#but the composition was driving me bonkers

[ahkaraii]

Making myself some stickers :D

[spooksier]

Hello my pal Spooksier, hope you’re having a good day. I absolutely love your work, and I have a question.

I’d like to start making comics, but I’m only experienced with illustration, and when I try to map and sketch, everything is much smaller and turns out terribly. Do you have any advice?

Thank you very much for drawing my blorbos in such excellent fashion, and have a wonderful day.

don't treat comic compositions like illustrations you'll drive yourself bonkers insane!! i tend to treat comic compositions like storyboards where im trying to get the most amount of information with the least amount of lines, so instead of trying to make every panel feel like a complete illustration, treat it like a frame of an animation! all sequential work is the same. (plus, being more lax in your comic panels only makes pages where you do go hard (in an illustration way) all the more cooler)

for an example here's a page from pandorica with its thumbnails

and here's what my usual illustration thumbnails look like

really different!

the hardest lesson ive had to learn about comics as an illustrator is to chill the hell out and let the medium work for me, comics are not illustrations and illustrations are not comics BUT (!!) you can mash them together in really fun ways

tl;dr: when thumbnailing comics, 1) take it easy 2) have fun and 3) remember you're making something that'll be read sequentially and not just a single-page illustration, save up your great illustration skills for big impact moments!

[gibbledygoo]

I just needed to tell you that your Alice piece is driving me absolutely bonkers. The composition of it is phenomenal.

AGH THANK YOU I’m so glad that it spoke to you!!! Alice haunts the narrative of this story so much it’s making me insane actually 🥲

[justmybookthots]

The Contortionist

My biggest feat this month is not DNFing this.

Quality is never guaranteed with anything, but even then, I didn't see this coming. To be fair, it hasn’t been trending on Booktok at all—I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on there, tbh—I knew of it mainly because of Reddit. All I can say is that that subreddit has taken a huge hit on their credibility (I’m half-joking).

This reads in some part like an edgy thirteen-year-old wrote this. There is so much telling, not showing. It feels… I don’t know how to explain it, but like I’m reading a high school composition / essay. I am constantly told things, like how “insane” Simon is, like how close the main character is to Trent, but I’m never really shown that, especially the latter. 

Let’s talk about Trent, her gay best friend and the driving force of most of the story. He’s supposed to be dearest pal and the person she wants to protect, and I’m like… Why? He acts nothing like a friend. He’s just a selfish, conceited person who only cares about his own interests. She tells him she was molested, and this—this monstrosity—is what he says:

 I… I don’t even know what to say about this. Firstly, what kind of friend advocates for fucking sexual assault? Secondly, this is a horrific caricature of how a gay person is portrayed. It's an insult to gay people. All this character thinks about is fucking hot men. The heroine, Cora, his best friend, is very clearly distraught because of the circus but he has never once noticed—never once cared beyond going there to get dick from someone at the circus:

And then later, when he’s in danger, she thinks: 

Ah, right. The good old flashbacks. Because other than flashbacks to remind us how supposedly close these two people are (which are just shoe-horned in and not convincing at all), Trent has never done anything worth risking her life to save him. 

Anyways, enough about Trent. Let’s talk about Simon, whose characterisation makes me puke.

I’ll start with the obvious—he’s insane. Don’t worry, you won’t forget this, because he reminds you of this every chapter. He’s insane. His smile “reeks” of insanity, whatever that means! He lost his sanity a long time ago! He is bonkers!  (These are phrases all written in the book)

This is the cheapest way to describe a crazy person to me. My petty pet peeve is that I hate an overload of adjectives—show me he’s unhinged through his actions. And him constantly thinking to himself that he is insane made me cringe; can he… not? I have nothing against crazy people in fiction (if anything, they’re hella interesting if done right) but reminding me over and over again as if ‘crazy’ or 'evil' is his main personality trait is... a choice. And if he’s not reminding you of this, his circus co-workers are: 

I... laughed, and I think I wasn't supposed to laugh. This story is supposed to be about a creepy, spooky circus, but other than Simon, everyone else just acts like normal people, save for the barker, who was creepy at first then had a personality transplant and became a normal, decent guy the next day. And them calling him “a dangerous, murderous piece of shit��� had me in pieces.

I have to add that I read the “Unseelie Prince” by the same author and DNFed it, and it confirms to me that she writes the same type of male lead that is not for me. Why is he constantly cackling? Once or twice is… fine, I guess, but every time he cackles I envision a crazy witch-hag. And he gives big granny vibes too because he keeps calling the main character “cupcake”.  No, I'm not kidding:

(Of course, we gotta be reminded that he is a psychopath. Can’t forget the reminder!) Also, he'll sometimes go on long rants when he’s angry, and the abrupt switch and the way the dialogue is written is... not done well. It's hard to put a finger on it and say exactly why, other than it didn't work for me.

There’s a lot more issues with this book that I don’t care to go into, because I’m not continuing this nonsense. Cora constantly going back to the circus when she’s traumatised by it yet and yet again makes no sense, and the horrible characterisation of everyone is another step down. Even “Hide” by Kiersten White did a better job setting an eerie atmosphere for a circus than this book did. I think a part of me did compare this book to “Hide”, and it falls awfully short. 

Buried underneath this bilge is a plot that could actually work with the right execution. The puppet thing is honestly kind of interesting, but with their puppeteer being some man that talks like an edgy grandma, it is just not working for me. Goodbye, and good riddance. I've decided to write this author off once and for all.

- 29 July 2023

[redqueenmiku]

I finally decided to stop messing with this because it was driving me insane so I’m just putting it up.

I was thinking about worldbuilding for Diametrics and an image extremely similar to this popped into my head and I was like “what if I tried to draw this” so I drew it. Illia has three moons, I make the rules.

[wahbegan]

Peacemaker’s Brother

Okay, so Peacemaker doesn’t have a brother in the comics. His story’s actually completely overhauled but regarding his father, it is kind of spiritually in keeping with what the comics were doing. In the comics, his dad was a Nazi war criminal who committed suicide to escape justice and the knowledge and memories of that kind of drive him batshit fucking bonkers and he has hallucinations of his dad verbally abusing him and shit so having his dad being a living abusive neo-nazi is pretty perfectly updating it for the modern setting. And yes, White Dragon is an existing, but completely unrelated obscure neo-nazi villain DC had laying around so that was just a stroke of luck for James Gunn that he could composite Peacemaker’s nazi dad with a supervillain.

Completely unrelated, but Matter-Eater Lad is also a real character fun fact but they did him dirty he’s a clean-cut superhero in the comics okay anyway

The one completely new addition is Peacemaker’s brother. They say he died under mysterious circumstances, that Peacemaker was thought to have something to do with it, and that’s about it.

So for a complete left turn out of nowhere, let’s talk about Deadshot for a second. Deadshot in the comics, was a character principally defined for a very long time with having a really unsettling death wish. This is something that has been pretty much completely scrapped in recent comics, it’s alluded to in his Arkham games character bio but never actually seen, and there’s no sign of it at all in any of the movies which frankly annoys the shit out of me cause i felt it gave him more character and depth and he’s much more generic without it but anyway

It was a huge, the defining really part of his character for a long time. For christ’s sake, his costume has a yellow target over his heart because he wants to get shot.

This is relevant because of the REASON he’s borderline suicidal. Turns out, when Deadshot was a kid, his dad was an incredibly abusive prick with a wife and two sons. He loved Deadshot’s older brother, but thought Deadshot was a worthless piece of shit and yeah if this is already starting to sound familiar, just wait.

So i’m not sure if they were trained to be marksmen or what, but they had at least two guns and were reasonably confident about using them, because his mom ends up actually trying to hire her kids to murder their dad because they’ve grown to hate each other so fucking much. 

Now what happens next i’m a little fuzzy on, i haven’t read the comic myself and i’ve heard two versions of it: one where Deadshot and his brother both try to shoot his dad, and one where Deadshot tries to shoot the gun out of his brother’s hand because he doesn’t want him to go to prison. Either way, his brother is inside, Deadshot is outside in a tree, draws a bead, and then a branch breaks or something and he misses, fires wide.

Blows his brother’s fucking brains out, saving his abusive dad in the process. That’s actually why he’s so incredibly compulsive about "i NeVeR mIsS”, btw

So yeah to cut straight to the punchline, you can understand why i’m starting to think they may have just stolen Deadshot’s origin story and given it to Peacemaker.

[theninjamouse]

Yeah uh, Stranger Things. You messed up big time. For many, many reasons, which people have far more elegantly talked about and I do not have the energy or time to do so. But I am going to talk about one scene in particular that is driving me absolutely bonkers pissed.

*Spoilers*

But that scene where Hopper takes his shirt off and we see how skinny he's become. That is some of the WORST VFX I've seen netflix dish out and there has been some really crappy VFX work.

Like my dudes. I could've made that more believable and VFX isn't my specialty. You're telling me that Stranger Things, one of Netflix's most profitable shows, can't afford a decent amount of CGI for this particular scene? (Which was written very poorly anyway, but that's a rant I'll save for the end)

I mean, barest props to not forcing David Harbour to starve himself, but all you had to do was get a skinny guy to play the body, green screen the head and then composite David's head on top. That's exactly what they did for Captain America, and from there you can do some tweaking to make him look skinnier but no, they replaced him with a horribly done PS3 level of rendering. In my sibling's words, it looks like he's about to start clipping through the floor. It's honestly pathetic.

But also yes, totally believable that this guy, who has been imprisoned, tortured, starved, broke his ankle (didja forget about that one, cause I did and so did the Duff brothers it seems) and the woman who thought he was dead for all that time would immediately get the hots for each other after she sees his broken, scarred and skin and bones frame. Like lady!! Maybe help him get something to eat before you try to jump him! Good lord, I am so sick of romantic subplots getting shoved down my throat when the writing is worse than that of a grade schooler.

Straight up, panty scenes are banned. I don't want to see them anymore.

[brittlebutch]

OK. are y’all ready to listen to me overanalyze wyld stallyns music? Wyld Stallyns music from Bill and Ted?? PLEASE say you are

I’ve been listening to ‘That Which Binds Us Through Time’ and ‘Face the Music’ a lot lately because i’m obsessive, but I’ve been thinking about how much the two songs are able to tell about Bill and Ted’s struggle with their music over the years. Even outside of the entire plot and action of the movie, these two songs say nearly everything you need to know about the journey lmao

‘That Which Binds Us Through Time...’ is a song that utilizes a lot of instruments and a lot of looping; several sections of the song are just repeated chunks of melodies and rhythm played by separate instruments. There are several little arcs of the music, but everything returns back to the same loops. You can hear guitar playing as well, but it’s never the Primary focus of the song - it’s used as an undercurrent beneath some of the primary looping instruments, like the Theremin. When Bill and Ted play the song at the wedding, their guitars don’t even make it to center stage (they also don’t get a chance to play them at all, which I’ll come back to). 

It really is an excellent song, but there’s kind of a slogged sound to it. The repetition is part of that - I do really like the repeating loops and they sound great because Bill and Ted are good at playing the instruments but none of the instruments are allowed to shine because they have to balance so many - especially when performing it live. They don’t have a band behind them anymore it’s only them, and there’s only so much they can do on their own. They have to rely on loops to pad out the song - to extend it and make sure that it sounds like More than just two dudes with a couple instruments - because they can’t rely on any bandmates to help them perform Or help them write. 

It also, like I said, doesn’t really have a big climax to the song that helps burst the vague sense of anticipation that runs through the melody - there’s a lot of build up but no Release in the tension. This, I think, does an excellent job of underlining the place that Bill and Ted are in in regards to their music. They’ve been working so hard throughout their entire life to write the song that unites the world, but they haven’t been able to do it yet. All build up with no release - the tension can’t go anywhere because Bill and Ted still have to carry it. And like I said before, there’s no one around to bear that burden with them, so there’s nothing else contributed to the sound BUT the years of desperation that Bill and Ted have put into it. 

Now with ‘Face the Music’ I’m only focusing on Bill and Ted’s solo towards the end of the song since the overall composition is Billie and Thea, not theirs. But even JUST THAT part of the song is such a Climax for them, both the song and Bill and Ted themselves. It drives me insane, and I think the fact that they went back to guitar has a lot to do with it, because THE FIRST shot we see of Bill and Ted in Every Single Movie is them with their guitars (Not counting the reveal of Evil Robot Bill and Ted in Bogus Journey - Bill and Ted themselves are first seen in their Battle of the Bands audition), but they don’t get a chance to play it even once before MP46. Like I said, even though ‘That Which Binds Us’ has guitar sections included in it, they don’t get a chance to play in movie because they get interrupted due to the unconventional sound of the song.

I think, more than anything, Bill and Ted are guitarists. When they were still planning Wyld Stallyns in high school, they have a piano and a drumset, but they don’t play them. Even despite the fact that it takes them years to properly learn how to play the guitar, they still love to play and perform just because it’s Fun. They don’t even necessarily care what the sound is, just the act of playing delights them, which I’m obsessed with. But anyway, Bill and Ted - shown through ‘That Which Binds Us’ are really good at playing a bunch of different instruments, but they still love the guitar more than anything. 

So during ‘Face the Music’, Billie and Thea could have handed Bill and Ted any instrument, and I bet they’d be able to play it. After all, Jimmi Hendrix is there so they already have a guitar in the sound, and they give Jo and Liz a keytar and a violin, so they’re clearly adding other instruments. BUT they give Bill and Ted both guitars because they know their dads (ALSO worth noting that I’m similarly obsessed with the fact that Billie and Thea were the only ones who stopped to consider the fact that Bill and Ted have been alone in the band for years. When The Great Leader brings Bill and Ted to the future to write the song she talks about Preston/Logan And The Band and claims she gave them ‘everything they needed’, BUT the first thing Billie and Thea tell to Kellye is that ‘they’re all alone’ and they want to help support them because they don’t HAVE a band, they’ve only had each other. Anyway) 

They give Bill and Ted guitars and for the first time in GOD KNOWS how long, they get to play with other people. You can SEE how excited that makes them before they even start to play; how thrilled they are that Billie and Thea have built up this composition and that they get to play with other people again. Ted hops all over the stage to give high fives to his family because they’re all there with him for the first time in a long time!! i LOVE the little grins that Jimmi Hendrix and Bill are able to share - because there’s no WAY that only Billie and Thea were Hendrix fans, Bill and Ted almost certainly were too and to get that surprised little look and nod of approval from HENDRIX HIMSELF - no wonder Bill’s face scrunches up so excitedly dude!! 

Not only that BUT because the sound isn’t resting wholly on Bill and Ted’s shoulders they get to have fun with the music. When they play ‘That Which Binds Us’ during the wedding, they don’t smile before Or during the performance because they’re so concentrated on getting everything done. It’s not something they have the freedom to relax during because the work is balanced so precariously between them. in ‘Face the Music’ however, it’s not just them! They have the space to bounce around stage, to play with each other (in a classic sense, not Just an instrument sense) and play their guitars with proper feel, because they don’t have to focus on playing each part so precisely. The song isn’t preplanned, it’s an Improvisational song they’re all playing by ear with each other. The music has personality because they finally have the breathing room to Give it to it, and the tension that hung over ‘That Which Binds Us’ is GONE because Bill and Ted are finally given the release that they’ve been working for all these years. Their solo IS the climax and the release of the ‘Face the Music’ song, they break the tension! They can play and have fun, work off of each other and the other people in the band, and it can be natural instead of a very carefully planned deliberate attempt and you can HEAR all of that in the solos themselves.

Tl;dr: Both are EXCELLENT songs because Bill and Ted are good at what they do, But “That Which Binds Us Through Time” is a tense and precariously balanced song with no release or relief because Bill and Ted have to handle it alone, while their solo in “Face the Music” grants them the breathing room to play and have fun with feel in their playing because they’re finally able to work with a band again instead of just being on their own. AND I’m still fucking bonkers over these dudes. 

[umbraastaff]

I’ve just been thinking--it’s about time I make a proper index for my TAZ fics, huh? Also contains: mini-series, ficlets, goof posts, and lyric comics.

(All of the fics are rated G, or T at most for McElroy-appropriate language.)

FICS

I Saw Seven Bounties | Canon Compliant, Enemies to Friends, Complete | Mostly lighthearted, episodic recounting of Kravitz and Barry’s rivalry throughout those first twelve years on Faerun. 24K. -->Extras: Lich Eyes, Fantasy Starbucks, Alt POV for Chapter 1 & Chapter 5, Sorry

They Say Fire Took Phandalin | Small-town supernatural/sorta-haunted-house AU |  Fresh out of grad school, Barry Bluejeans takes a job and a house in the rural nowhere-town of Phandalin. And it’s not like he thought fitting in would be a walk in the park, but the people there all act really weird, and it’s almost like they’re expecting something of him, too. 11K/~20K.

What Can’t Be Done Alone (Detective Squad) | Canon Divergent, Found Family, Fluff | AU where the voidfish works a little better, and Angus never finds the Bureau. Instead, he finds a strange lich in a cave, and he most certainly continues to work this case and not gradually get adopted instead. 18K/~22K. -->Extras: Drangus AU Oneshot

If I Wanted to be Funny I’d Name This Fic “The Time Belt” | Futuristic sci-fi AU feat. time travel | Taako meets the only people in years who recognize the Institute’s name. Known time criminal Barry Bluejeans continues to evade law enforcement. 2K/??.

Overgrowth / Undercurrent | Roleswap AU, Johnchurch, Pining, Twoshot, Happy ending optional | Overgrowth is a oneshot that follows John, the Starblaster’s chief diplomat, through a series of parleys with Merle, the center of the plane-consuming mass of plants that’s been chasing his crew. Undercurrent is a sequel about their post-canon reunion. 4K + 6K. --> Extras: PLAYLIST by @merle-casts-zone-of-truth

Davenport Remembers | Post-canon, Oneshot | Davenport meets with his crew members to try to reconcile his anger with Lucretia, or to decide whether he should. 1.5K.

MINI-SERIES

AU Where Taako is a Lich - Pretty much what it says on the tin here, folks!

Baritz (ask series) - A fusion of Barry and Kravitz, who took over my blog and answered asks for a while. (He originated in the Gallows/S&S lyric comic.)

Good Adventures (Good Omens crossover) - The Antichrist’s wishes summon the wrong boatful of aliens. Thankfully, it seems they’re apocalypse experts. [with plot-ideas help from @avijohann​.]

Omen Zone (Good Omens crossover 2) - Barry is a demon. Kravitz is an angel. Kravitz probably won’t ever admit that they’re friends.

Pokémon: Century Version (Pokémon crossover) - Stolen Century AU where they’re all pokémon trainers. Faerun spin-off: Double Trouble

Till Death, Don’t Let’s Start - Barry fucks up. Kravitz is present.

Very Normal Blog Posts (ask series) - In which Garfield is not at all dangerous, and I am perfectly fine. <alt: chronological link - desktop only>

COMICS & ART

Gallows/Steady and Stronger (Double lyric comic) - Canon-divergent AU where, as the world is ending, Barry gives up to Kravitz. [Image description version]

[Lyric Comics] - Other, shorter lyric comics based on single verses of songs.

Dear Scientist’s Log (series) - Illustrated ship logs from Barry J. Bluejeans.

Movie Madness (Comic) - Barry obsesses over the unforgivable.

Palette Prompts (Arts) - Art from art meme prompts.

Pregananant (goof comic) - You know the one.

REAPER (Comic) - Baritz fuses with Lup.

These Jeans? (Animatic) - Barry advertises jeans.

They’re Both Tessa Thompson (Comic) - Lucretia has a nightmare. Barry reassures her.

War (Goof comic) - prompt: "taakitz with CAT”

What’s bigger than this? - The Red Robe.

FICLETS

Back Soon - Kravitz leaves a note with unfortunate wording.

Bodyswap: Barry & Davenport - During Wonderland.

Casual - AU where the red robe talks like a normal person.

Command - Barry misuses his magic.

Davenport - There’s something unsettling about that butler.

Hangin’ Out - Lup and Magnus.

Harvest - Roleswap AU: Barry is the Hunger.

Healing Necromancy - Merle tries to teach Barry some tricks.

Hope - Barry knows she’s still out there.

How Long? - Taako is frustrated.

In Pieces - The staff.

Liches Forget Too - AU.

Lucretia Forgets - In which there was a mistake with the voidfish ichor.

Lup’s Robe - Gifts from Taako.

Mourning Glories - The flowers in Merle’s beard.

New Years - Celebrations and fears.

Parole - Barry and Kravitz bonding hours.

Phone a Friend - Baritz (the fusion from Gallows/S&S) meets Angus.

Raising the Dead - Barry has to use his crew members’ corpses. [sequel]

Robbie...? - Magnus breaks into the brig immediately after Petals to the Metal.

Second Apocalypse - Based on that one party liveshow. What was the rest of the crew doing, again?

3 Sentence Fics - Pairing + AU prompts.

Smartstone - Lup gets stuck in a Stone of Far Speech, instead.

Stir Crazy - Barry waiting for a new body to grow. Thoughts of Lucretia.

Writing Things Down - In case you forget (again).

You Remember - Taako remembers.

PROMINENT GOOFS

Barry’s Dead - But he’s fine! Calm down!

Character Development - Joke’s on you, DM!

Crystal Kingdom - An absolutely bonkers arc.

Dealer - Merle pun.

Decapitate Me - for making this post

Don’t Care - Taako during the finale. [bonus]

Epilogue - Bracer struggles. [bonus: 1, 2]

Explain the Hunger (Good Omens crossover) - Magnus explains the hunger to Aziraphale and Crowley. They react in varying ways. [with cursed art contributions from @avijohann and @mspainttaz]

Fifteen Dollars - Plus interest. [Bonus]

Fullmetal Kingdom - They’re the same, right?

Gender - And lack of roles.

Gnomes Don’t Exist - They’re all aliens, actually.

Hot Diggity Shit - Been a while.

Icon Confusion - The saga of people thinking my icon is a carrot. [chrono link - desktop only]

Incomprehensible Denim - Jeff Angel’s illegal pants.

In Case it Changes Anything - Taako, Kravitz, and lies.

Irresponsible Teens - Magnus and Lucretia get into trouble.

I Saw Seven Nerds - That’s the post.

Gogurt - Taako’s crimes.

Learning to Drive - i.e. Barry & Davenport Bonding(?) Hours.

Live Shows - The general mood.

Lucretia’s Efforts - A proper meme? On my TAZ blog?

Lup Said No Thanks - That time Magnus was in a tree.

Magnus’ Death - So many close calls.

Nearest Middle-Aged Woman - Clint’s characters’ friends.

Necromancy? - You must be mistaken!

Ned’s Aliases - The Truth.

Pirate Debt - Davenport during that one liveshow.

Punch Squad - SQUAD!

Reaper Cloak - Thoughts.

Relic Names - She probably changed them.

Responsible Necromancy - Good and bad ideas.

Resume - It’s not like they thought it would be relevant.

Schools of Magic - And the Sash was what, again?

Self Care - Respect the dead, please.

Server Shenaniganry (art) - TAAKO THE CAT, NO!

Soulmate AU - Where your soulmate’s greatest enemy is on your wrist. [alt]

Stern’s Truth - You Know.

Taako’s Last Name - Taako’s last name.

Team Composition - The post where everyone wants to argue with me about what qualifies as a wizard.

Third Option - Taako saves the day.

You’re Laughing - End of Suffering Game.

THEORIES/MECHANICS/THOUGHTS

Aloof - Holes Taako refuses to fill.

Barry’s Lucky Possessee - Graphic novel theory hopes & dreams.

Catpiling - Stolen Century thought.

Davenport’s Deaths - Sucks when you always wake up driving.

Death Leaves a Mark - Stolen Century AU concept.

Everyone Else - Some people didn’t get perfect endings.

Fantasy Nonsense - lore about the word “fantasy,” as in “Jesus Fantasy Christ.”

Fragments - Magnus’ memory.

Forgiveness - Old post about the crew’s thoughts on Lucretia’s actions.

Forgot to Erase - Lucretia’s errors.

FULL TIMELINE POST - the Balance timeline.

Gauntlet - (disproven!) Theory about the final relic, from before it was confirmed in the show.

Gnome Nicknames - Thoughts on Cap’nport.

High School AU - Some old headcanons.

Home World Names - The pattern in surnames (or lack thereof) on the IPRE’s homeworld.

Hour - This isn’t a thought so much as an Actual Thing That Magnus Said before the time loops had started, which is absurd.

Idiots in Love - The IPRE’s collective braincell was lost for all of Legato. [2]

Liches, Alone - Being stuck as raw emotion for an awfully long time.

Losing Julia - And subsequent developments.

Love - What was remembered and forgotten.

Love Without Fear - Thoughts on bonds during the Stolen Century.

Memory - Barry actually shouldn’t have remembered anything.

Nickname - Memory of Lup.

Paladin Barry Theory - Converging evidence on Barry’s multiclassing.

Paradox AU - blueprint for 8th, 9th, 10th, etc. Bird AU of your choice(s). (Extra)

Phylactery Mechanics - How liches differ.

Produce Flame - Mechanics of John killing Merle.

Recklessness - THB’s actions recontextualized.

Relic Schools of Magic - They don’t have them!!!

Relicswap AU - Where all the birds get swapped out.

Seven Birds as Gods - Ask-prompt thoughts.

Staring at the Sun - The birds and their light sensitivity.

Story, Song, & Sorcery - Effects on the young population.

Sword Tornado - Magnus Mechanics. [bonus: Time Warlock]

The Good Place AU - A series of crossover thoughts.

Tree Climbing - Davenport shenanigans.

Unique Magic Types - [and combo styles]

What Killed Maureen - hint: it wasn’t Fisher.

[martianarctic]

Devin’s Playlist -2010s Part 1

This is an unfinished retrospective look at what I listened to during the 2010s. This decade was exceptional for me, as it was the first decade where, for almost all of it, I was not a musician myself. 

Being a musician forces you to listen to music like a musician, and being free of that, and able to listen as a listener alone, really made this a spectacular decade for me. I found dozens of incredible albums that were released during the decade, many of which received no significant recognition.

This was a very large project, and I did not finish it. I made it through Retrowave, Shoegaze, and Post punk. If anybody cares, I will finish the entire project, which will add Dreampop (the largest category), Vaporwave, and Dark Ambient.

Retrowave: Retrowave is electronic music that, at first listen, sounds like it may be from the 80s or 90s, mostly because the synths it uses to generate the music are either retro-inspired or literally retro equipment in some of the more extreme cases. It generally features original compositions, often, but not always, is instrumental. Rough vocals would impede the tightness and angularity of the music, so when vocals are used they are often pop produced and highly melodic. This genre gained significant exposure from Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 masterpiece, “Drive”.

Galactic Melt (2011) Com Truise

Electronic artist Com Truise rose to prominence off of this fantastic record, which rallies around the undeniable electro anthem of 2012, “Brokendate”. Starting with some found audio (chopped and screwed found audio becomes a big deal later on in Vaporwave) and then dropping in an absolutely thick beat we’re met with a song that eventually, as layers are dropped on, ends up being meditative, romantic, and melancholy. Emotions to that point, not well associated with dance music, but definitely would come to color the entire decade.

Era Extraña (2011) Neon Indian

Electronic solo bedroom pop was pretty cool at the end of the 00s being pushed hard by guys like Twin Shadow. I am not sure how I got ahold of Neon Indian but this album was, in a lot of ways, the true start of my musical decade. I had not been so excited and enthusiastic about a record since I had retired from making music. It really gives you a new perspective to not feel like you’re in competition with everything and trying to learn from everything- just as a listener, I was enthralled with this entire record.

Visitors (2012) Lazerhawk

I did not get into dark retrowave until after 2013 and thus discovered Lazerhawk and this record after the fact. Visitors is, in my opinion, the best dark retrowave album ever made, more consistent and listenable than competitors such as mega drive or carpenter brut. Also. This album absolutely sticks the landing with the street-strutting powerhouse “Arrival”.

I am the Night (2012) Perturbator

Made famous by soundtracking the indie game hit Hotline Miami (one of the best games of the decade), Perturbator carved a niche for himself with fast, brutal, high energy dark electronic music and absolutely bonkers live shows. Perturbator has a large catalog of content- I am the Night is definitely the starter kit. Starting off with a thick minor chord, a church bell, and a sample of Peter Finch’s speech from “Network” you immediately know what’s in store- dark, dystopian and undeniably French electronic dance music, complete with breathtaking beat breaks, big bass synths, and complex compositions.

Innerworld (2014) Electric Youth

I had mentioned that Drive was a major popularizer of retrowave- and one song in particular, a collaboration between another retrowave artist named College, who created the low fi, catchy bassline for the song “A Real Hero”, and the vocals and lyrics, created by an artist called Electric Youth. Their record, 2014’s “Innerworld”, is one of the best retrowave efforts, with the second track, “Runaway”, even better than the song that made them famous. The pop chorus “Maybe we could just run away for good/cuz we’re both mis understood” soaring over thick, atmospheric synth pads will have you slapping the roof of your car, as you race through the freeways of LA at 3AM.

Atlas (2016) FM-84

Speaking of roof-slapping bangers, “Running in the Night” is probably retrowave’s most popular anthem, boasting one of my absolute favorite vocal performances of the decade. A group claiming rock and roll city San Francisco as their home base (despite being both British), FM-84’s Atlas is absolutely packed with a mixture of the atmospheric instrumental Miami Vice type music suggested by the red and purple setting sun cover as well as vocal driven pop songs such as the single mentioned above.

Hardwired (2018) Mitch Murder

Mitch Murder is a retrowave institution, having made the soundtrack to the viral youtube movie Kung Fury, and also, I suspect, the original music used by twitch personality Dr. Disrespect. However, he almost entirely releases 3-5 song Eps, making it tough to pick out a standout. However that all changed in 2018 with the release of Hardwired, the most accomplished mitch murder release to date. Starting off with the Jan Hammer style “Altered State”, it stays on brand throughout but tells a very unified instrumental story of cyberpunk dystopian adventure. Vangelis-style synths bring in the closer track, “Revision Control”, one of Mitch Murder’s greatest tracks. Evolving through different moods, different scenes, we can imagine the “human” protagonist confronting his cyborg nemesis he has been tasked to execute.

Retrowave Album of the Decade:

Dark All Day (2018) Gunship

As the decade wore on, retro wave slowed down for me. I thought it might be over but- without warning, Gunship, an artist I had listened to but not been completely impressed by, released what is probably the most accomplished album in the genre. Spanning various tempos and musical themes, utilizing several guest vocalists, the scope of “Dark All Day” keeps you listening to the record again and again. This record represents an evolution in a format that was at risk of being just a fad. “Come on lost boys, lets stay alive” over a ripping saxophone lead suggests mere 80s fetishism, but there is more substance than just that. The following track, “When you Grow Up, Your Heart Dies”, takes an upbeat electro jam, and really goes for emotional impact with a series of samples of characters from pop culture saying inspirational things, my favorite being “Everything worth doing is hard” which I think is just Teddy Roosevelt. My favorite track of the record, the slow ballad “Artemis & Parzival”, begins with swooning, Vangelis-style pads and then into guest vocalist Stella Le Page’s gorgeous vocals. This track definitely belongs on anybody’s make out playlist. “Were all gonna die that’s just how it is, there’s no escaping the future, nobody gets what they want in this world, even for you and me” is one of the greatest lyrics of the decade.

 Nugaze/Shoegaze-Adjacent: Shoegaze is a genre of music that features highly layered guitar effects (often run through 10 or more effects, creating a signature “vacuum cleaner” sound with a ton of distortion and white noise) and breathy vocals. Relying heavily on the depth of character of the sound, shoegaze guitar tone and production is a major creative point and almost all of these records are self-produced. Vocal themes are usually depression-inspired and lovelorn meditations, the music sounds, to most, dull and dreary, but to some, it speaks deeply to their feelings about the past and future. Shoegaze is often mixed with other guitar genres on this list, from Post Hardcore(Nothing, Title Fight), Black Metal(Deafheaven), and Thrash Metal (Astronoid).

Road Eyes (2010) Amusement Parks on Fire

Around 2010, I was promoted at my job to a new role that would require a bunch of travel. I was not a big fan of riding on airplanes. Also around that time, my brother had moved into my apartment, then out of it, and I only had a few months left on the lease. My favorite shoegaze band of the 2000s, Amusement Parks on Fire, played a gig at 330 Ritch, a club in san Francisco. I had a fantastic time at the show, and particularly loved their new material, which made it onto a record they called Road Eyes. 2 months later I moved out of my apartment in San Francisco and never would go back to living as a single dude.

Anyways, the travelling. The opening and title track to the record came to symbolize change for me. And it also was the song I would listen to every time my plane would take off. It helped me deal with the fear that something might happen- no matter how insignificant the chance – and if it did, while that song was on, it would be okay. Indeed, this was, and I will warn you I am not qualified to treat mental illness, but this actually really made flying much easier for me and it is a ritual I continue to do to this day, whenever possible.

Pipe Dreams(2013), Sway(2014), Feels like You (2019) Whirr

San Francisco nugaze/dronegaze band Whirr, large and complex, problematic, aggressive, are behind some of my favorite music of the decade. Their three album career reflects to me upon the primary feelings of youth: euphoria, anger, and sadness.

Pipe Dreams is a blissful set of jams, meditative, energetic uptempo and with almost totally co-ed vocals. Noisy production casts a hydrocarbon haze over the songs, raw vocal melodies reach out of the fuzz and suck you in. “Junebouvier” and “Toss” capture the euphoric and  youthful energy of a summer in San Francisco: starting off with breakups May thru July, and hot hookups until September or October when people settle into relationships. Two hungry eyes emerging from straight-bangs to make eye contact with you, and hold it- the exhilaration of touching somebody new.

Sway, the band’s masterwork, starts off with a heavily muff-distorted major 7th chord suspending us until the massive drums, now a hallmark of the band’s sound, kick off the beat into the opening rocker Press. The band switches up rhythms between drums, guitars, and bass to bring rock and roll-type turnarounds and breaks that really keep you on your toes and engaged. The lead guitar is classic legato shoegaze, using delay to achieve a long, sustained scream. Compositions are key on this record- not following just simple A/B patterns there’s some thought to the structure of the songs and record. “Dry”, in particular, demonstrates some of these ideas. A/B sections, underscored with “Drown me everytime… Dry”, give way to breaks, ethereal echo guitar solos, giving a hint of the powerful ending. A 4 chord progression accented by breathtaking drum fills finaly flourishes into a screaming cymbal-laden guitar finish.

Feels like You, the bands purported final album, starts off with some quiet echo piano. The melancholy major 7 chords the band has leaned on throughout their music are laid bare as we press play on the record. Add guitar. At a little after 90 seconds the band jumps in after with a thick blanket of lonesome self-reflection and chemical depression. The bands penchant for composition remains to the end, with changes keeping you engaged as the noise soothes your heart. “Younger than You” is one of the band’s greatest tracks, starting with an almost Smashing Pumpkins/Silversun Pickups esque clean unison guitar/bass into distorted and layered noise, ending with a drum-guided, rock and roll style outro.

 Guilty of Everything (2014) Nothing

One of the things I mention in my preface to this is, for me, the 2010s were the first decade of my life that ended with me not being a musician. And it opened some doors for me, creatively, to be able to hear music and think about it purely as a listener and a person. Something others have frequently described to me, that I had never really done, was just spend an entire weekend listening to an album.

I saw Nothing on KEXP 5 years ago when Guilty of Everything was out and they were on tour. I’ve seen them twice in person since them and bought every one of their records. The weekend that I got Guilty, I was attending a close friend’s sisters wedding, and pretty much was in a hotel room drunk in overcast-as-fuck santa cruz all weekend. And you know what was being played through headphones at practically all times.

Nothing is mostly the musical project of a guy named Dominic Palermo, a punk from the Philly scene that had spent more than a year in prison for a stabbing. He isn’t much of a vocalist or guitarist, but he is a fantastic artist, writer, photographer, and visionary, and the creative force behind what is now a rotating cast of other musicians.

Guilty of Everything is definitely their best record, opening with the massive meditation Hymn to the Pillory, into the definitive single Bent Nail, a perfect marriage of hardcore punk and shoegaze elements, falling apart into the 90mph crash, into a wall, final outro chorus “If you feel like/letting go…” repeated over and over over pure drone guitars, seamlessly flowing into the romantic slow jam “Endlessly” The closing title track is one of the best closers of the decade, perfectly sticking the landing on this brilliant lyric: “My hands are up, I’m on my knees I don’t have a gun, you can search me please. I’ve given up, but you shoot me anyway, I’m guilty of everything. I’m guilty of everything”.

Hyperview (2015) Title Fight

Nothing wasn’t the only Pennsylvanian post-hardcore band to bend their sound a bit shoegaze. Title Fight also sneaks onto this list with their outstanding record Hyperview from 2015. Appealing compositions and melodies combine with harmonized vocals, even some 16 beats on the hats- things we expect from post hardcore, but slowed down and smeared out a bit into the shoegaze aesthetic. My favorite track from the record, “Hypernight”, combines some screamo hype man chorus, math rock inspired guitar and bass lines, and is just all in all one of the most unique tracks to come out of the decade. “I don’t want to see things differently, its what I am taught myself to believe”.

Grandfeathered (2016) Pinkshinyultrablast

I admit that I bounced off of Russian electro-shoegazers Pinkshinyultrablast the first time I listened to them a few years ago. There was just too much going on and I didn’t really have the inclination to jump in and grab on. Operatic female vocals, noisy djenty guitar, shimmery, clean guitar, all swirl together in what is undoubtably a great record for having a tinder date IF, and I say IF, you’re willing to run a musicological acid test on them.

Whether it was listening to a bunch more music, particularly ambient music, or just changing taste now I can’t get enough of this band. They do slam from idea to idea in a song, but it’s a controlled speed- it’s not pleasant to a lot of people, but once you get yourself situated, you’ll wonder how you ever missed this band to begin with, if you’re not one of the people reading this and thinking, naw dude, I got this shit RIGHT AWAY.

The compositions on the record are, in fact, carefully considered and composed, combining noise rock with clean ambience deftly and changing up styles repeatedly throughout each song and the record. Everybody knows we can no longer control dynamics via volume in today’s world of headphone/device listening,  ultramaximizing mastering, laptop speakers, etc. So Pinkshinyultrablast controls it with style. This record is definitely the more guitar-driven of the albums from this decade, with their release 2 years later being more electronic and vocal focused.

Slowdive (2017) Slowdive/My Bloody Valentine (2013) mbv

There are two bands that are credited with creating and or popularizing the Shoegaze movement during the late 80s and early 90s. Those bands are My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive. Both of whom released albums during the 2010s. And frankly, both records are damn good for two bands that have been basically on hiatus for 20 years. Neither has really stood the test of time for me, although I listened to both exhaustively upon release. 

The opening tracks of both records are absolutely mesmerizing, this slow, sexy intro is clearly the part of them that became stronger with age. The manic rock energy of their more upbeat tracks however is absent or at least forced, and I think is what keeps these from being really what I’d call strong records. Nevertheless, both albums belong on any shoegazer’s playlists both for the quality of the music as well as the nod to the progenators of the genre we love so much.

Time n Place (2018) Kero Kero Bonito

KKB was already one of the biggest indie rock groups in the world when they released this their second full-length album. Making a big move sound-wise from super squeaky clean hip hop style production to sloppy shoegaze guitars and drums, they alienated a lot of fans with Time n Place, but I don’t see how. For me, coming in for Time n Place and then going back in the catalogue to Bonito Generation, I see it as a very natural progression. As the artists become more confident and mature, it’s natural they should explore some other emotions and moods.

That said I am not the usual KKB fan. Actually at their show in San Francisco in 2018 I was probably in the top 95 percentile of being an old fart. Around me, mostly twentysomethings on the first half decade, casually doing key bumps right on the show floor, something scared old gen Xers like me, still remembering their friend’s divorced dads in cigarette boats they sold for coke in the 80s, are still too paranoid to do. The crowd definitely starting pogo jumping at the chorus to “Only Acting” a grungy, poppy metaphor between acting on stage, and being young and in love.

Right after that, “Flyaway“ is the upbeat shoegazey manic anthem that really got me sucked into the band to begin with. Combining fuzzy guitars that are more reminiscent of Japanese rock bands of the 00s than shoegaze with a crystalline clear melodic vocal line from Sarah, this is the track where I grab a handful of dirt from my dying hill, and say if you don’t like this song, you don’t like the band, the record, or my musical taste.

Miserable Miracles (2018) Pinkshinyultrablast

Reinventing themselves record by record, Pinkshinyultrablast keeps on the cutting edge and doesn’t make a habit of anything. Miserable Miracles is more electronics driven, lead and pad synthesizers bringing in the music with their trademark soaring, operatic vocals. Guitars are present as well, but heavily stretched with cathedral reverb and long delay. A smoother sound than Grandfeathered, but well-poised to issue a majestic, meditative prayer such as “Find your Saint”, my favorite track. Like walking into a Germanic church on Sunday, the vocals rise to the ceiling forcing you to look up at the light breaking in through stained glass synthesizers. At about 100 seconds, all of the pieces drop in together to lift you into wherever it is you are going. “I used to talk- about it” brings the heavenly outro to bear, one of the most powerful musical moments of the decade.

Astronoid (2019) Astronoid

I am part of a few music groups on Facebook, and one of them mentioned this band, calling them “Dream Thrash”- a combination of dreampop and thrash metal. I’d say its more thrashgaze, with heavy effects/djenty guitar and the more whispery vocals than are a hallmark of the shoegaze genre, not the clear pop produced vocals that are the hallmark of dreampop.

That out of the way, this is possibly my favorite record of 2019. The opening track, “A New Color”, brims with energy and hopeful optimism and replaced Road Eyes as my airplane take off song. Right around 3 minutes in, when the plane is airborne and gaining climbing u to cruise, when we’re often breaking through the clouds, comes in possibly my favorite guitar solo of all time. On this record, Astronoid are unquestionably uptempo metal yet somehow at the same time being slow-changing enough to carry the emotional weight of shoegaze. The second track, “Dream in Lines”, is an aggressive, more metal-informed rocker, and the third is a power ballad that absolutely sealed the deal for me in terms of loving this album.

Other high points include the uptempo thrash jam “Breathe” and “Water”. Again infusing the metal, djenty mute strum guitar with soaring vocals and heavy backing harmonics, this record continues again and again to deliver head-banging jams that touch and heal a deep sadness in the soul. “Water” is a darker exploration, starting with a heavy chunky two-guitar & bass instrumental, virtuous breaks, and expansive echo and reverb. The band sounds like they are playing in the middle of an interstellar arena, fists human and alien in the sky.

The album sticks the landing with the penultimate track “Beyond the Scope”. This incredible song starts slowly, but upon reaching a turn, goes double-time as the melody and music climbs in pitch at 100 seconds in. This transition takes us into a greater urgency, with sustained, over-flying guitar notes keeping the harmony rich and complex.

Then, the beat drops out and a single guitar chord rings- “My hands are on my ears/They won’t stop ringing” smashes into your brain and your heart. Then again, the building section- “Feeble-minded/I can not decide/in my world, now I know/there’s no such thing as dying/so leave with a goodbye” and into another build and back to the chorus-

“My hands are on my ears/they won’t stop ringing”. I don’t think any lyric can better express the decade than that. If it were somehow possible for this album to end on this song, it would be at the head of this category.

Everything Starts to Be a Reminder (2019) Echodrone

As a former musician, I have a lot of friends who are musicians. I am very brutally honest about my feelings in music and that can make it awkward to have to comment on a friend’s hard work. Echodrone’s latest record made this very easy- the record is simply amazing. Echodrone’s earlier records bounced off of me a bit, but this one has just the right mixture of drone-drenched empty space, ethereal vocals, emotional anguish and euphoria, and a strong connection to the last 10 years in my mind. The tracks are named after the four seasons, starting with Winter and ending with Autumn. Interestingly, the tracks do not really stand out as being separate in my mind, much like how you cannot easily separate a season from another season in the same year.

“Winter” explodes with an epic, cymbal-laden meditation, that continues to grow and grow and expand, then finally becomes quieter, more melodic, and less drony in the second half of the 18 ½ minute song.

“Spring” features a finger-pick echo guitar interspersed with a beautiful co-ed vocal line guiding us down a pathway of different melodic and harmonic ideas. It then enters into a several-minutes long jammy contemplation that is utterly ecstatic to me- synths layered with effects-laden bass and more echo guitar into a full stop.

The best song on the record, “Summer”, begins with a vocal sample into a more or less straight-ahead rock and roll jam. This gives way to a downtempo effects section, then at right after 4 ½ minutes, gives way to a sound I can only call Olympian in hugeness. Fuzz bass, echoing guitars, and multilayered female vocals create this trance-like atmosphere that is rarefied and deeply marked with potent and everchanging imagery at the same time, like cream on top of coffee.

The sound continues to change and becomes quiet again once again with echo guitars carrying the music through. Back to a rhythmic return at 12 ¾ minutes. A synth flute melody flies over the whispered vocals, complex drum patterns- an opine to the end of life’s summer, the bitter sweetness of being old enough to not be hurt anymore by unlikely things failing to fly.

 Shoegaze Album of the Decade:

Sunbather (2013) Deafheaven

A single distorted guitar chord progression holding several notes through the chords for changing harmonics, exploding into double kick and even more guitars, into black metal screaming- this is the unmistakable beginning of Sunbather by San Francisco black metal band Deafheaven.

Due to its downtempo sections, overall distorted and layered production, and emotional scope, this album is loved not just by black metal fans but also by shoegaze fans such as myself. It is a perfect example of a successful crossover- not anticipated or forced in any way by the creators- but it just happens to work on so many different levels.

There are really only four songs on this record, the tracks in between them are much needed interludes. Something all Deafheaven songs do very well is compositioning. These tracks play out, in a way, like classical pieces, with many different sections, transitions, themes, changes, openings, closings, callbacks- it’s so incredibly dense and accomplished that you can listen to this album for weeks on end and still be surprised.

“Dream House” is the blazing opener of the record and puts on display everything we love about every song on here. To make this song the first track is insane, simply because of how over-the-top insanely powerful it is. After a brief interlude of just picked echo guitar, a single chord strum, the entire band comes back in a beat later, and this isn’t even the most emotional part of the song. That’s going to be at 7 minutes, 20 seconds in “I watched/It die!!!” screeches the vocalist as a guitar ostinado plays over the key notes that have been presented throughout the song in brutal crystal clarity. Then at 8 minutes- the vocalist and guitar break down, screaming and double picking guitar notes. It is difficult not to cry at this ending- and this is only the first song on the record.

“Sunbather” is both the title track and the album’s dark heart. Thrumming with a complex beat from the start, the other instruments are layered over this like a tangle of vines across an iron fence. Skillful use of double kick and drum fills keeps the band on target as we get to the breaks and turnarounds. The cymbals and guitars swirl creating complex patterns. Listening to this song from far away with extremely poor speakers would sound like static- similar to how Jupiter looks like a pale gold smear- turn up the volume a little, get a little closer, and you see the rich, threatening complexity of the swirling clouds of music and emotion. The song ends with a slow section about ¾ of the way through the 10 minute piece. An unforgettable echo guitar line plays sparsely over drums- invoking a Cure-like gothic sensibility. Then the band comes back in, playing the same melody and expanding upon it, a lighting bolt magnified to a thousand forks and twists going in all directions. It is the melodies at the end of Sunbather that were stuck in my head, unforgettable, after listening to this record. Unlike Dream House, this song ends on a down note, a question- the rest of the album is to give an answer, and incredibly, you will not be disappointed.

“Vertigo” is the longest song on the record at 14 ½ minutes, a blazing, minor key rocker that is meant to emotionally drag us down as far as we can go after Sunbather. The ending of the song invokes the Beatles “She’s So Heavy” before heading into “Windows” an ambient and spoken word piece featuring a drug deal gone bad- unquestionably a node to The Tenderloin, one of the more drug-laden districts in San Francisco and likely location of the band’s rehearsal studios.

Into “The Pecan Tree”, a song that has an seemingly impossible task: To somehow stick the landing of an extremely powerful and emotional record. We are looking for something coming into this track, but we are not totally sure what it is. We need something, but we can only follow the lights. The song opens up with insane double-kick guitar madness, 2 step rhythm, and then at 1:20 we see a glimpse through the storm, a hole of blue, that we can make it to, if we keep on going. Keep on going. Keep on walking. Smashing, swirling guitars and screams return, our view obstructed. Everything seems to be going at maximum at the end of this first section of the song.

At just after 3 minutes, the sonic assault finally begins to slow down, a march tempo into double kick continuous cymbals, back to march tempo, then, at 4 minutes 19 seconds, only picked echo guitar heralds us into the second section. The star of this section is a piano ostinato combined with the echo guitar, with a second guitar playing playful melodies over it. This is the starry night we can now see that the storm has cleared- this is the most optimistic and life affirming music on the record. A found audio recording of a detuned radio signals the ending of this section.

Eventually, this music fades just before four metal beats brings us to the conclusion- an octave-fingering guitar line and screeching vocal that is in my view one of the most awesome emotional turnarounds that I have ever experienced musically. The remaining outro sums up the entire record- life is big, difficult, unknowable, chaotic. Great albums stick the landing- and this ending does so, with incredible energy, on a record that did not even need it. Sunbather. One of the greatest rock records of all time and one of the very few of those albums to come out now, just about half a century after the 60s.

Post Punk Revivalists: The king of indie rock genres in the 00s, post punk was largely set down at the end of the decade with the major acts of the decade releasing milquetoast or downright laughable fare (are we human, or are we dancer?). However, post punk exploded back onto the scene in 2012 with The Money Store by Death Grips. Some returning groups from the 00s did end up releasing fantastic records, Roma 79 and Daughters being my favorites.

Cardinal Star (2014) Roma 79

I discovered north San Francisco bay area band Roma 79 through their single from the 00s, “Gold”, a sort of heavy, post-punk rocker with a few-thousand views on Youtube. I was very surprised when they reunited and recorded this followup album, which was one of my favorite records of 2014. Featuring a good amount of synth and dreampoppy guitar lines, the main standouts are the vocals and the brilliant drumming, which is a hallmark of great post-punk records of the 00s such as Fever to Tell or Turn On the Bright Lights. The strongest single on the record, “Seventeen”, features a complex drum lines, interlaced with vocals and synths. The song slowly builds up in emotional intensity and drops in layers of vaguely Phil Collins-esque drums and backing vocals, blossoming into a powerful meditative love song. “I’ll wait for it with you.” The final song on the record, is almost an answer to this track, closing the record on a strong point.

You Won’t Get What You Want (2018) Daughters

Daughters is another post-punk band that returned to release a followup nearly 10 years later with 2018’s “You Won’t Get What You Want”. Like all great post punk records, there are a number of characters in this room, and they all can be heard, each having their moments in the spotlight and their moments in the shadows.

One such character is the drums. A crushing combination of live and multitracking effects create a rhythm that provides both the constant heartbeat required by driving rock and roll based music, but also the texture, the complexity, that we seek out in the genre. Lots of tom toms used to keep the beat as opposed to cymbals, practically no hat. Invoking Killing Joke, except when they don’t want to right away, but bring it in later.

Another character is the vocals. Spoken word/sing song type delivery, where the mood and the words and more important than the melody. Lyrics invoke isolation, depression, contraction, abandonment, decline. It would almost be enough with just that, these drums and vocals- but this will also be added by another character, the music. The music seems to be generated mostly by guitar and bass, but there are clearly some synthesizer elements as well, used sparingly and to great effect. I can’t really describe the guitar tone, I would say, it shimmers, but not in an enlightening way. It’s like flashes in the dark, disorienting more than illuminating. The sound is like wood coming off a circular saw. It’s definitely this guitar sound that draws people into this record. All elements are moody, dark, aggressive, but it’s the guitar that really lays down flashes over the blackness.

“Satan in the Wait”, one of the best single tracks on the record, features an off-balance drum beat, carried by toms, and an air-raid siren like guitar sound. A throbbing, distorted bassline in time with the kick drum. At 1:30 in we are given a guitar riff that is beautiful and invoking of a banjo, lending a sensation of urban, southern gothic emotions. Horror film soundtracks come to mind, a combination of unsettling ambience and clear, unforgettable melodies. “Their Bodies are open” the chorus goes, making me think of world-ending events, a transformational death as seen in Arthur C. Clarkes Childhood’s End.

Another of my favorite tracks, “Daughter”, begins with a “bela legosi is dead” kick and snare rim drum beat, possibly electronic, along with a shimmery, surf-rock toned guitar riff. As the song proceeds, more elements are dropped in, and the drums are of particular note here, at 1:23 or so, they drop into a complex beat involving toms, cymbals, and snare. At 2:05 they drop in a clear guitar riff on top of raw noise, building to a climax with the vocal “There’s a war!” At this point, the noise drops out, just a clear guitar riff reminiscent of “Satan in the Wait”, drums coming in at 3:15 or so are particularly impactful.

The final track, “Guest House”, opens on a nearly unbearable sonic assault, the lyrics invoking somebody trapped outside of a bomb shelter during an apocalypse. Once again the gap between unbearable noise and beautiful melody is bridged, as the final dissonant chords give way to deep, harmonic, peaceful orchestra swells.

Post Punk Album of the Decade:

The Money Store (2012) Death Grips

The first time somebody played “Get Got” for me, it was during a really chillwave phase in my music taste and I was completely lost, and didn’t really understand what people saw in Death Grips. I was intrigued enough though, and circled back on some tracks from Exmilitary, their prior record. The more laid back tone and empty space present in tracks such as “Culture Shock” kept me interested enough to give The Money Store another shot a year or so later.

As my interest in chillwave started to fade, and I sought more emotional substance to my music, I returned to the Money Store, and was hooked. Each track is a relentless blast of aggressive drum beats, synthesizer driven melodies, and of course the unmistakable rap vocals of MC Ride.

A strong comparison for me, is between this record, and Joy Division’s second and final record, “Closer”. Relentless beats, but never getting boring, always inventing new rhythms to cast a texture over the musical landscape. Short, fast songs, transitioning from one beat and tempo to the other, never giving you a chance to catch your breath.

The music is highly influenced by hip hop, appearing to be a chopped and cut style, with synthesizers combined with production on the vocals, adding vocals, filter sweeps, reverses, etc- so much energy and craft went into creating what is on its surface very simple music- drums, vocals, and production. Standout track “Hustle Bones” does a fantastic job of expressing what is so great about every song on this record. Everything barely makes sense, but then it all comes together in a singular moment that anybody can nod their head to.

MC Ride’s best is on display in the classic hit, “I’ve Seen Footage”. In his relentless, attacking rap style, he tells us the story of watching gore or wtf videos from reddit or 4chan (or Stile Project if you’re really old like me)-  describing what he’s seen, and then underscoring that with the chorus, “I stay noided”- the character Ride creates is deeply anxious and paranoid, while at the same time being insatiable in the quest for knowing more, something I believe is nearly universal to the experience of the internet-informed human, a phenomenon that would later in the decade lead to diseases thought dead brought back by anti-vax movements, and the election of conspiracy theorist and popularizer Donald Trump as president of the united states.

And that’s the formula to each track on Money Store- working around something more or less literal, Ride’s poetry brings us into the dark state the world was only beginning to enter at the start of the decade.

Closing track “Hacker” opens with a recording of Ride, yelling, presumably at a concert “No ins and outs!!! You come out, your shit is GONE”, then into a 4-on the floor dance beat to end the record on an absolute banger. The music, carried by the beat and Ride’s systematic delivery, is left to its own devices, with glitchy, cut-off synth arpeggios, everything getting out of the way of the beat. “Having conversations with your car alarm”, “you speak with us in certain circles, you will be dethroned or detained”, and “Gaga can’t handle this shit” are some of the lyrical gems that Ride has saved for last here, closing out a post punk record that stands alongside Closer or Turn on the Bright Lights as one of the best of all time.

[twopoppies]

What's wrong with the photo of Harry with S & A?

Oh I don’t know…besides the fact that the composition sucks, there’s all sorts of clutter in the background that could have been cropped but wasn’t, that Stevie isn’t even looking in the direction of the camera, that there’s someone’s shoulder (or head?) in the right corner…for starters.

It just drives me bonkers that she’s so awful and yet…

[sirfrogsworth]

Fatigue and Disbelief: Part 3 “The Grandma Paradox”

I love my grandma, but when you combine her age, the philosophies of her generation, her poor understanding of modern medicine, and her general grandma-ness... having an invisible illness can make a relationship with her complicated. She’s in her 90s now, and things are much better than they were, but 18 years ago when this all started, dealing with her grandma shenanigans could add to my exhaustion.

What I’m going to describe doesn’t necessarily have to be a grandma. Though it often is. It can be anyone who you love... a person that cares for you very much... and despite their best intentions, the way they deal with your chronic condition may drive you absolutely bonkers. I think most folks with similar circumstances have a person like this in their life. 

I call it The Grandma Paradox. You love her. She exasperates you. And your brain has trouble resolving those two truths. It’s like throwing two angry cats in a bag and then placing that bag inside your brain. 

Some of what I’m going to describe is a composite of a few people. A few are experiences I don’t remember perfectly due to shock therapy. And some are details that might be borrowed from spoonie friends and their families. I’d say about 80% of this describes actual experiences with my actual grandma. It was just easier to put all of this under the umbrella of a singular grandma. 

Whenever I talk to fellow spoonies and bring up The Grandma Paradox, they immediately nod their head as if they already know what I’m going to say. I want to make it clear this is not me complaining exactly. It’s complicated. The Grandma Paradox is a bundle of various emotions intertwined like a rubber band ball. Grandmas can be wonderful and supportive. But they can also give you a giant headache if you have a chronic invisible illness that cannot be solved with chicken soup.

Meet my Grandma. Isn’t she cute?

Why do grandmas have to be so stinkin’ cute?

I guess the most frustrating part of The Grandma Paradox is having to repeat yourself. It’s not just that she forgets. It’s that she is unwilling to tell you when she doesn’t understand. I often have to reexplain my illness over and over because she is too polite to say she doesn’t get it. Each time she will nod and smile, signaling that the information has been processed and understood. This is grandma subterfuge. I will spend 10 minutes explaining how narcolepsy and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are two separate illnesses, but they work together to make me more tired. *nod and smile* I explain that fatigue and sleepiness are two different things. I am not always sleepy, but I am always fatigued. *nod and smile* The discussion is going well, so I decide not to dumb it down too much. I continue to explain that narcolepsy prevents delta wave sleep, which is the most restful stage of sleep. CFS needs restful sleep to abate the worst symptoms. *nod and smile* In essence I have the worst combination of illnesses in the history of comorbidities and that’s why I couldn’t come to the family Christmas gathering. *nod and smile*

“So... you’re just sleepy? Have you tried one of those energy drinks? Your cousin Cody drinks those in the morning. I could ask him where he gets them. Probably at the gas station.”

Sometimes I will try to explain it again. And sometimes I acknowledge that I am just “sleepy” and live to fight another day.

Grandmas always want to be helpful. But when they aren’t sure how to help, that’s when the outside-the-box grandma ideas enter the situation. She might ask her doctor about me. And he’ll give her generic advice to relay back to me. I have to explain that I’ve already tried that and it didn’t work. She’ll tell her doctor what I said. He’ll mention something else. And it ends up being a weird game of medical telephone. “Have you tried limes? He mentioned limes.” After some thought... no Grandma, I don’t have Lyme Disease. Then she might resort to asking random people for suggestions. A pharmacist. A nurse. The checkout lady at the grocery store. She’ll pull a scrap of paper from the abyss that is her purse... “Have you tried this ginseng stuff? I think the Orientals use it.” Now I have to tell her that ginseng doesn’t help and dismantle deeply ingrained racist vocabulary. 

Then there is the grandma research. She can’t use the internet, so she tries to find you information like an old school private eye. She cut out a few articles from the paper for me to read. They briefly mentioned fatigue and there was an expert interviewed. “Maybe you can call that doctor in the article.” He’s in another state. She called me and told me to turn on the AM radio. There was a news story about sleep conditions. I told her I didn’t have an AM radio. I suppose I could have gone to the garage and sat in the car or something. She had a TV from the 60s in her living room. It no longer had a picture, but the audio still worked. She would sit in there and listen to PBS. There was a special that talked about CFS and she made me promise to watch it when it aired again. 

I appreciate that she is trying to find things that may help. But sifting through grandma research can be a tiresome chore. If you don’t look at it, she’ll ask why. If you do look at it and it is not helpful or relevant, she’ll ask why. “But that woman in the article got better.” I have to explain why my situation is different. It feels like you are breaking her heart every time her research doesn’t bear fruit. 

I once made the mistake of telling my grandma I had depression as well. I didn’t have much choice since I was getting shock therapy as part of my treatment. First I had to rid her mind of the image of giant electrical arcs zapping my head.

Then I had to explain that depression wasn’t just me being sad. She told me I should be happy that I’m not a starving kid in Africa. I had to explain that even though others might be in worse situations, it doesn’t mean I am not struggling. I know her generation grew up with that attitude of “It could be worse.” But imagining others being miserable can not make someone happy. Often you feel worse because you’ve been imagining people suffer and that is no fun. I understand the logic of appreciating my privilege, but it can’t adjust serotonin levels.  

Despite my best attempts to explain clinical depression, it was clear to her that I needed to be cheered up. So she sent my cousin to visit me and play guitar. Only she didn’t tell me she sent him. To me it seemed like he just showed up out of the blue. I thought he genuinely wanted to spend time with me. I deduced quickly he did not. Which ended up being more depressing. 

She once invited me to the zoo because the zoo makes people less depressed. I suppose there is some truth to that, but it violates the part where I can’t really leave the house. Which I had to explain again. I try not to get frustrated. I keep repeating platitudes like, “Her heart is in the right place.” or “She means well.” or “At least she gives me money on holidays.” 

Every time I accomplish an energetic activity she thinks I’m cured. I once did this big pin-up photoshoot with my friend Brittany. Grandma was at the house that day and saw me dressed in drag for one of the photos. That took some explaining. I was hopped up on Provigil (a narcolepsy stimulant) and I must have seemed all better to her. I think she even invited me to Easter. That photoshoot actually took about a month to recover from. I don’t regret it. I am proud of what I accomplished. I think the photos turned out really well. But it was a miserable month afterward and my grandma was quite confused about the status of my health.

I do love that my grandma is an optimist. She never gives up hope that I will get better. Though sometimes she sees improvement when it may not actually exist.

“Oh, you’ve lost so much weight!” (I gained 5 pounds.)

“You don’t look as tired as last time.” (I’m more tired, actually.)

“You seem much more talkative lately.” *incoherent mumbling*

I’m sure my condition is a great source of worry for her. Nothing has helped and my health continues to decline. She has a hard time accepting that so I think she tries to tell herself I am getting better. Her mind will interpret any change as a sign things are improving. It’s hard to see the disappointment on her face when you have to explain things are actually worse.

My grandma is a die hard Catholic. So naturally she turns to God for assistance. When her personal prayers weren’t doing the trick, she decided it was time to bring in the professionals.

Cue the silent pink nuns!

The Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters or “Pink Sisters” are basically Catholic prayer ninjas. Religious special forces. Elite hackers of the Holy Spirit. For a reasonable donation, you can hire them to use the power of prayer to solve whatever ails you. You pay, they pray.

Imagine a more spiritual A-Team that seeks divine intervention for their clients. Just lock them in a chapel with a rosary, bible, and welding torch and they will emerge with a custom prayer that no fool would dare pity.

“In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to a nunnery by a religious tribunal for a sacrilege they didn't commit. These women promptly escaped from a maximum security confession booth to the Catholic underground. Today, still wanted by the archdiocese, they survive as rose-colored agents of the Holy Spirit. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... the Pink Sisters.”

*A-Team theme music played on a pipe organ*

(All of the youngins reading this will just have to take my word that this was hilarious referential humor. Also, there is an actual video of a pregnant woman playing the A-team theme on a pipe organ.)

These quiet pink penguins do not take a vow of silence per se, but they only speak when absolutely necessary. Like when ordering pizza or during their nightly gab session filled with Pope gossip. (I heard Francis has a lengthy benediction.) They cannot leave the premises except for health issues. They can only visit family 3 times per year. To stay informed of world events they can listen to a taped radio news broadcast at the end of each day. They can watch pre-approved religious television programs on special viewing nights. 

But when they are not having all that fun, they devote their lives exclusively to prayer. 

They spend most of their days with their hands clasped, using their internal monologue to ask God to help people out. They specialize in communion with the Holy Ghost. So if you have an issue and your measly praying isn’t getting the job done, you can hire these pink people to professionally pray about your problems until they pester you no more. 

Every Christmas my grandma would send me a postcard proving payment of Pink Sisters poking the Holy Spirit on my behalf.

I don’t have the heart to tell my grandma that I am no longer a believer. I think it helps her more than it does me. It’s a sweet gesture and it gives her comfort. Also, I think it proves that she does believe me, even if she doesn’t really understand the complexities of coexisting chronic conditions. If she didn’t think I was ill, she probably wouldn’t shell out the dough to hire elite prayer ninjas.

All in all, I feel very lucky my grandma is still around. She is in her 90s, but I have this strange feeling that she will outlive us all. Most of her antics eventually turn into amusing anecdotes once the frustration wears off. And it feels good to have someone care about you that much. Part of The Grandma Paradox is that you feel guilty if you complain. You feel bad that her well-intentioned actions ever made you frustrated. You just want to give her a big hug and say you’re sorry for writing a giant internet post about how difficult it is to deal with her sometimes. And then she’ll say something like, “Are you still sleepy? Have you tried juice? My neighbor at the home started drinking this special juice and she feels much better. I could find out where she gets the juice.” 

I’m reminded of a song by The Beatles (who my grandma thought were sent by the devil) “All you need is love.” 

Thanks for all the love, Grandma. 

I think that wraps up my 3 part series about about fatigue, belief, and grandmas. I suppose I need some sort of conclusion to all of this. 

Ummm... 

Invisible illnesses are real. Please believe your local sick person. Give them the benefit of the doubt until they give you significant cause not to. (Like building a hospital set in their bedroom.) If they like hugs, give them lots of hugs. If they don’t like hugs, try an enthusiastic thumbs up in their general direction.

Avoid pity. Treat them as you would any loved one. Use kid gloves only when absolutely necessary. Don’t let them off the hook when they’re being jerks. But forgive them when they realize they were jerks. Listen to them when they need to vent. Give them love. Give them support. Give them patience. If you don’t understand their condition, ask questions. If they look tired of answering questions, try that hug thing instead. Do some online research (On reputable sites. Avoid anything that says wellness, natural remedy, or Goop.). The more you know, the more you can empathize. Don’t give them suggestions unless they ask for them. Unsolicited advice can be annoying as heck. They probably know more about their condition than some of their own doctors. Stay optimistic, but try not to blow sunshine directly up their hind-quarters. Stay hopeful, but realistic. Be observant. You can’t be a mind reader, but you can learn how to read them. You can learn behavior patterns and emotional cues. You can figure out when they need help, when they need attention, or when they need space. 

And if you are compelled to hire nuns, try the pink ones.

[clovemerablog]

Journal 6 - BMSP Songwriting and Composition

Play.

I think I can struggle to loosen myself up enough to play. Where I play most is in my drawing. I say to myself, “This is a sketch, a doodle!” and I lose an evening fine tuning every little detail, often discovering something was disproportionate somewhere. Then it’s too much hassle to go back and fix it. Like building a house without a blueprint?

Our lecture on play had some valuable insights about the merit of allowing yourself a little time each day or week, to sit down and have fun with things you otherwise approach with precision and scrupulousness. It’s about making a mess and finding the things that can be organised into something awesome later on. Play has been proven to help children learn how to engage with one another and discover emotions through simulation of events. Overall, it’s an important thing to give time to.

Play for me is hard, though. Across music or illustration, I get caught up in the meticulousness of it all. I try, sometimes driving myself bonkers in the process, to make something neat and tidy. But in the lecture, we were asked to draw something, anything, in fifteen minutes. I quite like what I made, and I may use it as a framework for future concepts of an EP cover.

In recent memory, I have attempted play once, with a concept for a character in my head-stories. It’s rough and took less than 20 minutes. I'm happy that it’s rough. I never wanted it to be more than that.

I deployed a form of play a couple weeks ago in music, as well. I took a bunch of random chords, no rhyme or reason to my selection, and made something with it. The chord progression is as follows: F B D B E C G F. It sounded quite good in my opinion.

So, that’s all from me for now.

Signing off,

Clove 💕

[battythewitch]

Some magical book tips

Right now, I’m (finally) working on writing in my gigantic leather book that I’ve had for years, sitting on a shelf, blank. 

**Note: I’m glad it stayed blank so long, because right after I bought it, lots of stuff started changing in my practice, so it was a good thing I didn’t start writing in it then. I even knew at the time that I needed to stop after the first 2 pages I did because it just didn’t feel right. So, I ripped those out and started over, now, because I finally feel comfortable doing it.**

So, I thought I would write up a few tips based on what I’ve learned.

Unless you just really, really, really feel like you need a fancy book, don’t start with one. Get a 3-ring binder or some regular notebooks (spiral bound, composition books, even a simple journal). You don’t have to put in lots of effort on the pages (like illustrations and stuff, if you don’t want to), but use this book as a rough draft for a while.

Pay attention to the things you reference most often, and the things you wrote down then never looked at again. The things you turn to most should go in your fancy book/stay in your binder/whatever. The things you don’t use can be left out/removed, or added to a section for things you might need someday.

When you decide to start writing in a fancier book, go through at least the first little chunk of pages and put sticky notes in to label the pages. That way, you can flip through and see if you like the layout/order, and move things around easily before you actually start writing stuff permanently.

I also suggest doing this to mark the beginning of sections you want to divide your book into. (Alternatively, if you were using a binder, you can figure out your sections that way, moving things around until you’re happy with them.)

Leave a small chunk blank at the beginning (and/or end) for a table of contents (and/or index), then add stuff to it as you create your pages.

If you care a lot about neatness and avoiding mistakes as often as possible, do any illustrations in pencil (lightly) before you ink/paint/otherwise fill in the drawings.

Pencils are also super helpful for blocking off sections on a page. Like, if you are doing a section in your book for potions, and more than one can fit on a page, divide your page before you start writing. It’s also useful for marking off where you want your text and any ornamentation to go on a particular page. (Kind of like how people arrange elements on a scrapbook page before they start gluing.)

If you make a spelling mistake, don’t panic. This drives me bonkers, but I’ve learned to just leave it or put a line through the mistake and write the correct spelling above or beside it. If your pages are white, you can also use some kind of corrective fluid. (Story time: I misspelled the freaking title of my Book -_- I “fixed” it by going over the entire section of the page with the title in black watercolor paint, dry on dry, then used a metallic marker to re-write the title. And honestly? I love it even more now. It’s much more “me.”)

Put the stuff you use most often close to the front of your book. That way you don’t have to search too hard to find what you need.

Ran out of space in a section? That’s ok. Flip ahead to your next blank section and start writing. This is where the index and/or table of contents comes in handy.

You can find tons of tips for how to organize your Book, but the most important thing is figuring out how to make your Book work for you. If you’re not sure about adding something, don’t add it now. Give yourself some time to think about it.

On that subject, gorgeously illustrated books are amazing, but it’s fine to print things out, add in pressed flowers or dried herbs, use stamps or stickers, etc. It’s also fine to have no ornamentation at all. Your Book should reflect you and your practice, and it should be something you can actually use. If you’re spending all your time worrying about messing it up or not making it “good enough,” it’s not really serving its purpose.

Last point on that topic: it’s ok to write first, illustrate (or stamp, or glue stuff in, or whatever) later.

I highly recommend keeping some kind of separate journal or notebook for rough drafts. That way, you can edit your info, spell, ritual, whatever until you’re happy with it, before you start writing in your fancier book. (I personally also never add spells to my Book until I’ve tried them and had some result and recorded that in my journal, but you do you because just because a spell didn’t work the first time, doesn’t mean it won’t work in the future. Or vice versa.)

Leave some margins. That way, if you’ve filled the page and realize later that you wanted to add something else, you can glue in a page (see the “Double Pages” on this post) or write a note about where you put the additional info in your book.

It’s late and that’s all I’ve got right now, but feel free to add your own tips. And remember, the “best way” to organize your Book is the way that works best for you.

[oosteven-universe]

Extraordinary #02

Extraordinary #02 Titan Comics 2021 Written by V.E. Schwab Illustrated by Enid Balám Coloured by Jordi Escuin    After surviving a deadly crash, Charlotte Tills becomes “ExtraOrdinary”, gaining the ability to foresee a person’s death in reflective surfaces. Unfortunately, the only face staring back at her is that of notorious EO-killer Eli Ever.    I am incredibly intrigued by this book.  I like the idea of surviving a near death experience and gaining some sort of power from it.  Granted there is nothing flashy about Charlie’s gift but given the circumstances of surviving a bus crash it isn’t like she’s going to be on the receiving end of something flashy or fancy.  I do kind of like the nod to Final Destination though.  I also find it interesting that Eli Ever would be dispatched to take out a teenage girl when they don’t even know what her ability is and if they knew would they bother?  After all knowing how everyone around you is going to die isn’t exactly conducive to having a nice normal life and it would probably drive me bonkers and into become a recluse.  It also isn’t the kind of information most folks would find useful and there’s nothing to gain by insider trading on the knowledge either.  Though if her family were to be taken care of as a means to getting to her that’s another story altogether.    I am really rather enjoying the way that this is being told.  The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold fas well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well.  The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does wonders in fleshing them out as people we know at least can relate to.  The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we become more engaged and invested in the book.    I appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow and evolve.  The layers contain the characterisation, the introduction of new characters and so much more so that they add extra depth, dimension and complexity to the story is beautifully done.  How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely well achieved.    The interiors here are really very solid stuff.  The linework is clean, crisp and strong along with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is exceptional work.  That we see backgrounds being utilised throughout to expand and enhance the moments makes me a happy camper.  Also how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is magnificently rendered.  The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling.  The colour work is brilliantly rendered.  The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for colour and how to maximise its effects. ​    There’s something happening here, but what it is ain’t exactly clear, there’s a man with a gun over there, and he’s telling me they’ve got to beware.  Charlie needs friends and she needs to learn the ropes about the EO’s and why they are being targeted and hunted, especially her by this man.  With some sensational writing and characterisation along with these stellar interiors I feel like things here are just starting to pick up and it makes me excited to see where they are going to go next. 

[legionofpotatoes]

my thonks:

I do love the way they designed the title treatment ngl

whoever DP'd this was off their shits huh?? thanks king

to expand on visuals; shape language, scale, composition all top-shelf stuff but I still did not enjoy the brutalist simplicity across the board in art direction. sanitized the entire aesthetic somehow. I get how it can sometimes punch way out of its weight category when blasting establishing shots and the like but. the rest feels like it's drowning in just a bit too much negative space. hard to articulate this, but yeah visually sanitizing dune feels incredibly backwards still. this had to be fifth-element-bonkers if you ask me! but as late 2010s colorized blockbusters go it is definitely not MCU-terrible

oscar isaac with beard

I know the story semiotics are historically Loaded and I've only really read the first and some of the messiah book, so with all due respect to the valid criticism that's out there vis-a-vis appropriation and clunky irl parallels, I do kinda vibe with the overall idea of creating an epic that builds up a white savior before violently tearing him down. all this to say, I did enjoy the subtly layered pride within the outwardly noble hero's journey mr charlatan portrayed, felt like Real Good Acting at the core of the film. which is nice

once I realized this was gonna be like 1/3 of the first book I got really sad because not a lot of worm. when i go into a movie knowing it features a large animal I want to see the large animal much as possible and it is my only reason being there. this here's a bad worm documentary. barely see those big buttholes. loved the space chinchilla though

man 3D is such a moneymaking con. travesty slapping it on well-shot movies like this. especially in a country with a monopolistic theater chain that refuses to crank up their projectors to properly compensate for the godawful brightness drop. fuckin hate it here

anyway so 75% of the impact in this film was hans zimmer violently hypnotizing me with another auditory nutbuster. feel like that dude has an etch-a-sketch approach to every new project he takes on along with a rabbit's foot level success rate. you can't nail him down in a style anymore. instruments, tempo, methods on building leitmotifs, arrangements, interplay of live and digital - always radically different from his previous shit like he seems deathly averse to repeating himself and it really shines here. his music makes this thing hum with raw energy like nothing I've seen in recent years. if I had to comment on specifics - yeah the chants are incredible - but I also appreciate how he can allow a single electric guitar to carry a progressing crescendo without slapping orchestral training wheels on out of fear. it really just works so well for the imagery sometimes. love this guy

oscar isaac with beard but now it's lower on the list

my hottest take really is that this thing is too dang long. come on. yeah stop. come on. you can tell this story in 2 hours or less, come ON. net total of 20 mins is just john dune staring into middle distance squinting at zendaya's ghost. there's room to cut around here fellas

and speaking of "this story", not to sound too Executive in here but if they don't follow this up with a sequel cap it will feel hilariously hollow and awkward as a standalone piece. they carve out a decent character arc that kinda-sorta delivers a 3-act structure with a bit of catharsis in the end, but the overarching story and the plot that is driving it both come to such a jarring, screeching halt by the end? it is definitely Extremely Adapted

shaved jason momoa isn't real he can't get me

let's take a breather from the weight of dune's metaphors for a bit and realize that this is a planet where people wander the desert shitting their pants and walking funny so they dont attract the attention of giant living tubes that shit out the drugs they all want to get high on

I loved the janky analogue scifi look in the outer space shots! I can be an insufferable nerd about those sometimes. felt like maybe some miniature work?

oscar isaac with beard again, closing the curtain!

today's the day! gonna go see the big movie where john dune rides all those cocaine-shitting worms!!