#dead queen was fun but its ALEX city now

[hartro-owns-my-heart-ro]

(ID in alt) finally figured out an alex design i like so prepare to never see the end of it :3

[hms-chill]

RWRB Study Guide: Chapter 7

Hi y’all! I’m going through Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue and defining/explaining references! Feel free to follow along, or block the tag #rwrbStudyGuide if you’re not interested!

Crêpe-eating tourists (157): Crepes are a thin, flat pancake traditionally filled with sugar, but commonly filled with other toppings. They are an iconic French dish and are popular with tourists both for this reason and because they are typically inexpensive.

Place du Tertre (157): A square in Paris, it is in the Montmarte district, which is known for its art history.

Crusty baguettes (157): Baguettes are a French bread that is meant to be crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.

Le Monde (158): The most popular French newspaper.

Fromagerie Nicole Barthélémy (158): A famously wonderful cheese shop in Paris.

Parisian cheese shop (158): French cheese are known for being fancy and especially good.

Pisces (159): A zodiac sign known for being compassionate, artistic, and intuitive. (more)

NYU (159): New York University.

The Met (159): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a famous art museum in New York.

Joanne (160): JK Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter books, and has been pretty consistently homophobic and transphobic on twitter. 

Freddie Mercury (161): Lead singer of the band Queen, Mercury never officially came out, but he had long-term relationships with both men and women and was known for his camp performances, and there are claims that he was “openly gay”. His flamboyance and camp performances, as well as his relationship with partner Jim Hutton, essentially demanded that people simply take him as he was. He died of complications from AIDS in 1991, one day after admitting openly that he had been diagnosed four years earlier. (More)

For context within the book, he wrote “Don’t Stop Me Now”

Elton John (161): A famous British musician. He came out as bisexual in 1976, then as gay in 1992. He and his husband, David Furnish, became civil partners in 2005, the day they became legal in the UK. They were officially married on the ninth anniversary of their civil partnership, the year that gay marriage was legalized within the UK. (More)

Bowie (161): David Bowie, who was a bi British musician and actor who, in 1976, described his bisexuality as “the best thing that ever happened to me”. His wife (who was also bi, and with whom he often shared partners) claimed that he had a relationship with Mick Jagger, though his bisexuality has been consistently erased, both during his life and since his death. (More)

Again for book context, Henry’s dog is named for David Bowie

Jagger (161): Mick Jagger, an English singer/songwriter and member of the Rolling Stones, known for his promiscuity. As mentioned above, he and Bowie pretty clearly had a relationship, though his Wikipedia makes no mention of queerness. (More)

Oakley Street (161): A street that runs through an affluent borough of London.

Stonewall (161): The Stonewall Inn in New York City is a gay bar. The riots against police brutality there in July of 1969 are heralded as the beginning of the gay rights movement.

SCOTUS decision in 2015 (161): The Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage across the US.

Walt Whitman (161): An American poet who wanted to become The American Poet and saw himself as the quintessential American. His poetry often deals with his queerness, and he absolutely slept with Oscar Wilde in the late 1800s. 

Fun fact; he is celebrated in the movie The Dead Poets Society, which is incredibly popular with Sad Gay English Majors and which Henry would definitely have seen.

Laws of Illinois 1961 (161): In 1961, Illinois became the first state in the US to repeal its sodomy laws.

White Night Riot (161): A series of riots in San Francisco protesting the lenient sentencing of the man who killed Harvey Milk, the first openly queer politician. The riots were the most violent queer uprising since the events at the Stonewall.

Paris is Burning (161): A 1990s movie celebrating drag ball culture in New York. It celebrates in particular queer communities of color in the late 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic was at its peak.

“If I die of AIDS...” (161): This is a real photo; you can find it here. The man’s jacket could refer to a form of protest called “die-ins”, where people with AIDS would go to a homophobic politician’s office or another public place where they were refused treatment and simply not leave until after they died. (see it here)

Chop my own tit off (162): Fun mythology fact; the Amazons (warrior women from Greek mythology) actually did this to make themselves better archers.

H fucking W (162): George HW Bush, a former US president.

George (163): George Villers was the boyfriend of King James the I/VI, and Prince George, Duke of Kent, was rumored to be in a polyamorous relationship in the 1920s. 

Edward (162): Edward II was a famously gay king. He was may have been "wedded brothers" with Piers Gaveston and may have also had a relationship with Hugh le Despenser the younger following Gaveston's death. (More)

James (162): The British king known for translating the Bible and being just... indescribably gay and very deeply horny. He promoted his boyfriend, George Villers, to the highest non-royal position in the UK within a few years of starting to date him. James’s friends actively tried to set him up with hot guys for their own political gain.

Alexander (163): Alexander Hamilton was an incredibly bi founding father. He’s remembered for founding our current national banking system, having the first ever American sex scandal, and for literally never shutting up or knowing how to stop being A Lot All The Time. 

Catalina (164): Catalina is an island near Los Angeles. On a more meta level, St. Catalina was a respected writer.

June (164): June Carter Cash was an American singer/songwriter/director/comedian.

Tricky Dick (164): Richard Nixon, a president remembered for wiretapping his opponent.

Taft (165): 27th president of the United States.

Eisenhower (165): 34th president of the US.

Baby (166): this is what Henry’s mom calls him; I wrote a thing about it here.

Daily Mail (166): A trashy British tabloid.

Lollapalooza (167): A music festival in Chicago known for setting fashion trends and having lots of drugs.

Joni Mitchell (167): A singer/songwriter known for her innovative use of the guitar, including unique tunings, chords, and a unique fingerpicking/strumming style. (Listen here)

Cocaine (168): A highly addictive drug. It is snorted, smoked, or injected, and while it makes people feel more confident or forget their problems, the highs from it last only up to about 30 minutes, which often drives people to take it more frequently. Side effects (aside from addiction) include a loss of appetite, irritability, and increased mental health issues. 

Spitfire (168): Someone with a quick temper or willingness to fight.

High as a kite (169): Someone who’s “high as a kite” is on a lot of drugs and is still enjoying the high.

Clean (169): Drug/alcohol free.

Stiff upper lip (170): Ability to seem determined or hold it together in the face of hard times.

A levels (170): A UK test taken for admittance to college, similar to the ACT/SAT in the US

Henry V at RSC (171): Henry V is a Shakespearean history play about the life of Henry V, especially focused on the events of the Hundred Years’ War. RSC, or the Royal Shakespeare Company, is a Shakespeare theater company in London.

Travis County (171): The Texan county where Austin is located.

Surfside (171): A beach in Texas.

Adderall (172): A prescription drug taken for ADHD but commonly abused by students to help them stay awake for all-nighters or focused for unhealthily long study sessions. However, given McQuinston’s claim that Alex has undiagnosed ADHD, it likely helped him to be able to focus and helped his brain work the way it was expected to.

Almond milk (vs. dairy) (173): Texas has a huge dairy industry, and almond milk is not great for the environment.

The Gun File (173): American gun law is so deeply broken.

WASPy Hunter’s Harvard pencil cup (175): Harvard is a prestigious college in Boston; it has a reputation for being mostly rich white folks.

Iron curtains of gerrymandering (175): Gerrymandering is a form of drawing lines for voting districts to disenfranchise marginalized voters. It is a form of skewing elections to keep power in the hands of the powerful that divides marginalized votes, making people of color or poor folks the minority in their districts, therefore erasing their votes on a broader scale.

Vision-boarding his funeral (175): a vision board is typically made to inspire someone to pursue a goal.

Parks & Recreation (175): A popular American sit-com focused on the parks and recreation department in a small town in Indiana. 

Leslie Knope (176): a Parks & Rec character. One of her defining traits is an aggressive, overwhelming love for the people in her life.

Mid-century rug (177): Mid-century furniture and style is characterized by lots of color and playful patterns (following the more reserved WWII period in the 1940s); it is rising in popularity again as a classy yet fashionable look.

J14 (178): A teen fashion/celebrity magazine.

Sacramento Bee (178): The largest newspaper in Sacramento, CA.

Southerness (180): In positive lights, the American South is known for its genuine, warm, unselfish hospitality.

Jane Austen my life (180): Jane Austen is a British author whose novels star lower/middle class women who fall in love with rich men. They typically try to avoid these men for large portions of the book, or at least have rather negative feelings about them due to a misunderstanding or other failure to communicate.

LSAT (181): the test taken for admittance to law school.

Carmarthenshire (183): A largely agricultural county in South Wales. As a tourist destination, it is known for its wide range of outdoor activities.

Llwynywermod (184): A royal estate in Carmarthenshire, the biggest building of which is a renovated three-bedroom farmhouse. It is surrounded by the rolling green hills common to south Wales.

Finals (in the US) (185): At US colleges, a semester’s final tests (typically worth up to 30-40% of a final grade) take place the week after classes end.

Stamp on his forehead at The Tombs (185): Tombs is a bar near Georgetown. According to reviews, and “Tombs Night” parties, where students celebrate their 21st birthday and get their foreheads stamped at the end of the night, are a Georgetown tradition.

Jumped in Dalhgren Fountain (185): Dalhgren Fountain is in the center of Georgetown’s campus. Swimming in it is a Georgetown tradition.

Summa cum laude (186): “with greatest honor”.

Ceviche (186): A seafood dish native to Peru that spread to Mexico, where it contains lime, avocado, chili peppers, onions, and cilantro.

Palm Room (187): The gateway to the West Wing, the area of the White House where most politics happen.

Hoe Dameron (190): A reference to Star Wars character Poe Dameron, a rebel pilot and the first Latino main character in the series.

Prince Buttercup (190): Princess Buttercup is the heroine/love interest in The Princess Bride, 

West Hollywood (190): One of the most prominent gay neighborhoods in the US.

“Call Me” (191): The most popular song of 1980; it was originally written for the film American Gigolo and inspired by the film’s opening sequence of a character driving along the coast of California. (Listen here)

“So Emotional” (191): An absolute bop about enjoying being in love. (Listen here)

“Don’t Stop Me Now” (193): A Queen song where Mercury sings to both a man and a woman; it’s a huge bop. (Listen here)

In-N-Out (194): A fast food restaurant/burger chain native to California and unavailable in other states.

Animal style (195): Animal style burgers are an In-N-Out staple; it includes the typical burger toppings, along with mustard fried into the patty, pickles, onions, and extra spread.

French-fries-dipped-in-milkshake (195): a truly god-tier American dessert tradition.

“O captain, my captain” (196): A reference both to the idea of a lacrosse team captain and to Whitman’s poem, “O Captain, My Captain” (as mentioned above, Whitman was a deeply gay American poet).

Burberry (200): A posh British brand of clothing known for its classy, traditional pieces.

Cats that caught the canaries (200): A cat that caught a canary is a person who looks smug or satisfied.

Mother hen (201): A “mom friend” or someone who will do everything they can to look out for people they care about, sometimes to the point of it being annoying.

—-

If there’s anything I missed or that you’d like more on, please let me know! And if you’d like to/are able, please consider buying me a ko-fi? I know not everyone can, and that’s fine, but these things take a lot of time/work and I’d really appreciate it!

—–

Chapter 1 // Chapter 6 // Chapter 8 

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 11 November 2019

Quick Bits:

Batman & The Outsiders #7 throws some further ramifications of Ra’s al Ghul and his minions meddling with Duke and Sofia. Some particularly disturbing transformations going on with Duke that should be interesting. The level of intrigue that Bryan Hill is keeping in the story is gripping.

| Published by DC Comics

The Batman’s Grave #2 is another excellent issue. A little more packed with action than the first one, allowing Bryan Hitch to cut loose with some of the sequences. Also, I’m loving the humour that Warren Ellis is giving us between Alfred and Bruce. That acerbic wit is something we’ve seen from Alfred a lot and Ellis just nails the voice.

| Published by DC Comics

Battlepug #3 is more fun from Mike Norton, Allen Passalaqua, and Crank! Some really nice stuff here as Bryony cuts loose on Nobody’s Ponies. I absolutely love the mix of traditional sword and sorcery storytelling with rather over-the-top humour that basically lampoons it at the same time.

| Published by Image

Black Cat Annual #1 is a fun tale of a heist on the Maggia by Black Cat and Spider-Man from Jed MacKay, Joey Vazquez, Natacha Bustos, Juan Gedeon, Brian Reber, and Ferran Delgado. It features the usual humour and action that we see in the series and I quite like how the artists are broken up each following one particular aspect of the story. Though it’s all one narrative, it gives a nice differing feel to each part.

| Published by Marvel

Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice #5 concludes what has been an excellent series from Jeff Lemire, Michael Walsh, and Nate Piekos. Ultimately, this has reminded me of the old JLA/JSA crossovers of old, and just feels great as an overall story. Plus the possibility of seeing a sequel.

| Published by Dark Horse & DC Comics

Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda #3 begins “God Loves, Moon Kills”, another two-parter for this series, from Jim Zub, Lan Medina, Craig Yeung, Marcio Menyz, Federico Blee, and Joe Sabino. I love this story format, giving us essentially quick-hit missions dealing with a problem and then moving on. It’s yielded some pretty tight storytelling and some fascinating situations.

| Published by Marvel

Black Stars Above #1 is another incredible debut for Vault, with Lonnie Nadler, Jenna Cha, Brad Simpson, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou delivering an incredibly deep and unique horror story. It centres around a young woman in a family of fur traders, as the trade itself begins to die in Canada, and it’s impressive as to how real the characters and their struggle feels. The artwork from Cha and Simpson is exquisite.

| Published by Vault

Buffy + Angel: Hellmouth #2 continues Buffy and Angel’s descent through hell. It’s much more cerebral than you’d expect, with the demons trying to get into Buffy and Angel’s respective heads in order to manipulate and destroy them. Plus, a rather interesting surprise. Jordie Bellaire, Jeremy Lambert, Eleonora Carlini, Cris Peter, and Ed Dukeshire are doing some great work with the core of this event.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Collapser #5 somehow gets even stranger in this penultimate issue as Liam creates a “perfect” world to run away from the problems he’s having in the real world. The real world bleeding through and a revelation of his girlfriend’s true intentions just ratchet up the strangeness further. Mikey Way, Shaun Simon, Ilias Kyriazis, Cris Peter, and Simon Bowland are just doing amazing work here.

| Published by DC Comics / Young Animal

Detective Comics #1015 takes an interesting turn as Nora decides that she likes being a villain. Through this, Peter J. Tomasi is definitely showing an interesting side to Mr. Freeze, emphasizing again that he’s a rather conflicted villain, only doing the various heinous actions to save his wife. Who now doesn’t need him.

| Published by DC Comics

Doctor Mirage #4 features more incredibly beautiful, inventive artwork from Nick Robles and Jordie Bellaire. The visual storytelling as Shan faces the Embalmer is just incredible. Magdalene Visaggio, Robles, Bellaire, and Dave Sharpe continue to deliver magic with this penultimate issue.

| Published by Valiant

Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror: Season Two #2 is another entertaining issue. The lead tale from Tom Peyer, Greg Scott, Lee Loughridge, and Rob Steen has traditional EC Comics horror vibes, as a scientist tries to communicate with our worm overlords. In one of the comics back-ups Mark Russell, Peter Snejbjerg, and Steen revisit the world of the breakfast cereal monsters. And there’s the usual prose pieces, poetry, and Hunt Emerson’s Black Cat. 

| Published by Ahoy

Event Leviathan #6 concludes this series from Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Josh Reed. How much you enjoy it will hinge on how much you enjoy Maleev’s art and the realization that most of this tale is about moving one person off the board and the reveal of Leviathan to set up further stories. Also, Bendis paints a Batman who is ridiculously terrible at hiding his secret identity.

| Published by DC Comics

Fallen Angels #1 is the final new first issue of this first wave of “Dawn of X” titles and in many ways it’s more personal than the other X-titles, even Excalibur, delving into Psylocke (the former Kwannon, not Betsy Braddock) and her past. Bryan Hill, Szymon Kudranski, Frank D’Armata, and Joe Sabino deliver an interesting story with hooks on the darker side of the X-world, including some ominous bits from Magneto and Sinister, but I question the inclusion of X-23 and Cable. They don’t exactly seem to fit the roles they’ve been put into here.

| Published by Marvel

Family Tree #1 is a phenomenal debut from Jeff Lemire, Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur, Ryan Cody, and Steve Wands. This first issue perfectly captures that insidious nature of family drama mixed with creeping terror and body horror as a bizarre plague begins spreading across America.

| Published by Image

Far Sector #1 is one of the most impressive debuts I’ve read in a long time. NK Jemisin, Jamal Campbell, and Deron Bennett create a rich new world in the City Enduring and a compelling character in the new Green Lantern, Sojourner Mullein. The murder mystery that ties everything together is just the icing on the cake. Incredible world-building here and drop dead gorgeous artwork. Do not miss this.

| Published by DC Comics / Young Animal

The Flash #82 is part one of “Rogues’ Reign” from Joshua Williamson, Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Arif Prianto, and Steve Wands. It features a Central City taken over by the Rogues, transformed into their own personal playgrounds, as the Flash is nowhere to be found. It’s not bad, but the amount you’re going to like it may be relative to how much you’re also enjoying “City of Bane” and the recently concluded similar arc involving the Trickster.

| Published by DC Comics

Folklords #1 is off to a fantastic start from Matt Kindt, Matt Smith, Chris O’Halloran, and Jim Campbell. It starts off with a precocious kid in a fantasy world who’s been having visions of what essentially amounts to our world, whose quest sets out a rather draconian lockdown on their society when the Librarians rein in everyone from illicit action, like finding the Folklords. Highly recommended.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Forgotten Home #2 reveals more about Jannada, its history and society, and how an unjust queen was brought to rule through racial warfare. Love the artwork from Marika Cresta and Matt Emmons.

| Published by Vices Press

Gideon Falls #18 unleashes the Laughing Man on reality in part two of “The Pentoculus”. Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart, and Steve Wands are beautifully unfolding this twisted and horrific flower of a story.

| Published by Image

Gotham City Monsters #3 adds another element of DC lore to the series as Melmoth claims a particular prize. I really quite like how Steve Orlando, Amancay Nahuelpan, Trish Mulvihill, and Tom Napolitano are pulling together disparate bits of Gotham and beyond to craft this story.

| Published by DC Comics

Guardians of the Galaxy #11 is the penultimate issue of this series from Donny Cate, Cory Smith, Victor Olazaba, David Curiel, and Cory Petit. It’s basically a big fight between the remaining Guardians and everyone else. It doesn’t go so well.

| Published by Marvel

Hawkman #18 takes a somewhat different approach to Hawkman’s infection than what we’ve seen of the others so far. Rather than being a dark reflection of Hawkman’s own desires, he’s taken over by an Earth-3 incarnation in Sky Tyrant. Robert Venditti, Pat Olliffe, Tom Palmer, Jeremiah Skipper, and Richard Starkings & Comicraft instead use that to play the spirit of our Hawkman against.

| Published by DC Comics

Hit-Girl: Season Two #10 is part two of “India”. The artwork from Alison Sampson and Tríona Farrell is impressive, given an amazing level of detail to bringing Mumbai to life. Brutal and rich in colour.

| Published by Image

House of Whispers #15 takes a new twist as the Corinthian finds the House of Watchers, takes over, and everything changes. Nalo Hopkinson, Dan Watters, Dominike “Dono” Stanton, Zac Atkinson, and AndWorld Design kick off some new terrors as even Erzulie’s status quo is upended, and we get another guest appearance of John Constantine’s homecoming.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label / The Sandman Universe

Invaders #11 pushes deeper into Steve and Namor’s history and relationship, as Steve refuses to give up on his old friend. There’s some very heavy, very good character work here as we head into the final issue. Chip Zdarsky, Carlos Magno, Butch Guice, Alex Guimarães, and Travis Lanham continue to astonish at the incredibly high bar they’ve set for this story.

| Published by Marvel

Justice League Odyssey #15 is a fun tale from Dan Abnett, Will Conrad, Rain Beredo, Pete Pantazis, and AndWorld Design. Jessica Cruz leading a rag tag band of villains (and Orion) against Darkseid and the previous JLO turned evil is unfolding as a very entertaining story with some interesting twists. Also, Dex-Starr is awesome.

| Published by DC Comics

Morbius #1 isn’t a bad start from Vita Ayala, Marcelo Ferreira, Roberto Poggi, Dono Sánchez-Almara, and Clayton Cowles. This first issue is largely just action as Morbius sets out on his quest to cure himself, again, but it’s not bad. The art from Ferreira, Poggi, and Sánchez-Almara is very nice.

| Published by Marvel

Oblivion Song #21 continues the slowburn investigation and reconnaissance of the Faceless Men’s base, as Marco tries to map it out and discover where they’re holding all of the people who decided to stay in Oblivion. Gorgeous artwork from Lorenzo De Felici and Annalisa Leoni as we see more of the Faceless Men’s technology.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Psi-Lords #6 does a bit more world-building as we find out more about the Psi-Lords and the Starwatchers, even as the four Earthers are beset by the other Marked in a bizarre farce of a trial. Fred Van Lente, Renato Guedes, and Dave Sharpe are telling a pretty great sci-fi adventure tale here. It largely stands alone in the greater Valiant universe framework and deserves more attention than its getting.

| Published by Valiant

Punisher: Soviet #1 is another welcome return to the Punisher by Garth Ennis, stepping back into Frank’s adventures like he never left. Ennis, Jacen Burrows, Guillermo Ortego, Nolan Woodard, and Rob Steen deliver a brutal and bloody beginning as Frank chases down someone who everyone seems to think is him.

| Published by Marvel / MAX

Reaver #5 is a fairly impressive spotlight for Breaker as he does what he really didn’t want to do again in order to help his “friends”. Justin Jordan, Rebekah Isaacs, Alex Guimarães, and Clayton Cowles present a number of twists and surprises in one of the most brutal issues yet.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Ronin Island #8 sees the remaining islanders largely stand together as they try to both stand up to and flee from the Shogun’s soldiers and madness. With a terrible occurrence that looks like it’s going to cause even more problems for the survivors. Giannis Milonogiannis and Irma Kniivila’s art continues to be everything.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Sea of Stars #5 very nicely puts the pieces together as a disconsolate Gil has been captured and basically given up thinking Kadyn dead is brought to the world where his son is about to be gutted. Jason Aaron, Dennis Hallum, Stephen Green, Rico Renzi, and Jared K. Fletcher are telling an incredible story here and this issue throws even more twists at the reader.

| Published by Image

Seven Days #2 unfolds some of the fallout of people learning that they only have seven days left, as the superhero community is enlisted to try to stop whatever the shiny harbinger things are. Gail Simone, José Luís, Jonas Trinidade, Michelle Madsen, and Saida Temofonte are continuing to build an intriguing story here as we get more and more of the breadth of the Catalyst Prime universe.

| Published by Lion Forge / Catalyst Prime

Superman #17 is kind of a housekeeping issue from Brian Michael Bendis, Kevin Maguire, Paul Mounts, and Dave Sharpe, acting as a prologue to “The Truth”. A bit of reflection on the Unity Saga, Event Leviathan, and Year of the Villain.

| Published by DC Comics

Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night #1 might well be the best of these one-shots yet. Tim Seeley, Kyle Hotz, Dexter Vines, Walden Wong, Danny Miki, David Baron, Allen Passalaqua, and Tom Napolitano give us a bleak look at a world where Sinestro chose not to share the power of the White Lantern light and essentially everything fell to Nekron and the Black Lanterns. It’s a very unique take on the zombie apocalypse on its own, made more interesting as a fallen Sinestro, Lobo, and Dove try to save this universe. The art from Hotz, Vines, Wong, Miki, Baron, and Passalaqua is perfect.

| Published by DC Comics

Trees: Three Fates #3 continues to build up the weird atmosphere from last issue, then turns around and focuses on more of the gritty aspects of Oleg, Mik, and Nina. Gorgeous artwork all throughout from Jason Howard and Dee Cunniffe.

| Published by Image

Triage #3 shifts to Commander Marco’s reality as the group flee from the Hunter. I really like what Phillip Sevy and Frank Cvetkovic have been doing with this story. Great high concept, but the interpersonal relationships are where it’s really at.

| Published by Dark Horse

Usagi Yojimbo #6 is a beautiful updating and embellishment of the very first story of Usagi from Albedo by Stan Sakai and Tom Luth. This single issue story really captures the spirit and magic of all of Sakai’s stories, wonderfully portraying his mix of action and folklore.

| Published by IDW

Vampirella/Red Sonja #3 explores more of what the Russians were doing in regards to Drakulon and more. More very nice humour from Jordie Bellaire in the interactions between Vampirella and Sonja.

| Published by Dynamite

Wonder Woman #82 begins “The Wild Hunt” from the new creative team of Steve Orlando, Kieran McKeown, Scott Hanna, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Pat Brosseau. It very much continues on from the plot threads and elements of the previous run, continuing to build on the current conflict between Wonder Woman and Cheetah.

| Published by DC Comics

X-Men #2 is pretty damn great, going back to the big and wild ideas bringing new elements into the X-universe, all while Cyclops gives some of the strangest parenting. Jonathan Hickman, Leinil Francis Yu, Garry Alanguilan, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles give us a new mystery with the arrival of Arakko and the first of -|A|-’s missing original horsemen.

| Published by Marvel

Other Highlights: Age of Conan: Valeria #4, Agents of Atlas #4, Catwoman #17, Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Holiday Special #1, The Dollhouse Family #1, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #10, Firefly: The Sting, Future Foundation #4, Ghosted in LA #5, GI Joe: A Real American Hero #268, Girl on Film, Go Go Power Rangers #25, Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #3, History of the Marvel Universe #5, Marvel Action: Spider-Man #11, Midnight Vista #3, Moonshine #13, Runaways #27, RWBY (print) #2, RWBY (digital) #6, Savage Sword of Conan #11, Star Wars #74, Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order: Dark Temple #4, Star Wars: Target Vader #5, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #50

Recommended Collections: Babyteeth - Volume 3, Dark Red - Volume 1, Fallen World, GLOW - Volume 1: Versus the Star Primas, Justice League - Volume 4: The Sixth Dimension, Savage Avengers - Volume 1: City of Sickles, Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Heroes, Star Wars Adventures - Volume 7: Pomp and Circumstance, Wonder Twins - Volume 1: Activate

d. emerson eddy can hear the scratching at the walls of reality.

[fvstboi]

[ jesus castro, he/him, 29 ] pietro maximoff has been spotted in gotham city! the hero is publicly known as quicksilver, and have often been described as determined, but also arrogant. they have also been affiliated with the avengers, and said to mainly operate in new york city. will they help find answers, or add to the chaos? [ han, she/her, 23, mst ]

triggers: childhood trauma , kidnapping , experimentation , HYDRA mentions , minor violence , auschwitz mentioned , mental illness , death. 

hey fam !! here’s my fast boi , pietro maximoff. i love him bunches. 

so first things first: he is comics based with mcu tie-ins. and comics before marvel ruined his backstory by making him not actually erik and magda’s son and not a mutant. can u tell i love my son and hate what marvel has done to him ? keep on reading to find out. 

pietro was born in the wundagore mountains to magda eisenhardt , a romani woman that magneto met and fell in love with. ( she survived auschwitz because of him i stan ). although pietro and wanda didn’t know it at the time and wouldn’t for many years , erik lehnsherr / magneto / max eisenhardt was their father. magda didn’t stay around for very long , though. not long after , magda fled into the woods with the fear that her husband would find her. pietro and his twin sister would soon enough be given to the maximoff’s , a romani couple who lived down the mountain and had always wanted children. ( note: while pietro was both raised romani and is romani in heritage , a lot of it was lost to him after his adopted parents died which was when he was quite young. he does want to make sure his daughter knows about it and where she comes from but he’s not an expert since everyone from the romani side of his family is dead. )

he was literally that obnoxious older brother but he’s also hella protective and loyal ? he’s a bit of an ass . scratch that , he is 100% an asshole :’)

pietro and his twin , wanda , were raised in transia / sokovia by the maximoff’s , who were an amazing couple and even better parents. eventually , their “ adoptive “ father , django , began to steal food so that he could feed his family. enraged villagers attacked the ( romani ) camp they were living in. pietro was able to get him and wanda out , thankfully , but the trauma from that event was so severe that they wouldn’t be able to recall anything from their childhood for years and not even small details. they had nothing. they’d then travel across europe , fending for themselves and only relying on each other. the streets were really hard. they were hungry and tired on most days and pietro would steal food and warm clothes with his powers but wanda would always say he would get caught one day. ( he didn’t ).

one day , wanda accidentally caused a house to burst into flame through her hex powers , which she could not yet control. superstitious townspeople began chasing her. pietro would try his best to protect and defend her but they were outnumbered and overpowered. thankfully , magneto ( dad !!! ) came to their rescue. they would then join the brotherhood of evil mutants , feeling like they had to serve him since he saved them from what would have been horrible mob violence.

when magneto was defeated in a battle against some powerful guy who took him away from earth , pietro and wanda took it as their chance to leave and went back to transia / sokovia / whatever it’s being called now.

( mcu tie ins ) pietro and wanda were kidnapped by HYDRA ( aka not willingly joining HYDRA ) and experimented on with one of the infinity stones , which only augmented their powers. the second HYDRA fell , they left it and joined ultron ( pietro blaming tony stark for the reason why sokovia / transia was in such turmoil due to seeing stark industries on a shell that hit their home that trapped pietro and wanda for nearly two days ). at some point the twins allied themselves with the avengers and also joined them and fought against ultron , who they had previously sided with. 

pietro was injured in the battle against ultron and almost died and so he stayed with the inhumans for awhile. he formed a relationship with crystalia amaquelin , princess of the inhumans. the whole thing was somewhat forbidden since he’s not an inhuman but they soon enough got married. it was p rushed, which is super on brand for pietro. they eventually had their daughter , luna and ? not only did he find out that magneto is his dad during this time but pietro’s a dick and almost killed her by putting her in the terrigensis ( this was much later on , not right after she was born omg ) but hey , she got powers so ! he’s never been the best dad , honestly ? he’s run away from a lot of responsibility , even stuff that wasn’t luna related lol. but he’s trying ? ( with pietro’s age , luna is about ? 5-6 years old. his lil princess. )

the relationship that pietro had with crystal would become rocky due to pietro’s mind being elsewhere and not paying all that much attention to his wife. crystal would then cheat on pietro ,,,, ( note: crystal left some other guy for pietro sksksk ) pietro wouldn’t forgive her and “ vowed vengeance on her and all those he perceived as having wronged him “ but !! crystal’s cousin , maximus , was manipulating his mind and augmenting pietro’s anger towards crystal which was prob meant more for the avengers. he did a lot of dumb shit during this time basically. moreso than usual. but he wasn’t in control of himself or what he was doing so really ? it wasn’t his fault. 

pietro and crystal had a messy relationship after that. they’d reconcile , get back together , breakup , fight , get back together , fight together , etc. it was a messy relationship for awhile. 

pietro lost his powers for a bit and ,,, it was hard fam he was actually depowered due to m day but i’m just saying he lost his powers w/o m day since it’s a big part of him

honestly !! pietro was in a pretty horrible state at this time. he was taken to attila which is basically inhumans hq , where his medical injuries were taken care of. pietro couldn’t stand being human so much that he underwent terrigensis even though king black bolt said no since it can kill u ! wtf u doing pietro !! he then started to plan a way to steal and bring the terrigensis crystals to earth. pietro ,,, no. angel boi. slow down u gonna kill everyone. 

then he made his daughter undergo terrigen ,,,, which could’ve killed her since nobody knew if her inhumans genes would just cancel out her mutant ones.

lots of shit happened ,,,, its just 2 much 

pietro was then put in jail and while there he had a serious of hallucinations. o boi

but ig it was also the end of his episode , u could call it ?? his powers were restored and he rediscovered his desire to be a hero !!

pietro recovered the remaining terrigenesis crystals returning them to the inhumans and clearing his name of criminal charges through a lie that a skrull committed all of his felonies. 

he joined all new x-factor which was his half-sister’s x-men team !

he actually just claimed to have a falling out with the avengers ,,, which wasn’t rly tru ,,, lorna’s ex bf , alex summers , just wanted pietro to spy on her sksksk 

but like ? pietro in x-factor with lorna was one of the best things marvel could’ve done. just siblings working together and on a team together who usually never interact. goals. ( might lowkey have a thing for a certain cajun mutant ) 

he taught at avengers academy for a hot second !

he’s paid a ton of money for luna to go to a fancy school in england which she eventually just ,,, ran away from lmfao

he’s a hero. but he also doesn’t pay much attention to authority and if he thinks someone is wrong and he’s right then he’ll follow his own path and ignore everyone else. he’s tried to repower mutants with the inhuman crystals and continued to do so after mutants got sick and some even died. while that’s not really canon it does give a good insight to who pietro is. he’s not bad and most of his bad ideas do have good intentions. 

he’s been off and on with the avengers for awhile and never stays with them for extended periods of time but they all mean a great deal to him. he loves many of the founding / returning members and cares more for them than he’d ever care to admit. 

pietro once ran 300+ miles so he could punch erik in the face lol [ x ]

pietro is in gotham to see what’s going on ? he also has luna while crystal is away doing stuff. so single dad pietro ! he’s never been alone with luna for more than a few days before ! it’ll be fun ! 

tldr; pietro is messy, an asshole and a drama queen but he’s trying HIS BEST.

stats - tba / pinterest / wiki page.

[mood-report]

The September Vogue Mood Report

Don’t shoot the messenger.

For the second year in a row, Vogue has turned political and I must discuss it in order to do an accurate mood report. I dislike politics and rarely discuss the subject, so for the second year this was not a fun report to write.

I was so saddened by last year’s issue that I barely spent any time on it, focusing mainly on the cover which I labeled “Sunset Of Liberty.”

If it’s true that “Democracy Dies In Darkness,” I very much wanted to be wrong, but it does not appear so. Not with the emergence of Shadow Banning and Search Engine Manipulation against political opponents, or land confiscation in South Africa based on skin color (which, like Europe’s Migrant Rape Crisis, is deemed racist to even discuss).

Shadow Banning and Search Engine Manipulation is repugnant to a free society. It is otherwise known as censorship.

This year I’ve left emotions at the door and have instead followed the rabbit hole. My job is not to judge. My job is to analyze content through the lens of social mood . . . while it’s still permissible to do so.

On second look, it turns out that there was a familiar political theme in 2017 that morphed into this year’s edition.

This year seemed to be a consistent strategy of repetitive political talking points.

This is important to be aware of because whether it’s propaganda, advertising, or politics, the strategy is always the same: repetition.

Messaging and persuasion is achieved through repetition.

Keep repeating it and it sticks.

Get it?

It’s an insidious process if you’re not paying attention. It’s happened to me. During my tenure at Condé Nast reading over two dozen magazines cover-to-cover each month because my job required it, my sensibilities were drastically altered. I didn’t notice it until I left the city and my new attitudes were wildly apocryphal, quite incompatible with real life. It was bizarre how subtly it occurred.

“I love journalism. My dad was an editor, my brother is a political editor, it is just a world that I am steeped in.“ 

~ Anna Wintour

It is not a conspiracy theory to illustrate Anna Wintour’s connection to politics.

In 2008 she was appointed to the Order of the British Empire.

In October 2009, President Obama appointed her to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

In 2011 she was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In 2013 she was named Artistic Director of Condé Nast.

In October 2016, Vogue made its first political endorsement in its 124-year-history, calling Hillary Clinton “optimistic, forward-looking, and modern.” (Remember that word “forward.”)

In 2017, for her service to British journalism and fashion, she was named Dame Commander (DBE) of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

With her new role as Artistic Director, Dame Anna Wintour now controls the editorial vision not only for Vogue, but every title published by its parent company, Condé Nast.

Wintour is therefore at the nucleus of powerful ecosystem that intersects with a vast array of companies and, according to The Business Of Fashion, operates as an “unofficial, behind-the-scenes consultant to CEOs, designers, politicians and movie stars in America and beyond.”

“Wintour is indeed more like a head of state than a mere editor-in-chief, a position which gives her a unique, bird’s-eye view of the fashion industry, emanating outwards from Vogue and Condé Nast to the wider ecosystem that sustains this $2.4 trillion industry.”

~ The Business Of Fashion

In short, she is in a position to sway millions of opinions and trillions of dollars. And with a keen eye for politics and a nose for power, she’s taking advantage of it.

“One of the initiatives I have here in my role as artistic director is that I have regular Editorial Task Force meetings, or ETFs, where we invite leaders from other worlds to come in and talk to the editors-in-chief and the digital leaders and a few other people about what they see happening in their industries, whether it be media or Silicon Valley — we pull them from everywhere.” 

~ Anna Wintour

Yet even if there was a deliberate political messaging strategy at work in this year’s September Vogue, the message itself is largely irrelevant for this analysis.

Yes, irrelevant.

Instead, the task for Mood Report is to answer the larger question: What does it mean when the world’s preeminent fashion magazine indulges in political messaging in the first place?

Is Vogue, to use a word of the moment, colluding with others to project a unified voice?

Or, is Vogue simply reflecting (caught up in) a social mood extreme, much like when a non-financial publication such as Time magazine features the stock market on its cover? At such times the trend in focus may be ending just as it’s being celebrated (or denigrated).

The originator of the Magazine Cover Indicator, the late Paul Macrae Montgomery, reviewed 3,000 magazine covers and found an 80% probability that if there was an investment related story on the cover of a non-financial magazine such as Time, Life, Newsweek, etc. that within three to four months the market would move in the opposite direction of that suggested on the cover.

For example, November 2, 1987, just days after Black Monday, and yet the market hasn’t looked back since:

June 13, 2005, Home $weet Home, right before the peak of the housing market:

Or this one just recently. Highly unlikely that The September Issue is dead, but with readership and ad revenues down, perhaps a stern warning regarding the current editorial direction:

What might appear as editorial collusion might simply be like-minded people seeking to be “Stronger Together” (to use a slogan from 2016) as a form of political resistance.

In other words: a herding impulse.

During times of extreme polarization and uncertainty, people naturally seek to align themselves with others of similar persuasion while being certain of only what they’re against. Repeating the same phrases and points has the comforting benefit of reflecting back their own beliefs which adds confidence and reassurance.

As political ideologies spread further apart, the effort to message one’s viewpoint takes on greater importance, even if it means filling the world’s most iconic fashion magazine with political talking points from cover to cover.

Again, the intent is not to judge the politics but to analyze the mood. By getting the “mood” right we can predict the politics. That is why, from a social mood standpoint, the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election was to be expected.

It is quite likely that the current polarization results in part from a monetary extreme: unprecedented stimulus and accommodation by like-minded central banks also seeking to be “Stronger Together.”

“The IMF was part of rebuilding the global economy —  we all cooperated in the same endeavor: Rescue the system. That system was severely tested at the beginning of 2008. And that system was rescued and improved thanks to international cooperation, thanks to the belief that we could be stronger together.”

~ Commencement Address by Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director Claremont, California May 12, 2018

Extreme monetary policy may have yielded equal and opposing emotional extremes.

While Wall Street is giddy with excess, Main Street senses something is deeply wrong but can’t quite put a finger on it. Divergent opinions then lead to polarization. As Wall Street cheers, Main Street fractures into opposing sides, each seeking an object onto which it can project its angst.

Behold the Donald.

If he espouses Americanism, they want GLOBALISM.

If he wants a wall, they want NO BORDERS.

Behold the two core themes of this year’s September Issue.

As we begin the read through, these themes are abundantly clear. (my comments are lower cased in parentheses. anything in CAPS or bolded is for emphasis).

Repetitive patterns that emerged in order from the front cover to back cover were:

FALL GOES GLOBAL (main cover line sets the stage for the entire issue. also a possible double entendre warning of falling global markets soon)

“EVERYONE’S VOICE COUNTS” (unless you’re Alex Jones, or someone else that Amazon, Google, Instagram, Twitter, or the Facebook doesn’t like. more on this when Beyoncé has her say later on)

Vogue Forces Of Fashion promotion:

MEET THE TRAILBLAZERS PUSHING THE WORLD FORWARD

198, Letter From The Editor:

“September, for us, always starts in March. That’s when we return home from four weeks of shows and start planning what has traditionally always been our biggest issue of the year. Yet the fall 2018 season didn’t feel like it was business as usual, just as life these days doesn’t feel that way either. In all my time editing Vogue, this period is like no other I’ve experienced before, and for good reason: If fashion is radically different, it is because our world is so radically different. As we sat in meetings after the shows, we spent most of our time talking about how what we wear needs to reflect the times it’s being created for. We barely discussed trends -- in fact, trend is now pretty much verboten in the office because it seems such an outdated way to calibrate fashion. Thanks in part to digital technology and social media, we share a growing sense of global citizenship and kinship, not to mention how so many of us are increasingly looking far and wide for labels to better enhance our sense of personal style. Sally Singer, our Creative Digital Director, coined a phrase for it -- “fashion without borders” -- and it is the perfect representation of what this September is all about.

“You’ll find, then, a celebration of the designers who prefer to dispense with the notion of boundaries all together.

“As I read the story that accompanies the portrait of Virgil Abloh, the young Rockford, Illinois-born creative director behind the label Off-White who just made a terrific start with his Louis Vuitton menswear this past June, something Virgil said seemed emblematic of what we wanted to do. ‘It’s like I’m walking down different streets all at the same time, seeing, smelling, and breathing diversity,’ he said, ‘and realizing that things you grow up with -- race, religion, gender, or anything else -- tend to disappear once you’re embedded in a global community.’

“When it came to thinking about who should be on the cover of this September issue, there was really only ever one choice: Beyoncé. It’s not just because her fame redefines what it means to have a global presence; it’s the way she uses that status to challenge herself -- and us, too.

“More important, Beyoncé is intent on challenging the status quo, drawing out attention to society’s imbalances and injustices -- something that many of our current politicians seem intent on maintaining (or, worse, taking us backward).” (again, keep that word “forward” in mind)

Vogue Insiders.com promotion:

A POINT OF VIEW IS MEANT TO BE SHARED. JOIN AND SOUND OFF

Vogue.com promotion:

SHOP THE WORLD

“From museum-worthy boutiques in Tokyo and Milan to rare beauty finds tracked down from halfway around the globe and delivered right to your door, our style is now truly -- and effortlessly -- international.” (“effortlessly” is the tip-off that we’re experiencing a positive mood extreme)

Maybelline ad:

GLOBAL ROMANCE

Cover Girl ad:

I AM WHAT I MAKE UP (ironic given the current “fake news” environment)

254 Taking Flight:

On Vogue.com ==> “The Wing gears up to go GLOBAL” (women-only co-working club with $2350-2700 a year membership fees)

322 Off The Map:

“E-commerce site Ssense is championing the idea that fashion can come from absolutely anywhere.”

“For Ssense, GLOBALISM ISN’T JUST POSITIVE, IT’S PROGRESSIVE.”

334 BAND TOGETHER

356 Star Spangled:

“While knitwear label Alanui is based in Milan, its foray this fall into dressing us head-to-toe embraces a glittery, glam-rock Americana.” (everyone seems to be focusing globally this year)

380 L’Oréal promotion:

BEAUTY BEYOND BORDERS

“Pinging around the globe at the speed of Instagram.”

499 NEW HORIZONS:

“This odyssey is all thanks to the GLOBALLY MINDED designers who simply refuse to see borders.”

500 ALL AROUND THE WORLD

501 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE:

“Fashion has never been more celebratory of GLOBAL DIVERSITY and influence as the best fall looks -- and a visionary group of BOUNDARY DEFYING designers -- ably prove.”

506 FIT TO PRINT

(comment: an ironic nod to the daily, front page, hiding-in-plain-sight, bold-faced admission of censorship by the New York Times: “All the News That’s Fit to Print” -- in other words, what’s “fit” is something only they decide. HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT ironically appears as a caption on page 585)

519 Demna Gvasalia:

“This stars-and-stripes jacket, which represents the States, is my favorite -- because American culture is what I loved when I was growing up.” (another designer with his eyes fixed on distant shores, who now lives in “clean, calm, safely neutral Switzerland” while spray-painting NO BORDERS graffiti on the set of his latest show. the irony is that Switzerland is clean, calm, and safe because it is neutral and has some of the strongest borders in the world)

522 Gosha Ribchinskiy:

“If you’re not thinking GLOBALLY, your thinking is out of date.”

526 Stella McCartney:

“Climate change, of course, knows NO BORDERS.”

Beyoncé In Her Own Words:

“If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own. They will hire the same models, curate the same art, cast the same actors over and over again, and we will all lose. The beauty of social media is it’s completely democratic. Everyone has a say. Everyone’s voice counts, and everyone has a chance to paint the world from their own perspective.”

(comment: the most powerful words in the entire magazine. in direct opposition to the Shadow Banners and to Vogue as well for waiting 126 YEARS before an African-American (23-year old Tyler Mitchell) was allowed to shoot its cover, and only when Wintour granted Beyoncé complete control of the cover story and shoot. also notice not one peep of GLOBAL and NO BORDERS talking points in her words)

580 THE GLOBAL TABLE

582 Age Appropriate

“Stories of burnout -- and worse -- are rife in a modeling industry filled with vulnerable mid-teens. So isn’t it time for the fashion world to commit to working with models old enough to vote?”

(another story that is decades too late. but no mention of the European Migrant Rape Crisis against girls (and even boys) as young as twelve. Due to its NO BORDERS policy, Sweden now has the heartbreaking distinction of being labeled the “Rape Capital” of Europe, while victims and their families are labeled racist for speaking out)

586 “Cover Story”

“Is there seduction in concealment? Safety in charade?”

“The incognito chic of the new coverings speaks equally to our desire to conceal -- and that eternal wish to stand out.”

“This predilection to disappear in plain sight is not limited to the catwalks.” Both Rihanna and Beyoncé sported the look during live shows.

(this was probably the only leading-indicator-style, fashion-inspired social mood alert in the issue, and it was all about the trend toward concealment, which is a negative mood characteristic. could also be an unintended consequence of the #MeToo movement as well as the European Migrant Rape Crisis)

=== end of editorial ===

Here is the result when all the noise is stripped away and the thematic messages are linked together in repetition:

FALL GOES GLOBAL, EVERYONE’S VOICE COUNTS, TRAILBLAZERS PUSHING THE WORLD FORWARD. We share a growing sense of global citizenship and kinship, fashion without borders, a celebration of the designers who prefer to dispense with the notion of boundaries all together. Things you grow up with -- race, religion, gender, or anything else -- tend to disappear once you’re embedded in a global community. Fame redefines what it means to have a global presence. A POINT OF VIEW IS MEANT TO BE SHARED. JOIN AND SOUND OFF. SHOP THE WORLD. From museum-worthy boutiques in Tokyo and Milan to rare beauty finds tracked down from halfway around the globe and delivered right to your door, our style is now truly -- and effortlessly -- international. GLOBAL ROMANCE, I AM WHAT I MAKE UP. Taking Flight, Off The Map. Championing the idea that fashion can come from absolutely anywhere. GLOBALISM ISN’T JUST POSITIVE, IT’S PROGRESSIVE, BAND TOGETHER, BEAUTY BEYOND BORDERS. Pinging around the globe at the speed of Instagram. NEW HORIZONS. This odyssey is all thanks to the GLOBALLY MINDED designers who simply refuse to see borders. ALL AROUND THE WORLD, HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE. Fashion has never been more celebratory of GLOBAL DIVERSITY and influence. A visionary group of BOUNDARY DEFYING designers. FIT TO PRINT. If you’re not thinking GLOBALLY, your thinking is out of date. Climate change, of course, knows NO BORDERS.

Analysis:

Before we jump to the conclusion that this was an intentional messaging strategy, we had better get a few things straight.

First a definition:

Social mood is a shared mental state among humans that arises from social interaction. It is unconscious, unremembered, and endogenously regulated.

~ Socionomic Theory

Therefore, counter-intuitively, what appears as an intentional messaging strategy is likely unconscious.

But the question remains: what does this shared mental state say about current social mood?

We may find the first hint in Anna’s editor’s letter: “If fashion is radically different, it is because our world is so radically different.”

According to the Socionomic Theory of Finance, “humans herd because they evolved to conform to others’ behavior in uncertain situations as a primal survival tactic.”

In my opinion, the Vogue content flagged above is an example of herding as a form of political survival.

“We’re totally integrated here on one floor. It’s total integration and we meet, we discuss, we talk all the time.”

~ Anna Wintour

While caught up in the negative urge to RESIST the current administration, maybe all the ETF meetings, the discussions, and total-integration-all-the-time have resulted in a sort of unconscious groupthink that has allowed Vogue to get swept up in the same positive social mood extreme that has driven the markets to record highs, by unconsciously embracing the same giddy animal spirits fueling Wall Street.

In other words, groupthink may have undermined Vogue’s own message of resistance. GLOBALISM and NO BORDERS are radically extreme aspects of positive social mood.

William H. Whyte Jr. derived the term "groupthink” from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and described it as “rationalized conformity.”

A recent study may have proved its existence. “How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect,” by Lorenz et al.,¹ found that social interaction among participants produces convergent opinions, less accurate opinions, and higher confidence in those opinions. 

“Convergent opinions” may explain the rampant repetition cited above that essentially blurs into a long stream of social mood conformity. “Less accurate opinions” may explain the embrace of GLOBAL/NO BORDERS ideology that was rejected in America and is steadily being rejected throughout Europe, even though the embrace of these ideologies may have resulted from conformity to the same mood underpinning the raging bull market.

Yale psychologist Irving Janis, who pioneered the initial research on the groupthink theory, wrote:

“The main principle of groupthink is this: The more amiability and esprit de corps there is among the members of a policy-making ingroup, the greater the danger that independent critical thinking will be replaced by groupthink, which is likely to result in irrational and dehumanizing actions directed against outgroups.”

Irrational actions directed against outgroups sounds a lot like how Shadow Banning can happen without realizing it is censorship.

Irrational actions directed against outgroups might explain how Search Engine Manipulation happens -- why, when you type in the word “idiot” into Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and Google respectively, this is what you get:

Irrational actions directed against outgroups might explain the embrace of NO BORDERS even as Europe is overrun by its Migrant Rape Crisis and No-Go Zones to the point that far-right voters are surging from Norway to Greece and most everywhere in between.

Irrational actions directed against outgroups might also explain how throughout history the word “forward” gets used as a rallying cry for progress even when ideologies linked to it result in regress. Case in point: Venezuela.

In Latin American slang, Pa’lante is a contraction of "para adelante" or "forward."

“At Vogue, we’re not much given to looking backward, reasoning that life only goes in one direction -- forward -- and therefore, so should we.”

~ Anna Wintour’s 2017 Editor’s Letter

Zuckerberg’s latest project: 

Complete with “Sunset Of Liberty.” (now pulled from site. had to use the Wayback Machine for it from August 30, 2018.)

“Forward” to more voters:

“Demonizing immigrants weakens our country. Fighting against hate crimes makes us grow stronger together.”

~ George Soros

In summary, GLOBALISM and NO BORDERS are positive mood manifestations. Constant, effortless travel and a miche mache of global styles reflect an expansionist mood peak at odds with growing angst against income equality resulting from extreme monetary policy.

The irony is that income equality is often blamed on capitalism when a central bank and a progressive income tax are two of the ten planks of the Communist Manifesto.

And here’s what all that miche mache global style looks like: not very coherent, like a bunch of “convergent opinions.” Anna even referred to it as the “creativity of chaos . . . everything all sort of jumbled up and looking like it came from different countries and different identities.”

GLOBAL/NO BORDERS, effortless travel, pinging around the world at the speed of Instagram . . . this is what maximum mood expansion sounds like.

Incidentally there is so much demand for air travel lately that JetBlue and United have just raised checked bag fees, again.

And this is what maximum mood expansion looks like:

Here are some other examples:

S&P 500 revenues at record highs.

S&P 500 earnings at record highs.

S&P 500 profit margin at record highs.

GDP revised up to 4.2%.

US consumer confidence at 18-year highs.

Highest job satisfaction reading since 2005. 

Lowest unemployment rate in almost 50 years.

Recent headlines:

Luxury Lounge Wars Heat Up as Airlines Vie for High-end Passengers

Luxury Housing is Hot, Hot, Hot

Personal Loans Surge to a Record High

A record 95% of American manufacturers recently declared themselves optimistic about the economy

The Art Fair where $20 million Impulse Buys are the New Normal

At $9.7 Million a Pop, Private Jets are Luring Buyers Again

Home Price Insanity: $2.6 Million for 900 Square Feet

But probably my favorite dead-simple, long-term forecasting tool is the S&P/Case-Shiller 10-City Composite Home Price Index. This has me looking for another bump in the road before a run to final highs in possibly 2021-2022 which should coincide with further highs in stocks.

Thus, the march “forward” will likely be slow until we reach a depression when it will once again be a rallying cry for the “economically oppressed.”

Sadly, then capitalism will likely get the blame for our day of reckoning even though it was central banking (central planning) that created the imbalances that needed to be corrected.

The negative mood forces that ushered in Trump’s victory have given way to euphoria, but angst is still smoldering here and abroad as evidenced by Europe’s far-right resurgence with anti-immigration as its core ideal. Since we are all now riding the same liquidity wave, we should pay close attention to other markets as well.

Therefore, the observations made in last year’s September Vogue Mood Report still stand: authoritarianism may still be on its way as countries “crack down” on loose borders.

Socialism in America will probably have to wait until after the excesses have been purged from the system and the jackboots fill the streets. Then, “forward” might seem like the only way for many.

Vogue is warning us of a potentially significant mood peak and thus the potential for a significant market peak. But it is still possible that higher highs can be made based on pure momentum, even after another period of adjustment.

Positive social mood can also feed on momentum, so expect higher until it flames out. You can always check with Mood Report for market timing.

On the other side, social mood is sky-high even as negative aspects of it continue to build beneath the wave.

This is most likely because of the degree of the potential peak at hand. Like a cresting tidal wave, the crest itself may take a long time to form, but meanwhile below the surface the energy is building for the wave to roll over and crush the unexpecting. Likewise with social mood. As with the interplay of yin and yang, excesses in one yield excesses in the other as the opposing forces remain in flux at all times.

I have tried to avoid making this report a political diatribe, but instead have attempted to show that we are at the whims of social mood. The best we can do is identify it and try to either accept it or align with it as best we can. Social mood dictates the mode of events, not the events themselves. We can only control our reactions.

Thanks for reading.

References

¹ Lorenz, J., Rauhut, F. Schweitzer and D. Helbing, “How Social Influence Can Undermine the Wisdom of Crowd Effect,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011.

[whitepplsucc]

The Ghost Riders, The Wild Hunt Mythos, and Stiles

I’ve done some research into the Wild Hunt, and the magic and mythos surrounding various interpretations of it. Bear with me, please. I’m going to include a hearty mix of information and canon application. Ok! Here we go!

On the nature of the Hunt… All states and points which exist mysteriously ‘inbetween’ identities, all liminal locations, they form portal-gateways through which the Wild Hunt rides forth. I think this can include people in in-between roles, like Peter who was just leaving Eichen but not yet moved on from the City.

Another interpretation is that the Wild Hunt comes before a Great War or calamity to hunt down souls to take before the war can destroy them. In this version, the fairy king and Queen or whatever take the souls they deem important enough to save.

In all version of the Wild Hunt, the great Horned God (that Deaton has a relic of) and his aspects are center to the storyline and are the power or force inspiring or creating the Wild Hunt.

The invisible flights of the wild hunt usually follow specific routes, paths that are echoed in trace-lines among the material landscape. I am assuming these refer to Ley Lines, the telluric currents. These lines are the wild hunter's passage between worlds. That’s as far as my sources go on the matter. Since the Ghost Riders travel through the town on lightning, is possible they only need to use the Telluric Currents to travel between dimensions, but it’s also possible they need them to travel between each town/city they hunt in.

On The Horned One’s Mythos… The Horned One is a multifaceted God. He represents dualities: both the births in spring, and the deaths in winter, both prosperity and death, both lush fertility and the halls of the underworld. He’s known as misrule. He’s the bringer of death and trace states, like the one Lydia had to remember Stiles' name. He’s the master of the hunt of souls. He's the master of death, who regenerates animals killed by hunters from their bones. It is pretty interesting to consider Peter evoking the God so he could resurrect himself. Even though Peter was killed not by hunters, we know the Horned God to be able to resurrect.

Peter's resurrection is the first glimpse we get in Teen Wolf of another dimension or reality - it's the only true case of breaking the laws of life and living. It's a true death and a true resurrection. It's magic, plain and simple. I would be less than surprised if Peter did somehow evoke the Horned God to allow it to happen. Even though Lydia was his tool, I don't think Peter and Lydia were the only things necessary for the resurrection. There had to be something keeping Peter alive inside of Lydia's mind, something that kept his consciousness intact during death while he did his work.

Saturn, a named aspect of the Horned God, is said to be, “The author of secret contemplation, destroying and preserving all things, overturning force and power, and constituting a keeper of secret things.”

An interesting fact: Quetzalcoatl is considered another aspect or form of the Horned God, as is the Nargual (the werejaguar).

Now, about Stiles… The horned man in black, another of his aspects, is the doorkeeper and opener of the way to this state of otherworldly mind. Stiles opened the door to a liminal space back during 3b, during his first false-awakening state. Remember, he's with Lydia in his bed and she begs him to shut the door. He stands and opens the door fully, walking through and emerging on the lacrosse field with the Nemeton in it's center.

This vision of the God warning him about the door in his mind occurred near Halloween night (the time that is a well-known liminal space). This was right after being in the White Room (a liminal space) thanks to the ice bath sacrifice.

We get confirmation that Stiles still had access to the White Room during the final episodes of 3b. There is still a connection in Stiles’ mind that can open the door and allow him to exist in the White Room. I can guess when he through open the door in his dream-state and walked through, this was the result - full access to the White Room indefinitely

In most magical societies, including the Druids and the Norse Shamans, the initiatory death in general (and that of trance) was the first step in people’s coming into their powers and honing their ability to reach out into the next realm to know divinity and divine beings. If this is confusing, think of how Kings were said to be conduits to Gods, and how ancient Priests were said to listen to God’s messages to share with the common people. It’s like that, only with a lot less pretense.

In the S1 extras, Jeff Davis says this about Scott, but it can apply to Stiles by this point: "This is what I call Peter Parker moments, it's fun to do - where the first bit of superpower comes to light & he doesn't quite understand what's happening but it's starting to hit him."

Jeff's predilection for doing this is stated outright. Now the odd things about Stiles, the weird door magic with Malia in the hospital, the call from his father in the temple in Mexico... Stiles is learning he is not what he's always assumed he was. Has he realized fully yet, or is he still putting all the pieces together?

The Ghost Riders peculiarities... The Ghost Riders wanted Stiles and Peter to do what they were doing when they were trying to escape. There is no way in hell that entire scenario, from Trent, to the Radio Stiles uses to contact Lydia/Scott, to Peter's escape. It was all too easy, too straightforward, and too obvious to be anything but a ruse. To what end?

When Scott plunges his claws into Alex's neck he knows the Ghost Riders are coming back to take Alex. How could he possibly know that from just seeing what Alex saw? Is the mark they use intrinsic? Imprinted on the victim? And how is that even a thing?

The Color Green in the Mythos… The color green, beyond its well known associations of fertility and sexuality, is the sacred hue of the fairy ancestors, the divinities souls of the dead who have undergone metamorphosis. The Ghost Riders are shrouded in green, which would lend itself to Lydia’s theory that the Ghost Riders are those that were taken by the Hunt and then become the Riders, themselves.

In an elder rite from some Horned God mythos, the Green man (an aspect of the Horned God) will “guide an initiate into the heart of the verdant world.” And, “It is he who causes the loving sap of the psychic tree to ascend.” I kept this is quotations because it’s unclear what verdant means in the context, and well as which “he” it is that affects the tree. I mention this because of how we see the Nemeton growing a sapling from it’s trunk back in 3b (I think that’s when it happened).

“The Green Lord of the Oak” is another name for the horned god, and one of this aspects are wild men, or people, or brownies, or guardians of the forest. This is the duality I mentioned earlier, as it stands directly in opposition to his dead side’s aspects. As it stands, for simplicity of naming his aspects, The Wild Man rules midsummer, while the Wild Hunter rules the Yuletide.

[thesinglesjukebox]

TAYLOR SWIFT - LOVER

[6.61]

We’re mostly likers!

Tobi Tella: Gentle, passionate, and legitimately beautiful. For a song by someone who's normally thinkpiece-inducing, I don't want to think or look at this critically at all. I just want to sit and be enveloped by pure emotion (also a famous London boyfriend). [8]

Joshua Lu: Hot Girl Summer is over and Christian Girl Autumn fast approacheth, heralded by this ode to monogamy that's touching and pretty in all the obvious ways -- at least until the bridge. Taylor Swift, perhaps understanding the inherent cheesiness of ballads like this, pushes the song to its campiest limits as she spins cliche marriage vows to be lyrical and silly. The way she promises at the end to be "overdramatic and true" hints at how she's knowingly playful here, and it's a clever way to enhance this particular kind of song to its hyperbolic end. If only the rest of the song weren't too comfortable just being a "Thinking Out Loud" redux, then it might be worth revisiting. [4]

Jessica Doyle: It's fine! It's pretty, it's soft, it's got echoes of Maddie & Tae (in that lifted "close" in the chorus); Taylor sells the jealousy line as a self-deprecating in-joke that the video chose to play straight. It's a perfectly fine song, all the better for not requiring any additional knowledge to decode. It's a nice high note to leave on. So, without speaking for anyone else, I am adopting the belief that Lover is a stand-alone single released with very little promo by a talented but otherwise unremarkable country-crossover singer, whom this blog will get around to covering again in, oh, 2026 or so. [6]

Alfred Soto: Impeccable craft. Facts are facts. The use of echo, the voluptuousness of Taylor Swift's vocal prodding the acoustic strumming, the overdramatic middle eight/bridge in which she swears "to be overdramatic and true to my lover" -- I need a nap after such a bounteous feast. The other lyrics fascinate me less; the line about Christmas lights staying up is Creative Writing 1102, Week 3: Using Precise Detail. But the yearning in "Lover" is closer to autocratic than tender, which, to her credit, she sees as indistinguishable. [7]

Michael Hong: I once read a comment section where someone referred to Taylor Swift as the "queen of long bridges." Since then, I may have forgotten where I read it, but it remains something that I think is completely true and when Taylor Swift is at her best, she masterfully writes bridges. Her best bridges are midnight realizations, headbanging depictions of the crushing weight of heartbreak, or the anxious and relieving reminders of failing relationships. They often unfold as tightly-wound emotional revelations and are never without their cathartic release. But sadly, going by the early Lover singles, Taylor Swift may have lost her knack for great bridge-writing, producing the infamously cheesy "spelling is fun!" or a slightly too childish reference to Humpty Dumpty. "Lover" is no different. While "Lover" paints a grand picture of romance, everything feeling like just one of the many real possibilities, the bridge spoils the sketch, playing out like an obsessive fever dream. Contrast the way Taylor Swift sings the word "lover" on the chorus, which seems to resolve all anxiety and stop time around it, with the schmaltzy over-the-top way she stretches out the same word on the bridge until it becomes so mawkishly corny, it loses all meaning. It immediately takes you out of the romantic waltz of the rest of the track and into the overdramatic musings of a diaristic fantasy that would have been embarrassing even if read from an actual teenager's diary. The bridge is full of various awkward and uncomfortable moments from the moment we hear "ladies and gentlemen" through Taylor Swift's egregiously awkward and choppy talk-singing that seems to be on full-display across Lover -- it didn't work on "You Need to Calm Down" and it certainly doesn't work here. All's not lost because of the bridge, and I'm certain I could still get lost in the beauty of the rest, but there's certainly more realistic passion and romance in one line of the chorus than there is across that entire bridge. [5]

Ian Mathers: The sound, all that dusky reverb and brushed drums, is pretty lovely. Most of the song works well too, although god she lands hard on that title every single time it comes up, eh? I know I'm supposed to have a more complex reaction to Taylor Swift, but I got so burned out on the competing takes it's hard to focus more than "a pretty nice song I'll be fine hearing on the radio that has some clunky bits". [6]

Vikram Joseph: Love songs are a hard sell; the best ones make you overwhelmed with joy for the protagonist, or make you believe that you one day you could have all of that happiness for yourself, but that kind of listener empathy takes real skill to engender. "Lover" sounds smug and entitled, like your posh acquaintance who's never had to struggle for anything (emotional or material) in their life boring you to death down the pub about their wedding plans. The aggressively cloying middle-eight perfectly encapsulates drink number three, when they're off on one about their honeymoon plans (an all-inclusive resort in Dubai) while you're remembering why you've only seen them twice since uni and wondering whether you can get a lobotomy on the NHS. And yes, it sounds a lot like Mazzy Star, but if I want to listen to a reimagining of "Fade Into You" I'll head straight for "Coming Down" by the Dum Dum Girls, thanks. [3]

Katherine St Asaph: Early reports likened "Lover" to ersatz Mazzy Star (a reminder of what they actually sound like), when what it's clearly trying to be is "Hallelujah," and given the sparkly perkiness of the bridge and all beyond, quite possibly the Pentatonix version. The rest is the usual Taylor Swift problem: the song's supposedly about a "magnetic force of a man" but sounds like it's about a Build-a-Bear. [2]

Sonia Yang: Cozy, intimate, and eschewing glitzy synths in favor of drawing upon her country roots. Rather middle of the road for an album title track, but it's packed with neat little bits such as that relaxed swing-y 6/8, the way everything cuts out for Swift to sing the "lover" at chorus end, and Swift's breathy head voice. It's not a big track but it doesn't have to be. However this is something I can see myself loving much more life than on record; without the immediate atmosphere to bask in, it does feel a bit underwhelming. [6]

Edward Okulicz: "Lover" sits in the middle of songs on its parent album for me -- it's beautifully made, but like a few of its midrange peers has one or two things that annoys me. Here, it's the word itself -- not "lover," but "luvv-verrrr." It's not that it's a weirdly coquettish thing for her to say, because Swift has always done the modern girl dreaming of the romances of literary greatness, although usually she's a little bit more creative ("Starlight") or subversive ("White Horse"). No, it's just that I don't like how she sings that one word and it feels gratuitous in a song that doesn't really need a slightly anachronistic, coquettish touch to it. Other than that, no complaints about a lovely melody, delicate production and a performance that radiates relief and warmth and comfort. Probably an 8 in a month, but not yet. [7]

Rachel Bowles: I never truly believed the old Taylor was dead, the romance of reputation's 'Delicate' hinted at it, and Lover's eponymous single confirms it. It's a wistful, waltzing, breathless ode to long term relationships, making a home and real life happy endings- Taylor's teenage 'Mine' fully realised. [7]

Alex Clifton: I fell in love with Taylor Swift's music when I was nineteen and heartbroken. Speak Now carried me through a time when all I wanted to feel was loved and complete instead of the broken mess of a teenager I was. I thought I wanted a fairytale love myself, grand gestures and bouquets of roses and a partner who would shout their love for me to the city, but I couldn't even have a real conversation with the people I had crushes on. Needless to say, it didn't happen. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to mend my own heart and really open myself up to love. Eventually, I found someone and learned that love lives in the smallest things. He knows the way I take my tea and holds me when I cry; I know his regular orders at restaurants and tell him stories at midnight to keep his anxiety at bay. I never knew I'd prefer a quieter love to something all-consuming that burned red to the point of self-immolation. Instead I revel in the moments we have while walking around our favourite park, playing Scrabble in a cafe, reading together in bed. Swift has found the same sort of security and has carried this feeling into one of her best songs in years. "Lover" is a sun-drenched lazy ode to love itself and is the song that Swift's been building to her whole career, complete with wedding vows. It's a mature outlook on what love can and should be--something that fills each quiet moment between all the drama and major events, a strong feeling that can't be knocked down by a single fight or small mistake. Even with the occasional overdramatic moment (lovahhhhhhhhhh) it's made me remember how much I love my partner each time I've heard it, which is what the best love songs should do. [10]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The paradox of Taylor Swift is that all of her songs are inherently flashpoints in the discourse, even when there's nothing to talk about. "Lover" is the least controversial thing that Swift has done in years, both in intention and execution, and yet there's still no way to talk about it without talking about Taylor Swift, Important Pop Star And Cultural Figure. It's true that this becomes true of any sufficiently big pop star, yes-- but since (at very least) "Mean," Swift's music has been written like it's almost exclusively commentary about her own reputation. Yet the thing about "Lover," all the way down to its title, is that it's uncomplicated. It's maybe the least complicated single she's ever put out-- it's a love song with no twist, an acoustic ballad that's content to just be a big, stately acoustic ballad. It does its job-- the song will undoubtedly soundtrack twinkly-lighted summer weddings for the rest of eternity, and I won't even be mad. Because underneath it all, Taylor Swift is a pretty damn good songwriter when she doesn't feel the need to excessively perform the role of Taylor Swift. The lyric is full of lines that were clearly written with pride and skill-- the bit about guitar string scars on the bridge, most obviously-- but it doesn't feel as obsessed with the self as, say, anything on "You Need To Calm Down." And in letting the song breathe and stand for itself, she manages to reinvent herself: not as a pop megastar or some empire unto herself, but as a craftsman that happens to be the biggest thing in pop music. It's a compelling guise, and one that feels refreshing after a decade long media slog. But the greatness of "Lover" ends up leaving me feeling more skeptical of the rest of Swift's work than ever. [8]

Kylo Nocom: Taylor replaces the pain of what ended up happening with the comfort of what could have been. Her fairy tale ending is real, but "Lover" is generous enough to let one believe every single thing here can exist forever and ever. The spacious drums sound like they could have been recorded from the moon; that string-plucked bridge came from heaven. [8]

Isabel Cole: Having had some time to acclimate to the roller coaster kinda rush of Taylor following up the two worst songs of her career with the first album of hers I've ever genuinely loved, I'm content enough now to say I just think this is wonderful: unhurried, cozy like a well-worn sweater, pretty without showing off, knowingly nostalgic without being cloying, humbly besotted. Impressive that after half a lifetime making music Taylor is still deepening her skill as a vocalist, finding new clarity and a few welcome hitches; her performance, like her writing here, works by not working too hard, all the more convincing for not needing argue its merits. The fact that Taylor sees leaving the Christmas lights up till January as a show of deep intimacy is as hilarious as it is completely believable -- no one who's not a bit of a control freak winds up with their face plastered on UPS trucks. Similarly, I'm so genuinely endeared by "at every table, I'll save you a seat," coming from an artist who was writing songs bearing the sting of her lifelong dweebishness well into her era of global acclaim: marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to sit alone! It's hard to imagine that when she recorded the breathless final act of Love Story she could have envisioned that one telling a love story would sound as easy as this. [8]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Every time I'm on the verge of disowning Taylor Swift for her terrible choice in singles, she releases something like this. "Me!" was an infantilizing failed experiment at camp, "You Need to Calm Down" was surprisingly thoughtful social commentary let down by a dud of a song, and "The Archer" sounded like a forgotten Hunger Games soundtrack cut. "Lover", though, is a timeless, gorgeous vignette of domesticity, mature in its lyricism and warmly familiar in its sound. It's the most compelling Taylor Swift has sounded since "New Year's Day." [9]

Jonathan Bradley: On early hit "Love Story," Taylor Swift punctuated a marriage proposal with a key change. The moment is one of ecstatic joy: a fairytale promise fulfilled beyond the bounds of reality. "Lover" sounds like a proposal, too -- her vow to be "overdramatic and true" is both lovely and gently self-aware -- but it's a rich and grounded union that finds more to happiness than the relief of a promise "you'll never have to be alone." It is a song of brushed drums, slow steps and brocade, a "Speak Now" from the altar and not the jealous aisles, of pleasure in shared domestic spaces where friends can stay over and Christmas decorations can stay up. There are no princes and bare promises, but Swift sings it with an awe even her earliest romances could not conceive. [9]

Joshua Copperman: Continuing my series of altering professionally produced music, I created an alternate tracklist of Lover, creating an 11 track 40 minute concept album about a battle between naivety and maturity. It goes from a scattered pop album to a fun-size Once I Was An Eagle. On this closer, love definitively wins out. "Lover" is Swift and Antonoff's take on 50s rock; purposefully campy and over-the-top, but genuine in a way that the first two singles from this era did not. As a closer, it resolves a lot of the tensions that have plagued Swift's work this decade, giving her a happy ending... but as the third track, it's baffling. I should not have to make my own context for this to take on a meaning, but that's also the whole point of pop music. (At least, it was before albums became more of a status update for an artist's life than a complete body of work.) I was on the fence about docking a point because "forever and ever" gave me "Jerika" flashbacks, but it's just a phrase that can only be given weight if someone genuinely believes in it. Kind of like "true love." [6]

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