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jokeroutsubs · 8 months ago

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[ENG SUB/translation] Joker Out on Radio Maribor (22.10.2024)

Bojan, Jan, Kris and Nace were on Radio Maribor to talk about the new single 'Bluza', the new album, and the tour. You can listen to it here on RTV's Radio Maribor site.

Transcript and subtitles by members of JokerOutSubs, translation by @chaosofsmarty, drumbeat, and a member of JokerOutSubs, review by @kurooscoffee, IG anja_10, and a member of JokerOutSubs, native proofreading by IG gboleyn123.

The recording is audio only. You can find it with subtitles on our Youtube channel here:

youtube

You can also read the whole conversation in transcript form under the cut:

Host: Dear listeners, it's to my great honour and joy that we're hosting probably the most popular band in Slovenia at the moment, the moment lasting quite a while, but that's enough talking. Joker Out here in Radio Maribor's studio, hello.

Joker Out: Yeah, hello. Hi. Hello.

Host: Four out of five have crammed themselves in here, into our studio, and we'll start at the end, so with the latest single 'Bluza'. What can we say about 'Bluza'?

Bojan: 'Bluza' is the fourth single from our third studio album, which will be called 'Souvenir Pop'.

Host: Okay.

Bojan: It comes out on the 15th of November. The album doesn't really have a common theme audio-wise, just as souvenirs from longer travels usually don't have one. We see a lot of different places, different people, different cuisines and smells. And that's how this album will be too, which kind of works like all the memories we've acquired in a year and a half, let's say, since starting our Eurovision journey. And 'Bluza' is, let's say, this... ballad that includes synthesised sounds a bit more than usual. There's also quite a lot of back vocals, so we really played with synthesising a fair bit, and with vocal layering. But it ends in a sort of more classically rock style then.

Host: And if maybe bands, in Slovenia, too, like to make sure that an album has some kind of common theme, you went in a completely different direction.

Bojan: Yeah, we always go in another direction, usually, and... But I wouldn't say we do it intentionally, but let's say that with this album, it actually is conceptually planned that way, yeah.

Host: So all of the songs will be a bit different, right? There won't be a common theme.

Bojan: No.

Host: But it'll still be the recognisable Joker Out sound or style.

Bojan: Yeah, generally, if it comes from us, we think it's our style. Now... We've already had, let's say, a few moments of deviation from the so called classically recognisable style and that's how it'll be on this album, too.

Host: The next thing I'm curious about is your previous single, titled 'Šta bih ja'. What can you say about this one? We haven't hosted you yet with that single.

Bojan: Tell us, Kris.

Kris: 'Šta bih ja' is really the first song created during our two month stay in London. It's actually sort of... music, audio and message wise, the song that sort of represents our inner thoughts, I mean, our feelings, in London, where we realised... Where we first realised what it's like to be a foreigner in a country, what it's like to navigate a huge, endless city. And actually from that, then out poured a sort of totally Yugo, Yugo rock nostalgic song, that's actually really, really fun to play live.

Host: And if we're on the topic again, that some bands can do it by going to London to record for maybe a week and then they come back. No, you really moved to London, lived there, breathed in the air, and that's where the new album was created.

Bojan: That's where the inspiration for this album actually began. Really, the plan for London was to step away a bit from an environment that's familiar and comfortable to us. That we go there together, of course, to, for the first time, move into a space and to combine all the energy which accumulated over the years of our cooperation into two months of coexistence. And it's interesting to follow how the dynamics actually change, once you move in together with your partners, which we practically are, well, it’s like this sort of camaraderie. So yeah, we went to live in London for two months and it was very fun. Like Kris said, we were foreigners for the first time, we went to work, but at the same time we were sort of on holiday in our minds, because we didn't have any written schedules, we were our own bosses. So, an interesting experience.

Host: Is it important to you, to go out of your, like how the English say, "comfort zone"? That you get into a foreign environment, where everything is a bit new.

Nace: I mean, it definitely awakens some new, some new inspiration, something new, to... that is also, I think, evident in the music and our mutual relationship.

Jan: We had to move abroad so that we're even more rooted in our own familiar sound.

Bojan: That's it.

Host: But it's interesting that you didn't get that much of an English influence out of it, at least in terms of music, but you returned to your origins – maybe in quotation marks for some – so, the Balkans.

Bojan: Yes, Žarko Pak, our producer, came to London after us with a month and a half delay. And when we showed him what we've made, including 'Šta bih ja', he was smoking a cigarette and said: "Eh, is this what I sent you to London for, to do this, or what? What would happen if you were sent to Mostar to a studio, you'd go full on Beatles."

Host: So you surprised Žarko Pak, too...

Bojan: Absolutely.

Host: ... who's probably seen and heard many things.

Bojan: He has, yeah.

Host: So from this London experience comes a Balkan album, there's a Balkan tour coming, which we'll talk about a bit more later. Now we're listening to the first single 'Bluza', which you performed live at Radio Si a few minutes ago, and now on Radio Maribor, too.

[Acoustic performance of ‘Bluza’.]

Host: Joker Out are still with us, we're listening to their music, and moving onto Eurovision for a bit. So, a question that probably isn't left out at any interview, or rarely. I have to, I'm curious myself. I was super proud of you, because it was the first time that a Slovenian band had such a perfect performance, so perfectly planned, you prepared so perfectly, you were everywhere. Usually Slovenian bands that represent us at the Eurovision Song Contest win at EMA, then there's a bit of calm, then there's the music video, maybe they show up in a show or two on foreign televisions, and that's it. But you really... Hats off to you.

Kris: Thank you.

Bojan: Thank you very much. It's very nice to hear that, and actually we also, during Eurovision, felt the support from home, very very nicely. And even when we returned from Liverpool, despite not getting the best result, we felt and also got back feedback that this event was followed with so much enthusiasm, love, support. And that really pleased us and I think that was also one of the main factors for why we did this the way we did, because it’s definitely important to have the wind in your sails, with these things.

Host: And it definitely also opened the door to Europe to you, which is now paying off with big tours, festival performances and so on.

Bojan: Absolutely.

Host: 'Carpe Diem' was the one that was at Eurovision, and for 'Carpe Diem' you went to Hamburg. That's where you recorded this song, so London, Hamburg, you're basically all over Europe.

Bojan: Yeah, the Beatles went from London to Hamburg, we went from Hamburg to... no, sorry, from Liverpool to Hamburg. And we went from Hamburg to Liverpool.

Kris: And then back to Hamburg.

Bojan: But look, we went back to Hamburg. Can someone take over?

Kris: Yeah, I mean, you know what, we recorded 'Carpe Diem' in a very, very good atmosphere in Hamburg, in that studio, called Clouds Hill. We then decided that... that we'd definitely return there for the rest of the album. And then we came back for one full month. I think now, we're fed up with it for quite some time, but another album was made there.

Host: In terms of going abroad, you also collaborated, one almost can't believe it, with Elvis Costello. How did that happen?

Bojan: Yeah, we also can't believe it. Anyway... Long story short. We happened to get, through a gentleman we know, who lives in Liverpool, the information that he actually knows Elvis and that the two are friends. Stephen, this man from Liverpool, is our big fan and supporter and he showed Elvis our music, and while listening to the second album, 'Novi val' kind of stuck in his ear. And got enough of his attention that Elvis offered to write an English version of the lyrics and a very short while later called us, too, saying he'd be interested in a duet, which we, of course, immediately accepted, with the utmost delight, because we were fans of Elvis's music before, too. And yeah, that's how it all then happened very quickly, and that actually came during Eurovision time, we released 'New Wave' before Eurovision. So that was a very energy-filled time for us.

Host: You didn't record with him, but the song was created...

Bojan: Exactly. He recorded the vocals in New York, where he lives, and we really didn't have any concrete plan that we'd meet in real life, too, because we always met only through video calls. And then it coincidentally happened on tour, on our Nordic tour, we found out at the first concert in Oslo that Elvis had a concert in the Oslo opera a day before us. And we wrote to him that it'd be great to see him, that we're coming to the concert and he said, "boys, you're going to come play 'Novi val', or 'New Wave', with me." So we suddenly found ourselves in the Oslo opera, and we played 'New Wave' with Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve. Which was truly, when you look at it, quite crazy.

Host: I'll keep digging within that same family, is there any interest in a collab with Diana Krall? Although maybe that's not exactly your cup of tea, like you'd say.

Jan: Diana, if you're listening, we're available.

Bojan: We're available.

Kris: Yeah, they say she's even harder to reach than Elvis, so.

Host: Maybe he'll give her a hint. A performance and a song, we now move over a bit to Gušti's concert, which took place a few days or a few weeks ago in Ljubljana. You performed there as well, of course. Not only as a family, but also in other ways. And with Gušti, you wrote and performed a song titled 'Tudi jaz'.

Bojan: It was written by Gušti.

Host: Yes.

Bojan: We performed it.

Kris: And played it.

Bojan: Yes. So, we sang and played it. It was the song 'Tudi jaz', which was created for a TV show which was supposed to happen, but in the end it didn't. The TV show was about children with special needs, and Gušti kind of felt that it would be nice for young people to contribute a musical piece, an opening theme, and through a strange set of circumstances, he asked his son's band. And then, of course, we recorded it. The song was never officially released, right, because the show never happened either. Until now, when Gušti included it in his album, and we are, of course, honoured by that. It's interesting to see something resurface after a long time, and take shape.

Host: Was this one of your first serious projects in a studio space?

Kris: It was...

Host: Or maybe even the very first?

Kris: It wasn’t the first; the first one was 'Kot srce, ki kri poganja', but this one came right after. And maybe it wasn’t a completely serious studio, because we recorded it in a rehearsal space.

Bojan: Oh, come on, you can't diss that studio, it was a great studio.

Kris: I mean, look, it was a decent studio, but it was a bit homemade, you know.

Bojan: Yeah, well, that's true...

Kris: But in any case, yeah, it was... I remember Jan and I recorded together for the first time back then. Do you remember? We recorded that solo together. And I think maybe...

Jan: When we alternated.

Kris: Yes, yes, yes. That felt like... I was really proud of that at the time, that we recorded a solo together.

Jan: Yes, yes. Harmony.

Kris: Harmony, yes.

Host: But the disappointment wasn't too big, considering that the song was never officially released until now?

Kris: Not really, why?

Jan: It wasn't released, but we actually played it a lot in concerts, even at Cvetličarna.

Bojan: We played it for the first presentation of the first album.

Kris: Three years ago.

Bojan: Yes. We preferred playing original songs over covers.

Host: Okay.

Bojan: So we took every possible opportunity for the original songs, whichever way possible, to be included in our concert setlists, and as you said, 'Tudi jaz' stayed on the setlist for quite a while.

Host: You also performed quite a bit at festivals this year, some of which were the biggest festivals in the world. You were at Sziget, you were at Exit again. Are there any other festivals that you performed at that left a powerful impression on you?

Bojan: Absolutely. Ruisrock in Finland.

Kris: Summer Well in Bucharest, Romania.

Bojan: Fantastic festival.

Kris: An excellent festival, yes.

Jan: Those were probably the top four.

Bojan: Those were the top four, I'd say. Exit, Sziget...

Jan: Summer Well.

Bojan: ...Ruisrock and Summer Well were real highlights.

Host: And during these festivals, did any of the performers really stick in your memory?

Bojan: I’d say that in Romania, I... we all stayed to listen to Two Door Cinema Club and Keane, and Keane completely blew us away. I’ve never heard a better male vocalist live, honestly...

Host: Than Tom Chaplin.

Bojan: At least in the mainstream scene. It was truly amazing, everything, in terms of the sound, the production, the concert. That probably stuck with me the most this year.

Nace: I also remember that we were... Jan and I went to see Prodigy in Germany after our performance. That was a very... visually engaging concert.

Host: Before we wrap up this segment, I’m curious, let’s stay on this topic. Is there anyone else you'd like to see perform live?

Bojan: In general?

Host: Anything goes.

Kris: To share the stage with them, or...

Host: Both, maybe, either to share the stage, collaborate, or just watch them and think, "Ah, that’s it."

Bojan: I’d love to see Bruno Mars.

Host: Okay. Good one.

Kris: I agree, I agree.

Jan: Maybe in the Silk Sonic setup as well.

Bojan: Uh, yes. That would also be great.

Jan: It would be fantastic.

Bojan: I’d love to see Parcels live.

Host: Okay.

Jan: You haven't seen L'Impératrice yet?

Bojan: I haven’t seen L'Impératrice, but I’d also...

Jan: Did they...

Nace: Now you won't.

Kris: I’d love to share the stage with Arctic Monkeys, for sure.

Host: Okay.

Kris: That would be...

Host: Though their last album is really different from all the others they've released.

Kris: It’s different, but I think it’s great that they’re different. Honestly, I also think that our new album was influenced by some of Arctic Monkeys's more recent albums.

Bojan: Like 'Everybody’s Waiting,' for example.

Kris: Some of the slower songs. So that's something near and dear to us as well.

Host: Joker Out, live on Radio Maribor.

[song break]

Host: Joker Out are still here with me. We’re talking about everything. And now the third album titled 'Souvenir Pop' is coming up. You announced the title on Friday. Why 'Souvenir Pop'? Does the title hold a special meaning? You’ve already mentioned that the album is a mix of different songs.

Bojan: Yes, as I mentioned earlier, for the first time in our lives, we were influenced by a long period of travelling. We were literally living out of a suitcase. I think we all had at least two or three suitcases packed with clothes, which we then swapped among ourselves, throwing the dirty ones into the laundry. Our lives, for the past year and a half, felt like we were collecting souvenirs. We practically woke up every morning in a different city, in a different country, often in cities or countries we’d never been before. And all these memories and events are kind of our souvenirs. And it's captivating, Kris said it beautifully yesterday, that he can very clearly visualise, with almost every song, a place, a smell, a colour, a taste, something that reminds him of a specific event, and I agree with him. And because of that, we feel like this journey, this pop moment, blends beautifully with souvenirs, and 'Souvenir Pop' brings it all together nicely.

Host: How would you say this album is different from the previous two?

Bojan: I’d say it’s a much more mature album in terms of exploring different arrangements, in terms of the preparing the arrangements. Also, lyrically, I hope it’s apparent, or at least from what we have released, I received feedback that they are a step up. I also feel like it's a part of a completely different phase of life, and that shows. There was a lot of instrumental exploration. I think Jan made the biggest leap on this album.

Jan: Yes, I added a few more instruments besides guitar. Mostly synthesizer, actually. With 'Everybody’s Waiting', when we went to the studio in Kočevje, we were kind of stuck, we didn’t know exactly where to go with the arrangement. And then we... I’m not sure who came up with that drum transition, but it kind of set the right mood. Then we saw a Rhodes piano in the control room, so I plugged that Rhodes into an amp. I had never really played the piano before that, I have a pianino at home, so I had just enough knowledge to make that song. And then I kind of got into it. I’m very interested in synthesizers as well, and... That’s also reflected in the... In the music of the upcoming album, yes, lots of synthesizers, electric pianos, and stuff like that.

Host: And you’re going to present everything with a big Balkan tour, starting on November 22nd with a sold-out concert at Cvetličarna. Does that mean fans will be able to hear 'Souvenir Pop' in full?

Kris: Yes.

Bojan: Exactly, that’s what it means. On this tour, we will play the entire 'Souvenir Pop' album, but I should emphasise, that doesn’t mean we won’t play songs from the first two albums, because many people send messages asking, "Does this mean you’ll only play the new music and nothing old?" No, absolutely not, you’ll be attending a very classic concert, which will include all 10 songs from the new album. Tickets are still available for the second concert at Cvetličarna, which takes place the next day, on Saturday. There aren’t many left, but there are some, so anyone who wants to come to Ljubljana is welcome. On December 6th, we’ll be at Štuk in Maribor, so you are more than welcome to come to this concert as well.

Kris: I would just add that I think this will be one of the few opportunities to hear the entire new album live, because later on, or in the new year, we’ll have to adapt our programs for festivals, where you have an hour to... You can't fit all the new material into one hour, so.

Host: Will this tour end in Vienna on December 9th, or will it continue?

Bojan: No, this tour will wrap up in Vienna. In the upcoming year, for the first two months, we'll finally have some time off, meaning we won’t have any obligations tying us down, where in our free time we won't have to answer phones or deal with logistical issues, or work on, I don’t know, preparing songs, making final touches, editing, and so on. So, we plan to have two months off to return fresh, let’s say, in early spring, and start with concerts. We will also perform in Slovenia more next year than in this year.

Host: Is that a promise?

Bojan: That’s a promise we plan to keep.

Host: Okay. You've sold out Stožice Arena, you've had concerts at Tabor Hall in Maribor before. Why have you now decided to perform at Štuk on the 6th of December?

Bojan: For the soul.

Host: Okay.

Bojan: This entire tour that we're doing at the end of the year is basically for the soul. It will take place at home, that is to say, near home, which is all, let's say, home for us, and it will take place in clubs. We've been visiting clubs in Europe for a year and a half now and we realised that it suits us best by far, because we can be close enough to the audience to feel one another, and it's just big enough to not be totally private. And it's where we can let go and relax the most, and I think that the audience also enjoys those concerts the most, so we said, "Let's do this tour in places that we love," and Štuk is definitely one of those places. We've already had three or four concerts at Štuk, maybe. I think it was 3 concerts in Štuk, which were all wonderful and all unique, so yes, we're really looking forward to it.

Host: To keep digging, what are fans from Štajerska like?

Bojan: Top notch.

Kris: Fans from Štajerska have actually very much been there for us since the beginning. We were, I was just talking to someone from Radio Si earlier, about how we were in Maribor five times in 2022.

Bojan: Yes.

Kris: Which is a bizarrely large number, especially looking back on it now, because abroad, you visit maybe one city per year, so to have shown up in Maribor five times, twice at Štuk, at Lampiončki, at Lent, all that... Štajerska has always been quite... It always welcomed us with open arms, so we're also always happy to return.

Bojan: And I'd like to add just one more thing, the first album, 'Umazane misli', was partially made in this house as well, because we recorded the drums and some of the guitars in your studio.

Host: In Studio 22.

Bojan: In Studio 22, exactly. So there you go, there is actually a lot tying us to this city.

Host: I'd like to know something else before we move on, Chrissie Hynde, the singer of The Pretenders, wrote on her social media a few days ago that she has a bit of an issue with the same fans constantly being in the front row at concerts. Is that a problem that perhaps arises for you too, namely, that it's always the same people, we call them "superfans", following you from concert to concert. And that you always see the same ones in... well, more at the front.

Bojan: We absolutely see the same people in the front rows at many, many concerts. I just don't really know where the problematic part is.

Host: Me neither, but I'm curious.

Bojan: Yes, me too.

Kris: Yeah, my mum actually sent me that, on Instagram, like, look what she said. And I was like, yeah, okay, interesting, but you have to be in a pretty weird position to complain about that. I mean, I'm happy to see all those familiar faces there. And anyway, for our concerts, it's usually so that those who want to can buy a ticket for early entry into the venue, so I think it's not an issue that other people wouldn't be able to get what they want. At the same time, we always like to see those that are always there.

Host: December 6th in Štuk, in Maribor, the band Joker Out.

[song break]

Host: Joker Out are still with me, so let's... I'm curious about something. You've focused quite a lot on the Balkan market, and there are more and more songs in, let's say, a non-Slovene language. And while quite a few Slovenian bands decided to sing in English, because they thought it would help them break through internationally, you've chosen the language of our former homeland. Why? I know it's closer to you (Bojan) and so on, but what was the main reason?

Bojan: Well, the main reason was actually that I started to enjoy writing in non-Slovene more and more, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way for Slovene, but it's just that we were away from home so much, we had so much contact with people who spoke this or that language, that I often caught myself thinking in those languages. And ideas actually started cropping up in them and it was clearly just an era of life in which... I created in those languages, right. I'm not a fan of changing the lyrics that are developed as an already very solid story in a specific language, into another language, just for the sake of changing the language. So on this album... that's also what sets it apart, like we said at the beginning. For the first time, we have three languages on the album, Slovene, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, whatever, and English. So it's already a very colourful album in that regard, but that was never, I'd say, a way to gain an audience abroad or a massive attempt to have a breakthrough abroad, it's truly just a way of thinking, and I think that's a lot more honest than translating everything back into Slovene.

Host: Slightly older Slovenian bands, I'm thinking of Lačni Franz, maybe Pankrti, perhaps Vlado Kreslin, still to this day have cult status in Yugoslavia, in the area of former Yugoslavia.

Bojan: And Buldožerji.

Host: Absolutely, Buldožerji as well, and there's more. But is it time now for Joker Out to break new ground?

Bojan: Absolutely.

Kris: We're already breaking it.

Bojan: We’re breaking it. With shovels for now, but...

Host: Is this success, especially as far as Serbia goes, perhaps also the result of the number of times you performed at Exit?

Bojan: The first time we performed at Exit festival, it was on one of the side stages, and there really wasn't a big, big audience, and even the ones who were there mostly came from Slovenia. But it's very nice, because this year we performed on the main stage, and basically at the prime time, at 15 past 11, if I'm not mistaken, just before Black Eyed Peas, and we had, I don't know, 15 or 20,000 people, who sang our lyrics very smoothly. That was, I would say, a pretty crazy leap.

Host: How do social media posts influence what you do? Perhaps you let certain comments get under your skin a bit, or do you wave them away like, "So what?"

Jan: Well, I think we've kind of stopped reading the comments. I think we've also pretty much all deleted Twitter, because it was starting to slightly negatively affect certain aspects of our psyche. But we still like to post, because it's good, especially now, when we're promoting and making new music, that people know what's coming up and know that there are concerts where they can see us. So it remains a very important part of our everyday life. But sometimes it's better not to read what people think.

Bojan: Yeah, the problem is that it's very much a double-edged sword, because it's really nice to be in touch with fans, right, because above all, they fill you with energy to work, and... We absolutely also often give them, I don't know, a reason for a better day, a reason to smile, and so on. But on the other hand, just like Jan said, it's very hard to filter out those moments when you unintentionally come across something that can very quickly hurt you. And to then find a healthy boundary, that can be kind of complicated sometimes.

Host: And now, the most important question of the day. Just kidding. What does the radio mean to you nowadays? Does it even still mean anything?

Bojan: That's a good question.

Kris: What would I do in this black night without you, radio?

Bojan: Yeah, the radio, I would say... For example, Jure, who's not here, I know he listens to the radio the most by far. The radio means... The thing is, in various aspects, I really stand behind the idea that until you're present in classic media, that is, on the radio, on TV, in the newspapers, you cannot enter the world of... let's say entertainment, successfully. So I don't understand it when someone says, for example: "Who cares if your song isn't on the radio, it doesn't matter, blah blah blah." Social media is absolutely more and more important, but being relevant through the radio, I still consider that to be very serious and very important. But it saddens me that there's less and less radio work on the radios, that is, there's less and less music curation, less and less quality musical journalism, I really miss that, right. We're really lacking music reviews and so on in Slovenia. Like, okay, with you, thankfully, radio editorial work is still alive, but we know that at commercial radios, more and more work is done by artificial intelligence, right, and robots. And that kind of undermines the whole point of the radio for me.

Host: Where will you perform, or will you perform at all, for New Year's and Christmas this year? Or will you enjoy the time after the tour by...

Bojan: That's a good question, perhaps someone knows how to answer it?

Jan: If nothing else, we might play guitar to each other under our Christmas trees.

Kris: Yeah, I think we'll play some more, but I don't know if we can announce anything yet.

Host: I completely understand. And finally, I'd like to know, you've already spoken a bit about the plans for next year, that is, a month or two of complete rest. À propos, what does complete rest mean for a band like you, who are used to being in the studio, working, promoting, how do you...

Bojan: Take all that out of the equation and you get complete rest.

Host: So two months of rest, and then what?

Bojan: Well, then it's on the road again. (singing) Just can't wait to get back on the road again.

Host: So, boys, we will see you and hear you again, as is only right. I'm very happy that you were in the studio with me today, so, Joker Out, on the 6th of December, we're revisiting Štuk hall in Maribor, and before that Cvetličarna, and many other places. And next year, as you've already promised, other places in Slovenia as well.

Bojan: Absolutely.

Host: Boys, thank you very much for this and all the best with the continuation of your musical journey

Bojan: Thank you very much, back at you.

#joker out #bojan cvjetićanin #bojan cvjeticanin #jan peteh #nace jordan #kris guštin #kris gustin #Youtube #year: 2024 #source: radio maribor #jo: bojan&jan&kris&nace #type: video #type: transcript #og language: slovenian #translated language: serbian

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coleslawr02 · 2 months ago

Text

No one asked or cares, but I’m answering every question from this 2018 Monkees Ask Game for personal archival.

1. First Monkees song you heard?

Last Train to Clarksville as a kid.

2. Favorite Monkees song?

Tapioca Tundra, Can You Dig It?, Pleasant Valley Sunday

3. Favorite Monkees album?

Lately Headquarters, but I listen to PAC&J more. Additionally, Missing Links Vol. 2, it features some some of their best songs in higher production quality.

4. Least favorite Monkees album?

Changes

5. Favorite Monkees album cover?

Visually: The Birds, The Bees, & The Monkees — I have some earrings based on it.

Conceptually: Head — The symbolism in removing their faces, color, & zaniness for a gray minimalist slate. Their name looping the border represents the films’ cyclical nature. Reflective material is a mirror because YOU ARE BOXED!

6. Least favorite Monkees album cover?

Missing Links Vol. 3

7. Favorite Monkee? Why?

Micky — Thoughtful & curious person, fun character, kind voice. But I think about all the monkees relatively equal.

8. Favorite solo work?

Does Dolenz Sings Nesmith count? It’s my best friend. Otherwise Tantamount to Treason & And The Hits Just Keep on Comin’. Rarely listen to Peter or Davy solo.

9. Favorite song title?

Propinquity or Early Morning Blues and Greens

10. Favorite lyrics?

“It’s amazing how time can so softly change your ways, and make you look at things that can’t be seen. How the years that roll by can start you listening, not just to what they say, but what they mean. […] our relationship has grown, not just in how it’s shaped, but how it’s shown.” — Carlisle Wheeling

11. Favorite photo of all four Monkees?

12. Guilty pleasure song?

I get embarrassed to admit Secret Heart & Shorty Blackwell.

13. Best Monkees song to sleep to?

Pillow Time — literally a lullaby.

14. Best Monkees song to dance to?

She Hangs Out — literally about dancing.

15. Best Monkees song to sing in the shower?

Salesman — “yep yep”

16. Best Monkees song for karaoke?

Goin’ Down — the best because it would be impossible.

17. A Monkees song you think is overrated?

Mary, Mary — always thought it didn’t deserve to be Mike’s most popular piece of songwriting.

18. Which Monkees albums do you own on vinyl?

N/A

19. Which Monkees albums do you own as CDs?

The “Original 5” Box Set + Dolenz Sings Nesmith.

20. A Monkees song that reminds you of a good memory?

Don’t have anything particular. Sometime in the Morning is generally nostalgic.

21. Favorite song with Davy on lead vocals?

You and I (Instant Replay) — Why did he write 2 totally different songs with the same title.

22. Favorite song with Micky on lead vocals?

Mommy & Daddy (alternate version) — Basing #21-24 off vocal performance, not overall song, that I haven’t listed yet.

23. Favorite song with Mike on lead vocals?

If I Ever Get to Saginaw Again

24. Favorite song with Peter on lead vocals?

Tear the Top Right Off My Head

25. Favorite episode of the series?

Personal Fave: The Chaperone

Best: The Devil & Peter Tork

26. Least favorite episode?

The 6 racist ones (Monkees Chow Mein in particular)

27. Favorite romp?

Gonna Buy Me a Dog :)

28. Favorite fourth-wall-breaking moment?

“If you get lost I’ll be a single— BA DUM” “Here I come…”

29. Favorite running gag?

Tall Guy Little Guy

30. Favorite Guest Appearance?

Lon Chaney Jr. or Julie Newmar

#the monkees #not art

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showmaqers · 14 days ago

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Birthday Party Planners: Turning Celebrations into Unforgettable Experiences

A birthday is more than just a date—it’s a milestone, a celebration of life, memories, and new beginnings. Whether it’s your child’s first birthday, a sweet sixteen, a golden jubilee, or a surprise party for a loved one, the celebration deserves to be perfect in every way. But planning the ideal birthday party can be stressful, time-consuming, and overwhelming. That’s where birthday party planners come in—professionals who take the burden off your shoulders and transform your vision into a delightful reality.

Why Hire a Birthday Party Planner?

Many people assume that party planning is a simple task. However, organizing a memorable birthday celebration requires creativity, coordination, attention to detail, and time. A birthday party planner brings all of these qualities to the table. Here’s why hiring one is a smart decision:

Stress-Free Planning: They handle everything from concept to clean-up, so you can enjoy the event worry-free.

Creative Expertise: With experience and a creative eye, planners can propose unique themes, décor, and entertainment ideas that fit your personality and budget.

Vendor Coordination: They have a reliable network of caterers, decorators, entertainers, photographers, and more.

Time & Cost Efficiency: Planners know where to find the best deals and how to stay within budget while delivering high-quality services.

Personalization: They ensure the party reflects your vision, personality, and preferences.

Services Offered by Birthday Party Planners

Birthday party planners offer a wide range of customizable services, depending on the client’s requirements, scale of the event, and budget. Here’s a breakdown of the common services:

Theme Conceptualization

Whether you want a Disney-themed party for a child, a retro 80s celebration, or a glamorous red-carpet night, planners help conceptualize and execute the theme.

They design everything around the theme, including décor, invitations, costumes, and entertainment.

Venue Selection

From banquet halls and resorts to home gardens and rooftop spaces, planners suggest venues that align with your guest list and preferences.

Invitations and RSVPs

Customized digital or printed invites can be created and sent out. Some planners also manage RSVPs to estimate attendance.

Decor and Ambience

Planners use balloons, floral arrangements, backdrops, props, and lighting to set the perfect mood.

They ensure décor is theme-aligned and photogenic.

Catering and Cake

Whether it’s a sit-down meal, buffet, or finger-food party, planners coordinate with caterers to offer delicious and suitable menus.

They also arrange custom cakes that reflect the theme and taste preferences.

Entertainment

For kids: magicians, clowns, puppeteers, mascots, face-painters, and bouncy castles.

For adults: live bands, DJs, karaoke, games, and performers.

Planners also arrange engaging activities for all age groups to keep guests entertained.

Photography and Videography

Capturing moments is crucial. Professional photographers and videographers are brought in to document the celebration.

Party Favors and Return Gifts

Unique, themed return gifts and goody bags can be customized for kids or adults.

Logistics and Coordination

Managing event timelines, coordinating vendor arrivals, setup, and ensuring everything runs smoothly on the big day.

Clean-Up Services

Post-event clean-up is also part of the package, letting you wrap up the event without stress.

Types of Birthday Parties They Handle

Birthday party planners cater to various types of events, such as:

Kids’ Birthday Parties: Full of colors, games, characters, and fun themes like jungle safari, superheroes, or princess castles.

Teen Parties: Glow-in-the-dark themes, photo booths, and social media-friendly aesthetics.

Adult Birthdays: Elegant dinner parties, club themes, or nostalgic retro events.

Milestone Celebrations: 18th, 30th, 40th, 50th, or even 75th birthdays with special emphasis on achievements and memories.

Surprise Parties: Secretly planned with extra coordination for a delightful reveal.

Trends in Birthday Party Planning

Just like weddings, birthday parties are evolving with new trends each year. Here are some popular trends in birthday planning today:

Instagram-Worthy Decor: Parties designed with aesthetics in mind—perfect for photos and reels.

Sustainable Parties: Eco-friendly décor, biodegradable cutlery, and zero-waste themes are gaining popularity.

Hybrid Celebrations: Combining physical and virtual parties so distant guests can join in online.

Customized Experiences: Personalized backdrops, cakes, games, and music tailored to the birthday person.

Interactive Activities: DIY craft stations, cooking counters, makeup booths, and escape room challenges.

How to Choose the Right Birthday Party Planner

Choosing the right planner can make all the difference. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Define Your Budget

Know how much you are willing to spend. This helps planners tailor packages accordingly.

Do Your Research

Look up local planners online, check their websites, read client reviews, and browse through their portfolio.

Ask for Recommendations

Friends, family, and social media groups often have valuable suggestions.

Schedule a Consultation

Have a detailed conversation about your vision, expectations, and what services they offer.

Review Their Previous Work

Ask for photos or videos of past events. Ensure their style aligns with your taste.

Discuss Customization Options

Ensure they are flexible and open to personalizing the event according to your preferences.

Check Availability and Booking Terms

Confirm their availability for your preferred date and understand the booking procedure, payment structure, and cancellation policy.

Compare Quotes

Don’t settle on the first option. Compare prices, inclusions, and service quality from a few planners.

Benefits of Professional Planning Over DIY

While DIY planning can be fun and budget-friendly, it often lacks professional polish and can lead to last-minute hiccups. A professional birthday planner offers:

Seamless execution

Time savings

Creative direction

Access to exclusive vendors

Higher-quality experiences

Less stress and more enjoyment

Conclusion

A birthday party is not just a celebration—it's an opportunity to express love, create lasting memories, and enjoy life’s milestones. With a professional birthday party planner by your side, you can turn even the simplest gathering into an unforgettable experience. Whether you're organizing a grand celebration or a cozy gathering, hiring a planner ensures that every detail is handled with care, creativity, and perfection.

So, the next time you want to throw a birthday bash that leaves your guests talking, consider reaching out to a birthday party planner. All you have to do is enjoy the party—they’ll handle the rest!

Contact now the best birthday party planners in Delhi NCR Showmaqers

#birthday party decorators #birthday party planner

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freglin396 · 1 month ago

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Creating Magical Moments: Why Force Fudge is Leading Among Event Planners in Bangalore

Planning an event is no small task. It takes creativity, organization, and an eye for detail to create a memorable experience. In a vibrant city like Bangalore, where celebrations are part of the culture, finding the right event planners in Bangalore can make all the difference. Among the many players in the market, Force Fudge stands out as a game-changer, offering innovative event solutions with a personal touch.

The Growing Demand for Expert Event Planners in Bangalore

As corporate functions, weddings, birthday parties, and themed celebrations become more elaborate, the demand for skilled event planners in Bangalore has skyrocketed. People no longer want cookie-cutter events—they seek customized experiences that leave lasting impressions. From décor to entertainment, every detail must be flawlessly executed. Force Fudge understands this evolving expectation and delivers spectacular results tailored to each client's unique needs.

Force Fudge: Crafting Events with Creativity and Passion

Force Fudge brings a fresh, energetic perspective to the world of event planners in Bangalore. Their team is known for combining creativity with impeccable planning skills. Whether it's a grand wedding, a corporate gala, or a child’s birthday party, they weave magic into every event they manage. They don't just plan events—they create experiences that guests remember for years.

One of their signature specialties is designing events around carnival games. Adding interactive and nostalgic fun through carnival games creates a lively atmosphere perfect for parties, festivals, and corporate family days.

Why Carnival Games Are a Hit at Every Event

In today’s fast-paced digital world, everyone craves the simple joy of old-fashioned fun, and carnival games bring exactly that. Games like ring toss, balloon darts, and bean bag toss add an element of excitement and participation that few other activities can match. Force Fudge expertly integrates carnival games into events, transforming ordinary gatherings into vibrant, fun-filled celebrations that guests of all ages enjoy.

By offering a well-curated selection of carnival games, Force Fudge ensures your event is filled with laughter, competition, and joy—elements that create unforgettable memories.

Force Fudge’s Unique Approach to Event Planning

Force Fudge isn't just another name among event planners in Bangalore; they are trendsetters. They focus deeply on understanding the client’s vision, brainstorming creative concepts, and flawlessly executing every element. Their services include everything from venue selection and theme conceptualization to décor, entertainment, and technical arrangements.

Their special expertise lies in creating thematic events where every component—from the invites to the games and even the food—aligns with the core theme. Their masterful incorporation of carnival games into different event types showcases their dedication to creating immersive and cohesive experiences.

Force Fudge for Corporate Events, Weddings, and More

When it comes to event planners in Bangalore, versatility is key. Force Fudge handles a diverse range of events:

Corporate Events: Product launches, annual days, team outings, and conferences, all with a creative twist.

Weddings: Customized celebrations filled with elegance, tradition, and contemporary charm.

Birthday Parties: Fun, vibrant setups that often include interactive zones with carnival games.

Festivals and Community Events: Bringing communities together with colorful decorations and engaging activities.

Their ability to integrate carnival games seamlessly into corporate family days or upscale weddings shows their adaptability and innovation.

Why Force Fudge is a Trusted Name

Force Fudge has earned a solid reputation among event planners in Bangalore due to their professionalism, reliability, and flair for creativity. Clients appreciate their attention to detail, transparent communication, and willingness to go the extra mile to ensure success.

Their partnerships with the best vendors, entertainers, and artists, along with a strong in-house creative team, mean every event they manage stands out for its uniqueness and flawless execution. Whether it’s a large corporate gala or an intimate birthday bash complete with delightful carnival games, Force Fudge treats every event like a masterpiece.

Conclusion

Choosing the right event planners in Bangalore can transform your special occasion into an extraordinary experience. Force Fudge, with their passion, creativity, and expertise, ensures that your event isn’t just successful—it’s unforgettable. Their specialization in adding fun elements like carnival games makes them a preferred choice for anyone looking to inject life, energy, and magic into their celebrations. If you’re planning an event soon, trust Force Fudge to bring your dreams to life with unmatched flair.

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hamsanw4 · 2 months ago

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Creating Magical Moments: Why Force Fudge is Leading Among Event Planners in Bangalore

The Growing Demand for Expert Event Planners in Bangalore

Force Fudge: Crafting Events with Creativity and Passion

Why Carnival Games Are a Hit at Every Event

By offering a well-curated selection of carnival games, Force Fudge ensures your event is filled with laughter, competition, and joy—elements that create unforgettable memories.

Force Fudge’s Unique Approach to Event Planning

Force Fudge for Corporate Events, Weddings, and More

When it comes to event planners in Bangalore, versatility is key. Force Fudge handles a diverse range of events:

Corporate Events: Product launches, annual days, team outings, and conferences, all with a creative twist.

Weddings: Customized celebrations filled with elegance, tradition, and contemporary charm.

Birthday Parties: Fun, vibrant setups that often include interactive zones with carnival games.

Festivals and Community Events: Bringing communities together with colorful decorations and engaging activities.

Their ability to integrate carnival games seamlessly into corporate family days or upscale weddings shows their adaptability and innovation.

Why Force Fudge is a Trusted Name

Conclusion

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weirdmageddon · 20 days ago

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why did that one NPC ask me if i knew what Hyperlink Blocked was? it was in chapter 4 i think. it caught me off guard. i said yes because i’m responding as myself, sara, the player. because i’ve heard of it. i’ve seen it around. i don’t know what it is exactly but i know it’s something. i wonder if that means anything for the snowgrave route.

i’m quite surprised at how many dialogue timeline intersections there are at certain moments.

like, the “noelle” responses have a completely different context in the snowgrave route. i’m not sure what the neutral branches of it look like.

meta-control

chapter 3 had deeper hints at meta-control, with the fun gang playing games, switching controllers. and kris and the mini-kris popping out of the screen that YOU 🫵 are clearly in control of.

could chapter 3 be foreshadowing this with the minigames around controlling other characters?

i don’t know about you guys but i’m still thinking about the ambience near the end in the green room when everything is muted, liminal, the soft nostalgic electric keyboard is droning, the screen is slightly fuzzing / “snowy”, darkners in that dark world are turning to stone, and you’re controlling kris all alone by themself in the abandoned S rank room to get the shadow mantle, while susie and ralsei are outside waiting for you to move on and seal the fountain already. there’s something so eerie and disquieting about it and i can’t get enough of it. it might be one of my favorite things in the game, because the energy is so potent to me.

but to get the shadow mantle, playing games in the S rank room, i was like “why is this so snowgrave”? this feels forbidden. why did tenna switch away so quickly during board 2 when rafting north? why snow? and the snowgrave downward jingle motif? the berdly-hexagonal frozen enemies?

even though you’re not playing on the snowgrave route, and it’s clear the arcade machine is a lower level of “control”, the themes transcend that. there’s definitely hints at snowgrave’s existence.

why snow? snow/ice/dark/cold conceptually is also opposite of warmth, which especially undertale had in the pacifist route, and what deltarune also likely has in store for pacifist players.

the holidays can be lit by a warm house, inside with family, hot chocolate, cozy fire. or isolated, cold, snowy, and dark. dark and cold.

also… ralsei is there for YOU 🫵

so we have ralsei dramatically break down at the end of chapter 4 because he knows how it all goes. so we know he’s basically omniscient.

pointing out the detail during the boat ride about the direction ralsei is facing genuinely spooked me?? like it made my heart drop for some reason. this is a video from before chapters 3 and 4, but i want to bring it back.

youtube

thing from chapter 3:

the snowgrave route is for completionists and the speedrunners. (it’s always going to be a thing, and toby of course knew this.) just maximum control for the heck of it, or morbid curiosity. you went our of your way to torture the characters, just like in undertale.

but also, think of how many neutral routes there must be too.

i’m truly answering choice-based prompts as sara, myself, not a specific sequence prescribed. how many other players are playing like me? one save file, no guides, just blind vibes and missing a bunch of stuff, but seeing what other people are running into to flesh out their understanding of the game’s situation up to this point and what it could mean?

i didn’t start the snowgrave route in chapter 2 because it’s so out of the way, too specific to follow, and my conscience is unlikely to permit it anyway. i’ll just watch other people do it.

but not the shadow mantle. the roaring knight is really hard, but if i can beat it i’d want to get its shadow crystal. why not? but i never did the snowgrave route. i must kill enemies in this arcade game to get the shadow mantle, but it’s understandably a game within a game. is it any different? what kind of ending would that leave you?

and do your choices even actually matter anyway? why is ralsei freaking out about us seeing the end, that the prophecy can’t be changed? toby said in an interview the ending of deltarune was based on a fever dream he had in 2011. the game was built around it.

youtube

I HAVE THINGS ON MY MIIIIIND

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #deltarune meta #deltarune theory #mine

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aksharaentertainments-1 · 6 months ago

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Planning a Surprise Party? Here’s How to Nail the Decor!

Planning a surprise party is both exciting and challenging. The key to a memorable celebration lies in the details, especially the decor. Thoughtful decoration can set the tone, create an atmosphere of excitement, and wow your guests. Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, or any special occasion, nailing the decor is essential. Here are some tips to help you make the surprise party unforgettable.

Start with a Theme

Choosing a theme is the foundation of any great party decor. A well-chosen theme makes the planning process easier and ensures everything looks cohesive. Popular themes include retro vibes, tropical paradise, movie nights, or even personalized themes based on the guest of honor’s interests.

Once you pick a theme, let it guide your choices for colors, decorations, and even entertainment. For example, a tropical theme can include palm leaves, bright colors, and floral accents, while a retro party might feature vintage props and nostalgic lighting.

Collaborate with Experts

While it’s fun to DIY, collaborating with professional event planners in Hyderabad can elevate your party. Experienced planners not only bring creativity to the table but also ensure that every detail is executed perfectly. Companies like Akshara Entertainments offer a range of services, from conceptualizing the event to decorating the venue. Their expertise in entertainment services can also enhance your party with engaging activities or performers that match your theme.

Decorate the Entrance

First impressions matter. Create an entrance that sets the mood for the party. A grand balloon arch, a floral welcome stand, or a creative photo booth at the entrance will grab attention instantly. Add a personalized signboard with a fun message or the party’s theme for an extra touch.

Focus on Lighting

Lighting can completely transform a space. Fairy lights, LED setups, or chandeliers can create a magical ambiance. If it’s an evening party, consider using warm lights or candles to make the setting cozy and elegant. For a more dynamic vibe, go for disco lights or colorful LED strips that change according to the music.

Balloons and Streamers

Balloons and streamers are classic decor elements that never go out of style. You can experiment with different styles, like helium balloons, balloon garlands, or even balloon backdrops. Match them with the party’s color scheme for a cohesive look. Streamers, on the other hand, add a festive touch and can be used to decorate walls, ceilings, or tables.

Table Setup

Don’t overlook the tables. A well-decorated table can tie the entire theme together. Use tablecloths, runners, and centerpieces that align with your theme. Add party favors or place cards for a personalized touch. For food tables, try using tiered trays and labeled dishes to make everything look organized and appealing.

Add Personalized Touches

Personalized decor is a surefire way to make the guest of honor feel special. Use customized banners, photo collages, or props that highlight their interests and milestones. A memory wall or a slideshow of cherished moments can also add an emotional touch to the celebration.

Entertainment Matters

Great decor paired with engaging entertainment creates a winning combination. Consider hiring a DJ, live performers, or even a magician to keep the guests entertained. Companies offering entertainment services in Hyderabad, like Akshara Entertainments, can provide unique ideas that match your party’s vibe. Whether it’s a fun game zone for kids or a dance floor setup for adults, entertainment adds to the decor’s charm.

Plan a Surprise Reveal

The highlight of a surprise party is, of course, the reveal. Coordinate with all the guests to make sure they’re in place before the guest of honor arrives. Use decor elements like confetti cannons or sparklers to make the reveal grand and memorable. Capture this moment with a photographer or videographer to relive the memories later.

Don’t Forget the Details

Small details can make a big difference. Think of elements like themed napkins, matching utensils, or even scent diffusers to enhance the atmosphere. Details like these show thoughtfulness and add to the overall experience.

Conclusion

Planning the perfect decor for a surprise party doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By choosing a theme, collaborating with event planners in Hyderabad, and paying attention to details, you can create an unforgettable celebration. Don’t hesitate to enlist entertainment services to add more flair and fun to your event. With these tips, you’re all set to throw a party that will leave everyone in awe!

#surprise party

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zjohnsonarts246-003 · 1 year ago

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ARTS 246 - Week 2

In the assigned reading for this week, I found the exploration of ancient writing and typography particularly fascinating. The diverse range of materials used in earlier times, such as the utilization of heavy clay tablets for writing and communication, stood out in stark contrast to the commonplace sheets of paper prevalent in contemporary times. The contrast of these mediums highlighted the evolution of typography over the centuries. Personally, I developed a profound appreciation for the Early English Gothic style, prevalent during the 13th to 15th centuries, as showcased in photos 1-31 on page 5. The intricate details and ornate elements of this style captivated me, offering a glimpse into the rich historical tapestry of typography. Furthermore, my admiration extends to the woodblock designs featured on page 8, particularly in photos 1-51, owing to their compelling stylistic design and texture. These elements not only serve as a source of inspiration but also underscore the dynamic nature of typography throughout different periods in history.

In the initial stages of my work on our inaugural project, I have chosen to conceptualize and develop a vibrant musical experience titled NextGen Fest—a celebration of Hip-Hop, Pop, and R&B genres. This festival is designed to encapsulate the essence of the early 2010s, a period dominated by iconic artists that resonated with the emerging generation, often referred to as Gen Z or NextGen. This particular timeframe holds sentimental value for those who came of age during their elementary and middle school years. My project aims to transport attendees to the dynamic and memorable moments of this era, characterized by a fusion of fun, hipster aesthetics, and vibrant neon atmospheres. Moreover, NextGen Fest will pay homage to influential artists like Drake, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, and Justin Bieber, who played pivotal roles in shaping the musical landscape of that time. Through this festival, I aspire to recreate and celebrate the cultural impact of the early 2010s, offering a nostalgic yet contemporary experience for the audience.

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gb-patch · 3 years ago

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Hi~! I have a question. My friends and I are making a visual novel of our own, and I wanted to ask if you had any tips (I love your games, I hope we can reach that level of quality). Thanks!

That's cool ^^. I hope you have fun making it, and it's nice of you to say our games are good quality! But I'm afraid I'm not sure how helpful the tips I could give will be. Increasing the quality of a project isn't exactly something that can be done through general suggestions and I don't know what engine you're using or what you're going for, etc. I'm sorry.

I will say that, in my opinion, there are three stages devs go through in conceptualizing their project and sometimes devs get stuck at the second part and the game is finished under those circumstances. Getting all the way to third usually increases the quality a lot.

The first stage is the idea that you just want to make a game. Who knows what it is, but you want to do that. The second part is having an idea of what you want it to be like and what you don't want it to be like. It's a good place to be, but there's still a level of disconnection. The best stage is the third, which is to really, really understand what your own game is as a whole, individual concept. It's not comparisons to other things or fixing problems you had with something else or a jumble of ideas that you're just going for or a game that's created in a certain way because that's how games seem to work. You've gotten a true grasp on your own intentions and each decision is made with the goal of creating the specific vision.

i.e; Your game doesn't have bad endings because every VN has bad endings, it has bad endings because they are needed for what you're doing. Or the game doesn't have bad endings because they wouldn't do anything. There's just endings and the players can determine how good or bad they are for themselves, or there's only a variety of different good endings, or there's only one single ending, or whatever.

And if you're making it with the aim of getting it out to an audience who will enjoy it, I can give one other piece of overall advice.

Even if it's true that you do want people to like your game, I find it more relaxing and often more effective to never make your game with the intention it being something people like. It's not about liking, it's about convincing. First yourself, and then others. You've seen something in this idea and you're gonna do everything you can so that when people play, they've seen what you saw. This is also why being at stage 3 in conception is so useful. You don't have to jump through hoops for or to read the minds of people you don't even know. You've come to know a thing as valuable or worth some time already, your goal is to pull it off in a way that other people will hear the case you've made for your own concept and hopefully they'll agree. Or at the very least, they'll see what you were trying to do and understand it even if it's not their preference. You can't win them all or perfectly get an idea across every time for everyone, but you can try for it if you know what you're going for.

When I made Our Life: Beginnings & Always it didn't matter if the player coming into thought the childhood friend trope was boring or super cute, I knew what the concept was to me. I'd pictured an experience that was genuinely sentimental, nostalgic, and had a relationship based on shared moments over a lifetime together that actually happened. The genre, gameplay style, presentation, and everything was meant to show that. In the end I think players got to experience what I imagined for myself and I think that's a wonderful thing.

Good luck creating your own project!

FAQ

Ask Archive

Update Only Side Blog

#ask #gb patch games

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thefearandnow · 3 years ago

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Audio Drama Sunday: 11/29/22

So its been almost a full month since I stopped checking Twitter and one of the things that I always loved reading on a Sunday was all the lovely Audio Drama Sunday threads where I discovered a ton of amazing fiction podcasts. Inspired by those and my goal to write more on tumblr I thought it'd be fun to put together my first Audio Drama Sunday post and try to make it a semi-regular thing. Mostly to just get my thoughts down and get through my listening backlog but also for podcast recommendations!

Quiet Part Loud

I posted about this a couple weeks ago (I'm including the past two weeks in this post) but Quiet Part Loud is high on my list for favorite podcasts of the year. The Monkeypaw created, Mac Rogers written, Jordan Peele executive produced Gimlet show really delivered on the hype and I'm excited that there's possibly going to be a season 2. Though the premise sounds very similar to like a Limetown/Black Tapes sort of podcaster/investigator type of thing going on, the way it's written actually reminded me more of last year's comedy series Dark Air starring Raine Wilson (though of course this one is squarely horror, also very Burned Photo in terms of plot). They do an excellent job conceptually and aesthetically grappling with audio as a vehicle for social terror across history and mediums, which is the type of shit I live for! I thought the story was really well paced, the second half of the series had some incredible stand out episodes and the last two episodes were very satisfying. I think this show has a ton of re-listen value and I'm excited to see what happens in the next season. The only bad part of this podcast is that it's a Spotify exclusive so not as many people can listen and I'm not really sure it's worth a subscription if you don't already have it. But if you already have Spotify and love horror I can't recommend enough!

The Goblet Wire

The Goblet Wire is probably one of the more unique podcasts I've listened to: a surreal horror scripted role-playing collection of bite sized portraits (it'd be a stretch to call some of them stories). Very similar to John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van. And last week I finally listened to the last two episodes, which I thought really helped give the whole first batch of episodes a true sense of a series arc. Which I don't think it necessarily needed, but it felt like the end of a season y'know? I love the writing, the simplicity of the format but complexity of the imagery. It's such an open ended concept and I'm looking forward to hearing what the next set of writers do in the next batch of episodes. On top of the show itself being fun to listen to it's just like an incredible thing to exist as a platform for indie fiction podcast creators to collaborate on and make crazy shit. I've got a ton of other podcasts to check out from the plugs at the end of each episode and it just feels so like underground comics community vibe.

We're Alive: Descendants

We're Alive was the first audio drama I ever listened to but I dropped off somewhere in the middle. I tried to get back into with with Gold Rush but felt too lost from the original story line and felt intimidated by going all the way back. But when I saw that they were doing this most recent Descendants season I decided to give it another shot and... it's sorta like my guilty pleasure listening. Like it's nostalgic mainly. It's like their Hunger Games moment which I'm into but for the most part everything that I'm excited about so far during the season gets watered down in clunky dialogue or slow moving plot points. And overall the episodes end up being too long and kinda boring. This last week I listened to Episode 7 (parts 1 and 2 which is a whole other thing) and I can't tell if it all went over my head because of a ton of lore and character work I missed but I definitely felt confused. I'm still gonna keep listening cause at this point I'm invested in figuring out how it all goes down from a story perspective and it feels like this next episode will finally connect the two concurrent story lines. I'm curious to see if longtime fans have enjoyed this season; I've found it an easier entry point than Gold Rush and I like hearing about the regional evolution of the infected, I'm definitely enjoying it even if it's a bit slow.

Welcome to Night Vale

Seems a bit basic to be adding WTNV here but I have been inspired recently to go back to some select episodes, all of them recommendations from this post. And yeah: Night Vale is still such a classic with hilarious writing, fun concepts and undeniably influential style. So far I've only listened to a few early episodes (The Glow Cloud episode is 100% gold) that I was already familiar with and it's been really interesting to listen back to them after listening to Start With This for the past few months. I have a completely different appreciation for what they were doing with this show as it was coming out, like when I was heavy into Night Vale I think I took it for granted that this show existed and was perfectly weird and couldn't really wrap my head around the talent and thought that went into making it so special. I'm really enjoying my trip down memory lane but I'm also really excited to hear some new ones y'all recommended so I'll probably be carving out some space for future posts about my wtnv backlog.

Honorable Mention:

This isn't audio drama but I do want to note that the "Qatar's World Cup" episode of Throughline was really a great listen and worth the hour or so for anyone who's even vaguely following the World Cup or if you saw that John Oliver video. Throughline is one of my fave non-fiction podcasts and episodes like this one feel especially valuable in terms of their research and production.

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cryptic-flash · 4 years ago

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"Polygon Wave EP" created by the change in the production system and the relationship with Yasutaka Nakata who came closer to Perfume (Natalie Interview Sep 2021)

Page 1 - about live show

Page 2

Which was the most memorable performance of this concert for you?

Kashiyuka: The first performance of "Polygon Wave (Original Mix)". Originally, we were going to perform the version that was released earlier, but when we were deciding which song to include on the EP, Yasutaka Nakata said, "This is the one!" About two weeks before the concert, I asked MIKIKO-sensei, "I'd like to change the song to this one, can you do the choreography in time? "I'll do my best at ......! (laughs).

I'll do my best." (laughs) That's pretty sudden.

"Polygon Wave" is also the title of the show, and this song was the concept that ran through the entire show.

Nocchi: But I didn't just say, "Let's record a song that will be important for the live performance. When I had a chance to talk with Mr. Nakata last December, he said, "Let's just record a song without thinking about what it's for. If it's good enough, you can use it for something else." He suggested that we go to the studio and record the song after it was written, and the first song we wrote was "Polygon Wave. The first song that came out of that process was "Polygon Wave." I think that kind of rough, uncomplicated feeling is easier for you now. All the songs we recorded this time have a different and new atmosphere. Among them, it seems that "Polygon Wave" was the first song that Nakata felt was appropriate for everyone to hear, and from that point on, we started talking about various things.

Kashiyuka: The songs "∞ Loop" and "Android &" that will be included in the EP were also recorded at that time. When we were recording, we hadn't talked about an EP yet, but since "Polygon Wave" was chosen as the theme song for "The Masked Singer," we decided to release a single. He said, "I want to put a lot of 'Polygon Wave'! I thought, "That's new" (laughs).

Nakata-san also likes this song a lot, doesn't he ?

Nocchi: I think Nakata-san had a clear idea of the world he wanted to show us. We also thought it was a great song, so we thought, "If that's the case, why don't we just release this one song first?" Then Mr. Nakata said, "If we make an EP, we'll make another version. We said, "If you're going to make another version, we'll do it live."

Kashiyuka: We've never had so many different mixes of the same song before, so we'd talk about things like, "Which 'Polygon Wave' should be the first song? We talked about it. I thought it was unusual for you to have such an opinion on the song order. It's always easy to decide, but we had many discussions.

"A closer relationship than that between "producers" and "singers.

Kashiyuka: In the past, we'd record songs after we'd decided on a release or a tie-up, but this time we were free to write and record without thinking about whether we'd use them or not, so the pace was faster than usual. When we were recording, people would say things like, "We might not use this song," but since we've already sung it, we've grown to love it (laughs). (laughs) So I sang it, thinking, "I hope it doesn't disappear. (laughs) So I sang the songs while thinking "I hope they don't disappear". In fact, I recorded songs that were not on the EP.

A~chan: Mr. Nakata's mode was different. He's always been a fast songwriter, but what happened to him? It was so fast. I think he had a clear idea of what he wanted.

Nocchi: You and Nakata-san talked a lot before and after the recording, didn't you? We talked about our old music, our stance when being interviewed, what we hope Perfume will be like in the future, and what we want to do.

In the last interview, you said that there were only two songs that you made demos for and rejected (see Perfume "Perfume The Best "Cubed"" interview). That's a big difference.

What was the recording process like?

A~chan: we talked for hours.

Your relationship with Nakata-san is completely different from what I've heard from everyone.

Nocchi: Yes. Before, we used to talk about such things only in the occasional discussions. Nakata-san used to only reveal a little bit of what he was thinking, but this time, he was overflowing with it on .......

Kashiyuka: This time, I was happy to feel that we were working together at a closer distance than the previous relationship of "producer" and "singers". "I thought, "Oh, it was easier for Mr. Nakata to work this way. I'm not sure why I didn't realize that until now (laughs).

I'm curious to know what songs you recorded but didn't include in the EP.

Kashiyuka: The song we played at the end of the live the other night is also not on the EP, but we recorded it at that time. We don't even know if that song is finished (laughs). (laughs) But I liked that song so much from the moment we recorded it that I told MIKIKO that I wanted it to be included in the live set list.

It's rare to play a song in its current state in a live performance. In rock bands, they sometimes show off songs that they are still working on.

Kashiyuka: That's true (laughs).

Nocchi: But we wanted to sing that song at this live, because it expresses the message that Perfume wants to convey to the fans now. It might not be released for a long time, or it might not be released at all, but we were aware that this live performance would remain as a video for a long time.

Page 3

`A desert world where all organic matter is made up of digital bits.`

So, I felt that both "∞ Loop" and "Android &" selected for this song are similar to the world view of "Polygon Wave".

Nocchi: I like both of them very much. The music is stylish and light without being mechanical, but "∞ Loop" is about the scary feeling of living in a world where time loops, and "Android &" is about falling in love with an android.

A-chan: Nakata-san told me the meaning of the lyrics. The main character of "Android &" is actually an android who thinks he's completely human. That's why the title of the song ends with "&", but it's supposed to be like "Android & Human". It's interesting, isn't it?

Kashiyuka: But we didn't know the titles of either "∞ Loop" or "Android &" until the songs were announced (laughs). (laughs) When we were recording, we said "loop" and "android", so we thought that was the name of the song, but when the information was released and we read the news article, it said something different. "But when I read the news article after the information was released, it said something different. "Is this "&" a typo? I thought, "Is this okay? I contacted them just to make sure. I asked him if it was okay, and he said, "Nakata-san told me it's "Android &". The other song is called "Mugen Loop" (laughs).

Nocchi: The lyrics of "Android &" are kind of harsh, looking at the world from a bird's eye view (laughs). It's a song with a clear story, so I hope you'll write a story based on it.

A~chan: It looks like it's going to be hard to draw the CG (laughs).

Kashiyuka: But we can probably cover the motion with the data we've collected so far (laughs). I feel that Nakata-san had envisioned a total world in this EP. He wanted to express the whole thing like a movie.

That's right. I thought it was a very conceptual composition that "∞ Loop" depicts a world that keeps rebooting at the end of the day, and the song "System Reboot", which means "reboot", is included at the end of the same work.

Kashiyuka: Nakata-san's image for this EP is "a beautiful & broad desert, but all the trees and organic matter growing there are made of digital bits. It's a world with a sense of discomfort," he said.

Director Yusuke Tanaka's signature "Wow, I'm so scared"

You made a dance practice video for "Polygon Wave", didn't you? It was the first time for Perfume to make a video focusing on the choreography, but it seems that there was a demand for a video where you can see every detail of the body movements, and the response was great.

Nocchi: I'm so happy (laughs). It's not often that I get to dance in sneakers, so it was fun to film.

A~chan: Whenever I appear on a music program, I always take a short video of myself dancing and submit it to the TV station. I can't show that kind of footage to the public, but the atmosphere of the dance practice video is similar to that. It's hard to dance in heels, so just wearing sneakers made it really easy.

I heard that you're working on a music video for this song, will there be a lot of dance scenes in the music video?

Nocchi: Basically, it's like a dance video.

Kashiyuka: But we just shot it, so I haven't watched it yet (laughs).

A~chan: It's a video with a clear world view, so I'm sure you'll understand how to listen to this song by watching it. Is this real? Is this real or is this virtual? In the music video, the three of us are driving together, and in the middle of the road, we're like, "What? It ends with Yusuke Tanaka's signature "Wow, this is so scary! (laughs). During the shooting, I was dancing so hard that my legs became sticks.

The choreography is quite complicated, isn't it? It's a collage of past songs, updated with the skills of the three of us, and it's the culmination of Perfume's dancing to date.

A~chan: What! Is that so? I thought you were doing it consciously, but it's not like that?

Nocchi: I wasn't conscious of it at all. To be honest, I just thought, "I've never done all these moves before" (laughs).(laughs)

Kashiyuka: When I was being choreographed, I took it as "new movements for a new song", so I didn't feel anything special. But we didn't talk about such messages.

A~chan: I thought that the arrangement of the song had various old tastes. I thought, "That sound in the background is the one they used in 'Polyrhythm'! It brings back memories! I'm nostalgic!

─ Speaking of which, the newly recorded "Polygon Wave (Remix)" is a very interesting remix, with a series of tones and phrases that remind me of various Perfume songs.

A~chan: I think Nakata-san has that planned out! I mean, he said something like that, didn't he?

Oh, so that's what he said. I was listening to the song thinking that it was like a concept live "Reframe" that reconstructed Perfume with the most advanced production, and that it was like your own "Reframe" that reconstructed Perfume's history in one song.

A~chan: Yes, yes. When you've been doing this for a long time, you get to make this kind of music.In many cases, remixes are done in a way that is different from the artist's usual style, as if to say, "This could be interpreted in this way," but this remix has more of a Perfume feel to it.

Nocchi: Yeah, I was expecting it to be weirder, but when I listened to it, it sounded so much like Perfume (laughs).

Page 4 - upcoming Reframe etc.

src : https://natalie.mu/music/pp/perfume17

#prfm #prfm:interview #ystk #ystk:interview #polygonwave #polygon wave #2021 #nakata #yasutaka nakata #mugen loop #system reboot #natalie #∞ loop #polygon wave EP #perfume #android&

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056crowshit6556 · 5 years ago

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Disillusionment in the characters of Mitzi May and Mordecai Heller

I wanted to discuss what I find to be a fascinating relationship between Mitzi and Mordecai.

There’s no better place to start than with Ivy Pepper’s dream sequence in “Nightmare”.

Okay, so breaking this scene down. The three characters Viktor, Mordecai, and Mitzi surround a tree which represents Atlas, or at least, a conceptualized version of what Atlas has become, everything he built, and everything he represented. Ivy calls the thing they’re surrounding a “ghost”, and asks why they don’t turn around, i.e. move on with their lives. Why don’t they leave?

Mitzi and Mordecai are attached to the tree by a blue ghostly mist. It’s specifically attached to their eyes, showing how their connection to Atlas gives them ‘vision’, focus, purpose, and foresight.

I find it particularly fascinating that Mitzi and Mordecai are the ones attached to this tree by the soul sucking/soul giving light, but I think it’s appropriate considering that Atlas was their entire world. He is what connects Mitzi and Mordecai, which is what I’m going to try to explain through this post.

Both characters were born and raised in abject poverty (appropriately enough, one came from ‘northern’ poverty, the other ‘southern’ poverty— a subtle but efficient dichotomy between the two). Both had talents that Atlas fostered, both of them liked how Atlas made them feel special, both of them vied for his attention, which is the main source for the animosity and connection between them in the first place.

I’m interested in their relationship because I find it fascinatingly bitter, complicated, mysterious, and for some reason, very tender. Not tender as in affectionately warmhearted, but tender because both of them are a soft spot in each other’s memories. Mitzi acknowledges Mordecai as “a helping of salt to rub in her wounds” and Mordecai states that he has “mixed feelings” about this meeting. That I’ll explore in a moment, but first, it stands to mention what Mitzi says to Asa in “Heartstrings”:

“You only know someone until you don’t”

Which to me, might be a little tongue-in-cheek on Mitzi’s part, suggesting that she knows something about Mordecai that no one, not Asa or even us, the readers, fully understand. If there’s something about Mitzi’s character that has been shown so far it’s that she goes through the motions of social grace and banter while maintaining a sense of condescending, underlying humor about the irony of situations. This line went over my head until I went back and read it, and the subsequent scene of them talking in the car further adds to the implication that they know each other more intimately than expected.

Being taken in by Atlas, they were exposed to each other as a consequence of circumstance. They both shared Atlas to a degree which bordered on the unhealthy, because I don’t think they formed identities beyond the ones they formed in relation to Atlas. With the added fact that they were both fairly young and impressionable when Atlas took them in, and the subsequent familial rivalry and resentment their relationship created, there’s no surprise that they’re both disillusioned and blindly clinging to the dead tree as seen in Ivy Pepper’s dream.

The problem I see between Mitzi and Mordecai is that because of circumstance, they had to be vulnerable with each other, and even though jealously may have created resentment between them, I think the two flashback scenes in “Hamstring” and “Confessional” state multitudes about that resentment. It’s not just jealousy, (Mordecai asserts that he has no interest in defending her, which sounds petty and jealous although he could have valid reasons— it’s unclear at this point), but I figure that the other layer to Mitzi and Mordecai’s resentment of each other stems from the assumption that they were vulnerable with each other at some point. Whatever happened at this moment, which Mitzi refers to as a “bad memory”, altered their relationship in some form or another.

“What’s left to question between you and I?”

“That remains between us.”

I can’t imagine Mordecai taking too kindly to anyone he has to be vulnerable with, and I don’t think Mitzi would enjoy admitting she has weaknesses or flaws either. It’s one of the reasons I find their characters to be so similar. Neither of them like dropping their protective facade but I think in the past they did with each other. (Mitzi’s facade being a socialite debutante, Mordecai’s facade being a cold-blooded sociopath). I think they perform traits of those facades, but the problem is I think those traits were fostered and encouraged by Atlas, maybe without him even meaning to. It’s like...two children will act a certain way because they can tell those actions please their parent. It’s really sad and really distressing but that’s the way these two characters operate in the realm of the story.

The man Mordecai is interrogating, Grombach, states that Mordecai doesn’t seem like the “cake-eater” type, but he does fit right in with that crowd.

And Zib, who knew Mitzi before she met Atlas, states that she’s not the sleepy eyed girl he found in Georgia anymore in “Blood-money” (although I think Zib might be looking at Mitzi through nostalgic rose-colored glasses).

Case in point, Mitzi and Mordecai’s characters are alot more multi-layered and complex than simply a socialite-flapper and a triggerman-cake eater, although they did perform those roles reasonably well.

(That’s one of the reasons why it’s difficult to tell who is taking the gun in that particular flashback. Mordecai claims that Mitzi didn’t shoot anyone, so it’s reasonable to assume that Mitzi is handing the gun to Mordecai. (I could be completely wrong but it’s fun to speculate). She taught him how to maneuver, or at least interpret, social situations. In turn, he could have done something, or helped her, commit a murder. It’s ugly but that’s his speciality. If Mitzi is handing the gun to Mordecai and asking him to eliminate someone, then in such an instance she stops being “Atlas’s little wife” and starts being a boss. Maybe Mordecai trusted her judgement on it and the plan went horribly wrong, and so he blames her for it. There’s alot to unpack there so I’ll just leave it at that).

This idea of creating a persona is even perpetrated by Mitzi, who claims Mordecai to be her ‘little project’ in the mini-comic “Photoplay”— and although I’m sure he was reluctant at first, Mordecai allowed Mitzi to help him integrate into Atlas’s society— the 1920s flapper way.

(Not to mention that line from Mordecai: “You like it because he likes you to like it?” That sums up perfectly what I’m trying to get at— I’m not saying Mitzi’s interest in photography is a facade, or Mordecai’s interest in being a bookkeeper or a hitman is a facade either, but what I’m getting at is those interests were directly correlated to Atlas and were absolutely influenced by Atlas. They call each other out for using Atlas’s money or clothes, and I imagine there’s been other times where they purposefully nitpick the other when Atlas gave them a gift. It’s jealousy in its most blatant form).

That one line by Mordecai is so good because it encapsulates the way their relationship was at the beginning before “things visibly deteriorated.” They were both butting heads with each other, nitpicking the other because they knew how Atlas changed both of their lives. It’s so childish but definitely prevalent among siblings— Mordecai thought he had some sort of upper hand, that he was his own person, but Mitzi reminds him that he’s wearing Atlas’s shirts, inevitably reminding him that he can’t escape Atlas’s influence. We want to think we’re our own person, free from influences, but those closest to us inevitably remind us where and what we came from.

And neither Mitzi or Mordecai can hide from each other the fact that Atlas took them in and gave them financial security, food on their plate, clothes on their back, and a sense of purpose. He made them feel different than how they actually feel about themselves. This is expressed by Serafine to Mordecai in “Redivivo” and “Keepsake”:

“And like dat, he’s lit up a path out de black mire you got yourself in. Shinin’ a direction for you, real clear. His direction. But once you take dat direction, once dat light is on you, dat’s all you got. De other loa leave you. You are obliged to him only, always. Or else you are lost again.”

And in “Vestige”, Mitzi admits that she liked how he made her feel special.

Serafine sums it up pretty well: Mitzi and Mordecai found someone that ‘lit up’ the path in front of them.

I want to briefly mention their interaction in “Hamstring” and “Monomania”. Mordecai speaks very differently to Mitzi than the three other male characters in the story (I’m referring to Zib, Rocky, and Wick). It could be the mysterious nature of their relationship but the conflict it adds to the story is intriguing nonetheless. More so, I always got the impression that he spoke to her as an equal. Zib doesn’t like that Mitzi’s capable of deceit, Rocky places her on a pedestal and views her as a damsel-in-distress, and Wick sees her as the elegant flapper widow of the late Atlas May (and a romantic interest, not a business partner). The difference between the aforementioned relationships is that Mitzi and Mordecai don’t want anything from each other, and they call each other out quite bluntly— Mitzi tells him he can’t treat her as both an enemy and a confidante, Mordecai places some blame on her for Atlas’s death. So when I say that their relationship feels equal to me, it does seem that they have an equal amount of dirt on each other, but at the same time, they tell each other the truth. Two cats in the same boat and the boat’s name is Atlas? Such close familiarity means they can’t hide things from each other, not really, and they can’t raise their expectations of the other person when they already know that person’s limits. In contrast, Zib wants Mitzi to run away with him and forget Atlas, Rocky wants her approval, and Wick wants her because of his romantic interest in her. I’m not saying their intentions are wrong or mistrustful, in fact, they aren’t. All characters have motive, it’s what drives the story. The thing is, they’ve all created misconstrued personas of Mitzi, but I don’t get the impression that Mordecai has, and I don’t get the impression that she’s construed a false premise of him either.

That’s the consequence of “growing up” together, building an identity alongside someone, and then, as Mordecai puts it, they witness each other’s identities “visibly deteriorate”— whatever happened between them before Atlas’s death was the incident which revealed each other’s vulnerability. Mordecai tells Mitzi to “keep her charade” out of the way, insinuating that he knows she’s capable of putting on appearances, but it’s a possibility that he’s trying to remove her from the bootlegging business because he doesn’t want to see what happened to Atlas happen to her. Personally, I would love to see the narrative ironically drive Mordecai to lose his current composure (a kind of karmic retribution for looting Lackadaisy’s storeroom, even if his underlying intentions were to push Mitzi farther away from the business, he still did a great job of putting her life in danger). I don’t know if that voodoo sigil Serafine carved on his chest is going to do anything, but if it did, it could make him behave in a way that would expose his charade as Asa’s hired gun as well as his persona as a cold unfeeling triggerman.

Mitzi continues to run the Lackadaisy Speakeasy out of commitment to Atlas; Mordecai continues to take out targets for Marigold out of commitment for obtaining the truth about Atlas’s death— but the problem here is that they’re doing these things in service to a ghost. Neither of them can make things go back to the way it was. Atlas is dead, and without him, they’re lost. Their current commitment to Atlas is commitment to his memory, which is why in the dream sequence they stare blindly into his ghost, tethered to the dead tree.

And clinging to a ghost is a dangerous path to choose.

The lines “You’re obsessive” and “You’ve brought [losses] on yourself in your persistence” stands out to me.

In my opinion, Mordecai is projecting when he tells Mitzi she’s bringing shame to Atlas’s memory, because in an ironic way he’s kind of doing the same thing? This is coming from the same cat bastard who was running ‘round the woods stripped down to his underwear killing people on Marigold’s behalf like he ain’t got no goddamn sense. Literally our first introduction of Mordecai’s character in the comic paints him as an incredibly unhinged individual, so I think the irony of him saying Mitzi is embarrassing is just as hypocritical as Mitzi saying he’s obsessive. It’s so poignant and so deliberate how they project these things onto each other.

(Mitzi accuses Mordecai of being obsessive and she’s right, but her reluctance to give up the Speakeasy is borderline obsessive too. On a brief side note, it’s sad to think about but I genuinely think he’s going to get himself killed because he can’t let go of Atlas. And likewise, Mitzi is going to get into some kind of trouble (either with Wick or the law) because she’s clinging to Atlas’s memory and everything associated with his memory. They’re both obsessive to a degree and it’s showing through their self-serving choices throughout the story thus far. I could be wrong about this but my assumption is that Mitzi refuses to give up the Speakeasy because she feels some sort of underlying guilt, and Mordecai refuses to give up searching for answers because of a sense of obligation; but as stated above, Mordecai projects his feelings of guilt onto Mitzi, and Mitzi projects her feelings of inadequacy onto Mordecai).

The big elephant in the room is whether or not Mitzi and Mordecai conspired to murder Atlas. Personally I think no, but I do think they did something that indirectly caused his death. Perhaps they took out someone together, and that created a chain of events which led to Atlas’s demise. That would further instigate their obsessive guilt over what happened, but it’s a mystery for now.

It’s because of their fixation on Atlas’s memory that they’re both attached to the dead tree in Ivy Pepper’s dream. If they weren’t, they’d be lost in some desolate exodus across the desert landscape, a wasteland similar to the one conceptualized by T.S. Eliot in his work “The Waste Land.”

A few lines from the poem paint an eerie landscape similar to Ivy’s dream:

and

lastly

“I was neither living nor dead”

It’s a common theme among modernist literature that, as William Butler Yeats stated in his poem “The Second Coming”, the “center cannot hold.” After the horrors of World War I, combined with the rapid growth of consumerism and materialism as well as a decline in religious faith, things seemed to “visibly deteriorate”, people in the early 20th century were so disillusioned with the state of things that they felt they had no “center” to keep them tethered to this world; in a sense, what could give them a purpose or sense of meaning? At the end of the 19th century, Nietzsche famously quoted “God is Dead”, but it wasn’t in praise of humanity for turning towards science and reason, but despair because it begged the question: If God is Dead, then what the hell do we believe in? What do we put faith in?

In the case of Mitzi and Mordecai, that faith was in Atlas May.

Trees make excellent visual representations of “centers” in storytelling because our ancient ancestors considered the tree to be their home, their safe haven, the “center” of their world. Why else do trees continually reoccur as symbols of centrifuge throughout mythology, storytelling, and religion? Why else would it be called the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in the book of Genesis, or the World Tree Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, or the Kabbalah in Judaism if it wasn’t alluding to the fact the we evolved as a species alongside the trees?

It makes sense that the story’s center is Atlas, represented by a tree— but that’s the problem— Mitzi and Mordecai are centering themselves around a dead tree. But the memory of Atlas is what continues to give their eyes “light”, and so they don’t look away to face the reality that they are lost in a habitual wasteland.

With Atlas gone, both characters experience disillusionment with either themselves, the world, and maybe even their perceptions of Atlas. Basically, they built their identities around him, and I think they gave each other their most honest representations— which resulted in a sort of strained tenderness between the two which defers foremost to bitter resentment.

#Lackadaisy #Lackadaisy Cats #lackadaisycats #mordecai heller #mitzi may #long post #theory #theories #my southern sensibilities couldn't resist calling Mordecai a cat bastard #actin' like he ain't got no goddamn sense #my posts

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louistomlinsoncouk · 6 years ago

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Interview: Louis Tomlinson Talks “Kill My Mind” & Debut Album

After experimenting with everything from EDM to acoustic ballads, Louis Tomlinson finally found his sound on “Kill My Mind.” The just-released single is a throwback to the fuzzy, indie-leaning pop/rock of the ’90s and early ’00s. Which is not a coincidence given that it was inspired by the bands Louis grew up listening to on UK radio. (Think Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys). The song also sets the tone for the superstar’s debut solo album, which will be similarly raw and organic.

I spoke with Louis about his gutsy new single on Friday (September 6) and he recapped his search for a sound that was authentic to him. The “Miss You” hitmaker then revealed that his debut album is finally finished and gave some insight into its tracklist. He also reminisced about his heartwarming “Two Of Us” video and fond memories of being in One Direction. Other topics of conversation included the “Kill My Mind” video, upcoming live shows and his next single. Find out more about the 27-year-old’s solo journey below.

It feels like you really found your sound with “Kill My Mind.”

I think it’s important for any artist to play around with different sounds and find a place in their industry. For me, it frustrates me now that I’ve got four or five singles that just feel different sonically. It’s important to me, and something I’m going to focus on moving forward, to have a real identity as an artist. With the album that is really, really important to me. I feel I found my home on “Kill My Mind,” definitely sonically and the way it makes you feel and how it sounds to you. Yes, it feels good.

Was it a matter of finding the right collaborator or producer?

Definitely. You need someone who is going to embrace your ideas and embrace you for who you are. I did quite a lot of different sessions with producers in America. Everyone has their own opinion of what they think you should be. With some people, you can go into the session and say, “This is who I am, let’s work with this.” Whereas in other sessions, I can sometimes feel producers trying to pull me certain ways. When I found Jamie Hartman, who I wrote quite a few songs with including “Kill My Mind,” I didn’t even have to explain too much about who I am or what I want. We were just on the same page straight away.

It definitely has more of an indie sound. There’s also something quite ’90s about it. Was that your intention?

Yes, I’m a massive fan of ’90s music. I always talk about when I grew up, pop Radio had the like of Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys and Oasis. Now it’s a little bit more urban-leaning. I just went with what I grew up with. That’s where my influences lie.

I think that really comes through on the song. It’s a bit fuzzier and more organic than what you heard on radio right now.

That’s a big compliment. I appreciate that, thank you.

As you said before, you now have maybe five songs that all sound very different. Will you go back to those songs and tweak them?

Well, there are some songs like “Two of Us,” for example. That is just a really simple, organic ballad that fits in line with what I want to do. There are songs like “Back To You” with Bebe Rexha that I absolutely love but, sonically, even just melodically, it’s so set on what it is. Whereas the Steve Aoki song, I have actually reworked to try to fit more in line with “Kill My Mind.” It has been stripped back and that worked straight away actually. I think it’s kind of song dependent really.

I can’t wait to hear the new version.

It’s such an anthemic melody. Anyway, it leads to that guitar-driven stuff. It works pretty well actually.

How far along are you with an album or an EP?

I’m done! I’m finally finished recording the album thank fuck. That took fucking ages. I’ve probably got another two or three more singles after “Kill My Mind.” So the album’s probably going to be out early next year. I’ll be relieved the day the album is out, I can’t wait for that day.

It must be so exciting to have it in the can.

Oh, definitely. It’s been two or three years in the making and when I was in One Direction, we were literally putting out an album once a year. It does feel like a long time for me but I’ll feel really proud when I get it out. I’ve been quite meticulous with it. I’m really excited to hear the feedback.

Who else have you worked with apart from Jamie Hartman?

Let me think about this, who else have I worked with? There’s a guy called Sean Douglas, who actually also wrote “Kill My Mind” and wrote with him on a couple of tracks. I’ve probably done sessions with close to 75 different producers. I think what I’ve realized and learned during the process is that finding the right writing and creative partners, who are all on the same page, is priceless. I have also worked with Wayne Hector, Steve Robson, Julian Bunetta also. There are probably four or five songs that I wrote with Jamie, so they really will be a big chunk of the album.

Will those earlier singles be on the album?

They will be, definitely. I’d say, maybe 30 percent of the songs on the album were written longer than a year ago. There are some songs that are so special to me and I think they mean a lot to the fans. Some of those songs also represent that time in my life in whatever way. So I couldn’t necessarily start fresh, but once I’d written “Kill My Mind,” I kind of found my sound. Once I’d written “Kill My Mind,” there were three or four songs that followed on from that, and it was a little bit more straight forward because we knew exactly what we were aiming for.

I can imagine “Kill My Mind” sounding great live. Have you thought about a live show or tour?

I’m lucky enough to be playing a show in Madrid. They’re doing a Coca Cola festival and I’m headlining one of the days. I’m really excited about that. I’m doing 10 songs. Now, to this point, I’ve only done three or four songs on the odd radio show. So I’m really, really excited to get out and get a reaction and feed from the audience. I know, “Kill My Mind,” is naturally going to make the transition to a live show and I’m pretty confident it’s going to be fun. So I’m really excited about that moment.

How different is it standing on stage by yourself compared to being in a band with other guys?

I’ve done the odd performance. I feel like I’m growing into that. It won’t be so new to me, but doing 10 songs and creating a show about me on the stage, it’s a little bit, I would say, daunting. There’s naturally more pressure. That’s another thing I’ve realized from working on my own as a solo artist. I have to stay across absolutely, everything and all of a sudden, I’m so meticulous about every single detail. When I think about the tour, it’s going to be an even more rewarding situation for me because when we put it on, I will literally have painted this picture from the ground up, so it’s something that really excites me.

You mentioned “Two of Us” a little bit earlier. I love that song.

Thank you.

The video was so touching. Who came up with that idea? That old guy is a legend.

Oh my God, honestly. Of all the things that I’ve done in the last 12 months, that is definitely one of the best things. It was an absolutely amazing experience. I think it was a conversation between me and the record label. We talked about different, interesting ideas that we could do for the video. Everyone should watch that video and be inspired. Not from my story, but from Richard’s story. That old guy recently lost his wife and it was raw to him, but I’ve never met anyone with such an amazing view on life. Although he wasn’t dealt the best hand, he lived so happy and so fun, and he was up for anything literally. He was a proper, proper, brave old guy and I was really taken aback by him as a person.

Has he inspired the way you approach your own life?

Definitely. I think that I have the luxury of now being able to see that the glass is half full as opposed to half empty. Richard really taught me that. There are some things that we did together, which he had obviously never done before. It takes a brave man of that age to do new things. Yes, we can all learn something from that, definitely.

Have you thought about what you’re going to to do for the “Kill My Mind” video?

I’ve already filmed the “Kill My Mind” video, and the next video actually. I’m really excited about this. It’s with Charlie Lightening who directed a documentary about Liam Gallagher. I’m really excited about that. Visually, he’s really cool. Conceptually, for “Kill My Mind,” I wanted it to be like all the Oasis videos I love. I wanted it to be more about the performance. Not focusing too much on a narrative and just being lit really well. I think we pulled it off. I’m excited about that one.

I can’t wait to see it. Do you know when it’s coming out?

Yes. What day is today? Friday. I think it’s due Monday or Tuesday. I think we’ve got some last few notes to do before signing off. So, yes, early next week.

Do you enjoy the visual element?

Yes. I’ve always been quite inclined to get involved in conversations about that. To be honest, sometimes One Direction was so manic, there literally wasn’t time to be across as many things as I am now. It’s really, really rewarding. It’s the same buzz that I get off writing songs. Like when we sat and we spoke about the idea for the Richard video, “Two of Us.” Then you actually watch the final piece, you’re like, “Wow, we’ve actually created something really interesting.” To a certain degree, important, that’s proper refreshing. Definitely.

You mentioned some of the One Direction videos. Has enough time passed that you can look back on it and feel nostalgic or does it still feel recent to you?

It still feels recent but there have been numerous times where I find myself kind of reminiscing about old videos on YouTube, interviews, or performances, whatever it is. There’s still that side of the nostalgia where you miss it as well. It’s like looking back on your school days or your university days. It gives you that funny feeling in your stomach where you miss it, definitely.

You said you filmed a video for the single after “Kill My Mind,” how long will we have to wait for it?

Because I have other songs that don’t really reflect the overall identity and sound of the album, I just want to get as much music out as I can before the album comes out. I’m pretty sure the plan is to release a song every month or every six weeks, so there’s more music out there. I want to really drive home who I’m trying to be as an artist. I think the next single’s coming middle of October, something like that.

Thanks so much for your time. Good luck with the album.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

#louis tomlinson #kill my mind promo #kmm: idolator #09sep19

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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After more than a decade, Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg's YA classics The Plane Janes are back!

[I adored Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg's YA graphic novels The Plain Janes and Janes in Love, which were the defining titles for the late, lamented Minx imprint from DC comics. A decade later, the creators have gotten the rights back and there's a new edition Little, Brown. We're honored to have an exclusive transcript of Cecil and Jim in conversation, discussing the origins of Plain Janes. Make no mistake: this reissue is amazing news, and Plain James is an underappreciated monster of a classic, finally getting another day in the spotlight. If you haven't read it, consider yourself lucky, because you're about to get another chance. -Cory]

Cecil to Jim: How interesting or difficult was it for you to go back to match a style from 11 years ago?

Jim: It was impossible!

When I started drawing Janes Attack Back, I was so anxious. You can’t unlearn how to ride a bike and a lot of my style from 11 years ago included my limitations as an artist. I hope I’m much better now than I was then. But when it comes to style, I just couldn’t quite do it the same. After a page or two, I stopped trying. I figured that as long as the character designs, grayscaling, and lettering were consistent that it would be a 90 percent match. Combined with the different ink colors, I think it flows pretty well. But it was definitely tough to figure out in the beginning.

It was interesting for me to revisit the original art and to get back into characters that I had spent so much time with, but that was over 10 years ago. It was a very strange feeling in my head. Nostalgic but also filtered through thousands of pages of progress since I drew the first two books. It was like studying a different artist, trying to get back to that style.

How much of an issue was this from a writing perspective?

Cecil: It was the same!

When we first did Plain Janes it was my first time moving from prose to comics and I remember that I called you up crying once because moving the story from panel to panel was so difficult to figure out at first. Comics is not prose! But now I have a better understanding of comics and I would write those books way differently now. So it was hard to go back to being more naive. But it was an interesting challenge for sure.

Cecil to Jim: We had sort of hammered out this story as a four book thing back in 200. For Janes Attack Back, we compressed. Is there anything that we left out that you kind of wish we’d been able to keep?

Jim: I’m very happy with how this turned out. I remember we planned to have the Janes all go their separate ways for the summer. I think you did a terrific job compressing that. We still see them do their own things and drift apart. I like these characters so our original plans were fun--seeing them on their own allowed a different side of them to emerge.

But I think the story works best in this final version. I don’t miss the longer solo adventures. Although I refer to the Janes as my X-Men, since they are a team, and team books often have spinoffs where characters have solo adventures. So maybe a longer solo adventure would be fun. I did draw quite a bit of Brain Jane at space camp many years ago! But overall, I say no. I’m so happy with this final story that I don’t regret anything we cut to make this final story! Who knows, we could always follow the Janes as they go off to different colleges and post high school adventures...

Cecil: I’m glad I have those Brain Jayne space camp pages. But yeah, I don’t miss their solo stuff. I’m glad that we just really follow Main Jane. But it’s interesting because I think that kind of goes with the question above. I think writing that whole Janes Go Summer was the book that I would never write now because I’ve learned that you can just go to the next best part and you don’t have to tell every part. Like moving time from panel to panel.

Cecil to Jim: What was the hardest thing to draw? And which art attack did you love the most?

Jim: Not exactly an art attack, but I think my favorite art thing was when Jane visits the museum in France and she appears in several paintings. That was fun to draw, but also it fit the story perfectly. As a cartoonist, that’s the best I can hope for--when the art gets to shine within the context of the story. That moment feels magical to me--in terms of both the story and the art.

Does the school dance count as an art attack? I like flowers so when the gang covered their dresses in flowers and Brain Jane hit them with a spotlight, that was something I enjoyed drawing.

Cars are hard to draw. Kissing is hard to draw. Crowds are tough. Perspective...I could go on and on!

Jim to Cecil: Craft--is there a difference between writing a novel and writing a graphic novel? If so, what are those differences?

Cecil: There are more words in prose. That seems obvious, but it’s a big deal because that’s what you paint your pictures with. So you can really dive into the minutiae of a moment but it’s very different than with comics where you dive into a moment because you are really dictating what you want the brain to pay attention to. And you have to really understand that each reader is going to have a wildly different understanding of what that picture should be. In comics, it’s right there. So you can be very specific and focused and the words are not really important. They are but I throw out a lot of them.

I think I over-write my script as a scaffolding for you, the artist, so you don’t have to do all the mental heavy lifting. But the best thing about comics is the throwing out of words. And silence. You can use words to describe silence but it’s still very busy and loud. But in a comic, a silent page or panel speaks for itself, and you can have a pause and rest that you can’t have in prose. I love writing both and that is why I really think that a story tells you how it best wants to be told. Because prose and comics have different gifts in terms of telling the tale.

Jim to Cecil: I sometimes describe The PLAIN Janes as my X-Men comic since it is a “team” book. So I’m curious if you have a favorite character in The PLAIN Janes?

Cecil: Oh! That’s so hard! I mean of course it is a team book and I love that you always referred to it as an X-men comic. They are superheroes in my mind; each overcoming things inside of them and bringing their own special skill to solve a problem.

But it’s too hard to pick which one I love! I mean, I identify with all of them for different reasons at different times. I guess that is what makes a good team. But I do have a soft spot for both Brain Jayne and Theater Jane. I think that they both have such distinct voices and points of view that they were fun foils to write for Main Jane.

Do you have a favorite?

Jim: I love Theater Jane’s exuberance! And of course there are things I love about all of them. Good job on giving them unique traits and personality. But I would say in the end, I enjoyed Payne. She was a foil and heel and that brought the best out of all of the Janes. She was like a mirror that forced the Janes, especially Main Jane to really think about her values and what she wanted to do in her art practice. We had talked about Payne for a decade. Seeing her in action and seeing Main Jane play off of her was the best. Plus her anger at the status quo is something I remember feeling as a teenager.

Jim to Cecil: Write what you know, right? With that in mind, what parts of The PLAIN Janes are closest to your own personal experiences/truth?

Cecil: Yes. Although the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, of course it is put through the ringer and shook up to come out as something very different. Like Main Jane, I was in a bombing when I was young. The IRA blew up a stage where the British Army band was playing. I was in the most damaged house, a beer museum. A window shattered above me and it was very scary. (I write about this incident in my memoir, Girl on Film).

I remember the next day, my family took me to an art museum and there were huge skylight windows everywhere, and I thought they would explode down on me. So I kept focusing on the art. And so while no one was injured in the attack that I was in, and I did not find a John Doe, I certainly found solace in art when I most needed it.

Another thing that came from my life directly was just engaging in street art and loving conceptual art. How that kind of art can say so much and be so profound. I’ve talked before about walking through subway stations filled with Keith Haring chalk drawings in the 80s and that being so inspiring. That idea of art being everywhere and being a delightful surprise. The core truth of The PLAIN Janes is that ART SAVES. That is probably the most true thing I believe.

How about you? Was there anything that you brought to the book that was close to your experience or truth?

Cecil: I was an art kid in school, so that made sense. And also the feeling, like I was an outsider and wanted more than school and a small town could provide. Some of the art class stuff brings back memories. The biggest thing for me were the friendships. The way the Janes pulled for each other and supported each other as they followed their own interests. I’ve been lucky to have that kind of support in my life. Some of those moments felt true to my own experience. And yes, I believe art saved my life--whether it was the stories and art I consumed or made. It had a huge impact on my life and helped through good and bad times.

The Plain Janes [Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg/Little Brown]

https://boingboing.net/2020/01/07/janes-janes-janes.html

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pinkyheaven · 6 years ago

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Ruki: Everyone, it’s been a while.

I was trying to sort out my thoughts and while thinking about various things I didn’t notice how it was already April. Thank you, everyone, for the 03 “Passion is Ferocious” tour once again!! Of course, this tour was very nostalgic, we went with all of our strength into it and it was very fun, but from the moment we released NINTH, we had lives in halls or big live houses, so on top of that, I think that it was a tour where coming back to our origins and performing in these small venues taught us one new thing in this band - to express ourselves with nothing else, but our own bodies.

It was an amazing experience. Let’s definitely do this again 🤘🔥

Also, LIVE TOUR 18-19 THE NINTH TOUR FINAL "9th" in Yokohama Arena was announced!! The title “9th” is quite different from our usual conceptual titles and it has the same name as the album with the strong idea of “We want to show you the GazettE that we are right now after releasing 9 albums”. This is an important peace that will work as a connection to our next steps. Because nothing lasts forever, I want to make it a special day where we can show the best versions of our current selves to all of you. Since I want for this moment to last forever, I want to deliver the best day that I can possibly anew each time. Let's all explode on September 23rd. 💣🔥 In order to do this, we’re going on a world tour starting at the end of this month so we could grow even bigger and stronger 🔥 I’m convinced that the band can grow a lot during this time because it already happened during the time of DOGMA. I absolutely believe that the GazettE will get even cooler, so we’ll go all around the world from the end of this month! Also, I want to deliver the music that we’re able to crate right now to everyone in the world as fast as possible!! Everyone, once again, please treat us well!!! 🔥💣🤘

#thegazette #ninth #tour #tourfinal #9th #passion is ferocious #enhancement #phenomenon #worldtour2019 #99.999 #unfinished

(April 7, 2019)

#ruki #the gazette #ruki instagram

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hlupdate · 6 years ago

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It feels like you really found your sound with “Kill My Mind.”

Was it a matter of finding the right collaborator or producer?

It definitely has more of an indie sound. There’s also something quite ’90s about it. Was that your intention?

I think that really comes through on the song. It’s a bit fuzzier and more organic than what you heard on radio right now.

That’s a big compliment. I appreciate that, thank you.

As you said before, you now have maybe five songs that all sound very different. Will you go back to those songs and tweak them?

I can’t wait to hear the new version.

It’s such an anthemic melody. Anyway, it leads to that guitar-driven stuff. It works pretty well actually.

How far along are you with an album or an EP?

It must be so exciting to have it in the can.

Who else have you worked with apart from Jamie Hartman?

Will those earlier singles be on the album?

I can imagine “Kill My Mind” sounding great live. Have you thought about a live show or tour?

How different is it standing on stage by yourself compared to being in a band with other guys?

You mentioned “Two of Us” a little bit earlier. I love that song.

Thank you.

The video was so touching. Who came up with that idea? That old guy is a legend.

Has he inspired the way you approach your own life?

Have you thought about what you’re going to to do for the “Kill My Mind” video?

I can’t wait to see it. Do you know when it’s coming out?

Yes. What day is today? Friday. I think it’s due Monday or Tuesday. I think we’ve got some last few notes to do before signing off. So, yes, early next week.

Do you enjoy the visual element?

You mentioned some of the One Direction videos. Has enough time passed that you can look back on it and feel nostalgic or does it still feel recent to you?

You said you filmed a video for the single after “Kill My Mind,” how long will we have to wait for it?

Thanks so much for your time. Good luck with the album.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

#louis tomlinson #090919 #kmm #idolator

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