaigns."

[thepulchritudinousheart]

There's a whole chapter on perfectionism in Bird by Bird, because it is the great enemy of the writer, and of life, our sweet messy beautiful screwed up human lives. It is the voice of the oppressor. It will keep you very scared and restless your entire life if you do not awaken, and fight back, and if you're an artist, it will destroy you.

My pastor said last Sunday that if you don't change directions, you are going to end up where you are headed. Is that okay with you, to end up still desperately trying to achieve more, and to get the world to validate your parking ticket, and to get your possibly dead parents to see how amazing you always were?

This is not going to happen. They are either so dead, like mine are, or they are insatiable, or so relieved that you did not end up divorced--or if you did, then heavily into drugs, like the Woodson girl, or more out of shape than you are, like Esther's son. It's hopeless, and this is the good news.

Putting those tiny pesky parental voices aside, what about, oh, say, the entire rest of the world?

Do you mind even a little that you are still addicted to people-pleasing, and are still putting everyone else's needs and laundry and career ahead of your creative, spiritual life? Giving all your life force away, to "help" and impress. Well, your help is not helpful, and falls short.

Look, I struggle with this. I hate to be criticized. I am just the tiniest bit more sensitive than the average bear. And yet, I'm a writer, so I periodically put my work out there, and sometimes like all writers, I get terrible reviews, so personal in nature that they leave me panting. Even with a Facebook post, like the last one, do you have any idea what it's like to get 500-plus negative attacks, on my character, from truly bizarre strangers.

Really, it's not ideal.

Yet, I get to tell my truth. I get to seek meaning and realization. I get to live fully, wildly, imperfectly. That's why I'm alive. And all I actually have to offer as a writer, is my version of life. Every single thing that has happened to me is mine. As I've said a hundred times, if people wanted me to write more warmly about them, they should have behaved better

Is it okay with you that you blow off your writing, or whatever your creative/spiritual calling, because your priority is to go to the gym or do yoga five days a week? Would you give us one of those days back, to play or study poetry? To have an awakening? Have you asked yourself lately, "How alive am I willing to be?" It's all going very quickly. It's mid-May, for God's sake. Who knew. I thought it was late February.

It's time to get serious about joy and fulfillment, work on our books, songs, dances, gardens. But perfectionism is always lurking nearby, like the demonic prowling lion in the Old Testament, waiting to pounce. It will convince you that your work-in-progress is not great, and that you may never get published. (Wait, forget the prowling satanic lion--your parents, living or dead, almost just as loudly either way, and your aunt Beth, and your passive-aggressive friends, whom we all think you should ditch, are going to ask, "Oh, you're writing again? That's nice. Do you have an agent?")

Oh my God, what if you wake up some day, and you're 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen. Repent just means to change direction--and NOT to be said by someone who is waggling their forefinger at you. Repentance is a blessing. Pick a new direction, one you wouldn't mind ending up at, and aim for that. Shoot the moon.

Here's how to break through the perfectionism: make a LOT of mistakes. Fall on your butt more often. Waste more paper, printing out your shitty first drafts, and maybe send a check to the Sierra Club. Celebrate messes--these are where the goods are. Put something on the calendar that you know you'll be terrible at, like dance lessons, or a meditation retreat, or boot camp. Find a writing partner, who will help you with your work, by reading it for you, and telling you the truth about it, with respect, to help you make it better and better; for whom you will do the same thing. Find someone who wants to steal his or her life back, too. Now; today. One wild and crazy thing: wears shorts out in public if it is hot, even if your legs are milky white or heavy. Go to a poetry slam. Go to open mike,and read the story you wrote about the hilariously god-awful family reunion, with a trusted friend, even though it could be better, and would hurt Uncle Ed's feelings if he read it, which he isn't going to.

Change his name and hair color--he won't even recognize himself.

At work, you begin to fulfill your artistic destiny. Wow! A reviewer may hate your style, or newspapers may neglect you, or 500 people may tell you that you are bitter, delusional and boring.

Let me ask you this: in the big juicy Zorba scheme of things, who fucking cares?