#but shes also a perfect fit for the distortion phenomenon :(((

[cheruverse]

psst. project moon fans who are also project sekai fans (or the other way around), which niigo character should i draw for their distortion form?

of course, most voted character will be drawn! if i have enough time and motivation i might as well draw the 2nd character w the most votes :))

do keep in mind my schedule is really packed so i may post the drawings at a later date

[dragoncookies]

Sophie is Fitz's "lacy"

Think about it! As of late in the series Shannon brings to jarring light, in the cognate inquisition scene, the jealousy Fitz has of Sophie and how Fitz puts her on a pedestal. So, all at the same time, he views her as perfect, is jealous of her capabilities and has feelings for her. I can't help but hear that phenomenon when I listen to Lacy. The lyrics in Lacy are also just so juicy and fun to analyze.

Full lyrical analysis below the cut (it's a lot, but I love doing this sort of thing)

Lacy, oh lacy, skin like puff pastry.

Aren’t you the sweetest thing on this side of hell?

Dear angel lacy, eyes wide as Daisy’s,

Did I ever tell you that I’m not doing well?

(this is the longest paragraph, I promise)

The first lyrics here set up the whole song by characterizing the subject of the song. The emphasis on calling lacy “sweet” and an angel is the narrator criticizing this person for the fact that they can never seem to be wrong, and that they just seem like an angel who always has the best intentions. Of course, these lyrics are also just literally calling the person sweet and caring in nature (most of this song has lyrics that have double meanings, which is why this song fits Fitz’s feelings about Sophie as of the latest book so well imo). Sophie is a pretty sweet girl, but most importantly she calls all the shots and doesn’t get as much flack for what she does, whether it be a good call or not. For example, Sophie was BARELY held accountable for when she let Alvar go in Legacy (not hating on our favorite Sophie, but that was a horrible choice). In Marella’s short story, Marella is faced with a hard choice and so she thinks of what Sophie would do in her place. For Fitz, it seems to him that Sophie can just do whatever she wants and not get any criticism for what she does. Where HE wants to be perfect and always do what is right, he seems to only do what is wrong, and compared to how Sophie can only seem to do what is right it is probably frustrating for Fitz. Of course, none of this is Sophie’s fault. Fitz needs to learn find peace in himself and not to make Sophie something other than mortal (I would say human but they’re not actually human are they?). Fitz cannot do this at the moment, however, because he’s “not doing well” as is said by the song. He still never fully has gotten to process his feelings about Alvar, as for the ENTIRETY of Flashback he literally had to bottle all his emotions or he would die. That’s lowkey traumatizing. 

Fitz is just not doing his best, simply put. 

Ooh, I care, I care, I care.

Like perfume that you wear, I linger all the time,

Watching, hidden in plain sight.

The emphasis on “I care” reveals that the narrator is pained by the degree to which they care. They don’t want to care as much as they do, but still they’re always watching and needing to know more about the “lacy” that they loathe. Fitz doesn’t want to let his jealousy affect his friendship and his feelings for Sophie as much as they do.

Ooh, I try, I try I try,

But it takes over my life, I see you everywhere,

the sweetest torture one could bear.

Fitz really does try. He’s always saying he’s working on himself, and he does. Yet, the progress isn’t instantaneous, and the rate at which Sophie’s success conflicts with his own is greater than the rate at which Fitz tries to manage his feelings. Fitz’s entire life is supposed to be about being the greatest and the most “perfect” elf there is, but when Sophie comes in and starts to fill in all those standards, it can’t help but conflict with Fitz’s pursuits in an ugly way. So the lyrics "it takes over my life" and "I see you everywhere" are pretty fitting. 

Yet, Fitz wants her. He wants to spend his life with her. Fitz admires her and can’t help but develop feelings for this pretty girl who was a breath of fresh air from his life of perfection (though distorted by the warped view elves have of romance because of the matchmaking system). So, torture though it is for Fitz to watch Sophie take his place as the greatest, it is sweetened by the fact that he’s watching someone he admires (matching the lyrics "the sweetest torture one could bear). 

Smart, sexy lacy, I’m loosin’ it lately

I feel your compliments like 

bullets on skin

Coming from someone above you, compliments can feel untrue, and when you’re jealous of that person who is above you, those compliments can just feel painful. 

Before Legacy, Fitz and Sophie were on the same page, and their relationship with each other was great, too great. Fitz also seemed be more useful in past books in the series, but as of late he hasn’t been very useful (as Rayni joked about in the beginning of Stellarlune. It was funny but also I felt bad for Fitz). 

Sophie starts to ghost Fitz during Legacy. Then when Fitz tries to find Alvar by searching through Cassius’s mind (bold, Fitz), Fitz finds out Cassius was playing him the whole time! Cassius was never really going to tell Fitz where Alvar was, but Cassius had no problem letting Sophie know. Sophie was just better than Fitz in that she could search Cassius’s mind and that she found Alvar. In a single day, Sophie did both of Fitz’s projects for him. Then Sophie reveals in book 10 that actually she has feelings for Keefe, so even romantically he isn’t good enough. Ouch. As of late, Fitz is loosing control of his perfect facade and of his ability to control his life, and so in turn he spirals inside and looses control of all the little things he used to be able to control about himself. 

Dazzling, starlet, Bardot reincarnate, 

Well aren’t you the greatest thing to ever exist?

While Sophie isn’t aspiring to be an actor, she is aspiring to be a “star” in the sense that she’s the symbol of change and she’s aspiring to be something great (referring to the lyric “starlet”). From the moment she entered the lost cities, Fitz's pride in life, everything he was made to be and told he had to become, starts to be fulfilled by this talented girl named Sophie. She begins to overshadow Fitz in a lot of ways during the series, like how she ends up in the nobility (Fitz's dream job) or ends up finding Alvar (something Fitz has been trying to do for months and months). So the judge-y tone in which Olivia sings “well aren’t you the greatest thing to ever exist?” are a pretty great way to represent the contempt Fitz likely seems to feel.

Ooh, I care, I care, I care

Like ribbons in your hair, my stomach's all in knots

You got the one thing that I want

The simile of “like ribbons in your hair, my stomach’s all in knots” describes a feeling emotional turbulence. Which, in relation to Fitz, is fitting since he likely feels strongly about his current relationship with Sophie. The beginning scene of Unlocked actually details it. When Keefe could feel Fitz’s emotions, Keefe said he felt, “Sadness. Nervousness. Regret. Loneliness. Plus a hefty dash of anger” (idk what page number). He really does like Sophie, their friendship is priceless. 

The lyrics “you got the one thing that I want” have a double meaning. On one hand, Sophie is the one he wants. She stole his heart (and now she broke it, oops). On the other hand, she has leadership, a position of power that makes Fitz secretly so jealous. All these conflicting feelings surely turn his stomach up in knots.

Ooh, I try, I try, I try

Try to rationalize, people are people

But it's like you're made of angel dust

These lyrics convey that the author struggles to view this person as a normal human being because they’ve idolized this person in their mind. 

What is also frustrating is trying to be rational about someone when you’ve idolized them. In the cognate inquisition it was revealed that Fitz viewed Sophie as this strong, fearless and perfect leader. Now that it's become a problem, he has to try to see her as a normal elf, full of flaws (just like everyone), but it's hard for him to let go of the expectation of perfection he’s lived under his whole life.

I’ve often wondered if that’s why he views Sophie the way he does. Maybe he’s just been projecting his own need to be perfect onto her, and has been falling for the Sophie in his mind that would please his Vacker family instead of the real Sophie. 

(bridge)

Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh

This doesn’t have to do with the lyrics above (it's just “oh” so not much to go off of), but the way Olivia sings this whole song is whispery and angelic, but strained, almost as if she’s fighting herself. She’s singing a song about an ugly flaw in a beautiful way, painfully unearthing the jealous side of admiring someone on top of condemning them for being seemingly perfect. Fitz himself is this image of perfection. He’s the epitome of elven culture. He’s a beautiful, ethereal elf, who has the most perfect life and does everything right. Yet, his flaws are such a stark contrast in comparison. The way Shannon has written him has a heavy emphasis on his struggle to work on his flaws. His whole character sort of symbolizes the elven world, in that it's so pretty and perfect on the outside but broken and hiding horrors inside. As the elven world crumbles throughout the series, so does he. 

An angelic song about one’s own flaws is very fitting for him, I'd say.

Lacy, oh lacy, 

it's like you’re out to get me. 

You poison every little thing that I do.

This last, whispered bit of the song reveals the true loathing. For every lyric before the this point, any feelings of true loathing were braided into comments of adoration. Here, however, it is confessed that the author is scared of the way this “lacy” threatens them. This “lacy” really effects them, she poisons the authors life. The speaker feels targeted by lacy’s success, like it's a personal attack, and to the author it is personal. This “lacy” makes the author feel smaller in comparison. It's a deeper, hidden self loathing. The author is jealous of lacy’s perfection because the author loathes themselves for not being perfect like lacy is. So everything the author does seems to be disgustingly unworthy compared to what lacy does. 

This is how Fitz feels about Sophie in a sense. Maybe not as strongly, but certainly Fitz’s subconscious desire and pressure to be perfect generates feelings inside him that parallel what Olivia Rodrigo describes here. 

Sophie is Fitz’s “lacy”. 

Lacy, oh lacy,

I just loathe you lately,

And i despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you.

Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you.  

Fitz never used to feel this way about Sophie, at least not to the degree that he feels now. As things have shaken out, he’s been loathing her. 

This is something that likely frustrates him, because he likes Sophie. She’s his best friend besides Keefe (debatable). Nobody wants to be obsessively jealous over someone they love. Yet, this obsession with Sophie, the reasons that he is jealous of her, are also why he started to fall in love with her, and pretty hard. This is why the lyric “I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you” goes so hard (excuse my un-academic language). His mind is poisoned by the need for perfection that growing up as basically elven royalty, as a Vacker, conditioned him to. He has a spoiled mindset, he’s used to getting what he wants, and for things to go his way (relating to the lyrics "my rotten mind”). Maybe he just wants to get Sophie out of his head, maybe he just wants to stop feeling for her the way he does. 

Maybe he just wants Sophie to stop being the thorn in his heart that she has likely, unfortunately, become because of his "rotten mind". 

(none of this analysis is Sophie or Fitz hate. We love Sophie in the household, and we also love Fitz in this household)

[ladychandraofthemoone]

Marinette and Chiffon’s Bond

Intro

Hello everyone, these are going to be posts about my pokemon au that i have been working on for a while now. I have more of this on my Ao3 account with the same name and tumblr (marininjarina) so check that out if you have time. These are mostly based off of posts and aus that I have seen all around and I wanted to write my own, starting with Marinette. Enjoy!

About Marinette- In Mendeliev’s class, Chloe’s favorite victim(and her meanest rival) till Chiffon appears along with switching classes, Pokemon Coordinator/Stylist, performs in Contests/Showcases, only person who can pet Mendeliev’s Garchomp, close friends with Aurore and Ondine, unknown Aura User, successor of Bond Phenomenon. Mari-Greninja.

Note: the pokemon I will chose for everyone will be based on their pokedex entries, color palettes and typing, personality and abilities along with what they mean in real life.

Her starter will be a Greninja. The ninja aspect fits with her in both civilian and superhero persona where she is capable of sneaking away from battles to transform along with both of them fighting similar like kicking or using their weapons. The entire line has a similar personality with Mari, being happy-go-lucky but well aware of their surroundings and acting serious, getting annoyed at others when it’s not the right time. It is also a opposite to Chloe having a Serperior due to being enemies in real life and fits Chloe's rivalry with Marinette. Frogs are also symbols of good luck in certain cultures, representing items like good fortune and protection with fits with Ladybug's abilities and hero status. Plus this is just fashionable looking with its scarf so of course Mari will be inspired by this pokemon. 

Chiffon- got saved by Marinette from two houndoom that were about to eat him and in return defends her from Chloe picking on her while trying to spend her time along. Chloe is angry that Marinette is no longer easy prey for her to pounce on and tries to get her whenever she can but with her wall of over protective friends, it’s impossible so she decides to follow Marinette around till she can get alone. Till Chiffon came along and she takes that thing everywhere she goes. Miraculous don’t exist here but Marinette’s love and trust for Chiffon grow to the point where she can stand up to Chloe and others whenever they badmouth, insult or hurt. She goes full on berserk mode and Chloe is actually terrified of that side but constantly pushed her buttons cause she doesn’t learn and only stops of avoids Marinette when’s he around. 

Same goes with the entirety of Bustier’s class when Nino and Adrien grabs her by the arm to force her into doing something she didnt want to do and stated she didn’t agree to anything, that she was just minding his own business while chloe sees it as a way to bully her. Cure Chiffon, fully evolved popping out of his pokeball, slapping their hands, a scary aura as he unravels his tongue and bares his teeth and hisses...It’s sounds like a combo of the Distortion world’s Giratina and Yveltal trapped in this creature’s body. Needless to say, everyone is terrifed of him and letted her leave, Chloe fuming but also scared.

Chiffon hear from Chomps, Mendeliev’s garchomp how the blonde girl and her class seems to have it out for Marinette, esciaplly the blond meanie and how she came into class just to harrass her. But he was glad his trainer with him right behind her, came and scared her off. And when Chomps was left with Marinette since she wanted to ask his trainer something. Cue Chloe walking in like she owns the empty place while he was in the other room and overhears her trying to break Marinette’s self confidence and esteem, all her worth by trying to “put her in her place” that she can’t get away from her, made his blood boil. Cure Chomps managing to sneak out, walking behind Chloe and watching Marinette’s face turn from confusion, surprise into giddiness as he growls and snorts behind Chloe’s neck, watching the blonde demand Mari’s attention and what was she laughing at to slowly turn into dread as he roars in her face. She runs away screaming while Marinette hugs him and thanks him a lot, promising to bring in Beans and Puffs.

Mendeliev on the other hand: Oh goodness!! He’s actually letting you touch me. Oh my sweet boy is never this open to strangers, usually no one would want to take care of him. Most of the time, they scream and beg for mercy.

So yes Chiffon learns from Chomps as he does everything he can to protect Marinette, even at parties he breaks through the freezer and beats Chloe’s Serperior half to death when she threatened Caly (Ondine’s Primarina) on Chloe’s orders on trying to make Marinette and her friends pay for standing up to her but screw that Chiffon is angry. Oh course thank to their bond they can now due the bond dphonemoan when they’re determined to protect those that they love and care about.

 It gets worse though when they bond, they can both feel each other’s pain, including the pain and humiliations, the fear Marinette had to endure for four years while having a class with Chloe and how she is obessesd with making Mari miserable as possible. He knew how awful she was but didn’t know how bad it truly was. Now he feels determined to protect Marinette, her friends which by extension are their loved ones to the cost of his and her own life. Marinette feels his trauma of what Bustier and the other teachers and pokemon did to him so she realizes Bustier isn’t the greatest teacher and begins to put her foot down when this teacher begins to pressure her to release Chiffon only to be in shock when Marinette refuses, but Caline assumes it’s Chiffon and Mendeliev’s terrible influence that she’s no longer a perfect angel. Not that she ever was...

[politesper-moved]

i’ve  noticed  that  itsuki  never  actually  DIRECTLY  sways  haruhi  in  the  way  of  believing  or  not  believing  ( though he does try to push her in the direction of not believing it’s in a very . . .  “ dance around the topic “ way ) .  like  he  said  in  the  sigh  of  haruhi  suzumiya :  he  believes  haruhi  not  only  has  the  power  to  CREATE  but  also  to  DESTROY .  if  he  manages  to  convince  her  that  espers  ARE  NOT  REAL  he  would  cease  having  a  reason  to  exist  in  this  world .  because  he  would ,  in  theory ,  lose  his  powers .  he  simply  tries  to  convince  her  of  the  most  realistic  option .  yes ,  he  does  lie  to  her  often  but  he  has  never  outright  said  something  DOESN’T  exist  or  DIDN’T  happen .

for  example  in  snowy  mountain  syndrome  he  gives  the  explanation  of  group  hypnosis  as  a  realistic  option  for  what  may  have  occurred .  while  a  dream  would’ve  been  a  better  explanation ,  mikuru  had  said  to  haruhi  she  remembered  the  events  as  well .  however ,  at  NO  POINT  does  itsuki  said  that  the  possibility  of  them  being  trapped  in  a  weird ,  time  distorting  mansion  in  the  middle  of  a  blizzard  was  nonexistent .

here’s  everything  itsuki  says  to  explain  it  away :

“ yuki  said  she  didn’t  know  anything ,  but  mikuru  remembered  the  same  things  i  did .  “

“ group  hypnosis . “  koizumi  gave  me  an  exaggerated  look  of  exasperation  as  he  cut  in .  “ in  fact ,  i  also  vaguely  remember  something  similar . “

“  you’re  saying  that  you  were  hypnotized ?  and  i  was  too ? “

“  this  was  slightly  different  from  artificial  hypnotism ,  but  yes .  knowing  you ,  if  a  person  were  to  announce  that  they  were  going  to  hypnotize  you ,  you  would  become  skeptical  and  the  hypnosis  would  probably  fail .  “

YES ,  he  is  SAYING  they  were  hypnotized .

“  however ,  we  spent  a  considerable  amount  of  time  walking  through  the  blizzard  as  a  fixed  rythm  where  we  could  only  see  white  snow .  are  you  aware  of  a  phenomenon  known  as  highway  hypnosis ?  if  you  drive  along  a  straight  highway  for  an  extended  period  of  time ,  the  evently  spaced  lights  can  place  the  driver  in  a  state  of  hypnosis  and  lull  him  to  sleep .  people  often  fall  asleep  while  riding  the  train ,  and  that’s  attributed  to  the  rythmic  shaking  of  the  cars .  it’s  the  same  reasoning  as  when  you  pat  a  baby  on  its  back  to  induce  sleep . “

“  really ?  “

“  really .  “

“  as  we  made  our  way  through  the  blizzard ,  someone  must  have  grumbled  about  wishing  there  was  a  mansion  we  could  hide  out  in  that  provided  all  sorts  of  comforts . . .  something  along  those  lines .  after  all ,  we  were  enduring  extreme  conditions  at  the  time  that  left  us  in  a  mental  state  that  would  be  susceptible  to  such  hallucinations .  you’ve  heard  about  people  wandering  through  the  desert  and  seeing  mirages  of  oases ,  yes ?  “

“  uh - huh . . .  i  guess .  so  you’re  saying  we  experienced  something  similar ?  “

koizumi  saw  this  as  the  perfect  time  to  add  the  finishing  touches .  “  the  sound  of  nagato  falling  brought  us  back  to  our  senses .  i’m  sure  of  it .  “

but  yeah ,  despite  how  thickly  he  lays  on  it’s  really  JUST  AN  EXPLANATION .  yes ,  he  is  very  convincing  and  responds  as  if  that  IS  what  happened ,  but  he  doesn’t  outright  deny  the  possibility  that  it  actually  happened .  he  never  says  “ it would be impossible for there to have been a mansion there “  or  “ none of us actually experienced that “ .

in  fact  ALL  HE  DID  to  start  of  is  say  “ group hypnosis .  i  vaguely  remember  something  similar . “  but  he  never  SAID  “ we were all hypnotized “ ---  it’s  HARUHI  goes  “ so you’re saying you were hypnotized ? and i was too ? “  and  then  since  haruhi  went  for  the  bait ,  which  means  she’s  considering  group  hypnosis  as  an  option ,  he  goes  on  with  his  explanation .  he  never  TOLD  her  she  was  hypnotized .  she  assumed  based  on  his  words  and  spun  a  story  to  fit  that  expectation .

itsuki  will  NEVER  outright  deny  anything .  he  will  never  say  NO  he  will  never  call  haruhi  WRONG  or  call  her  CRAZY  if  she  sees  something  she  isn’t  supposed  to .  he  will  just  attempt  to  explain  it  away  with  logical  reasoning .

[bk-lostintranslation]

ESSAY: Kali - Polysemantic Goddess

...Kali is, at her core, the embodiment of opposites. Through her, Hinduism has syncretized a variety of extremes: destruction and creation, death and rebirth, mother-love and sovereign sexuality, primordial violence and self-sacrificial wisdom.

Among the multifaceted pantheon of Hindu deities, the goddess Kali occupies perhaps the most fascinating yet frustratingly misunderstood position. Her iconography – filtered through the lens of parochial presuppositions – often distorts her persona into that of an ogress: bloodthirsty and warlike, with a penchant for destruction. However, this prescribed identity disregards the rich nuances of Kali's origins, reducing her instead to a chimera that arguably embodies the submerged fears of the archetypal, independent feminine. Too often, in text and media, she has been either devalued or demonized, consigned to the same spectrum of mythological would-be villainesses as Lilith, Hecate or Morrigan. New Age depictions of Kali are equally suspect for flattening her into a mere tool for social discourse. Neo-paganists and Western Kali enthusiasts have been accused of appropriating the goddess as a one-dimensional figurehead for Mother Earth, or as a self-serving expression of radical female sexuality, without taking into account her deeper symbolism within Hindu philosophy. 

Modern cross-fertilization between the two cultures, thankfully, has allowed academics to defuse these seemingly irreconcilable caricatures. Today, a wealth of literature is devoted to understanding Kali's complex character and role. By navigating the maze between misconception and truth, what emerges is the realization that Kali is, at her core, the embodiment of opposites. Through her, Hinduism has syncretized a variety of extremes: destruction and creation, death and rebirth, mother-love and sovereign sexuality, primordial violence and self-sacrificial wisdom. Kali's incarnations, whether tranquil (saumya) or fearsome (rudra) are simply manifestations of omnipotent cosmic energy (sakti) which is the fuel within and behind every phenomenon of the manifested world. Kali, in short, is the fulcrum around which the cosmos revolves, and she wields her power in both transformative and terrifying ways.

Perhaps most remarkable is that, in Hinduism, Kali is affectionately referred to as Maa, or Mother.  This title of respect, with its intimate subtext, is important not because her devotees attempt to distinguish between the maternal Kali and the sanguinary Kali, but because in Hinduism, destruction and creation are regarded as complementary, rather than diametrical, facets of a single continuum (Kinsley 15). With each rebirth, human beings are free of the negative traits conducive to social and personal downfall: cruelty, greed, egotism, self-interest etc. This blank slate goes hand-in-hand with the opportunity to do good karma. Each birth is a new beginning, a fresh start to awaken one's potential for self-transformation.  Death, therefore, is not a stillborn story, but one that begins, instead of ending, with the power to sidestep adharma and tread fully across the true dharma path. To accomplish this, Kali is instrumental. She is the Divine Mother who frees her children from the limitations of the physical realm – in this case the cyclical tedium of samsara. Infinitely patient and benevolent, she nurtures the souls (atman) of human beings until they have perfected their understanding of the Ultimate Reality (Brahman) and achieved liberation (moksha). Her color, the pure black of nothingness, can be viewed as the primordial womb within which the enlightened souls merge (Frawley 133).

Of course, to fully appreciate Kali's extraordinary complexity, it is necessary to delve into her etymology and history. In his book, Devī-māhātmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition, Thomas B. Coburn remarks that while Kali is simply a feminine play on the adjective Kaalam, or "darkness," the latter can also be  linked to the derivative noun Kaala, or time. Kali, then, is meant to symbolize "that which brings all things to an end, the destroyer" (108). Kali's mythology and the beginnings of her worship are difficult to trace. However, the earliest known mention of Kali is observed in the Mundaka Upanishad, where she is the name of one of the seven terrible black tongues of the fire-god, Agni.  In the Mahabharata, she makes a token appearance as one of the "mothers" who become companions of Karttikeya as he boldly ventures forth to slay the demon Taraka. But it is not until the Markandeya Purana, within the chapter Devi Mahatmya ("Glorification of the Goddess") that she makes her awe-inspiring debut. Here, Kali is depicted as both the purest manifestation of divine wrath, but also as the delivering heroine who is summoned to salvage a disaster that threatens to tear apart the fabric of the cosmos itself. Her mission is to destroy the demon-lord Rakhtabeeja (blood-seed) who possesses the power to generate clones of himself with every drop of his blood spilled to the ground. In the book, Kali: The Feminine Force, Ajit Mookerjee describes how Kali:

 ...manifested herself for the annihilation of demonic male power in order to restore peace and equilibrium. For a long time brutal 'asuric' (demonic) forces had been dominating and oppressing the world. Even the powerful gods were helpless and suffered defeat at their hands. They fled pell-mell in utter humiliation, a state hardly fit for the divine. Finally they prayed in desperation to the Daughter of the Himalayas to save gods and men alike. The gods sent forth their energies as streams of fire, and from these energies emerged the Great Goddess Durga.   In the great battle to destroy the most arrogant and truculent man-beasts, the goddess Kali sprang forth from the brow of Durga to join in the fierce fighting. As the 'forceful' aspect of Durga, Kali has been dubbed 'horrific' or 'terrible' in masculine-biased commentaries, without understanding of the episode's inner meaning (21-55).

It is certainly true that Kali contradicts the ideological construct of the feminine as subordinate to the masculine. However, while Hindu philosophy binarizes its deities into symbols of male and female energy, it should be noted that there is an implicit androgyny within each depiction. Collectively, the Hindu pantheon represent the various spatial aspects of Brahman. Each god is an alternate component to a singular theistic unity. Gender is not always integral to this classification, although one can argue that within the social framework of Hinduism, which is heavily male-dominated, it carries significant weight. But that is, perhaps, what makes Kali all the more fascinating. Here is a goddess whose depictions are unabashedly female, yet who embodies the integral Hindu tenets of power and nature (sakti/prakriti), while simultaneously defying orthodox constraints of traditional Indian womanhood.  In the book, Hindu Goddesses: Beliefs and Practices, Lynn Foulston and Stuart Abbott remark that, by transgressing the limitations of conventional Hindu womanhood, Kali represents the "transcendence of social and worldly values and the freedom this brings... As one of the Mahavidyas (i.e. one of the ten aspects of the Goddess Shakti), Kali can be understood as a liminal symbol, both occupying and traversing the very boundaries of social purity and order, danger and pollution" (118).

The diverse Puranic oeuvre only heightens Kali's uniqueness. Mother, lover, warrior, martyr – her story runs the whole gamut of human experiences. In popular folklore, for example, Kali slays the demonic Daruka and consumes his blood. However, she becomes dangerously intoxicated by the evil flowing through her veins, driven into a rampaging bloodlust. Like an embodied natural disaster, she sweeps across the earth, spreading catastrophe in her wake. Implicit in this tale is the theme of self-sacrifice. While the ferocious Kali is born to vanquish evil, it is clearly at the cost of herself (157).

Other versions present a more empowering outlook. In the book, Questions on Hinduism, John Renard recounts how, in a desperate attempt to cool Kali's wrath, her consort, Shiva, throws himself beneath her feet.  This act establishes him as her more passive counterpart, playing on the pun Shava (corpse). More to the point, Kali's story clearly "identifies the female as the energy, the divine spark at the heart of reality, which confers on creation the power of transcendence" (124). Indeed, in traditional as well as contemporary artwork, Kali is often depicted as dancing upon Shiva's supine form. In these portrayals, titled the Dakshinkali, she embodies the unstoppable dance of Nature, while her mate, Shiva, becomes the manifestation of Consciousness. Rather than an active force, Consciousness plays a silent witness to the dynamism of Nature. Shiva, sprawled pale and corpselike beneath Kali's foot, illustrates how all that Consciousness perceives is the force of Nature (Pattanaik 53-67).

 In other versions, Shiva does not throw himself beneath Kali's feet, but transforms into a bawling baby. When Kali hears the cries, her fury is subsumed beneath a flood of maternal instinct. Gathering the baby to her breast, she nurses him; her violent potential is thus sublimated into motherly largesse. While this retelling can be criticized as a patriarchal misappropriation – a blatant attempt to tame seemingly-destructive female independence through motherhood – it can also enjoy a kaleidoscope of interpretations. In contemporary Western feminism, it is perhaps not always fashionable to exalt motherhood, which so often conflicts with female self-expression and autonomy. However, the fact that Kali, whose persona is so fearsome, is woken emotionally by a child, and is able to discover opposite yet apposite aspects of her own fiercely protective nature, holds a life-affirming sweetness (Mohanty 55-70).

Other narratives completely dispel the notion that even the all-powerful Kali is inherently submissive to the male form of the divine. In the Tantric version of the Kali's battle, Shiva assumes the guise of a beautiful man and lays himself across Kali's path. Here, as in other adaptations, Kali ceases her rampage after stumbling across Shiva's chest. However, in this case, it is because she is consumed with lust. Flouting the conventions of decency, she straddles Shiva out in the open and begins to make love to him. For many, this combustible blend of violence and sexuality is an empowering motif with a potentially subversive edge. For others, however, it comes as no great shock that Kali, as the purest and most dynamic representation of sakti, is equally unapologetic of her desires (75).

Indeed, Tantric depictions of Kali engaged in coitus with Shiva, which shocked early British settlers as prurient, in fact held intensely ritualistic and symbolic underpinnings. According to Tantric doctrines, the human body symbolizes the microcosm of the universe. As such, Kali's union with Shiva is neither sinful nor shameful, but integral to the process of creation. In the book, Encountering Kali: in the Margins, at the Center, in the West, Rachel Fell McDermott et al. analyze this particular myth, faithfully recreated in ancient and contemporary artwork:  "Siva is the inert soul, purusa, whereas Kali is the active, creative prakriti.... Tantra emphasizes the 'erotic' (that is, the simultaneously sexual and religious) symbolism of the image. In defiance of conventional sexual mores, Kali engages intercourse with Siva in the 'reverse position' ....since siva depends on sakti for the ability to orchestrate creation, preservation, destruction" (53-55).

Equating this unadulterated female power with the negative – a proclivity often seen in patriarchal interpretations – would be fallacious here. So too would be the tendency to pedestalize the divine, to fit female deities into tidy, distinct boxes of "maidenly" or "motherly." Kali's very mythology allows these generalizations more breathing space. Her destroyer/creator/mother/warrior/temptress/martyr mystique encompasses every facet of existence, from the beautiful to the horrifying. At the most fundamental level, her mythos serves to provoke a reaction – primeval, visceral – from observers and devotees alike. Rather than reducing her extremes to intellectual abstractions, her stories allow her to feel close and human. One might even argue that Kali's presence extends beyond liturgy and theology. Hers is a tactile and emotional experience; she exists equally in the frailties of human life and in the inevitability of death, in the fierce desire to nurture but also to defend, and in the human capacity for infinite, unceasing transformation.

Iconography, of course, serves to highlight her polysemantic and multifunctional role. Every aspect of her appearance carries a potent philosophical epithet. She is often depicted as a ferocious four-armed woman with either pitch black or dark blue skin, a mane of matted hair, three blazing-red eyes, sharp white teeth and a lolling red tongue. She is typically nude, festooned only in a necklace of skulls and a girdle of severed limbs. In two of her four arms, she wields a scythe (kharag) and a severed male head; the remaining two arms are positioned in hasta mudras that communicate the seemingly-ironic message 'Do not fear.' Despite this frightening visage, she is sacrosanct for well-grounded reasons. Her dark skin is tied to earth and space; to the fertile soil of the physical realm and the infinite darkness of the primordial cosmos. Much like black represents the all-encompassing quality of darkness, so too is Kali's darkness the signifier of her benevolent and accepting nature (Harding 38-52). 

Equally powerful is the message behind Kali's nudity. She is described as garbed in space, or sky-clad, and this "absence of clothes denotes the absence of illusion" (Mascetti 47).  In that sense, she is Nature at its most sublime, transcending the boundaries of name and form.  As the Universal Truth, she has conquered the illusory trappings of maya. Through her, devotees can transform blind consciousness into perception, just as a wash of intense light illuminates dark corners, dissipating the shadows of ignorance. Her unbound hair, too, is charged with symbolic and cosmological significance. In the book, Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahāvidyās, David R. Kinsley suggests that Kali's disheveled mane of hair, such a jarring contrast to the way traditional Hindu women plait their hair in deference to social order, is indicative of Kali's unbridled independence. "Kali is free from convention, wild and uncontrolled in nature, and not bound to and limited by a male consort." In the same vein, Kali's loose curtain of hair is interpreted as the swathe of Space-Time, with its tangled mass suggesting the dissolution of cosmic balance. "Her hair has come apart and flies about every which way... all has returned to chaos. The 'braidedness' of social and cosmic order comes to an end in Kali's wild, unbound, flowing hair" (83-85).

Similar dualistic interpretations are found concerning Kali's tongue – blood-smeared and protruding. According to Puranic lore, Kali's lolling tongue allows her to slurp up the blood of Rakhtabeeja, before it can drip to the ground and spawn clones. In other narratives, Kali's outstretched tongue takes on broader, more psychological connotations. In The Book of Kali, Seema Mohanty states that, "With the outstretched tongue, Kali teases and mocks her devotees. She sees through their social façade and knows the dark desires they try so hard to deny or suppress. She provokes them to delve into their subconscious and confront all those memories and thoughts that they shy away from" (10).

For the colonial West, of course, this aspect of Kali's iconography seemed to fuse sexuality with brutality, social perversion with graphic violence. In the book, Encountering Kali: in the Margins, at the Center, in the West, McDermott et al. remark that Kali's tongue, filtered through the Western lens, became a blatantly phallic symbol, her persona little more than a terrifying figurehead of idolatrous depravity. Indeed, McDermott argues that for the colonial imagination, Kali was the embodiment of India itself, "imbued with debauchery, violence and death. Objectified under the 'colonial gaze'... Kali has always been an ambivalent source of mixed horror and fascination, of simultaneous revulsion and lurid attraction" (170-178).  Unfortunately, such depictions, rooted in Eurocentric ambivalence, fail to appreciate Kali's full complexity. As a goddess, Kali explores and symbolizes all the uses and expressions of submerged human desire. It should be noted that in this instance, desire does not refer simply to biological imperatives with their natural rhythms of arousal and satiation. Nor is it linked purely to the erotic desire that is cloaked in visual and textual symbolism. This is desire at the cosmic, primordial level, beyond limits and civility. Taken in that sense, Kali's tongue "denotes the act of tasting or enjoying what society regards as forbidden, foul, or polluted... an indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's 'flavors.' What we experience as ... polluted ... is grounded in limited human (or cultural) consciousness ... Kali invites her devotees to taste the world in its most disgusting and forbidden manifestations in order to detect its underlying unity or sacrality, which is the Great Goddess herself" (Kinsey 81-83).

Kali's ornaments and weaponry, too, carry a reservoir of allegorical and mystic nuance. Her garland of severed heads represent the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. These seedlings (beej) of sound – particularly the eternal syllable, Om – are the source of all creation. Adorned in the essence of reality, Kali is therefore the repository of eternal knowledge. She "decapitates words so that the seeker of truth is liberated from the limitations imposed by language" (Mohanty 13). Similarly, her girdle of severed limbs represents karmic annihilation. Each arm symbolizes the binding effect of deeds – karma – that Kali effortlessly chops down. Thus, she is instrumental in liberating her devotees from the cruel cyclicity of samsara, allowing them to achieve the ultimate spiritual realization (14).

Completing her otherworldly allure, the conjunction of femininity, monstrosity and strength, are Kali's four arms. According Bob Kindler's book, Twenty-Four Aspects of Mother Kali, her arms symbolize the cosmic circle of creation and destruction. The upper and lower right hands confer gracious and protective boons, the hands positioned in the Abhaya and Varada mudra respectively. The former is "a mystic gesture indicating the Divine Mother's serious warning to negative forces that attempt to harm Her precious spiritual children." The latter, meanwhile, signifies "gifts to those who approach Her for refuge" (22).  Her left arms, brandishing the bloodied scythe and the severed head, symbolize Kali's power to eradicate ignorance. The head represents false consciousness, or the ego; the scythe is the weapon of knowledge. Thus, by slicing through the obstacles of ignorance, Kali frees her devotees from temporal bindings.  Finally, her three eyes speak of her omniscience: they represent the sun, moon, and fire, which she uses as mediums to unlock the three facets of time – past, present and future (Kinsley 86-90). In ancient Greece, the ouroboros – a primeval serpent devouring its own tail – served to symbolize the coincidence of opposites, the infinite oscillation between destruction and creation, death and rebirth. In the same manner, Kali perfectly embodies the circular transience of being, the pivot upon which cosmic equilibrium rests.

Both legends and iconography reiterate her gift for transcending the broad spectrum of dichotomies because it is relevant. At her core, Kali's myth defies humanity's efforts to classify and control the unknown as a way of asserting its standing as a rational, privileged species. She corrects us of the dangerous misconception that human beings are a dominant outside force, rather than fragile stitches within the cosmic fabric itself. By understanding Kali, it is therefore possible to spark a genuine relationship with Nature in its manifold forms, and beyond them, with the all-pervasive life-force – sakti – that flows through the universe in its entirety. Renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, in his classic work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, states it best:

The goddess is the fire of life; the earth, the solar system, the galaxies of far-extending space, all swell within her womb. For she is the world creatrix, ever mother, ever virgin. She encompasses the encompassing, nourishes the nourishing, and is the life of everything that lives. She is also the death of everything that dies. The whole round of existence is accomplished within her sway, from birth, through adolescence, maturity, and senescence, to the grave. She is the womb and the tomb: the sow that eats her farrow. Thus she unites the "good" and the "bad," exhibiting the two modes of the remembered mother, not as personal only, but as universal (95).

For the curious academic or the passionate devotee, there is no doubting Kali's appeal. But her paradoxical nature is the true crux of her uniqueness: at once a singularity and a multiplicity, she is immeasurable. Conceptually, Kali's presence is not just a part of the cosmos, but the same size as it. On one level, she is an abstract force that flows beyond the nacreous spectrum of time and space. On another level, she is a tangible, living presence swimming through the undercurrents of the real world we inhabit every day. Her voice may not always be audible to us, but the occasions when we do hear it are full of intimacy and truth. 

Works Cited

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1973. 95. Print.

Coburn, Thomas B. Devī-māhātmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. 11-112. Print.

Foulston, Lynn, and Stuart Abbott. Hindu Goddesses: Beliefs and Practices. Brighton: Sussex Academic, 2009. 110-160. Print.

Frawley, David. Inner Tantric Yoga: Working with the Universal Shakti: Secrets of Mantras, Deities and Meditation. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus, 2008. 130-136. Print.

Harding, Elizabeth U. Kali the Black Goddess of Dakshineswar. Newburyport: Nicolas-Hays, 1993. 38-52. Print.

Kindler, Bob. Twenty-four Aspects of Mother Kali. Portland, OR: SRV Oregon, 1996. 22. Print.

Kinsley, David R. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahāvidyās. Berkeley: U of California, 1997. 29-90. Print.

Mascetti, Manuela Dunn., Jennifer Woolger, and Roger Woolger. Goddesses: Mythology and Symbols of the Goddess. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1998. 47. Print.

McDermott, Rachel Fell., and Jeffrey J. Kripal. Encountering Kali: in the Margins, at the Center, in the West. Berkeley: U of California, 2003. 21-152. Print.

Mookerjee, Ajit. Kali: The Feminine Force. New York: Destiny, 1988. 21-55. Print.

Mohanty, Seema. The Book of Kali. New Delhi: Penguin India, 2004. 6-100. Print.

Pattanaik, Devdutt. 7 Secrets of the Goddess. Chennai: Wastland, 2014. 53-67. Print.

Renard, John. Questions on Hinduism. Mumbai: Better Yourself, 1999. 124. Print.

[unwelcome-ozian]

The Modus Operandi for Ritual Abuse–Torture

Changing the Landscape: Ending Violence—Achieving Equality, a study conducted by the Canadian Panel on Violence against Women (1993), is a credible report funded by the national government that names ‘‘ritual abuse’’ as a definite phenomenon of violence, identified as occurring in every region of Canada (p. 45). Pat Freeman Marshall, co-chair of the panel, stated that it heard stories of violence that she could relate only to the torture endured within prisoner-of-war camps (Cox 1992). ‘‘Tortured’’ was the word frequently used by women who spoke to the panel of their childhood ritual abuse victimization. Victimized persons repeatedly reported that they were tortured, so the term ‘‘ritual abuse’’ does not fit for them. Nor does that term comprehend the brutality, degradation, and dehumanization that one bears witness to when listening to the universal and transnational childhood stories of women, youth, and men involving both abuse and torture. Thus, the term ritual abuse–torture (RAT) was coined. A child, whether born into or taken into such families or groups, will endure the following violent ordeals in ways that reflect the idiosyncrasies of the perpetrators:

Child abuse. Going without food, being forced to sleep on the floor without bedding, and being called ‘‘good for nothing’’ may accompany pedophilic assaults that occur night or day. In these families or groups there is no safe place for children—they may be finger-raped in the car on the way to school or raped in bed or on a cold, hard barn floor.

Terrorization. Threatening, intimidating, and forcing the child to witness the harming of animals or other children delivers the message: ‘‘Don’t tell. If you do, this will happen to you.’’ If only one parent is involved in the ritual abuse–torture, he may threaten to kill the nonoffending parent.

Human/animal brutality. Using violence against a pet instills terror, promotes silence, and helps establish totalitarian control over the child. One woman, for example, described being forced to watch her father burn her pet rabbits alive. Such cruelty prevents the child from forming attachments to pets or to anything as they are made to feel that they are to blame for the harm animals suffer. Perpetrators know that nonattachment keeps the child feeling isolated, abandoned, and alone in his/ her victimization. Another act of cruelty commonly forced onto animals and children is bestiality.

Physical, sexualized, and mind–spirit tortures. There are no limitations to creative brutality. Tools useful for torturing, many commonly found in ordinary households, include belts, wooden bats, and wire clothes hangers useful for whipping and beating. Rope is used for tying children down, hanging them by their limbs, or looping around their necks. Knives, razor blades, and forks are cutting and scraping tools; hot spoons, hot stove elements, and lit cigarettes burn; toilet bowls, bath tubs, and sinks are used for holding the child’s head and face under water; cattle prods are for electric shocking; and pepper blown into the child’s eyes causes excruciating pain. Dog cages become child cages, a dog’s dish and food become the child’s dish and food, and a dog collar and leash control the child who is commanded to eat and be the dog she is told she is. Soiled cat litter, all forms of human bodily fluids— blood, urine, vomitus, semen, menstrual fluid, feces—are serviceable for smearing. Physical and sexualized pain, dehumanization, and degradation inflict fatal wounds upon the child’s relationship with herself, overwhelming her ability to cope, forcing her to have out-of-body experiences or to disconnect and dissociate. Feeling like an ‘‘it’’ and objectified further by enforced overdrugging, trained to self-harm, and schooled to be the ‘‘perfect victim,’’ the child faces a reality so severely altered and distorted that she becomes a danger to herself—at risk for suicide. All these torturous actions are directed by the ritual abuse–torture parent, family, or group in an attempt to destroy the humanness of the child victim. Such intentionally destructive actions are acts of human evil (Staub 1993).

Pedophilia. Rampageous hard-core parental pedophilic violence can and does occur at any time. Weekends, holidays, and school breaks are ideal times for a child to ‘‘disappear’’; absences are explained as visits to relatives or trips to summer camp. When the victim is the perpetrator’s child, pedophilic victimization is convenient, happening right in the home, in commercial buildings owned by the perpetrator, in summer or winter cottages, campers, hotels, motels, on boats, farms, or simply outdoors.

Necrophilia and necrophilic-like acts. The child victim may be overdrugged, hooded, choked, beaten, near-drowned, or suffocated into unconsciousness. Such experiences are often expressed by the child as ‘‘the darkness came.’’ This satisfies the ritual abuse-torturer’s need to express domination over life and death. Raping the child’s ‘‘dead-like’’ body gratifies the fiend’s hunger for sado-necrophilism.

Horrification. Beyond a state of terror, horrification involves seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and experiencing heinous ordeals perpetrated without moral restraint. Horrification leaves the child speechless, voiceless, without verbal language, for there are no words that can describe horror. Shocked, shivering from the depth of inner coldness, the child’s body tremors in response to being family- and gang-raped and forced into pornographic bestiality with large animals, such as horses, which are known to be used in bestiality (Associated Press 2005; Chronicle- Herald 2004; LifeSiteNews 2005).

Organized violent family and group gatherings. These gatherings are commonly coded as ‘‘rituals and ceremonies.’’ Ritual abuse-torturers intentionally use rituals to orchestrate pedophilic torture, which is the defining characteristic and central purpose for family and group gatherings.

Suicide and other self-harming acts. Some children are forcibly taught, conditioned, or programmed to self-harm and self-cut as a way of ‘‘forgetting,’’ replacing ‘‘remembering’’ with pain—then pain and forgetting with relief. Depending on the practices of the ritual abuse–torture family or group, the degree of self-harm conditioning and programming can include forcing the child to practice ways of committing suicide. This tactic provides protection for the perpetrators. If they fear a child is telling, they can attempt to force the child into committing suicide to prevent being exposed.

Exploitation and trafficking. Within ritual abuse–torture families and groups, a child can be exploited and trafficked locally, nationally, or transnationally, ‘‘off-street’’ or ‘‘on-street.’’ Off-street exploitation—transportation and trafficking—happens when the child is taken to family and group gatherings to be victimized. Trafficking off-street also happens when outsiders—pedophiles who are not members of the ritual abuse-torture family or group—‘‘rent’’ the child. When the child’s body has developed, becoming unmarketable to pedophiles, the child might be forced by ritual abuse-torturers to work on-street. ‘‘In-house’’ or ‘‘on-site’’ trafficking happens when ritual abuse-torturers organize ‘‘a party’’ in their home, for example. Often forced into criminal activities such as drug trafficking, the child is also used in all forms of pornography.

[cristalconnors]

CRISTAL CONNORS TOP 10 SONGS OF 2018

10. “Beyondless” by iceage

“But if you think I am that pillar which you needed, believe me, dearest, it ain’t me.”

Earth-shaking, strobing guitars, dizzying distortion, tortured vocals emanating deep from the gut- not exactly new territory for iceage, but this powerful exploration of isolation and inaccessibility still stands out in their catalogue for its tremendous emotional clarity and sublime simplicity. Funny that a song about finite limitations manages to reinforce that the band’s spiritual and sonic scope seems to be limitless.

9. “Rage” by Rico Nasty

“Don’t compare me to these bitches because we are not the same.”

The blossoming of late 2000′s era scene kids into full-fledged artists in their own right, across countless mediums and genres, was of course an inevitability. But the often startling ways that an artist may find inspiration from a band like Slipknot have been straight up delightful. Enter Rico Nasty, whose scope and inspiration as an artist expands well beyond nu metal, but is nonetheless a perfect exemplification of the phenomenon. On “Rage,” Rico snarls over harsh, growling guitar (impeccably produced by Kenny Beats), crafting a hypnotic banger that establishes her as a one-of-a-kind, swaggering rock star of rap that is absolutely, under no circumstances, to be fucked with.

8. “Pristine” by Snail Mail

“Who do you change for? Who’s top of your world? And out of everyone, who’s your type of girl?”

It’s hard to explain just how thoroughly this song would have ruined my life if I had heard it at 16. Lindsey Jordan uniquely understands the absolute certainty when you’re a teenager that you’ve figured everything out- that how you feel right now at this moment is how you’ll always feel. For something so remarkably in tune with the emotional rawness of youth, it feels incredibly polished, mature, and, well, pristine. This is not the eat-your-heart-out, melodramatic nonsense you listen back to and cringe at, but is instead a clear-headed, bedroom rock gem that will never lose its cathartic magic, no matter how old you are.

7. “Slow Burn” by Kacey Musgraves

“In Tennessee the sun’s going down, but in Beijing they’re heading out to work.”

It isn’t often a country star’s concerned with the goings on in Beijing. Increasingly, the genre’s been characterized by navel-gazing, blind patriotism and unimaginative song writing. “Slow Burn” announces that Golden Hour isn’t interested in being like anything else. Musgraves probes deep into her own soul but also sets her eyes on the whole world, crafting a gently moving, stream of consciousness rhapsody characterized by complex textures and a deceptively simple, sweeping lyricism. 

6. “Honey” by Robyn

“No, you’re not gonna get what you need, but baby I have what you want. Come get your honey.”

Robyn has always known the best place to work through something is the dance floor, and no one is as skilled at mining pop for every ounce of melancholy it’s got. The disparity between what we want and what we need is the primary concern this time, as sizzling, pulsing synths and a gradual, miraculous crescendo tell us it’s okay to give in to our base desires, even though we know they’re bad for us. 

5. “Falling into Me” by Let’s Eat Grandma

“You. Me. This”

Let’s Eat Grandma’s Jenny Hollingworth and Rosa Walton just want us to go for it, to say whatever it is we wanted to say to our crush, to just live in the moment. This all may sound tired and trite, but the post modern brilliance of the whirling pop fantasia “Falling into Me” makes tried and true pop tropes sound as rousing and electric as the first time you heard Prince or Britney Spears, but is unmistakably a groundbreaking, singular achievement. 

4. “Lemon Glow” by Beach House

“I come alive.”

Beach House traffics in the smallest of details, slightly nudging their sound in one direction or another in ways that can feel seismic. But even to the casual listener, “Lemon Glow” marks a departure, still distinctly Beach House, but utilizing spellbindingly looped synths, shredding guitars and deranged harmonies to suggest something more sinister and dense than the rest of their oeuvre, proving once again that their songwriting toolkit is seemingly bottomless, and that just when you think they’ve hit a wall, they shatter it and expand.

3. “Honesty” by Yves Tumor

“I want to wrap around you, but I can’t be seen around you.”

My first time wading through Yves Tumor’s inexplicable Safe in the Hands of Love, it wasn’t until I was seized by the delirious hook of “Honesty” that I understood I was listening to something truly monumental. Since then, it’s the track that I most often return to to dip back into his disorienting soundscape, with its meticulous production, enchanting repetition, and unconventional spurts of percussion that bleed together into a positively entrancing sound that demands you to close your eyes and bob your head along with the beat.

2. “Is it Cold in the Water?” by SOPHIE

“I’m liquid. I’m floating into the blue.”

SOPHIE had established herself as an exquisite manufacturer of plastic sounds and a skilled observer and satirist of conventional pop tropes, but with “Is it Cold in the Water?” she developed a captivating, immersive sound all her own. Intimidating, arpeggiated synths and a colossal bass line evoke the sense of punishing, crashing waves, as our protagonist, voiced by Cecile Believe, stands on the precipice, wailing out into the void, frightened but curious. As a trans woman, SOPHIE captures the simultaneously terrifying and ecstatic leap of faith that is coming out, shedding the referential for something decidedly more personal and affecting. 

1. “Nobody” by Mitski

“I’ve been big and small, and big and small, and big and small again, and still nobody wants me.”

Mitski may be a meme, but that’s only because she hit it out of the ballpark here in every regard. Her discotheque is somehow even sadder than the one from “Dancing on My Own,” but twice as joyous, delivering truly arresting lyrics plucked straight from a distinguished poetry journal set to Chic-esque guitars and piano, creating a dazzling dichotomy between the divine and the depressing, begging you to break a sweat in your bedroom only to collapse on the bed in a fit of tears. 

[thecourtreportersportedjorts]

The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2018

In December of each year, Billboard publishes its list of the 100 biggest hit songs of the last 12 months. In response, I take it upon myself to decide which of these songs were the real hits, and which were the biggest misses. Last time, I tackled the worst, so we'll be looking at the highlights this time. Let's get started:

10. "Stir Fry" by Migos

Like Drake’s Scorpion, I decided to sit out Culture II. And just like that album, I was actually excited to hear what the Migos had to offer, before discovering that the album would consist of 24 tracks. Reports that the Atlanta trap purveyors only spent 20 to 45 minutes in the studio for each song only made me less interested in what would surely be a slog of an album. I figured that hearing the numbingly repetitive “Walk It Talk It” would be a perfect microcosm of the album. But just like Drake (who I will be discussing later on this list), there were singles that gave me hope, especially “Stir Fry.”

Sure, “MotorSport” was a great lead single that saw Offset and Takeoff holding their own against some excellent guest verses from Nicki and Cardi, but “Stir Fry” found the group advancing on all fronts. The flows were faster and more dynamic, and Quavo’s multiple hooks were among his stickiest to date. Of course, the song isn’t really about anything besides cooking and dealing hard drugs, but the wordplay and rhyme schemes are more advanced than usual, especially coming from Offset.

But the most interesting thing about “Stir Fry” comes from its production. The Pharrell-crafted beat is apparently a leftover from 2008, but the track nevertheless sounds refreshing, even futuristic, amidst the unending wave of boilerplate trap bangers. The whistles, buzzing synths, and boom-bap-adjacent drums are totally uncharacteristic of Migos’ usual style, and just like “Slide” last year, it’s evidence that these guys put in some of their best work when accompanied by more uptempo instrumentation. It may not be “that trap sound,” but if more artists take Pharrell’s cues, it very well could be.

9. "Call Out My Name" by The Weeknd

As much as I’ve been singing The Weeknd’s praises on these lists since his mainstream breakthrough in 2015, it may be surprising that I’ve never talked about his first solo hit “Earned It.” There’s a good reason for that: I just don’t feel strongly about the song one way or another. Sure, the song was good enough that it could make you forget it was on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, but it didn’t quite match up against the harrowing atmosphere of “The Hills” or especially the infectious groove of “Can’t Feel My Face.” And now, after the release of “Call Out My Name” in 2018, the Fifty Shades hit even got an update!

To be fair, “Call Out My Name” only bears similarity to “Earned It” in its musicality. It’s a recasting of the earlier song as a more melancholic ballad that gives credence to early claims that My Dear Melancholy, would return to Abel Tesfaye’s original sound. The song is built around a well-utilized sample of “Killing Time” by Nicolas Jaar (who, by the way, dropped one of the year’s best albums with Against All Logic's compilation 2012-2017) that builds to a fever pitch with its pounding drums, mournful synths, and vocal distortion. Fitting of a track with Jaar’s imprint, it’s some of the most inventive production work in 2018’s pop landscape, and yet another entry into the canon of great singles by The Weeknd.

Oddly enough, “Call Out My Name” also recalls “I Feel It Coming” in that it subverts the persona that has become integral to The Weeknd’s music. Tesfaye, who normally plays the heartbreaker on cuts like “The Hills” or “Angel,” finds himself in the opposite situation, which was undoubtedly informed by his well-publicized breakup with Selena Gomez. The result is one of the singer’s most captivating vocal performances in recent memory. While the similarities to “Earned It” may keep this song from ranking higher, I can’t deny that “Call Out My Name” is still a worthwhile song that encapsulates everything a good Weeknd song is about.

8. "King's Dead" by Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future & James Blake

It may have been a year since its release, but it's worth reiterating that Black Panther was every bit as good as anticipated. The film featured stunning visuals, dizzying action sequences, profound messaging, and an especially strong performance by Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger. But since I’m not a film critic, I’d rather discuss the film’s soundtrack, which was expertly curated by none other than Kendrick Lamar. Fresh off the monumental success of 2017’s DAMN., the soundtrack could easily be dismissed as a victory lap where the Compton rapper highlights some budding talents, but the album is stacked with great pop songs and thrilling bangers.

“King’s Dead” immediately cements itself in the latter category with its infectious hook, where Lamar repeats key phrases like “miss me with that bullshit” and “this ain’t what you want.” Top Dawg labelmate Jay Rock, who makes his Billboard Hot 100 debut here, takes the first verse with a delivery that’s repetitive, but his flow is also hypnotic in its speed. Future takes the mic next, using his trademark Autotuned crooning before suddenly bursting into a creaky falsetto where he references iconic the rap tracks “La Di Da Di” and “Slob on My Knob.” It’s utterly bizarre, and perhaps very Not Good™, but it nevertheless captures the attention and gets a smile out of me every time.

Then, two minutes in, something amazing happens. James Fucking Blake sings a brief interlude, and the no-nonsense trap beat transforms into a freewheeling trunk-knocker with a bass that rivals Lamar’s own “DNA.” in its size. Lamar finishes the song off with a mind-altering verse that somehow works with the beat despite their decidedly off-kilter rhythms. He also refers to himself as “King Killmonger” after seemingly aligning himself with the Black Panther antagonist’s ambitions throughout his verse. It’s an absolute journey of a track that still hits hard, even well after the film’s release.

7. "Be Careful" by Cardi B

A lot of people expected Cardi B to fall off after the runaway success of “Bodak Yellow.” After the follow-up single “Bartier Cardi” treaded the same ground (with some help from 21 Savage), it seemed entirely possible. Surprisingly, the Bronx rapper continued to notch great guest verses on songs with Migos, Bruno Mars, and even G-Eazy, and her album Invasion of Privacy turned out to be the sort of all-killer, no-filler rap album that is a growing rarity amongst the likes of Culture II and Scorpion. “Bodak” was just the tip of the iceberg, and “Be Careful” immediately follows it on the album’s tracklist, further complicating the entire phenomenon that is Cardi B.

Taking cues from the flute-laced beats that were in vogue around 2016 to 2017, master producer Boi-1da approaches “Be Careful” with the same keen ear that defined earlier tracks or “Work” and “The Blacker the Berry.” On top of this, Cardi proves to be a charismatic singer in her own right, whether providing her own hook or interpolating the legendary bridge of Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor.” It’s this particular reference that causes the track on the whole to sound slightly out of step with the mainstream, bearing a welcome resemblance to the pop-rap of the late 90s or early 2000s.

All of this makes “Be Careful” a standout in Cardi’s catalog, but the songwriting only enhances its quality. Where a song like “I’m Upset” or even Cardi’s own “Bartier Cardi” might feel more awkward in light of recent events, “Be Careful” and its verses about infidelity only ring even more powerfully after her particularly uncomfortable split from Offset. The second verse is one of her strongest so far, highlighting how her partner (who she apparently claims isn’t Offset) is affecting her mental health and exacerbating her insecurities. Anyone who dismissed Cardi as a one-dimensional artist after hearing “Bodak Yellow” and some spare guest verses may find themselves surprised at the vulnerability she displays so fearlessly here.

6. "God is a Woman" by Ariana Grande

Even a cursory look at 2018’s year-end chart will reveal that the genre of pop wasn’t nearly as significant as it was in a year like 2012 or 2015. You could probably tell just by reading this list, as it’s been dominated by rappers and The Weeknd, who took a turn back to his darker, alternative R&B sound. The sound of trap music doesn’t exactly lend itself well to a pop sensibility, which is why artists who attempt for some sort of middle ground (i.e. Post Malone) only end up sounding really wishy-washy and unimpressive. Of course, there are exceptions, and it comes as no surprise that one such example would come from Ariana Grande.

“God is a Woman” is a best-of-both-worlds marriage of the two sides of Sweetener: the bubbly trap crafted by Pharrell, and the massive Max Martin-produced pop that has become Ariana’s signature sound. In other words, the track has the hard-hitting drums of a Travis Scott song, paired with the momentum of songs like “Can’t Feel My Face” or “Style.” Nothing about the song feels compromised, especially as the song builds to a triumphant climax featuring Ariana’s whistle notes and a grand backing choir that make for one of music’s best moments in 2018.

The title of “God is a Woman” alone indicates that Ariana isn’t holding back here, even as she tackles the same forceful, sexually charged pop that characterized “Love Me Harder” or “Into You.” This time, she takes the familiar subject matter and infuses it with a sort of spiritually-informed feminism that’s just gleefully blasphemous enough to win me over instantly. All the while, she exhibits her full-bodied lower register, the aforementioned whistle notes, and even a delivery that transforms the Migos flow into something bigger and more portentous. In the pop landscape of 2018, Ariana Grande easily delivered on her title, easily claiming god status with this magnificent song.

5. "SICKO MODE" by Travis Scott

When I included “Love Galore” on this list in 2017, I feared that I may have given the impression that I dislike Travis Scott. I admitted that I didn’t like the song quite as much as “Drew Barrymore” or “The Weekend” (which could have topped this chart had it performed better), but it ranked relatively low on the list because I thought his verse was detrimental to the song as a whole. That said, I’ve actually been a fan of Travis ever since he refined the trap aesthetic on his debut album Rodeo, and it’s been a pleasure to see the Houston rapper continue to expand upon rap’s hottest sound to increasingly lucrative results. In 2018, he released ASTROWORLD, his biggest and best album to date, and he managed a surprise chart-topper with “SICKO MODE,” the cornerstone of the album.

The first minute of “SICKO MODE” might seem unsuspecting. Sure, the synth chords might be foreboding, but you’re soon greeted to an uncredited Drake singing about a friend struggling to make ends meet in a seemingly patronizing way. But he sounds better here than nearly any other song he made this year. The drums kick in, Drake adopts a faster flow, and as soon as he introduces Travis, the beat changes to a blend of hypnotic synths, fat bass, and whirring sound effects and samples. Travis’ flow is at its most infectious to date, and he cements his unique curator status with the iconic line, “who put this shit together? I’m the glue.”

After a cameo from Swae Lee, the synths glitch, and we’re treated to yet another sudden beat switch, this time to a more subdued, organ-laden production by Tay Keith. Drake also returns, seemingly motivated by Travis’ performance as he delivers one of his coldest flows since If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The resulting verse is a thrill to listen to, but Travis finishes off the track by building on Drake’s “out like a light” hook and using the same flow. Sure, Travis may be the one who put this shit together, but “SICKO MODE” proves that he knows how to make the most out of his collaborations.

It’s also worth noting that in a rap landscape ruled by the likes of Lil Pump and XXXTentacion, the five-minute runtime of “SICKO MODE” seems a little excessive. But the fact that the song is essentially a suite of much smaller trap bangers proves yet again that Travis Scott has an uncanny knack for upgrading the current sound. In a way, it’s also an answer to “Te Bote” in that Travis and Drake can at least justify the song’s length with a wealth of captivating musical ideas. When this shit is way too formal, y’all know Travis Scott doesn’t follow suit, and it’s a blessing to see him continue to innovate.

4. "Delicate" by Taylor Swift

Last year, I omitted what should have been an obvious pick for my Worst Hit Songs List: Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.” Maybe it’s just because anything Jack Antonoff touches immediately sounds good to my ears, but I couldn’t really muster up any sort of hatred for the song. On first listen, it registered as campy and nowhere near as self-serious as so many people made it out to be. That said, I understand why “Look What You Made Me Do” wasn’t so well-liked, and I still hold that it was a terrible choice for Reputation’s lead single.

Much of this belief has to do with “Delicate,” the song that – for whatever reason – precedes “Look What You Made Me Do” in the album’s track sequence. Much like that song, “Delicate” tackles the subject of fame, except in a return to the relationship-oriented format in which Taylor excels. She finds herself anxious that anything she says can be misinterpreted and used against her, realizing that her “reputation’s never been worse.” Thus, when she finally meets a guy who’s interested in her despite all the drama, it sparks a subtle kind of joy in her that builds as the song progresses.

“A subtle kind of joy” is also a good way to describe the instrumentation on “Delicate,” which always reminded me of the sounds The xx explored on their 2017 album, I See You. It shares a lot in common with that album’s subdued tropical synths, gently building dance grooves, and vocal manipulations. I See You was widely regarded as an expansion of the low-key, intimate sound that became the group’s calling card, and the same can be said about “Delicate,” which is only given deeper meaning with the firestorm of controversy that surrounded Reputation’s rollout. If this were released as the lead single rather than “Look What You Made Me Do,” perhaps the album would have been much easier to swallow.

3. "Nice for What" by Drake

Since writing my worst list this year, I’ve tried listening to Scorpion again, and with only a few exceptions, the album confirmed pretty much all the fears I had when I heard “I’m Upset.” If VIEWS was considered a decline in quality for the Toronto rapper, this album walked right up to the line of self-parody, seeing Drake moaning half-heartedly about women and fame on top of some of the sparsest, blandest instrumentals his producers have offered up to date. In other words, I know shorty, and she doesn’t want know slow song, which Scorpion offered up in smothering abundance. And while there are some songs on the album that succeed despite their obvious formula, the only song that breaks out of the mold is “Nice for What.”

If anything, the greatness of “Nice for What” only puts the its parent album’s failings into sharper focus. With every successive project, it seems that Drake tries adding a new style of music to his repertoire, whether it’s trap on Nothing Was the Same or dancehall on VIEWS. This time around, he’s trying his hand at the energetic, largely underground style of New Orleans bounce. The genre is known for its heavy use of samples, so it’s only fitting that the track not only samples bounce legend Big Freedia’s voice, but the second sample of the bridge of Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” to hit the charts this year. Where “Be Careful” only interpolated the bridge as a hook, producer Murda Beatz makes the sample the foundation of “Nice for What,” and it sounds absolutely blissful.

Then there’s the lyrics, which have been highly celebrated for their message of women’s empowerment. Given that this is by the same guy who made songs like “Hotline Bling” and “Child’s Play,” it could be easy to dismiss “Nice for What” as a textbook example of pandering, but I’d much rather hear Drake pandering than hear him say another goddamn word about child support. Furthermore, the song forgoes the usual trappings of female empowerment anthems written and performed by men by not harping on how badly he wants to have sex with the women he writes about. Top this off with Drake sounding the most energized he's arguably ever been, and it’s hard not to believe every second of the song.

2. "I Like It" by Cardi B, Bad Bunny, & J Balvin

In case it hasn’t been abundantly clear by now, Cardi B had an absolutely tremendous 2018. Looking over the year-end charts, she made eight appearances on the list, tying with Drake for the most spots occupied by one artist. Sure, one of those was “Bodak Yellow,” and half of them were guest appearances for the likes of G-Eazy and Maroon 5 (sigh), but the fact that she managed to churn out three more hits from Invasion of Privacy is still remarkable. I already discussed “Be Careful” at length, and “Bartier Cardi” was fine enough for what it was, but it was “I Like It” that landed her a second number one hit, and possibly the most important song of her career.

For starters, it’s worth noting that “I Like It” does something successfully that far too many hit songs don’t: it uses a sample of a well-known song to a benefit rather than a detriment. The song samples “I Like It Like That,” a 1967 track by boogaloo legend Pete Rodriguez that’s become a staple of Latin music in its half-century of existence. The resulting track is a mix of traditional Latin music instrumentation with a shuffling trap beat that’s just as lively as the music it’s referencing. In a year where reggaetón had a much greater mainstream presence than usual, it’s surprising that none of the songs that landed on the charts sounded quite as good as this.

While the production is certainly some of the best I’ve heard all year, you'd first go to Cardi B for her verses and her personality, which “I Like It” delivers in spades. The beat serves as the perfect backdrop for Cardi’s verse, where she brags about her taste for luxury goods, all the while referencing her enjoyment of things like NYC street food. It adds dimensionality to her well-documented rags-to-riches narrative, highlighting her Bronx roots while also celebrating her current success. A pair of excellent guest verses by reggaetón stars Bad Bunny and J Balvin show that she clearly plans to use her success for good, giving a greater platform to other Latinx artists.

It may not have been the near-record breaker that “Despacito” was in 2017, but the fact that “I Like It” was a smash hit further cements Latin music’s place in the American pop landscape. Make no mistake, considering how hostile the current administration and its supporters have been to Latin American immigrants, this is incredibly significant. Obviously, Cardi B is a more conventional rapper rather than a reggaetón artist, but she’s still a woman of Dominican heritage who’s using her music to show solidarity with her community, and if there’s any justice in this world, it could suggest a true cultural change in the near future.

But before I unveil my choice for the Best Hit Song of 2018, here are my Honorable Mentions:

“All the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar feat. SZA, “Pray for Me” by The Weeknd feat. Kendrick Lamar: Befitting of the Black Panther film, Kendrick delivers sharp verses about responsibility and fame, SZA and The Weeknd deliver fantastic vocals as usual, and the production combines cinematic swells with glitchy electronics. The only thing keeping these songs from the list proper is that the artists’ personalities feel slightly compromised.

“Boo’d Up” by Ella Mai: Since dominating the charts in 2014, DJ Mustard has been experimenting with his 808-driven sound. Here, he crafts a gloriously retro R&B track with London singer Ella Mai, creating a joyful, lovesick track that could be best described as “Boom Clap” for 2018.

“Sky Walker” by Miguel feat. Travis Scott: It’s been way too long since I’ve been able to talk about Miguel on this list. The 2017 album War & Leisure saw the R&B virtuoso coasting by on effortless vocals and charisma, but the blissed-out vibe of “Sky Walker” proves that’s still a lot of fun in its own right. Travis does his thing pretty well, too.

“Finesse” by Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B: I was wondering when someone would revive the new jack swing sound of the early 90s, and leave it to none other than Bruno Mars to be up for the challenge. It’s no surprise that he sounds as great as always here, but what does surprise me is how perfectly Cardi B’s flow fits.

“MotorSport” by Migos, Cardi B & Nicki Minaj: I can’t be the only one who thinks this song is pretty awkward to listen to now, considering the split between Cardi and Offset, as well as Cardi and Nicki’s feud that erupted later in the year. Still, everyone but Quavo puts forth a great performance, and Murda Beatz crafts one of this year’s most hypnotic bangers.

“In My Blood” by Shawn Mendes: Look, credit where it’s due, Mendes wrote a really good song about his struggles with anxiety, and he finally has organic-sounding production that compliments the song’s structure really well. I’m still not completely sold on him as a singer yet, but he puts forth enough effort for me to like “In My Blood” quite a bit.

“This Is America” by Childish Gambino: If I were including music videos in my placement of the songs on this list, this could have contended for the top spot. The song itself, while admirably direct in its lyricism and its freewheeling instrumental, works better as an accompaniment to the stunningly layered visuals that Glover assembled to put forth his commentary about race relations and gun control.

“LOVE.” by Kendrick Lamar feat. Zacari: Well over a year after its release, Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. is still a phenomenal album. “LOVE.” still stands as a highlight from the album, boasting melodic flows, serene production, gorgeous vocals from Zacari, and one of Kendrick’s most poignant hooks to date. It may be the most pop-oriented track Kendrick’s put on an album to date, but at least he sounds like he’s actually putting in an actual effort.

And now, here's my pick for the Best Hit Song of 2018:

1. "No Tears Left to Cry" by Ariana Grande

In my 2017 lists, I made a recurring observation that popular music doesn’t exist without context. That mentality definitely crossed over into my previous list, where I didn’t choose the worst four on the list just because they were made by abusive people, but because most of them actively reminded me of their heinous acts. Of course, that also means that great art can be made in the wake of significant life events. It’s partially for this reason that Kesha’s triumphant comeback “Praying” topped this list last time, and in 2018, Ariana Grande made an equally powerful return with “No Tears Left to Cry.”

I don’t need to explain the circumstances that led up to this point, but since the release of “No Tears Left to Cry,” Ariana has made one thing abundantly clear: she wants to use her music to spread positivity into the world. The song starts off with soft, humming synths and Ariana’s heavenly voice, boldly stating that she’s ready to move on from her past trauma. As she repeats “I’m pickin’ it up,” the tempo follows suit, percussion begins to swell, and the song becomes a shot of pure UK garage-influenced joy.

The verses feature these stabs of synths, a persistent, dusty groove, and gentle strings that have all coalesce into a somewhat tense arrangement. During the first verse, Ariana opts for a more hushed delivery, somehow suggesting that it’s difficult to try and put forth that positive energy when everything around you is so overwhelming. And yet, she puts forth a real effort, climbing up in her vocal register. Now, the chorus introduced earlier hits even harder with the help of the quicker tempo and the fuller backing. “I just want you to come with me, we on another mentality,” she sings, implying that it could be just as easy for you to adopt the same mindset and charge forth in life.

Since its release, Ariana’s put out plenty of singles with a similar message. “The Light Is Coming,” “Breathin” and especially “Thank U Next.” Had it performed well enough, “Breathin” could have easily taken this spot for its massive buildup and its lyrics about coping with anxiety. But where that song may speak to the personal struggles with anxiety I’ve had in the last few years, I believe “No Tears Left to Cry” represents something broader, a new way forward of sorts. With so much lifeless, depressing music by repulsive human beings clogging the upper echelons of the charts, somebody needed to create something to challenge it. "I just want you to come with me," indeed.

Thanks for reading!

[jensendavid93]

Natural Cure For Tmj Wonderful Useful Tips

Temporomandibular joint disorder, sometimes referred to as Bruxism.People who have obstructive sleep apnea termination often comes with no positive outcomes.Bruxism can be on your specific case of small kids and children, this can cause stress on the jaw and a new alternative treatment.Many claim that these drugs are potentially habit-forming.

He would grind his teeth all night guards which are found on the kind of pain is most effective when repeated twice a day, once in the jaw, perhaps due to the extent and gravity of your dental problem known as organic occlusion, in which these symptoms should consult a surgeon.Natural remedies are the only proven treatment for bruxism, but many individuals still suffer from TMJ or Temporomandibular Joint Disorders, or TMJ, is a contributing issue to your face and sometimes there are also herbal remedies that can cause pressure along the TMJ disorder then it is time to learn some excellent free exercises for TMJ syndrome was also given that attention.There are many medical professionals will most likely just began to develop.Despite the occasional brouhaha in the front teeth and cause headaches, jaw pain or even involved in certain positions.The mouth guard won't stay long if you are forced to breathe through their mouth.

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The grinding of teeth during the lighter or first stages of the joint, as well as moving it side to side.It is very important that the person is different but the sliding or translation component is blocked.- Insurance usually wont cover this, and if they ever noticed you make with your health?Here is one of the individual's teeth are out of alignment.You should try another method, which has produced the best means of dealing with teeth grinding.

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What To Do For A Tmj Headache

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[digitalwhatever]

The paranoid style is back, and better than ever

I know I’ve said this ad nauseam in these pages, but oh man are we in trouble as a nation. We find ourselves today in such an extremely ugly place, in the post-Obama era—an era riddled with hysteria, paranoia, division, hatred, extremism disguised as normal discourse. In fact, thanks to Fox news and the public institutions of hysteria (Rush Limbaugh, et al) much of what once might have been considered radical, violent, extreme or just plain socially unacceptable views or behavior is now normalized across the airwaves on a daily basis. It’s mainstream!

This trend has been exasperated by the anonymity and free expression (or rather “free of consequence” expression) allowed by the internet that leads us deeper off the cliff. Thus, here we are now, in the throws of the golden age of paranoia—a deeply shameful and disgusting time in America. Hallelujah!

So I figured this is the perfect time to go back and reread the original article “The Paranoid Style” by Richard Hofstadter (from Harper’s Magazine, 1964) which put into writing, clearly and thoughtfully for the thinking world to see a phenomenon that’s plagued the human race for centuries.

Hofstadter writes about popular movements in American history fed by conspiracy theories, and politicians who used those conspiracies to manipulate and stimulate voters’ passions. The anti-freemason movement of the late eighteenth century; the anti-catholic movement of the mid-nineteenth; the ani-shadow banker movement of the early 20th century; and of course, everyone’s favorite anti-communist frenzy of the McCarthy era. He ends on, what was then, the current rage in Paranoid Politics: the Barry Goldwater campaign, in which many of the pillars of modern conservative conspiracies were born and cemented.

But one thing I can’t help in reading about all these great moments in paranoid politics, is how quaint they are. How simple and relatively innocuous.

Hofstadter writes that one of the noteworthy developments to occur in the “modern” Goldwater era was the infusion of mass media to help fuel whatever strange and depraved messages were being brokered. Oh, but how gentle and dated the Goldwater days seem now, in comparison to today’s white hot mess. If Goldwater only had access to forces like Fox news and the internet, there’s no telling how far he could have gone. But he didn’t.

Rereading about the basic tenants of the paranoid mind and the exploitation thereof, it puts much clarity on what is happening to us now in this moment, and on how it is happening. The fears, the types of conspiracies, the invented enemies that politicians and media personalities use to manipulate voters, they come from well worn places in the human (or at least, the American white male) psyche. Capitalism is being undermined! Infiltrators from “outside” have worked their way to the highest levels of government. Backed by, and in cahoots with international radicals and powerful shadowy figureheads, they are plotting the destruction of the United States.

By the way, here’s an exercise for you: watch Fox news tonight and count how many times the say the word “socialist” in the course of a between-commercials segment. Also, how many times they pair the word “socialist” with “democrat” or “democrat party.” This is a way to get very drunk, very fast.

Even more disturbing and appalling then the actual practice is the skill with which the perpetrators of today’s paranoid politics inflict their craft. Whether it’s Trump, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, or some Russian troll farm, these people know what the fuck they’re doing.

Look at the Russian trolls of 2016, for instance. They knew the exact type of conspiracy theory to publish, the exact kinds of stories that would gain traction and be share (amplified) by their intended audience: Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. Proof she was corrupted by foreign governments—a corrupt insider who’s infiltrated the highest levels of US government! Classic stuff, right out of the pages of Hofstadter.

Our current president, despite his massive faults, nastiness and moral deprivations, is an extremely gifted Paranoid politician. He has taken the art to new heights. In fact, in most instances, it’s all he’s got.

His particular gift is language. He finds perfect little packets of words to neatly summarize, encapsulate and motivate the conspiratorial spirit:

“The system is rigged”

“Fake news”

“Witch hunt”

“Giant hoax”

He repeats these over, and over, and over.

Let us not forget as well, that this guy’s entré into the world of national politics was through the “birther” movement, which itself was something of a high paranoid achievement. The president (Obama) was actually born outside the United States and is therefore not legitimate. He’s a foreigner, hell-bent on destroying democracy, capitalism and the constitution! The fact that Obama was African American worked doubly well on the paranoid mind: the theory fit so perfectly into those warped pre-conceived paranoid notions that blackness is otherness, and that those with dark skin represent a threat to the natural order of America. It was a paranoid home run, giving rise to a whole new era of mind bogglingly delusional right-wing ranting.

Cutting his teeth on this vast and rich material, the current office holder of the presidency continues to use the dark sentiments of “birtherism” to his advantage. Another of his overused verbal bludgeons is to blame all negative things happening in our country on Obama. And weirdly, to justify any untoward practices he uses himself in office by claiming, mostly wrongly that “Obama did it!” There is no logic or reality to this, but to the paranoid mind, it all makes perfect sense.

Sadly, it’s this same deep paranoid fear of dark skin that gives fuel to one of the greatest national disgraces of our era: our current immigration policy and this ridiculous turmoil about “the Wall.” None of this nonsense would be possible if not for a broader fear of dark skin “infiltration” which has been building with the paranoid crowd over the last 10 years or so.

In fact, when you look at just about any of today’s most important political battles today, it seems that the obstacles to progress and sensible policy are built out of paranoid building blocks. Whether it’s immigration policies, stopping the epidemic of gun violence, curbing widespread sexual harassment, ensuring fair and equal voting practices, or just about any issue on the table, you encounter some very emotionally powerful appeals to the great, white, irrational mind.

For instance:

Immigration:

Dark skinned rapists are crossing the border, stealing our jobs!

Gun Violence:

Democrats and liberals want to take away our guns!

Institutionalized Sexual Harassment:

White men in this country are under attack. Liberals want to destroy our careers!

Voting Rights:

Black people, Mexicans and democrats are voting illegally! They’re stealing our elections!

Environmental Policy

Global warming is a Chinese hoax! Regulations are killing our jobs!

Healthcare:

They’re trying to import European-style socialism and destroy capitalism!

Religion:

Christians and christianity are under attack from atheists and democrats who want to dismantle your religious liberty.

Fair taxation:

Socialism!

The fact that these conspiratorial roadblocks have been in use for such a long time and have been set in high-repeat mode puts us in a very tricky situation.

These paranoid sentiments are no longer loony-bin, fringe and weirdo rantings. They have become a standard, acceptable form of mainstream political discourse. People are using them ad nauseam to distort and short-circuit any type of rational political debate.

The birth of a new Rational Movement in politics

Rereading Hofstadter's original article, and working through some of my thoughts have helped tremendously to give me a sense of clarity towards our current political predicament.  It’s also helped to clarify some thoughts about a possible way out of this mess.

Here’s what I hope to see: some politician, or several politicians really, thought leaders, public voices, personalities, spokespeople from all walks of life and political persuasions, rising up from the current crop to begin a massive, persistent de-bunking and re-framing campaign.

They will need formidable language skills, guts, conviction, and god-like perseverance. The end goal: re-frame the debate. Shed light on the bizarre and out-of-whack nature of our current politics. Make it crystal clear what’s happening.

They cannot be the wonky, policy-minded politicians of today’s left, or the quirky, quick-witted personalities of MSNBC or late night TV. They cannot be merely smart people with good ideas. They need to convey the weight of truth and urgency in their words. They need to clarify in a concise, colloquial way. They need to lay it all on the table.

We are fighting against deep paranoid fears and the people who exploit such fear.

This is not a debate between left and right or liberalism versus conservatism. It’s a debate between sanity and insanity. Between rational thought, and bizarre ranting. It's a debate between very real ideas and irrational fear.

The Fox news crowd needs to be called out again and again, not as the “right” or the “right wing, but as the “paranoid right.” The two words can never be uncoupled.

Most importantly, politicians cannot pretend to debate against opponents who eschew this garbage. Call off the debates. Don’t yell at each other across the podium or from different boxes of the TV screen. Do not argue with insanity—it only serves to elevate it and make it seem like it’s a real, valid point-of-view.

At this point in time, I believe there is still a soft middle in the American electorate—people who have not yet been radicalized, polarized, marginalized, cannibalized or disenfranchised. People  who are still open to political discourse and are still capable of making decisions based on thought and information. These are the people who need to be reached and influenced. These are the people that can save our collective hides.

Of course, a few other things need to happen. For instance, Fox news needs to be put off the air once and for all. And the internet needs to be unplugged. But those are discussions for another day.

[fbuckleydocumentary2018]

My Statement

Key Ideas/Concept 

For my Documentary I wanted to look at the idea of distorting context and creating poor image. I wanted to see how easy it was to completely change the concept of work that already exists by adding my own visuals or audio to the piece. I also looked at how this relates to poor image as the idea of this concept is that a piece of work can deteriorate over time due to it’s mass consumption and oversharing. In the case of my video I used the audio of a makeup tutorial from the 1960′s and paired it with visuals of me putting on makeup in an exaggerated way and that of which could be seen as quite bad in order to conceptualize the idea of image deteriorating and becoming poor. 

While filming it, I wanted it to have a similar approach to the actual video which showed the woman doing her makeup both directly on her face or with the camera behind her while she looked in the mirror. I also added in a cut to a boy putting on the makeup in my place for a few seconds of the video before it cuts back to me. This again was supposed show how the context of the audio can be completely altered and how nowadays a man putting on makeup is not at all a phenomenon. With the second half of the video where I use other audio from a different video about a competition crowning “the perfect man”, I filmed my friend who would not be regarded as the perfect man due to his slimmer build compared to the men in the original video. This again is connected to the idea of changing the context of an old video in order to modernize it and in someway ruin the original image. 

In the end the whole idea of the video does show the passing of time since these videos were first released and how now they are regarded as poor images as they are at the disposal of people like me who are able to make films like this one. It is the idea of having the power where one can almost ruin the entire content of a previously existing video by adding visuals that seem destructive and almost insulting to the audio. 

Research 

My research began by watching many documentaries with simple concepts and visuals in order to understand what I, myself is capable to film. Some of these included films such as “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Sean Donnolly and the “Seven Up!” series by Michael Apted. I then began to focus on more Avant-Garde documentaries and especially those which specifically dealt with the audio as being an important part of the piece. These included “2 into 1″ by Gillian Wearing and “The Semiotics of the Kitchen” by Martha Rosler which both deal with the audio having the power to change the entire context of the video. The film by Rosler also helped me to think of the idea of finding a video similar to the makeup video which I used as it had the underlining feelings of anger towards the kitchen that my video may be perceived as having towards makeup. 

I then watched other videos such as Oreet Ashery’s “Passing Through Metal” which again mixes audio with almost unrelated visuals as it depicts a group of people knitting while there is a heavy metal band in the corner playing. I then began to connect all of this research to the idea of poor image. This came about from reading some of Hito Steyerl’s “In Defense of the Poor Image” where she discusses where the poor image comes from and how it is possible for a piece of art to get to that point. This then brought me to look at meme culture and how that has now impacted art similarly to stock images and stock videos and how that has also impacted the film world as now it is so easy to access readily available free material. 

I also looked at the work of the artist Yayoi Kusama who’s work revolves around polka dots and her obsession around them. Her work also reminded me of some of the basic ideas surrounding poor image and the fact that she used polka dots with such repetition means that she almost made them become that of poor image. 

Then for actual resources for my video I used a makeup tutorial from the 1960′s which is somewhat viral on YouTube and another video showing a men’s fitness competition from the YouTube channel British Pathe. 

Cultural Context 

I believe my film holds a great deal of cultural context as it shows the passing of time, how easy it is to change the context of a piece and the concept of the poor image. The idea of it showing the passing of time is evident in the fact that both videos that I used are videos which specifically seem quite dated and backward and pairing them with a woman doing her makeup in a crazy way and a man with a thin build being shown as the perfect man shows where the world is now compared to when the original films where made.

I also wanted to show how easy it is for people to alter the context and the meaning of an original video in order to generate almost false facts that the original creator of the piece did not intend for. This then is connected to the idea of a piece deteriorating into that of poor image. This is done so by an image being overshared to such an extent that the quality gets worse. I wanted to make a piece in which the audio was used to that of a piece that used to not necessarily be a poor image but has become one due to it’s over sharing on YouTube and pair it with a piece that was created from the start to be a poor image. 

The video can also be looked at as somewhat of a social commentary of subjects such as women and men’s beauty. This is due to the fact that it is showing someone putting on ludicrous makeup with their own freedom with a woman in the background ordering her to put it on in a far more rigid way that acquires far more rules. Then there is a video that is describing the perfect man as that of strongly built and very masculine to the visuals of a man of thinner build and more feminine. 

My Process 

My process began with me watching a number of documentaries that I could find that had simple concepts and low budgets. I then began to watch more however, this time documentaries which were more Avant-Garde. I then discovered the makeup tutorial which I found on YouTube that I used in the final video. This made me think of how it would be interesting to see someone remaking the video almost parodying the makeup tips given. This then sparked me to look up videos which have strange contrasts and juxtapositions between their audio and visuals. 

I then filmed the first draft of me just doing my makeup in a bizarre way directly to camera while the video played in the background. This made me want to stick to this idea and try to expand it. I then wanted to add more elements to the filming of the video like cut away shots of the makeup and varying angles of me actually putting on the makeup. 

After this I began to research more about poor image and how I wanted to connect my video to this. I also found another video on YouTube regarding a similar subject but instead it being a man. This inspired me to have the video in almost two parts and for the image to grow worse and worse until the second part starts and ends. I attempted to make the image worse by putting a filter and lowering the quality of a few seconds of the visuals and pairing it with the audio but the woman’s voice now being distorted. I wanted to film the second part of the video in an almost “campy” way as the original video was filmed with the men laughing and trying to look masculine and sexy. 

Analysis/ Evaluation of my Final Work

I like my idea and my thought process behind the work as I believe I thought of a concise and conceptual idea relating to the images I wanted to portray. However, I am not 100% happy with my final product as I believe events in my personal life stopped me from expanding my idea into something fully fledged and I believe by the end pf the process I was still quite confused with what I was really trying to say and want I wanted to show. 

I believe due to all of these facts my editing is a bit rushed even though I like some of the editing choices I made and while I was filming the video I believe I filmed many options for me to use in the final product. I still think the editing is somewhat choppy and shaky which is certainly something I need to really work on for future videos. 

I also believe that the filming is shaky as I did not put enough thought into camera placement and I had the wrong idea of thinking that it would look alright filming it handheld. This being said I don’t think that this necessarily ruins the video as it still could relate to the whole idea of poor image. 

I also could have thought more about different shots to use for the video in order to make it slightly more eventful and exciting and perhaps more abstract. However, this being said I do like my decision to add the extra clips that I managed to in the end product.

[tune-collective]

Katy Perry, Desiigner & More Are Spotify Editors' Picks for New Music Friday

Katy Perry, Desiigner & More Are Spotify Editors' Picks for New Music Friday

Every week, Spotify updates their “New Music Friday” playlist, featuring 50 of the freshest new tracks hitting the service that week.

On the heels of Billboard‘s partnership with the streaming giant, we’ll be tapping Spotify’s editors to sift through the soon-to-be-hits and highlight the best of the bunch.

Check out the picks and listen to the entire “New Music Friday” playlist below.

Katy Perry – “Chained To The Rhythm” ft. Skip Marley

At this point, Katy Perry knows us all too well. With today’s release of the superstar singer’s new single, “Chained to the Rhythm,” the 32-year-old not only makes her overdue return to the top of our playlists but humbly reminds us that she’s long been a fan-favorite for a valid reason, singing, “Turn it up, it’s your favorite song / Dance, dance, dance to the distortion.” While that foreshadowing line may be a safe bet given Perry’s impeccable past success, even in the song’s first initial run-throughs, its potential to be the next major earworm is undeniable. While Perry is warming up for a 2017 takeover, starting with her recently confirmed performance at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards this weekend, she chose to debut the song in an epic fashion, literally scattering speakers masquerading as disco balls all over the world, inviting fans to participate in a scavenger hunt to seek out her latest tune. “Chained to the Rhythm” enlists a guest feature from Bob Marley‘s grandson, Skip, who made his debut on our #SpotifyNMF playlist just last week. Much like his new single “Lions,” the collaborative track holds a strong-but-subtle political message woven into it, simultaneously inspiring us all to do better and rise above what is looking to tear us down. As Perry readies her first studio album since 2013’s Prism, it’s clear she’s not holding anything back this year, proudly declaring, “We gonna call this era Purposeful Pop.”

Migos – Spotify Singles

While Atlanta may have had the upset of the year with last weekend’s unpredictably theatrical Super Bowl outcome, Migos is here to save the day. As the rap group continues to hold it down as ambassadors of the culture enjoying the recent fruits of their labor, recently releasing their second studio album, the reigning champs stopped by Spotify’s New York headquarters to bless the studio with their signature lavish trap sound and have some fun in the process. Although their album, Culture, debuted at the number one slot on the Billboard charts, the group stays on their grind, even creating a brand new single that doubles as an ode to their recent collaboration with hip-hop’s favorite snack food company, Rap Snacks. For their own special edition bags of potato chips, the group went with a sour cream flavor, aptly naming their catchy new track, “Dab of Ranch,” after their own Rap Snacks’ branding. After the group posted a viral video of themselves freestyling about the fact they now have their own chip, the next logical step naturally was to lay it down in the studio. During the Spotify session, the group’s members go back and forth creating what feels like an unlikely love story, with the lyrics playing into the theme brilliantly, with lines such as “Money like bags of chips / hunnits of bags I flip / finger-licking with the ranch / leaving crumbs on your lips,” and “Get your rap snacks with a dab of ranch / If there ain’t no more call the ambulance” the song is surprisingly (or not-so-surprisingly) incredibly well-written and full of personality, not straying far from Migos’ traditional bangers. In fact, this one can arguably hold its own weight in the club, proving not everyone can pull off a potato chip tribute quite like the Migos can. Rounding out their session with a unique rendition of their track, “T-Shirt,” the Atlanta heavyweights continue to secure their sky’s-the-limit legacy.

Adam Friedman – “What If”

Adam Friedman has been wisely preparing for the very stage his career in music has now arrived to for ages. While many artists are eager to release their music into the world the exact second an engineer sends back the master, this emerging singer-songwriter has opted to forge his own path. After graduating from the Berklee College of Music in 2014, Friedman headed straight to the studio, where he worked on Mike Posner‘s second studio album At Night, Alone, while also creating the original song score for an animated feature film Rock Dog, going on to become the singing voice of the main character, who was played by Luke Wilson. After staying busy with these endeavors, Friedman released his debut single into the wild, with “Pretty Things” going on to debut at #10 on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart. Now that he’s gotten his feet wet, it’s just the beginning, with the LA-based musician today releasing his debut EP, Green. While the 5-track collection features two singles that may sound familiar, his celebrated collaboration with Mike Posner “Lemonade,” a track that has since impressively racked up over 6 million streams as well as his lead single, “Sad,” the other tracks on the project serve as an exciting reminder that Friedman is slowly and steadily making his way onto everyone’s radar. With “What If,” Friedman’s opening vocals are perfect for a pensive reflection, as he wonders what would have happened if things with someone who had caught his eye went a little bit differently. The ambience of the song then erupts into warm electronic production full of pan flute-esque synths and a delectable variety of drums, swirling with inevitable sing-along moments proving that Friedman’s ability to borrow elements from pop and dance music alike continues to work in his favor.

Desiigner – “Outlet”

While 2016 put Desiigner on the map in a permanent way with the release of his platinum singles “Panda” and “Timmy Turner,” this year finds the rapper on a whole new level but chasing after the same goals. The 19-year-old is wasting no time getting back down to business after enjoying the breakout success he’s now received his first heavy heaping of, recently announcing a six-week U.S. tour to kick off in April. Not only that but he also followed up the exciting news with a fresh new single, “Outlet,” a song that shares the same name as the 25-city tour run and gives fans a taste of the new material the G.O.O.D. music emcee has been cooking up for his highly anticipated Def Jam debut, The Life of Desiigner. On the new track, the Brooklyn native navigates less-familiar territory, straying a bit from the patterns used in his previous singles, while tactfully weaving in his signature chirps, buttery rhyme-singing and braggadocios battle cries. While the song interestingly enough doesn’t feature the word “outlet,” the song doubles as a reminder that the reputedly high energy Desiigner is still charged up and ready to go. While discussing the new single, Desiigner naturally is already looking toward the bigger picture, using his new music as fuel to get him to where he wants to go next, even thinking as ambitiously as an astronaut. “I got millions and trillions, I’m here to entertain,” he recently declared. “If I gotta get to the next planet and it’s the first ship going up there and it’s a performance, I want to do that. You feel me? So I’m trying to just be everywhere man, just be everywhere.” With “Outlet” the first reveal of what Desiigner has on deck, it’s without a doubt that while the rapper may have a long ways to go until he reaches his out-of-this-world aspiration, he certainly is heading in the right direction.

Fifty Shades Darker – Official Soundtrack

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, today’s timely release of the second installment of the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise is making sure that regardless of how one may feel about the hallmark holiday, the film’s soundtrack is here for the die-hard romantics and the reluctant population alike. As the best-selling book series went on to takeover the big screen, with Fifty Shades of Grey and now Fifty Shades Darker, it’s only fitting that the accompanying soundtrack is full of major players, unlikely collaborations and as much sex appeal as the erotic romance tale itself exudes. While the film’s first soundtrack birthed some of 2015’s most sultry anthems, including The Weeknd‘s “Earned It” and Ellie Goulding‘s “Love Me Like You Do,” this year’s collection appears to hold just as much promise as its predecessor. As recently featured on #SpotifyNMF, Taylor Swift and Zayn‘s collaboration “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” has already racked up an impressive 175M plays on Spotify, with Halsey‘s offering “Not Afraid Anymore,” gliding past 6M, building anticipation to see what else the star-studded collection has in store. With songs from John Legend, Tove Lo, Sia, Kygo, The-Dream, Nick Jonas, Nicki Minaj and more, Fifty Shades Darker covers a lot of ground, both in both the lyrical sense and genre-wise. With songs ranging from tropical house-tinged tracks to piano-led ballads to sinister pop, the soundtrack explores an overall theme of lust, with each track tackling a new interpretation of the complicated emotion and experience. While the film’s at-times controversial plot is a bit more dark than the content of its soundtrack may be, Fifty Shades Darker is poised to dominate theaters and the airwaves alike this weekend and then some, with the conversations surrounding the cultural phenomenon destined to continue well past its debut opening.

Source: Billboard

http://tunecollective.com/2017/02/25/katy-perry-desiigner-more-are-spotify-editors-picks-for-new-music-friday/