#danish is so random but it makes sense

[cowboypoisons]

nanami being a quarter danish is actually so funny to me bc like he WOULD be…like out of everyone, he Would be part european 🤕 and it’s not just his blond hair guys

but like IMAGINE

grown up nanami, like probably pre cursed child arc, is just on the phone with his granddad, doing their monthly check-in. yk vibing 😊 he’s ofc speaking (fluent) dutch the entire time bc grandad doesn’t speak japanese well enough and hates speaking english over the phone. AND GUESS WHOSE NOSEY ASS IS EAVESDROPPING 💀💀💀 yep gojo and he’s absolutely FLOURED

nanami knows gojo is watching him, but he ignores him for now but as SOON as he hangs up, gojo is questioning him like he’s fucking sherlock holmes 😭

he knew nanami was danish, but he didn’t realize he could FLUENTLY speak dutch and he’s so fascinated by it. nanami thought gojo knew at this point, but tbf he didn’t speak it much outside of his paternal family so it made sense.

but from that moment on, gojo will randomly ask what certain things are in dutch and THEN annoyingly mispronounce it so nanami will keep repeating it ^_^ (after a while nanami just starts ignoring gojo…)

[shitsndgiggs]

Hii

so you said your half danish and im alsooo

so could I request fluff where reader takes pau to Denmark and shows him the culture the food and teaches him danish?

take your time<3

A/N: ANOTHER DANE?! Wooohooo!. Hope you like it

VELKOMMEN TIL DANMARK - PAU CUBARSÍ

Showing Pau Denmark

Pau Cubarsí x danish! reader

︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿

It had been a while since Pau and I had a proper getaway, and with a little time off from football, I decided it was the perfect chance to take him to Denmark.

I couldn’t wait to show him my homeland, its culture, and, of course, teach him a bit of Danish.

I knew he’d struggle with the language — after all, people joke that Danish sounds like someone speaking with a potato in their throat. But the thought of hearing Pau trying to pronounce it made me giddy.

The first morning in Copenhagen, Pau and I walked through the cobbled streets of Nyhavn, the colorful buildings lining the canal making it feel like we were walking through a postcard.

Pau was holding my hand, his eyes wide as he took everything in. “This place is so pretty,” he said, glancing at the row of boats bobbing gently in the water.

I smiled, proud to share this part of my world with him. “Wait until you try the food,” I teased. “Danish pastries are nothing like the ones in Spain.”

He grinned. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

We found a cozy café with outdoor seating, and I insisted on ordering in Danish. Pau watched me with a curious expression, his head tilted as he tried to follow the conversation between me and the waiter.

“Can you say something to me in Danish?” he asked once the waiter left.

I thought for a moment, then grinned. “Okay, try this: ‘Jeg elsker dig.’”

Pau squinted at me. “Uh, what does that mean?”

“You’ll find out if you can say it right.”

He raised an eyebrow, accepting the challenge. “Okay… yay el…sker dig?” he attempted, butchering the words so badly I couldn’t help but laugh.

“No, no, no,” I said between giggles. “It’s ‘Jeg elsker dig.’” I repeated it slowly, exaggerating the pronunciation.

Pau’s face twisted in concentration as he tried again. “Yai… elska… dig?”

I burst out laughing. “Close enough! It means ‘I love you.’”

He smirked, leaning closer. “Well, then… Jeg elsker dig,” he said, this time with more confidence — though still sounding pretty off.

“Not bad, pretty boy, not bad.” I teased, patting his cheek.

After breakfast, we explored more of the city — the Little Mermaid statue, Amalienborg Palace, and of course, the famous Tivoli Gardens.

Pau was amazed by the history and charm of it all, though he kept attempting random Danish words and phrases, and each time he got them hilariously wrong.

In the evening, we headed to my parents’ house for dinner. My mom had made traditional Danish frikadeller, flødekartofller, with brunsviger for dessert. Pau was excited to try everything, but the moment he tasted the frikadeller, his eyes widened.

“This… is so good,” he said, shoving another bite into his mouth.

“I told you,” I said smugly, watching him devour the food.

My family couldn’t resist teaching him more Danish words throughout dinner, though Pau’s attempts had all of us in fits of laughter.

At one point, my dad tried to get him to say “rødgrød med fløde” — a classic Danish tongue twister — and the results were nothing short of comedic gold.

“Rr…rö…rød…what?” Pau’s face twisted as he tried to make sense of the sounds.

“Rødgrød med fløde,” my dad repeated, grinning.

Pau threw his hands up in defeat. “You’re all making this up! No way that’s a real word!”

We all laughed, but Pau was a great sport, his cheeks turning a little pink from the constant butchering of Danish. “You’ll get there,” I reassured him, squeezing his hand under the table. “Or… you know, just stick to Spanish.”

Later that night, after a long day of exploring and laughing, Pau and I strolled through the quiet streets of my childhood neighborhood.

The cool evening breeze carried the scent of the sea, and Pau wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer.

“You know, even if I can’t speak Danish properly,” he said, his voice soft, “I love everything you’ve shown me today. Your home, your culture, your family… it’s beautiful.”

I smiled up at him. “And you’re doing great, amor. Just… maybe leave ‘rødgrød med fløde’ out of your vocabulary for now.”

Pau chuckled, leaning down to press a soft kiss to my forehead. “Deal. But I think I’ll keep saying ‘Jeg elsker dig’ — even if it sounds terrible.”

I laughed, my heart swelling with warmth. “It doesn’t sound terrible. It sounds perfect coming from you.”

As we walked hand in hand through the Danish night, I couldn’t help but feel like this was the perfect trip.

Pau might never master Danish, but he didn’t need to — the way he embraced every moment, every laugh, and every bite of Danish food was more than enough.

And hearing him try, despite the language challenges, just made me fall for him even more.

[duchessofostergotlands]

The trailer for Ehrengard is out! Daisy designed the costumes, and they look great, but I feel weird about her working for Netflix in a way I didn't when she was designing for the Danish Royal Opera company. What do you think?

Hey :) I was very confused when I read this first sentence. Thought this was going to be another one of those random asks about something I've literally never expressed interest in haha. But anyway. It'll sound like a cop out but I don't really have a strong opinion because it's so culturally specific. Royals are essentially public representatives whose job is to represent the societal norms of their country and so there's this huge part of responding to royalty which requires an implicit understanding of a culture's values and behaviours and history. I can talk about the British royals because they're my royal family, I'm entitled to, but I also have an understanding of what is and isn't culturally acceptable even if it's not something written down. As a British person I get really irritated when people pipe up about and say stupid things about our royal family when they aren't from here. So I try not to do it for others lol. That doesn't mean I don't ever talk about other royals or criticise them, of course. But it means that I generally try to criticise when I feel like I have something to say that isn't culturally specific. So for example:

If they're breaking the law - a good example is Carl Gustaf's "flexible" interpretation of the Constitution when it came to his grandchildren. Not many people in Sweden actually care, understandably, but I felt justified in having a view because Swedish people created their constitution and CG's job is to stick to the constitution. So I'm judging them for not upholding something Swedish people asked them to uphold

Something that's always morally bad - I'm thinking MT's bullying accusations. No matter what culture you're from, it shouldn't be acceptable to be such a terrible boss that people are literally terrified to go to work. Even if Luxembourg had just shrugged at that one I think anyone is entitled to call that out as it's essentially a human rights issue.

Where I have it on reliable authority from someone in the country that they feel a certain way - So for example in Norway, I know that Martha Louise's business activities have been controversial because I know Norwegian people and I read the Norwegian press.

Something like Margrethe working with Netflix is difficult because it's not objectively morally bad, I don't know of any Danish ethics guidelines it would be breaking, and I don't know if Danish people are bothered by it. So I have no real hook to guide my opinion, if that makes sense. I can see exactly why it would be preferable to have stayed with places like the Opera - something that's a Danish cultural institution and for the benefit of the people - and I know that if it was in the UK I'd be asking questions about what they were paid, why they're doing this instead of royal duties etc but it's not the UK and I can't just copy and paste my response to a different culture. Does that make sense? I guess basically it does immediately not sit well with me because of my own cultural context but I can't actually make a judgement call because I don't know what is and isn't ok in Denmark and that's where she's Queen.

[romanovsonelastdance]

Fun question. Say if all five survived. Who would YOU see married to the Romanov kids? (Including Saint Alexei, if he survived past the disease he have.)

Hmm, well, Olga wanted to "remain Russian," but being the eldest daughter I think there would still be pressure on her for an equal marriage. Dmitri Pavlovich would be off the table after the Rasputin stuff, obviously. So she might have ended up with perhaps Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich, who apparently fancied her.  Another option might be Roman Petrovich. These two are 'only' princes, but they are Romanovs, and she could stay Russian. She'd basically be doing what Xenia did with Sandro, or Olga Alexandrovna's first marriage to Peter of Oldenburg. Also . . . Olga and Vladimir Paley is an interesting idea. He's morganatic so that might be a problem, but he was a thinker and a poet, like her. They could be an interesting match! 

Another option was Prince Christopher of Greece; according to Agnes de Stoeckl, who was a lady-in-waiting of Christopher’s sister Maria Georgievna, he once expressed interest in marrying Olga and went so far as to ask Nicholas about it, who gently turned him down saying Olga was too young. But he was about as “Russian” as a foreign prince could be, having been born at Pavlovsk, speaking the language fluently, and his mother Olga Konstantinovna thought he had inherited a ‘Russian soul’ from her.  I'm torn with Tatiana, because on the one hand she's the most devoted to Alix, so she might want to marry someone in Russia so she could remain with Alix, sort of like Helena and Beatrice did with Queen Victoria. But on the other hand . . . she was clearly the most natural born queen among the girls, and her talents might be wasted if she weren't on a throne somewhere. The most lofty would be David, that is the future Edward VIII/Duke of Windsor. Allegedly he preferred her after their meeting at Cowes. But that would require her changing her religion and perhaps even her name (and I don't think he'd make a good husband), so Alexander of Serbia/Yugoslavia or George II of the Hellenes (Greece) might be a better option. I feel like Maria is the most likely to follow in Olga Alexandrovna's footsteps and marry an officer rather than a prince. I also feel like there would be generally less pressure on the younger daughters to make 'good' matches. I don't think running away with some random soldier she met at the hospital would ever, ever fly, but the officers of the fancy Petersburg regiments were generally well educated and from good, noble and/or military families, and it was pretty clear that Maria had little interest in some grand marriage to a foreign prince. Carol, of course, was a serious contender as her preferred her to Olga, but he was an absolutely terrible husband so I think she'd be much happier with an OA/Kulikovsky type scenario. But I could also see her, like with Olga, marrying a minor relative--after all, most of the Romanov men had military careers, so she could get her ‘soldier’ that way, too!  Anastasia is the biggest mystery to me! I could see her never marrying and remaining the fun, quirky aunt, or surprising everyone by becoming a queen despite being the youngest. The Danish crown prince was about her age, and according to gossip Queen Alexandrine (who had a Romanov mother herself) was hoping for one of the Little Pair for her son. She might fit right in with the fun-loving Danes, and I'm sure Maria Feodorovna would be delighted to see one of her granddaughters marrying back into the Danish family. With Alexei, I tend to think one of the daughters of Elena Vladimirovna would just make a TON of sense. Ileana is an option too, but she's several years younger than him so he would have to wait for her to grow up. She also didn't really have any experience with Russia at all; in contrast, Olga (1903), Elizabeth (1904) and Marina (1906) spent time in Russia every year up until 1914 visiting their Russian relatives so they would be much more familiar with the culture and customs and know more people than Ileana would. It would also be an almost 'Romeo and Juliet' scenario in that the girls were from the Vladimirovichi branch of the family; Alexei marrying one of them would unite the two rival branches, and maybe the Vladimirs would chill out seeing one of their own married to the Heir.

[psza]

Random headcanon dump

Nauru has incredibly poor financial decisions (Stems from the poor investments the country made in an attempt to diversify their economy. It failed from things like multiple 5* star hotels, private jets, banking and a theatrical musical about Leonardo Da Vinci and the Mona Lisa)

Austria, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark have a little area where they probably judge everyone’s spending (Frugal four reference, that is still fascinating to me)

San Marino is sort of the reason the microstates are closer (Reference to the sports for small nations which was actually made by San Marino to get other microstates and other smaller states like Montenegro, Iceland and Cyprus together and even the Vatican, which they somehow agreed and they were going to play in 2021 but it was cancelled)

Remember when I headcanoned France and Monaco to be siblings? Well they still are related it’s just that Italy is also related to Monaco but not in the way France and Italy are related (Monaco was formed from the old lands that used to be Genoa)

Scandinavia are distantly related to Germany, Switzerland, the UK, Netherlands, Austria and maybe Liechtenstein. Finland is another phenomenon and Iceland is well, Iceland (The Scandinavian languages of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are all Germanic and related to German, English and Dutch) But most of the time none of them can understand a single sentence from each other except maybe the Netherlands and UK with a couple words

Eswatini likes both making candles and gifting candles, her favourites to make are the elephant shaped ones (Not sure how to give context here because I genuinely forgot about this a while ago so here’s some images, these are pretty)

If you asked other African countries to describe Botswana, even the one’s close to her you’ll probably hear ‘Quiet and reserved but keeps a smile’ or something related to that which may confuse people at first since she’s very open when others come to visit but when you pay attention to her on the international stage. She doesn’t say much aside from what she feels necessary and only speaks when someone else props her up to. This largely quiet and awkward persona is mostly why a lot of people leave her alone (Yes this retcons the ‘Botswana tries to five advice’ character I headcanoned but it made zero sense why she would want to put herself in a position of a leader and even example when she’s barely capable of a diverse economy and top 3 most unequal places in the world. But the quiet reserved personality is more akin a reference to whenever someone is listing all African conflicts in the 1900’s as colonies to 2000 as independent states, you won’t ever hear of Botswana since even during colonialism the British left them alone as they were a protectorate and not a colony and after independence they were mostly silent too, you could call them the Switzerland of Africa if you want to, but I personally prefer San Marino with a hint of Swiss, both are the oldest in something, San Marino oldest republic in the world and Botswana, oldest Democracy in Africa and while does rely on South Africa like San Marino does for Italy, still largely independent like Switzerland)

[trippingthemoonlightfantastic]

Hello!!! I really enjoy your art, how it is so expressive and the emotions you convey in every flora, and also how real and natural each plant looks, like they were caught in the stillness of time if that makes sense. I'm not sure if you accept questions, but if you do - I'm curious how you come up with names for your paintings because some seem to tell a story.

Take care, wishing you a good day and a restful night!

Thank you. What a lovely message to see first thing when I woke up.

The titles come to me but sometimes I change a title several times until I arrive at one that really fits. I spent my early years with my grandfather who was born in 1902 and thought 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' was too racy for me to watch as a child. His humor was very much pun centric. He was a polyglot so he'd make puns that involved knowledge of different dialects of German, Danish and Hebrew. He spared me the ones that required Latin and Greek. His influence is clear with titles like 'Just the Flax, Ma'am' and 'Random Acts of Violets.'

I also had childhood reading that was atypical for someone my age. Neither Baudelaire nor Potter entered my consciousness until I started babysitting. I was read poetry, Wordsworth, both Brownings, etc and Pooh. I think that influence is responsible for titles like 'Midnight In the Lunar Garden.'

[chaoskiro]

What I hate most about the english language (though weird rules on capitalization of national identity is up there) is it’s very random relationship with concatenation of words. Like Oh No you can’t be trusted to concatenate words properly so we let some old white guys do it at random and only their concatenations count. It’s like just looking at two words and wondering, like would Shakespeare think these should be together? And there is NO logic whatsoever to the answer. I was gonna put examples of how weird the rules are here, but I simply don’t care to look them up, they’re just annoying and irrelevant.

In Danish you just have to ask the simple question “Do I think it would make more sense to put these two words together?” and if the answer is yes, you fucking go ahead and DO IT! No “Would some five year old king agree?” or whoever ended up setting those rules in stone, just bish bash bosh now we have a new word: pandarescuer. No hyphens to sort of make it alright and sneak past this ridiculous “no new concatenations”-rule, just plain old wordsmithing.

[writebethany]

❤️🧡🤍🩷💜A WLW ASK MEME❤️🧡🤍🩷💜 List the top 10 ladies you’ve been obsessed with Ever Of All Time! Then send this on to 5 sapphic mutuals 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

Mentally listing these off I have a type and I'm not sorry about this in the slightest ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ so in no particular order:

Astra In-Ze. (Supergirl) General badass who wants to do the right thing in the completely wrong way? There was never a universe in which I did not love her. It was inevitable. I watched the first season of supergirl for Cat Grant, and ended up loving Astra more. It's the enemies to lovers of it all. It's the Laura Benanti. It's the being a twin on a world where that was an aberration. It's the ability to take the framework and run to create a whole lot of backstories for fun and profit. *chef's kiss* Really had everything I needed to sink into a character and think about them for all time.

Kommissar (Pitch Perfect 2) Condescending European tall hot lady? By god the movie gave us nothing and yet I kept digging. I literally had to pick out a name to write about her, but I was out here giving her the full random side dude character treatment because she had the trifecta of 'qualities I'm obsessed with.' I followed the actress and watched Danish TV for her. I started learning Danish. That is how obsessed I was with this character. The OT3 fic I wrote with Kommissar/Becca/Pieter is still one of my favorite things I've ever written. It's just so soft while Kommissar doesn't manage to lose the sass or edge. Mmm.

Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada) It's Miranda Priestly. I'm a millennial sapphic. Need I say more. Never mind that she fits with the overall theme so far of 'mean and pretty (and usually older with a backstory with just a *touch* of softness). I watched the movie as a baby gay who didn't know(tm) yet and zeroed the fuck in on Miranda and then watched it in college and YEP. There we were. Several hundred thousand words of fic later.

Regina Mills. (Once Upon a Time) Mean. ✅ Tragic backstory ✅ Secretly Wants to be good ✅ *GOD* the brain rot I had over Regina Mills. Still love her, but I burned so brightly and that fandom was so. Well. We all know what OUAT was like if you were there Gandalf. She's still such a baby girl, but not *the* baby girl, you understand. She led me to Lana's other works and Swingtown most importantly which also lives in my head rent free, but Regina. Regina will always be that original GOAT from my first *big* foray into fandom and only just got passed with fics from another fandom recently, that's how much I wrote about her.

Narcissa Malfoy. Sometimes when you're a baby gay and the teacher you just realized you have a crush on and finally admit you're gay to yourself writes HP fanfic and writes a version of Narcissa Malfoy that haunts you for fifteen straight years to the point where it becomes your pandemic fic pairing of choice and here you are four years past that with *gestures* yeah. Alas.

H.G. Wells. (Warehouse 13) HOOOOO BOY baby's first fandom. This was another case of me watching the first couple seasons before I knew(tm) but also buying them on DVD because you see I needed them. Mmm complicated villain backstories. I can redeem her, etc, etc. But just the sheer fucking chemistry of HG and Myka and the perfection of HG being this didactic woman who didn't let time define her and then going absolutely ape to avenge her daughter? Yes. Just yes. Love her. Also Jaime Murray. Mhm.

Eve Baird. (The Librarians) Oh Eve. The newest addition to the list. She just wants to protect her people, for all of them to live and be happy. Will forever have a part of my mind rotating her, Jenkins, and Cassandra together like a snowglobe. It just makes sense and I am a sucker for poly.

Rebecca Welton. (Ted Lasso) *screams in we could have had it all* listen. Listen. Listen. I loved the first two season of Ted Lasso. I loved the arc that Rebecca had in them of being a conniving bitch because she was hurt and wanted everyone else to hurt with her. I loved the switch from that to finding family with the team. What the fuck was the third season. What was that ending. Some random fucking dude with a kid? Forever will be angry about it and how it just...took everything that she had with Ted and went 'surely this other random dude will do'. They should have just left her alone if the ultimate goal was for Ted to go. I would have loved that for her, to stand on her two feet. Just. AGH. Anyway seasons 1 and 2 live rent free in my head and we don't talk about bruno after that.

Cat Grant. (Supergirl) While I ended up liking Astra more than Cat Grant. Cat Grant. The parallels between Cat and Miranda are *paralleling* and I still fucking love her to this day. The check boxes are checked. The plucky assistant to fall in love with is right there. Honestly if the show had aired any other time than when I was in grad school, and if Cat had been a main for more than a season I would have been even more obsessed.

Rita Repulsa. (Power Rangers) Listen. Listen. Listen. Six year old me loved Power Rangers. Six year old me also thought Rita Repulsa was the prettiest woman ever to exist. Dear god if you have only seen the Elizabeth Banks Rita, google the original. 0 idea what my six year old self was thinking. Like without the crazy costume yeah, but the crazy costume was there. So. I mean I still think about her on occasion, but usually in the context of HOO BOY I'VE ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THIS about villains. So. She counts. Also the Elizabeth Banks version is certifiably hot so like. Was six year old me wrong?

[bokksu-vs-sakuraco]

Bokksu vs. Sakuraco Comparison #1: Moon Festival

Now that we're two boxes in, it seems like a good time to directly compare the two services beyond what we found in our initial research. This month was especially applicable, since both Bokksu and Sakuraco chose to take on the same theme: the Autumn Moon Festival.

We will be comparing their snack selection, approach to theme, amount of food, and cultural guide. We recommend reading our box reviews first you know what contents we are comparing. 

This is a transcribed phone conversation between June and Glissando, edited and formatted for clarity and content relevancy.

SNACK SELECTION: APPROACH TO THEME

JUNE: Sakuraco’s Moon Festival-themed box was very fun look at. There were a lot of rabbit designs, referencing the folktale about the Moon Rabbit. However, while the snacks designs were very cute and interesting, the natural flavors that were behind them were a little bit more standard. For example, you know, the regular vanilla cookie, which was good but just a vanilla cookie, or like the marshmallow with strawberry filling. Sure, it's cute but there isn’t really anything special about the taste for me. The flavors didn’t really scream Moon Festival; that was mostly in the designs. Not to mention it was such an overwhelmingly sweet box.

GLISS: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, looking at your photos, the bunny stuff was all really cute, but if the snack itself is all kind of candy-ish stuff, it's not as interesting to eat.

Sakuraco snacks: marshmallow with filling, candy chews

JUNE: Yeah, the one thing I guess I liked a lot was the jelly because it did more with the flavors, really leaning into the taste of—well it was pear for me, not peach. [Note: Sakuraco sent June next month’s adzuki pear jelly in her September box, as pointed out by @/tsukana] But I felt that even being really cute, the jelly was still something that when I tasted it, I definitely knew ‘Oh, yeah. I wouldn't be able to get this taste by just going to an American grocery store.’ It was really good.

GLISS: Yeah, that's pretty cool. And you get to have it again this month!

JUNE: Oh yeah, looking forward to that. 

GLISS: Is that all you have to say about the Sakuraco snack selections for the moon theme?

JUNE: If we're gonna be ignoring that one random danish in there?

GLISS: Haha right, yeah. So Bokksu’s approach to theme snacks… 

It felt like they went the opposite direction of Sakuraco, in that they tried really hard to stick to an autumn profile with the flavors and had almost no decorative stuff. Instead they tried to relate each flavor back to autumn. They had three sweet potato snacks in there, which is the whole ‘sweet potatoes are offered to the moon’ kind of deal. Truffle chips for truffle season. etc. So that was good, I guess in the sense that you could really taste the autumn theme, and there was a decent variety in snack types.

That said, I think still they could have gone more into their own flavor descriptions. As I said in my blog, they said autumn has persimmons and chestnuts and all these different other harvest flavors, and instead they gave us lime and orange. That made some of their choices feel a bit scattered even though they did a decent attempt to tie it all together through the culture book descriptions. But really, I think the variety of flavors was all right, even though this was also a very sweet box. Like 75% sweet versus savory, same as Sakuraco. I feel like autumn is more savory than sweet sometimes, so it was surprising to me that we both got really sweet boxes.

JUNE: Right. Now, so far, the savory snacks have been a little bit more interesting. So it would be nice if they include more in the future instead of giving like a normal cookie (Sakuraco) or pound cake (Bokksu).

One thing that I like that we noticed is that both boxes use the same mochi.

GLISS: Oh my gosh, yeah, when I saw your photos I was like ‘that's the exact same box with the same six black sesame mochi in there!’ I mean, obviously it's not like they consult each other on what snacks they're going to use, but I wasn't even sure what made that flavor of mochi so specific to this theme.

[Note: Mochi itself is a traditional snack to eat while gazing upon the moon and it is a reference to the rabbit pounding mochi on the moon.]

—

DAGASHI VS. WAGASHI

GLISS: So Bokksu is known for having more dagashi, but this time, they did have a few wagashi in there with the kintsuba and the senbei that tasted like the Japanese hot dog bun. Given the historical festival theme, that was a good opportunity to introduce wagashi. But with the wagashi that they used to approach the theme, I think they didn't commit to it well enough that I was like ‘oh, this is culturally immersive.’ I’m still mildly pressed about them not giving us more background on the kintsuba since we ended up eating it like a piece of fudge. 

Bokksu snacks: Kintsuba, edamame chips, and chocolate bites

On the other hand, the dagashi, we had truffle chips and edamame crackers that you would have like at a bar, along with wafers and this chocolate pie thing that were all very good. So it was a very thought out way of using dagashi in a modern approach to a traditional theme. In that sense, I liked the dagashi more because if you’re not gonna sell me on the wagashi, it makes it harder for me to get into the snack. 

What about your feelings about the wagashi you got?

JUNE: Just off the top of my head, I feel like maybe the previous box had more wagashi in it? (We can probably do a more in depth analysis of snack type distribution later on.) Although from this box, the jelly, arare and mochi are all up there in my enjoyment.

Oh, slightly off topic but Sakuraco does surprise snacks in the booklet with a QR code to scan to see what this month's possible pairings are, which adds a certain element of surprise even if you like to peek ahead for what you might get in the box. But at the same time, my surprise snack this month was one of the salty snacks. So if I hadn’t gotten that salty snack, I would have only had two salty snacks in a whole box of sweets. 

GLISS: Oh yeah, that would have been a bummer. And I wonder if that's part of like, the commitment to trying to make more of these cute rabbit things so they leaned in more into the visual themes rather than a diverse food theme.

JUNE: For sure, I could buy that. It definitely makes the box itself a bit more memorable because of all the cute rabbits though.

Sakuraco September 2023 Box Contents

JUNE: Oh but Glissando, as someone who is Asian, would you say you’re someone who frequently visits Asian supermarkets?

GLISS: I wouldn’t say frequently. My family makes that trip like 5-6 times a year. 

JUNE: Okay well every now and then I seem to spot someone saying that Bokksu’s or Sakuraco’s snacks can be bought at the Asian supermarket. Do you have any thoughts on that?

GLISS: I can check it out specifically next time but seriously? I feel like people who say that must live right next door to an Asian supermarket or somewhere with a decently sized East Asian population. I live in the midwest and it’s an hour-and-a-half drive to any large Asian market here. So even if I did want Japanese dagashi, no it wouldn’t be more worth my time to curate those snacks myself. 

JUNE: No. Yeah no, that’s a good point. I’m on the east coast and even then I think I’ve only seen Asian grocery stores in major cities only.

GLISS: I’ve also yet to see anything that’s an obvious exact replica of what I’ve seen from my area’s large grocery stores. We tend to favor Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean communities so I’d be surprised if we did carry smaller Japanese brands. It’s great if you can find those Bokksu snacks near you, but for a lot of people, I don’t think that’s a viable option. 

—

TEA PAIRING

GLISS: I think the tea wasn't that big a deal for you this time. But for me, I was like…

JUNE: You had a full half a cup to share.

GLISS: Right!? I was so bewildered by the tea they gave, and my friend is a tea enthusiast: she was like ‘this seems weird’ about the instructions, especially steeping for 30 seconds. Then only making a half cup so we ran out after a couple sips… It was just the most bizarre kind of tea guidance to begin with, and the fact that they only included one bag—

I can't get over the fact that next month's Bokksu theme is tea ceremony. I'm going to judge them really hard. I looked ahead on their contents this time, and it's all snacks that pair well with tea so if we run out of tea pairing, I'm gonna be pissed.

—

IDEAL SNACKING EXPERIENCE

JUNE: I recall both times you saying you were ‘close to bursting’ after finishing the box with your friend.

GLISS: Oh yeah. We were so full this time, and we still had leftovers.… We're talking about splitting up the snacks for next time, and we'll see how that goes. I think I might add a new experience, but at the same time, I don't want to get stuck in a situation where we don't like the snacks the second round and feel embittered about it. 

JUNE: I see. What about a different experience? For example, if there was someone else who just wanted to have the snacks on their own, and they would just have like one snack like a day or something. Do you think there'd be a significant difference in their enjoyment of the box?

GLISS: I do think so because that’s what I ended up doing with the Bokksu sweets box, I just picked it off one at a time. And the result was the ones that you don't really like, that sticks in your mind, honestly, and if there's two of them, you feel like, ‘oh, I don't really want to go back and have that one again.’ So if you're eating alone, there's that problem. And then when there are two good ones, then you polish them off pretty quickly. 

Bokksu October 2023 Box Contents (it arrived in September though...)

It would also make the theme feel less comprehensive as well. If I just had like the maple pancake for breakfast one day, then it would not have felt like autumn at all. 

JUNE: That’s actually a good point. 

GLISS: Yeah, so I think some of these snacks are meant to be looked at as a whole. And it does change the experience if you don't have them that way, though there's nothing wrong with picking out what snacks you like. But at that point, it does feel like you could go and buy the snacks you want specifically from an online store or something.

What about you? You did eat part of your last box sporadically.

JUNE: I agree with what you're saying. Like when you have a snack that’s mid then you eat it and you're like, ‘well okay’ versus when you have something that's really good and you eat it you're like, ‘that's it? well it’s gone now.’ Whereas if you're sitting at a tea party and you finish something, then you can just move onto something else and it doesn't really stick as much in your mind, whether there was only a little bit or whether it was just ok because right afterwards you're moving on to another thing.

GLISS: Yeah, that's exactly the feeling. So for the snack boxes in general, make an event of it. We recommend that!

JUNE: If you don't want to eat the entire box or half of the box at once, then I still think choosing maybe like three or so snacks would be a lot better than just grabbing only one. Up to personal preference though.

—

AMOUNT OF FOOD VS. HOUSEHOLD ITEM

GLISS: For you, the Sakuraco amount of food… you mentioned that it was not enough.

JUNE: It only became noticeable for me when I was eating the peanut arare. The picture that I put in the blog was like all the food they gave, it's like half a cup. It was so good that I ate the entire bowl and then there’s just no more and I genuinely wanted more. Like we were saying earlier, I don't really care when the snack doesn't leave an impact on me but when I do like it, it's very noticeable. 

But overall the amount of food, at least for me and my mom having this as breakfast, we didn't really eat everything either, but I wouldn't say that we were stuffed to bursting after just one sitting. So that's why I'm feeling that maybe Bokksu has a bit more food. It's kinda hard for us to tell though, right?

GLISS: Yeah, well, this time Bokksu did have more snacks in terms of just raw numbers. [Note: Bokksu 15 unique snacks vs. Sakuraco 12 unique snacks] So that's also part of it because I don't have the household item. Do you feel like having that household item is enhancing your experience?

JUNE: I think it is because for me, a household item was a pretty big draw. As long as they were quality items, it kind of means that there's something of the box left over even after you finish it—well aside from the box itself. And I do like when Sakurako makes custom box designs because you know, it just looks unique. And you can display it somewhere and look back on all these different themes. I just like it.

GLISS: Yeah, I like it too. Like I think it's fun and it's good to hear that the dish is of good quality.

[Note: It seems that Sakuraco ran out of rabbit dish plates during this box and had to substitute in the plate they used for last year’s Moon Festival box]

JUNE: Next box though we can start paying attention to and comparing the grams of food we get. I’m slightly curious now, since it’s hard to really gauge the difference in quantity of food just talking about it.

—

COMPARING CULTURE GUIDES

GLISS: With the Bokksu guide, it's really very simple. I think one of the complaints I saw about Bokksu in other reviews is that Bokksu has a much less immersive experience in Japanese culture and stuff, if that's what you're getting into the snack boxes for. I’m not but like it’s something to keep in mind. 

Last time, the first culture book guide for Seasons of Japan didn't really have anything cultural; it was more an introduction to Bokksu itself. So this was the first time I was reading their monthly cultural guide. It started with a ‘let’s learn Japanese’ intro which just has four words related to the theme with the kanji, hiragana, and the romanji written on the sides. Then it had two pages at the end about the Tsukimi festival and it was like four different fun facts that were like a couple sentences each. 

Bokksu relevant culture guide pages

My friend and I, we just kind of flipped through that like, ‘oh, the rabbit on the moon. What do you mean you can see a rabbit on the moon?’ and we'd Google that. But honestly, the guide itself didn't really invite you to look much deeper. So it wasn't much of a guide. It was just like a fun facts style, you know?

JUNE: Yeah I got you. I feel like Sakuraco was better about actually providing more cultural information in their booklet, let me go grab it. …Ok yeah, I’m seeing about three pages about the moon festival, four pages of snack producer spotlight, two pages about the moon rabbit folktale, eight pages about the snacks themselves, a page about dango, the QR code page and then some Sakuraco community stuff. So I appreciate that Sakuraco gives a lot more cultural information about the theme and the snacks.

—

This concludes our thoughts for now!

Nearing the half way point of our 6-month subscriptions, we’re still very excited to see what each service has in store, especially for the holiday season! Our next direct comparison blog will likely be in 2~3 months, or when their themes next line up.

Thank you for reading!

— June & Glissando

[grad604-amber]

Break SDL: Deeper Research

A point in my feedback was that I talked a lot about liking and enjoying analogue processes but I didn't really explore creatives that have different hands-on and analogue processes that I enjoy.

Susan Murie

Susan Murie is a New England-based artist who works with cyanotype and photography, often combining the two.

“My work is based on photography, capturing images with a camera, creating imagery which I  then assemble on hand-coated cyanotype papers. As I gather imagery, I am open to found objects, the natural world, architectural elements and vintage toys and decorative objects. In  creating work I think about the ephemeral nature of things, fragile familial bonds and the materiality of cyanotype."

A consistent key theme in her work Is showcasing ephemera, which is things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time, she draws in nature and elements around her as that may come with a sense of uncertainty, this is something I felt connected to and portrayed in my own work, feel so uncertain of who I am as what I am made up from seems so random and often I am disconnected to things I feel like I should be connected to. The randomness in her work makes sense to her just like in my own objects it does to me.

Emma Lewis

Emma Lewis is an illustrator and designer from London who creates work spanning both narrative and commercial illustration. She is largely inspired by naïve/folk art, mid-century picture books and travel. I have always loved illustrating it is one of my favourite forms of art, I feel like I can express myself freely, but it is also creatives like Emma that have a very free-flowing and loose approach rather than a very realistic style to I could never do that I felt too restricted or that I was just copying a photograph.

I have specifically looked at her work from Museum of Me, which follows a little girl on a journey of discovery to find out what museums are and what they have inside them. These ideas of discovery and exploration are something seen a lot in her works, this is something that I find I can relate to in a sense with my design and who I am as creative I am constantly finding out new things about myself and how I want to present my work.

Henrik Dreshcer

Henrik Drescher, a Danish-born, peripatetic illustrator, author and book artist. Drescher is someone who I have been inspired by for many of my projects, I like his playful and free illustrative style that makes us feel like we are getting an insight into his own personal journal.

The image specifically on the top left is something I want to explore when showing off my 20 objects, make it look like drawings from a little journal, that are all unique and imperfect. I think it would portray how I prefer analogue processes.

[goddesspharo]

ficmojis? 💡⭐ [turn your shattered dreams into rhapsodies]; 🗝️📜🎵 [all the world's a stage]

ask me about writing!

For turn your shattered dreams into rhapsodies:

💡-What was the motivation behind the story?

I loved the first season of Roswell, New Mexico so much (the best season tbh), but there were some threads in it that I really wish they'd followed through on during the subsequent seasons. One of the most intriguing things about Kyle in S1 was that he trying to do better while living with the guilt that his dad died thinking that he was going to be a douchebag forever. And when he finally found out that this guy he put on a pedestal for so long was actually Very Flawed and not always great but tried to be better, instead of exploring sad, hot, introspective Kyle being fully in his feelings era, they saddled him with an extremely meaningless romance with Steph, who then peaced out offscreen! In contrast, I think Isobel's post-Noah arc through the first half of S2 was great, but then the show kind of forgot about it. But the thing that I really wanted them to get into post-S1 was that there was a part of Isobel that loved Noah and when she found out he was a monster, she didn't know how to reconcile that. (When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it.) I'm still low-key obsessed with that idea and would write a billion fics about it. But in terms of this fic, it made sense that these two extremely hot people who spent large chunks of their lives trying to be perfect would gravitate towards each other because there were only a finite number of people who knew the truths that they did and maybe it was easier to be vulnerable with someone in the group who was, at best, a friend-by-proxy. And also, your honor, I love them! I've wanted them to go there with Kyle and Isobel since she mind-controlled him into stabbing her ("like bad girl RiRi") and while I appreciate a good slow burn like everyone else, they could've started it a hell of a lot sooner! (It's also not satisfying if they fumbled the whole of the final season so we never got to see those losers date! I will never get off that soapbox!)

⭐- What’s a scene/paragraph you’re proud of?

I I like the scene where Kyle calls Isobel over to help with Rosa's wayward powers only to make up a work emergency to get out of the line of fire when they look like they're about to kill each other. The Isobel and Rosa banter was extremely fun to write!

For all the world's a stage:

🗝️-What were you thinking when you wrote it?

The 2015-2016 awards season was a great time to be a Domhnall Gleeson fan because he was doing so much press for Star Wars (I think?) and had done all this press for Ex Machina was and going to all the award shows for Brooklyn and The Revenant and looking extremely handsome. It has been so many years that I can't remember if it was in a podcast or if I made it up in my head, but I remember him talking about how great Alicia Vikander was when she was getting buzz for The Danish Girl and I was already so much about them post-Anna Karenina and Ex Machina that of course I was all about it and the thought of them running into each other at one of these things was enough for sustain me. Also there was this at the BIFA and to this day I love it with all my heart, Back in those days, the post-awards show stuff was also so much fun because no one knew what was happening at those parties except blurbs in Vanity Fair about the most random mish-mosh of celebs talking or dancing or getting drunk together so you were free to let your imagination run wild. Leo was still thirsting after his first Academy Award so the memes were hilarious. It was truly the halcyon days of award show fodder and I miss them. (And also everyone would get drunk at The Golden Globes because it was the only one that wasn't a dry event so it was EVEN BETTER.) Now everyone is boring and the circles are all the same and it's the same argument about how the frontrunner for an Oscar shouldn't be the frontrunner and blah blah blah, let Domhnall Gleeson be in more Oscar-nominated stuff.

📜-Do you want to write something like this again in the future?

It was a ton of fun, but we do not have to worry about it happening in the future because Alicia Vikander is committed to never making a good movie again! The least Alicia Vikander and Domhnall Gleeson could do is get on the work-together-every-ten-years-and-be-delightful train that Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon have boarded.

🎵- Did you have a playlist/piece of music that went with this story?

It's been so long that I have no idea what I could possibly have been listening to at the time and since the title is from Shakespeare instead of a song, past!me didn't even help out there. I bet you I was listening to something from Carly Rae Jepsen's Emotions album on repeat at some point throughout the course of writing this thing.

[mellowparabellum]

so every morning/around noon i will have a random song on my mind. i write them all down in my notes and now i have three months worth of songs! dunno if anyone wants to see it, but i'm putting it out there anyway

i don't really want to edit it, so the dates will be in Danish and also my level of arousal (no not that kind you little freak, it's about how 'awake' your senses are, how aware you are basically)

Tirsdag 21 feb '23 (lav arousal)

Kirby Green Greens (Smash Bros Brawl)

Onsdag 22 feb '23 (høj arousal)

Balstyrko, Kaffe MDMA

Torsdag 23 feb '23 (lav arousal)

Father John Misty, Real Love Baby

Fredag 24 feb '23 (mid arousal)

Hiatus Kaiyote, Blood and Marrow

Lørdag 25 feb '23 (lav arousal)

Takuya Kuroda, R. S. B. D

Søndag 26 feb '23 (lav arousal)

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYDMHHDw/

Mandag 27 feb '23 (mid arousal)

Hound Dog, ROCKS

Tiradag 28 feb '23 (low arousal)

(Jerma), Oh The Misery

Onsdag 1 mar '23 (høj arousal)

Charlotte Dos Santos, Sumer Is Icumen In

Toradag 2 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Anomalie, Dribble

Fredag 3 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Razz, Kickflipper hahaha

Lørdag 4 mar '23 (mid arousal)

OMOCAT, My Time

Søndag 5 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Snarky Puppy, What About Me?

Mandag 6 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Rest in Beats, Stadigvæk

Tirsdag 7 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Dead Kennedys, Halloween

Onsdag 8 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Ezra Furman, Restless Year

Torsdag 9 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Daniel Caesar & BADBADNOTGOOD, Please Do Not Lean

Fredag 10 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Thundercat etc., Show You The Way

Lørdag 11 mar '23 (høj arousal)

Rutsj sangen

Søndag 12 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Malk de Kojn, Sneglzilla

Mandag 13 mar '23 (høj arousal)

Alfa Mist feat. Kaya Thomas-Dyke, Blaze

Tirsdag 14 mar '23 (mid arousal)

???, dododo do do do do dodo do dododo do do dodo do

Onsdag 15 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Amesaki Annainin, Ohisama

Torsdag 16 mar '23 (høj arousal)

David Bowie, Changes // Shit & Chalou, Smuk og Dejlig

Fredag 17 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Ravi Kuma, I think I would look better without you

Lørdag 18 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Can't Stop

Søndag 19 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Louie Zong, Ghost Duet

Mandag 20 mar '23 (høj arousal)

Dinah Washington, What A Difference A Day Makes

Tirsdag 21 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Jakob Sveistrup, En Lille Fejl

Onsdag 22 mar '23 (mid arousal)

DJ Fresh, Gold Dust

Torsdag 23 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Christopher Larkin, City of Tears

Fredag 24 mar '23 (høj arousal)

The Valley Comes Alive, ConcernedApe

Lørdag 25 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Fred, Bo Evers

Søndag 26 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Dirty Paws, Of Monsters And Men

Mandag 27 mar '23 (høj arousal)

Baka Mitai, Yakuza OST

Tirsdag 28 mar '23 (mid arousal)

OMOCAT, Do You Remember?

Onsdag 29 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Shaggy, Boombastic haha

Torsdag 30 mar '23 (lav arousal)

Thundercat, Funny Thing

Fredag 31 mar '23 (mid arousal)

Charlotte Dos Santos, Red Clay

Lørdag 1 apr '23 (høj arousal)

Alt-J, Breezeblocks

Søndag 2 apr '23 (lav arousal)

Vulfpeck, Funky Duck

Mandag 3 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Cory Wong, Let's Go!

Tirsdag 4 apr '23 (lav arousal)

Vulfpeck, Half Of The Way

Onsdag 5 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Balstyrko, Roennebaer

Torsdag 6 apr '23 (høj arousal, random stress)

Bo Burnham, Look Who's Inside Again

Fredag 7 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Galactic, Cineramascope

Lørdag 8 apr '23 (lav arousal)

OMOCAT, Lost at a Sleepover

Søndag 9 apr '23 (lav arousal, vækket af råb)

Povl Dissing, Snehvidekys

Mandag 10 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Aaron Taylor, Breakfast

Tirsdag 11 apr '23 (høj arousal)

Avril Lavigne, Complicated????

Onsdag 12 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Rest in Beats, Stadigvæk

Torsdag 13 apr '23 (mid arousal)

MGMT, Electric Feel

Fredag 14 apr '23 (lav arousal)

Kishi Bashi, Honeybody

Lørdag 15 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Fall Out Boy, This Aint A Scene It's An Arms Race

Søndag 16 apr '23 (lav arousal)

KAYTRANADA, YOU'RE THE ONE

Mandag 17 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Vulfpeck, Half of the way

Tirsdag 18 apr '23 (fuldstændig død)

Vocaloid, When the first love ends

Onsdag 19 apr '23 (lav arousal)

Marc Rebillet, Your new morning alarm

Torsdag 20 apr '23 (mid arousal)

Twenty One Pilots, Goner

[zombieplaguedoc]

Here to offer an alternate ending to 'Danish Slaughterhouse' as well as a small sequel.

The alternate ending is a crossover fic, like pretty much everything that I write, and in it, I, as a Fillmore Graves soldier, am stationed in the area and decide to visit Iceland shortly after everyone dies. However, I walk in just before Denmark can bring them back to life, and am horrified at what happened to everyone. As I try to figure out what happened, Denmark comes in, surprised at me being there, and I demand to know what happened (and why he's so chill about it). He tells me what happened and what he did, and what he plans to do, I lose my shit at my boyfriend being killed and try to leave to tell someone, but Denmark stops me, we fight, he tries to bring everyone back to life as we fight, I prevent him from completing the ritual and kill him just before he can correct it. I briefly mourn Iceland and Sealand before cleaning up Denmark's blood, taking his brain out and putting it in a blender so no one else will have to eat this monster, and just before I leave, I discover the ritual kind of worked...but only on Sealand, resurrecting him as an infant. I decide to take him with me, leave everything as is for the police to find, grab Denmark's body and brain and flee just before police can arrive. I bury Denmark a good distance away from the house, far enough so he never gets found, and just wander in a random direction til I get back into town where either my brother 2p America (also a Fillmore Graves soldier) or another soldier finds me and asks what happened. I tell them everything and they agree not to tell Chase, or anyone else except for Estonia, my friend A, Rythian, and the other loved ones of the Nordics, and I decide to raise Sealand as my own, despite having never cared for a child.

The sequel is a crossover fic as well, and the premise is that in Danish Slaughterhouse, in his messed up quest, Denmark completely forgets about the Nordics' crossover lovers, as well as Sealand's crossover crush, so he goes on ahead with his plan without thinking about if the Nordics' partners would come looking for them or find out about everything and what he would do if either of those happened, or even to erase the Nordics' memories of them. One day, after the ending of Danish Slaughterhouse, Minty, an irl friend of mine and Finland's girlfriend, comes across Finland after he's been missing for quite some time, and is obviously very happy to see him, but is shocked and confused when her beloved Fin doesn't recognize her. Thing is, while he doesn't immediately recognize Minty, Finland does sense a familiarity with her, a warm, happy, loving feeling compared to what he'd been feeling around Denmark these past few weeks, and not only that, but things have been fuzzy for him, especially recently; he does vaguely remember Minty, he just doesn't know where from, or why. From then on, it's the Nordics' former lovers reuniting with them, the Nordics vaguely remembering them, and Minty and the rest of the Nordics' partners helping the nations (and micronation) helping them regain their memories of before their disappearance, remember each of them and the time they spent together and rekindling the love between them, while also slowly piecing together what happened in those weeks that they went missing and uncovering the horrible, ugly truth about Denmark.

Sorry if the sequel doesn't make sense or if I'm rambling. It's one in the morning and I forgot to take my Vitamin B today so I'm a little lightheaded.

[simptasia]

nice german things

they have a genuinely beautiful and fun language

the german kim possible fandom was responsible for the show being uncancelled and that is a Good Thing

germany has the highest amount of furries on earth

kurt wagner and everything he stands for

[fallout--alley--youth--zone]

Name Symbolism in Gone

Sam Temple

Samuel's story in the Bible is actually kind of interesting.* He was the first of the prophets and the last of the judges (not a king, no idea where MG got that from), promised to God before he was even born and obedient to Him until the moment he died. He appointed two kings of Israel: King Saul, who was eventually diagraced, and the humble King David**, though he died before David was actually made king.

Does this mean anything in relation to the Sam Temple we know and love? I don't know. It could be alluding to Sam's more hands-off approach in the later books, but more likely MG just picked a random name from the Hebrew Bible because Jewish(TM).

*Disclaimer: I am an atheist who was raised by an atheist who was also raised by an atheist. I know nothing about the Bible, or really any religion for that matter. My information regarding this may not be entirely accurate. Also, I may explain Bible stuff that's common knowledge to you because it's all new to me. This is not me being stupid or talking down to you. Thank you.

**Random bolding helps me focus. Ditto for all the bright colors. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.***

***footnoting my own writing is really really fun.

Caine Soren / "David Temple"

Caine's name symbolism is more obvious. Cain, humanity's first murderer, who killed his own brother with a rock. Most likely this name was chosen because it sounded cool and edgy while also alluding to his connection with Sam. I do wonder what was going through Caine's adoptive parents' heads when they named him. Eh, white people gonna white people.

Caine's last name is kind of interesting. It's of Scandinavian descent (sources differ on what specifically, most likely Norwegian or Danish) and means "stern, strict, severe". It's particularly interesting to me that this is the family name. Perhaps alluding to the Soren family's attitude toward their adopted son? I guess we'll never know.

King David (the same David who slew Goliath) was a harpist brought to King Saul by Samuel. He grew up to be a great general, and Saul grew paranoid that David was plotting to kill them. To simplify things: David defeated Saul and became King, had an affair with a married woman, killed her husband, and had a son with her (Solomon).

What significance does this have to Caine's story? None that I can see. I think that Connie gave him a good, strong name in hopes that he would grow up to be good and strong. Maybe Caine was a particularly small or weak child and so she named him after David, the boy who defeated a giant and became King. But that’s all conjecture. Again, the most likely explanation is that MG just plucked a random name from the Hebrew Bible because Jewish(TM).

Drake Merwin

Drake's name is actually really funny. Drake means "dragon" or "snake" and Merwin means either "mariner" or "friend of the sea". I choose to believe that this is a reference to his Whip Arm (because it. it looks like a snake,, perhaps even a sea serpent?). If it is, then it's hilarious and MG is a comedic genius. If it isn't, then it's a hell of a coincidence.

Diana Ladris

As far as I can tell, the name "Ladris" doesnt exist. MG made it up. It may have faintly Greek or Italian origins, which makes sense as Diana was the Roman goddess of the moon and fertility (possibly the Roman interpretation of Artemis? Idk im not a historian I just had a Percy Jackson phase). I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a reference to Diana's precociousness. At least she wasn’t named Mary! Speaking of which...

Mary Terrafino

Yeah, Mary's is pretty obvious. Mother Mary, Martyr Mary, etc. As far as I can tell Terrafino is of Italian origin, but I can't find a meaning.

Astrid Ellison

So the name Astrid itself comes from Old Norse and means "divinely beautiful". I don't know if this was on purpose but I believe Astrid's name works on three levels: first, referencing her religiosity; second, sounding similar to "asteroid" and thus alluding to her power (that MG completely forgot about after the first book :')); and third, referencing Astrid Hofferson, who just so happens to both look very similar to our Astrid Ellison (white teen girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a ferocious personality) and share a name with her.

I don't believe Ellison has any special secret meaning, but it comes from an Old Welsh name meaning "kind, benevolent" which I think is nice :)

Peter "Little Pete" Ellison

Similarly to Astrid, I'm not quite sure if the name Peter has any special meaning. The name itself means "stone", and if we follow MG's trend of using Biblical names, then it might be a reference to Saint Peter. It's a bit of a stretch, but this could be a reference to Little Pete going metaphysically toe-to-toe with the Gaiaphage from page one, possibly even before the FAYZ (Peter was the first disciple that Jesus revealed himself to). It could even be a reference to his death: martyred at the hands of a mad tyrant (Peter was crucified by Nero).

Edilio Escobar

Idk if it means anything particularly but Edilio's name is so poetic. It's Greek and means "he who is like a statue". I'm 95% sure MG just picked a random Latino-sounding name but damn he was so right with this one. Edilio: so perfect, so tragic. Like a statue.

Lana Arwen Lazar

I also really like that he has name alliteration, it makes him sound like a superhero (as he deserves!). I'm pretty sure the only other character that has that is Brianna*.

*EDIT: And Lana!

We know that Lana's first & middle names are a reference to comic book characters, but not enough people talk about her last name. In the Bible, Lazarus was brought back to life by Jesus--but considering that Lana's parents are apparently giant nerds, this is probably not a reference to the Bible but to the "Lazarus pit". In DC comics, Lazarus pit is basically a giant pit of mysterious green ooz that brings people back to life. Its side effects? White hair and green eyes.* So Lana's last name may be alluding to the Gaiaphage and the hold it has over her: it killed her and brought her back to life, but it changed her. Considering the Gaiaphage has brought people back to life before, it's not too far-fetched.

*Disclaimer: I know this because of fanfiction. It may not be entirely accurate.

Charles "Orc" Merriman

Orc's name obviously has a lot of symbolism behind it. First he's figuratively seen as a monster, then he's literally seen as a monster. Throughout the series we continuously see this dichotomy between "Orc"--the bully, brute, drunkard, rock monster--and "Charles"--the child in desperate need of help.

Pretty sure his last name was just MG having a laugh since this kid is anything but "merry".

Dekka Talent

Dekka the. The. Don't make me say it.

Brianna Berenson

Howard Bassem

Brianna means something like "good, strong, noble" which tracks. Berenson just means "son of Ber" and I can't find a meaning for that so idk.

EDIT: Brianna's name having alliteration is probably on purpose, since it makes her sound more superhero-y.

It rhymes with coward lmao

Bassem is an Arabic name meaning "smile". I'd have to check and see exactly what book his surname is mentioned in, but honestly the first thing I thought of when I saw it was The Paragraph(TM).*

*idk what it is word-for-word but it's smth like "Howard just looked up at me with that crooked smile of his and said 'I'm always behind you, big guy'".

Duck Zhang

He just wanted a pool :(

Hunter Lefkowitz

His name is Hunter and he. he hunts.

Lefkowitz may or may not mean "lion" and if it does then :(

All the other characters' names either don't have a meaning that I can see (i.e, Albert, Brittney, Quinn, etc.) or have a very obviously stated meaning (i.e, Gaia, Sanjit, etc.).

[definitelynotdamiano]

Måneskin on feeling free, finding fame and embarking on their first world tour - CNN, 31.07.2022

(text and questions that were edited out - under the cut)

The first thing I need to ask is how do you pronounce your band's name?

All: Moan-Ah-Skin!

Santana: I always hear Man-Eh-Skin.

Victoria De Angelis: Yeah, everything is fine.

Santana: So, Moan-A-Skin?

Thomas Raggi: Moan-A-Skin is perfect.

And what does Maneskin mean?

De Angelis: It means moonlight. I picked it when we first started playing because we needed to join this musical competition, and we didn't have a name yet, so they just told me just say random words in Danish, and we chose one.

Looking back at this last year, I'm sure it's been absolutely crazy for you, from where you were a year ago to now?

Damiano David: Yeah, it's been a crazy journey, but of course we are really happy about everything that we did, and every time we look back, all the steps, we are super happy and proud.

What has been the most surprising, maybe the most exciting thing, that has happened to you this past year?

Raggi: I think that we've had lots of incredible moments during this last year. Maybe a song with Iggy Pop is one of these, of course, and playing with The Stones. I mean a lot, it's been a lot.

Now you're filling stadiums with 70,000 people, selling out tickets for 80,000, and you've said it was really hard for you guys to even find a place to play in Italy. What was that like when you started?

De Angelis: It was very difficult because in Rome there's no real rock scene, so there's no like clubs wanting bands to play their stuff, and also people are not very used to going to gigs of upcoming artists.

They just go to the famous ones that they already know, so it was really hard and that's why we started playing as buskers on the streets. We were always fighting with the other street artists about having the best spot, and we never won, but ... (laughter).

And then you do Eurovision, how did it change your life?

David: I think that was our first actual window outside of Italy. Since that moment we were only basing our projects for Italy and on Italy and that was the chance to break out in Europe, then from Europe to the US, and we hope to grow more and more.

What was it like to win for Italy? It had been like 30 years since Italy had won Eurovision, and then you win with rock n' roll, a genre which is not very big there?

Raggi: Yes, that's crazy.

David: That was unexpected I think for everybody.

De Angelis: Yeah, everyone was very proud, big celebration.

A lot of times for Eurovision winners, they have that big moment and then they kind of disappear. What do you think makes you guys different that you've been able to take this and catapult so much and become this worldwide phenomenon?

David: I think for us Eurovision came at a very right moment because we had just come out with an album, so what we brought to Eurovision was basically just one of the things of the whole album and it was fresh, and it was super authentic for us. So, I think that people were happy to find a lot of coherence between what we brought to Eurovision and what they saw in our catalogue, and they felt like, OK, this is not just a viral song that they made specifically for Eurovision, but it's just one of their songs and then they have two albums, and it all makes sense.

Then, you release "Beggin,' " which turns into the most successful rock song of last year. I mean, I woke up every morning I think for the last year like, (sings), "I'm beggin', beggin' you"... (laughter) ... It just gets in my head, and then I'm like, come on, just get out!

David: Yeah, it's our fault, it's our fault, (laughter). Well, it's not even our fault because we didn't even promote it. It's TikTok's fault. It just got viral. We were pretty shocked by it. When we saw it growing, we were like, what is happening, and then we found out it was viral on TikTok and all that came about after.

Why that song? It's a cover of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, and I can't think of a more different style than you guys and The Four Seasons.

De Angelis: Actually, we played it at first, when we just started, and we think it's way more challenging and fun to make covers of very different songs. So, like now we're also playing "Womanizer" by Britney Spears, for example, and we just find it a challenge and stimulating, and it really makes you do an interpretation of something different and bringing it into your own. That's when you make something good, I think.

You also covered "If I Can Dream" for the Elvis movie, what was it like singing an Elvis song? I mean, you know, "The King of Rock n' Roll."

David: Well, every time when we have some big deals, we try not to think about it that much because then you get like anxious, and you feel the pressure. When we had the chance to play a cover of Elvis, we didn't feel like we were confronting Elvis because that would have been impossible, you cannot try to fight with Elvis' heritage. We were just super happy and super glad and super honored just to have the chance to play one of his songs, and we focused on that, and we focused on doing the best that we could do on that song without even comparing it with the Elvis one because, of course, it's untouchable.

Now you have two VMA nominations and a third number one song on the Billboard charts, "Supermodel," can you tell me what the song is about?

De Angelis: The funny thing is that everyone thinks it's about supermodels, but it's not. We wrote it after being like three months in L.A. where we met a lot of people that were faking being supermodels or superstars. Everyone was very focused on the way they appeared and not what they're really like or who they really were. Everyone was just trying to fake that they have the best clothes, best friends, best club, that kind of stuff, and we found it a bit stupid, of course, but it was something that we thought was only shown in movies, like a stereotype, you know, but when we saw it in person, we just thought it was fun and wanted to make a funny song about it.

I can tell you no one in New York is like that. We are very real. If you had to make a song about New York, what would it be about?

De Angelis: Ohhh ... (laughs) ... we need to spend more months here.

David: I think it would be like a club song, super dirty, clubbish ... (laughter).

You've played different festivals, like Lollapalooza in Europe, but this weekend you are doing Lollapalooza in Chicago. What does it mean to play at Lollapalooza here in the US?

Raggi: Crazy, it's huge.

De Angelis: It's our first Festival in the USA. So, that's like a big, big thing ...

David: It's not our first festival! We played at Coachella, c'mon! ... (Laughter).

De Angelis: Whoops, that's true, Coachella. We started this festival season this summer, and it's only been Europe until now, so for this summer it's the first.

Raggi: For the summer, yes.

You sing in English and Italian, but we have a lot of Italian singers who are huge in Latin America, and they sing in Spanish -- Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Il Volo -- do you think you would ever sing in Spanish?

David: Why not?

De Angelis: In Spanish?

David: I basically mostly listen to Spanish sounding music, so I would not back up ... (laughs).

You're going to launch your tour, and you're going to Latin America, Santiago, Buenos Aires. What's it like going to all these places, is it a culture shock when you go?

David: Yeah, you know, we have never been, outside of Ethan, we've never been to Latin America, and we never played there, but of course, we know something about the people there, and we know that they're really crazy ... (laughter) ... hyped up, heated up, and we like these kinds of crowds. So, we can't wait to play there, and it was one of the places that amazed me the most. When I saw the tickets that were selling, it was like "what the f**k?", how did we get there? It was crazy, so we really can't wait to be there.

How has fame changed you, if at all?

De Angelis: I don't think it has changed us.

David: I'm less worried about things, actually. I guess I'm stable ... (laughs).

Do you feel that fame, when you're this well-known, it comes with a responsibility to speak out on certain political issues? A lot of artists say, I'm an entertainer, not a politician or an activist.

De Angelis: Yeah, for us, I think it comes naturally, so when we think we know enough about a topic, and we think our opinion can, like, make the difference or something we don't feel it like as a pressure or something. It just comes naturally, and we're happy to do it. Also, if we can share a positive message on something that really matters to us, we're happy to do it. If not, we also don't feel the pressure to have to do it.

You did a song in support of Ukraine, "We're Gonna Dance on Gasoline," how do you feel about that situation?

David: It's really hard to say that because we feel very bad about it, but we also know that we have a huge privilege, with no worries, we're not worried that something is going to happen to us. So, we are privileged, but of course, if we can spread knowledge about it, we are more than happy, and we feel that we have to do it because that's something that is happening today and if we can do something today, it's more valuable.

One of your first songs was "Zitti E Buoni," which means "Shut Up and Behave." It doesn't seem like you guys are going to be doing any shutting up or behaving any time soon.

De Angelis: No, not at all.

Where do you go from here?

De Angelis: I don't know, we feel very free. We just want to keep playing. We have so many amazing gigs and tours coming in front of us, so I think we're really going to enjoy it and get all the possible inspiration from that and then turn it into music. We don't want to set any specific goals, but we just want to go on and see what happens and keep getting better and doing what we feel is right.