#Vaporwave Begin Again

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 6/18/2024

might flood today! might not! who knows! i live in the paved over swamp! mackintosh’s main concern is this bowl of grapes

listening

sligo river blues performed by john fahey. part of the point of doing this weekly is when i sit down to draft these, i am occasionally forced to go "ooh. i forgot to listen to music while pacing around last week. maybe that's why i was a tremendous cunt and wanted to claw out of my own skin."

anyway i care about two people on tiktok and one of them is a couple renovating a stunning house in the pacific northwest from a level 5 hoard (DK Dreamhouse), and one is this guy dylanwesch who is i guess music nerd tok? a lot of ambient stuf which i love to click around on the computer to. listened to part of this album while debugging a GIS problem this week

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reading

i read six books this week, which is really the clearest possible sign i need to up my antidepressants. read the shepherd king duology by rachel gillig (Fine but i had some issues with the authorial style, felt very YA as opposed to NA, did have a very cool magic system, unfortunately i liked the second couple’s banter and relationship Way More than the main couple’s). finished the last three books in the temeraire series, i have not much to say about them except i adored them wholeheartedly. also before i read those i wrote all the below in a fit of pique

the great state of west florida by kent wascom. instagram kept serving me ads for this book and i am once again a little unnerved by meta's advertising.

publishers' weekly synopis

In Wascom’s wacky and wild fourth adventure for the Woolsack clan (after The New Inheritors), lawless gunslingers and reactionary Christian nationalists face off in a divided Florida. The year is 2026 and 13-year-old orphan Rally Woolsack is rescued from the abusive foster family who brought him to Louisiana by his long-lost uncle Rodney, who regularly responds to challenges of mortal combat on the app DU3L. Rally is thrilled to get away from his tormentors and return to Florida, although it turns out Rodney has pulled him from the frying pan into the fire. Troy Yarbrough, a state legislator whose family runs a creepy evangelical Christian college in its mansion on Florida’s panhandle, has introduced a bill calling for the region to secede from the state. Rally, reckoning with the long-running bad blood between his family and the Yarbroughs, derides Troy’s vision as a “Jesus-riddled white ethnostate with a beachside pastel tinge.” With the bill on the floor of the state legislature, and with everyone packing firearms, the Florida Wars begin. Fans of pulpy dark humor will relish the climactic showdown between Yarbrough’s henchmen and those loyal to an elusive figure called the Governor, as right-wing nutjob Troy is saddled by mad cow disease and Rally is rescued by his crush. This high-octane satire feels all too plausible. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (May)

i had some trouble with this one! on its face it seems like the kind of thing i would eat with a spoon. in practice it's more of a coming-of-age than a just-before-the-apocalypse story and i have a lot of trouble relating to a thirteen-year-old boy. even if he is bisexual. in this interview wascom says he's "re-mythologizing the Western" which i can kind of see? it's very pulp and ultra-violent in a spaghetti western kind of way, and seems written in a way easily adaptable to the screen. not quite vaporwave but a lot of anime influence: the author thanks twelve Japanese directors and manga artists at the end of the book.

there's an odd authorial quirk where the thirteen-year-old boy often points out (internally and externally) that the adults in his life are just talking at him about politics. which is a pretty accurate portrayal of childhood, but lampshading it in this way doesn't really make me excited about wascom's authorial chops? this is your fourth book. this book revolved around a couple brutal fight scenes (and one giant setpiece crowd scene, which has vibes and atmosphere in spades), and that's a perfectly fine reason to write a book, but if that's your strength i would be very happy to have you focus on that instead of sections where both the kid and i the reader are bored.

there's a scene with babysitter/babysittee sexual abuse that unlocks how the abused character makes decisions for the rest of his life, but it was extremely graphic and i wasn't really prepared for that. i don't know that i would have read this book if i had that knowledge aforethought.

overall not quite what i wanted it to be: the author in this interview said he's been working on it for over a decade and had to keep throwing out parts coming true during trump's presidency. i picked this pulpy novel up as an escape from the terrible politics of today, which is not what this books is. i don't know if i buy that he was simply too good at predicting the future, but i do like the choice stated in his interview "I abandoned the predictive stuff and tried to tell a story like it was written on an obelisk in the future, like what Denis Johnson did with Fiskadoro, or Joanna Russ with The Female Man". it does feel very much like the narrator from Mad Max 2 telling his story of meeting Max as a feral kid. again, some interesting ideas in here, does deliver on the Southern Gothic doomed political family aspect, as well as the same flavor of heat-wave climate tragedy as JG Ballard's The Drowned World, but i would have liked to focus more on his cool furiosa-like aunt in a white mustang with an anime mech arm. criminally underused character

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watching

watched The Hunter (2011, dir. Nettheim) because of the Temeraire books! they used an archaic name for Tasmania that made me go “where the Fuck is that” and then i looked at the media mentions section of the wikipedia page. beautiful film in a very spare way. lots of long loving shots of willem defoe in the wilderness enduring various weather conditions.

i don’t know if it stuck the landing quite as well as i would like, but like defoe you fall in love with the land and the family so slowly it’s very startling when you finally do fully realize it. i think i was supposed to cry at the end but didn’t quite manage it. one of my favorite springsteen songs is part of the diagetic score in a way that made me cry, which i also did not expect.

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playing

shoutout to the Thing Matching genre of phone game. this one is very much watch-ads-to-win but the levels are pretty long and i like shuffling objects around while listening to podcasts and trying to fall asleep

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making

fallow week

[weirdmageddon]

any dave music hcs? :) my playlist for him mostly consists of relatively popular rock music. besides wacky but awesome garageband beats, i personally think he’d be a rocknroll radio hits kinda guy, at least for pre-sburb dave, i don’t think he’d have as much freedom to really explore music the way he wants before then. some of my favorites for him are all mixed up (311), superman’s dead (our lady six), bound for the floor (local H), everything to everyone (everclear), inside out (eve 6) and birds (butthole surfers). i also think he’d like metal too! particularly nu metal. even if mixing music and rapping is an outlet for him, i see him relating to these types of songs a lot and maybe at the time when his #ironiccoolguy persona is most prevalent + affecting his interests/personality heavily, he’s embarrassed about admitting his popular favorites b/c it’s not cool to him to like what’s mainstream. but you know character arc! and besides when the earth explodes no music is really popular anymore LOL. btw i liked your davejade music posts ^_^ so i’m very curious if you have any thoughts for dave music on his own!

one of the first things we know about dave is “You like to rave about BANDS NO ONE'S EVER HEARD OF BUT YOU” but its never brought up again. so i can see him having a bit of a punky existence. but its pretty impossible to list bands that people havent heard about but him. it doesnt mean he can’t like known acts. pink floyd are one of the most well known music artists of all time but i think he would like it for instance

but of those known acts i know his ass does not listen to fallout boy or whatever

idk dave he strikes me as someone who listens to both brian eno and death grips but at the same time theres a lot of stuff i CANT see him listening to

i think he probably likes beastie boys. paul’s boutique (1989) is probably one of his top albums. deltron 3030 (2000) too. both experimental hiphop, paul’s boutique utilizing plunderphonics while deltron 3030 is a bit more epic and psychedelic.

i think both wouldve changed his life. paul’s boutique for for his pragmatic bent (sampling)

and deltron 3030 on the psychological / reflection / journey / listen and close your eyes rock opera side (“It is a rap opera concept album set in a dystopian year 3030. The album's story casts Del in the role of Deltron Zero, a disillusioned mech soldier and interplanetary computer prodigy rebelling against a 31st-century New World Order. In a world where evil oligarchs suppress both human rights and hip-hop, Del fights rap battles against a series of foes, becoming Galactic Rhyme Federation Champion. Del the Funky Homosapien's lyrics veer from serious social commentary to humor to epic sci-fi battles, while producer Dan the Automator creates an eerie and dense atmosphere.”)

come on man

nmesh dream sequins is another album i can see him listen to, the cream of the crop for experimental vaporwave (the type of slowing samples in vaporwave was a technique pioneered by dj screw who i think dave would also dig, as it essentially manipulates time and thats Cool). probably likes oneohtrix point never too, an experimental electronic artist who also took inspiration from screw

maybe a bit of biting tongues, one of my favorites. he couldve been led to it going down the eno hole. probably his favorite album being recharge (1989)

as for rock i’m pretty sure dave strikes me as a psychedelic / experimental rock type of dude. so yeah pink floyd is still on the table especially early with syd barrett (the piper at the gates of dawn (1967) and a saucer full of secrets (1968)). but i think he can like later after that (of COURSE he feels drawn to the song ‘time’ lol i bet he’d want to replicate the atmosphere of the song’s beginning in his own stuff). he likes this kinda sound. he i can definitely see him being a ween fan for sure, especially quebec (2003) or their satire art/prog rock album the mollusk (1997) —the latter of which i could see him bonding with jade over DEFINITELY just listen to the titular song — but really the whole discography. or a zappa fan. maybe a dip into metal if its experimental or funky like primus or zillatron (bootsy collins alias)

i have to mention that these are all bands i like to some degree because to know what they sound like and if they fit dave ive had to listen to them lol. but yeah so that could put some bias into it and theres surely more stuff he would listen to i dont know but heres a portion of what i see from where i am

the common denominator between all the music i talked about was that theyre experimental

[gingerlee-holds]

Tinkering Hearts

This is a birthday fic for @cxra-melty! It's a Splatoon tword fic about lesbians lesbianing all over the place lmao- DISCLAIMER: i have never played splatoon nor do i know anything about it so if i get something wrong, lemme know!!

Word Count: 2,028 Reading Time: about 8 minutes Warnings: none that i can think of!! enjoy!!

The evening was Marina's favorite time of day since it's among the few times in Inkopolis when it's quiet. All the little critters settled down to sleep, but the sun still bathed the earth. Warm streams of light flowed into her studio, seemingly transforming the rather plain skyrise apartment into the inky aftermath of a turf war, awash with vibrant oranges, pinks, and yellows. The scent of grease that usually filled the studio was, at her girlfriend's strongly worded request, replaced mainly by a citrusy aroma, courtesy of an air freshener of her own design.

Marina Ida leaned back in her desk chair, smiling as she set down her screwdriver. Wiping her hands on her apron, the mechanically adept Octoling sighed in contentment at seeing her new invention: a speaker with a 23% longer battery life, petitioned by her girlfriend for her characteristically prolonged singing sessions in the shower. Marina's personal speaker, her 'precious baby,' sat on a bookcase next to the door, playing her mellow vaporwave beats while she worked. Swiveling slightly in her chair, she gazed out the large windows of her tinkering studio. She had always counted herself incredibly lucky to live in an apartment like this one, with a tremendously gorgeous view of the sunset. 

'It's so pretty,' Marina thought to herself. 'The setting sun gives the undersides of those clouds a beautiful pink color, like cotton candy. Like bubble gum. Like…' She suddenly looked down, feeling her face warm up a bit. 'Like Pearl.'

Marina heard a loud groan from her girlfriend, Pearl Houzuki, as if on cue. Turning again in her chair, she smiled at the mess of a girl crashed on her couch, lounging, as she often did, to periodically pester Marina while she worked. Today, though, Pearl had kept mostly silent as she lay on the sofa, idly kicking her feet behind her as she played on her phone, the nightcore blaring from her headphones only barely audible from across the room. However, the Inkling was face-down on the cushions, shamefully holding up her phone as she removed her headphones.

"'s dead," Pearl mumbled, making the Octoling smile fondly. 

"Well, I did recommend you bring a charger in with you a few-" Marina stopped her 'told you so' when she broke into giggles at the sight of the death glare her girlfriend gave in reply. The pouting Pearl huffed and rolled over onto her back, staring at the ceiling as Marina returned to her desk. Her next project was to begin right away, so without wasting any time, she opened her drawer and pulled out the sketches for a marginally more efficient Splattershot. 

It took less than a minute for Pearl to become restless. 

"I'm boreddd…" she grumbled. 

Marina chuckled. "Go charge your phone, then, silly squid. I also have those graphic novels you like somewhere on the shelf." She gestured vaguely toward one of her bookshelves without looking away from her work. As she focused back on the task before her, she failed to hear her girlfriend slowly rise from the sofa and sneak across the room, muffled by her fuzzy socks and the carpeted floor. Just as Marina put the tip of her pencil to the page, a rapid, simultaneous poke to each side elicited a squeaky yelp, making her hand shoot back to protect herself.

The Octoling whirled around, trying her best to glare at her adorable girlfriend's smug smirk, unable to suppress the smile on her face. 

"There is one rule in this studio! One! I know you can count to one!" Vainly trying to sound authoritative, Marina ended up sputtering out her warning. She accidentally drew a sharp, dark line across her page with her pencil.

Pearl giggled and innocently rocked on her heels. "You know I'm garbage at math. But hey, you can't blame me! Golden hour makes your skin look even prettier than normal! I was just checking that you were real and not some sort of hologram!"

The clever Inkling's flirt had its intended effect: Marina lost her entire train of thought as her face heated up like an overclocked CPU without a cooling fan. Instead of playfully scolding Pearl about the sacred 'No Shenanigans' rule of her tinkering studio, Marina hid her face behind her tentacles and let out what she intended to be a growl but became a flustered whine. Pearl waited patiently for her girlfriend to regain her composure, smiling from ear to ear.

"Y-you know that I haven't been able to build one of those yet-!" It was a lazy rebuttal born from her genuine vexation with holographic devices.

Pearl hummed, tapping her chin. "Well, you can never be too sure! I'm not worried, though, cuz I have a surefire method of proving you're my Marina~!" At that, she teasingly wiggled her fingers at the poor Octoling. "My little Marina is deathly ticklish~!"

Pearl's 'little' Marina leaped to her feet with a squeak, standing two full heads taller than her girlfriend. A determined expression entirely replaced her flustered countenance. "G-glass houses, babe! I know for a fact that you, of all people, shouldn't be throwing out accusations of ticklishness since you're a walking tickle spot!"

The smaller girl stammered, her cheeks turning as pink as the tips of her tentacles. "B-bullshit!" 

"Ooo, strong words from such a wittle Squid~! Are you gonna pout me to death~? Or do I have to ticklEEEK-!" Marina's cocky taunting was interrupted by about 100 pounds of Inkling suddenly slamming into her torso, almost bringing the tinkerer to the ground. Thankfully for her knees, Marina managed to get turned about, letting herself be pushed across the room and onto the couch by her growling girlfriend.

"You," Pearl huffed, now that she pinned the Octoling, "deserve every friggin' second of what you're about to get!" 

Before Marina could reply, a wave of giggly laughter poured out from her lungs as Pearl began scribbling up and down her sides. "NohOhoHO!!" was all she could get out as Pearl's nimble fingers skittered and poked each inch of skin from her hip to her ribs. 

"If anything," the Inkling said over her girlfriend's laughter, "this is your fault! I mean, for such a clever girl, it's awfully silly to keep one of your most ticklish spots so exposed like this~! Not that I'm complaining, though - makes it sooooo much easier for me to tickle the shit outta you!"

“ShuUHuHUhUT UhuHUHUHUP!!!” Marina cackled, kicking her feet. She brought one arm over her eyes while the other wrestled with Pearl's surprisingly agile hands. 

"Oh, believe me, I've been shut up for the past few hours! Gotta get this energy out somehow!"

Marina bucked, desperately trying to squirm out of reach or pry her girlfriend off, but Pearl was stuck to her like a mussel, mercilessly exploiting the Octoling's ticklishness. 

"PleHEhEHehheASe!!! PeHEhEhehHEARL, IhihhIhI’M BEHEEHEHEGGING!!” Marina threw her head back when Pearl began drilling her fingers into her hips. Her pleas, however, made Pearl slow down her tickling just enough for Marina to launch her counterattack.

Marina's hands shot down past Pearl's, landing on her thighs in one swift motion. The Inkling's eyes widened with shock for a moment before she was sent into peals of ticklish gleeful laughter from Marina's squeezes. She fell onto her back, hugging herself around the middle. The tinkerer took her chance, pulling herself upward to continue her onslaught. 

The mellow vaporwave from her speaker was drowned out by a different sort of music, which Marina enjoyed far more: the snorts and hiccups of her beloved bratty squid when her thighs were squeezed. Pearl waved her arms around like an inflatable tube man, giving Marina access to her underarms. Scribbling in each underarm, Marina had successfully invented liquid cuteness.

Nevertheless, despite her thrashing around like a fish on land and babbling through her hiccupy laughter, Pearl had concocted the perfect scheme. When Marina stopped for a moment to readjust her position, Pearl leaped upward and wrapped her arms around Marina's torso, planting her face in her girlfriend's exposed belly. Paying no heed to the panicky warnings, the smaller girl deposited a big, wriggly raspberry, transforming the tall attacker back into a cackling girl, unable to hold back the mountain of melodic laughter. Pearl, determined to get revenge and with her competitive streak shining bright, resolved to continue raspberrying Marina's belly button until the latter had no more laughter left in her. However, true to form, she made one vital miscalculation: she hadn't removed her girlfriend's hands from under her arms. 

She was immediately aware of this flaw in her plan before delivering a second attack when Marina resumed wiggling her fingers. The small Inkling squealed through her raspberry, which did less to dampen its ticklishness than Marina had hoped. Both now were squealing and laughing, both because of the tickles and the ridiculousness of the situation.

The two were locked in a stubborn tickle war of attrition: could Pearl withstand the curious wiggling fingers in her underarms before Marina inevitably gave in to her raspberries? Regardless of the outcome, Pearl was happy to finally have her girlfriend to herself after not being given any attention for so long. As silly as it seemed to be jealous of a toolbox, she felt pleased to finally have all of Marina's focus exclusively on her. She'd never admit it out loud, of course, but Pearl was more than happy to lose this battle if it meant spending more time with her favorite Octoling.

As it happens, the winner of the tickle war would not be determined that day, as a particularly devious raspberry to her side sent Marina rolling off the couch and onto the soft carpet, dragging a hiccupy Pearl down with her. The two girls squealed with delight as they landed, their legs getting tangled together in the confusion. Slowly, the laughter died down, and the two pairs of eyes opened to look into each other. Their faces melted with fondness, wobbly lovestruck smiles replacing helplessly plastered grins. As they gazed into each other's eyes, arms wrapped around each other, legs intertwined, and so close… It was poetry worthy of Sappho herself.

Pearl broke the silence first. "You oughta be more playful. It's fun to see you like this."

"What, you mean it's fun to see me all disheveled and a mess?" 

The Inkling giggled, nodding. "Yep! I don't see you so unraveled often, so it's always a fun gift to witness!"

Marina's smile widened slightly before she shyly said, "Then feel free to unravel me as much as you'd like, babe."

Led by the profoundly influential force whose origin lies beyond scientific scrutiny and which has always guided the hearts of two lovers throughout countless millennia, the two cephalopods pressed themselves closer and stole a sweet, blissful kiss. When they finally pulled apart, the sun had sunk under the horizon, swapping vibrant oranges with soft purples as the stars began to appear above.

"Welp," Pearl said after a moment, "can't sleep on the floor." With that, she untangled herself and stood, picking up the surprisingly lightweight Octoling from the floor and plopping her onto the couch.

Marina giggled. "The couch isn't much better for your back, y'know-"

"Shush, genius, or else I'll make you shush." Pearl poked her girlfriend one last time as she sat beside her, forcing the tinkerer to concede.

With that, the two relaxed into the cushions, holding hands. Unable to prop her head on Marina's shoulder, Pearl nestled into her bicep, making the taller girl coo silently and wrap her other arm around the Inkling. 

Yawning, Pearl said, "Can we, like, go to a karaoke bar or something tomorrow?"

Sighing fondly, Marina nodded. "We'll make it a date."

Pearl giggled victoriously. “Just us, right? You’re not gonna bring an Allen wrench or something?”

“Why on earth would I bring an Allen wrench with me on a date?”

“Not sure, but if anyone were to, it would be you.”

After a few seconds to consider, Marina nodded. “You’re probably right. No tools, I promise.”

So, with the gentle accompaniment of Marina's speaker, the two lovebirds drifted off to sleep, smiling all the while. 

[premium-value]

this is not goodbye by Premium Value

i started making vaporwave in 2020 because ive loved vaporwave for a long time and it occurred to me that it seemed easy to get into just for fun. it was an easy creative outlet during the worst of covid, and it kept being satisfying. looking back a lot of the stuff i made early on was crap but it was still fun. in late 2021 i got reached out to for an opportunity to have one of my albums featured on this new digital label along with a release on cassette which id get a cut of. i had to make some adjustments which resulted in it eventually being a double-album feature to make it feel substantial enough, but i was really excited. essentially over the course of the next year and a half barely any progress was made on their end, id get very little communication, and while that was happening they were still releasing other albums from other artists. this sucked big time. i eventually got fed up and told them i was out, to which they responded seemingly in earnest, but it felt hollow and like they were trying to make amends far too late to save face. this year and a half led to me making probably some of my best stuff, but it was also the beginning of the end. i was running out of ideas. it wasnt until this year when i really started losing steam, both running out of ideas and motivation. again the stuff i have made this year is among my favorite releases, but lets be real including this i only released 4 completely original albums, 1 expanded re-release and one triple album re-release with just a handful of new songs. it feels like every new release i really have to strain to come up with stuff, let alone try and put it all in a cohesive album concept. when i started, up until early 2022, i was releasing an album every month. i was throwing everything i could at it, and then with the label deal sitting around and me burning through my ideas i finally slowed down to an album every other month. this year there were more and more gaps as i allowed myself some room to breathe and come up with stuff. and it was around the middle of the year when i finally cut my ties with that group and that label. if youre a part of that label and you see this and you figure out this is about you, just keep it to yourself. no drama, not necessarily any bad blood, it just sucked and im done with that part of my life. im now officially giving up on any official obligation to regularly make vaporwave. it served me as a huge passion while it lasted, and it is still fun to make stuff when it comes out good, but its just so much harder now. so maybe ill make another album next month, or the month after. maybe ill make another album in 3 months. maybe 6. maybe a year. maybe 5 years. maybe never. i dunno, i leave that up to future me. i still love vaporwave and id love to have more ideas. maybe i need to explore more rabbit holes of music to inspire me. maybe i need to explore making original music more. who knows. to sum up, this is not goodbye. it's "ill see you when i see you." so ill see you. love you. 

track list:

feeling - 6:46

Say You Love Me - 4:02

Talk to Me - 2:30

does he know - 6:34

感情 - 5:27

this is not goodbye - 3:26

released december 4th, 2023

all sample credits included on bandcamp page

[nancyqueerer]

Chapter 4: Best Friend

Even though they are close friend this is the 2nd time Robin visiting on Nancy's bedroom. Robin exploring her bed room exterior, it's girly compared on her green room there's warm vibe when the lights was on. Nancy arranging her desk preparing for the report papers. Robin examine again in Nancy's drower she knows Nancy likes Blondie and The cure, but her attention caught by full of sexy tunes in cassette tapes, like the infamous 'The one you love by Glenn frey' yep Nancy listen in saxophone and likes 80s vaporwave. It's hidden beneath the drawer only if you take off the things there, you can see the hidden treasure. Robin just blush because she heard it once in skater rink. Robin eyes sparkling mischievously, she can't help but smirk while holding the cassette tapes. “Look we have here, you like spicy tunes huh? I didn't know it...” Nancy grab her cassette tapes immediately. “I said, don't touch anything inside my drawer” Nancy cross her arms on her chest. Robin can't help to stare at those raging eyes, she can't deny that Nancy looks so hot when pissed off. “Alright, I will behave.” Robin said in teasing tone, she put her hands in the air like she been caught in right handed. “Good! Let's begin...” Nancy exclaim she crack her hands. Robin just chuckled, and smirk she's not done yet teasing Nancy. “So I'll learn saxophone now, hmmm...it's not easy progression but I can try” Robin pushing Nancy's buttons with her words. “Shut up, let's get things done so that you can leave my house” Nancy roll her eyes toss her cassette in box.

Nancy having a bad mood because Jonathan, and her having a constant fight for nonsense reason. Robin notice Nancy's mood she never want to ask, but she's actually worried about her friend. “Stop staring. I'm asking you, do you understand this formula and how to solve this problem?” Nancy raised her eyebrows they continue to work until it's midnight, she feel sleepy but she need to help Robin to solve their task. As Robin keep recalling what Nancy said, she start to write her answer Nancy fell asleep at the table. Her face on Robin's side, Robin can't help but to stare at Nancy's face covered with light lamp while sleeping, she doesn't understand what she felt, but probably she just adore Nancy. Robin don't want to explore this feelings, because she's contented to be her bestfriend after all. Robin just can't force everything to happened. She can't force someone who only see her as a friend.

[darlingpoppet]

What inspired you to start Where The Dead Forget? Also can you tell us some more about your PZA Dreamers AU? (e.g. what your favourite thing to write has been so far, things you look forward to or struggle with, or anything else you like). Thanks!

As for WTDF, honestly it pretty much all started with this tweet where I expressed interest in the concept of Patroclus Hadesgame losing his memories. I had seen such fanarts already so I was curious if there were fics out there too (there are of course! I have since found some, lol!) But a friend in the comments was encouraging to the notion of me writing one myself and I pretty much immediately began spiraling from there (I tweeted this the same day I posted Once More and also about a week before I posted Upon A Lazy Bed, so at the time my brain was on fire and I was constantly brimming with ideas!) The entire story from beginning to end pretty much came to me immediately and I’ve been expanding on it ever since! A lot of my inspiration has been fueled by the experience of consuming every depiction of Achilles & Patroclus I could get my hands on, as well as countless academic writings with various analyses on the characters. Also just the entire meta tradition of storytelling with folklore characters in general, where there’s no one “definitive version”, and thinking about how that might work in-universe where things like memories, bias, human fallibility, etc make objective truth difficult or impossible to obtain. Films such as Rashomon and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind that explore similar concepts to WTDF also inspired me!

As for the PZA Dreamers AU!! I can’t remember if I’ve ever properly explained the concept in a public post but for anyone curious: the whole thing was born out of me seeing a parallel/synergy between the themes of the film The Dreamers and certain interpretations of the Iliad (the Homeric version itself ofc but also particularly Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida.) The characters in these stories exist in this symbolic & narrative liminal space where they’re shutting themselves off from the outside world so they can Live Laugh Love—and in all the stories, reality catches up with them eventually, usually in tragic ways. I’m making it a modern AU (a vaguely 2010s period piece?) because as a millennial I also see parallels to my generation (& Gen Z) where as a whole our own lives also seem to be stuck in a figurative liminal space academically, economically, socially (especially in the era of covid where we were all shut-up in our houses finding there was more to life than The Grind, simultaneously reveling in simple pleasures & also going insane until we were all forced back out again) And at the same time our generations have this fascination with liminal spaces as an Internet meme (including vaporwave which also coincidentally appropriates classical Greco-Roman imagery in its aesthetics.) I’m reading serious non-fiction books like Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher and Retromania by Simon Reynolds in service of what at the end of the day is just a horny fanfic LMFAO.

Because getting back on track to what you actually asked me: I’m not gonna lie, my favorite parts of writing this story so far have been the sex scenes, haha. Like the whole vibe of the story is supposed to be just this completely unfettered dreamy indulgence, and even things like sex have a liminal quality to me (where time seems to stand still and people are joined together transitioning through several physical states) hopefully I’ll be able to pull the whole thing off the way I’m envisioning it! The fact that it’s a modern AU is probably what makes this both easier and harder to write—things like dialogue can have a more modern sensibility but it’s probably the more flowery prose that’s giving WTDF its own dreamy, liminal quality so it’s tricky figuring out how to balance it. I’m also having a hard time deciding whether I want to dump this entire high-concept, novella-length story as a one-shot (or at least split up into 2-3 parts that are published all at once) or if I should stick to a more traditional (for fanfic) serialized publication schedule ahahaha. I guess if anyone reading this has any preferences or insight feel free to let me know your thoughts!

Oh and as for the PZA of it all: writing Closest To My Heart was probably what reminded me of the existence of The Dreamers in the first place (I had seen it years and years ago) because I realized that film has a similar dynamic of an “outsider” falling into an erotic triangle with a pair who are essentially soulmates, and ends up biting off a little more than he can chew in keeping up with the two of them… I decided I wasn’t quite done exploring that dynamic and I wanted to write about it more! Though don’t worry, I don’t think this story is gonna be quite as dark as Closest (uh oh wait this might be a lie actually), and also Patrochilles are MUCH nicer to Zag in this story ;)

(Also I didn’t even mention Hadesgame itself where the entire underworld is a liminal space Zagreus passes through to reach the surface/self-actualization and how he is constantly dying/resurrecting… Zagreus is a very liminal character! But this is already an ETA so I shall leave my thoughts there for now, lol.)

Hopefully all that answers your questions, anon! Thanks so much for the ask <3

[jimmypesto]

gene & alex with #20 if you want?

Gene/Alex + getting a sugar rush!

“Alex! You’re here!”

Gene can never kiss his boyfriend gracefully. Full of electricity, he shoves their mouths together in a messy pop. It’s not his fault that Alex makes him spark like this, in this way he can’t contain.

Hyperactivity may be Gene’s natural state, but Gene in love is a different beast entirely. His mind is always sizzling with hot takes and funny comments, all of which he wants to share with Alex.

“Gene, hi!”

Alex holds him in place by the wrist, keeping him still for a second kiss. This one is a little smoother, and they both take the time to close their eyes.

“Oh.” Gene says, momentarily subdued. “That was….hi. Merry Christmas.”

Alex has butterflies in his stomach, when he sits with Gene on the edge of his bed. Their hands come together naturally, fingers interlacing. Like Gene, Alex likes to touch. Whether it’s holding hands or playing with one another’s hair, the boys share a love of physical affection.

“Merry Christmas.” Alex says. “Tell me everything. Did you get the new record you asked for?”

Gene squeezes his hand tightly, unaware of his own strength, but Alex doesn’t flinch.

“Do you mean Cameron McPhee’s Magic Jamboree?” He asks, his voice growing louder. “Only the best Vaporwave slash punk rock slash jazz fusion album ever made?”

He produces a vinyl record from beneath his pillow, suggesting he hasn’t learned his lesson about cuddling with breakable things.

“Of course I got it! Aren’t you familiar with Santa? The man’s a saint!”

Alex is on the edge of his seat, as Gene speaks. Everything he has to say is bright and fun and show-stopping. He commands attention wherever he goes.

“That’s amazing!” Alex says, his eyes scanning the present with interest. “Man. The gift I got for you could never live up to that.”

Waving him off, Gene sets his record on the nightstand with uncharacteristic gentleness.

“Alex, Britney Spears herself couldn’t live up to that present!” He says dismissively. “Are we exchanging gifts now? Yours is—uhh—wait. It’s around here somewhere.”

While Gene ducks his head beneath his bed, Alex clutches nervously at the small gift bag in his hand. He’s never gotten a gift for a boyfriend before. It’s nerve-wracking.

“Ta-da!” Gene announces, when he bounces back up. “It was right next to Tina’s diary and my old Halloween candy. Are you ready to be amazed?”

The lump in Gene’s hand is shoddily wrapped, but Alex’s heart surges at even the outline of his present.

“Should we open these at the same time?” He asks, lifting his bag in Gene’s direction.

For comfort, he reminds himself that Gene doesn’t have any more present money than he does. Shopping within the confines of a thirteen-year-old’s allowance is a trying task. As they swap gifts, Alex can feel the anticipation radiating off of his boyfriend.

“Okay.” Gene says, failing to sound casual. “So, should we just go on three, or—sorry, sorry! I’m already opening mine! Ah! What’s wrong with me?”

Gene’s impatience wins out as he tosses the bag’s tissue paper asunder, leaving Alex scrambling to keep up.

“Oh! Now? We—okay!”

Tearing off wrapping paper haphazardly, he and Gene uncover their gifts at the same time. Both boys look down at their presents, then up at each other, then back again at their presents. Gleeful, knowing smiles break out on both of their faces.

“You got me candy!” Alex cheers, holding up a plastic bag full of small, individually wrapped sweets.

Laughing, Gene begins tearing open his own bag of Chocolate Chew Chew Trains.

“And you got me candy!” He parrots. “I wasn’t sure which kind you’d like best, so I got the ones with the most sugar.”

Alex is pleased to be dating someone with such good taste. The caramels Gene picked are rich and creamy, and they definitely won’t last him the afternoon. Just as well considering how quickly they’d be confiscated if he brought them home.

“You can’t go wrong with thirty-six grams of sugar.” He says. “Thanks, Gene. This is the best gift I’ve gotten all morning.”

Looking proud of himself, Gene reaches out to take Alex’s hand once again.

“This is the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.” He says sincerely. “And that includes when the lunch lady gave me those extra tater tots last week. Do you wanna try one of my chocolates?”

Alex can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“Really?” He asks, eyebrows raised. “But…Gene! You don’t share your candy with anyone! Not even your sisters.”

Gene shrugs, leaving against his boyfriend.

“Sugar rushes are more fun, when we’re doing them together.” He explains.

Alex rubs a thumb along Gene’s hand, just as he opens his mouth for another snappy remark.

“Besides,” He says jokingly, “I’m watching my figure!”

As the two of them burst into laughter, Alex feels Gene squeeze his hand again. He doesn’t mind the tightness at all.

[moonspower]

i always catalogue vi's evolution by music genres too, since he's always had blog music:

2017, the beginning: trapwave, lofi hip hop, cloud rap, hypnagogic pop, chillwave. 2018: mallsoft, ecco jams, vaporwave. 2019: vaporwave, city pop, synthwave, future funk. 2020: break beat, jungle, liquid dnb. 2021: sooooo much 2000s trance. and breaks. 2022: cloud rap again not entirely sure why that happened, city pop but like the songs weren't old. kind of just stayed here...?! 2023, the now: miami bass, jersey club, baltimore club, ambient breaks, house.

[tillinghastcorporatemedia]

Often Dystopia (And how its gonna affect my art)

As much as there are some seriously good dystopian fiction. (yes im enamored with sci-fi) personally to me it almost feels tired but i understand the appeal and popularity

But how does this effect my art, and turn TillinGhast Corporate Media

Well first let me explain what TillinGhast Corporate Media is

TGCM was and is me taking what little part of my previous project that never took off and i never made it very far with, Tillinghast

Tillinghast was my outlet for my anger and isolation, and originally began after the death of my grandfather and the falling out of the people i had tried to gather for a band

I had written an ep dealing with my loss and an album that was inspired by election day 2016 and the amount of anger that i felt towards the establishment that i was already growing increasingly tired of

I ended that project after 2-3 years of trying to find vocalists/funds/and start making art

after that died i didnt touch any project and just wrote shitty electronic again, much like everytime i get bored with writing metal, but this time i had much more fun making just beeps and boops with no expectation of vocals and just making basic looping music

So where did TillinGhast Corporate Media come from?

If you notice i did keep the tillinghast name, as i found out when i first started this solo shit, isnt wasnt in use by any active musicians, and i only found one band that hadnt been active in over 8 years

But i wanted something new

something different

So i kinda let my focus on music, the thing i had been doing for over 10 years, go to the side to try and create elsewhere, right at the beginning of 2020

the first thing i thought i would try?

Writing a book

Which as a lot of people on here know, is really really really really really fucking hard to do, especially when you start this shit working a 9 hour overnight shift and writing on days off while everyone else you care about is asleep

And in figuring out what i had wanted to write then, i decided to not go big, but to try and keep me entertained, i needed more than just a few characters

So using a small chunk of info i had written down when i was trying to get into dnd and make my own scifi version of the game, i created a few planets, each with different species and histories and lore and economies

and i made a decision

Each planet would have different stories

to try and keep me entertained

which worked for about a year, and i havent updated since because i have trouble making myself create anything other than music, but i dont wanna get too recent or on a tangent

But why the name TillinGhast Corporate Media?

Well, because it sounds cool as shit. I used to love vaporwave and alternative genres and anything i could find that was "weird"

but also at some point i decided that if i do ever blow up, i want to hire other creatives and actually pay them well, and give them a place to really get out a message for the future

But its just me

So i get to have all the say

at least for now

But why a universe you ask? Why is this so damn long? Get to the point?

well at least for two of those im trying to be verbose and explain myself, and honestly if you read this far i love you and hope that youll stay here on this journey with me

I've always wanted to be part of a group, art creative, touring band, etc.

Ive gotten close only once or twice, but ive always been diy and taught myself shit so i figured i wanted to combine all of my loves into one thing, one giant sandbox where i can be creative in my decisions

And once again, i didnt want it to be just me. So TillinGhast Corporate Media will always be changing and evolving as i learn more about this giant world im having to navigate

I will say there will probably errors or fails, but i want this to be inclusive and open and loving so other people can use this as a means to escape, if even for a little bit, the harsh reality we all face.

Much like i got an escape in music and books as a kid and teenager

So why a universe? because a universe is big and can hold many stories and many perspectives, much like a library can hold many different pieces of knowledge

So to get to the final point, for those of you who actually made it this far based on the title

TillinGhast Corporate Media both as myself and as a future idea or brand

at least for now

Will not ever be a dystopia story

I have not forced myself to change and grow and evolve and continue to sit in my negativity and apathy and just general poopy pants view of the world

To not try with all my might to maybe write something that while not a utopia, is not dystopia and imagines a brighter, better, future where people maybe dont have to worry about as much, because they learned from our awful horrible past and actually refuse to repeat any of it

To try and make this more about characters and stories and music and the things that make myself and others smile, instead of regurgitated dystopias where even basic life is rough

does this mean everything will be all flowers and butterflies and my little pony?

absolutely the fuck not

Truth is often stranger than fiction and anything can happen even in a shiny place, but the point is to not be a negative nancy and have a bunch of shitty stuff going on all the time

One of the planets is a floating colony with what little remains of the human race

One planet is basically in the middle of an uprising of an exiled group

The book im writing (kinda spoilery but idk if ever ill finish this damn thing) literally has an act of terrorism being planned from someone who was radicalized by a really bad group that is basically space religion and its many parallels

All of my short stories are slice of life stuff that happens in a few scenarios where each character reacts to an outside force

But this wont ever be some dragged out for purely entertainment type angsty or edgy or anything like some books do with trauma

i want to look at stuff like we're building to something better, not something worse. optimistic but not utopia or something like that

(honestly this point ive already kinda gotten myself choked up so im gonna wrap it up)

But TillinGhast Corporate Media is basically my idea for a better future

and maybe im wrong and my stuff sucks and i need to change it

i have no idea because no one really follows my shit

so i just do what i want within the dumb boundaries and expectations i place on myself

but it is has been better before and it will get better again, and i am tired of that place being only in my head

so im creating this big huge universe with aliases that i call "artists" so it looks like there is actual musicians in this universe, i at one point started on a medium length animation series, and im trying to use my shitty computer to learn 3d shit

So stick around, at least you'll get some music out of it

and on that note i will mention i do have a few singles and 2 albums out, all of which is on youtube and streaming sites (its on spotify but i fucking hate spotify both as a company and some of the people they sponsor stream on any other site please you'll give more money to your favorite artists)

[maudfs]

It's that time again for the summary of art! 2022 is on its way out and it was certainly a year...

This was the year of the water tiger in the Chinese Zodiac. I enjoy using Zodiac things as prompts AND my birth year was of the tiger, so that is January's image. I used the lasso tool for a lineless look, it was fun.

February's image is a bunch of air type raptors of a species I have been thinking of for a while. I was trying to flesh out what markings they would have and what kinds of color morphs might exist. (front to back: rare (sunset), common (blue-jay), melanistic (dark), leucistic (light), and albino) Of course they are not finished (I guess headworlds are never really finished) but I would like to someday update my websites bestiary with all the characters and species I've created and these would be one of the featured ones.

March's image is for an Ovipets challenge that I won! It is a Catus with butterfly wings looking at butterflies in a field of clover.

In April I made a bunch of shuffle-style icons and little sprites for my characters for things like their toyhouse pages or my website... so basically a bunch a stuff that won't get posted by itself.

For May here is a sketch of Fulvina from Spectrobes (the thing my Fulvina is named after! I had to draw it eventually, but) I didn't finish it at the time because I was having trouble with the lines, though I do plan on finishing it. Spectrobes as a whole could use some more love!

June's image is Amdy as a Unicorn, as I was seeing Junicorn challenges but didn't want to draw something every single day. I also chose this because well, why do I have so many so-called shapeshifters yet I only draw them in one form? I should show what else they can do!

July is ArtFight month and this time around I found some very cool characters to draw including a dragon named Colors! This was very fun to draw.

August I created a character called Daemon, seen here. Haven't really fleshed him out much though XD.

September Flight Rising released a gene called Soap that makes the dragon extra shiny, and I knew I had to draw it. What better than a vaporwave dragon? Flight Rising has released a LOT of stuff this year now that I think about it!

For October, a WIP of Alban... didn't finish much this month. I wanted to draw some Halloween images and make a bat-sona but that didn't happen in time. Somewhat related, this is the third year in a row I started to feel depressed beginning in October and into the winter, DESPITE loving Halloween and colder weather, so I'm wondering if that's a sign of seasonal depression or something? Yeah.

November's image is more Ovipets, this time dogs (Canis and Lupus) playing in fallen leaves. Used lots of different CSP brushes in this one. (For the single purchase version, of course... as if I'd deal with a monthly subscription for an art program... I don't know who thought THAT was a good decision)

December I finished this piece of Cygnet. I was going to try to draw more for December, but the sheer cold of this country wide snowstorm(!) seems to have put me in hibernation mode, so I'm gonna go ahead and finish with this.

Now's also a good time to say that I still don't mess with ΝFТ's or АI art, (I don't consider either of these things to be “art” and I don't have the energy to argue about it) so I've been experimenting with new watermarks to try and combat that in a subtle way... still watching Twitter catch fire. Still wearing a mask (end date: undefined). Still love playing Legends Arceus... STILL too shy to socialize!! Come on, that's gonna end up being my new year's resolution for like, every year! Gosh XD But I must continue to try... I must..!

As always, thank you for coming by and reading. :3

[mesaprotector]

So I just finished my first route of AI The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative (the Shoma/Komeji route).

More than anything what struck me is how Uchikoshi has gotten to focusing on healing from grief, and especially on recovering from deeply unhealthy coping strategies that end up making things even worse. I can't speak for his earliest work, but this was not a theme at all in any of the Zero Escape games, and only very incidentally a part of Punch Line - but it was the main point of Akanesasu Shoujo, a major part of certain routes of AI 1 (specifically Mayumi's Somnium), and it's ALL OVER Nirvana Initiative. Right at the beginning there's Ryuki drowning himself to forget the past, and at the end there's everything Shoma is dealing with, complete with constructing a whole new imagined world where nothing negative exists (hi again, Akanesasu Shoujo). I have to wonder what's been going on in Uchikoshi's life, or who he's been talking to. I do know that this exact kind of lesson has really helped me recently with my own psychological problems. Someone tell Uchikoshi to hurry up and come to the US so I can get him to autograph a poster.

As for the rest of AINI - the characters are likeable as usual, though they currently feel a little less grounded - it's funny that Gen, who looks like some kind of cartoon baseball man, feels more subtle and down-to-earth than most of them. I'm also hoping there'll be more scenes six years in the future, because even though I do like Ryuki, Mizuki is the GOAT, and her new design is really good. Actually, all the character designs are really good, including Shigure the obligatory MILF and Riichi the rich asshole.

The Somniums (Somnia?) don't feel as engaging as in the original. Maybe that makes sense thematically - a lot of them are very linear with no real puzzles, which might be more like someone's consciousness than trying to figure out which items to use on which part of a room. But, like, even so, I never actually failed a Somnium in AI1, and the game seems overly careful about giving you hints, which makes it slightly less fun. My favorite of them so far was easily Chikara's with its vaporwave aesthetic and ability-combining machine.

I also absolutely love the soundtrack that plays in Shoma's room during this route. It's incredibly cozy while also being a bit sad. The GOAT music from the original was definitely the one from the shrine, and it makes a couple appearances here, but Ryuki isn't especially drawn to that location the way Date was, so it doesn't feel as emotional.

Oh, and I guess I should finish by guessing a few things? Well, Kizuna looks an awful lot like Boss, who supposedly has an 18-year-old daughter... actually, there’s a lot of missing children in this game, like Ryuki’s brother, Shoma’s sister, Shigure’s child, and so on. Iris should be thankful she figured out all of that parental identity nonsense last installment. I feel like if this game has a major twist the way AI1 did, it might well be that there are two parallel worlds colliding, and some characters are from each one. It was kind of a silly gag, but there was that question Gen and Amame were arguing about with Liberty Island/Ellis Island. I feel like maybe we’ll find out that Gen in one timeline doesn’t actually know Shigure and NAIX, but Gen in the other is connected to it - stuff like that. Something related to that might be why Shigure was supposedly thinking of nothing the first time Ryuki examined her - she wasn’t actually present in her body at the time. It helps when you seem emotionless by default.

Also, apologies for calling the head of NAIX “Shigure”, but I completely forget her first name and don’t want to look it up because spoilers. Needless to say, I’ve been playing the game with Japanese VAs, and Tomoyo Kurosawa is a good enough reason for me to do that. If I could switch to English for the silly idol songs, though, I wouldn’t mind.

Anyway, I’ll be going on to the next route either today or tomorrow. Hoping it involves more good music and mind-shattering revelations.

[videostak]

listened to mbv and it blew me away also last night listened to karma which was greaat tho i personally still like tauhid as my current fav pharoah sanders album cause i like that build up and the real short nature of it and just how like much of a beginning it feels like along w/ sonny sharrocks playing on it. anyways ya also listened to history of my heart by suzanne ciani again after only listening to it once after i found it at the thrift so long ago and like its so just precious and has that very like beautiful datedly 80s sound like i kinda get sad thinking abt how she really got quickly typecasted as a ‘new-age’ musician given how great her CM work and seven waves is but listening to this album was just very sweet like her music matches her personality so it just makes me happy i actually started making a youtube playlist after listening to it so i could put some songs from it on there and other similar songs that have the sound like the kinda sound that like floral shoppe esque vaporwave is obsessed w/ like the jazzy sorta sound and midi stuff

[bunymart]

💿How far we've come...💿

Hey, everyone! CEO fruitpop here, and I must say, what a wonderful first 2 months year it's been for BUNYMART! We've been online for only a little while, and we already have 6 Twitter followers, 1 non-staff Discord member, and even 1 Tumblr follower. Wow! About are progress, we managed to release a whole 13 designs on our Redbubble shop (half of which are just variants of our logo but its ok less of that this year). In this post, I just want to write a little about each of our designs, what our plans are for the coming year, and what 'buny' means to us. Also, this is the first time I've spoken through an official BUNYMART account. Hello! :) Usually it's our social media person, but if I let them write this, you'd have a headache by now.

Here's the first design we ever released. Err, first six designs we ever released. Our first six designs were just color variants of our logo, as I said before. But the colors are so pretty! I think that justifies it :) For this design, we wanted to go for a kind of supermarket logo look (duh), but we also wanted to make it uniquely buny. I'll talk more about what it means to be BUNY later, but the font we chose for the bottom is N SimSun, which is a very buny font. You also might've noticed the Wingdings on the top. Why are these here? Becuase they're extremely BUNY! And then, of course, there's the little buny in the middle, makin' a face at you. How sweet :) They look so excited!

The image I'm using here is actually the image we used for our logo sticker pack design, which we began selling a couple of weeks ago. We actually started selling these individually in May, but we BUNYMART didn't really become active until around November, which we released our second (seventh?) design.

What you are looking at now could be thought of as the herald of BUNYMART's real beginning. This design, our "Drink! 'It's good!'" sticker, was what we opened our Twitter with, and was what really kicked off BUNYMART. For this design, we wanted to make something that looked like it could be on a soda can, or on an ad for some kind of drink, or just something that said, "Relax! Have a drink! :)" The buny is also winking, because I think that makes them kind of resemble Pac-Man in some older artwork, and I like Pac-Man. Something else about this design, there was a goddamn stupid shitty stray pixel at like .0001% opacity in the bottom right corner that fucked the design up on Redbubble, but I didn't notice until it was uploaded. One thing I like about this design is that it's the first instance of the kind of digital-paint-mess pattern you can see in the background. This will return in a later design, but our next design was...

BUNY RADIO! Kind of like the last design, this one is also supposed to evoke a fun feeling. Y'know, just kinda hangin' out, havin' fun. Lots of bright/pastel colors in this one, although I guess that's been true for all of them. Something you might have noticed, although I'm sure it's very faint and subtle, is that while none of these design have strictly adhered to the aesthetic, the imagery used is somewhat reminiscent of vaporwave. Here's the thing, and again, we'll touch on this later, while 'vaporwave' and 'buny' aren't interchangeable by any means, the two terms share a lot of overlap. The logo is supposed to evoke a supermarket or mall feel, here we have a cassette radio player, etc. Something to look out for in later designs :)

We also see some Wingdings again, a staple of BUNYMART designs. While I don't have many details about it right now, I do know that Wingdings are very prevalent in BUNYLAND (the place where bunys live). Also, I'm really happy with the little music notes on the left :)

Our next set of designs were really something, and were actually part of our first sticker pack. These are the P3RS, a pretty funny play on words. It's funny because we came up with it, and we're funny :) The joke isn't entirely obvious so I'll explain: there's a pear, and a pair of cherries. Pear and pair, both pronounced the same way. And that 'air' sound is represented like this: ɛr. So, you could say that they are both pɛrs, and since ɛ kind of looks like a 3, together, they're the P3R duo!

I was VERY happy with these designs and all of their elements. The little labels/paint strokes, the shine of the leaves, the coordination of the colors, all of it. Very good design :) I actually have the cherries on my Nintendo Switch, the pear on my 3DS, the cherries again on my journal, and one of the labels somewhere else.

This is Big Head. Not much to say about them, they're just a little silly. Big olllll' thinker. Funny enough, this design was actually the first to not feature text of any kind. This is also the second design to feature a regular buny, rather than an object with a buny face.

This was actually our last design of the year. Now, you might be thinking, "What the goddamn shit? You said 13, bumble fuck!" That's right, I did say 13, and I meant it too. As I said earlier, half of our designs this year were just the individual logo color variants, and the P3RS actually served as three separate designs on the Redbubble (pear, cherry, and P3R pack). If you count them all up, there ARE 13 designs here. Take THAT.

What else happened this year?

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we opened a Discord, a Twitter, and a Tumblr (obviously). The Discord came first, and we called it THE BUNY ZONE :) Besides our staff, there's only one person in there right now, but it would be really cool if you joined too :) I'll come back to it later, but one thing that this whole BUNYMART thing is about is building a community. After the Discord came the Twitter, where our social media person spits out a bunch of random bullshit about once a day. About a third of it is nonsense and a mess of symbols and fonts, but what's legible is pretty fun to read :) Here's a recent quote from our Twitter:

"alright……. WHOS THE 𝙁𝙐 ͶͶ¥ 𝙁𝙐𝘾𝙆 𝕎ℍ𝕆 𝙀𝙓𝙋𝙄𝙍𝙀���� ϻY 𝙇𝙀𝙁 𝙏𝙊𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙎？？！!!?!!?？!?？¡！?！¡!？！？？!？¿?！!!?？？?¿!？!?！？!?!?¿¿?!？！？？!!??(｀皿´＃)(｀皿´＃)(｀皿´＃)(｀皿´＃)"

Cool, right? I think so. And about 5 other people think so too. If you want more of that, see our about page here on Tumblr. You can find all of our links there (Twitter, Discord, etc.)

After Twitter, we opened this Tumblr account, which mainly just reblogs pictures that we find particularly buny. It's still pretty new, so there isn't much to say about it at the moment.

But that isn't all we've done this year, nonono! We also released BUNYJAMS (volume 1), our buny-themed Spotify playlist!

I'll keep this brief, since our social media person posted an announcement about this, but as a Christmas gift to you all, we released a playlist of very buny songs, which sits at roughly 3 hours and 40 minutes. That might not be very long for a Spotify playlist, but hey, we only started building it in November. A new BUNYJAMS playlist will be released every Christmas (hopefully) in the coming years, so just think about how long volume 2 will be! Here's a hint, it's already longer than volume 1!

Also, we wanted to release the cover art you see as a design before 2023, but that didn't happen. Whoops.

Now, I want to talk about the meaning of 'buny'.

What is buny?

To me, it's a little hard to describe, but I'll try my best. First, I'll talk about it strictly as an aesthetic.

As I said, buny has a lot of overlap with vaporwave, but more specifically, it shares a lot of aspects with Frutiger Aero, y2kcore (kinda), and whatever you'd call what the Wii and DS had going on (wiicore?). Even more specifically, the last one. When I think about BUNYMART, I feel like I'm clicking through Wii channels, or messing with the settings on my 3DS. It's a very specific feel that's very specific to older (but not too old) Nintendo things. It also shares some aspects with an webcore, and also dreamcore to an extent. Hopefully it will be less fuzzy as BUNYMART evolves, but for a better understanding, look at our reblogs and listen to BUNYJAMS.

Even though I've described it as an aesthetic, I like to think 'buny' can be described in a broader sense, almost just like a feeling that's evoked by specific things. One thing that comes to mind specifically for me for some reason is watering a little houseplant. Just caring for this little wonder of nature to watch it grow feels very buny to me. However, in a general sense, buny is (in a very specific way) fun, safety, and niceness.

I mentioned earlier that one of my goals with BUNYMART is to create a community. There's a reason for this. Although BUNYMART is this fun and silly thing, I'm well aware of the atrocities of life. Every day, there are things that we have to hide from, things that we have to bear, things that we have to protect ourselves from, and so on. There are these bad things, and there are bad people. Often, the 'things' that we're dealing with are people. Maybe one 'thing' today was being harassed for some reason or another. Maybe another 'thing' yesterday was something an ill-equipped parent did or said. Maybe another 'thing' was just observing people talk about so many horrible things as if they were perfectly normal and okay, when they are anything but that. I want BUNYMART to be a kind of haven to come to to be away from all of that. I want to make a safe space for people to come to and know that everyone in that space is good. To come to and know that they are safe with any person they meet. That's the kind of community I want to cultivate with BUNYMART. That's what buny is to me, and that's what I want to give to the people who happen across our little project.

So, what's next?

Well, our plans are very fluid as of right now. Obviously, a new BUNYJAMS is coming next Christmas, but at some point in the not-distant future, we want to open the BUNYMART Instagram and YouTube. We just... kinda have to come up with unique content for those platforms and ways to post consistently. We already have an idea of what we want to happen, but making it happen is pretty difficult with all of our other business things that we have to take care of. They are coming, though, don't worry.

Another thing we want to do starting this spring is release seasonal season-themed design collections. I won't give too much away right now, but for each of the four seasons, we want to do a bunch of themed works and have them as a collection. We want to try to do this for every year from now on, but we'll probably skip like a year every 2 years. Oh well.

I guess the only other thing that comes to mind is more community things once there actually is a community. I don't know what those things will be like, but I know that they will be fun :) Maybe we'll have parties? Sure.

I think that's everything I wanted to say. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading :) I spent probably two hours on this, so I hope it was worth your time. If you want to get in touch with me, you'll probably want to message the BUNYMART account and ask for fruitpop, or check out the Discord and contact me there. I'm not logged into my own account on any of my devices, so if you message my Tumblr, I likely won't see it for a while. Sorry :( All I have left to say is thanks for reading, thanks for checking out BUNYMART, and let's all look forward to a fanTASTIC 2023 :))

Thank you.

-fruitpop

[amoveablejake]

Album Of The Week: ‘Alluring Grace’ by Karate King

Stand out song: ‘Vaulted Skies’. 

For the last week I have been listening to, almost exclusively, Wilco’s ‘AM’ record. This was following my declaration last Monday that I was going to work through the Wilco discography and fully engage with each album to try and figure out how I really feel about the band. It has been a great week spent with ‘AM’, I have listened to it over and and over and over again and I really like it a lot. There are certain songs that are true hits to me and throughout the past week I was formulating ideas of how I was going to write the first venture into the Wilco series. That was the plan all throughout today, to write about Wilco and I was set on this but then in true A Moveable Jake album of the week fashion, there was ofcourse a last minute change of plan. That change of plan was brought into fruition the moment I pressed play on ‘Alluring Grace’ and ‘Love Rhythm’ filled my headphones. In that moment, I knew that I had to write about this offering from the Berlin based Vaporwave artist. And that was on one song alone, the opening moments of that song in fact. A few seconds was all I needed to tell me that this was going to be the album of the week. 

As a result of listening to Wilco’s ‘AM’ almost exclusively over the past week, it means that I took a rather uncharacteristic step away from Vaporwave. I ofcourse, still did dip into it (humans do need to breathe oxygen afterall and I do need to listen to Vaporwave) but it was not the full deep dives or full extent that I usually embark on when I am digging through my library and throwing (or rather lovingly place) cassettes into my walkman. I was purposefully limiting myself as I felt that I was on a mission and I still am on that mission but I needed to take a little break from it. A break because ‘Alluring Grace’ demanded it. ‘AM’ is the sort of album that you would listen to when you are about to board a plane, you have all of these thoughts circulating in your head and it is the sort of album to get you to really think about them. Then at that moment during the flight when you are told to adjust the time on your watches (not many pilots say this now but the ones who do get a five star rating from me) ‘Alluring Grace’ is the album that should come on. Its the sort of album that from the moment it begins you feel relaxed. Its tranquil, its calming, its soothing but in a slightly more energetic way. That may not make complete sense but I think it works, I think it works because as I write this I do feel very calm and peaceful yet I’m also finding myself dancing at my desk to ‘Vaulted Skies’. Its an album that will make you tap your feet, that will make you dance but will also allow you to take a deep breathe and inhale it. This is an album to absorb and to let get inside you. 

‘Vaulted Skies’ is my stand out song from this record. Its the stand out song because for me it shows Karate King at the very top of their game. As Karate King is not a part of the My Pet Flamingo label, I often (foolishly) forget about their albums and don’t turn to them as much in my library. That is my mistake and one that I am being reminded of time and time again as I listen to ‘Vaulted Skies’ which I may now have on repeat for the rest of the week, month, year, forever, whose to say. There are certain things that we click with straight away, and I often find that those instant attractions or just knowing that something is for you right off the bat, well, they themselves make me feel settled. They settle me because when I find something like this I know that it is one of my key things, and yes, ‘Alluring Grace’ is one of those things already. I can see this album becoming one of my key ones and a firm part of my roster but for now its time to sit back and to drink it in. It seems aswell that I keep coming back to this idea of consuming this album but like the sea air or the smell of a forest, this album has a rejuvenating quality that will forever occupy your daydreams. 

-Jake, a man who really should have had his finger on the pulse more for the cassette release of this album, 07/11/2022

[graywyvern]

( via / Mr Arkadin via archive.org )

Vaporwave sunset.

"on rune-height by the garbaged rill     the scree-fall answers the cawed madrigals"

--The Anathemata

Loving the Pursuit.

"Memorial

If we do not lift quickly the dead bodies from the beaches the tide begins to put them down like a disappointment carried beneath the clothing, or hidden in the intricate folded greyness of the brain.

Now we can know again, even more plainly, how quickly the world changes. The land and life too are interrupted by the indomitable fantasy of extreme violence and the awful terror. The body, eager with its wants and its rich few years, is dead now on the beaches.

The war came as a water rising, leaving us homeless. The easy company of the dispossessed was a grave joy.

On the crest of waters we invaded the distance. Recession will find our shells far: high up in mountains. It will be explained how they came there. It will not be understood."

--William Bronk

The Watcher.

"I do very much apprehend...that our Posterity will in a few Years degenerate into a Race of Punnsters." --Addison, The Spectator

Ducks.

[zaikowen]

(Zai Kowen)