#Utopia Fest

[sxsw2013gg]

AB: Sego are recording new music, and played some of it (with a slight lineup change) at Zilker Brewing. They still sound great, even if the songs from their fantastic last album (and their hard-rocking cover of “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”) are hard to beat.

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

something that strikes me about pw's 'gray' is just how. religious it is. it's very religious. religion plays such a subtle, omnipresent role in it. because of course it does.

[cru5h-cascades]

Final fest ideas ('cause I refuse to believe that the jellyfish at the end of the sizzle season trailer is hinting at the final fest being an idol splatfest)

Past v Present v Future; which time period has the best aesthetic? (I don't really have to explain this since I already made a post about this concept) (basically it's vaporwave v e-girl v synthwave aesthetics) (lilac ink for past, navy blue for present, and hot pink for future)

Hopes v Dreams v Determination; which one fuels you to victory? (yeah I know: blatant Undertale reference) (this is somewhat inspired by Puffu's final fest concept btw) (metallic green ink for hopes, pearlescent white for dreams, and bronze ink for determination)

Brains v Brawn v Heart; which is the most important in life? (red ink for brains, orange for brawn, and pink for heart)

Utopia v Wasteland v Wild (as in nature takes over the land); what does civilization become after the splatpocolyspe? (also inspired by Puffu) (pearlescent blue ink for utopia, pearlescent yellow for wasteland, and pearlescent green for wild)

[22ndnervousbreakdown]

I was just cleaning up storage space on my google drive and stumbled upon a pic of me on an anime fest in a big park in the center of the city, wrapped in a rainbow flag. It's from 2018. Back then pretty much any big and somewhat fandom-related event had at least several people walking around with lgbt+ flags or t shirts or pins or something, it was just normal.

It was 5 years ago. Russia was already an authoritarian repressive regime and had been for quite a while. Putin had just started his 4th presidential term. It had been 4 years since the annexation of Crimea and since the war in Donbas started. We'd had a law against "gay propaganda" among minors for 5 years already and it's been used against activists lots of times.

And yet, at least in Moscow, you could go to an anime fest held in the most popular park of the city wrapped in a rainbow flag, and no one really cared. No one even cared that much if you were a minor. I'm 15 in that photo.

If you tried that now, you're probably gonna be arrested on sight. I doubt you'd make it from the metro station to the park gates, way too many police officers there.

Again: things were already shit back then. Really shit. And still, from today's perspective, it seems almost like an impossible utopia.

So, really, it just struck me how little time it can take for everything to become this way, how things that would come as a huge shock just a few years ago can become a routine, even if no less terrifying. And, you know, it kinda frights me to think about what else will we have to go through before things could get better again.

[minsarasarahair]

A quick guide to Holotempus HQ, the Holostars EN Brotubers of Hololive Production

Take note that I wrote this before Vanguard’s debut so its only about HQ

What can they offer as a group? 

Guild Lore - They are the strongest and more enticing to the viewers when they are complete together. In the lore, their adventure guild reside in a digital world called “Utopia”. Most of their viewers like their concept because of “Nostalgia” they give off similar to playing online RPG with friends during school days or typical adventure shounen anime consist of 4 male main characters back then. (Saiyuki, Hunter x Hunter) Its hard to tell if they are a hero guild or villain guild but Yagoo the CEO mentioned he want a group of bad boys concept for Holostars before Holotempus debut. This 4 belonged in Headquarters (HQ) while the new guys is called Vanguard (VG). HQ is is located in Elysium, Utopia and VG is in Xenokuni.

Comedy Skits - They are great actors for comedy skits and skilled in improvisation. Ideas for skits is usually Magni’s strength but Vesper, Axel and Altare can bounce well with others too. (Judge Magni, Psychic Therapy, Wheel of Fortune, TTRPG DND, Rock)

4 Players Gameplay - They love playing adventure games to explore together while having a chat about most random things and competitive FPS games that test their teamwork. They used to play together daily or weekly during their earlier days after debut but now they are busy for their solo content. (Raft, Zomboid, Left 4 Dead, Apex, Deep Rock Galactic)

Great conversationalists - Their conversation was natural and flow so well that gives the vibe as if you’re listening to a real group of friends. Vesper has interview series where he ask questions to get to know them, Magni’s unarchived off-collab Karaoke and Axel’s izakaya stream(with Vesper & Magni) are the best example of that. 

Camaraderie - They are surprisingly really close as a group. They support each other and love hanging out together. They are probably the first batch of Holopro vtubers where its a must to do “Raid”(Raiding is a new Youtube function where you can send your viewers to other streamers before you end your stream.) each other and if they can, its very rare for them to overlap each other solo stream. In Pre-Debut, they actually divided each other stream schedule based on Dayparting like Magni covers the Prime Time and Vesper covers the Morning time so their fans can catch up at least one of them depend on what time they are available. If you check their Tier Membership, they also have same prices. They confirmed they discussed it together. Another story is they all want a heart pose for Holopro fest poster but got rejected by the management. 

1. Regis Altare (Blue)  “The masses chose not to act. So I’ll take a stand in their stead.” Lore: The founder of adventurer Guild Tempus. The first hero adventurer in Elysium. He’s straightforward and popular among peers.  Guild Position: Leader, the mediator and representative of the group. Fighting Style: DPS swordsman/warrior/shooter/mage, All rounder As Streamer: The most strict when it comes to his chat rules and a reformed toxic gamer. He’s their best gamer so its easy for him to familiarize himself with new games he consume. He’s usually a chill streamer but he also has demon king persona where he unleash his toxic side and can be scary when he’s angry. He’s still young but he’s trying his best as Tempus leader. As Gamer: Mainstream games, FPS (Apex, Valorant), MMORPG (FF14, Monster Hunter), Horror games (Phasmophobia, Mortuary Assistant), Action games(Cyberpunk 2077), VR games(Cooking simulator, Fishing) - His strength is FPS but he want to try different type of games too like Roguelike games.  Specialty: Plays Guitar & Cello (Trying to learn Songwriting), ASMR (Comfy/Light Romantic Boyfriend Experience), EN Karaoke (Sad boy songs), Love Challenging himself by putting punishment as consequence in his stream (Home Sweet Home, CSGO with Vesper)

2. Magni Dezmond (Purple) “Alchemists have the wonderful ability to grant people’s wishes!” Lore: The self-proclaimed alchemist with a business mindset who sells potion (Copium). He has a darkness within him and willing to do anything to uncover truths. Guild Position: Public Relations, the collab focus guy Fighting Style: DPS and support mage As Streamer: Their explicitly unhinged overconfident competitive toxic gamer but very good at executing his creative ideas. He’s good at multitasking and producing creative output quickly. He’s talented but also very skilled from working hard. Notorious for his cursed stream where he make abomination creatures like Magmo. He might be blunt and sharp with his words but he has a soft side and actually a textbook tsundere. He’s also good at socializing and interacting with different types of people. He’s Altare’s right hand man and genuinely love supporting each Tempus members as long as he can.  As Gamer: Childhood chill games with Iconic characters (Sonic, Super Mario, Spongebob Squarepants), Competitive shooter games (Overwatch, Apex, Fortnite), Open world adventure games (Subnautica, Minecraft, Animal Crossing) - He refuse to play MMORPG because he might destroy his life for it and he’s not good with Horror games like Axel. Specialty: DJ with Loop station (Can play guitar, electronic keyboard), Art Stream (Commission Open), Comedy skit stream (Weremag, Judge Magni), Collab stream (Off-Collab Karaoke with Holotempus members), Roleplay and Creative Storytelling (Alchemist Prologue Lore in his membership)

3. Axel Syrios (Orange) “Doctors resolve the root cause of a problem, right? Well, I destroy it. So I am a doctor.” Lore: The gladiator and owns a combat arena. He’s a blockhead who joined the guild out of whim. He love eating. Guild Position: Former Treasurer, Human Resources  Fighting Style: Tank, DPS Brawler, Bard As Streamer: The luckiest member with spicy mouth and has street smart wisdom who appreciate Ecchi na Neesan from a distance. Notorious for killing his vods so I suggest to watch him live instead. Probably the most normal among the 4 of them. A very hilarious optimistic guy that must be protected at all cost. He’s unfiltered and usually curse a lot but he actually means well and very friendly. His fans find his head empty moment funny and cute. His strength is producing Cover songs and organizing Collab songs.  As Gamer: Visual Novel (DDLC, Your Turn to Die), JRPG (Zelda, Nier Replicant, Final Fantasy), Shooting games (Hitman, Apex) - He’s a big fan of Final Fantasy but sadly he can’t play it on stream bc he can’t get the perms. He don’t like Horror games. Specialty: Bilingual (JP & EN), Cover songs, Collab songs project (Bad End Night, Yatta), JP Karaoke, ASMR (The funny Kusogaki type ASMR), Sharp at figuring out things based on his observation/Perceptive (Weremag, DDLC), Love giving life advises (Love Consultation, Just Chatting)

4. Vesper Noir (Black) “It’s his childish nature that allows him to speak so freely about his dreams. He might even actually let everyone around him dream.” Lore: The resident scholar of grand library. Rational most of the time but can be harsh in his criticism. Don’t like sunlight because of spending too much time in his research. He can’t neither confirm nor deny the vampire allegations. Guild Position: Academic Advisor, Support  Fighting Style: Swordsman (Rapier), Control Effects and Healer-type Mage, All rounder? (Spear user, Berserker?)  As Streamer: The crazy grandpa/uncle-like comfy storyteller with strong viewers engagement. An average guy who’s full of contradictions. Flawed and can be toxic gamer when he’s excited. He will say the most unhinged surprising things you will not expected. Extremely introverted with social anxiety so he’s more comfortable in doing solo stream. He's trying to be an endurance streamer but usually busy because of his off-stream workload.  As Gamer: Turn-based strategy roguelike games (Hitman, FTL, Dicey Dungeon, Solasta), Click-based MMORPG (Diablo II, World of Warcraft), Exploration (Outer Wilds, Zomboid), Building games (Minecraft, Factorio) - Bad at multiplayer competitive games (Pummel & Mario Party) and hand-eye coordination games like FPS.  Specialty: Just Chatting streams (Holotempus King of Zatsudan), Learning (JP Study stream & Membership art stream), Experienced TTRPG Dungeon Master (DND), ASMR (Comfy Soft Speaking Storytelling and Sound focus without whispering or romantic sexual content), Review stream (Bike, PC build, Tea, Dad Jokes, Art), Finishing a game in one sitting (Soma, River City Girls, Fall Out New Vegas)

If you’re a fan of classic anime(weeb): Vesper, Axel If you’re a normie and familiar with mainstream anime: Altare, Magni  If you like ASMR: Altare(most experienced), Axel, Vesper(still learning) If you like music: Altare(EN sad boy songs), Axel(JP songs), Magni(DJ) If you want a chill stream as background: Vesper, Altare If you want to be entertain and laugh: Axel, Magni If you’re into FPS gameplay: Altare, Magni, Axel If you’re young(early 20s and down): Altare, Axel If you’re older(late 20s and up): Magni, Vesper If you’re fine with dark humor and flawed individuals: Magni, Vesper If you only want positive vibe: Altare, Axel If you want to be ignored or be scolded(but they actually like you): Magni, Vesper, Axel? If you want affectionate treatment: Axel, Altare If you want wise average guys vibe: Axel, Vesper If you want smarter chill vibe: Magni, Altare

DUO DYNAMIC

Shiny & Spicy (Altare & Axel) - the youngest pair, chuunibyou duo, the responsible child and the kusogaki. Among the members, Axel is the only member that can’t be control by Altare(Minecraft). Maybe bc Axel is the type who do whatever he want but Axel respect Altare as their leader. In return, Altare see Axel as his rival in singing. They might be kusogaki at times but they can also be the responsible independent children. They are very close friends and both entered a competitive Apex tourney together.

Kintama Bros (Axel & Magni) - hilariously chaotic combined, both of them have spicy mouth. The smart and dumb. The positive guy and the negative guy? Basically Naruto and Sasuke. Older and younger brother? bc Magni mentioned Axel felt like a younger brother to him.

Father & Son (Axel & Vesper) - just cute platonic relationship between Nowa Oji and his kusogaki son Axel. Vesper wish Axel will not experience the bad things he experienced as adult and be happy. Axel’s anime taste is heavily influenced by his parents so he can relate strongly with Vesper despite their age gap. As for Axel, he like trying out Vesper’s style in streaming such as doing frequent Just Chatting stream and playing the same games bc “Like father, like son”.(Hitman, Needy Girl Overdose)

Amugni/DezPerados/MagNoir? (Vesper & Magni) - they don’t really have official name yet. The flawed and oldest pair. Hubris and dumb together. They are the Max Intelligence duo they said. Nerd?? Meme lords and love media references. The villain/betrayer and his accomplice dynamic? Despite how careful Magni is interacting with Vesper in public, they are actually very close and Vesper appreciate how considerate Magni is as friend. They really like each other as friends. 

Prison Break/Almond/Amodo? (Altare & Magni) - started with Way Out stream. Lately, they look like a shipping pair and not a duo. Fans said Almond is their ship name but Altare used that a lot to refer to their duo so I’m not sure if he’s only selling their pair as ship or duo. Openly flirts with each other. Altare usually played the bad guy in their dynamic. In their off-collab, Magni was asking for help and implied he’s Altare’s hostage. Altare also love teasing Magni while Magni played the tsundere role in the dynamic. Magni viewed Altare like a younger brother that he found stupid and someone he should look after.

Short & Tall? (Altare & Vesper) - don’t have official name again. They are oshi of each other. In the lore, they studied in the same mage academy together with Magni but reunited when Altare is looking for guild members(Debut Manga). Their names are inspired from Star-crossed Lovers of Tanabata Festival (Altair & Vega). Their dynamic during stream is more like the responsible child and flawed father or the leader and his henchman something like that?? They like praising each other.

[popgirlnyc]

#jungkook #jk one year ago at global citizen fest #bts #army #btsarmy when it was pouring the entire time yet we were in utopia

[stereogeekspodcast]

Transcript] Season 3, Episode 7. Star Trek: Picard Series Review

Rewatching Star Trek: Picard changed how the Stereo Geeks felt about the show. We reviewed the series and shared our thoughts on it.

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of Stereo Geeks, and the very first of 2024.

This time, we've been rewatching Star Trek Picard.

I'm Ron.

And I'm Mon.

As big fans of Star Trek, the announcement that Picard was going to get his own little spinoff was exciting, but also a little bit worrying for us.

Well, there's definitely a spate of reprisals, revivals of old stuff, especially 80s, 90s things.

A lot of people who grew up at the time are currently executives and producers of Hollywood.

So obviously, they want to bring back the nostalgia factor.

And let's be honest, nostalgia sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, but it definitely sells.

Let's dig into that a little bit because season one of Picard doesn't actually work with nostalgia as much.

That's true.

There are, of course, moments.

There are cameos, reprisals, et cetera.

There is a through line, however, of Picard and his relationship with Data, his need to get closure for what happened to Data.

So that's the nostalgia factor.

The main storyline, however, even though it is tied to that, doesn't have that nostalgia feeling.

Because when you look at the main storyline, it's actually several different stories.

So we start off with the fact that Picard misses Data.

That's literally the first scene.

And you get the feeling that this is what the season is going to be about.

But then it turns out that Data has android children who are unmistakable from humans, but they don't know their true identity.

Also, we find out the Romulan sun went supernova, leading to a refugee crisis that Picard and Raffi Musiker had to fix.

Then Utopia Planitia and all of Mars was blown up by synths, leading to not only a synth ban, but the end of the refugee resettlement.

And then the Tal Shiar made it into Starfleet somehow.

But also there's a hidden sect of the Tal Shiar called the Zhat Vash and they are trying to fight the return of the synths.

Also, Raffi is now plagued by Romulan conspiracies, but nobody believes her.

Everything that went down on the Ibn Majid never got explained.

Also, who even is Soji and who is Narek?

Oh, and did we mention that Picard misses Data?

When you put it like that, that seems like a lot, but I'm gonna say something very controversial here. Well, at least it's controversial on this podcast.

From the three seasons of Star Trek Picard, I have to say season one is the most cohesive and best made.

Season two is a mess.

Season three is a nostalgia fest that is not always well-written, but that doesn't mean that I don't love season two, adore season three and still can't stand season one.

The first time I watched season one, I didn't like it. Straight up didn't like it.

First time I watched season two, I loved it except for the last episode.

First time I watched season three, I adored everything.

When we rewatched it, I liked what season one was doing. I liked the concepts. I liked all the lore that it had.

It was really digging into the Star Trek universe, but it was not long enough.

10 episodes and all that was there.

And I'm not even touching on all the interconnected parts.

Like there was a whole thing about Agnes Jurati, Bruce Maddox, Seven of Nine and her history.

All that was in there.

It should have been at least 15-16 episodes.

That would have given us enough time to actually understand how all these things are interconnected.

And it would have given the characters a bit more time to shine.

Season 2, perfectly compact.

10 episodes, every episode mattered.

It gave the characters their spotlight.

Picard got an entire wonderful arc that honestly has been waiting for quite a while to be resolved.

And season 3, 10 episodes, nostalgia.

That's it.

But yes, I agree that season 1 was the most cohesive because it felt like real science fiction.

But it was just too muddled and way too many plot points just got dropped at the end.

I think my biggest issue with season 1, and I feel like this even on the rewatch, is that there are a bunch of characters who are just so annoying that you hate it whenever they're on screen.

And every time it cut away to their stories, if you would call it that, I would just be switching off.

Mostly the Romulans.

Narek, Narissa, Commodore Oh.

I agree with you that that was the part which was muddled.

Who are they?

What are their motivations?

Because it's not signposted or elucidated at the beginning, they just seem like these very caricatured old school baddies who don't make any sense.

There's also a sort of old fashioned way of how they're presented, how they interact and the things that they do.

So that really annoyed me.

The crew of La Sirena themselves, they were great.

They were really interesting.

But yeah, it was just every time they had to interact.

And there was that entire plot line with Narek, for example, which sort of we never came back to that.

He sort of disappears in the final episode.

And then it's like, oh, okay, what happened with this guy?

That's a really good point, because Soji and Narek, that whole relationship, if you can call it that, it just felt shoehorned in, like, we have to make these characters interact.

So let them just have a love affair.

Soji just felt so very born sexy yesterday, that kind of thing.

It didn't do her any justice.

The biggest mistake the first season made was making Soji and Picard's meeting happen only in episode seven.

That's way too late.

These are the two main characters of this season.

They should be meeting way earlier.

I feel like Soji as a character, she really became more of a catalyst and a plot point.

Well, she gets dropped first episode of season two.

So she was never really supposed to be, I guess, part of the actual crew, which is sad because, I mean, Issa Briones is really good.

I mean, you reminded me that she was like 19 or 20 when she did this.

She holds her own and she plays so many different characters in the first season as well.

But I agree because there are so many fleshed out points for the other characters, especially, with Cristobal Rios, the captain of La Sirena.

I know there's an entire book, so we've read that book, but I just felt like they had a plan or a hope or something that this character who is so complicated and so emotionally needy, there was just so much that we could have explored with this person, especially in his capacity as someone who knows Picard, who looks up to Picard, who becomes trapped in Picard's spell, if you would.

I really felt like there was a lot going on there.

So there's a character like him where you know so much about his background.

You know, with Raffi, there is so much that we are learning about her and we continue to learn about her throughout the three seasons.

And then there's Soji who is signposted as this very important character.

We don't really know much about her.

Her importance is really her connection to Data and how Picard deals with that.

She's just a plot point.

It's really disappointing.

And in the end, it's not even about Soji's heritage.

Bruce Maddox apparently used a painting that Data made as the blueprint to make these androids with Alton Soong.

Data wasn't even involved at all, so that through line doesn't even work, which is a bit unfair on the character of Soji.

I think one of the problems with the entire show has been it keeps leaning on these historical moments which don't take place on screen.

The Romulan Supernova, for example.

I think the show about that would have been far more interesting.

We do get a lot of that in the books.

So I highly recommend reading The Last Best Hope, Second Self, et cetera, that entire series.

I'm okay with that being off the screen, but stuff like Data's painting of his daughters.

I'm sorry, we never saw him paint that.

There's a lot of stuff in the third season especially, where they talk about this happened and Beverly's talking about Myriad and this and that.

And we're Googling to see, did we miss something from the original TNG series, from the movies, et cetera?

It's all made up.

I mean, I get it, it's all made up.

But not having that sort of through line, that connection, it just doesn't make sense because it's so important.

These people know about it.

And at the same time, we never saw it.

So I really did worry about the writing in a lot of the show, especially on the rewatch when you realize, yeah, it wasn't you forgetting stuff, it just doesn't exist.

Because what is the point of referencing something that hasn't happened in a previous show or any of the tie-in books, comics, whatever, when you know that nobody is really coming into Star Trek Picard as a non-Star Trek watcher?

You can't get into this series without some prior knowledge.

The first season and the extreme focus on Data, it won't make sense to you.

If you already know that people are coming in, having seen TNG and all the TNG related movies, just reference things that have already been in TNG.

People are gonna know it or they are going to Google it.

So the first season, though complicated and overly convoluted with the focus on a lot of weird Romulan people, I really loved the Picard and data connection.

What I missed about the first season, aside from the Picard and Data part, was feeling some emotional connection or just being totally emotional about it.

I got that in season two.

The return of Q, who is unhinged and scary, but the season, the way it ends with Picard and Q, it was surprisingly emotional, wasn't it?

I really liked season two.

It's about time travel, so obviously I'm gonna like it.

And I think it was really compact, not just the storyline, but also the setting.

They went back to 2024 LA and they stayed there for quite a long time.

I love watching fish out of water, Rios, Raffi and Seven trying to interact with the world in the past.

Hilarious.

That whole scene where Seven and Raffi are driving and trying to escape the police, one of the best of the entire show, not just that season.

I really loved it.

And also speaking of the 2024 timeline, the best part of it was season two deals with the real problem of ICE raids and how several communities, especially in the US, well, they live in fear and they don't have access to simple human benefits, like medicines, et cetera.

And it really worked the way they included that, how Rios, who happens to be played by a Chilean actor and he speaks a lot of Spanish, so how that works into it, he doesn't have papers, so what does that mean?

That's probably why, when we first watched the second season, it just blew us away because it went back to the roots of Star Trek.

It's talking about the real world in this fictional, majestic, futuristic world through this lens of utopia.

Well, you go back and it wasn't always utopia and one tiny change in our history could make it worse or better, which is something that is explored in that season.

I really, really like that.

I didn't understand the Borg stuff.

Even on my third rewatch of this series, I don't necessarily think the whole Borg angle needed to be there.

That's really interesting because I like the fact that Picard leans into his experience as Locutus.

I felt like in TNG, they didn't really handle that very well.

This man was taken, assimilated.

He was the mouthpiece of the Borg as they slaughtered so many Starfleet officers at Wolf 359.

We see the impact of that in DS9.

It's the reason why Sisko can't stand Picard.

Starfleet just moves on.

But the show coming back to that over and over again, not just about the impact that it had on the people who died or survived, but on Picard himself.

No, I agree with you.

I like the through line of the Borg being there in all three seasons.

I just don't know if it was handled as well, especially on the third rewatch.

I can have a little bit more distance and a bit more critical thinking.

And I do think it was confused.

Because what does it all mean?

We now have a new faction of the Borg who are good guys, who assimilate after consent.

What are they doing?

Where are they?

How have we not met them in all these years?

I feel like that was a plotline that padded up the story.

This goes back to what I was saying about how season one was the most cohesive.

When you're watching the recaps of season two, and it's so long, it's like two, three minutes long, because they have to pack in all this information.

And it's simply because there are disparate storylines.

They're not interconnected.

So that's my biggest issue.

The Borg stuff, while there is the through line, in hindsight, I just feel like it was too much.

And I think the reason for that is that each season has a different type of Borg.

If it had just been one kind, it would have made a bit more sense.

It would have flowed better from what we've seen before in TNG, in First Contact, but nothing that happens in season one affects season two or season three.

And I feel like the events in season two were primarily a way to phase out the new characters.

So Rios stays back in 2024.

Jurati becomes this other Borg Queen.

Elnor, after being killed, Q brings him back.

So now he's part of Starfleet.

Raffi's the only one who stays on and comes back in season three.

Yeah, and that's also an issue which we talked about probably because we just really love these new characters.

It's not like Rios and Elnor, even Dr. Jurati, who I didn't like in the beginning, but honestly on the rewatch, she was a lot of fun.

They're compelling characters and there's a lot of complicated feelings which we didn't actually get to discuss on the show.

How Picard treats them, how they feel about him.

It's a squandered opportunity.

I say that a lot about this show.

I get it because of what season three becomes.

And when you're watching season three, you don't actually feel the absence because we'll get to that in a moment.

But I do feel like if you introduce these characters and there's so much rich history alluded to, I would have loved to see a little bit more of them.

There was something else that you had written about and that's Picard's very bad attempts at being a father figure to people.

And there is a throughline in each season of Picard just thinking that Starfleet is the answer to everybody's problems.

He gets Raffi back into Starfleet.

He gets Seven back into Starfleet.

He gets Rios back into Starfleet.

He gets Elnor into Starfleet.

He gets Jack into Starfleet.

That's a lot of people.

That's his answer for everything.

Try being a dad for once.

That was something that you pointed out and I was like, surely you're not right.

And then at the end of season three, when Jack Crusher, Picard's unknown long lost son, he turns up and he's suddenly part of the Enterprise.

I was like, oh, okay, you have a point, Ron.

But it's true.

Picard says often, Starfleet was his life, Starfleet was his family.

His best friends, his family, literally are from Starfleet.

So I get why he's sort of mesmerized and he feels like, well, Starfleet fixed his life, gave him what he wanted, which was a family.

And that's what he thinks the people he loves most will also get.

And in a way we find that, well, Starfleet is different for different people.

Starfleet is also different at this time.

And it's something that is somewhat explored in the third season.

Seven, for example, Seven of Nine, she was a Borg, she was rescued, if you could say, by Voyager.

Voyager became her family, her collective.

And the one goal for Voyager, a ship that was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, was to get back to the Alpha Quadrant.

But Seven had no connection to the Alpha Quadrant.

And what happens when she comes back?

Well, that's what we find out.

We find out that she tried to get into Starfleet, but because she's an ex-B, a former Borg, they refused to include her.

I mean, Picard obviously has a lot of influence because in season three, she's the first officer of the Titan, which was Riker's previous ship, but she's not happy because the Starfleet ship that she was on was Voyager, which had nothing to do with Starfleet.

In fact, there are moments in Voyager when Starfleet is able to connect to them once again.

And Captain Janeway does struggle a little bit with the way they speak about some of her crew, with some of the decisions that they make.

It's not fully there because we are talking about 90s TV shows which were a little bit more utopian in their outlook about authority, et cetera.

But we do see that the struggle is real in the newer shows.

Even on Star Trek Prodigy, Vice Admiral Janeway has problems with Starfleet.

They have rules that really don't make sense sometimes.

So we see that with Seven as well.

Picard and Captain Janeway, or rather Admiral Janeway in this timeline, they've convinced her to join Starfleet.

And she's got this chance, but she hates it.

She absolutely hates it.

And I did write about it after the first episode, I think.

She doesn't belong.

She's not doing what she wants.

She's stuck using protocols and rules that don't make sense to her.

And I'm almost a little bit disappointed that in the end, she still has a commission, she's still with Starfleet, and it's supposed to be a big, yay, you know, all our favorite characters are still with Starfleet.

It's like Picard is on a recruitment drive.

He's very good at recruiting people, but is that really the right thing for them?

I find it interesting that the show doesn't hold back from criticizing Picard because his experiences are wildly different from everyone else's.

Raffi especially takes him to task when Elnor is killed.

But the show is still reluctant to call Starfleet out on their nonsense, which is kind of weird, because as you said, the ending is very much a rah-rah happiness.

Seven and Raffi and Jack are now leading the new enterprise, and that's a good thing.

Is it though?

Like Seven was literally resigning until Tuvok showed her Captain Shaw's last message.

One message and that's enough for all the xenophobia that she received from that man?

That doesn't make any sense.

It's funny because one of the last things that Raffi says is, it's weird to her that Starfleet has given a thief, a pirate and a spy a ship of their own, and not just any ship, the Enterprise is still the flagship of Starfleet.

And I do wonder if something like that heralds a change in Starfleet.

Even Captain Liam Shaw, in his recommendation for Seven to become captain, says that she doesn't follow protocols, but she has ideas and she has methods which are different and which do suggest a change, a new way of leading.

And also Gates McFadden, who plays Dr. Beverly Crusher.

Now, I can't remember if she wrote this in a tweet or she talked about this at Fan Expo Canada at the panel that you and I went to.

She talked about how Beverly and her son Jack, they're part of Mariposa, which was the organization that was created by Rios and his partner, Teresa, back in 2024.

They are sort of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders in the galactic sense.

Now, Beverly and Jack being part of that, helping worlds and peoples who have been forgotten by the Federation and Starfleet.

Gates McFadden mentioned that she wants to explore how Beverly can do that work, even though now she is head of Starfleet Medical.

So it seems to me, behind the scenes and also perhaps through the writing, they're trying to suggest that these people are in Starfleet, but that doesn't mean that Starfleet stays the same.

Considering the sort of world ending stuff that happened, I would like to think that Starfleet will not be the same forever.

That being said, when you read the books about the supernova, it doesn't really show Starfleet and the Federation in very good light.

So I don't know, I just do wonder that are the writers trying to say that, yes, Picard is on a recruitment drive, but maybe for the better?

Well, that's an interesting point.

I hadn't really thought of it like that because the final season, it does seem to be about change, even though it's primarily about the TNG crew who we've seen for many, many years.

That's honestly one of the best parts of it, just seeing that entire group together, the chemistry is just, it's just there.

I remember when we saw Jonathan Frakes at Toronto Comic Con and he was talking about how worried he was when he was coming back and he was like, Sir Patrick Stewart is just on his game, such high quality acting and Frakes was so worried that he wouldn't be able to match up.

And I was like, what is this guy talking about?

He was the best part of that show.

He's so funny, he's so sweet, he's just effortlessly Riker, no matter how many years have passed by.

Yeah, I have to say these characters, you don't even realize you miss them till you see them and you're like, oh wow, I really miss these people.

And we don't even have that kind of connection with TNG, the way we do with Voyager.

And despite that, seeing these actors step back into these roles and the kind of love that they seem to have for these characters, absolutely seamless.

It's brilliant.

And I understand why a lot of people, they can't see beyond how wonderful it is to see these people together.

And that's why it's like the best season ever, this is the best Trek.

Well, we have to be measured in how we approach our entertainment media.

Something can be exactly what we want and it also can have its flaws.

Watching season three, especially we just finished watching it, honestly, I'm like, are there any flaws?

I love this so much.

I'm like tearing up at the TNG theme every time.

Every time these people interact with each other, I'm like, oh my goodness, this is like the best thing.

Geordie telling Data exactly how he feels about him, I'm like tearing up just thinking about it.

And it's so sweet.

And at the same time, I'm like, okay, do we lose a lot because we focus so much on this reunion?

Is that a bad thing?

Is that a good thing?

I don't know.

I just know that, well, the show ends on a high because you're watching this poker game between this family of characters and these actors who have also become a family.

And you can't argue with that.

You can't argue with that feeling.

In so many ways, I just think that this season, I really, really did forget that there were issues with it.

Especially in the beginning part when they're not all together, you're like, oh, okay, I can nitpick a little bit here and there and then buy this penultimate episode when they're all standing on the old enterprise deck.

You're like, this is what I've wanted on my life apparently.

Yeah, and the other thing is that you still got those moments where like, Worf and Raffi, their bond.

There is no preamble to it.

It just happened so quickly, but organically, like that last scene with the two of them together when she's got that message from her family.

And I'm just like, oh my gosh, like the father-daughter bond is just so strong.

I would have loved to see that with other people.

Like there was that scene earlier on when Liam Shaw first meets Geordi and he's like struggling to speak because he's like such a fanboy and he's just like stuttering.

He can't, and Geordi's just standing there like, oh, I'm so used to this.

And you just love those moments, you know?

I would have loved to see more of that with Rios, with Jurati.

I mean, imagine Jurati meeting Data, Jurati meeting Beverly.

Oh my God, those would have been amazing moments.

Like Rios and Riker together.

Why didn't we get that?

I really wish we had, because then that would have made the show feel like it was one continuous story.

I think you've hit upon a very good note, which is that all three seasons feel like three different stories.

And there's a reason for that, because all three seasons had three different showrunners.

Even though Terry Matalas took over for season two, he inherited the previous creators' stories and storylines.

It's like watching an anthology series.

When you have that caliber of acting on your screen, honestly, nothing else matters.

Some things just transcend writing and cohesiveness, honestly.

But the show ends, like the final ending, is a bit of a cliffhanger.

Like it seems like the Enterprise crew is going to go off on these new adventures while their previous Enterprise crew goes off on their old adventures.

And now nothing.

What is that all about?

So the final scene of the show is Q apparently returning, but as he reminds us all, humans think so linearly.

That's not how the continuum works.

He might be dead, but this is another version or a previous version of him.

And he's come to torment Picard's son, Jack Crusher.

I do think that the showrunners, Paramount Plus, whoever is behind these things, included that to gauge if there was any interest in continuing the stories of these characters.

So one has to ask, are we interested in seeing Captain Seven of Nine, Commander Raffi Musiker, consultant to the captain, Ensign Jack Crusher, as well as the LaForge sisters and the rest of the Enterprise crew, maybe some new characters, Admiral Beverly Crusher?

Are we interested in seeing all these people continue in a new show?

Well, for me, the answer is yes, because I want to see more of Seven, I want to see more of Raffi, I want to see their relationship actually on screen instead of, you know, they've broken up, they're together, they're very far apart from each other.

Don't give us two amazing bisexual characters and then be like, yeah, they're not together.

What?

That's the only reason why I need this show.

True, but we need to talk about Jack Crusher.

We can't not talk about this man.

He's sort of the catalyst and the reason all of season three happens.

Unlike Soji, this man is very fleshed out.

He is a personality, a character, a human being, and he evokes complicated feelings in a lot of us.

I just don't know how I feel about this person who creates so much damage, chaos, most likely death.

And at the same time, well, he is Beverly and Picard's son.

And I'm like, you know, he's really cool and he can do all these things and he knows all these things and he has this sort of avant-garde experience and knowledge.

He would be very interesting to follow, alongside, of course, the most important people, Seven and Raffi.

Well, I'm not 100% sold on Ed Speelers as the son of Beverly Crusher and Picard.

I mean, he has the hair.

He has Beverly's hair.

Listen, when I first saw him, I thought, oh, wow, somehow Beverly had another child with Jack Crusher.

And she obviously named him Jack.

But I was like, oh, he's Picard's son?

I don't see the connection, like physically or anything.

He's got the accent, which the bizarre explanation for his accent.

He went to England for a little bit and he came back with the accent.

Really?

Really?

Considering I still say presentation instead of presentation, because I heard Tom Paris say it the one time on Voyager, I forgive him.

But like, he's not supposed to be like Picard.

He has no connection to this man.

He's more like Beverly if she hadn't been stuck on Starfleet, if she hadn't faced loss so early on in her life, if she wasn't a mom who had to keep taking care of her son.

I think, you know, that sort of effervescent, ne'er-do-well, nonchalant sort of personality that he has is very much like how Beverly may have been.

So I feel that.

I just don't understand how we are supposed to like root for a character who's caused all this untold loss and suffering for a lot of people.

In a way, I keep thinking back to Captain Michael Burnham and how she wanted to make something better and ended up causing the Klingon War.

So many people's lives were changed, not just death.

People's lives were changed and she has to reckon with that when she comes back to Starfleet.

And I'm like, how do I feel about that?

We've forgotten about it because she has redeemed herself in so many ways.

She suffered herself as well, but people have made a lot of sacrifices to make sure that she keeps saving the world, basically.

Does Jack deserve that?

I don't know.

If we get a show about the new Enterprise G, we would have to contend with Jack being there.

But also, I think if Jack wasn't Beverly and Picard's son, I don't think that many people would have been allowed to die for him.

That's something to reckon with as well.

He actually says the only reason why he got fast-tracked to Ensign level at Starfleet was because of nepotism.

His parents aren't going to believe that, but Beverly has always had a blind spot for her kids.

When Wesley was part of the team, the Nova Squad, and their teammate died, she refused to believe that Wesley had done anything wrong.

Obviously, she's going to be the same way with Jack, and Picard, he can't see anything wrong with people he loves.

So this kid is going to have to have other people call him out on his nonsense because his parents are not going to do it.

Yeah, I completely agree with you on that because the only way this is going to work if they were to have a show, and I do really want one because I think we just need more Star Trek.

Especially now that Star Trek Discovery is coming to an end, we're going to have the animated properties, Lower Decks is still doing well, Prodigy, I don't know what's going to happen after season two, and we have Strange New Worlds as the only live action.

So yeah, Star Trek Legacy would be great.

Especially a show which brings in the Deep Space Nine characters, characters from other Star Trek properties, their descendants, et cetera.

That would be awesome.

Listen, I need a show where Jake Sisko is a journalist. I need this. It's very important to me.

Very true.

So yeah, I mean, I think we've been really critical about Star Trek Picard, but honestly, on rewatching it, I just fell back in love with the show, even the first season, which I did not like.

I love these characters, the new ones, the old ones.

Love the world that they've created.

I love being back in the Star Trek universe.

And I just wanted to continue.

In a way, I am trying to continue it by reading the books so that I can just hang out with these characters and this world, because we didn't have Star Trek for a really, really long time.

And we tried to fill that void with other stuff.

And now that we do, it's really hard to let go.

I'm currently listening to the entire score of Picard, all three seasons in a playlist.

I can't get out of this mode.

Yeah, I'm not even gonna think about what'll happen once Discovery finishes.

I just don't wanna deal with that right now.

You know, that's a problem for future me.

But yeah, I surprisingly really enjoyed rewatching Star Trek Picard.

I loved it a lot more this time.

I'm going to just feel like it's an anthology series and not like a show that's three consecutive seasons because that might help the enjoyment a little bit more.

But you know what?

It ends on a really happy note.

All our beloved characters are safe.

Some of them are in 2024, but it's okay.

But yeah, it was really fun.

And I really like Star Trek.

Yeah, I mean, you know what?

I would honestly probably make this an annual rewatch.

I'm not even ashamed to say it.

All three seasons annually rewatched.

So that's us talking about our very complicated, sometimes disparate views on Star Trek Picard.

Let us know how you felt about the show.

We are Stereo Geeks and we'll see you at the next episode.

[nutzo0001]

rant

- ) or that feeling, "living in the future" when y2k came, it was for people, like dream, fascination - hope: - year 2000 is at the door, world looks bright, internet is "ough" to "solve" all our problems, maybe even "to topple the game (of rich bastards) down"... -- feeling like this - if you got me (this sentiment, dream of utopia, unity, mutual understanding "coz of net" - oh man, if they knew...) - which reminds me of thread [sic] "MLP and New Sincerity" - about being sincere, "you", - all that *sweet* (or not) jazz...

addendum:

#0 punks and emos of 2000s-2010s: basically "When we were young" fest, - safe for fact it was then "current thing": pic-rel + all those rock, punk, emo, - things playing on radio --- a psyop??? + 80s (music, not aesthetics) nostalgia occuring around that time... : music-rel (yeah, pretty much this playlist is "getting rich" from nostalgia - go, figure :/)

#1 youtube campaign "broadcoast yourself" - dawg man, i am so confussed how we could "get bought" over this - and believe come corporation! it sounds so - ironic; looking at it from lens of someone, living in *these* times "after fad"... - really believing(?) that commonmen can, thru sheer "influence" thru net, shape world... (what a joke!!!) [were we sold on *this feeling"!???]

#1b general naiivity over "corporations allowing us all this" - how was that not suspicious!! i wonder... (letting our guard and awareness so low) ~ but then, werent we (born 1999-and so; living with siblings (sister), of 8 year difference...)

#1.5 campaign of web providers (geocities, goDaddy or such), *basically* saying "be you"/"promote yourself"

(if you get me, that is; i am - getting nostalgic, over something i very fogly remember - in fact, now i get - why those "boomers" over here are getting nostalgic over living in socialism (when, they were kids... - so was i...)

--- WAS this all^ psy-op - contrarian messages, just "selling feeling", scham, make-believe dreams?

or is it that *there somewhere*, it was "all taken away from us" - well, as i see, that is very little probability, and it was just tactic to "get everyone on net" - those fxxx bastards!! (#me, being naiive...)

On Apathy: Man. I don't want to shit on the current generation too much because it's been done to death, but you're gonna be hard-pressed to find a late zoomer/Gen-A who can use a hammer or any other tool properly. It's like there's no awareness of the world around them. We're talking missing 9/10 of the time with a hammer. Honestly, I think they're just tired of it all and don't care to learn anymore. I can't blame them. It feels like the whole world is falling apart, but never enough to bring an end to the stress that comes from it. Perhaps it's a demoralization sort of thing. A "_______ is going to happen so it won't matter anyway." sort of situation. Everyone is just tired and doesn't have the energy to care.

- aHR0cHM6Ly9mb3J1bS5hZ29yYXJvYWQuY29tL2luZGV4LnBocD90aHJlYWRzL2RvZXMtdGhlLXpvb21lci1nZW5lcmF0aW9uLWhhdmUtemVyby10ZWNoLXNraWxscy41OTgwL3Bvc3QtODQxNjc= (pssst)

end: - i was played on. -- world of broken promises pre-2001~2008... --- "you need to be unique to stand out", so, next step in my mind was > "no way to be normie" >> i never knew what *they* (who?) meant - does computers screw us all in some way? or was is that we made ourselves... we build them... then, we dont know ourselves > you dont know things until it is too late? or > was it "The Plan"? use people as puppets > "NPC Naysayers"? - to make all sorts of crazy laws? power-trip? I dont want to - but, do i HAVE TO be bad, in any sense? -- Last time i had any confidence was in 2010-2015... but it was nothing much, it was just fuzzy feeling. there were bad things, yet, i felt fine... so, do i hate myself now? because - why? am i afraid to lose that? then, what happened!? is it some kind of trauma - or simply, disability to adapt? maybe thats why --- i miss 2008-2013 - times when i could be naiive. myself. no pretend, even if i wanted to... is it only now that i am afraid? or am i going insane and want to blame others for "making problems to sell cure"? - maybe i never was teenager, so with strict and boomers-like parents, it is like i have to make my dreams now - if i only wanted to - if i wasnt so emberassed... -- "teen-ages in stasis"? > peter pan syndrome? --- i dont want to live in my head - but what to do - - what i even want?? - am i afraid of success, of being "too strong", "bad" to others? there are like milion things...

AM I NORMAL?: could be, maybe i am just afraid to be

The commercial exploitation of the web has become a growing facet of the world economy, particularly in the last several years. In June 1999 NUA Internet Surveys estimated that 179 million people are connected to the Internet worldwide. A recent study by the University of Texas sponsored by Cisco Systems estimated that the "Internet Economy" generated $300 billion in revenue in the United States alone.

Conrad Johnson and Brian Donnelly, “A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND THE INTERNET “, Part 6, Columbia.edu, (Oct 24, 2003).

[hiroshotreplica]

more side order rambling and pointless speculation that will probably be incorrect

WARNING: im rambling and not really thinking about it TOO hard. also this is based on like 50 different theories that have a good chance of Not being true. also ignore grammar/spelling errors (im bad at writing)

i believe ive talked about how i think there could be a metaphor/straight up depiction of healing from traumatic situations and/or learning how to cope with mental health struggles in the game in the past? anyway im gonna do it Again

this kind of hinges off the belief that the octoling shown in the trailer is octarian/not from the splatlands (whatever the correct term is i forgot). if the octoling is from splatsville then uh whoopsie. this is Not Relevant and will age like milk. anyway

octarian society definitely has a lot of strife. especially when in the military. suddenly trying to enter inkopolis and being met with turf wars suddenly being for fun and almost a complete lack of strife has to be wayyyy too much for some octolings. ive mentioned this in a prior post though thats from the perspective that the sr octoling is agent 8 (which im hesitant to believe but this is not the main point for this post specifically) id just like this to be true to contrast with what i think will be a revolving point around marina

and yeah, thats my main point, i think marina will have stuff to work through, too. i dont think she'll be an antagonist, but rather someone who's doing the wrong things for the right reasons or someone who caused a bad situation (which ill just call the death of coral here) on accident while trying to help. she was in the military at a very young age and escaped to inkling society, but the stuff after final fest is what im thinking about.

i can really only bring up NOA dialogue (aside from one thing, if i can find the source for it), so this may be off, but i dont have the resources to look up a 100% authentic translation

the fest stressed her out, and she was very worried about the band breaking up. this is clear in dialogue

though of course pearl comforts her that this isnt the case, i wonder if that fear still lingers in her mind. im not too knowledgeable on marina's characterization (i heard NOA isnt either so, lol) but it seems in character. she definitely hasnt unpacked(? i believe that is the right word) the fear on screen as far as i can tell, though, and i think side order might be about that, a little.

what interests me most is this unused dialogue from if team order won, though:

of course its unused so it doesnt hold as much weight as canon dialogue, but i wonder if she'll hold a similar mentality. she has control, and she sees that she can shape the world. i dont fully agree with her changing everyone to be the same, since she later says this:

if she were to do anything, i think she'd change the world that may try to be like this, but something in it would be functionally unsound and cause the whole thing to break. im not sure if she even would in the first place but i can acknowledge the possibility. itd be ironic, shes good at building machinery but not building a utopia.

i dont think she needs to be saved in this scenario, i think its best if she were to save herself. but this is verrryyy speculative so i cant say much.

tangent aside. marina understanding and moving on/healing from her fears being compared to the protagonist octoling's own journey on recovering would be great. itd be even better with agent 8 in my opinion, since theyve clearly gone through Some Shit and definitely need therapy for it, but i dont want to speculate too much. im expecting all of this to be Wrong but i cant ignore that ive been thinking about it like this lol

[shyfrog-says]

Doctor Who (2005) season 3 is good, but it suffers from stale settings. It's just Moon, Very Old England, New New York, New York, Modern England, Old England, Modern England again, Modern England a third time. The only episodes with interesting settings are 42 and Utopia, both of which are genuinely good episodes with, in my opinion, no downsides.

Season 2 had a parallel earth and a planet orbiting a black hole, both of which were two-episode arcs. Not to mention the Girl in the Fireplace, which is, in my opinion, one of the best episodes to date.

This isn't to say season 3 isn't good. I mean, come on. Gridlock? The Family of Blood? The Sound of Drums? Blink?? Iconic. Still, going from Modern England to Old England to New New York (which we've already been to in season 2) to Old New York and back to Modern England, all in a row is a little... snooze fest, settings-wise. And all we get is a one episode break with 42, and then we go right back to Old England and then Modern England AGAIN. Just... yeesh.

Now, season 4... like the Hall of Fame of Doctor Who settings. The library, Midnight, Pompeii, the planet of the Ood, and then some. Absolutely iconic.

[ultravioletfuture]

ULTRAVIOLET VISIONS: Electronicon 4 and UVF Year 2

Hello everyone! Econ 4 is finally here this week and although I couldn't make it to NYC, I'm here to share and shed light on a couple new Vapor releases, as well as talk about some new changes to the ULTRAVIOLET-FUTURE label to come for Year 2!

Let's start off with...UVF Year 2 Roster Announcement!

With the start of our second year of UVF, the label is now an official label account on Bandcamp! This is an idea that I've thought about for a while now and I'm so happy to announce our starting roster with artists: portal.rwb, TRUMAN!, Two Circles, scarecrow_, and salt.bmu. Since starting the label, I've loved interacting with so many different artists and trying to represent their releases in a physical form the best I can. Over the first year there's been a lot of trial and error and now going into year 2 I feel like I know the overall sounds and aesthetics I want UVF to incorporate. Despite having a roster of artists, I am still 100% open to working with outside artists on a release just as I would before the transition. Nothing major has changed in the way of artists being able to submit music to the label, just that now I have a dedicated group of artists I feel best represents the sound of the label and who I want to spotlight their releases. Big thank you to the artists on the roster for entrusting me with their music. At the end of the day there are no strings attached and artists are still free to release solo and work with other labels, but I still appreciate them for allowing me to represent their music. I hope for the roster to grow over time and to continue working with other artists in the future!

Electronicon Weekend

In case you are living under a rock, this weekend there are a plethora of live shows happening in New York revolving around the huge Electronicon 4. I hope everyone out there in NY this weekend has an insanely good time and please stay safe <3. Although I couldn't make it this year, my heart is there in spirit with you all and I hope I can finally make it out next year!

Last night was the 2023 Summer Slushy Festival hosted with the help of Geometric Lullably, Pad Chennington, Dolphin Uppercut, and Vaperror of 100Plus Records. This is the first event they've put on together and has an insane lineup of artists jam packed into one night. The night was split into two stages so fans could jump back and forth to try and catch their favorite artist's sets throughout the night. There was also a live stream of both the indoor and outdoor stages so that people at home could tune in and catch some of the sets! I didn't get to tune in much but if I were there, I definitely would've tried to catch the Vaperror, TOWERS, desert sand feels warm at night, Discoholic, and Days of Blue sets just to name a couple favorites. Hope everyone had a great time last night and I wish the best for the future of Summer Slushy Fest!

Today and tomorrow are the days of the highly anticipated "Electronicon 4"! The event is being split into a 2 day festival for the first time and is still unknown as to the schedule for day 2. Some insane artists are new to this years lineup like Enraile, Datagirl, James Ferraro, and 18 Carat Affair! Obviously if I made it to Econ this year I would HAVE to catch the DDS and Giant Claw sets being a huge shroudie, as well as the George Clanton, Enraile, Esprit, and FM Skyline sets to name a few. This is usually the biggest show of the year for so many artists and thank you to George for continuing to put on these huge events!

The tape swap is a tradition to follow every Electronicon and this year is now a full on event with a huge lineup of artists and vendors. The event is being hosted by Utopia District and is happening on Sunday the 27th after the days of Electronicon. There are plenty of artists and vendors to choose from like Business Casual, Geolul, Pacific Plaza, First Class Collective, and our friends over at Pause and Reflect just to name a few. If you happen to stop by the Pause and Reflect booth, make sure to pick up a tape and snag a free sampler CD with a track from every one of their releases to really get a taste of what Pause and Reflect is all about (also the CDs were made by me!) and be sure to tell them UVF sent you ;). If I were there I would definitely need to catch the Eyeclick, ZeroRei, Cyber Surfer 3D, and Ahero x Vangoe sets. There is an insane amount of activity happening this weekend in the IRL Vaporwave space! Even just being at home and seeing all the videos and pics of everyone at the Slushy Fest so far already makes me super happy and proud to be a part of such an amazing community. Hope I can one day see you all in the future and share some amazine experiences together <3.

Now that the UVF and IRL stuff has been covered, let's cover a couple new releases!

"4D" by Blank Banshee is finally here after much anticipation from the fans. The tease of a new Blank Banshee album came with a tour announcement with a total of 32 shows! This is actually the first Blank Banshee album I've heard in full surprisingly and this release has definitely had me wanting to dive deeper into their discography. BB has been extremely influential in the uprising of the Vaportrap sub-genre since their beginning with their classic album, "Blank Banshee 0". Their most recent albums "Metamorphasis" and "Music for Menus" have definitely shown BB experimenting with their sound into more avant-garde electronic production. 4D still gives that Vaportrap feel while embracing a much heavier tone with more traditional tropes coming from EDM and House music. The album definitely feels like a cross between background music to hack into the mainframe and club music that would play in a dark underground club with millions of strobes flashing. I love the opener "Run" as it starts off with this heavy, distorted main synth/guitar lead. An incredible start to set the tone for the record as we come down to more mellow tracks like "Sundial" and "Good Times", which feature these infectiously groovy synths accompanied by some nice vocal chops. Overall, I like the heavier more atmospheric approach to the instrumentals BB has brought to the table with 4D. Most of the songs are short, sweet, and to the point, although some may find a few of the tracks to feel a bit samey after the midway point in the record. I feel like in the last couple years there is a rise in much heavier production in Vaporwave releases and 4D is a prime example of that. Favorite Tracks: Run, Good Times, Trojan Horse, Spirit Season, Trojan

George Clanton has finally returned with their latest release "Ooh Rap I Ya". Its been a couple years since their last release "Slide" in 2018, which really put the spotlight on George Clanton for newcomers to the scene like me. After cherishing Slide for the past 3 years since I first heard it, I wondered time and time again what a new George Clanton album would sound like. After an album like "100% Electronica", they've definitely seemed to go for a much cleaner polish to their production while still keeping a more hazy, hypnagogic, and atmospheric sound. Ooh Rap I Ya had a couple singles teased during the album rollout including tracks Justify Your Life, I Been Young, Vapor King/SubReal, and F.U.M.L. With the sound coming from these singles, George is definitely embracing sounds of the 90s, particularly in tracks like "I Been Young" with its very playful, head-bopping singing in the verses. The track comes in with one of the most infectious choruses in the whole record. With this song, as well as throughout the rest of the record, George is embracing the thought of growing older into a stage of maturity while still highlighting his past youth and learning from it rather than dwelling on the past. The track "Justify Your Life" is another smooth track with George singing in a much softer tone until the song starts to explode leading up to the chorus. George is talking about starting over and embracing a newer beginning and justifying your life. The rest of the album starts with the huge opener "Everything That I Want" that starts the record off with a bang. This is easily my favorite track from the record with an instrumental that feels larger than life and a chorus that makes you want to sing along at the top of your lungs. George is expressing feelings of having everything but not having "you" and how there is regret along the path of having it all. This track sets the tone of the record beautifully and leaves the listener feeling a longing/regret for a time that once was compared to the current day. Later in the track list we have the song "Punching You Down" which is an instant bop with its bouncy synths and "What does it feeeel like?" refrain throughout the song. I just know that when George plays this song live, the whole crowd is just gonna be screaming "What does it feel like" at the top of their lungs throughout the song. The track is definitely talking down on a particular somebody or group of people and talks about how "You're the only one that isn't laughing". "You Hold The Key and I Found It" is a more somber cut in the record that starts with this very airy, atmospheric instrumental with a lot of strings and woodwind instruments. The tracks come to fruition with George's classic laid back drum beats and cool hazy lead vocals. The track is much more of a vibe to the listener and much less about any main topic or idea and rather delivers an instrumental that keeps on trucking on and puts you in a trance. Later in the album, we get the closing track "For You, I Will". There aren't really lyrics to the song, but more of a vocal chant of "For You" throughout the track, accompanied by backing chants from the artist Hatchie. This puts the album to an end in typical George Clanton fashion by closing off with a bombastic ending just like we started off with. After waiting many years for a new release, George Clanton does not disappoint with Ooh Rap I Ya. Not sure if it takes the crown for favorite George album like Slide does but nevertheless still is an extremely enjoyable and consistent listen that I'm sure everyone would love. Favorite Tracks: Everything That I Want, Justify Your Life, Punching You Down, F.U.M.L, For You, I Will

Apologies for not getting to talk about too many releases this week. There are a couple other albums I wanted to touch on recently but have been preoccupied with other UVF things as well as finishing up my latest collab album with Truman. I'll be sure to cover a couple more releases in the next blog <3. Hope everyone is doing well out there! If you made it to any of the IRL events this weekend, be sure to share some pics around and I hope you all stay safe. I have had this last week off work and don't go back into work until the first week of September so I've been trying to use this time to catch up on some label work as well as some production on the music side of things. In case you forgot, I make music too! I'm soon to release "Perfect Dawn", the first Lunar Data Garden album with good friend of mine Truman sometime next month hopefully, and I have plans in the works to start releasing more music on the portal.rwb side of things in the form of EPs/Mixtapes in between my big mainline albums. Until then, thank you for reading my blog, be sure to follow UVF on all our socials and join our Discord server! I try to check in on everyone daily in there and share news sneak peaks to things from time to time. Love you all and see you next week! -portal from UVF

[orpheusstation]

What I'm here for.

This year Stockholm’s Cinema Queer Fest is centered around rage. Since attending the program release I have been haunted by the reality of rage. There is a James Baldwin quote that is now breath to me and it goes like this: “To be a negro in the country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” Rage and anger are familiar to me. I am learning to make space for them in the world, to make them other people’s problems and not just my own, but this ancestry of rage, community of rage, is new to me. I am also now interested in how to make this rage productive, not merely in my interpersonal life, but to direct towards real change and manifestation. I think it is possible, but I am also only twenty years old and my life is in constant transit.

After rage, Baldwin began following me around. He appeared as an excerpt in one of the most god-awful books I’ve had to read yet in my college career, but the little indented quotation of his power moved me so thoroughly that I began hunting him down rather than waiting for him to find me. I bought Giovanni’s Room earlier this year, but I’m still trying to finish Song of Solomon (which has been an excellent read so far). I desperately wanted Baldwin’s voice, though, the intense degree to which he could evoke emotion, his masterful ability to suck me in swiftly, into the worlds that still brutally reflect our own. I took myself out to a cafe in Sofo and I wanted to wander around after I finished my work. I looked really good that day, and I felt it would be a shame just to go back and rot in my room. It was also sunny out. I came across an English bookstore just a block over from the cafe I was at and began my hunt for Baldwin.

I got Giovanni’s room at the Open Bookstore in Chicago, alongside a pocket copy of Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp. It was hands down maybe the best bookstore I’ve ever been to (although one of the staff recommendations was Tender is the Flesh and I think that book is awfully written). Maybe I’ve only ever been to shitty bookstores, but this one had a fantastic selection that not only met some of the more obscure texts on my reading list but also added many more books to that list. The little English bookstore I found definitely falls under the shitty selection, but they did have two books by Baldwin. I had already read his short story Going to Meet the Man so I bought the overpriced copy of Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems. I have a limited amount of books I brought from home here, and my copy of Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems did not make the cut. I’ve been missing having a bedside book of poetry, and the slim size of the book wouldn’t be obtrusive when I inevitably pack to go home. It’s been a couple of weeks since then and someone else in my life has been consuming a lot of space in my mind which takes me to my next musing.

James Schuyler’s A photograph is nestled within Jose Esteban Munoz’s Cruising Utopia. Schuyler’s poem whisked me away in a similar fashion as Baldwin’s excerpt, except my obsession was with ecstasy and not rage. The type of ecstasy Schuyler is getting at, and the one I’ve reflected the most on is that kind of feeling of looking back with joy. I feel rage more often than I feel ecstasy, but life has been pretty good for me recently. When I went swimming with friends a couple of weeks ago I remember looking back at the sunlit shore, at all our clothes and belongings messily strewn about in our haste to get in the water, and I was seized by such joy that I did not care that much when a large wave washed in and almost took all my belongings into the water. I have few moments in my life that inspire ecstasy, or rather sometimes it is just hard to find them, but in some moments they wash upon me and I am whisked away.

I like thinking of rage and ecstasy in this simultaneous fashion. They make sense together, for it is maybe in this life where I am so filled with rage that these moments of ecstasy are so beautiful and so simple. I forget them so easily and yet they continue to find me in soft and quiet ways. The rage makes me desire ecstasy, want to fight for it and to know this is a reality we are all entitled to have. This blog will be a disorganized journey of this fight and exploration. I’m interested in black punk, black poetry, and black rage and what any of this has to do with how we manifest action into our lives.

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

Wild Child - Expectations (KUTX Pop-Up at Utopia Fest)

[kevrocksicehouse]

Avatar: The Way of Water. 

D: James Cameron. 

In the best parts of Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-awaited sequel to the most successful sci-fi film of all time, we’re given a chance to see more of Pandora the Edenic planet that is an ideal of beauty and harmony. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the corporate Avatar (his consciousness resides in the body of a Na’vi, the native blue-skinned species whose harmony with nature is it’s own form of paradise) who rebelled against and defeated his employers, now lives with his mate Neytri (Zoe Saldana) and their large blended family (whose dialogue evokes suburban white teenagers but never mind) in the planet’s rain forest. When circumstances require them to move to another part of the plane, a series of Islands with a water-based culture James Cameron builds another idealized Utopia using motion capture and amazing undersea photography to build an aquatic world of breathtaking loveliness and a race, the Metkayana with a culture that lives as one with the ocean and with the Payakan, an intelligent and pacifistic species that nevertheless looks like a cross between a whale and a battleship. As in the first movie Cameron’s weakness for New-Age silliness is overwhelmed by a preternatural talent for world-building. Unfortunately, that isn’t his only talent.

Sully and his family take refuge at the reef in flight from the “sky people,” from an Earth that is run by his old corporation and that wants to establish a permanent residence on Pandora. The pursuers are led by a Na’vi avatar with the downloaded consciousness of Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who was killed in the first movie and is so monomaniacally bent on revenge (for a killing that he didn’t even experience) he seems absurd until we realize that he’s here only for violence, to turn the film into the galumphing action movie that is the other part of Cameron’s vision. His inventiveness turns into a loud cruel cliché that recycles bits from Aliens, Titanic and The Abyss and any number of explosion-fests. It’s a sour irony that Cameron or his own corporate masters couldn’t conceive a better version for the world he created than to blow it up. He built a world he doesn’t deserve.

[ivanreycristo]

Hablando de los Suecos GHOST [como EUROPE famosos x THE FINAL COUNTDOWN a los q vi en LONDRES y en BARCELONA al día siguiente de ver a KYLIE MINOGUE presentar cd GOLDEN grabado en NASHVILLE al mismo tiempo q VIRGINIA MAESTRO el cd DEL SUR en 2018 q incluye LA CRUZ q se le ocurrió a su productor COLIN LINDEN] y de PARASITOS e IDOLATRINA [uno de sus EXITOS]..Casualmente CASANDRA SAINTE_MARIE DEL AGUA [a la q conocí con 18 años y yo 34 años en 2006 en un Curso de Parados como a Ramón Valle_Inclan hijo del ex_presidente de TABACALERA , etc..y a la q me REencontré TRABAJANDO en la TIENDA DEL REAL MADRID del BERNABEU tras fotografiarme 7_5_13 a CONTRA_LUZ a sus PUERTAS con CLIFORD LUYK ex_jugador num 13 de REAL MADRID nacido en NewYork a cuyo hijo malogrado Sergio LUYK entreno en RM tras jugar 5 años en los TORMENTA ROJA de la Universidad de ST JOHN sita en PKWAY UTOPIA en QUEENS_NY y al cual me presentaron en la sala roja o vip de disco AVE NOX donde hacía de DJ y tenía una barra alquilada diciéndome q tras retirarse de basket comerciaba con DI_AMANTES]..nacida en LONDRES e hija de JEAN PAUL SAINT_MARIE KAISER y nieta del fundador del diario CHILENO Dario SAINTE_MARIE alias VOLPONE [=comedia sobre CODICIA Y LUJURIA en la q se hace el MUERTO para ESTAFAR A TODOS y tener SEXO con una JOVEN q al no dejarse comprar la quiere VIOLAR]..q se exilio en MADRID [escribio sus memorias desaparecidas dentro de su bañera en su piso del CENTRO COLON en MADRID] ..un año antes de que su amigo SALVADOR ALLENDE presidente de CHILE fuese asesinado en el golpe de ESTADO de PINOCHET amigo de JUANCARLOS I..

..se puso la PUTA MAS_CARILLA en 2016 y se fotografió con PAPA EMERITUS o cantante de GHOST en el RESURRECTION FEST.

..x cierto..supuestamente se lio con RAMON VALLE_INCLAN [20 años mayor]..al volver a ver solos la peli 300 tras verla los 3 juntos en el cine CID CAMPEADOR tras decirme RAMON q se la quería liar y que sino me importaba xq sabía q era muy amiga suya pues la llevaba a su casa tras el curso en mi coche y le dije q se lo preguntara a su supuesto novio escritor..luego un día me llamó CASANDRA diciéndome que no íbamos a salir los 3 juntos más xq RAMON se enfado al preferir seguir con su novio tras haber estado los 3 juntos el día del TRABAJADOR de 07 comiendo cordero en TUREGANO [SEGOVIA]..donde LUCIA BOSE [q incendio la casa de la FINCA LA VIRGEN cuando su marido el TORERO LUIS MIGUEL DOMINGUIN la fue INFIEL con su PRIMA Maria del Milagro Domínguin alias MARIVI con reportaje fotografico incluido y la cual murio con 51 años de CANCER D OVARIOS ]..puso un museo sobre ANGELES q quebró ..

..poco después o 24 mayo 2007 fue el 20 cumple de CASANDRA y me invito al cine "MORA_SOL" a ver el estreno de PIRATAS DEL CARIBE: EN EL FIN DEL MUNDO..siendo la última vez q la vi hasta q me la reencontré en el BERNABEU

[seonghw4ffles]

request fest <3

welcome to rynn's request fest!! all of these are the stuff i ENJOY writing,,, so ill be super happy to write any of these below!! you don't have to choose from these though, you can most definitely request ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING!!💗💗 but if thats so,,, here are the notices!! :

⊹ REQUESTS : OPEN

⊹ i am a minor, so i couldn't write smut or anything too over the line!!

⊹ ateez, tomorrow x together, stray kids, jujutsu kaisen, windbreaker

⊹ i write fem and gn reader <3

⊹ pretty tight schedule so bare w me guys!!

okay so now THATS out of the way,, tell me which of these you want!! you can choose multiple, if not all :

fluff / angst / comfort

THANKS!! now here are the prompts <33 please feel free to choose multiple of each,, add your own stuff that isnt listed,, as many / little as you want and from absolutely ANYTHING!! [for example, im so down to do medieval magicians, so just choose ANYTHING man]

BASE

ehh just to be sure,, you can skip this and only choose tropes tho

1. friends to lovers 2. enemies to lovers 3. strangers to lovers

TROPES

okay THIS is what is required

1. star crossed lovers 2. soulmates 3. unrequited love 4. forced proximity 5. childhood pact, sweethearts 6. second chance 7. a bet 8. fake relationship 9. two antagonists 10. juvenile fiction 11. grumpy x sunshine 12. workaholic and comfort

EXTRA

you can skip this since its so wide, and/or make up your own

1. runaway fiance for you/him 2.roommates, dormmates 3. cinderella situation 4. one bed [fluff guys.] 5. you belong with me taylor swift thing 6. playboy oohhh 7. met at the bell tower [almost self destruct] 8. one of you is gonna die [for example; cancer] 9. juvenile rebellious broken teenagers

AU

ong personally my fav part ngl

fantasy

dystopia, utopia mythology, folklore fairytale, royalty magicians, fortune tellers vampires

science fiction [ could also be in fantasy ]

time travel, manipulation travel in between different worlds

historical

medieval london victorian era medieval russia royalty

modern

highschool juvenile [frik this town] college okay yeah boomer age lets work gotta work

dialogue prompts

okay thats all!!! you can stop here, or if you want inspo or some quotes for me to add in there,, here they are!! :

fluff

1. "stay safe!!" 2. “make sure to come back to me, okay?” 3. “how did you know they were my favourite?” 4. “i saw this, and i thought of you.” 5. “i'd really love it if you came” 6. “just- well… try not to die. i'm really not bothered to replace you” 7. “well maybe i LIKE having you alive, ever thought about that?” 8. “you're leaving already?” 9. “you're the only one i want to be there.” 10. “i did this for you.” 11. "what's you're dream, s/o?" 12. “don't move. i’ll get it for you.” 13. “you won’t take care of yourself so i will” 14. “truthfully, i'd rather just hang out with you.” 15. “shut up and dance with me” 16. “you're not alone anymore” 17. “it's okay it’s okay,,, got you” 18. "thank you for staying." 19. “you don’t have to pretend with me” 20. “just you and me; that’s all i want”

credits to this page for most of these !! the rest are my own ^^

angst

1. "just come here" 2. “i wish i could stay here forever. just me and you.” 3. "i'm so tired of you." 4. "why do i care? are you a fucking idiot, y/n?!" 5. "i trusted you." 6. "don't come to be with your problems anymore, because i don't want to hear it." 7. "don't touch me." 8. "you think i loved you? how pathetic do you think i am?" 9. "it's like you think i don't have a life outside of you. s/o, i don't need you to live my own life." 10. "the hell do you mean?" 11. "he handled it better than you ever could." 12. "i'm staying with my friends for a few days." 13. "damnit, don't pretend you don't know what i'm talking about." 14. "it feels like you don't want anything to do with me anymore, y/n." 15. "i don't want to go back to how it was before." 16. "please, i promise you. i'll never yell like that again." 17. "stay here until you stop crying." 18. "don't leave. please." 19. "i ruined everything. i'm sorry." 20. "please. just come home."

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! i'd be sososososo happy if someone did this PLEEEKKK