#and just kinda enjoy college itself and put time into a fan project

[bugsofpetalroot]

// I’m all good covid-wise! it’s been a little hectic because the semester started and ive moved on campus for the first time in a while, and while i’m bummed i didnt reach my personal goal, im hoping to still be able to consistently put out content //

[rubyflynn]

( 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐘 𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐀𝐑-𝐉𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒 + 𝐂𝐈𝐒 𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄 ) — Have you seen 𝐑𝐔𝐁𝐘 𝐅𝐋𝐘𝐍𝐍 ? This 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 year old is a 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐍 who resides in 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐀𝐍. 𝐒𝐇𝐄 has been living in 𝐍𝐘𝐂 for 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒, and is known to be 𝐀𝐌𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 and 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓, but can also be 𝐒𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐘 and 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐓, if you cross them. People tend to associate them with 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 and 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐇 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐏𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐎

hello loves, it’s sam here with with my second baby. very excited to bring you this stunner and yet another muse in the music world. throw a little like on this and i’ll come to you for plots x

𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒

Full name: Ruby Emeline Flynn

Occupation: Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

Nationality: American

Height: 5′6

Weight: 118 lbs

Birthday: 10th May 1995

Star-sign: Taurus

Sexual orientation: Bisexual

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃

Ruby was born in NYC to unfairly successful and wealthy parents. Her mother is a family lawyer and her father is a publicist from New York.

While her parents loved her dearly, they were also extremely busy people, leaving Ruby to fend for herself most of her childhood

Though popular in school, being an introvert meant she preferred staying home – reading, writing poetry, learning the bass guitar and her biggest love of all: singing.

Is extremely intelligent! Would have graduated college summa cum laude, but she didn’t even finish high school

Went through a rebellious phase when she was seventeen but Ruby being Ruby meant she saw that shit through! She bought a one-way ticket to LA and landed there with all her demos on a USB stick in her pocket in hopes of striking a record deal

Given her father’s status in NYC and her insanely talented pair of vocal chords, Ruby was quickly snapped up by a record label on the condition that she tied herself to another newly signed band, The Dogwood Blossoms. The Blossoms were lacking Ruby’s pizzazz and Ruby lacking depth in her songwriting. They looked good together on paper, but they looked even better in person. Sparks flew. Ruby Flynn & The Dogwood Blossoms were born.

Ruby struggled for creative control with the lead singer of The Blossoms, Ezra. They were opposite sides of the same coin and while it often led to one or both of them storming out of band practice, it also lent itself to some stunning, chart topping music on the alternative circuit (think Hozier, The Lumineers, Angus & Julia Stone lush kinda vibes)

Two years, one beautiful album and a whole lot of sexual tension between the lead singers later – Ezra and Ruby began an affair. He was a few years older and dating another woman at the time but a year into the affair, he dumped them for Ruby.

The pair dated on and off two years but went through an explosive break-up during the making of their sophomore album, Magnolia. Ruby, ever the stoic professional, pushed to see out the Magnolia Tour during 2018 but she and Ezra were at each other’s throats both on-stage and off.  

She still loved him desperately though and they ended up re-hashing their relationship one night after a show. But when Ruby found him a week later in bed with their keyboardist, enough was enough. She quit the band and moved to back to New York City to lick her wounds and channel her heartache into her solo projects. Ready to reconnect with family and friends who might remind her of the person she was before The Dogwood Blossoms.

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒

Close friends call her ‘Roo’

Her vocal range is to die for. Seriously. Peep her voice claim. 

Enjoys the finer things in life - like fresh figs and silk pillowcases and flowers delivered daily. Isn’t snobby about it but can be (or has been) naive about her wealth

Will not hesitate to put your toxic masculinity on blast.

Was quiet in high school and at times finds it hard to shake that. It can take a little while for her to warm to you but once she does, she is fiercely loyal and a really! fun! time!

Smokes a lot of hand-rolled cigarettes. She likes to keep her hands busy.

She’s an extremely hard worker but has never had to do an actual day of hard work in her life? The only job she’s ever had is being a musician.

Is 100% a cat person. Has two cats.

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄�� 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

Childhood friends

Friends with lingering feelings for each other

Ex-boyfriends/girlfriends – she’d probably only have one or two of these

Casual hook-ups and tinder dates (she’s one eggplant away from deleting the app though)

Fellow musicians

Fans of her work

Neighbours

Idk what else just give me everything

[rubyflynn-x]

time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me –

is that [DAISY EDGAR-JONES]? no, that’s just [RUBY FLYNN]. [SHE] is [TWENTY-FIVE] years old and is a [MUSICIAN]. rumor has it they’ve been in town for [ONE WEEK]. on a good day, they’re [AMBITIOUS & INTELLIGENT]. but watch out! they can also be [SNARKY & ARROGANT]. [SILVER SPRINGS BY FLEETWOOD MAC] plays in my head whenever i think of them. can’t wait to see them around springhill! 

           – i know i could’ve loved you, but you would not let me

hello springhill! it’s sam back with my brand new muse who i dreamed up after being left absolutely stunned by normal people and in the middle of re-reading daisy jones & the six (daisy edgar-jones & daisy jones is a coincidence that i still am not over). also this is honestly so long, i got carried away.

Ruby Emeline Flynn was born in Springhill, NJ to unfairly successful and wealthy parents. Her mother is a family lawyer and her father is a publicist from New York. 

While her parents loved her dearly, they were also extremely busy people, leaving Ruby to fend for herself most of her childhood

Though popular in school, being an introvert meant she preferred staying home – reading, writing poetry, learning the bass guitar and her biggest love of all: singing.

Is extremely intelligent! Would have graduated college summa cum laude, but she didn’t even finish high school

Went through a rebellious phase when she was seventeen but Ruby being Ruby meant she saw that shit through! She bought a one-way ticket to LA and landed there with all her demos on a USB stick in her pocket in hopes of striking a record deal

Given her father’s status in NYC and her insanely talented pair of vocal chords, Ruby was quickly snapped up by a record label on the condition that she tied herself to another newly signed band, The Dogwood Blossoms. The Blossoms were lacking Ruby’s pizzazz and Ruby lacking depth in her songwriting. They looked good together on paper, but they looked even better in person. Sparks flew. Ruby Flynn & The Dogwood Blossoms were born.

Ruby struggled for creative control with the lead singer of The Blossoms, Ezra. They were opposite sides of the same coin and while it often led to one or both of them storming out of band practice, it also lent itself to some stunning, chart topping music on the alternative circuit (think Hozier, The Lumineers, Angus & Julia Stone lush kinda vibes)

Two years, one beautiful album and a whole lot of sexual tension between the lead singers later – Ezra and Ruby began an affair. He was a few years older and dating another woman at the time but a year into the affair, he dumped them for Ruby. 

The pair dated on and off three years but went through an explosive break-up during the making of their sophomore album, Magnolia. Ruby, ever the stoic professional, pushed to see out the Magnolia Tour during 2019 but she and Ezra were at each other’s throats both on-stage and off.  

She still loved him desperately though and they ended up sleeping together one night after a show. But when Ruby found him a week later in bed with their keyboardist, enough was enough. She quit the band and moved to New York City to lick her wounds and channel her heartache into her solo projects. 

Finally feeling human again, she’s back in Springhill to reconnect with family and friends who might remind her of the person she was before The Dogwood Blossoms. 

Headcanons

Close friends call her ‘Roo’

She’s bisexual but hasn’t really had much experience with women

Enjoys the finer things in life - like fresh figs and silk pillowcases and fresh flowers delivered daily. Isn’t snobby about it but can be (or has been) naive about her wealth

Will not hesitate to put your toxic masculinity on blast. 

Was quiet in high school and at times finds it hard to shake that. It can take a little while for her to warm to you but once she does, she is fiercely loyal and a really! fun! time!

Smokes a lot of hand-rolled cigarettes. She likes to keep her hands busy.

She’s an extremely hard worker but has never had to do an actual day of hard work in her life? The only job she’s ever had is being a musician.

Is a cat person. Has two cats. 

Wanted connections

Childhood friends

Friends with lingering feelings for each other

Ex-boyfriends/girlfriends – she’d probably only have one or two of these

Casual hook-ups and tinder dates (she’s one eggplant away from deleting the app though)

Fellow musicians

Fans of her work

Neighbours

Idk what else just give me everything

[dotzines]

Artist Spotlights!

🎤 _creativert_ 🥁 AbelDraws 🎷 Amaari

🎺 andiavang 🎸 Antonia

Interview below the cut!

Introduce yourself

🎤 HI! I'm a geeky, introverted artist who likes to explore many artistic mediums, but really only posts digital art. I kinda like to draw anything and everything, but recently I've been trying to focus more on my OC's! Besides art, I love reading, playing video games (despite the fact that I haven't played many recently) and I like writing stories too. In the future, I plan to create a webcomic story with my OC's. I hope you enjoy my work! Here's where you can find my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_creativert_/

🥁 Hi! I'm Abel. I'm a Design and Mech engineering student, but my passion is art. I love drawing and currently I'm working on my dream project, a comic named FIVE. This takes most of my free time, but besides that I'll be either rping, watching a movie with my friends, reading (usually webcomics) or listening to some tunes while charging my energy up. I preffer digital art over traditional, you can fix mistakes so very easily... I also get more freedom with a program than with the limited tools I own (and it looks way cleaner and nicer when I upload a digital pic than a traditional, but my photography skills are to blame there lmao)If you want to read my comic, it's up on tapas! https://tapas.io/series/FlVE But if you'd rather see some illustrations and doodles you should check my tumblr: https://abel-draws.tumblr.com/ 🎷 Hi! I'm an avid 3-d and 2-d idol fan as well as a bee fanatic!! Drawing/painting is mostly a hobby for me, but in the future, if time ever allows it, I'd like to sell every so often. My default medium is digital using program SAI but sometimes I'll pick up a pencil/watercolors for traditional pieces. If you'd like to take a look at some of my other works/doodles, my art twitter is here @ https://twitter.com/hiwamaari . 🎺 I’m predominantly a digital artist! But I also crochet, sew, and embroider! I’m Andiavang across all platforms! 🎸 Hi, my name is Antonia, I'm an artist who does traditional hand drawn art. I love to draw and listen to music, often in tandem with each other. You can find me on tumblr @chibiranmaruchan

Do you do commissions post? Where can we find the info?

🎤

🥁 https://abel-draws.tumblr.com/post/184015135166/commissions-are-open-i-renewed-my-commissions 🎺 https://andiavang.tumblr.com/post/186764888718/commissions-are-open-all-payment-through-paypal

Do you listen to music (or tv shows/films/anything else) when drawing?

🎤 Yes! I actually create a new playlist every month filled with songs that have recently come out, or new songs I found that I really like! Generally, I'll listen to music when sketching but once I get to the lineart and colors, I'll listen to podcasts. For podcasts, I really like story podcasts and true crime podcasts. A couple of my favorites are Crime Junkies, Myths and Legends, The Bright Sessions and The Edge of Sleep.

🥁 *Yes*. All the time. I don't usually watch shows while drawing because my atention is all focused on the piece at hand, so... I miss most of it x'D so I preffer listening to music by a mile. It also helps me get myself in a nice mood for drawing <3 🎷 I mostly listen to music, generally one song or album of whatever artist I'm vibing to at the time. Constant repeat lately has been Blackbear's Anonymous album and Mesemoas. 6th single, Crossing Threads. Solid 12/10 🎺 I mostly listen to music! Sometimes I listen to a Podcast instead 🎸 I do listen to music while I draw, if I'm on a tight deadline where I need to focus, I listen to the Pokémon mystery dungeon red and blue recuse team OST. If I have plenty of time to draw, then what I listen to depends on what I'm drawing. it may be where I am getting inspiration from or connected to the aesthetic of the drawing or directly connected to it.

What’s your favorite music artist/band? If you could ask your favorite band/music artist one question, what would it be?

🎤 Oohhh, this is pretty hard honestly. I don't really think I can choose a favorite, but no matter who I'd choose, I'd probably ask them who or what encouraged them to keep going along the path they chose.

🥁 Currently it's panic! At the disco, I'm listening to all their songs on loop constantly lmao. They have such great songs, they inspire me a *lot*. I even created a character based on one of their songs, he's the one I'll be drawing for this zine!:DI'd ask them about the meaning behing lots of their songs <3 The interviews at hand do not satisfy my curiosity enough lmao.I also love Halsey (her first album is my fave), Set it off, Maldita Nerea (a Spanish group) and plenty of musicals (Hamilton, Be more chill...) 🎷 I've so many favorite music artists its so hard to choose, but if I had to pick one, the male J-idol group ARASHI. And if I had to ask them a question, I'd ask them if they're happy and enjoying life well. 🎺 My fave band is Placebo! If hav to ask them what their inspiration would be for their early songs 🎸 My favourite artist is Hikaru Utada and I would ask her if she likes her pre-existing songs, some being based on her life, being used for kingdom hearts or if she would prefer to make songs specifically for the game, about the game itself?

Do you play an instrument? If not would you like to play one? Which one?

🎤  I have a guitar, but I'm still learning how to play that, and definitely want to dedicate more time to that in the future. I'm also kind of interested in learning the piano or violin!

🥁 Nope, but I *wish*, I have such admiration for people who do, seriously. Live music is the best. I'd love to learn how to play the piano, the guitar or maybe the ukelele... But I doubt I will, at least for now, my hands are pretty full with college and comic making. 🎷 I wish I could play the piano and any string instrument. Maybe violin or the harp. 🎺 I used to play the drums 🎸 I can play basic piano. I used to play a recorder when I was much younger.

Which song(s) are you going to draw?

🎤 Magic Island by TXT and Audio by Sia, Diplo and Labrinth

🥁 King of the clouds, by panic! At the disco. 🎷 To the Me of Those Days - KOKIA 🎺 Special K by Placebo 🎸 Sanctuary by Hikaru Utada & Slow dancing in the dark by Joji

What do you expect from this zine?

🎤 To see everyone create a work they're proud of based off of a song they like!

🥁 I just really liked the theme, I have all kinds of imagery and videos in my head about several songs I'm obsessed with. It's a nice excuse to draw a pretty, fleshed out illustration and to learn some new songs in the way from the others' pieces<3    🎷 To be introduced to many different genre's of music and to hopefully find a song/genre I didn't expect to like! 🎺 Mostly just to interact with different people and artists! Make same new friends! 🎸 I expect to see a wide range of music presented, of different genres and both lyrical and instrumental. I hope the music resonates with the individual, something they're proud to share with the other participants and the eventual readers. I would like to have a journey through the zine, experiencing different emotions from everyone's art pieces.

Anything else you want to add?

🎤 Everyone has been super nice so far, and I really look forward to seeing everyone's pieces!

🥁 Best of lucks to everyone participating! I can't wait to see everyone's pieces together :D 🎷 Thank you for taking interest in this zine!  All the artists have put in so much love into each of their pieces. It's been a pleasure to see so many different styles, their works-in-progress and I'm equally excited to see everyone's final product. I hope everyone is able to enjoy all the wonderful artworks being created and produced for all the songs being represented here when the zine releases.  ^^

[spaceorphan18]

Finding Kurt Hummel: The Purple Piano Project

Masterpost

3x01: The Purple Piano Project

Welcome to Season 3! I’ll try not to whine too much while we’re here, lol :)  

The season starts out on a relatively high note, however, making the whole thing feel a lot more promising than it ended up being.  This episode is fun and quirky and there are a lot of pianos for Kurt to drape himself on top of!! 

Future Plans

So – we start off the season much like season two – Ben Jacob Israel going around and harassing everyone about their summer vacations and future plans. 

Do you see the set up of this shot, guys?  Rachel chattering in the front while Kurt tries to be distracting in the background?  Well – get used to it, because this Hummelberry dynamic is going to drag us through the next two years, guys, lol.  No really – I enjoy Hummelberry in this episode, I do.  But we had no idea this was a set up for (I’m sure someone will argue me on this) the worst Kurt arc on the show – Getting into NYADA.  And, unfortunately, the Hummelberry dynamic (or more so the writer’s obsession with Rachel not being able to fail at anything) plays into that. 

Probably going off a rush of a summer where all they talked about was going to New York, Kurt and Rachel have all their future plans figured out.  They’re going to get a little apartment on the Lower West Side (yeah, sure), Rachel’s gonna be a big Broadway star, and Kurt’s gonna be married (legally!!!) by 30.  Yes – think about what is said here, I know Kurt has Broadway ambitions, too, but I find it funny that his dream aspirations include getting married.  

There are two key things I’d like to point about the whole marriage thing.  Kurt says by 30.  As we find in this season – not before 30 cause that is Too. Young.  But also.  Yes.  Kurt Hummel wants to get married.  And I’m pretty sure he already knows who his groom is going to be.  

But anyway, thinking about season 2, and how that started in such a dark place for Kurt, here we have the opposite – bright and shining optimism.  Oh, kiddo.  This really can only go down, can’t it. 

Purple Pianos

Kurt: Why’s the T-Rex eating the Jew?

It’s exposition dump time! As we get filled in that the Glee Club remains uncool after the Nationals debacle from last year.  Kurt gets his share of funny lines as we get filled in.  

Meanwhile – the glee club is three men down; Quinn pissed off the writers again, Lauren was fired, and Sam just couldn’t work out a contract deal.  So – Will gets the idea that placing purple pianos everywhere would inspire new people to join the club.  I’m not entirely sure how purple pianos are inspiring, but like Kurt, I’m totally on board with the whole thing.  

As seen in the background, the moment he can, he gets himself up and draped over one of the pianos. 

See – look how adorable he is on that piano!!! 

Anyway – Will bores us with another inspiration speech that means mostly nothing since no one joins glee club anyway…. 

NYADA – School for Witches

Lol – oh Kurt, you’re making the best faces in this episode so far….

First of all, let’s talk about the fact that Emma thought he and Rachel were dating (omg!), and the fact that he actually takes the pamphlet about ‘Me and My Hag’ (Lol).  Secondly, let’s talk about these sillies not doing their research on how Julliard is not a musical theater school.  At least Emma is doing the job she’s supposed to be doing in this episode! 

And then she steers them in the direction of New York Academy of Dramatic Arts.  Oh NYADA and my distaste for you begins, lol….  So, this particular school only takes 20 students a year.  Hmmm…  Looks a lot bigger than that in season 4 but whatever.  And the chances that two people from the same school and graduating year getting in? Doubtful.  But this is Glee, so here we go! 

Competitive Spirit

 It’s the first day of school, and Blaine is still a Warbler, but his resolve is crumbling because Kurt is very persistent (and flirty and adorable) in this scene. You know there’s some interesting meta floating around about this scene recently – about their competitive nature and about how Blaine really isn’t /that/ competitive, but Kurt totally is.  He doesn’t mind it at all, really, which means, in a way, that they’re on equal footing.  Ah, how that is all about to change. 

But what Kurt really wants is for Blaine to be around all the time so they can spend every minute of every day together.  Oh, Kurt.  Be careful what you wish for. But also – interestingly – they spent all the time together back when Kurt was at Dalton, and Kurt wants that little fairy tale to continue by bringing Blaine over to McKinley.  It’s obvious they talked about this at length over the summer, but I wonder what Kurt’s (more serious) arguments were for getting Blaine to come to public school. 

But anyway – the fun stuff – just how adorable and flirty these two are here! Hands might not have wandered south of the equator, but they were definitely up to stuff over the summer! 

We Got the Beat

I’ve always thought Kurt was very pretty in this scene.  

I should probably have more profound analysis.  

Well, there’s not much to say, other than Kurt’s used to being bullied by the school, and he’s not about to make himself a target by getting up and singing on the lunch tables, no matter how pretty the pianos are.  

Year 3 and Kurt’s still an awkward little dancer. <3 

This song is nice and fun and energetic.  Not really a favorite of mine, but man, what does it take to get this school into anything?  Geez! 

You know, for someone who is so particular about their clothes – I’m sure this is like the zombie apocalypse.  Poor Kurt. I love the food ray shield. 

You know, never once in all my schooling did I witness a food fight. 

Kurt is just not having it. 

Kurtcedes lives! If only to pass along exposition.  And to exchange bewildered looks as Sugar sings her god-awful song.  

You know it’s funny – I never noticed how seasons 2 and 3 (and 4 actually) openers have plotlines of – let’s open up glee club for everyone! Except not really because we’re a seclusive little bunch. 

Velma and Roxy

Small town is small after you’ve been to the big city.  But Kurt has a plan, that they’re gonna out preform all the other Ohio hopefuls so they can get a shot at their dreams.  I think, for the first time, I kinda get the purpose of this song (other than the blatant relation to Wicked and connection to season 2), but that they’re already counting in their victory against all the other hopefuls.  They’re putting their cart before the horse.  

Say what you will about Gay Hogwarts, NYADA does attract the witches….

The song itself is a little ridiculous but the performance is wonderful.  I love the choreography of this one.  And as always sound fantastic together, and this performance is no exception.  Say what you will about how Hummelberry was written – and I will say a lot over the next two seasons – Lea and Chris’s voices suit each other wonderful, and the show seems to latch on to that pretty well.  

Transfer

Not exactly a pic of Kurt, I know, but Blaine’s so frickin’ gorgeous in this scene.  And Kurt thinks so, too!! Look at that grin!  

But I’m kinda fascinated by this, now that I think of it, how Blaine’s all – check me out Kurt – in this kind of suave way.  And, oh Kurt, kind of caught up in his own drama to even notice that his boyfriend’s one outfit has changed.   

But, just, the excitement Kurt has when Blaine’s decided to transfer.  OMG! the boy is so happy.  

I love that Kurt has concerns – and they are so totally valid.  Blaine did transfer to be with Kurt, and that’s going to play a part in some of their bigger issues.  But for now, they can reveal in their happiness and not think at all about nasty, nasty break ups.  

And – getting Blaine into New Directions.  But since the only competition is Sugar, there really isn’t an issue here. 

Oh Kurt – so giddy that he’s once again getting sung to in the courtyard.  Can this year get any better?!?!  

Everything’s great util you light the piano on fire. 

Velma and Roxy II

Kurt and Rachel are so ready for this NYADA mixer! Only to find out that while at McKinley they might be special snowflakes, in the real world, they’re a dime a dozen.  I like the reality of this scene, tbh.  That you can give your 1 in a Billion speeches all you want, there’s always going to be someone else who seems like they’re more talented than you.  There are a lot of things Glee misses the mark on when it comes to college.  Or theater.  And this scene is a bit over the top.  But it does show that, hey, there are a ton of people trying to make it the same as you – and so you do have to ask yourself – do you have what it takes to compete? Or do you just walk away. 

I think now’s a good time to bring up the Glee Project.  I never watched it, tbh, so I can’t judge what kind of a show it was. But I’m not a fan of the results of the Glee Project.  And I don’t mean who won and who didn’t (Damien McGinty? Really?).  I mean that I have lots of problems with season 3.  But I think one of my biggest is that a show with a cast already overflowing now has to shoehorn these winners into the plot.  (I mean, think about how much space the show would have had without Rory)  Outside of Unique, I’m not really a fan of the characters that grew out of the Glee Project. 

That said, Lindsey Pierce was one of the winners, and her little moment to shine here seems perfect enough.  She’s a great vocalist, and I’m incredibly impressed by what she does here.  This performance is excellent.  

Anyway – going back to Kurt’s story.  It’s kinda hilarious how perfect a song choice this is – this group of kids basically stating that anything you guys can do Kurt and Rachel, we can do better.  Oh Glee with all its subtleties.  

So.  Kurt and Rachel make it back to the car and break down crying because that’s what happens when your optimistic view point gets smashed.  Poor kiddos.  

And then we get Kurt gives Rachel a pep talk v.2.0 (yes, i’ll be numbering these).  And it’s similar to the Born This Way talk – that Rachel is good enough to get in because she’s still special.  The thing, though, as much as I joke around, is that I do honestly like this scene.  Because Rachel is in Kurt’s corner, too, supporting him even though he’s down on himself for lack of extracurriculars.  The scene is a balanced one, where they both pull each other out of this dark place, and I can really do Hummelberry when this kind of thing happens. 

Gay High-five!!

You Can’t Stop the Beat

Oh, I have waited so long to screencap this.  There’s a gif out there that’s even funnier though.  

Anyway – there’s a ton crammed into this little scene.  Blaine joins glee club, which is yay!! But c’mon, Finn, you’re seriously having issues with Blaine possibly taking the spotlight when you and Rachel get all the solos? And Santana’s out for the week.  Why is she only out for one week? Who knows.  And then, finally, Kurt’s feeling ambitious and running for Student Body President, and Blaine’s super proud of him.  Can’t you tell by the still above?

But the moral of the story is you can pull all of the strings out of the purple piano but you can’t pull out it’s music.  Or, er,  something like that.  

Kurt’s feeling light and airy after that handjob.  Oh, wait, nope. 

It’s funny, I think this episode still holds up.  It’s crammed full of things, almost to a fault, but is still funny and endearing and services all the storylines it’s going to be presenting during the first third of the season.  I still really enjoy this episode even if season 3 goes mostly downward for me from here. 

It’s Season 3 people. Bam!

[meanderings0ul]

Philinda & Timelines

I wrote most of this in a more disorganized form a few months back, but now I’ve fleshed it out and done some more calculations. I hope it might be interesting to fans of these characters or useful for those who write fic for them. I personally like to have some dates and characterization timelines to look at when writing fics set in a “real world” type show, so I generally keep some notes for myself in word docs. Here I just kinda dove into it. 

I don’t go into plot timeline details here because I just don’t care. Marvel does an incredibly shit job of taking travel time and medical times into account. They can try and convince me something happened in two weeks, but I’m always going to ignore it. This uses info from the show itself and from an online date calculator. I am mostly not pulling from the various wikis. The wikis are great for trivia, but they are massively self-contradictory due to tie-in comics, stuff said in various interviews, etc. It’s Marvel. [Edited 03/20 to finally include workable theories for Captain Marvel]

*

Phil Coulson was born July 8, 1964. This makes his sun sign Cancer and his Chinese zodiac year the Dragon. He was an active and outgoing kid who wished he had a brother to play with. His dad died or was killed in 1973. Coulson was only 9 years old. They’d either finished restoring Lola together earlier that year or in 1972. It is implied in season 2 that he and his mother moved after the death, either to a different part of the town or somewhere else entirely as he did not attend the high school his father worked at. Coulson finished high school and went to college to study history, both because that was the subject his dad taught and because he was always a giant history nerd. He worked as a lifeguard as a teenager. We do not know anything about his mother’s work or their relationship when she was alive. A research project into the S.S.R. brought him to Shield’s attention. He was recruited from college by Nick Fury, an agent at the time.

Melinda May was born November 20, 1965 (a reference from the scanned back-page of a tie-in comic I cannot find again - Fury’s Secret Files from somewhere I think). Obviously, they’ve just used Ming’s birthday with a different year to parallel the actors. Her birth location is always listed as classified, so it’s possible her mother was involved with something for the CIA at the time. Her sun sign is Scorpio and her birth year in the Chinese zodiac is the snake. May always picked up new physical activities quickly according to her dad in S3. She started ice-skating at 7 and quickly began skating competitively. At 12 she switched from skating to martial arts. May has a trusting relationship with both her parents. We don’t know anything about when they seemingly separated, decided to live separately for Reasons, or got divorced. There is around a year unaccounted for between when she most likely graduated high school and when she likely joined Shield. She might have joined against her mother’s wishes. We know nothing of how she was recruited.

Star Wars Episode IV came out in May of 1977. Coulson was 12 and May was 10. This is totally relevant information.

These dates mean May is just shy of two years younger than Coulson. More precisely, Coulson is 17 months older.

We know they were at the Academy together (Comms and Ops shared some classes and electives) and graduated at the same time because of 2x4. Comms and Ops would have been in different facilities, though reasonably close together for logistics purposes. There would be a significant amount of overlap for field agent hopefulls. They probably wouldn’t have seen each other every day. They probably usually saw each other multiple times a week, depending on their classes.

They also shared classes with future Agent Blake and Agent Garrett. (It’s important to remember that Agents Hand, Hartley, Sitwell, and Hill are younger in the MCU and did not attend the Academy until the previous four Agents had already left.)

From common practices in American educational law, Coulson very likely started school (kindergarten) in the fall of 1969 (at 5). He would have graduated in 1982 and started college that fall. It is also possible he started school in 1970 (at 6) and graduated in 1983. May likely started school in 1971 at 5 and would have graduated in spring 1984 at 18 or she possibly started school at 1970 at 4 and graduated in 1983 at 17. (At the time, starting kindergarten at 4 years old was common if you would be turning 5 soon. Start ages were lower in the 70s.)

Here’s where a couple different things could have happened.

I’m going to move forward here with the (imo) more likely graduation ages for them both. These aren’t official. These events could have happened a year earlier or a year later, but anything more than that would be very unlikely.

It’s spring 1984. Coulson just finished his sophomore year of college and is about to turn 21. May just graduated high school at 18.

We know the Shield Academies at this point were legitimate in the eyes of the U.S. Government, though mostly under the radar. There was enough of a structured curriculum schedule in place we know they had a yearbook (as of season 5). Taking on recruits under 18 generally requires parental permission, as Shield is still paramilitary.

Option 1 - Coulson’s research has already drawn Shield’s attention and he is approached by Fury. Someone recruits May or she becomes aware of Shield some other way. They start at the Shield academies fall of 1984. They are 21 and 18 when they join.

Option 2 - Coulson continues through his junior year of college. His research into the S.S.R. draws Shield’s attention. Fury goes to recruit him. May spends a year doing any number of things. Her mother might want her to pursue the CIA. May picks Shield. They start at the Shield academies fall of 1985. They are 22 and 19 when they join.

Option 3 - Coulson is about to finish college when he draws the attention of Shield and is recruited by Fury. May is an unknown for two years. They start at the Shield academies fall of 1986. They are 23 and 20 when they join.

Star Trek IV (the whale movie) came out in November of 1986. Coulson was 23 and May was just 21. This is also totally relevant information.

Let’s say MCU Shield’s training program lasted 3-4 years. (Fitzsimmons strongly implied in season 1 Seeds that Scitech usually took about four years.)

The absolute earliest (3 years) May and Coulson (and Garrett) should have been in the field was 1987/1988/1989. Their most likely brand-new Level 1 Agent year was 1988/1989/1990.

Coulson and May were most likely Level 1 agents at 23 and 21/24 and 22/25 and 23.  

The Sausalito mission mentioned in episode 2x4 probably happened later in 1988/1989/1990.

John Garrett, who they were trained with, was injured in Sarajevo and became a Project Deathlok subject in 1990. He probably was only Level 2. He’d only been an agent 2-3 years maximum.

We knew from season 1 that Coulson’s mom Julie was long gone. The wiki puts her death as September 22, 1992, exactly 19 years after her husband’s death. Coulson was only 28.  

This is where I take issue with one of the semi-official dates. Big issue.

We got a flashback to a younger Agent Coulson and Agent May in season 4. May was a Level 3 specialist and Coulson was recently Level 4. We know they knew each other pretty well at that point, enjoyed each other’s company, and also frequently went weeks or months without seeing each other. They worked on missions separately and together and kept track of each other through company gossip. It’s at this point in their lives that a little, badly-kept-secret, mutual crush is going on that is ultimately not pursued for multiple reasons. They stay close friends and work partners for the next 10-15 ish years.

Parts of the wiki claims this flashback was to 2003. However, this is basically a retcon and in my oh so professional and classy-sounding opinion is just dumber than fuck. (Also, that date was never used in the episode.)

The absolute latest Coulson and May started as field agents was 1990. So *13 years* later they’re still Level 3? I don’t think so. Level 1 is your entry level. Anyone who is performing well is only going to stay there 1-3 years max. Level 2 is your no longer a noob level. If you’re doing great work let’s say people stay there 2-5 years. Agents would stay longer in Levels 3/4/5 than Levels 1 and 2.

Let’s be generous and give them 5 years at Levels 1 and 2. It could have easily been 4, maybe even 3 depending on how fast they got their groove after the whole “in the bay for five hours” thing. Coulson and May logically made it to Level 3 anywhere around 1993/1994/1995.

The Captain Marvel movie makes dubious use of existing aos canon, but if we use the perspective that Phil is a brand new Level 3 field agent instead of one fresh out of the Academy (which is completely incompatible with aos’s timeline) than we can say Phil and May were new level 3 agents sometime early in 1995. 

A sensible placement for the Russian 0-8-4 mission would be anywhere from late 1995-1997. With Phil having recently made Level 4 (strongly implied the the flashback), I would suggest 1996 or 1997 as the most likely placement. 

From the tie-in comics, MCU Agent Barton is recruited by Nick Fury around this same time, Agent Romanoff “recruited’ by him a few years later.

By 2003, both Coulson and May should have advanced a Level again and be taking on more complex missions. Strike Team Delta is part of Shield now. Fury is Director.

The Bahrain mission happened in 2008. Coulson was likely a Level 6 operative and May would be Level 5. Coulson took a lot of orders from a lot of people in episode 2x17. I highly doubt he was Level 7 at that point. The agent in charge of the operation, Agent Hart, was one of the ones Katya took over. Big Shield headquarters forbade Coulson from sending May into the building. He gave her the clear to go anyway and covered for her. May was 42. Coulson was 43 or 44.

May worked on administration for mostly Level 3s in the basement of the Triskelion for the next 4.5 years. This does not mean she became a lower ranking agent; you would likely want a higher-than-3 managing your level 3s.

Coulson is sent to make contact with Tony Stark later in 2008. At some point he advances to Level 7 then 8. Given Shield viewed the Bahrain rescue as a legendary success, not knowing how it unfolded, it is reasonable to think Coulson was promoted to 7 shortly afterwards. 

Coulson died on the Helicarrier on May 4th, 2012 during The Incident. He was 47. May was 46 when she found out he was dead.

When we met them in season 1, Coulson was recently 49 (technically…) and May was 47. May is a Level 7 agent and Coulson remains Level 8.

After season 5 they are on a beach in Tahiti. Coulson is 54 and May is 52. They’ve known each other 34/33/32 years.

*

Now, I’ve tried to structure this whole thing in a way that should you want to change their school-dates and use any of the three options you should be able to go through and add/subtract from the existing numbers pretty easily. So I hope that’s useful if you’ve been trying to math and write fic or if there’s just been general confusion.

I greatly prefer to write from the Option 2 set, with adjustments made for Captain Marvel. That just makes the most sense to me as far as events we know about from season one and the other life events for these characters. So if you’ve read any of my stuff, this is generally where I’m coming from.

I really hope this was useful and interesting. I spent far too much time on it.

[filmfreak1994]

Change the Channel

A lot of people have been talking about their experiences with Channel Awesome in the wake of the 60+ page document released by Allison Pregler and several other former content creators for Channel Awesome. I figured I might throw my own experience with the site and its people (mostly Doug) too while the topic is relevant, even considered dusting off the old camera I got for Christmas to film a video but allergy season is upon us and I’m coughing up my lungs so the written word it is.

I was a frequent user of YouTube in the early days of its inception, mostly to look up viral videos and just go on a stream of pointlessness for hours on end with each recommended vid in the sidebar (mostly consisting of parodies to Star Wars, LotR, and entire Simpsons episodes uploaded before the great purge of early 2008). In all that time between 2006 and 2007, reviewers like the Angry Video Game Nerd and The Nostalgia Critic eluded me. I saw plenty of the 5 Second Movie clips and thought they were hysterical but didn’t even make the connection that they were made by a “Nostalgia Critic” until around the end of 2009, when a friend of mine at school told me to look up NC’s review of Sonic the Hedgehog (the weird TV show and the futuristic evil Jim Cummings one). I finally gave in which led me to watching some of his other, recent reviews like the “Star Wars Holiday Special” which was freaking hysterical (and still brings a warm smile to my face just thinking about it). By the time the new year rolled around and I had discovered That Guy With The Glasses I was hooked.

For a while I stuck to watching reviews on YouTube when fans would rip them from the main site, but decided to eventually support the site itself where I mostly stuck to NC videos but also watched content from the other producers when it interested me; Spoony and his Final Fantasy reviews, Linkara and any comic with a subject material I was familiar with, Marzgurl and her Don Bluth retrospective, so on and so forth. Like many other people, I wasn’t keeping up with every producer’s videos weekly like I was with NC, but when I decided to watch something else their content was worth it, being funny and informative all at once, even creating new branches of my interest and giving me new perspectives on media criticism.

I watched Nostalgia Critic religiously every week and, sorry to say, started to take his opinion as gospel, and the opinions of other reviewers as well, treating certain movies and shows as bad just because they said so and didn’t have an opinion for myself for the longest time. It was when I started to pay attention to Doug Walker himself and his philosophy that you should like what you like and every movie is a miracle that I started to chill out and even disagree with his opinions at times (I remember his “Little Nemo” review made me seek out that movie and I actually quite enjoyed it).

TGWTG was a formative site for me in my high school years, developing much of my sense of humor and how I look at movies. I watched all the anniversary specials, started to watch a greater portion of producers that included Lindsay and Kyle’s more analytical reviews and Brad Jones’s and Matthew Buck’s mix of cynicism and snark with genuine analytical praise and criticism. I even started to look at music critics like Paw or Todd even though I can’t judge music for shit (if it has a catchy beat I’ll more or less dig it, I’m not picky). I always imagined when I moved out for college (yeah, how’d that work out for ya, younger me) that I would start my own review series in the vein of these online personalities and even be picked up for the site where I too could join in on the anniversary movies and have a swell time and make friends with the people I looked up to and have a good time filming huge crossover events with them (in hindsight I can only imagine what role Doug would have me play in them, if I was even deemed important to be in them at all). Whenever people criticized the anniversary movies I just shrugged it off and said, “Yeah, they’re dumb, but I like em anyway,” and when rumors starting going around about some upside down crucifixion going on I shrugged them off as just rumors (and to be fair it wasn’t upside down but the real thing isn’t much better).

Anyway, around the time when To Boldly Flee came I enjoyed the movie a lot (I only saw it the once and I was eighteen, eighteen-year-old me and present me don’t get on anymore) and thought it was a bittersweet conclusion to The Nostalgia Critic but was excited to see what new projects Doug and the company would do after its conclusion. Plus the other contributors still had their content to keep TGWTG going strong into the foreseeable future. At least I thought.

I didn’t hate Demo Reel, but I didn’t like it all that much either. I only caught around a few episodes before losing interest, saying I’d get back into it eventually but never going out of my way to see them. By accounts they got better as they went along and I was interested in the episode that paid tribute to Elizabeth Hartman (which I think is the same episode that had Mara Wilson and Arin Hanson? I might be wrong (I didn’t even know who Arin was at the time but hindsight is 20/20)), but I just put off watching them until, oh look, NC’s back. At the time I thought this was interesting, there was plenty he could still do with the character given his new ground rules and the emphasis on skits gave the show a different tune that I felt, at the time, kept it fresh from what it was before. I missed the simplicity of the earlier reviews but I happily stuck with the NC again, as well as the same creators I’d happily watched before and plenty more I started to watch like Phelous (around the time he did that weird Aladdin meets Pagemaster movie, I used to rent that from Hollywood Video all the freaking time).

It was around this tumultuous time that Doug actually kinda started to annoy me. Never to the point where I stopped watching NC, but he sort of seemed to forget his whole “Like what you like,” message and outright attacked fans who disagreed with him. Certain jokes in his reviews rubbed me the wrong way (if Irate Gamer can’t get away with blowing up Ubisoft cuz they wouldn’t let him into a conference, you can’t get away with pretending to blow up Happy Madison just because they make shit movies) and he had a general vindictiveness to those who liked movies like “Man of Steel” or “The Lorax” that just seemed mean spirited and not a funny little video meant to entertain (though I guess the signs were always there like when he added in a dig at “Avatar” in his “Conan” review for no reason). But by and by he seemed to mellow out (no doubt dealing with problems letting go of Demo Reel and how big a success he thought it would be) and I still watched his stuff, including the vlogs he did with Rob regarding “Avatar” (the good one, hey I did it too!), “Korra,” “Adventure Time,” and any recent movie that came out. I started to agree with them less and less but they were still entertaining guys and I liked what they were doing.

Some of the shadier stuff going on at the site more or less flew over my head. The game show they did was pretty much “Demo Reel” part two for me in how much interest I had in it and that faded from public consciousness pretty quickly, and it was around the time the site switched from TGWTG to just Channel Awesome that a real shift began to become more noticeable. People were leaving. People I may not have watched all the time, but they were leaving, often times unannounced and seemingly unprovoked (because quite a few of them were). I read about what happened to Allison, aka Obscurus Lupa, who I had watched on and off again and thought that was pretty shitty, and got a general grasp that the management of CA itself wasn’t very good from what she and Lindsay alluded to (or just straight up said, they really should’ve had some NDAs if they cared so much about how they look) in some posts on Tumblr or Twitter but I still carried on watching NC and the other creators on the site mostly because I just figured what every fan figured at the time, Doug was mostly innocent and it was Michaud and Rob who were the real strings behind big decisions like who stays and goes (I liked Rob fine, but even back then I knew he could be kind of an ass).

More and more people from the classic era of TGWTG were leaving or not producing as much for the site as they did and that was a shame. CA was never what TGWTG felt like to me, even if the purpose was to put more focus on the other producers (supposedly (hell, TGWTG did a way better job of featuring producers in my opinion even if it wasn’t perfect)). But whatever, I carried on every Tuesday watching NC, watching other creators when their stuff interested me, but it still wasn’t quite the same as before, and I had become more aware of the general bad experience most people had filming the anniversary movies even if the full extent of that didn’t come until a few days ago.

It was really when Lewis announced that he had left and I found the Change the Channel hashtag that I started to take notice of these stories, finding plenty of them on my own from the links to Twitter conversations many of the former contributors were having before reading them on the Google doc. I was torn, wondering if I should boycott NC with all that I had read and decided to make it a temporary one until the doc came out and to see if he or CA would provide a statement. Well, the doc came out and the apology not long after. And yeah, I moved it to a permanent ban after that bullshit.

I’ve given up watching people I loved before, JonTron and his racist bullshit was the last straw in supporting anything he did, and even with the Me Too movement I’ve given up any kind of support for people like Kevin Spacey who I used to love as an actor (now it’s pretty easy to see how he was able to play such scumbag villains over and over again). I know Doug isn’t a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer, and to my knowledge he hasn’t used his position to sexually take advantage of anyone (though he has turned a blind eye to others doing the same and the same can’t be said for taking advantage of people in other ways), but I just couldn’t watch stuff directly made by him and for Channel Awesome with all this information. It wouldn’t be right, even with an adblocker. 

I don’t mean to threaten the livelihood of people on his team like Malcolm or Tamara, I like them a great deal and they’re very talented, heck I even enjoyed the skits on NC a lot more than most because of them (and Rachel, she was great too). But I said to myself until an actual apology is listed and some form of action is taken to truly better the site, I wouldn’t watch them. Others have suggested and I have thought the same, that the best thing to do would be to fire Michaud, though I realize this would create a slew of problems given that he owns the IP for NC and is the founder of CA. Still, some form of acknowledgement from the Walkers would go a long way to bettering the public response to all this. More and more contributors have left in the wake of this document, either out of fear for their own image or to show solidarity with the many complaints levied toward the site (and their reasons are completely valid no matter what, they’re trying to make a living), looking at the site today it’s practically a ghost town. I don’t blame those that have stayed for anything, but the reputation of CA is tarnished and at this point, especially with that piss-poor “apology,” it’s going to take several huge leaps to get it back.

I realize the purpose of Change the Channel was never to create a boycott of NC or any of the Walker’s content, at least by the majority of those who contributed to the docs, and those who choose to boycott do so of their own volition. Well, that’s my volition. No matter how much NC shaped my sense of humor in my younger years and inspired me to look at movies critically myself, I can’t deny the damage that Doug and Rob have been complicit in nor turn a blind eye to the shady practices they, Michaud, and past executives on the site have done. 

I really do wish that what was seemingly apparent in front of the camera, that this was a site filled of talented people who were also good friends having a good time, was true behind the scenes as well. People have been hurt, assaulted, taken advantage of, and tossed aside when they were no longer useful to the site. It’s not right, and I’m literally changing the channel until actual change is made.

[vivareverie]

"So, what now?"

That's a question I've had stuck on my mind for at least the past month or so now, regarding the state of my content production and my life as a YouTuber. It's a question that I've somewhat avoided asking myself for the past year, because I somewhat naively thought "Hey, everything'll just work out". Needless to say, that isn't the case, so here I am asking myself this question now.

Before I go any further I'd like to quickly clarify something: This isn't a depression thing. It might sound like a depression thing by the way I'm writing or the overall tone of this post, but I currently have zero mental health issues and require no sympathy in that area. All this is is an introspective look at my state of affairs, looking at what I did wrong attempting to grow my channel, and where to go next.

So, let's start from the start: My channel's success was lightning in a bottle. "Surprise! Your video has gone viral!" Starting with super short meme-y pony toy videos. Well... Admittedly that was at least a few years into my "career" at that point, but all my content before then just silly "Early-teen goofing around"-type videos, once I suddenly actually had an audience to make videos for, I obviously wanted to keep going. What's important about this "Era" is that I had a theme going on. I was the "Pony toy video guy", that was where my initial audience came from, watching my ~10 second long meme-y videos for a short giggle. These videos were very short, very easy to make, and had an audience... So, why did I stop?

Three big reasons: One, money. To make videos making fun of silly pony merch, I had to buy the merch, and, to put things into perspective, that Celestia toy alone was $50. Imagine that but for every single toy in every single video and it adds up quick. The good news is that I liked collecting them, and I had the money, but that was quickly running dry. You might ask "Well, couldn't you reuse toys?", and I did a bit, however...

Two, I hated reusing jokes, and still do to this day. Even back then I'd felt I used the "Celestia toy hits thing" joke 2-3 too many times. I suppose I'd somewhat considered it a running joke- but without putting a twist on it, it was just the same thing happening over and over again. Although "toy abuse" wasn't the entirety of my content back then- I did still try to be creative about it- but nonetheless I kinda felt that well drying up. Plus, finally, there's reason three, and this one is probably a bit obvious...

Three, I wanted to try out animation. It's history time: The reason why even my earlier pony animations looked at least half-decent was because I already knew ahead of time how to use Flash, the program used to animate MLP. This was because I used Flash to learn how to make terrible bodged-together video games, some of which are still online over on Newgrounds and Kongregate (And no, I won't be linking them (Maybe at a later date)), those games, although they were pretty terrible, did inadvertently teach me how to use an animation program, meaning that, when my YouTube channel kinda blew up, I suddenly had an entire genre of media to create with at my disposal.

Thus started "Phase two" of viv, the "Short goofy animation" phase. At the time I didn't think I was gonna ditch the toy video stuff, but after a short while I felt... More satisfied with my animation work. It took me a while to nail down why, but in the end I felt like I was "Undeserving" of the amount of attention I got from my toy content, and felt as if I had to "Earn" the amount of followers I was getting. My toy videos were recorded with terrible audio, a bad camera, very little care for lighting (One video in particular's punchline was ruined because I didn't think about lighting, "Applejack Wins" I believe was the name of that one), however my animations, with the exception of a couple of my early ones having framerate issues, were very "Clean" and felt polished, something I definitely couldn't say about the majority of my toy videos.

Likewise, my standards went up, and they went up fast. I did start off making more silly goofy short stuff, but I kept setting borders for myself making content more difficult to pump out. I wanted to make music videos, but I eventually said I didn't want to make them using pre-established "stuff you could buy on itunes" tracks, worried about potential copyright ramifications. A lot of my short videos were based on clips of songs, and I stopped doing those for the same reason. This was also a very similar (Albeit technically very different) reason why I stopped using show-style puppets, and although I technically could've continued animating show-style if I wanted, my standards had gotten higher still, and I wanted to start making animations using my own "Design" of puppets. Those are the horses you see in the banner of my Patreon page, the doofy ones with the fat noses. This starts what I'd call "Phase three" of viv.

...However, where I went, the majority of fans did not follow.

My earlier content was easy to digest, easy to share around, and easy to click on. Short doofy meme videos. Phase three of viv however- Although the content I was making was finally meeting my stupid standards, it ran into two problems. One, content production got slooooow. The entirety of the first couple of "phase three" years feels like I'd gotten nothing done, despite the, well, "Objectively better" quality videos coming out. I can count how many vivshorts I have on three hands, which is... Not a lot. It's good, and all of them are great, don't get me wrong, but throughout this entire "essay" I've been leaving out one giant big huge factor regarding my content: YouTube itself.

I'm sure you've heard this a million times before, but in case you haven't: YouTube does not promote channels that don't post often. The system likes channels that make long videos, and they like them posted every day.  This is... The complete opposite of the state of my channel, however. Especially these days, where my projects get larger, and the gaps between videos get longer. Unfortunately, the amount of production put into videos does not necessarily translate to views- Or at least not anywhere near the amount it does compared to my older videos.

I did make an attempt to make my channel more active with my Vivcast series, but, although that series has its fans (And I love you all much and you know who you are), I feel like all that did is hurt me during phase three viv. It littered my channel with videos that only a very niche audience would appreciate, and meant that newcomers would have difficulties finding the videos my channel was centered around when visiting my channel, which is, you know... A bad thing. All my Vivcast videos are now unlisted on my channel, but the playlist is still publicly available for those who still want to see them.

The second big reason why I got a huge dropoff of viewers from phase three viv was the change in style, or, more specifically, the lack of using MLP characters at all. I stopped being part of the trend, and went and did my own thing. It gave me more creative freedom, but it was less "Immediately appealing". It's far easier to click on "Rainbow Dash is Excited" than it is "The Second Day of Chrasmas". I've created a bubble of content that only those inside the bubble can enjoy, and this bubble is already inside the bubble of MLP itself, which, as much as I wish it wasn't so, has a huge huge huge stigma around it that to this day has never dwindled. Despite my content being less about the ponies themselves and more about the comedy or the writing or the animation, just the vague connection to MLP is a huge turnoff for potential new viewers who although might not care for MLP might still enjoy the content I may put out.

So, due to this, I have a dwindling viewerbase both because I'm not directly using MLP characters (Meaning the general MLP fans are turned off from my content) and also because I'm using pony characters in the first place (Meaning the non-brony side of the internet won't be looking at my content in the first place). I've inadvertently created a niche inside of a niche because I became complacent. I thought "Hey, if I make videos, the viewers will come, as they always have been", and that was true a few years ago, but I've diverted the train far far off course and not many people still want to stay on the ride.

...Okay, I should mention, no, 10k views per video is not bad in any way. That's really really good and many many many youtubers wish they got a fraction of the viewerbase I got, but it's all relative. In my case, I'd steered my life towards "Hey, I got a good following going, if I grow my following enough I'll be able to make YouTube videos for a living! That'll be super cool!" And that was okay for a long while, while I was "Doing the motions", while I was at college, while I was at university, while I was looking for a job and not finding any for... The entirety of 2017. That's a long time, that's, like, 4+ years at least. But, that whole time, it was fine. I was in no rush, I was in no hurry, no real problems, I'd gotten a little lazy and my content slowed down for it, but I didn't necessarily need the money so I wasn't churning out garbage 24/7 just to make sure I hit a threshold. I thought to myself "Hey, I'll think of something, eventually. 10k views per video isn't enough to make a living off of, but I'll make something that'll go viral again, eventually. It'll be fine."

However, that changed this January.

My new years resolution was to go back to making monthly videos. The Second Day of Chrasmas I made relatively quickly and I'd totally be up for keeping that going, I thought. But my free time was suddenly whisked away, and I was suddenly told I'd be "Working for the dole" for half the week, every week, for at least the next 6 months, or until somebody finally decides to hire me. If that's French to you, essentially that means that, in order to get the money I'm literally living off of, I'm now forced to spend ~15 hours every week doing tiring sweaty exhausting labour work, getting pricked, scratched, sunburned, and bitten, on top of the obligation I already had regarding finding work with the job employment agency I'm hooked up with, oh, and that's not even mentioning that I'm not earning any more doing this work than I was earning the entirety of 2017. essentially meaning that all the free time I'd grown complacent with the past year is now gone in the blink of an eye, and I'm getting nothing out of it.

...So I thought "Okay, 2018 will be the year I finally set my channel back on the right track." Suddenly that's something I can't do. I can't make videos that bring the views back when I literally don't have the time nor energy to make those videos in the first place. The past January shows it, I forgot to make the post-January update Patreon post because of how quickly the month passed by for me. My complacency led me down this track and now I'm paying the price for it.

Okay... So... What now?

This was the question I asked at the start of this post, and what you just read is my story leading up to this question. I don't know if I have the right answer to that question, but I have a few proposals.

One: Cut my ties with pony content entirely. This is a route I'd been intentionally avoiding because I didn't want to be one of "Those guys". You know, the "I'm grown up and more mature now, and therefore I cannot like or associate with pony anymore". That... In itself, I'd personally say is an extremely immature sentiment, cutting ties with who you once were is like denying part of your life existed. Likewise, if this were the route I'd take, I would never deny my association with MLP... However, I would be changing all my branding and future content to not be MLP related, and move into, say, video games stuff instead. That way I can tap into a very large audience of people that didn't exist within my bubble within my bubble. I may be able to grab that "Lightning in a bottle" once more... I wouldn't stop doing Bronies Reacts, though.

Two: ...Keep going. This is the significantly more risky route, but I still have unfinished business in pony content. The two big ones are Trigger Happy Horses and Brony Polka Animated, Trigger Happy Horses being very very well loved and a project I would be very happy to continue if I had the money and time, and Brony Polka Animated being a project I teased... Ah jeez, two years ago. Both projects would require at least several months straight of work to finish/continue, meaning no other content on my channel (Outside of stuff that maybe I could hire other people to edit (Which would imply I had the money to do so, which, I don't)), meaning it'd be super unlikely my channel would grow in any way from it. I'd still be inside my niche of a niche, that double-layered bubble. But... Maybe people would come back if they saw these projects as finished projects? I don't know, and I have no way of knowing- But I expect that may unfortunately not be the case.

Three: Do both... Kinda. Perhaps I could begin by doing new stuff that appeals to a larger audience and completely ignoring those huge projects on my backlog until I've reached a point of equilibrium- And then return to them once I've maintained a stability on my channel. Albeit, that implies I get to that point in the first place, I may be trying to throw darts at this invisible dart board for the rest of my life, meaning those projects go entirely unfinished forever...

...At the end of the day, if I want to keep doing YouTube, I'll want to be earning enough off of it to make it viable. This means consistent revenue, every month, every year. I'm getting a very nice fraction of that off of Patreon right now, and I thank all my patrons wholeheartedly for it, but... I need at the very least quadruple the amount I'm currently earning to get back to even attempting YouTube full time. Single time pledges won't really help either, I either need four times the amount of patrons I have or at least ten times the amount of views on my future videos, and consistently.

This revamp needs to happen. With it I'll be revamping the structure of my Patreon page before the end of the month, including probably removing the $10 and $30 pledge options... Which I feel like is kind of a terrible move because it's the last foothold I really have, I'll be cutting my revenue in half with that move alone, but I don't feel comfortable being pledged those amounts when the content I'm putting out is minimal at best, and entirely against what you were asking for at worst. Although I believe there is an option to pledge a higher amount than the given pledge amount, no rewards come with that, and nobody is obligated to do that for me.

Will this post do anything about my situation? Deep down I kinda hope it will, but really... I don't expect it to, and I've accepted that. You gotta deal with what life gives you, and when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. That term is thrown around so much it sounds like white noise so I'll turn it into a metaphor that actually means something: If you're given shit, make something out of it. Well, I've been given shit, so here I am figuring out what to sculpt it into.

It's midnight where I live now, so I'll be going to sleep. When I wake up I hope to have the answer to my question.

Good night.

- Viva

[jihoonscafe]

wips tag !!

tagged by the brightest most lovely sunbeam in the universe @choco-seventeen !! thank you i lov u !!

most of these are intense work in progresses so i am going to show you bits of what i have come up with !!! [ i am also kinda hoping this motivates me to actually start working again but shh ]

01 » youtuber! au svt » joshua n jeonghan + reader » fluff n angst » series !!

camera rolling | video : The Kim Seokjin Incident.

“Today  I will be telling you about the very awaited story behind the Kim Seokjin incident, which I know you guys have been asking for relentlessly for the last few years now, and even though this story is one of my darkest times, for you guys I will relive the horror. Also sorry if the camera like moves sometime during the video and I look like someone shot me in the eye because I put my tripod in my store room a few days ago and you all know it is basically lost to the wilderness now so yeah."

The camera was the only one to hear you speak now, because later, more specifically in seven hours, there would be two million people watching you as you spilled about embarrassing moments in your life, such as you were going to do now. You shifted the camera, currently balanced on your extensive collection of old video game and phone boxes, so that the camera was at a better angle, looking into your view finder to confirm before looking up again.

Cozy in the warm sweater you had on, a gift from your dear friend Kyulkyung, you cleared your throat before beginning to speak again, comfortable with the glare of the camera on you.

“Okay, now that I am less capable of getting a heart attack from killing my camera, I can actually let you guys laugh at my ability to not be a functioning human being, so let’s begin.", you say, hands coming up to emote your speech as always, an instinctual action. “So you guys know how like when youtubers are at vidcon, we can like make videos and a lot of us y’know chill and make collabs with other youtubers. I have my own collab week during the days of vidcon which I make every year and others have their own projects they take on.", you continue speaking, trailing off, remembering how Joshua’s every year ritual was to have a paint war in one of the empty green rooms with friends, something you had been lucky to participate in for as long as you could remember as a youtuber.

You explain the setting, the convention centre’s rest area for the youtubers, a place full of bright couches and a lovely amount of conversation when everybody is not off doing things. At the time of the infamous incident, most people were off for a fan meet but since you, and Suhyun, your best friend, had already finished up a fan meet only around thirty minutes ago, you two were the lone ones in the room and you had both just visited the haven of subway and gotten yourself those long foot-longs for the cheap.

“Y’know how Subway sandwiches are right? Like you gotta eat them quick or they lose their appeal man so your girl out here was like on the couch, and Suhyun was already like taking off the paper and taking her first bite. So I was like right, and I took mine out too and began to eat, like I took that delicious first bite. Now rule no.2 of eating Subway, is that the first bite has to be big, and I mean not like “I am the ninth princess of Loralisa” big but like “I am a monster sumo wrestler who has been starved for nine days” big, like let it crumble in your mouth. So me, being me, stuffed it into my face and yeah it was bad, like there was drool and crumbs, there was some seriously furious chewing and both our faces were red from the walk before, so you can imagine when Kim Seokjin walks in, how we and him feel", you describe the scene, wanting it to flash into the viewer’s mind, wanting them to feel your second hand embarrassment while also laughing at the weird metaphors and feeling the laughter tickling up their throats.

“Kim Seokjin, also known as one of the most attractive people in the youtube community, said international model and actor, also my celebrity crush of at least two years. and just when I were just about to solidify my amazing first impression with him, he had to witness the horror which was me eating a subway sandwich. And he walked in right after the crumbs had rained down like a downpour, looking all perfect with his hair styled and a nice sophisticated long coat over a shirt and pants, and here me and Suhyun, both in horribly pudgy hoodies, faces red (which only got redder from that point) and mouths overly stuffed with Subway sandwich mush. Y’all know I love leaving strong impressions on people, and that sure was one for the ages. This makes me realise how much I hate myself, wow I am really such a mess.", you say out, face-palming slightly, ears completely red. No wonder your subscribers enjoyed these things, they were so embarrassing to say but hilarious to anybody who didn’t go through it.

“So like just saying from person to person, like key life pro tip, don’t eat Subway sandwiches within a 20 mile radius of your crush or idol because chances are you might get forever awkward with them witnessing their worst horror, people eating Subway according to the golden rules“, storytime done, now just the ending statement and then your long editing process would bring in, the very evidence you provided to anyone who asked if Youtube was an easy job to have.

Your ending statement flowed in naturally, after all, you had been doing it for four years of your life, you were so used to it, you bet you could say it in your sleep and once it was done and your links were mentioned, the camera was shut off by your "hand fairy" ending and put away, and last but not the least you collapsed onto your bed.

02 » barista! reader + soonyoung » fluff » one-shot

Twenty nine hours, Kwon Soonyoung had been awake for twenty nine hours.

His eyes seemed to be burning, his body begging for sleep and rest and he was on his third bag of chocolate coffee beans when he noticed that there seemed to be none catching onto his fingers as he dug for them in the comforting brown bag on his lap, his eyes still glued to his textbook, trying their best to actually absorb some of the damn information on the page.

Fuck everything. Fuck college, and fuck exams week.

A continuous chant of these words in his head, as he tore his eyes away from the bland paper of his book to the insides of the bag of coffee beans to find it empty and thus leaving poor old Soonyoung without his means of living, caffeine.

"I am going to the coffeeshop, fucking Einstein can hold his ass for a bit longer."

He thought, getting up from his desk which had become more a den for him to drool over his work and slap himself awake every time he began to nod off. Grabbing the nearest sweater off the floor, since the closet was too far away, he made his way out of the dorms and straight to the campus cafeteria.

Braving the cold wind was something not a lot of people were doing since most of them were cooped up in their own dorms, studying their asses off anyways, so he got there, and found it all completely empty as he looked through the windows of the place, sighing, relieved that he wouldn’t have to also wait in line after his horrible experience at life.

He didn’t miss the line at all, all the stupid grumbling college kids behind him, shouting for the person in front to hurry up so they could all go back to living their own miserable lives.

What poor old Soonyoung did miss was the glass door of the cafe.

The very glass door he just walked face-first into.

03 » soulmate! au wonwoo + reader » fluff » one-shot

At the tender age of six, child prodigy Jeon Wonwoo heard the first whisper of his soulmate in his thoughts, a confused and frustrated sounding voice of a little girl, probably unintended for his ears but he did hear and for a few seconds, he held the little table on which he sat in his grandfather’s office so tightly that his little knuckles turned white before his mind resurfaced a memory of the idea about soulmates, even if it didn’t happen so early on in life.

The statement spoken itself was a question, an incredibly easy one for him who read almost at middle school level and could do high school maths, a simple “What is a million divided by two", a question which seemed to have been asked of you as you spoke with quite intensity in your brain.

His answer was less intense, a small meek “It is five hundred thousand" to which came a “Oh my god, is there a ghost in my head" and he smiled, oh his soulmate was a cute thing.

“Thanks ghost", came in only a few seconds later and he giggled which made his grandfather shoot him a confused look from his desk on the other side of the room as wonwoo hid his face from view, instead looking down at his own messy little desk, filled with worksheets to work his mind rather than paint and crayons as it should have been at his age.

“I am not a ghost, I am your soulmate" “What? Soulmate! Isn’t that what mommies and daddies have?" “Yeah I guess, we are quite .. early i guess" “You talk like my grandpa"

That was the exact moment Wonwoo first realised that he liked his soulmate.

04 » nursery teacher! bts (hyungline) » yoongi + reader » fluff

The familiar "ding" of the bus’s bell rang as you reach up to press the bright yellow button, letting the driver know he was to stop, a gentle smile appearing on your face as the nursery, your work place, came into view, the place where you enjoyed the company of the small kids of your class and the equally interesting coworkers who worked at the small establishment in the better parts of the small town.

With a swing of your little bag back onto her shoulder, you get off the bus, your flats landing on the ground with a thud as you walked across the small front garden of the school, an adorable array of flowers growing at the sides of the graphite sidewalk and the smile on your face only grew as you spotted the peonies you and your class had planted, near the carnations Yoongi’s class had planted alongside.

The thought of Yoongi brought a light flush to your skin, your coworker who you had had a crush on what seemed like forever, right from your first day at work in this lovely place. Your first impression of him had been of a quiet, reserved person who could not possibly get along well with the excited kids you had seen bustling outside, entering the school.

But that impression of him had disappeared the second the first kid from his class came in and he broke into such a genuine, happy gummy smile that the kid only mirrored as he fell into his arms for a hug and your heart just refused to let go of him ever since.

Lost in your thoughts, you hung up your own coat beside the racks for your class, an example for the kids who were going to be coming and seeing where to put their own, in about an hour, and entered into the staff room, two hands going up in a greeting as you did, the hands of Hoseok and Seokjin, who were currently working on some sort of project for their kids.

Hoseok and Seokjin’s classes were nearer to each other just like Yoongi’s and yours so it had become an avid competition of the halls — where the two opposite sides of the hallways, i.e the right being yours and yoongi’s classes and the left being hoseok’s and seokjin’s, would be in “war” to get the best class of the hallway award (even if namjoon’s class had been winning it for the last two years).

It was one of your favourite activities, and was a great way to motivate the kids into doing something while also teaching them about maintaining healthy competitions. It was also just fun trying to beat Hobi and Seokjin with Yoongi because the other two always got so pouty if they lost, it was hilarious.

"Hello boys", you chirped, dropping into your own seat, placing for the warm paper bag you had been carrying with you on your desk, before removing its contents from within it, five warm coffees for each of the people in the staffroom, to power all of you to a good day with the kids since the kids were just too energetic for your older bodies to function without the coffee by your side.

You made your way to Seokjin’s table first considering he liked his coffee always warm and it might have gone cold if you hadn't, and with a smile on your face, placed it on his coaster as he looked up at you and gave you that smile which had all the girls in her class fawning in a few seconds, it was probably the reason why he never seemed to have any trouble in getting the kids in his class to listen to him.

"Thanks cutiepie"

“Seokjin please stop calling me that, especially in front of .."

"Ah, Yoongi?"

And at the mention of his name, the aforementioned boy looked up at them, his black hair messy, his eyes soft and droopy in a way which indicated that he had not had enough sleep the night before.

"Yes, Y/N?"

"Coffee?", your muttered, your face getting pinker by the moment as you reached over Seokjin’s desk and placed Yoongi’s coffee on his, mixed with two cubes of sugar and no milk, just like he had always liked it ever since she had begun to work here.

"Thanks Y/N, you really shouldn’t bother bringing coffee for us so often"

He said, his tone genuine as he thanked her and you smiled at him, wanting to respond but being interrupted by another hand picking a coffee out of your hands, a "I am guessing that one is for me, right?" sounding as Hoseok cheerfully plucks out the wrong drink from your hands, and right before you could correct him, takes a sip of the dark, no sugar, no milk coffee Namjoon always liked to drink.

"Oh for god’s- Namjoon take away your coffee from hell right now, I swear to god, how do you drink that?”, Hoseok screams, removing the cup instantly from his lips, pushing it away from himself, as he looked at Namjoon, giving him the most hilarious of judging looks, which causes you and Seokjin to break out into laughter.

Namjoon chuckled before removing away his cup and taking a sip out of it, as if to tease Hoseok for his extra reaction, and smiling before sitting himself down on his seat once again, just as you plonked down on yours, making a mental note to tidy up your table, the table next to Yoongi’s since both of you were in charge of the same age group of kids.

"I was wondering if we should give the kids some activities outside to do, since the weather is bettering and it seems like a nice experience for the kids", Yoongi spoke up and all eyes in the room trained on him, since he always spoke up with bright ideas which the others usually ended up going through with and you nodded, thinking about it.

"I am sure my kids would adore that, they are always looking for reasons to go outside anyways", Hoseok piped in and it was true, his class was probably the most active of the kids when it came to playing but Hoseok always managed to fit the learning element of school right with the playing element, which was why he was such a good teacher.

Both Seokjin and her had already consented, knowing their kids would whine to all heavens if they didn’t allow them out while the other classes were playing and Namjoon shrugged, understanding that the kids did deserve a break after so many weeks of prior rain which had lessened their play time by a lot.

thank u for tagging me lil cloud !!!!!!!! i had so much fun doing this honestly like i found horrible pieces of work n regretted many life choices but had fun liek rereading my works in progress.

i am going to tag @jinkistarlight​ (tho u can do it on @starshua if u wanna)  n @fluffyyeollie​ n @mint-tape​ !!! have fun friends (this is literally me trying to get extra things out of u but shh)

[hrrytomlinson]

so i’ve been making monthly fic recs for a full year now! that’s so insane to think about honestly. thanks for all the support! my first monthly fic rec was for april 2016 and it had 10 fics on it. now they have upwards of almost 30 fics. that’s character development. anyway...

here are a bunch of fics I’ve enjoyed and loved reading throughout the month of march. I recommend that you read these great fics in april, if you haven’t already. 

(all fics with a star are my favorites and if there are two stars then it was a favorite favorite)

1. Perfect Storm (80k)*

What do you do when your best friend asks you and your (now) ex to be the best men at his destination wedding? You can either tell him the truth, tell him you’re not together anymore, and deal with the consequences, or you can pretend you’re still together and roll with it, just pray you don’t spiral. Fake it ‘til you make it. You know, for the sake of the wedding.

Harry and Louis choose the latter.

2. The Night Sky is Changing Overhead (124k)**

Harry is a tattoo artist, Louis is a drama professor, and they meet during an argument at a café.

3. All I Wish Not to Remember (71k)**

What happens when all you had, all you loved, all you held dear is viciously ripped away from you? When your inner core, once filled with love and hope and light, blackens to raw, dark hatred?

What happens when your soul is hopelessly consumed and no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you attempt to shake yourself out, to rid your tormented mind of the opaque feelings that plague you, all you can see, all you can feel, all you can want is...

Revenge.

A modern adaption of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. A tragic tale of timeless undying love, merciless revenge, and selfless sacrifice.

4. I Sam Therefore I Am (4k)

Louis and Harry are both creative souls but they aren't friends, not by a long shot.

This is the Rival Slam Poets AU that no one asked for.

5. Use Your Words (6k)

College AU where jock!Harry always serenades flowercrown!Louis with love songs in their music class. What nobody knows is that Harry actually kinda means the words he sings.

But instead it's Louis as the jock and Harry as the flowerchild because I do what I want.

6. We’re Going Down Swinging (21k)

Everyone knows that revenge plots never work. Liam, Zayn, and Niall have told them as much, but Hell hath no fury like Louis Tomlinson scorned. His new friend Harry takes a bit of convincing but, once he agrees to help, Louis is sure his ex will regret the day he decided to cheat.

That is, if Louis can stick to the plan and stop falling for his co-conspirator.

Or, the one where Louis and Harry fake it til they make it, so to speak.

7. Looking in the Dark (With an Empty Heart) (25k)

In a perfect world One Direction is not interviewed by idiots. In a perfect world Harry doesn't have to defend his relationship with Louis.

Harry and Louis are out, and the whole world loves their love story, until an interviewer takes hints that they're together for a very long time now, and their libido must have changed since they were young. They don't say anything, until the media turns against them, saying their relationship must be very dull after all these years.

The only thing the media doesn't know, that Louis is asexual. His biggest fear is that Harry will leave him because of it, even though Harry grabs every chance to comfort him how perfect their relationship is, and he wouldn't want to change anything.

So when in an interview the host directly calls them out on their sex-life, Harry snaps at them without thinking, outing Louis.

8. It’s All Brand New Because of You (17k)

It’s nearing six o’clock in the evening, and despite the fact that it’s summer, the aquarium has emptied out considerably and it’s quiet as Louis wanders the exhibits. A few people try to ask him questions as he wanders, but Louis knows less about the creatures in the tanks than they do, so he keeps having to apologize and explain that he’s just a counselor, not a biologist.

AKA, Louis starts a new job as a summer camp counselor at the local aquarium and Harry is a biologist who really likes teaching people about the ocean.

9. Zero to Sixty in Three Point Five (2k)

Harry bumbles himself out of a bind...and into a boyfriend. It's Niall's fault, of course. As it always is.

10. Wings to Break Your Fall (102k)*

“I’m glad you like my clothes,” Harry whispers, sliding his arms further along the couch until he’s speaking directly into Louis’ ear. “Would you like me to take them off?”

Or Strip Club AU. Harry’s work and family are keeping him busy. He really isn’t looking for a relationship, doesn’t want one. He just wants Louis. Problem is, Louis has other plans.

Featuring: spilled drinks, meddling mums, accidental insults, a pivotal plot point masquerading as a private dance, Harry with wings, slow morning sex, a secret relationship, and tea that fixes everything.

11. For the Sake of Propriety (52k)

Louis Tomlinson is the caretaker of an estate that is not truly his, and when his Uncle calls upon him to take it back, Louis knows he will soon be out on the streets with four overly zealous sisters to care for. His only solution: wed the eldest two off and pray for the best. When an even better solution unexpectedly presents itself in the form of the charming Mr. Styles, Louis is faced with a difficult choice. But as with all things in the regency era, reputation very well may threaten to outweigh the fleeting matters of his heart.

12. Feels Like Coming Home (60k)**

The last thing Harry Styles expects when he's hanging out at the Someday Cafe in Somerville one rainy October day is for his ex, Louis Tomlinson to walk through the door, but that's exactly what happens. After a spectacularly ugly break-up three years prior, Harry hasn't heard one word from Louis, and he's moved on. Gotten over him. But having Louis back in his life, not to mention working at the restaurant where he's a chef, isn't easy, and the feelings that Harry thought he'd left turn out to be not so easily forgotten.

This is a story about love and the power of forgiveness, and how the hard choices we make define us, and change our lives.

13. Love Is a Kitten From Hell (8k)**

Louis Tomlinson passes himself off as an arrogant prick at his new school to hide the fact that he's terrified of being bullied again. Just when he's getting tired of putting up walls, he finds himself in a local pet shop where he finds a sanctuary playing with the kittens in the front window.

Harry Styles is the popular football player who works at the pet shop, secretly watching the boy he thought was utterly unlikable prove him wrong.

Partnered together for a class project, Harry gets more and more hints that Louis is actually someone worth getting to know. But the real question is, will Louis let Harry in?

14. Our Garden Grows (5k)*

Harry lives a rather mundane and dreary life, full of the same sorts of routine day in and day out.

One terribly dull and rainy day, a letter arrives from an L.T. who would very much wish for Harry to write back.

Too bad Harry can't figure out how.

15. I've Been Wandering Round (But I Still Come Back to You) (27k)

"Harry had always been beautiful, but lately he’d blossomed into this tall, sexy, man and Louis was having trouble dealing with it. And so, it seemed, were his hormones."

OR The one where Louis and Harry are best friends and co-stars on a popular television series and Louis inconveniently discovers he's in love with him in the middle of a press tour.

16. When We Were Younger (76k)**

About a week after Harry started visiting this particular chat room, he was watching some kid argue with the whole room about football, personally disinterested as he tipped a bag of crisps into his mouth. He happily chomped on the crumbs, taking a swig from a glass of Ribena to wash them down, glancing at the screen and very nearly spat the squash back out again.

His heart was pounding wildly. The display icon of the argumentative newcomer had caught his eye, and not in a good way. He gulped as he clicked the picture, and when it popped up in full resolution, his heart nearly fell right out of his arse.

Sixteen year old Harry Styles’ world turns upside down when he logs on to gay teen chat to discover somebody has stolen his photos and used them as their own.

17. Can't Start A Fire Without A Spark (22k)**

Louis Tomlinson is the pop sensation with his first new single out since taking a personal hiatus from the spotlight. Harry is a paparazzi hired to photograph him during promo. Louis hates paparazzi with a passion, but there’s just something about the pretty young pap with wide green eyes and chocolate curls that Louis can’t shake from his head.

18. ‘Til I Tasted You (14k)*

Louis is Harry Styles' biggest fan. It doesn't matter that Harry is famous for being a food blogger and Louis can't cook to save his life.

At least, until Harry offers to give Louis a cooking lesson. Then it matters just a teensy bit.

19. Life Was a Song, You Came Along (37k)**

It's embarrassing how long it takes Louis to recognize his own song. Niall had sung it as a bright, hopeful love song, and that’s honestly how Louis had always assumed it should sound. But this new voice, slow and rough, stripped of any backing instrument, has infused the lyrics with just the tumultuous mix of fear and defiance that Louis can remember so clearly from the night he wrote them.

It’s not a comfortable thing, to feel like someone is singing all your secrets back to you.  

Louis is a songwriter trapped in a lie that could ruin his best friend's career. Harry owns a record store, distrusts everyone in the music industry on principle, but loves Niall Horan's newest album. A modern retelling of Singin' in the Rain.

find my other monthly fic recs here

[karenblumberg]

“Today we program computers and machines. Tomorrow we will program matter itself.” @SkylarTibbits of @MIT‘s Self-Assembly Lab #Construct3D pic.twitter.com/8SMbaBJW5i

— Karen Blumberg (@KarenBlumberg) May 6, 2017

I am thoroughly enjoying this inaugural #Construct3D conference, and I hope to return for additional annual events to follow! Day 2 including another jam-packed schedule of speakers and workshops. See the full line-up here: https://construct3d2017.sched.com/

This morning’s keynote was delivered by Skylar Tibbits of MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab! He shared many awesome futuristic projects with smart materials that he and/or the lab have designed/created/explored including: 1. Fluid assembly furniture 2. 4D printing explorations (materials changes over time – just like Slaughterhouse Five) 3. Programmable materials 4. Aerial assemblies of weather balloons 5. Auxetic materials 6. Rapid liquid printing 7. Rock printing Skylar’s last slide stated, “Today we program computers and machines. Tomorrow we will program matter itself.”

Following the keynote, I remained in the ballroom for Eric Schimelpfenig‘s session entitled, My Making Journey. Eric described himself as a lackluster student who nevertheless amassed an impressive repertoire of skills which he now puts to use as a digital designer and fabricator. Eric’s website is full of his work and passion projects. Here’s a time-lapse video of Eric assembly the foosball table he designed in Sketchup…

Next, I went downstairs towards Tim Pelton’s Whittling, Learning and Engaging with 3D Printing in Elementary School. Among much other information delivered, Tim shared the story of Austin’s Butterfly and how it evolved via critique & multiple drafts. https://vimeo.com/38247060

I headed next door to play with Sharri Duncan, Joanna McCumber, and a whole lot of 3D pens and filament in their 3D Drawing at Our Fingertips session. Their slides are here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1u6zAkjwMRpgBeP6hXBJ4wVCPfuKFCg7PjVn8y5R0_gY/edit#slide=id.g35f391192_00

Following this, I attended Using 3D Printed Surfaces in an Inquiry Style Multivariable Calculus Course with Michael Gagliardo. Back in my Bryn Mawr College days, I used #Mathematica in Multivariable Calculus to design 3D digital models of graphs that we could then view on a 2D computer screen. Nowadays, it’s a simple matter to print these graphs in various materials and hold them in your hands. The future is awesome!

After this was a great talk by Tom Burtonwood about his work, Beyond the Inflection Point – Lessons Learned from 3D Printing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tom has an assortment of his projects on his website here: http://tomburtonwood.com/

Then I stopped by Josh Burker‘s session, Bits From Atoms: Logo and FabricationBits From Atoms: Logo and Fabrication. I’m a huge fan of Josh and his inspiring personal and school projects. His resources from today’s workshop can be found here: http://joshburker.pbworks.com/w/page/117371211/Bits%20to%20Atoms%3A%20Logo%20and%20Fabrication%20-%20Construct3D

I then headed over to a much-anticipated talk from Corinne Takara, CAD Design and 3D Printing as Community and Culture Building Tools. I was made aware of Corinne’s inspirational work through many tweets I saw retweeted by other Maker Educators who I follow. Meeting her in person was a thrill! Among many incredible projects, Corinne shared about her work with a mobile maker cart in Japantown, San Jose, where she had visitors design and create netsuke (obi ornaments traditionally worn by men), a project getting people to design personalized skulls (calaveras) celebrating the life of  a deceased loved one for Dia de Los Muertos, and her mycelium chandelier project. Check out Corinne’s glorious work on her site: http://www.okadadesign.com/ The slides from her impressive session are here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_RQS03QhVxXLbjYOfTBfD9YGM3fHH000dGNrmI2QgJw/mobilepresent?slide=id.p

I’m bummed I missed Justin Riley‘s session, It’s Turtle Graphics All The Way Down. We chatted later, and he helped me compare and contrast BeetleBlocks and BlocksCAD. Based on his extensive knowledge and experience using BeetleBlocks with middle schoolers, I agree that it’s a more age-appropriate tool. Also, here is a link to his session’s slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XfZSRYLQlUH8zVlFyAA8mkdptH8sHRW-EVsWWesegOU/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000&slide=id.phttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XfZSRYLQlUH8zVlFyAA8mkdptH8sHRW-EVsWWesegOU/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000&slide=id.p

Comparing @BlocksCAD and @BeetleBlocks with @KarenBlumberg #Construct3D #Construct3D2017 pic.twitter.com/JXhanMefhs

— Justin Riley (@20hz20khz) May 6, 2017

Next up was a session by Mark Peeters, OpenSCAD Makes Coding, Math and 3D Printing Accessible to Elementary Students. His resources are in a Google Drive Folder here: tinyurl.com/kxseykr Mark shared a mindblowingly simple trick for folding paper to represent a 3D axis! The PDF of his template is in his resources folder.

I then went upstairs to hear from the inimitable Tim Cooper about Creating a 3D Printing Culture in Your School. Among other projects, Tim shared that since his students wear uniforms, some of them 3D designed and printed tie-clips and bowties for themselves and the community.

At this point, I rushed out to a hallway to join Melda Yildiz‘s SpeedTECH Conference at New York Institute of Technology (via Zoom video conferencing) and gush about edcamp for 5 minutes. It’s kinda remarkable to me that I remembered AND made it on time. Yay!

Thrilled to share about #edcamp and @edcampnyc with @myildiz‘s @NYIT SpeedTECH Conference participants! #edchat #whyiedcamp @EdcampUSA pic.twitter.com/X9FMxMWWtO

— Karen Blumberg (@KarenBlumberg) May 6, 2017

After this escalation to my heart rate, I popped in on Anna Engelke session, Outside the Box: Teaching 3D Printing with Low-Tech STEM Activities. I love a balance between high-tech and low-tech, and Anna had a few stations to explore different ways to address possible limitations with time, tools, and other resources. One table had to keep a pen upright at the center of a “wheel” of strings held by each participant, They were tasked with writing on a piece of paper as a collaborative effort. Such a great team building activity!

After this, I stopped by 3D Printing in the Art Room with Wendy Aracich. Wendy shared awesome student projects for elementary, middle, and upper schoolers using Tinkercad, Inkscape, Blender, and Sculptris. She also shared slides of thought-provoking artists and works to inspire her students. I’d love to get a link to her slide deck…

Finally, it was time for dinner and pre-dinner PechaKucha talks — 20 images, 20 seconds per image, no clickers. We were lucky to hear from the following great minds:

Corinne Takara shared about how the design and prototyping process is often more important than the final product in her presentation Elevating the Process Over the Print/ Guiding K-12 Students in 3D Printing Challenges

Cole Takara (Corinne’s son) offered incredible examples of his exploration with 3D printing and designs based on his research in the Humanities in his talk, Blending 3D Printing and Humanities, a Student’s Perspective (side note, Cole is in 10th grade and began 3D designing/printing in 7th grade)

Josh Ajima brought it all home with his presentation, 0 Things, and how he and his students promote social justice and awareness by posting designs to Thingiverse where previously there were 0 results from a search. Check out his Thingiverse postings here: https://www.thingiverse.com/DesignMakeTeach/about

Wonderful @PechaKucha talks from @CorinneTakara @TakaraCole @DesignMakeTeach to close out Day 2 of #Construct3D! #edchat #MakerEd #STEAM pic.twitter.com/nlFJyMMwdO

— Karen Blumberg (@KarenBlumberg) May 7, 2017

There was a lovely gift to attendees flickering around the lobby and dining areas: Holey Cylinder 3D printing votive candles designed by Christopher Hanusa, aka Math Art Shop, and printed at Duke’s CoLab Studio…

#HoleyCylinder 3D printed votive candle holders designed in #Mathematica by @mathartshop for #Construct3D participants! #artsed #STEMed pic.twitter.com/R62CvLo8V6

— Karen Blumberg (@KarenBlumberg) May 6, 2017

And now, after a 16-hour day of learning, sharing, and networking, I’m officially tired and closing my laptop for the night.

Notes from Day 2 of #Construct3D hosted by @DukeU. #MakerEd #STEMed #STEAM "Today we program computers and machines. Tomorrow we will program matter itself." @SkylarTibbits of @MIT's Self-Assembly Lab…

[mariethecrocheter]

Reflections of the Past Year & Thoughts For the Next

2016 was a pretty busy year, and for a whole lot of reasons. Some good, some bad, some...meh. (Whatever that means.)

I just wanted to take a few minutes to write about some stuff: a few games released over the past 12 months that were really important to me, some things that I plan to/hope to do over the next year, some personal challenges, and, most of all, my gratitude to everyone who has been putting up with me for the past...3+ years? That’s how long I’ve been on Tumblr? Time really flies, doesn’t it?

I have met so many friendly people through Tumblr and Twitter, and I am deeply grateful for all the kind comments and support! Let’s make 2017 a good one, right? Even though the rest of the world may be pretty bad right now argh

Anyways, time to briefly(?) delve DEEPLY AND IN A RAMBLING MANNER into some of the highlights of 2016 and discuss what’s to come in 2017!

First and Foremost: Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns Japanese release: 23 June 2016 North American release (tentative): 28 Feb 2017

A game celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Bokumono franchise! 1996 was the 20th anniversary of the series in the Japanese market, while 2017 is the 20th anniversary in the North American market. (And we now have two different series in the English-speaking world: the original series, now called Story of Seasons and localized by XSEED, and Natsume’s independently-made Harvest Moon games!)

Trio of Towns was first announced at the end of 2015, and released in Japan during the summer of 2016. I’ve been covering it on a side blog, http://friendsof3villages.tumblr.com/, so check that out if you haven’t already. (Seriously, though, I think about 90% of the people who subscribe to this blog subscribe to that one too, haha. Hooray for Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons love!)

@xseedgames is going to be bringing this title to North America early this year. Just a couple more months! 

Just a couple more months until we can shear our rabbits in English!! Heh heh. 

One question that I get asked from time to time is: is this game worth getting? If you liked previous instalments in the series (Story of Seasons, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, etc.), then my answer would be YES!! If, like me, you really enjoyed those games, you’ll probably like this one. The controls and basic systems are very similar, but there are a lot of new features that will keep you busy. 

They made some improvements based on feedback they got about Story of Seasons: The story is easier to clear, there are more heart events for each marriage candidate, and the reverse confession/proposal scenes are pretty easy to trigger this time around. 

If, however, you weren’t as much of a fan of the two previous games, well... I’d still suggest you give this game a fair try if you get the chance, but I understand if it may not be your cup of tea. 

I haven’t had the chance to try Natsume’s new game yet (Skytree Village) so I can’t say anything on it. I do hope to get the chance to play it sometime, though! I...kind of have a backlog of games I want to/need to play... xD

The next most important game was Fire Emblem Fates, which came out in North America in February 2016. 

I have no physical copy of Fates or its Japanese version, so here’s a picture of the only physical Fates-related object I own: the beautifully boxed Japanese soundtrack! ...plus the other two games that made my year. Ahem. ^^; (And this totally wasn’t a test for photographing items on that shelf with the intention of later photographing some crocheted kitchen items I plan to sell. ...Kidding. This was a photography test. xD)

I’ve been doing some translations for the DLC here on this blog: http://fe14festivalofbondstranslations.tumblr.com/ Fellow admin Kiyoshi and I are going to finish up the Hoshidan Festival DLC soon, and...we’d like to translate more CD drama tracks. 

...I have no idea why the Nohrian and Hoshidan Festival DLC isn’t available outside of Japan, but I hope we see it released in the English-speaking world this year! I’m dying to see what kind of adjustments they make in the English version. The conversations give us more insights into character relationships, and perceptions of them can change or give us greater insight depending on how the conversation is presented.

I plan to do some translation comparison posts on Fates after the festival translation is complete. I have a couple of topics that I want to write about I just...haven’t yet. (Most of them involve Kana, Forrest, and Soleil, who seems to have more changes to her English support convos than any other character.)

Slight changes in her conversations with her mother, for one... Details later. Mwahahaha. (They’re slight, though. But kinda cool.)

The Surprise Hit (For Me): Pokémon Sun & Moon

Until December 2016, I hadn’t touched a Pokémon game in about 15 years. But, I have fond memories of the early games...

Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version (both for the Game Boy) came out when I was in high school. I scoffed at them until trying my brother’s Red Version one day when I was very, very bored...and I liked it! I had my own GBC and managed to get a copy of Blue Version, and I liked it a lot. I also got Yellow Version after it came out, and after Gold and Silver were announced and released in Japan, I was miffed that I would have to wait a year or more to play them. I was so miffed, I decided to get the Japanese versions (through...means that I later realized were less than legal ^^;;;;;;;) and teach myself Japanese! And...I managed to do it. Somehow. xD I went through the ENTIRE Silver Version with a hiragana/katakana chart, a dictionary, and basic grammar/phrasebook I repeatedly checked out from the library (and my dad later bought them for me). Maybe I didn’t understand much of what was going on, but I got enough out of it to enjoy the game.

In other words, Pokémon Silver Version was the MAIN REASON I took up the Japanese language! Crazy, huh? 

But then I started college and lost interest. Gaming had to take a backseat for a while, and I just didn’t want to devote time to another series. (I lost interest in Fire Emblem for a long time due to this and other reasons, too.)

But, after hearing a lot of praise for Sun and Moon, especially praise about the story and character development (two things I love in a game), and attracted by the bright, cheery style, I decided to give them a try. And I love them! I’m fully hooked again! Goodbye, free time. Don’t need you anymore. 

The thing I found most intriguing is the number of languages available. This one was released simultaneously in English and Japanese!! I couldn’t even imagine that back in 1999 or 2000 or whenever it was that Gold and Silver were released!

I still have my copy of Yellow Version, and... I have my brother’s Red and (English) Gold versions. ...In fact, I have his Yellow, as well...? And where are my Blue and (English) Silver...? I have no idea, lol. He must have mine, and I have his...? Anyway, the battery that saves the data is long dead on all but one of them (I already forgot which one, though I know it wasn’t Gold but one of the older ones), so it doesn’t matter too much. 

In case you’re wondering: my favorite Pokémon of the original 151 (152 if you count Missingno! xD) are Clefable and Dragonair. (And Dragonite, but not quite as much.) Of the next generation, Pichu and Bellosom. (Who I always think of by its Japanese name: Kireihana.) I’ve now found myself quite fond of Lilligant (because it looks like Bellosom!), Comfey, and the various Oricorios! ...I’m a sucker for plant and fairy types, heh.

Moving Forward &  Personal Challenges & ...?

I want to branch out so I’m now doing a little work with Source Gaming, translating columns and such of one of my favorite game developer, Masahiro Sakurai. I’ve only done a couple, but this year I have some other interviews by a certain game producer that I want to translate and cover in-depth...

Yoshifumi Hashimoto Interviews

There’s a long interview with him in one of last year’s issues of Nintendo Dream. I’m sure others have already translated it, but... I want to do a FULL, thorough translation of the article because there’s a lot of interesting facts and trivia in it. He’s been the producer of the Bokujou Monogatari series since 2005, or for more than half the life of the series. (He took over upon the departure of creator Yasuhiro Wada.)

And there’s Mr. Hashimoto himself!

There’s an interview with him in the back of the guidebooks, too... AND some interesting trivia in the short official guidebooks! There’s a lot of trivia to be translated and shared! x)

In Conclusion

There’s so much to do this year, and I look forward to working on new projects when I’m able to! =D Unfortunately my health declined a bit in 2016, as some symptoms I hoped were temporary turned out to be long-lasting or even permanent, but it’s just one more thing learn to cope with and work around. That’s the nature of chronic illness, urgh. I’m used to it, but it still stinks. (In case you’re curious, I have something very similar to multiple sclerosis, so it really feels like I’m waging a war against the effects of time itself...)

Regardless of what happens, I’ve got a lot of stuff planned for the year. I’m especially looking forward to the English release of Trio of Towns, because I’m eager to see the writing in the English version! There are always small (and sometimes, big) changes and tweaks made to the localised English version, and comparing it to the Japanese one will be a lot of fun. I hope to get several more translated resident and heart events up before the game comes out in English, though! (And, if you must ask, my favorite bachelors are still Yuzuki and Ludus, and my favorite bachelorettes are the twins, Siluka especially. I like Kasumi a lot too. ...Actually, I like ALL the marriage candidates, so it’s hard to choose absolute favorites. The additional heart events and additional dialogue give the characters more depth and development than many of the previous games.)

That’s about all I have to say right now. Pretty much. Yep. Oh, wait, you read all this? Wow. xD Um, here, have a hug! **hug**

[nikkifinnie-blog]

Bogans share their music full of spit, spirit, hilarity and energy.

BOGAN-Australian/NZ word: An uncouth or unsophisticated person regarded as being of low social status: some bogans yelled at us from their cars/my family are culinary bogans.

Bogans are an energetic punk band from North Wales consisting of Adam Wright on vocals, Joe Reynolds on lead guitar, Jimmy Wright on rhythm guitar, Tom Hamblett on bass and Lewis Jones on drums.  They are an absolutely hilarious bunch whose music is uniquely their own full of spit, spirit, hilarity and energy and reminds me a bit of a mash up of Anti-Flag, NOFX and Rancid with a sprinkle of The Bouncing Souls thrown in.  I was lucky enough to speak to these lads before they took off for a few dates in Finland and of course, hilarity ensued..

Erin: Well hello there! Adam: Sorry, my dog is trying to hump anyone he can at the moment, and is currently getting intimate with Joes arm. I guess that’s probably an interesting way to start off an interview? Erin: Oh please, totally normal!  How are you guys? Bogans: We’re good.  We are happy to have an interview! Erin: I know you guys have some shows coming up. Bogans: Yes, we have quite a few including 2 in Finland. Erin: I saw that on your Facebook page! Bogans: Yeah, we’ve been quite lucky with that.  Actually, funny enough our second gig was in Finland. Erin: Really? Why Finland? Bogans: We stayed in touch with a few friends that had come over years ago and I mentioned that we had a new band that started and they asked us to come over, so we did! Erin: How’s the punk scene over there? Bogans: It’s awesome! Absolutely awesome! They definitely like the drink over there, which to be honest so do we! Erin: That’s my kind of country! Bogans: Last time we were there, we got rather destroyed before we went on stage and it went down as an absolute blast and everybody loved it. I think we’re doing better in Finland than we are in the U.K. to tell you the truth! Erin: That’s so crazy! Bogans: Yeah, it’s weird but we’ve made a lot of friends out there and discovered a lot of amazing drinks like long drink and salmiakki. I would drink that stuff till my face falls off! Erin: What the hell is in that? Bogans: It’s like a salty, licorice vodka.  It sounds absolutely disgusting but I swear if you try it, it will blow your mind! Erin: So when did your dream of starting a band begin? Bogans: Well, with us guys it started off when Lewis here, basically approached me about starting a band.  When he was younger, like one of his college courses, he had to put on a gig and he got in my old band, SmackRats. Do you want to describe how it ended up? Lewis: I had to put a gig on for our final, so exam I suppose, project.  So I asked Adam’s band and I was in a band with Joe as well at the time, basically we got banned from the venue. Erin: Why? Lewis: Adam doesn’t know how to stay grounded for one, so he’s walking over people’s tables, kicking pint glasses off.  The microphone got damaged, it was good though! Adam: I ruined his project. Lewis: I did pass though! Adam: It was a messy one and a lot of drinks got ruined that night. Lewis: Still to this day he’s walking all over bars! Adam: Yep! Well, it’s a challenge-you gotta go for it!  If there’s a bar there and you can get your head behind it and over the top and try to get a few free drinks while you’re playing. It’s a potluck game, sometimes the bar staff laugh, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you get beer, sometimes you get a facefull of line cleaner. You just have to take the chances. Erin: Nothing wrong with that! So after that you ended up forming the band and playing together? Lewis: No, that was going back 10 years ago.  We had other bands prior to this band and there was nothing really much going on. Adam: I was getting a bit bored, like normal life was getting to me a little bit.  So I needed a bit of fun time, really to vent out the frustration.  And then I bumped into Lewis here who was up for the band and that’s how we carried on really, you know?  A good way of blowing off steam. Erin: I know you guys are kind of skate punk but then I hear a bit of hardcore influence.  Who are your major influences? Adam: Everyone’s a bit different.  We all have our own taste in punk.  To be honest, I don’t think we sound like ANYONE really! Lewis: We all like Bad Religion and NOFX and Pennywise. Adam: Yeah, I’d say we’re quite influenced by American punk bands and quite a bit of Australian punk bands. Erin: What Australian punk bands?  I’ve spent some time in Melbourne, St. Kilda. Tom: (speaking to Lewis,) That’s where your mum’s from! Adam: Oh yeah!  The Aussie bands reflect a little bit in our music.  The term “Bogan” itself is like an Aussie redneck. We do look up to a lot of the Aussie bands.  It would be nice to get there one day, but to be honest, for us it would be a bit expensive. Erin: It is expensive to get there, but once you’re there the live music scene is INSANE. Lewis: About the live music scene, I was over in Australia and literally every bar there’d be a band playing.  And Helsinki as well.  I think of this other time, this festival we were playing, something small, but people will actively go out and watch a band.  Where like here, in Wrexham, there’s tons of bands, there’s a few venues, and when they play no one goes to watch. Adam: We make the best of what we get and if the crowd is small, that’s the best time to put on more of a show really!  I do have a tendency of rugby tackling people. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always end well! I broke me ribs a few gigs ago. Lewis: Second song in. Adam: Second song in, managed to break me ribs.  I was crawling around on the floor and someone decided to jump on my back and suddenly my ribs go “POP”! I swear I felt each of my ribs pop out. it was agony. Erin: Did you finish the set? Adam: Well, yeah! (We all start laughing.) Just kept myself inebriated and plodded on!  A few whiskeys made it a bit easier! Erin: Whiskey always does!  So, how did you all end up playing the instruments you do? Tom: I just liked bass. Erin: When did you start playing? Tom: About 15 years ago. I started at school. Adam: Yeah, a lot of these guys all went to school together. Lewis: Drums were the only thing I could play!  I just like simple, fast punk beats, so I started with that and then just carried on doing it! Adam: In all fairness though, when we started the band, you (Lewis) did learn to play some guitar to try and write the songs. Lewis: There was a couple of years when I wasn’t really doing anything and I sold me drums and then our friend from college, John, left his guitar at my house.  That was 10 years ago and he still asks for it back!  Taught meself basic chords and then just came up with some ideas.  Then, I was drumming for another band and you know how you can hear riffs in your head? But I could never play them to the other band. Then that band didn’t go anywhere and I sort of started the basis of the first 2 tracks of the Bogans EP and then took it to the practice room and there you go! There’s always ideas coming out of the brain. Adam: This is Jimmy, the newest member of the band, since January. Erin: Wow that is new!  Hi Jimmy! Adam: Jimmy has been awesome!  He sort of jumped in with like, both feet.  And this is our main guitarist and part time dog romancer Joe. Erin: Hello Joe! Joe: My mates brought a guitar over when I was like 15 or 16 and I enjoyed messing around on guitar so I went and bought one the week after that.  That’s how I started. Erin: You just fell in love with guitar and you went from there? Joe: Yeah.  And I just play all the time. Adam: He pretty much just thinks and talks music.  As for me, I have no actual talent!  I have no rhythm or singing ability actually!  But I can run around and rugby tackle people. Erin: And kick over pint glasses! Adam: Yeah!  Being a front man gives me that option!  Rugby tackle people while on stage and get away with it!  Rugby tackle people when you’re not on stage, you get your face bent in! Erin: Do you have any successes you’ve achieved since you guys have been together? Lewis: People like us more in Finland more than home! Erin: Why do you think that is? Lewis: People generally go out to watch a gig!  I think that’s it.  The problem here is, people go to a gig just to watch the headlining band.  Like 3 people will actually turn up and watch the entire gig from openers to headliners.  I kinda like the nonchalant clap people do at the end of a song.  Is it because we suck and people don’t get the music? I’d like to think it’s both. Adam: Personally, I think the British nightlife has been murdered really, because the pub industry is being killed by Wetherspoons which is KILLING live music. Pubs have all gone a  nice safe shade of light beige, Nightclubs are all very, very generic and the price of alcohol going up as well as the smoking ban has really sort of killed off a lot of the British scene. I mean, people are becoming hermits and won’t leave the comforts of home,but when we GET them out and they come to a gig, they have a blast at our show.  I just think it’s a shame in our country.  A few years ago, you’d get a lot more people out before the smoking ban and booze was cheaper.  It’s just bloody expensive!  Even drugs are more expensive!  I think we got to try and bring it back a bit ‘coz if you don’t try, what’s the point? Erin: So then would you say your biggest success is building up a fan base in Finland? Adam: Yeah probably.  I’d say that is definitely one of our biggest successes. Lewis: The EP as well, people seem to like it so I think as far as successes go, we haven’t released a crappy thing! Erin: You’ve gotten a lot of good reviews on the EP so that’s definitely a positive.  For me, having grown up not exactly in Los Angeles, but outside in Huntington Beach which is home for surf and skate punk, so listening to your music is kind of that same thing I grew up listening to, so it’s familiar to me.  I grew up listening to the Adolescents, the Vandals, NOFX even though they were from up north, all those bands.  You guys have fun with it, don’t you? Adam: Definitely.  I mean, you can tell we enjoy what we’re doing.  I think it comes across in the music, that and the general frustration of life.  It’s a catharsis really, you know.  It’s going on stage and playing music as just a way to blow off steam really.  I mean, I really needed it anyway!  I was going mental before I was in the band, with my humdrum repetitive computer based job and I was just fucking miserable really.  It really sorted it out for me and I think that really comes out in the music. Lewis: I just like the idea really, of having all our influences rolled into one and people can relate to it.  I find it difficult to listen to new bands that define themselves by a subgenre.  I can’t really relate to it.  We’re a punk rock band but I think other people might try to put us in a subcategory if you know what I mean? We just want to sound like us. Play the music we like to play. So I find it quite hard to listen to new bands who aim for a particular set style in the way they sound. Yeah we are influenced by what we grew up listening to, but the final product is different. The music is just us expressing ourselves. Although, I sort of like the idea of the next generation saying, “that’s what I grew up listening to bands like THAT”. Hopefully someone might include us in their list of influences one day, but I doubt it. Adam: I think if you dissected our EP musically it might sound like what we were listening to when we were kids, but as a whole I can’t say we sound like any of them. The influence is still there at the EP’s heart though from allsorts of bands we listened to growing up. Erin: Like the Queers, Adolescents, Vandals, where you’re not taking yourself too seriously.  There’s not too much politics or all that bullshit in it, you know what I mean? Adam: There’s a bit of politics in it.  We do introduce politics.  It’s weird.  I think we sound like everybody and nobody at the same time.  It’s all the people we love and none of them at the same time.  It’s weird ‘coz we get mentioned in with U.K. ’82 and I don’t think we sound like the U.K. ’82 bands.  At the same time, maybe we’ve got a bit of skate punk going. Erin: It’s a mishmash of all of it but you’ve developed your own sound and your own way of doing it. Adam: Definitely.  It’s our way of doing it. Lewis: But with each of our own influences. Adam: I think each of us brings our own little bit to the table. Erin: Do you have a funny story of when you were on the road or something crazy that happened at one of your shows that you want to share?  Something that’s just like ridiculous?  It can be as obscene or obnoxious as you want! Adam: Basically we managed to play this gig which is referred to as “Mad Friday,” which is the last Friday before Christmas and everybody is absolutely smashed!  We’re going back and the petrol light goes on.  And we drive past the petrol station, we’re talking out into werewolf country, like full on American Werewolf in London, no lights for miles.  No one on the road because everybody is drunk!  And, the car DIES.  So, I leave these guys in the car and walk in the pitch black to get some diesel, which you never paid me for by the way Lewis! Lewis: And he comes back, puts the diesel in the car and we find I’ve drained the battery watching Simpsons videos in the car! Erin: Oh shit! Adam: So, we got petrol and now can’t start the car. Erin: And no one is out driving so it’s not like you could get a jump start from anyone! Adam: Exactly!  So in the end I’m like, I’ve had enough!  I go down this dark county lane again, walk miles to the nearest town again in the pitch black dark and there I call a taxi because it’s the nearest location I can say is a landmark, sorry the dog’s humping Joe again! So, I call this taxi and it never comes and in the meantime these guys managed to get the engine fixed, so I’m left there, freezing by the bloody cold river, must’ve been 4:00 in the morning.  They came back to get me a couple of hours later.  I’d say yeah, that’s probably one of our disasters along the way! Joe: Or the photos… Erin: Photos?  What photos?!? Joe: We were staying in a hostel in Finland and it was 5 in a single room.  We were all going to sleep and I was naked and I decided to put my legs behind my head and blatantly exposed everything.  That photo is now everywhere! Erin: Well at least you’re flexible! Adam: He’s the only one in the band that doesn’t really drink!  He just does stuff for a laugh! Erin: Those are the ones you always have to watch out for! Adam: At least we have an excuse when we do stupid shit! and don’t forget the video of him eating caramelised onion hummus from his bumcrack. I must’ve sent that video to every promoter I could find. It may have put me off the smell of hummus for life but it may have helped us get a few gigs. Poor promoters didn’t expect that. Erin: Vinyl, tape, CD or digital music? Joe: Vinyl. Adam: I don’t know.  For collection purposes, vinyl is awesome.  But having said that, I’m cheap and generally can only afford CD’s! Lewis: I prefer mini discs!  I think it would be cool to have stuff released on vinyl but then again it just comes down to funds.  I can’t even burn a CD on my laptop anymore because it doesn’t have one!  For me at the minute, it’s digital! Adam: I think digital has given us the freedom to get our music to more people easily and at less cost.  So that has its benefits.  But it’s still not the same as being able to actually hold something.  When you bought a record or CD back in the day, you spent more time with it.  Before you even got home you’d be looking through the book, ready with anticipation.  I think we’re maybe missing a little bit of that nowadays, really. Erin: You can’t get that on Spotify or iTunes. Adam: It sort of carries on with the whole “I want everything now” image that our generation is getting.  Our attention spans are shrinking.  You don’t listen to an album with the same love.  You don’t get to learn to love the track 7 that you didn’t like the first time you heard the album. When you spend money on buying an album you bloody well make sure you listen to it to death. When it’s digital and you’re streaming things, you’re not really listening to the whole thing. It can become background music or you’re just skipping from song to song.  I listen to a lot of music in me car so I don’t always get the option of skipping tracks, so I still have that same passion for albums. Erin: So when can we expect your next EP? Adam: We don’t know about a release date yet but we’ve got a recording date. Lewis: The end of summer I’d imagine. Adam: That being said, we’re still trying to raise the money for the last one!  It’s fucking expensive! So we’re all feeling a bit of that.  Except for Joe.  He feels nothing. Erin: Joe, are you dead inside? Joe: No, I’m good! Adam: He’s very dead inside! Erin: So what other plans you’ve got in the immediate future?  You’ve got some recording time.  I know you’ve got shows coming up in Finland, then also Macclesfield a couple more in the UK? Lewis: We’ve got quite a bit going for us.  Focus Wales, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it? Erin: No, I haven’t!  Is it a festival? Lewis: It’s a 3 day festival (10-12 of May in Wrexham, UK.) and they showcase bands from all over-Canada, Japan, Wrexham, everywhere!  They’ve given us a pretty decent slot which is really cool. Adam: It is a rather big thing, especially for Wrexham. Lewis: Loads of people come in packs. Adam: We live in North Wales and Wales isn’t really known for being a hot spot of music.  Any decent bands normally have to travel to Manchester.  It is a big one, especially for our home music scene. Erin: What’s the best thing you think comes out of playing your music? Joe: I think it’s meeting nice people!  I don’t think we’ve met one dickhead at a gig! Adam: Yeah, we are the dickheads!  It is literally getting out there and meeting new people.  That’s what this band is about; us having a good time.  If we weren’t enjoying it we wouldn’t be doing it!  In a way I need it just to blow off steam.  I work in a library nowadays! I need the contrast. Erin: What’s the band’s favourite song to play live? Jimmy: I’m gonna say “To What End” because people seem to know about it! Adam: I don’t know.  I personally like “Bucking Bronco” because I know Lewis absolutely hates playing it! And he has to sing backing vocals at the same time as playing superfast. Lewis: Any of the faster ones. Joe: I like “Cattle Battle”.  It’s my favourite.  It’s more technical. Jimmy: It’s one of the new ones. Adam: I let you introduce it live just because of how you say it! Say it again. Joe: “Cattle Battle”. (Sounds very prim and proper and we all have a laugh.) Erin: What about venue?  What’s your favourite venue to play? Adam: We played the New Cross Inn (323 New Cross Road in London,) the other week and it was an awesome atmosphere.  The venue is exactly what you want. Although Atomic in Wrexham definitely holds a big place in my heart because it is the perfect kind of dive bar and some of the crowds really get into it. I’m sure there are holes in the roof there from where I had a someone from the crowd on my shoulders and they were just punching holes in the roof. Great times, just avoid the toilets. Erin: I think that’s about it guys!  Do you have any questions for me about anything? Lewis: What was the best gig you went to growing up? Erin: For me, are you familiar with the Los Angeles band Fear?  It was right when they released “Have Another Beer with Fear” in like 1995 and I saw them when I was 14 at a place called Old World in Huntington Beach, California and it was the last gig they played anywhere near Orange County for like 20 years or something crazy because some racist asshole started shit with one of the band members.  But, they played absolutely amazing that night.  I had never seen anything like it.  And it was a big deal to me because I had recently discovered the Los Angeles/San Francisco punk bands like Fear, X, the Screamers, Dead Kennedys and I was so amazed to see one of those bands play live.  That and the fact I snuck out of my mom’s house to meet up with my friends at that show! I’ve since seen them several times and they always put on an amazing show, but as one of my first punk shows, that one really burned into my memory.  Adam: Cool. That is what punk should be about, creating awesome memories and having a great time. People need to do that more. I’m sure the world would be a better place if we all just lived life a little bit more. Erin: Thank you so much for sitting down and chatting with me!  I’m gonna try and see you guys play when I’m over in the UK this summer! Good luck on your Finnish dates! Bogans: Thank you!  Hope to see you soon! http://bogans.uk/ boganspunkrock@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/boganspunkrock/ https://www.instagram.com/bogans_punk/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPX9uxsEa9qdiWboqOvQXQg https://bogans.bandcamp.com/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/6fupj4cJhQcvzGBmCcVErH?si=gCsIKd2dRLyXVaR2x6vTRw https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bogans/1253504674 https://sites.google.com/view/bogansepk/home Read the full article