#and I tried layering during the pandemic

[delyth88]

I love how 'bald' as an option actually makes sense in this one. XD

And reading the comments it looks like there's gonna be a lot of older women having bright funky hair colours when the next couple of generations hit this age, and I love it!

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[alicenpai]

edgeworth family & summer 🍉

i needed to go through an old file in my 2021 folder, and i stumbled upon this drawing. 2021 was an incredibly arduous year & resulted in a lot of art block, so i have a lot of unfinished drawings from then. the fact that i finished/drew anything at all is a feat honestly (and you guys should be proud too if you drew anything at all during the early months of the pandemic...!)

i quite like the look of jeluto's csp brush here to achieve a blocky effect...

i dont know what is UP with the bleed border here, did i plan to print this in a book? especially with how close greg's face is to the gutter??? *avgn voice* what was i thinking

the one time i ACTUALLY tried a bg and it backfired on me bc i never finished. im sorry to my 1st year layout teacher who gave me a 1 on 1 personal pep talk *dexter voice* i have failed you 😭😭 i think this drawing had a lot of potential, i just wouldn't go back to it bc it's 3 years old now. backgrounds are tough because i never really know how to approach them. do i line it? do i keep it a sketch and just paint over/under the sketch layer? do i lineless it?

i guess it depends. much to think about... i definitely want to challenge myself whenever i can, but not overwhelm myself with the need to "improve". gotta remember that art should be fun ♥.

[keystonepublishing]

Wildflower by sailingthenightsea

I think this is the first time by experiments have gotten the better of me in very big ways.

But I digress.

This bind - Wildflower by sailingthenightsea - is one that I had wanted to do for a long while. Back during the pandemic days, this fic helped me to uncover the diversity that is the Sleepy Bois Inc. fandom. So when it was finally time for me to begin work, I wanted to honor the fic's themes by going on a different bookbinding path.

First off, I had long wanted to make a cover window, and I feel this fic is a good opportunity to try this technique - a green cover to convey the green woods, and red to represent Tommy and the fae. I printed a marbled paper design, sealed it with varnish, cut-out two pieces of board, and pasted the paper on one board surface before layering it with the cut window-board.

That process was surprisingly easy. What wasn't was how I realize I had to paste and 'tuck-in' the green cover so that it doesn't cover the marbled design underneath. it took a lot of time, patience, and energy to finesse it all into a result that looks satisfactory.

Secondly, I wanted to see if I make the beginning (and final) pages of the textblock as endpapers into themselves. Conceptually, it would save time, materials, and energy. Unfortunately, I also tried another experiment of using misprinted pages to line the spine of the book. The result: see-through words and comments through the thin paper! Whoops!

I also wanted to use the concept of "dividing" sections of the book via endpapers such as my Solidaritek bind. But in this book, the endpapers would be printed onto the pages and divide sections of the book. The results look nice and is visually striking, but I hazard to be careful with this method and use it sparingly, as this can use up a lot more printer ink than one might expect.

I made some ground rules for typesetting: every major event in the story is punctuated by a number, along with a flourishing drop cap in Harrington font in dark red as the opening alphabet. And as is my style, I also incorporated a comments section where selected comments that clarify some story parts or explore the deeper themes of the fic are archived.

But my favorite part is the final paragraphs. Shout-out to @therealwaffleking for making a gorgeous rendition of the final parts of the fic, and one that I had to include! It was a simple matter of putting one (or two) paragraph per art, and the result feels like a storybook!

Initially, I wasn't happy with the result of this - there are places where the green cover isn't 'tucked-in' enough, I used too much ink to print those endpaper-pages, my use of misprints as a spine connector backfired on me, the black spine piece wasn't cut straight and thus had dinks, and there's even a tear on the top of the front spine!

But after a day of rest and introspection, I found myself warming to the bind, warts and all. Sure, it's far from perfect, but it's a bind that has character and quirkyness. It has more history in it's production than a normal ficbind, and I have learned a couple of new things about knowing what not to do in the future!. It's certainly a head-turner!

My heartfelt thanks to @sailingthenightsea for this fic, along with @100-reasons-sbi and @therealwaffleking for contributing their art! Thank you all so much!

[mays-corner]

(This post is a bit random so if you get it you get it if you don't get it it's fine)

It's 2024. I should be going to the disco, which I dislike.

Instead, I decided to hyperfixate on a Welshman.

One thing that baffles me to this day, and trust me it has happened more than once, is has anyone ever tried to protest at least a bit to still have Matt as John? Did no one try hard enough? Or have the attempts failed?

I mean-

I'm a newer fan (even with content crumbs I am a fan) still, so I can't be sure, but I'm amazed that in all these years that have passed, no one ever did anything, and now he can't even play Constantine (I think).

And now, the only role I've seen is him dubbing John 💀

Ignoring this discourse about John, I've decided to search for other roles, movies, and series, and what I've found was interesting, to say the least.

I am becoming passionate about him for various reasons. Other than wanting to revive pre-pandemic activities, I have noticed a pattern: I enjoy searching for things that I only watch. These are some thoughts I had about some things I could not find in Italy:

Hard to find (for example, I'm still searching for "The Halcyon," and the funniest thing about this is that in Italy, it was shown on TV (on an RAI channel, RAI is an Italian broadcaster) during 2017 and it's not available on their platform.

Region-locked content (the DCAU being region-locked is such a crime; we only have House of Mystery, and that's it) or even trying to watch a simple cameo when the entire series is region-locked (the Harley Quinn one). However (and this is good news), while searching for Away (one of his movies to watch), I found Tubi and used a free VPN. It was slow, but it worked, and I watched it.

Expensive (I paid Assassin's Creed Black Flag in installments, so that wasn't expensive, but still...)

It was a play, so they haven't recorded it, but to see and better understand the role he played (in this case, read), I read Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, and it was still effective.

Not even available on Chili (an Italian streaming platform on which you can rent or buy movies), the title only appears but is not available for streaming (lol).

Using Vinted or secondhand shops in general (it’s not the best time for me to go fully secondhand, but I suppose I could find some things there).

At the moment, I've watched just what I could easily find without resorting to piracy (which is ironic, since in Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Matt voices Edward Kenway, a pirate.).

In this list of things I could easily find, we have:

Constantine (thanks to another fan)

Criminal Minds/Criminal Minds Suspect Behavior (I had Disney Plus for a month, so I've watched it from there)

Flypaper, Adverse (Prime Video)

Arrow (Prime video)

Legends of Tomorrow (Netflix and Mediaset infinity)

House Of Mystery (Amazon prime, you have to rent it but still)

While writing this I found that "Layer cake" is on Sky, which I have and Now TV too.

Pocket Money (While watching it I just understood two words out of an entire short and I'm a c2 in English 💀)

Away, Wild Decembers, Armistice, Blood Monkey

So, you might have been asking yourself... Have I gone mad? To search and find for stuff not even available in my own country? In my own continent, too?

But I thought this is what comes with being a fan of someone, even if the career is what it is.

Considering me being unlucky, I was never able to see Matt when he acted and then had premieres at the same time.

Asssassin’s Creed Black Flag? I was 10, a child, lol.

Legends Of Tomorrow? I liked anime, manga and everything japanese.

And the list goes on...

It's nice to see what was like and what I couldn't live, gosh, I'm praying hard that we get to see him act again, I want and I wish to be present, live or not.

I wanted to make a really nice speech but nothing comes to mind, when I get it maybe I'll post it 💀

[castletown-cafe]

Castletown Café Episode 26: Ralsei’s Cauldron Cake

In the beginning of Deltarune Chapter 2, we return to the Dark World located within the school's supply closet. This becomes the main hub where Darkeners from all kinds of Dark Worlds call home after their respective fountains are sealed. After the inhabitants of the Card Kingdom move in and you've explored the town named after your save file, you get to explore Ralsei's castle! Greeting you upon your entrance is a huge cauldron, which Ralsei explains as the cauldron he does all his cooking with. During the cutscene, a cake rockets out of the cauldron, complete with explosion sound effects. As it falls, Susie catches it in her mouth and devours the entire thing, claiming it to be thick on the frosting. But all that frosting makes for a pretty cake!

I recall another cake popping out that Susie also devours on the second interaction with the cauldron, where she says something about it being chocolate-flavored. Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of recordings about later cauldron interactions, so I should replay again sometime to see if this happens or not. The final time, however, Susie asks for a strawberry cake as a room-warming gift (which may or may not happen until after you visit the rooms on the top floor...yep, I need to replay). Ralsei tells her there is a slice of cake in her fridge, and Susie protests that it's "not cauldron-fresh".

As I thought of the different kinds of food that appear in this game, from consumable items to cutscene-related foods, the Caldron cake had been brewing in my mind since last year. Originally I thought it'd be great for October, but I found the flavor to be more appropriate for summer: a Neapolitan cake. Three layers of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolatey goodness with likewise-flavored frosting! Why not, after all, combine the flavors together into one tall, beautiful cake?

But life decided to throw wrenches in this plan. For one, there had been a shortage of buttercream frosting. Said frosting was unavailable in all nearby stores, across all brands, and even online, buttercream was overpriced. I assumed scalpers were snatching the stuff up to sell for a higher price. Even in 2023, we're still feeling the effects of the pandemic, and as such, some ingredients are difficult to get your hands on.

It seems that life was trying to tell me to make my own frosting, as unsurprisingly, the scalpers I tried to buy frosting from didn't place them in a box with cooling packs during the hottest month on Earth ever recorded (this all took place a month prior to the writing of this blog entry). So, of course, the seals burst when travelling under the heat dome that had covered a good portion of the country, though I don't know exactly WHERE the seller was located.

That's when I found recipes for a type of frosting I had never heard of before: ermine frosting. It's like buttercream, but way less sweet. You make a base using flour, sugar, and milk, cook it over the stove until it's thick like pudding, then cool it before whipping unsalted butter and adding your mixture to that plus vanilla and a pinch of salt. So I made two ermine frostings, one vanilla, and one strawberry. I had already purchased some chocolate frosting so I didn't need to make chocolate, but I came up with a recipe for chocolate ermine frosting included in the recipe portion of this blog entry.

Summer may not be the best season to make cakes, given the warm weather. Because many homes in Oregon, especially older ones, don't have air conditioning pre-installed, I needed to keep the cake refrigerated to prevent the frosting from melting and the cake from falling apart, as a precaution. Therefore, spring would be a better season to make this cake, this way, there may be less worry of melting.

I fought a lot of obstacles, and learned a lot as well making this cake. While it is an involved project, especially since you may need or want to make different flavored frostings (which taste way better than the pre-made stuff), the cake itself isn't that tough. While a Neapolitan cake may sound daunting as you're making a cake with three different flavors, all you really need to do is just make a large amount of vanilla batter, divide it into three batches, and add cocoa to one bowl and strawberry reduction to the other.

For the strawberry cake, you first need to make strawberry reduction. You take half a cup of strawberry puree and cook it in a saucepan over medium-low heat to reduce the amount of liquid. After a while, you should end up with 1/4 cup of thick strawberry puree. You don't need to make a reduction for the frosting however, just take another half-cup of unreduced puree.

For the chocolate, combine three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder with three tablespoons of hot water, stir, and let sit for a few minutes before adding it into the cake batter. This lets the cocoa "bloom", adds moisture to the cocoa, and also explains why you add a couple tablespoons of hot water or coffee to a chocolate cake (if you make it from scratch). This gave me the idea to do the same thing if you were to make a chocolate ermine frosting.

Because this is a big project, I found it easiest to divide making the reduction, frosting, cake, and assembly over three days. On Day 1, I thawed about 1 and 1/2 cups of frozen strawberries, pureed them in the blender, and then used half a cup of it in the strawberry frosting. After that, I made the vanilla frosting, and finally, the strawberry reduction.

Day 2 came the cake baking. I followed the recipe by My Cake School, making a vanilla batter, dividing it into three, and adding the strawberry reduction to one batch and the cocoa to the other. While I made the cake during the nighttime so they'd be ready the next morning, I think it's best to store them in the freezer overnight. BUT FIRST! Once your cakes are cool, remove them from the pans and level the tops of your cakes so they're nice and even. Then you can store them in the freezer. This way the cakes will be easier to assemble and decorate the next day.

The final day was the day I assembled and decorated the cake. These pictures show the pattern I used for the filling: rings of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate frosting.

The pattern inside:

As a three-layer cake, it has two layers of delicious frosting filling in between. The chocolate cake is usually the densest, so it often is the bottom layer, which I recommend. You can layer your cake any way you want, I put the vanilla in the middle and the strawberry on top, even though the strawberry cake is probably denser and should go in the middle, though it worked out fine for me.

The cake would get placed in the freezer after each cake was stacked on top of a filling layer. This made it easier for the cake to stick together and for the frosting to be firmer, to make the cake as a whole easier to decorate. I suggest 15 to 20 minutes for each time the cake gets returned to the freezer.

The next step was to seal the cake in a crumb coat, which I used a thin layer of the vanilla ermine frosting for. Professionals use this trick all the time, to keep the cake crumbs sealed inside and to prevent mess when the final layer of frosting is applied. The cake gets frozen again after the crumb coat to give the cake a smoother and more solid surface when decorated.

I then applied strawberry frosting on the top and around the topmost sides, covering the strawberry layer. Vanilla was piped in the middle, with chocolate on the bottom. Between applying the different frostings, I returned the cake to the freezer at 20 minute intervals to prevent the sides from getting too messy and the frosting from mixing.

Lastly came the decorative blobs of frosting on top, arranged in an alternating circular pattern of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. On the bottom of the cake, a border of chocolate frosting is piped around the circumference. A delicious project like this was worth the time and effort! It is a delightful, edible work of art.

RALSEI'S CAULDRON CAKE:

Strawberry reduction:

About 1 cup (or more) fresh strawberries, or 2 cups frozen

1/2 cup strawberry puree, from either fresh or frozen strawberries (I thawed about 2 cups of frozen strawberries so I'd have 1/2 cup of puree for the reduction, and another 1/2 cup for the frosting)

Note: You'll need about 1 cup of puree because while half will be reduced for the cake batter, the other half goes into the strawberry ermine frosting. You'll have leftover puree that you can use for whatever you want. The reason I'm overestimating is to make sure there's plenty for the cake and for the frosting.

Either wash, dry, hull, and slice enough fresh strawberries for 1 cup of puree, OR thaw about 2 cups of frozen strawberries.

Place fresh or thawed frozen strawberries into a blender or food processor and use the puree setting.

Measure 1/2 cup for the reduction and pour into a saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes or until liquid is greatly reduced, leaving you with 1/4 cup of a thick strawberry puree. Have it cool and set aside. If you're doing the cake over multiple days, store the reduction in your refrigerator.

Vanilla ermine frosting (from Nagi on recipetineats):

1 cup granulated sugar

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1 pinch salt

1 & 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Remove unsalted butter from your refrigerator and set it out to soften. Measure your sugar and flour, and add them to your saucepan.

Turn on your stove to medium heat and give your flour/sugar mixture a good stir with a whisk for about 30 seconds or so.

While whisking, slowly pour in the milk to avoid lumps from forming.

Keep stirring with your whisk as your mixture cooks and thickens. This is to prevent your roux from sticking to the bottom of the pan or burning.

Once your frosting base has reached a pudding-like consistency, it's ready. The thicker it is, the more structure your frosting will have.

Pour your frosting base into a bowl and cover the surface with food wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

After your frosting base has cooled completely (and if you stored it in the fridge overnight, take it out to let it soften for an hour or more so it mixes easily with the butter), beat your softened butter on medium speed for a few minutes. You want the butter to go from a pale yellow to a near-white.

Once your butter has been whipped for a bit, slowly add your frosting base, a spoonful at a time. It should take a minute or two to add the entire base to your butter.

Add salt and vanilla, and keep beating for a few more minutes until your frosting has reached its desired consistency.

Strawberry ermine frosting (from Mimi on eatsdelightful):

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup strawberry puree

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup flour

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

Measure another 1/2 cup of leftover strawberry puree from making the reduction for the cake, or that more frozen strawberries/hull and slice more fresh strawberries and puree in a blender or food processor if you need more. Set aside.

Once again, set aside another 2 sticks of unsalted butter to soften.

Combine flour and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and stir with a whisk for about 30 seconds.

While whisking, slowly pour in the milk to avoid lumps, and then the strawberry puree.

Keep stirring your frosting base until thickened, just like with the vanilla frosting base.

Once the consistency has reached that of a thick pudding, pour into a bowl, cover the surface to prevent a skin from forming, and let cool completely.

Once the frosting base has completely cooled, whip unsalted butter on medium speed for a few minutes.

Slowly add in strawberry frosting base to the whipping butter, a spoonful at a time, over the course of a minute or so.

Add salt and vanilla, then keep whipping for a few more minutes until your frosting has reached the desired consistency.

Bonus: Chocolate Ermine Frosting (based off of the strawberry ermine frosting recipe):

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoons hot water

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup flour

2 sticks (1 cup) softened unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

Combine 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder with 3 tablespoons of hot water in a small bowl. Stir together and set aside.

Set aside another 2 sticks of unsalted butter for softening and combine sugar and flour in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking for 30 seconds.

Slowly add in the milk while whisking to avoid lumps, then add in the cocoa mixture. Stir to combine.

Stir constantly while your frosting base cooks and thickens. When it reaches a pudding-like consistency, it's ready.

Pour mixture into a bowl and cover the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Cool completely.

After the frosting base has completely cooled, whip butter for a few minutes on medium speed until light in color and fluffy.

Slowly add the frosting base a spoonful at a time over the course of a minute or longer.

Add salt and vanilla and continue to beat for another few minutes until the frosting has reached the desired consistency.

The cake itself (from Melissa Diamond on My Cake School):

3 cups cake flour, spooned and leveled

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 & 1/4 cups buttermilk (or 1 & 1/4 cup milk mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and sat aside for 5 or more minutes if you can't find buttermilk)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 & 1/2 sticks (or 3/4 cup) softened unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

4 large, room temperature eggs

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons hot water

1/4 cup strawberry reduction

Get the butter out and let it reach room temperature. After that, set out other cold ingredients such as eggs, buttermilk, and the strawberry reduction. Gather the rest of your ingredients as well, so they're all together.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and grease and flour three 8x2 cake pans.

Spoon and level 3 cups of cake flour into a sifter, add baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Sift together into a mixing bowl, then stir together for 30 seconds. Finally, set aside your dry ingredients.

Measure and combine buttermilk, vanilla, and vegetable oil in another mixing bowl and set aside.

In yet another mixing bowl, whip softened unsalted butter on medium speed until smooth. Add your sugar, a little at a time, then keep mixing for another few minutes, anywhere from 3 to 5, until your butter and sugar is fully creamed together, light, and fluffy.

Add eggs, but only one at a time as you beat. Once the yolk disappears and is fully incorporated, add in the next egg, beat, etc., etc.

Once all the eggs are in and beaten, reduce the speed to low and alternate between adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Just remember the pattern: flour, mix, buttermilk, mix, flour, mix, buttermilk, mix, flour, mix. Stop immediately once everything's fully incorporated to prevent overmixing.

You've made an enormous batch of vanilla cake batter! Now's the time to divide it up into three flavors. Here's how to divide it evenly: the batter should yield about 7 and 1/2 cups....divide that by three....and you have 2 and 1/2 cups of batter for 3 bowls.

Combine 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder with 3 tablespoons of hot water in a small bowl. Stir and set aside for a few minutes.

This is a good time to add the strawberry reduction to one bowl for the strawberry batter. Just pour in that thickened strawberry puree and carefully fold it in to combine, in order to prevent over-mixing the batter. Once you've got yourself a bowl of pink cake batter without any vanilla swirls remaining, your strawberry batter is ready!

Now, pour in the cocoa mixture into another bowl of cake batter, and gently fold it in, until the batter is completely chocolatey. You remaining vanilla batter will be left as-is.

Now that we have all three flavors ready, we can finally pour them into our prepared cake pans. Give these a good gentle tap on the counter to remove any huge air pockets. If you want, you can wrap the sides of each cake pan (before filling them with batter, of course) with wet baking strips to ensure an even bake, which will hopefully make later leveling much easier.

Stick your cakes in the oven on the same middle rack to ensure they all bake together at the same time, about 25 to 30 minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs. They may not all fit on one rack, so you can just put in two in one 25 to 30-minute interval and bake the remainder in the other. To check when they're done, insert a toothpick in the center of each cake. If they come out clean with just crumbs, they're done!

Let your cakes cool before removing them from the pan.

Once your cakes have cooled, get your cake leveler and level them so that they're even. If you don't have a leveler, a knife may do, however, they may not be as even this way.

If you're assembling and decorating the next day or later, wrap and store cakes in the freezer. Freezing them will make it easier to crumb coat, pipe on filling, frost and decorate.

Take out your frostings and let them soften to room temperature. Get three piping bags fitted with the tips of your choice, and stand them up in glasses to make them easier to fill.

Place your bottom cake layer (the chocolate is usually the densest, so it's best to use that one as the bottom layer) on a round cake board. Set it down on a turntable or small Lazy Susan and pipe in an arrangement of the strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate frostings.

Place your second layer on top and freeze for 10 minutes or so to harden the frosting. Take out, and then pipe on another layer of the three frostings in whatever pattern you'd like. Top with the top cake layer and freeze again.

Remove stacked cakes from the freezer and pipe on a thin layer of vanilla frosting for the crumb coat. Cover the cakes in this thin layer to seal in the crumbs so you have a better surface to decorate your cake with. Freeze for 10 to 15 minutes for a more solid and sealed surface.

You can do whatever layer you want to start decorating with. I began with the top layer and worked downward. Pipe on a thick layer of frosting covering the top of the cake and smooth out with a frosting spatula or scraper, giving it that nice, flat top surface seen by professionals. Because the sides will have those strawberry-vanilla-chocolate stripes coinciding with the cakes, freeze between flavors to prevent your frostings from sticking and blending together. So, as an example, after you've done the top and the sides of the top layer of the cake, stick it in the freezer for about 15 or 20 minutes. Next, pipe on a layer of frosting matching the middle flavor and smooth it out like you did with the top flavor, and freeze again. Lastly, do the same for the bottom, then freeze. What I mean to say is: freeze between the stripes on the sides!

Like this!

22. Now that the stripey sides are done as well as the top of the cake, we get to pipe on the fun blobs. One way to do it is to do big blobs of the three flavors on top in a pattern....or you could do whatever design you want. Don't forget to pipe a border around the very bottom of the cake to make it look nice and neat!

23. Your cake is done! Unless you want to add sprinkles, candles, or even candy. You decorate how YOU want, of course, this is just an idea going off of how I did it.

24. Enjoy your tall triple-layered cake full of three-flavored goodness!

Sources:

Nagi, "My Secret, Less-Sweet Fluffy Vanilla Frosting", RecipeTin Eats, recipetineats.com. Link: https://www.recipetineats.com/fluffy-vanilla-frosting/

Mimi, "Strawberry Ermine Frosting", Eats Delightful, eatsdelightful.com. Link: https://eatsdelightful.com/strawberry-ermine-frosting/

Diamond, Melissa, "Neapolitan Cake", My Cake School, mycakeschool.com. Link: https://www.mycakeschool.com/neapolitan-cake/

[callonpeevesie]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

Hi, thanks for the ask! It's hard to pick top 10 because my feelings about characters keep fluctuating and I'm also kind of out of touch with fandom these days, but here are 10 characters I've blorboed in the past or recently.

Pyala from tenida - I have posted about him before, he's my childhood fave from a series that's very dear to me. I grew attached to him when I first read the stories when I was about eight. I was quiet, constantly zoned out, chronically sick and couldn't Maths, and I really saw myself in him. But what sealed him as my favourite character is his sort of quiet courage,, he's scared of many things but he has this integrity and is brave enough to be honest with himself. I've had so many other favourite characters since, but that connection never really went away. As I grew up and reread the stories I discovered more layers to his character and unpacked just how much he had impacted me in my childhood. He's just really important to me.

Héctor from coco - I was absolutely obsessed with coco for a very long time, this blog even started as a coco blog. It's a beautiful movie and héctor was always my favourite character. He was understandably very popular and I love him for his adorable personality and angst potential, but another reason I'm attached to him is the pushover aspect of his personality. It's something I myself struggled with and it was super cathartic to see him stand up to ernesto. I used to wonder a lot how things would have gone if he had lived longer and got to grow more.

Mia from ace attorney - she's just *chef's kiss*. I got into aa a couple of years back and fell in love with her from the beginning. She's so beautiful and badass but also so much more. She impacts the story so much even though she was present for such a short time, it's fascinating to think about. And she feels more and more layered and flawed and interesting the more I think about her. I'm very normal about her

Grover from pjo - it's safe to say my pjo phase has completely faded, but I have a sort of nostalgic attachment to Grover. He's so soft but brave and adorable and grew so much over the series. I do feel his potential was underutilised in the books. But in a way I like that his backstory and personal journey is left so vague, it makes him more intriguing to me. Part of the reason I like him so much is because his bravery and potential are so overlooked in the fandom and I guess I'm defensive of him, lol.

Sokka from atla - tbh I only watched atla for the first time as an adult, during the pandemic, and sokka just grew on me during my first watch. He's just such a guy, the way he's shaped by the protective role he took on as a kid, by growing up during a war, how calculative and ruthless he can be in spite of his goofiness and how much he cares about Katara, I just,,,, ughhhh. I love chewing on him so much and I find it fascinating how well he was fleshed out even though he's not the most narratively important character

Matsuda from death note - another more recent favourite, got into death note a couple of years back. I enjoyed how silly and goofy he is and he grew on me, how he feels worthless compared to everyone else and wants to prove himself. He's also such a madlad for his yotsuba stunt (and telling mello he was L. wtf was that). His conflicted position and eventual reaction to light's betrayal make him an interesting one to figure out, but what stands out to me is how he seems to use humour to cope and tries desperately to liven things up. It's especially obvious to me that he puts up a facade in the epilogue of the manga

Anne shirley from Anne of green gables - this one is a childhood favourite. She's!! So good!! I became obsessed with her when I first read the book because I related so much to her imaginativeness and her way of admiring beauty, I felt like she was putting into words things I've always felt deep down. As an adult I've ceased to relate to her so much, but I still love the way she interacts with the people and environment around her and how she deals with her flaws and strives to be better. Also demiromantic icon fr

Shen from kung fu panda 2 - truly one of the villains ever. A++ design, actually compelling story, how his struggle with his past and identity reflects and contrasts with Po's,,, it's thematically so GOOD. I just love how he never truly gets over the past even though he claims to tend to the future and he's always terrified of the prophecy even though he acts confident that he's escaped fate. And how po succeeds where he feels,, I think shen can only be fully appreciated in relation to po and that makes me a little insane. I love my drama queen genocidal freak birb

Hobie from across the spiderverse - i think he's my favourite thing to come out of atsv, he's such a guy <33 everything from his design to how well he was executed in spite of so little screentime is top tier. There's a lot to say about his narrative significance, but what i love the most about him is that he embodies the idea that kindness is punk. He's not punk just for the aesthetic, although it seems like he is and that's probably at least partially on purpose; his beliefs are punk and he does not believe in the conformity and suffering that Miguel encourages. He watches out for gwen and miles not just because he doesn't agree with the spider society but because he cares about them. And his kindness doesn't take away from his punkness, compassion and caring IS resistance and I think that's beautiful

Obelix from Asterix - Asterix is one of my all time favourite media I've loved since childhood and it's hard to pick one character because I love all of the main cast so much, but I have to go with the autistic king. He's Wonderful, he's genuinely so funny, his thinking is so straightforward and he feels left out because no one bothers to explain things to him but he cares about Asterix and dogmatix so so much I just. I could cry. And the backstory in how obelix fell into the magic potion adds more to him and his bond with Asterix, like,,, yes

Once again these are 10 characters I thought of now, I might have a different answer later because my feelings about my favourite characters change a lot. But that's my answer for now and sorry for answering so late. Thanks for asking!

[mariacallous]

Like so many stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Marlo Gorelick picked up a new hobby: cake decorating.

She learned all the trendy techniques of the day, from of-the-moment decorations to how to properly layer colorful cakes and jams in order to create the all-popular rainbow cake.

But, unlike the myriad cottage food businesses that Jewish entrepreneurs launched during and after the pandemic, Gorelick’s cakes stood out for one significant reason: They weren’t edible. But don’t mistake this as a commentary on Gorelick’s baking skills: Gorelick’s cakes were never intended for eating. Rather, they’re designed to be worn —  as purses. 

“My husband said to me, ‘If you bake, you’re going to burn the house down,’” Gorelick told the New York Jewish Week. “So I took cake and I married it with something that my mother loved, which was handbags.”

During the pandemic she launched Cake Purses — a line of highly decorative vegan leather bags in the shape of confectionery, such as carrot cake and strawberry shortcake. Some of her bags, which can be found on her social media, are bedazzled with crystal stones while others are painted; all come with a zipper in the back to store items in the satin-lined interior.

Last summer, Gorelick wanted to find a new direction for her business. She began experimenting with creating purses in the shape of classic Ashkenazi Jewish foods: challahs, bagels and that New York City classic, black and white cookies. 

“I said goodbye to it [cake purses] because I saw that people were just icing boxes and getting tons of hits and money from it,” Gorelick recalled. “I thought, ‘What am I doing? This is silly. This is ridiculous.’” 

She began to roll out her first few Jewish food designs ahead of the High Holidays — but then, Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel gave her pause. Gorelick admits she was “scared” about being so outwardly Jewish. “I didn’t want anything bad to happen to me or anybody, so I tabled it,” she said.

But life had other plans. After a major illness the following month, Gorelick returned from the hospital knowing that pivoting her business towards Judaism was ultimately “what I was meant to do,” she said. And so, earlier this month, Gorelick, who is based in Princeton, New Jersey, officially launched Glam Judaica, a new line of Jewish food-themed purses and accessories that includes a rhinestone-covered matzah ball soup bag and a very realistic looking potato knish purse. She’s also crafted purses in the shape of Jewish holiday-specific treats like hamantaschen and sufganiyot.

“I’d gone through this near-death experience where so many things had been taken from me. I said to myself, ‘You can’t take away my Judaism — I will always be that,’” she said. “If I’m going to do this [make food purses], I’m going to do it with things that are near and dear to me.’” 

Gorelick grew up in a Conservative Jewish family in New Jersey, and said that Judaism is a major part of her life and identity. “My grandfather immigrated from Kyiv, in what is now Ukraine, to escape pogroms. My father’s mother’s side of the family was in the Holocaust. My mother’s family escaped Russia. So [Judaism] is fully ingrained in me,” she said. 

During the pandemic, Gorelick’s spangled designs made their way around the internet and to several craft and candy expo shows in the Tri-State area. She also partnered with the iconic East Side restaurant Serendipity3 last year to create exclusive “Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate” purses to celebrate the 30 millionth serving of its “world famous” sweet treat.

For now, she makes the Glam Judaica bags, which are generally between six and 10 inches wide, to order. Gorelick, who runs the business by herself with some design and content creation help from her husband, said it takes her up to three weeks to create a purse.

The Glam Judaica line includes bracelets, necklaces and pins. She adorns one of her bracelets with five different miniature food charms — a hamantaschen, bagel, black and white cookie, rugelach and challah — and decorates a shiny bagel pin with lox, onions and capers. Each item, including the purses, starts around $125, Gorelick said, though she adjusts the prices depending on the type of material and “bling” the customer wants. 

The response so far to her new Jewish collection has been “fabulous,” Gorelick said.

“People see it, they identify with it,” she said. “It’s a bit of nostalgia and they want it,  because that’s the cookie they baked with their bubbe or that’s what they served when they had their bar or bat mitzvah.”

But Gorelick is not done with cakes quite yet. In addition to Jewish food designs, Gorelick recently made a yellow cake purse with the words “Bring Them Home” written in white “frosting” to raise awareness for the 100-plus Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Gorelick also used the proceeds for one of her other creations — a rainbow sprinkle black and white cookie purse — to raise money for Zaka, Israel’s volunteer emergency response teams. 

“Everything I do is a little bit glitzy and glammy because that’s who I am,” Gorelick said. “My stuff is not for everybody — I get that. But if you like a little bit of sparkle and something to make you smile, I have something sweet and sparkly for you.”

[m-r-levine]

On Interruptions of Flow

Blocks used to be just part of the normal cycles of work and rest and refilling the well, the rhythms of moving between projects. (I won’t deny the good feelings and brain juices from feedback on the work, but it was never the driving force. I treasure comments like a dragon treasures their hoarde, but the urge to write and the pleasure of storytelling are not primarily or even secondarily grounded in the reception of the work.)

In the last few years, that changed. I don’t know if this was a true cause or if it was just one little part of a whole system of events that led to my creative process breaking down, but.

In 2019, I dropped all my other projects to meet an absurd deadline for a zine piece, and then for various reasons, a month later I took that story to pieces to see if an actual novel length concept might be hidden in there**.

Meanwhile, some fairly major things were going on in my personal life, and the tremors were getting markedly worse.

Suddenly I didn’t have blocks of time or steadiness of hand to paint either, except for pushing through for a couple of excruciating outstanding commissions, and struggling to wrap up the second volume of the graphic novel. Yet even with a few of those deadlines dealt with I could no longer make words go on any other project. I tried everything in the toolbox to get the brain going again, especially after a side effect of quarantine gave back my former 3+ hours daily commute time.

Finishing the renovations on the old house ate almost everything I had to give, and my partner’s mental health struggles took the rest. I cannot begin to explain to you just how few spoons I have had between the boring job (which became much more intense with the effects of the pandemic) and Life™️.

Previously, writing and sketching helped me unwind and ground after a shift, or even during breaks. In the last few years though…

Words came slowly for La Mala Suerte, but opening any other story filled my brain with static noises. I could not string basic sentences together. I could not outline plot, I had no fragments of dialogue or vignettes fall into my head like before. When I ran out of backlog to post… Suddenly I had nothing.

Short stretches being dry like that are familiar enough, but days and weeks turned into months and years of desperately wanting to tell the stories and in the few moments of quiet I could steal away? Nothing. It’s an eerie feeling, having the vivid and even visceral scenes that are already written and outlined still looping in my head, screaming to get out, but the moment I try to write connective tissue? Right back to tv snow.

Unlike painting, my writing is accessible everywhere I go, even when it hurts to hold a pen - being able to get ‘lost’ in stories helped me through some incredibly hard times in the past, and losing that ability was devastating. The disappointment and yes, the shame of being adrift and wordless has been wretched. I have longed for the elation I used to find on the other side of a hard passage, the joy of solving the puzzle and freeing the spirit from the proverbial stone.

I still don’t entirely understand what happened in my brain that autumn of 2019… I just know that something changed, and we’re still not… entirely back from it. I am suspecting that Long Covid is now part of it - that was summer of ‘21 though, and I was already firmly lodged in The Block by then.

Maybe it was just one a longer but still normal drought and needing recovery time from intensely brain-heavy Life Events™️ until that extra layer was added? I truly don’t know. I don’t know if it matters either, except in that I am deeply afraid I will lose it again.

Anyway, that’s the ramble for the afternoon on the writing side. Hopefully the Boring Job leaves me some braincells to work on asks and stuff later.

* caveat: Except for the fact some truly wretched negative/judgy feedback can entirely poison the affected work for me and make it impossible to get forward motion(Obsidian Slipper is one such victim, I may talk about it more later.)

** hola Teca. 😒

[styledxgrace]

Swinging Back Into Style

The way I feel about it, every time I put maximum effort into my outfit for the day, I instantly feel sharper, edgier, more confident, put-together and cool. It's as if a fantastic adventure awaits inside my little closet, with near endless possibilities with what to wear, based on the weather, my mood or the occasion. 

When I'm feeling a bit blue, I tend to wear a fun, flowy, printed dress in a vibrant color, so that I feel pretty and my spirits are lifted. Guess what? It usually works! I put on a red lip, slip on a pair of comfy, cute shoes and walk out the door, more ready for the day! 

It really shows how important it is to have a closet full of key pieces to rely on, as a base. A solid collection of tops and bottoms, a few great statement pieces, layers and accessories can easily give you the ability to build a great confidence-boosting look, on the fly and with little prep! 

And don't worry - I get it - a lot of us got complacent with our outfits during the pandemic, and swiftly transitioned from fashion-forward, smart casual clothes for everyday, to "comfies," that - let's be honest- mostly consisted of sweats and athleisure. But! The time has come, as things slowly begin to reopen, "to give a damn!" again, to make an effort and a conscious choice to "dress up" and look our best! To grab drinks with friends at a patio bar and show off that cute vintage, '70s, funky, printed dress or brand-new corduroy blazer and Cole Haan wingtips that have been hiding in your closet for more than a year!

Of course it's always important to remember fit and function, two of the most important aspects in understanding style. If your favorite jeans don't fit anymore, time to get a new pair (don't wait to lose the "quarantine fifteen"), maybe a different style this time! I love a good boyfriend jean, in a size up, sitting at the hip, belted at the waist, and rolled into a rough cuff at the hem. Comfy still, yet paired with a blouse or sweater, and the right pair of shoes, it feels like I tried!

What we choose to wear and greet the world in, can also influence the way others perceive us (whether positively or negatively). It can indicate a certain set of abilities, talents, or intelligence (or lack thereof). When I see a man in a well-made, tailored suit, I instantly think of someone who holds a position of power, works hard, and has a good education. When I see a woman in a navy blazer, pencil skirt, heels and cat-eye glasses, I see a professional- who is determined and savvy. 

Likewise, when I see someone with messy hair, in a wrinkled shirt, a mustard stain on their cargo pants, paired with black sandals and white socks, I instantly visualize a messy unkempt apartment, and someone who pays less attention to detail and is lacking in self-awareness. 

As we slowly inch back to a more normal life, invitations to weddings, dinner parties, baby showers and more await. Broadway has reopened and Coachella 2022 is slated to actually happen this year! It's time we take a longer look at our closets, start shopping again, recycle our old clothes (sell or donate what doesn't work), and fill in the blanks with key pieces like a great-fitting pair of jeans, a new pair of leather lace-up boots, chunky cardigans, long dusters, comfy cotton t-shirts in a range of neutral colors, and an oversize vintage-wash Levi's denim jacket. 

Get your closets organized and in good shape, because as places reopen, our personal style choices can help us get back into the swing of things!

[trantrumsfromthevoid]

It’s probably been ten years since I watched all the “Twilight” movies. And because of the Twilight Advent ‘22, I’ve decided to do a TTS rewatch. It’ll be very interesting, especially since when I was first introduced to the books, I was a little over twenty years old and in a completely different frame of mind. To a young twenty-something, they were totally captivating; especially the aspects of a family-style coven of vampires and this, seemingly “perfect” love story. Simply having someone who’ll do anything for you and love you for “all eternity”, yada yada yada. I thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever read about. I remember reading about how Edward would watch Bella sleep and I’d like, “Aww, how romantic!!!! #hearteyesemoji.” Now, as a nearly forty year old (seesh!), if someone watched me sleep without my consent, they’d be in for a scuffle. And, let’s all be honest: whoever’s watching me sleep is in for a lot of ~glamorous~ farting and snoring.

But yeah, it’ll be interesting getting to revisit “old friends” and old memories. I’m sure I’m in for a lot of nostalgia but also maybe a lot of, “Oh, man ... I can’t believe I used to think this was romantic!” I remember, during the early days of the pandemic, I tried to reread the books and made it, mmm, maybe two or three chapters into the first book before I stopped. It was just really boring, I hate to say it. Especially since all four books (well ... with the exception of Eclipse) were my favorites for quite some time. But, I have to admit, I always thought the movies were more visually appealing. Maybe not better, but just a different layer of intrigue.

[meditating-dog-lover]

Health update (11/05/2024)

I'm at the point of the year where I'm feeling lazy at work and am getting less sleep than normal. I know it's the end of the year and am ready for a vacation.

My skin is a lot better. My face is no longer red, even the areas on my neck are paler and not red. A lot of dead skin is flaking and peeling off and it's so satisfying. There is barely any itch. All it took was an anti-fungal shampoo and cream and moisturizer.

I have a hard time moving my face because the skin is dry and tight. It's like there's a top layer of dead skin that was previously infected that is peeling off to reveal healthier skin beneath. I love picking dead skin. I have a lot on my cheeks, around my mouth and on my eyelids.

I applied zinc pyrithione to some spots on my body where I have stubborn redness and itchiness and they look better. My body is less itchy in general and washing it with anti-fungal shampoo and washing my clothes often helps. They should be washed on a hot setting. I applied the moisturizer to my hands and I do see some improvement, but it would be even better with a bit of steroid overnight.

I do have some itchiness and dryness, but that will go away with more shampooing and moisturizing. I'll give it 2 weeks minimum. I used to be much itchier last week but I'm getting better. There are some spots on my body that are still itchy (probably because I pick the skin off my face and then touch something like my arm or leg or back.

My dermatologists should have identified this issue months ago, but they were unable to and I'm mad and annoyed. But it should get better.

I'm seeing another dermatologist office soon so I can establish a skin care routine to prevent future infections and flares.

But I'll keep it up with the anti-fungal products and I will see improvements. It's important to support the skin microbiome which can be disrupted by using the wrong products, harsh soaps, and hand sanitizers. Avoiding oils and occlusives should help too.

I want to look for a new cleanser, moisturizer, spf, lip balm, hand soap and hand cream that can help prevent fungal growth. Zinc pyrithione is great. It's best to treat this condition like fungal acne because he same fungus causes that condition.

I'm just happy my skin is healing. I've had hand eczema since I was 20, but never this bad. And I know malassezia is playing a role in the severity. I'm sure skin microbiome disruption is also playing a role because I wash my hands a lot and the eczema shows up on my hands mostly. I do get dandruff which explains the seborrheic dermatitis, and that's dandruff on it's own without any inflammation on my face, neck, and ears.

Body wise I am back to 16-8 because I figured intermittent fasting was not responsible for my skin inflammation. I am able to sustain a 16-8 fasting pattern without getting that hungry. So I'm going to stick to it. I tried 18-6 today (12-6) and felt fine, but then I got hungry at 9:45 and ate. I've had success with 16-8 in terms of weight loss in the past. I don't feel the need to go stricter than that.

16-8 is great because it is a time-restricted eating method but I do not feel hungry and feel the need to binge. And I can eat anti-inflammatory and low glycemic and focus on other health concerns without being too focused on food and hunger.

However one area I will focus on is brisk walking. That burns a lot of calories and it's best when paired with 16-8 fasting because that will burn a lot of fat. I'm not referring to pacing around at work, I mean going for an active walk after work and after walking my dogs (they are active too but they stop and sniff a lot). I used to brisk walk a lot when I started my fasting journey (Jan-June). I stopped because it got hot outside and I was fatigued in the summer. I just went back to brisk walking last week.

I used to brisk walk a lot in college, sometimes up to an hour of walking daily. I walked a lot as part of multiple fitness programs I followed during the pandemic. Walking should absolutely be a part of my workout routine.

While I can't really do 18-6, I was concerned for the opposite - being hungry during my luteal phase. If I need a banana in the morning since fasting isn't ideal in this phase. I'll see how I feel. Calorie-wise a banana is nothing and the calories can be easily burned in a brisk walk. But I'll see how I'm feeling.

So I'm going to certainly stick to 16-8 fasting and brisk walking, combined with my anti-inflammatory and low glycemic diet and supplements. 18-6 is a bit tricky now, and I'll see how I want to eat during my luteal phase. Yoga is a great workout to do at home.

[thegarlicpressph]

Guevarra's goes beyond the buffet table, launches new website

My entire family loves dining at Guevarra's in San Juan City. It's always a family affair. When we want to celebrate a special occasion, or just want to get together in Metro Manila, this buffet restaurant is always on top of the list.

Then, the pandemic hit. Dining in, especially buffets, became obsolete during the lockdown. Businesses tried to cope by shifting to deliveries. Some barely managed to stay afloat, some unfortunately had to close, while some thrived in the delivery world.

Guevarra's kept on doing what they do best: Making good food for everyone. They offered their usual buffet favorites for delivery, like their Pork Bellychon, Angus Beef Tapa (our all-time fave!), Beef Kare-Kare, Pancit Palabok, and Beef Kaldereta, in various sizes. They even have their own delivery riders for convenience.

As the lockdown stretched to almost two years, the people behind Guevarra's kept moving with the times, adapting to the public's needs and wants. Aside from their buffet best-sellers, they created their own version of food trends, like Lechon Angus Baka (ridiculously tender and flavorful angus beef, best enjoyed with the sweet-savory sauce). If you're eating it at home, you can enjoy it the fool-proof way with some garlic rice or go a little rogue and turn it into the best burger you'll ever make at home.

As restrictions eased, dining in slowly returned to pre-pandemic normalcy. Guevarra's decided to give us more reasons to literally get up in the morning, even on weekends. They recently started offering Breakfast Buffet on Sundays featuring morning staples, from cereals to crispy bacon to Pinoy almusal classics like Champorado, Arroz Caldo. They also put their own twist on Western faves, like Chicken & Waffles, but instead of fried chicken, you get chicken adobo. I know, it sounds weird, but trust me on this: the sweet and slightly crisp waffle (with their whipped butter and maple syrup) goes so well with the garlicky savoriness of adobo.

While their Chicken & Waffles (or pancakes) is an absolute must-try, Guevarra's take on Vigan Longganisa is a revelation! Swimming in a pool of umami-filled tomato sauce (with a healthy layer of oil for good measure), these chubby parcels of meaty goodness are tender (those pockets of fat make sure of that), packed with flavor, and will definitely have you reaching for another cup of rice. And for someone who hates bell peppers, this dish is making a compelling argument for 'em. You can enjoy Guevarra's Vigan Longganisa at their Sunday Breakfast Buffet or when you order their Sariling Sikap Box.

They also had in mind those people who were still stuck at home alone or those who are going back to the office. In 2021, they officially launched their Solo Meals, featuring a single serving of their buffet best-sellers served in a convenient bento-like container with stir-fried veggies and steamed rice. They have seafood, pork, chicken, and beef options. These meals are also perfect for meetings (Zoom or physical), parties, and even baon for roadtrips (#RevengeTravel)!

They've also gone beyond the usual buffet offers, giving diners the option to elevate their dining experience at home. Another personal favorite from Guevarra's line-up is their Spaghetti Marinara with Meatballs. Definitely different from sweet Pinoy spaghetti, the sauce is a bit more sour and tempered by the saltiness of the parmesan cheese and the savory meatballs. Pro-Tip: If you're ordering at home, keep it in the fridge because it's even better the next day (if you can keep yourself from eating all of it).

There are so many reasons to love Guevarra's, but there's nothing like their sweet selections to keep you coming back for more. When dining in, their Frozen Brazo de Mercedes (served in shot glasses) should not be missed. If you're ordering for delivery, don't forget their cakes and desserts, like their indulgent Brigadeiros and milky-chewy Kalabasa Pastillas, which are perfect for gifting or as a sweet ending to a satisfying meal.

The people of Guevarra's also made ordering a lot easier! Now you can have their signature dishes delivered to your home with just a few clicks. They also have frozen goodies so you can stock up on your favorites! Visit www.guevarras.com to place your order. They deliver daily from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Guevarra's is located at 387 P. Guevarra Street corner Argonne Street, San Juan City. For more updates about their latest offers, follow Guevarra's on Facebook or Instagram.

[chorusfm]

Eldridge Rodriguez – “A Feeling That Won’t Go Away” (Song Premiere)

Today is a great day to share the lead single from the newly announced LP by Boston noise rock band, Eldridge Rodriguez, called “A Feeling That Won’t Go Away.” The song comes from the band’s fifth album, Atrophy, that will be released via Midriff Records on September 15th. On this latest single, the band channels their love for a “wall of sound” approach to their songwriting while still leaving room for the listener to make their own interpretations of the music. If you’re enjoying the direction the band took on this latest track, please consider purchasing music from their Bandcamp page. I was also able to catch up with this talented band for a brief interview below. Many of the songs on the upcoming project, Atrophy, were recorded in the midst of the pandemic. In what ways does “A Feeling That Won’t Go Away” reflect experiences and lessons from that time period? It was one of the first tracks we started recording during the shut down. Maybe because it was one of the most simple, structurally. I wrote it pretty quickly and we recorded it pretty quickly. I think we (the Royal “we”) sometimes over complicated things by trying to over perform or overthink or make things too academic to show people how clever we are. When a more simple approach and the road of least resistance and effort winds up bringing a better, more natural result. Everyone was sick, scared or dying during the height of the pandemic and to over intellectualize your own songs felt petty, narcissistic and tasteless. So when writing during this time I would tend to go with first instincts and bang out songs because I was in this real position of privilege, to have this outlet and studio and band mates to work with during a time when other people were locked down or without access to basics and losing loved ones. End of the day, it’s just your thoughts put to music, and maybe that isn’t the most important or healthy thing to spend time on and over analyze during a crisis. The whole album has this approach, which I think lends to it possibly being more accessible than our previous albums.  What is, exactly, the “feeling that won’t go away?” What does that feeling mean to the band? It’s a feeling of benign hopelessness. A feeling that no matter how hard you want something to be true it can still be unreachable and resigning yourself to being okay with that. It’s being satisfied with what you don’t have. It’s acceptance of the things beyond your control. You can despise a system while still living your life to its fullest. It’s cheerfully giving yourself over to defeat.   How does this single fit in with, or stand out from, the other tracks on the upcoming record, Atrophy? It’s one of the noisiest tracks on the album. I think it’s one of the ones that best reflects the reputation and discord of the time that it was written. It’s still traditionally poppy but we layered it with some heroic waves of feedback while underneath is this tiny classical nylon stringed guitar that pops up every so often, like it’s desperately breaking the surface to get air. I like that juxtaposition. We kind of tried to carry that through on all the album tracks.  There’s an incredible vocal performance by Erica Manton on the outro section of the track. What can you say about this collaboration? Dave was doing a remix of an Ex-Hyena track at his studio, Bluetone in Somerville, Ma. He wanted a big voice, pop/disco type performance for the outro to give an upbeat, positive ending for what was otherwise a dirge. He reached out to Mike Quinn for recommendations and Mike had worked with Erica and recommended her. She came in and killed it. So Dave asked her to do that ending part for us. Dave kept the session a secret from us until mix down. It really blew us away. It was a really nice surprise and kind of makes the song for me. --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/features/eldridge-rodriguez-a-feeling-that-wont-go-away-song-premiere/

[audiofuzz]

Signed to Madonna's Label at 15yrs old - Louise Burns Showcases Her Incredible Talent

We had the pleasure of hearing Louise Burns today for the first time. We can tell you that her music is deep, soulful, and in the vane of Kate Bush meets Joni Mitchell. Burns’ vocals are smooth and captivating. She sweeps you off your feet with her luscious vocals and keeps you floating on a cloud. It FEELS like floating, TASTES like sweet pomegranate and SOUNDS amazing! Check out the video for “Bloom” below and learn more about Louise following that: Following the release of her newest single ‘Bloom’ released on 24th of March, British-Canadian songwriter and producer Louise Burns releases a music video out on the 4th of April 2023. Burns is British-Canadian, born on the Sunshine Coast and raised in Cranbrook BC in the East Kootenays, and is heavily influenced by the likes of British greats, such as Kate Bush, Brian Eno and Depeche Mode, which is reflected in the album. ‘Element’ encompasses the notion of “holding your head high as you tunnel out of the emotional wreckage of life as we know it”. According to Burns, there is nothing more radical than being joyful despite what you’re going through. Burns’ fifth full-length album ‘Element’ was primarily co-produced between Burns and Jason Corbett (ACTORS) at his Jacknife Studios in Vancouver, and also features collaborations with Colin Janz (Teset) and vocologist Carol-Lynne Quinn. The nine-strong track album was pieced together over a two-and-a-half-year span between Burns’ home and Mexico. ‘Bloom’ is a refreshing change of pace to the album with its bright and airy melodies. This song perfectly marries the 2000s groovy influence Burns is known for with her layered R&B vocals and synthesizing beats. Burns also shows us her love for the ocean with the sound of waves in the track, as well as the visuals throughout the video. The video for ‘Bloom’ completes the vision that transports us to the place that Burns was inspired by while writing this song. Burns explains her inspiration for the track, “I got heavily into nostalgia as a coping mechanism during the pandemic which influenced some of the sonic palettes I was choosing. I suppose I tried to make a chill out downtempo love song inspired by mid-90’s video game music… I brought it to Jason (Corbett, co-producer) and he really made it come alive. I think it’s my first attempt at a proper love song, in my own faux-misanthropic way…”  Director of the video, Brandon William Fletcher describes the vision for the video: “‘Bloom’ hit me very personally. Like most of my favourite Louise Burns songs it represents the voice of fear and doubt of intimacy inside my own head. From our earliest conversations we found we had a lot of universal experiences re: a love for old films, theatrical productions, and late 90's pop songs. The imagery she sent me was reflective of films I was watching at the time and the colour palette's I've been exploring lately so it felt like a great start. All the emotions of the song, the additional inspo we collected accompanying it, and the overall oceanic vibe to the album Louise completed seemed to organically lend itself to the idea of being underwater. The idea of drowning in your feels, being overwhelmed or not in control, subsumed by the opportunity for love. Plus who doesn't love a little pirate sea witch aesthetic?” The music video for ‘Bloom’ is out on the 4th of April 2023 and the full album ‘Element’ will be available 21st April 2023 via Light Organ Record Read the full article

[sinceileftyoublog]

King Tuff Live Preview: 3/31, Empty Bottle, Chicago

Photo by Wyndham Garnett

BY JORDAN MAINZER

For his fifth full-length album and first in 5 years, amidst the uncertainty of a just-starting global pandemic, L.A.-via-Vermont fuzz rocker King Tuff decided to make a record to remind himself “that life is magical.” The result, January’s Smalltown Stardust (Sub Pop), is a far cry from the drawn-out, languid psychedelia of 2018′s The Other, Kyle Thomas opting for more specific references to nature, places, and objects that mean something to him. It’s his best record yet.

Of course, it helps when making an album during a global pandemic, if your housemate is Sasami Ashworth (aka SASAMI), who served the role of co-pilot, producing, writing, and singing along Thomas. Her airy voice is the perfect foil to Thomas’ deadpan sneer-cum-croon, immediately apparent on songs like “Tell Me” and “How I Love”. More important, her presence and curatorial ear seems to have refined Thomas’ singing and songwriting. “How I Love”, a song Thomas admits was tough for someone normally “lost in nothing but noise for so many years,” obscured by guitars, is an immediate Beatles-esque standout. “The Bandits of Blue Sky” starts with lo-fi drum fills and turns into a 70s AM radio piano rocker rife with orchestral synths, Thomas cinematically delivering a tall tale about a ghost roaming the streets. And the layers of saxophone, vocals, and clattering percussion propel “Always Find Me”, a heady tune where Thomas describes himself as “a loser lost in my headphones,” as are we in witnessing the expanse of the music.

Even if you’re not a spiritual person, it’s easy to dive right into Thomas’ joyous expressions of his own spirituality. On “Portrait Of God”, he asks, “Have you ever tried to imagine the shape of God?”, his jubilant singing and Steely Dan guitar leads paying tribute to our ability to find meaning in the natural world, art, and love. “Stars align, the planets dance, life happens in between,” he declares on the gentle “Pebbles In A Stream”, a mystical ode to love both romantic and platonic. Best, everyone can relate to the concept of the title track, album title, and album as a whole: Whether you’re remembering Route 91 in your small town or the sounds of the city you grew up in, “smalltown stardust” is that intangible feeling you get from nostalgia, a little melancholic, mostly wistful. This retro rocker captures it well.

King Tuff plays tonight at Empty Bottle. NYC rock band Tchotchke, who released an equally retro, supremely catchy self-titled album last year, goes on at 10 PM. Sorry, Jamie Lee Curtis.

[joestylee]

Styling The Women’s Vintage Poncho

I love the ease and mystery of the poncho. It’s the perfect slip-on blouse to hide bulges and to layer. You can wear it over anything, dress it up or down and have it in any fiber and color imaginable. If you are a mom like me, the poncho is a lifesaver. Need to slap on something fashionable to pick the kids up from school without looking you tried too hard? The poncho is it.

The poncho has had short bursts of fame on the fashion stage which fizzled out. However the demand for lounge wear during the pandemic hints that the poncho and all other slip-on able clothing like the hoodie are here to stay. It combines the practicality of lounge wear with the sensibility of casual wear and the vibes of cocktail attire.

Where Did The Poncho Come From? 

Originating in South America, ponchos were originally a hand loomed cloth that looked like a cloak and were made in bold colors. The poncho bears some similarities to the African agbada with the difference being that the agbada is joined at the edges whereas the poncho falls loosely. The edges of the poncho can hang parallel like a square, or diagonally, like a diamond.

The Vintage Poncho The most noticeable elements of vintage ponchos is the presence of embroidery, tassels and fringe. The shape could be asymmetrical or square but definitely has s is less likely to be a wrap as is common wand patterns are with poncho designs today.  Scroll down to see how you can style the women vintage poncho for different situations. 

Out And About With The Poncho

The simplest, most straight forward way to wear a poncho is to wear a simple T-shirt underneath and pair it with skinny jeans and heels. In cold weather, replace the T-shirt with a turtleneck.

Work-Ready Poncho Style

How do you make a poncho look formal? Wear a long sleeve shirt under the poncho and button up the collars, then pair with work pants and nice shoes. If wearing with a skirt, break up the diagonal look with a belt, to add interest.

Party Wear

Ponchos are the perfect in-between attire for bridging the gap between day and night. Pair them with a little halter dress or short skirt for cocktail shenanigans.

Vintage Beach Vibes Poncho 

Yes, you can wear your vintage patterned poncho to the beach. They are the perfect cover-up for a swimsuit or can be paired with shorts and flip flops for an aura of summer casual.

Vintage ponchos are the most charismatic outerwear. No matter the emotion you want to express there’s a poncho that says it all.