#december 2021 entry

[vainbird]

You are not damaged. You are not socially handicapped. You are young and you are learning how to live. Write that down. I AM VERY YOUNG AND I AM LEARNING HOW TO LIVE. Tape it to the wall by your bed and read it every morning. You are very, very young. You are learning how to live.

Ask Polly: Help, I’m The Loneliest Person In The World!

[chbflametinker]

Letter to Patroclus

Patroclus, my heart's most faithful half,

Didn't I tell you to stay in the chariot? To not throw the spear? I felt betrayed thinking of your disobedience. The way your smooth tongue found a loophole amongst my words, just like Odysseus would, and you returned to me, unbreathing. Ah, Odysseus, back with his lover, Penelope, in Ithaca, and Hector with his family in the underworld. I saw the reunited family when I finally met my demise—when I saw Paris shoot that arrow towards me, guided by Lord Apollo. But to my utmost surprise, I did not see you here in Elysium. Paradise, they call it, for heroes like me. But is this even paradise when you're not here?

I wandered around, searching for your soul, wanting to express my love, gratitude, resentment, and guilt toward you. However, I am met with only great kings, princes, and other heroic demigods and mortals who know my name. Hearing my name praised by them isn't the same as hearing it from your lips—those lips I've tasted so many times. I fear the men and women after our generation would consider us mere brothers, cousins, or best friends. You are most definitely more than that to me, my Philtatos — most beloved.

As I sat by the River Lethe here in Elysium, I must confess, I wanted to bathe in it, to erase the memories of my pride overruling my judgment. Hubris, the sole reason I lost you. Then I pondered; I whispered your name, "Patroclus, glory of his father." Pater...Kleos...was the "glory" I was chasing and fighting for my whole life...you? You were there all along, begging me to help the Greeks, but my foolish self cared more for Agamemnon's insult toward me than your life. Briseis was right; you were worth ten of me…even more. I remember those nights when you, unbreathing, lay beside me. I'd jolt wide awake, screaming that I am finally here to help you win against the Trojans, against Hector. Then I look to my side, and there it is; your cold, unmoving body, your pale hands that once held my face. I shook your body. No response, and I, once again, wept.

I wish we were back in Chiron's humble abode, just eating figs, playing the lyre, and training. We could have grown old together. I could have thrown an apple at you and bound our souls together, Homophrosyne, like Odysseus and Penelope. But wishful thinking would get me nowhere now, wouldn't it?

With much love and regret, Achilles

This is my entry to my enlistment in my club at university; no one should repost this literary piece into which I poured my heart. I only wanted to share this since I am really proud of it. Please contact me IMMEDIATELY if someone reposted it on any social media platform. Thank you!

Artwork credit:

alessia.trunfio. (2021, December 1). “He’s the half of my soul, as poets say.” Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CW6H2jOrJBc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[lukesvangelista]

KJ RUN DOWN

for my lovely friend @cupidbedsy (and anyone else who wants to know more about kj)!

- born october 18, 2002 (22)

- grew up in port moody, british columbia

- he is half finnish! his mom was born in finland, but moved to canada at a really young age. his middle name is kalevi, which translates to “ancestor of the finns.”

- grew up a canucks fan, but cites johnny gaudreau as his inspiration → "i was obviously a canucks fan, but there was one playoff series where i was just loving it because johnny was dominating, and they beat the canucks. i was like, 'man, this guy’s unreal.’.”

- “gaudreau was small in comparison to most nhl players. generously, he was listed at 5 feet 9, 165 pounds. johnson, who is 6-0, 180, grew up as the smallest player on the ice before he turned 14 and shot up “about three inches a year” over four years.”

- “before those growth spurts, johnson firmly believed he'd be gaudreau’s size. it created a chip on his shoulder and fueled his drive.”

- "johnny was obviously a great player, but kent had a real connection to john because he was really small," jay johnson said. "he was, by far, the smallest kid on his teams. he was good when he was little, so he made the bantam aaa team when he was only 90 pounds, when the average kid might’ve been 120 or 130, and some way bigger. so, he had that connection to johnny. he just loved how he played hockey, and he told me at some point, ‘if johnny gaudreau can do it, i can do it, too.’ "

- “you know how it is with small guys,” kent johnson said. “it”s like, ‘can they do it in the playoffs?’ obviously, i hated hearing that, and i loved seeing johnny prove those guys wrong. so, i would study his game a lot. there’s some little things i do now that i feel like i got first from watching him.”

- he played junior hockey for the trail smoke eaters of the bchl. in the 2018-2019 season, he scored 20 goals and had a total of 26 points in 57 games. in the 2019-2020 season, he won the brett hull trophy as the league’s leading scorer with 41 goals and 60 assists in 52 games!

- he was named bchl first-team all-star, bchl most sportsmanlike player, bchl mvp, and canadian junior hockey league forward of the year!

- played college hockey at the university of michigan for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons

- drafted 5th overall by the columbus blue jackets in 2021

- scored the golden goal for canada in the wjc gold medal game to beat finland

- signed an entry-level contract with the blue jackets on april 8, 2022

- as of december 9, 2024, he has 14 points (8 goals, 6 assists) in 13 games played during the 2024-2025 season

- he is on pace for 94 points this season

[st4rg1rl-16]

━━ ✶✶˖° 𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗘 | 𝗡𝟰𝗦.

𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴(𝘀) ━ 2019 to 2023!f1 grid x driver!female oc

𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 ━ english is not my first language, I know I already said it but just in case hshshsh also I know there are some things that may not be accurate but let’s pretend they are for the sake of the fic 😙👌🏻

𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 ━ @namgification @burberryfilms

ARABELLA TORRES GONZÁLEZ

Spanish racing driver

Arabella Torres González (born May 26 2000) is a spanish racing driver. In 2016 and 2018 she won the Formula Two championship. In 2019 she acquired a place in Formula One with Scuderia Ferrari, in 2021 she signed an eight-year contract with Mercedes.

Name                  Arabella Torres González

Nickname(s)     La diabla, Bella Donna, Speedy

Born          26 may 2000 (age 21) Leganés, Madrid, Spain

Nationality 🇪🇸 Spanish

Relatives Oliver Torres (brother)

Teams                 Ferrari, Mercedes

Active years      2019 —

Car number 9

Wins              18

Podiums              41

Career Points    859

Pole positions 13

Fastest laps      8

First entry 2019 Australia Grand Prix

First win 2019 Spanish Grand Prix

Last win 2021 Turkish Grand Prix

2021 position        2nd (393)

Website arabellatorres.com

She is known for being the only woman to be an official Formula One driver since Giovanna Amati in 1992 and the second female driver with points since Lella Lombardi in 1976, thus creating history in the world of motorsport. At the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix she took her first victory, becoming the first woman in history to win a grand prix.

After a competition against Valtteri Bottas with whom she remained tied in terms of points during the last three races of the 2019 season, she won the title of sub champion in the drivers' world championship giving Ferrari the second place in the constructors' world championship.

In 2020 she suffered a horrible accident that made her unable to finish the Tuscan Grand Prix, after that race her results during the last eight races went down.

In the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix she returned to the podium (and in the championship) in second position after a close competition against Max Verstappen due to losing control of her car causing both of them to almost collide, but she managed to regain control and finish the race without no harm.

Her younger brother, Oliver Torres, is a Moto GP driver for Yamaha Motor Racing.

𝗕𝗜𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗬 ↓

Arabella was born in Leganés, a Madrid’s municipality, on 26 may 2000, as the eldest of two siblings: she and her little brother, Oliver Torres. Since she was a little girl she grew up with Formula 1 at home, as her father was a big fan and never missed a race although she was not too interested in the motor world of until one of her uncles gifted her brother a mini kart for christmas that she ended up using it, which sparked her curiosity about cars.

Her interest in cars began to grow, she began to watch Formula 1 with her father and her uncle, she noticed car brands and models and was passionate about car movies. She has mentioned several times that the Fast And Furious saga is one of her favorites.

From December 2018 to December 2020 she resided in Monte Carlo, Monaco. In 2021 she bought an apartment in London, England with her partner, the spanish football player Hector Bellerin. She currently lives between Monte Carlo and London.

𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗥 ↓

Torres began her racing career in karting at the young age of 9, competing in different categories. She won the Spanish Championship in the novice category in 2009, won the cadet category in 2010 and two more consecutive times. In 2013, in the KF3 European Championship she had a horrible accident when she reached second place, thus being the only race that she has not finished, a tire on her car burst causing her to fly several meters until she crashed into a fence in front of the stands. She had several spinal injuries and had to undergo surgery several times so she had to retire for a year, losing the opportunity to be signed by the Red Bull Junior Team.

At the age of 14, a year after her accident she returned to the world of motorsport in Formula 3 with Prema PowerTeam, finishing in sixth position in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, in 2015 she finished on the podium in second position.

In 2016 she signed with the Ferrari Driver Academy and entered Formula 2 where she won first place in the 2016 and 2018 seasons.

Two years later, in 2019, she was announced as a driver for Scuderia Ferrari for Formula 1 alongside Charles Leclerc. During her contract with Ferrari she raced 38 races of which she won 9 and came second in the 2019 drivers' championship.

On December 13 2020, during the race in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari announced that Torres would not be part of the team for the following season and a week later it was announced that she would be replaced by Carlos Sainz Jr. On March 2 2022 during the presentation of their new car Mercedes announced, after almost three months of confusion about Arabella's future in Formula 1, that the driver had signed a contract with them for a duration of eight years, that is, until 2029.

𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗦 ↓

𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗦 ↓

𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗖 𝗜𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦 ↓

𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗦 ↓

𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦 ↓

𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦 ↓

𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗦 ↓

𝗘𝗫𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗦 ↓

[rivalsforlife]

pardon me if you’re tired of discussing this but. we know aa7 is on capcom’s radar on some level. and now they’ve rereleased every game right?? they’ve finally run out of backlog material after almost yearly releases since 2019…. Not to put the clown wig and nose back on too early but do you think we’ll actually get news about, or get to see, aa7 next year?

Never tired of discussing this!! This is right around the time of year where I'd be preparing to make my yearly AA7 Speculation Post anyway so this is great timing. (TGS, my enemy, is approaching.)

So just to make sure everyone's on the same page, here's a quick recap of where we're currently at:

In November 2020 we got internal Capcom leaks which included a calendar from 2019 with the roadmap for the AA series the next couple of years. This included:

DGS1&2 collection, which I did not think was going to happen ever, releasing April-June 2021

AA7, releasing around October-December 2021, right around the 20th anniversary.

Through late 2019-mid 2022, reconsider porting 456

We got DGS1&2 (a bit later than in the plan, but by like a month), we got the 456 ports, we got bonus AAI ports, we have nothing for AA7 nearly three years after it was supposed to come out. The pandemic is an obvious feature that could contribute to its delay, but at this point with 456 ports out I think we can safely say that this was not the only cause.

Some other things that may or may not be contributing to AA7's delay include:

Yamazaki, the previous main writer for 5&6 and the AAIs, left Capcom in 2020. If he was involved in AA7 at all, that could throw a wrench into things, but I recall hearing he intended AA6 to be his last AA game (I AM STRUGGLING TO FIND THE SOURCE THOUGH SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME), so I don't think this contributed very much. It does, however, mean that we're unsure about who the next main writer is - depending on what Takumi's up to or if they had to bring someone new on, there could be complications related to that.

I think TGAA did way better than anyone expected, which I covered in this post. It's possible that this could have shifted Capcom's priorities to porting more old games / porting to all modern consoles. It may have made people at Capcom think "damn everyone loves Takumi" so they tried to lure him back to AA7, and I have no idea how well that would have gone or if Takumi is even interested in continuing mainline AA right now. (I do think this at least contributed to the Ghost Trick ports.)

In my first ever AA7 speculation post I talked about how the ending of AA6 kind of wrote them into a corner re: how to continue with the series and which protagonist to use. I still stand by that argument even if a lot of that post aged badly.

Console ports! Previously new AA games were for whichever Nintendo handheld is out now (GBA, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS). But now that the series is doing really well on all consoles, they may have decided to try to make their next mainline entry on all consoles, which would take more development time. Adding to this is that the Switch is near the end of its lifecycle with the Switch 2 (or whatever the successor will be) being announced soon - meaning that, if AA7 is coming out soon, Capcom is in the position of "do we try to squeeze this into the end of the Switch's lifecycle" (which, I'll need to find sources for this, is speculated to be some of the reasons behind why AAI2 and DGS2 sold badly when they were first released, and they can't make the same mistake thrice... right...?) or "do we try to time it with the release of the Switch 2"?

Also, a lot of this depends on how far AA7 was into development whenever it was derailed. If it was derailed from the pandemic, then according to the calendar, it would likely have still been in the prototype stage. It may be early enough that they would have had to start from scratch whenever they picked it up again. I don't work in the gaming industry so I have no idea how long it takes them to make a game or how easy it would be from what stage they're in.

One thing we can compare to is some of the comments about the recent AAI ports: in this interview, Shunsuke Nishida, the producer of the AAI collection, says that development on the collection began in 2022. He also mentions that this began once development on 456 was concluded. This leads me to believe that (contrary to my previous assumptions) 456 and AAIC were not developed concurrently (or if so, had very minimal overlap), and that the process of upscaling graphics, porting, and localization took them... about a year, maybe? So that takes time, even without taking into consideration how long it would take to come up with a new idea + write the script + the bulk of the programming that would have to be done that isn't considered with porting + probably way more than I can think of because again I do not work in the gaming industry.

There's also the question of why 456 and AAIC weren't developed concurrently. The calendar from 2020 shows that TGAA and AA7 were meant to be developed at least somewhat concurrently, and the staff from TGAA would eventually merge into working on AA7. Once again, we don't know what happened to the staff that were supposed to be working on AA7. It's possible pandemic complications meant they got shuffled onto other projects. It's possible the AA-related team is smaller now than it was in 2020, so they only have enough people to work on one project at a time. It's also possible that there's a team that was working on ports, and a team that was working on a new game, and now the "port team" is freed up to work on the "new game team".

Either way though, pretty much every interview with the staff for the 456 or AAI ports are all saying "look forward to the future of the series", which is definitely Corporate Speak, but unless they're bringing the ports of the Layton crossover (fingers crossed) that can only mean one thing. (AAI anime?) Plus, like I've discussed in this post, AA is having fantastic sales in general. They've seemingly either hired a new social media manager or changed the strategy so there is much more engagement on twitter. And AA is getting on bigger and bigger announcements - though AA trilogy ports were announced at TGS (at an AA-specific panel), TGAA duology ports were announced unceremoniously on twitter. Afterwards, 456 ports got announced at the Capcom Showcase during Summer Game Fest. And now AAI collection got announced at a Nintendo Direct, which I imagine is even more expensive, so the series must be going in a good direction for them to think that's worth it!

That's a lot of rambling for me to say I definitely think it's coming.

When are we going to see it though!!

Coming up in September is my eternal enemy Tokyo Game Show. Since AAI collection is being released at the beginning of September... it might be a bit too soon to announce a new game, but who knows. They might think it's profitable to ride the hype they're building now for AAI collection to announce a new game. Or they might let it sit for a while.

With AAIC getting announced at a Direct, I'm thinking they'll want to make AA7's announcement a) big and b) global. AA6 was announced in Famitsu, but the problem with that is that it's a mostly Japanese audience, and some interviews have been talking about how AA's global audience is particularly contributing to how big it is right now. So I'm expecting AA's next announcement to be at something major and something that will get attention from overseas audiences.

If they have been working on AA7 concurrently -- and honestly I do think there has at least been some progress on it since 2019 -- we could definitely see an announcement within the next year. I was also saying this in 2020, though, so don't take my word for it. There's been two year gaps between ports up until the AAI collection, and they seemed pretty proud about releasing 456 and AAI in the same year, so... maybe they'll want to keep it going and announce AA7 within the next year, especially if they'll have a longer announcement -> release period than they normally would for ports.

Potential candidates include:

Tokyo Game Show: As previously stated, it's very close to the AAIC release, so I don't think it's the best timing for it. I would not want my favorite AA game overshadowed by whatever the hell they're going to do with AA7. Likelihood: depends on how fast they want to follow up on the hype.

The Game Awards: is the next major gaming event, but that's already massive in terms of the type of games that get announced there, and it's expensive! Nintendo Direct is one thing since AA has always been a Nintendo-first series, but I don't think it's big enough to justify putting in a Game Awards ad. and I already have my clown wig on for persona 6 there. Likelihood: pretty low tbh

Next Year's Summer Game Fest-related Shows: I think this is the most likely, considering both the 456 collection and the AAI collection were announced around this time. For AA7 I'd say a Nintendo Direct to get lots of eyes on it, especially if AAIC sales pay off. Likelihood: pretty high!

Which leads me into my wildcard answer:

Switch 2 Announcement Stream: If Capcom decides to go in and make AA7 one of the first games for whatever the switch successor would be, it could be announced here. I regret to admit that I am a very bad gamer and only like two things, and therefore have not ever been present for one of these things to know how many games get announced as launch games for a new console, but, like, it's possible.

In the above scenario, I'm not necessarily saying that AA7 would be a Switch 2 exclusive - because I think that would be stupid after so much of the support they've gotten from the ports has been from playstation and steam - but I am definitely the kind of person who would buy a console for one video game. Shoutout to me buying a switch in part anticipating that aa7 would come out on it and that is not looking likely

Anyways, that's my speculation!! Reminder that this is mostly uninformed and that I have no knowledge of anything related to sales or marketing or video game development, and as a result of that, I have been wrong (aside from the one time I accurately predicted AAI ports as a joke) for four consecutive years.

[chickenmetenders]

2021-2023 mamiya art I never posted here. I thought i'd drawn other characters, but it's mostly just natsumiya.....

SPOILERS for the entire game + additional doodles below the cut

design sheets for the gals

ayano girl!mamiya drawing i did in 2021 that i liked but could never figure out how to frame to look interesting

the following is evidence that I can draw characters who are not natsumiya:

ok back to natsumiya (and one more mina). umineko au

ryoukiteki high school life

beach episode outfits. these ended up being a prototype for my entry in the summer zine. natsume's wearing an asuna t-shirt (don't you think he'd be a HUGE kiriasu shipper??). sao aired in 2012... but the first season only finished december 23 2012, so he missed the last few episode. aw:(

although i heard the second part of sao s1 is bad, so maybe it's a good thing he missed it? lol

looking back at all this art, this sure is a lot of natsume and girl!mamiya, huh...

i HAVE drawn ryou and keito, okay. you can see it in the summer zine and also the white day zine!

[toasttt11]

hate it

December 5, 2021

Mary’s shoulders shook as she walked up the front steps into her house. She’s having a horrible day. Her hockey team was even worse than normal today and her whole body aches from how many times she was hit. She’s misses Grace and her Dad as she only has seen them once in the last few months since she moved to Michigan.

It seemed like she was the only one struggling with the move. Will is perfectly fine with his new friends and he seems to love it here, Her mom seemed so content in Michigan and loved being near all the lakes. Grace didn’t even seem to mind that they were in Michigan and she barely seems to talk to Mary anymore and her Dad only wanted to talk about hockey when they did talk.

And Mary doesn’t get to play with Will meaning they don’t have games at the same time anymore and she has to be at her games alone with no one there watching.

Mary doesn’t even enjoy playing hockey as much anymore.

She just wanted to be done with this horrible team and go back home to Boston. She hates it here.

Mary sniffled walking into the house pulling off her snow clothes quickly and tossing her bag onto the floor and letting out a shuttering breath.

“Ellie Belly?” Ryan called out softly hearing Mary walk in, Gabe wasn’t home and Will was in the bathroom.

Ryan got up frowning as he got no answer and saw Mary standing in the entry way with the saddest frown, teary eyes and her chest was going up and down quickly, “Ellie?” He gently touched her arm making her look up at him.

She wanted Will but Ryan wasn’t a bad option, she just sniffled and lunged forward hugging Ryan tightly as her shoulders shook.

Ryan froze but slowly wrapped his arms around her firmly letting her rest her forehead on his chest as he shoulders shook with silent cry’s. This was the first ever real hug they have shared.

“Sshh it’s okay.” Ryan softly cooed rubbing her back gently, he didn’t know who or what made her cry but he hated it and he was going to find what made her so upset.

Mary just cried harder clinging to him more, she felt safe in Ryan’s arms and didn’t want to move away. Ryan reminded of her being at Boston, like home.

Will walked out of the bathroom and paused as he looked at the entry way seeing Ryan hugging a crying Mary, “Mars what happened?” Will asked immediately in big brother protective mode.

Mary reluctantly let go of Ryan ignoring the feeling of disappointment letting him go because she did want Will’s comfort and Ryan frowned slightly not wanting to let go of her.

Mary just clung to Will hugging him tightly and Will automatically hugged her back resting a firm hand on her back hoskins her to him, “What’s wrong?” Will gently cooed frowning at how much Mary was crying, she rarely cry’s so something must be bothering her a lot and for a while to make her cry like this.

“I hate it here.” Mary cried out her whole body shaking with sobs as Ryan rested a soft hand on her back sharing a concerned look with Will.

“In Michigan?” Will gently asked he had noticed Mary has been less happy lately and knew she missed their sister and dad.

“Everyone is so mean here.” Mary cried out feeling Ryan and Will both rubbing her back softly.

“On your team?” Will clarified with an upset frown, he didn’t know she wasn’t liking her team or they were mean.

Mary nodded against his chest, “They hate me. They said mean things and always hit me on the ice.” Mary mumbled out confessing some of the things her hockey team has been count.

Will and Ryan shared a look filled with guilt, anger and protectiveness. They could not believe neither of them saw how her team is and it’s been going on for months, they would be brining Colleen to the rink and making sure that stops tomorrow. Mary would not be treated like this any longer.

“What else Mars?” Will asked her gently.

“You’re forgetting about me.” Mary quietly mumbled feeling childish for saying it.

Will froze hearing her words and it broke his heart to think his baby sister and his favorite person in the world thinks he is forgetting about her, Will gently pulled her away from the hug and cupped her face, “Hey look at me Mars.”

Mary glanced up making Will seeing her puffy red eyes and tear stained cheeks, “I could never forget about you. I know it’s different to not be playing together anymore but i promise you i could never forget you, your my sister Mary and your my built in best friend and you will always be my favorite wing ever. Okay?” Will firmly but gently spoke to her.

Mary softly nodded, “It’s Will and Mary forever alright?” Will softly reminded her. Will could never forget about Mary he’s always thinking of her when they are apart and would love to spend every moment with his baby sister.

Mary cracked a small smile making both Will and Ryan let out a sigh of relief.

“Feel a bit better?” Ryan asked her softly in his softest voice that he only ever uses for Mary making Will glance at him for a second before keeping his attention fully on Mary.

Mary softly nodded still leaning into Will.

“I think we need to have a movie night!” Will grinned brightly at the two and started guiding Mary to the couch and Ryan walked away heading upstairs for a second.

Mary sat down on the couch as Will grabbed the remote and found a fast and furious movie as Ryan came downstairs holding Mary’s favorite purple throw blanket and her blue octopus making her perk up and he smiled covering her with the blanket and handing her the octopus before sitting down next to her and Will sat down on the other side of her.

Mary let out a small sigh and rested her head on Will’s shoulder and her hand rested on Ryan’s hand as the movie starter.

[justforbooks]

Joan Didion’s ‘astonishingly intimate’ diary to be published

The author recorded her thoughts on alcoholism, depression and her complex relationship with her daughter Quintana in the book, Notes to John

A journal found in Joan Didion’s home is to be published in April.

Discovered in a filing cabinet next to the American writer’s desk after her death in 2021, Notes to John is addressed to Didion’s husband, John Gregory Dunne, who died in 2003. Its entries begin in December 1999, and recount sessions Didion was having with a psychiatrist at the time.

As we know from a letter she wrote to a friend at that time, her family had been having “a rough few years” when Didion started writing Notes to John. The psychiatrist sessions detailed in the journal include discussions of Didion’s childhood, alcoholism, depression and her adopted daughter, Quintana. Didion spoke in the sessions about her relationship with Quintana, who lived with mental illness and alcoholism, and died in 2005 aged 39.

According to UK publisher 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins, the conversations Didion had with the psychiatrist “were central to Didion’s understanding of the themes she turned to in her brilliant late works, Where I Was From, The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights.”

Kishani Widyaratna, publishing director at 4th Estate said: “It is a great honour to be bringing this extraordinary new book to readers. Notes to John offers us a deeply moving and astonishingly intimate portrait of the person behind the revered literary persona, and rare insight into the genesis of some Didion’s most treasured works.”

The announcement that these post-psychiatry notes, discovered by Didion’s literary executors in an unlabelled folder shortly after she died in 2021, are to be published in April has raised questions around the ethics of posthumous publishing.

Didion left no instructions to her trustees – her literary editor Lynn Nesbit, and two of her longtime editors, Shelley Wanger and Sharon DeLano – about how to handle the deeply private journal after her death from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

In total, 46 entries were found – printed out and placed in chronological order – in a portable filing cabinet next to her desk. They will be published in their entirety, with only minimal editing, such as footnotes and corrections of typos, under the title Notes to John.

The book is already being hyped as “an unmissable publication” from “one of the most iconic writers of our time” by its UK publisher 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins. According to the publisher, the “meticulous” notes of conversations Didion had with her psychiatrist were central to Didion’s understanding of the themes she turned to in her celebrated late works, such as her memoirs The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights, in which she writes about Quintana and John’s deaths.

A close friend of Didion, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Observer: “I have no doubt that this document will further our collective astonishment at Joan’s work, but I also cannot think of anything more private than notes kept about one’s psychiatry sessions. It’s not my place to say what Joan would have wanted, but as someone who loved her very much, the publication of these pages makes me terrifically sad.”

They said that, after discovering that Didion’s literary executors had decided to publish the notes, several of Didion’s closest friends and family members had shared similar feelings of disappointment and anguish: “The collective feeling in her inner circle is that her privacy has been betrayed … While I, of course, understand the public thirst for this document, given Joan’s extraordinary place in American letters, Joan was nothing if not meticulous and intentional with the details she decided to share – and not share – in The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. Anything beyond that seems to me a tremendous betrayal of her privacy by the people she trusted the most.”

Dr Rod Rosenquist, who lectures at the University of Northampton on the ethics of posthumous publishing, said the journal was bound to generate interest due to the “cult of Joan Didion”, which saw items such as her $12 blank notebooks fetch $9,000 at the auction of her estate by her heirs in 2022. “She is a celebrity writer within literary circles … and what I think is so interesting about public figures is that they are owned – manipulated in some ways – by the public,” he said.

Readers are hungry to better understand the inner life of an author they admire, he added: “That’s the very nature of celebrity.”

It is for this reason that writers such as Henry James and Charles Dickens burned their personal papers while they were still alive. But since Didion did not do this or instruct her literary executors not to publish the notes, leaving them “carefully organised” near her desk, where they were bound to be found, then “legally everyone’s acting within their rights and acting in ways that the market encourages them to act”, he said.

On an ethical and emotional level, however, he personally found the decision to publish Notes to John “disturbing”: “I don’t feel comfortable with anyone’s private journals being published this early.” Although there has been “public interest” in posthumously publishing the journal of a great writer many years after their death, he thinks that, even in these circumstances, therapy should be protected. “That’s my position. But I do think it’s debatable.”

Paul Bogaards, a spokesperson for the Didion Dunne Literary Trust, said the trust “respectfully declined” to comment.

Didion’s biographer, Tracy Daugh­erty, said he did not think Didion – “a careful curator of her image” – would have assumed that the personal nature of the journal protected it from “those who’d want to make it public”. “She was not naive about either publishing or human nature … Leaving behind something as rich as this journal promises to be could not be accidental.”

Didion was in decline in her later years but she was not incapacitated, he said. “She had to know that this journal would be, in her terms, ‘gold’.”

Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, California, in 1934 and worked as a journalist before publishing her first novel, Run River, in 1963. She went on to write four more novels including A Book of Common Prayer and Democracy. She was also well known for her essays such as Goodbye to All That and The White Album, and her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2005. In 2013, she was presented with a National Humanities Medal by Barack Obama and, in the same year, she won the PEN Center USA’s Lifetime Achievement award.

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means,” Didion said of her work.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[remembertheplunge]

So, why do I write then?

Above is a photo of my December 8, 2021 journal entry. The typed version of the entry follows:

12/8/2021. 1:09pm Upstairs. Preservation Coffee House

So, why do I write, then? It's really not about you, future reader. It's more about embracing the phenomenon of basic being--catching existence on the fly. Any point in time, any "now"---is a potential integration opening.

[itzynabi]

warnings: swearing; mention of sex, fainting, disassociation

an: this was released on march 4 2024

eve’s masterlist // articles

Dispatch Publishes Exposé on ITZY’s Eve’s Fight With JYP Entertainment

There is one main antagonist

Back in January of 2024, ITZY member Eve filed a lawsuit to terminate her exclusive contract with JYP Entertainment. In March, she was granted a preliminary injunction. Today, Dispatch released a damning exposé on Eve’s feud with JYP Entertainment. In the article, Dispatch released texts between Eve and Director A.

The article begins with a text that Eve sent to Park Jinyoung (also known as JYP) in December of 2018.

Hello, PD-nim,

Thank you for adding me to the lineup of ITZY! I know I didn’t do as well as you hoped on Produce 48, but thank you for giving me this opportunity. I’ll make sure to be an artist that gives her all.

Eve has revealed that Park Jinyoung told her that her performance on Produce 48 would determine whether or not she would debut in ITZY. This text displays Eve’s gratitude at being in ITZY despite not making it to the final debut group of Produce 48 – IZ*ONE. When it was revealed that Eve was rigged out of IZ*ONE in favour of other idols, Eve found out that Director A already knew and had left her to feel insecure about her performance. This lack of communication would be a common theme in Eve’s career going forward.

In early April of 2021, Director A sent Eve a message about her appearance on a variety show that he had arranged without her knowledge. The show they were discussing is believed to be Sea of Hope.

In September of 2021, Eve was talking with fans on Bubble when a fan asked her about her solo schedules. “I’m an employee, so I just do whatever the company tells me to,” Eve said.

In 2022, Eve had her solo debut with the mini album ‘diary entries’. The album was released a few weeks before ITZY had a comeback, and Eve reportedly displayed hesitance at how close the two releases were. During an episode of I Live Alone, Eve told her brother, SHINee’s Key, that her schedule was so full that she had a panic attack.

The next text exchange is from July of 2022. Eve told Director A that she wasn’t feeling well and asked to sit out of a performance. Based on the timing of this conversation, it is believed to be the night before Eve fainted during ITZY’s pre-recording.

Dispatch then alleged that Eve was treated differently to her members. It can be seen in an Instagram live that Eve and Yeji did in October of 2023.

Comment: Have you seen your families recently?

Eve: I’m not allowed to.

Yeji: What do you mean? We are.

Eve: I’m not allowed to.

Yeji: (Whispering) Director?

EVe. (Nods)

That sentiment was repeated when Eve went on Amazing Saturday to promote her latest solo album ‘until spring’ and said she hasn’t seen her parents since early 2023.

The next text exchange between Eve and Director A echo the same issue once more. This exchange was from November or 2023 when Eve’s mom was in Seoul. Eve mentions the fact that she wasn’t allowed to go home during Chuseok.

On a phone call between the two in December of 2023, Director A was talking to Eve about the comeback that she’d be having in February of this year.

Director A: This will be an anticipated album so do well

Eve: Why do I keep having solo schedules when I’m not a soloist?

Director A: Because the fans like it

Eve: No, they don’t. They keep swearing at me for all of these schedules. Isn’t it time for one of the other members to debut?

Director A: Don’t worry about that.

EVe: It’s like you want to work with me until I die from all of this. Just give me a break. I’m busy preparing for two comebacks right now.

Director A: Just like a real professional. Well done.

Fnas and non-fans alike have pointed out how JYP Entertainment doesn’t do much to protect EVe from hate that was sent her way, instead using her as a shield from criticism.

In early January of 2024, the two conversed again. Director A was scolding Eve for missing schedules. It is unsure what schedules he is referring to.

He made the same complaint in February and Eve went on to list how Director A continuously failed to do his job in a way that makes it easy for employees to carry on their duties. He threatened to sue her.

Eve mentioned experiencing symptoms such as fainting and disassociation due to her busy schedules, which were seen earlier this year in her The Manager episode and her ‘until spring’ album documentary. Fans have also noticed that Eve has lost her usual excitement and energy, instead constantly looking tired and worn out. Eve herself has said that she doesn’t enjoy performing anymore, she just enjoys being with her members and seeing fans.

Dispatch sent Eve a list of questions when they heard of her lawsuit against JYP Entertainment. Here are Eve’s answers.

Q: Did you know there was an issue with the way you were being treated?

Eve: Yes.

Q: What moment gave you the push to end your contract?

Eve: It wasn’t like there was one specific moment. It was just moments piling on each other. People can only endure for so long before they fight back.

Q: This must have been a shock to the people around you.

Eve: Not really actually. Talking about it with my members was encouragement to go through with it. A few staff members said they were sick of the way I was being treated and wanted me to leave the company and go to a better one. When I told my family, they didn’t even pretend to be shocked, they just asked me what I would like as a treat to myself.

Q: Some might say that you treated Director A in a disrespectful manner.

Eve: That was my intention.

Q: Did you know he was the one pulling the strings in your career?

Eve: Yes, I did. At first I thought it was PD-nim because he would be the one to tell me things, but then I realised he’s not bold enough to do something like that and I realised that every time I didn’t listen to him, he’d look a bit worried. When I found out that Director Park was just telling PD-nim to do these things to me, I felt bad for PD-nim. Being disrespected in the company you started is kind of loser behaviour if I’m being honest.

Q: How did your members take the news?

Eve: I talked to them about it after I started considering leaving the company. I told them what was going on in my head and things like that, and they told me that they would support me no matter what. In fact, I was concerned about how this would affect them and ITZY’s career, but they told me that I should focus on being happy. With their encouragement, I was able to do this.

Q: JYP Entertainment argued that you were rude to the staff. Is that true?

Eve: I’m not one to be rude without reason. If you are rude to me, then I will act the same way towards you. If I was rude towards a staff member, they know what they did to deserve it.

Meanwhile, K-Netizens have already started reacting to the article:

“Wah, Kim Nabi is really amazing”

“Can she come talk to my bossㅜㅜ”

“Is Dispatch expecting me to be on the company’s side???”

“From what I can see, she’s right to want to leave the company”

“Kibum wasn’t joking when he said that she can be mean when she wants toㅋㅋㅋ”

“Well done Evie-yah!!!!!!!!!!!!! You did the right thing”

“They kept her from seeing her family…. Aren’t they just shameless”

“ㅋㅋㅋ She told his wife that he’s cheating”

“The fact that she stayed in the company because of her members proves how much she loves them”

“She’s so good at swearing”

“People can’t call her disrespectful because she at least called him ‘saekki-nim’ㅋㅋㅋ”

“It must have been hard for her”

“And I hope all of those fools that were cursing at her feel stupid now. They should repent”

“Princess-nim, we’re on your side!!!”

“For her to be fainting almost every day… Eve, it’s okay now!”

“Shouldn’t JYP just let her leave now ㅋㅋㅋ before more information comes out”

“Just imagine how much stress she must’ve been under”

“Why does it sound like Dispatch is on the company’s side?”

“We should also applaud the members for looking out for her and staying by her side”

“San and Eve are dating?”

The conflict between Eve and JYP Entertainment seems to be another case of companies taking advantage of their artists.

©️ kim nabi

[coquelicoq]

kazuo ishiguro books in order of my enjoyment

the remains of the day (1989). read december 2021. first time i tried to read this i gave up because i was so bored so maybe this should be further down the list, except that the second time i read it i kept going and realized ohhhh it's a masterpiece and now it's one of my favorite books ever.

never let me go (2006). read january 2021. this was the first book of his i read and the one that convinced me to give remains of the day another shot. i was blown away with the craft on every level. incredible reading experience.

an artist of the floating world (1986). read january 2025. quite liked this one. in some ways it is doing something very similar to remains of the day but less well. not as subtle. similar themes of responsibility and blame, but the ending didn't hit me as hard. i really love how the unreliable narration morphs by the end into the narrator being gaslighted?? so that for the reader it's multiple levels of unreliability.

klara and the sun (2021). read february 2022. i found this one quite confusing. ultimately left too many things unexplained for what i was trying to get from it. didn't dislike it, but i'm glad it wasn't the first of his books that i read.

the buried giant (2015). read january 2023. i actually completely forgot i had read this and now can't really remember anything about it. i think the source of/explanation for the unreliable narration was less interesting to me in this one.

a pale view of hills (1982). oh shit i don't even have an entry for this in my spreadsheet so i don't know when i read it. must have been 2023 or 2024. this was his first novel and you can see him trying things that he perfects seven years later in remains of the day. didn't quite hang together for me from what i recall. another one where if i had read this one first i probably wouldn't have read anything else by him.

[riddlebirdweek]

Welcome to January everybody! Who's ready for some statistics? My peeps, you absolutely knocked it out of the park.

I made this year's comparison with the numbers from the first year we ran the event, which up until now had been the high point. Those figures are the ones in blue (light for art, dark for fics) and as you can see they start out higher. However, they dropped significantly in 2021 while 2024's, in pink for art and purple for fics, remain far more consistent. In total this year we had 112 entries whereas the best total previously was 80.

This has been such a successful year, beyond what I could possibly hope, and I owe it all to you fabulous creators and the eager audience who shared and promoted the event. In fact, I have been so buoyed by this that I am launching an additional two events during 2025, one focused on the Riddler and the other for the Penguin. Check out @riddlerweek or @penguinweek if you'd be interested in supporting either (or both) of those. And of course expect another riddlebird week next December!

[jonmartinweek]

Jonmartin Week is Looking for Moderators

Hello all!

This is your moderator (@littlecactiguy) speaking. I started this event in 2021 to celebrate Jon and Martin following MAG200. Since then it has grown exponentially. To the point where now it is getting to a size where honestly I could use some help ensuring it continues to be a fun event in our fandom for years to come. Ergo, I’m searching for 1-2 people to join me as the moderator team.

Below I’ve listed out general expectations and responsibilities of what a Jonmartin Week Moderator will do. If you’re interested, please read through them and answer the questions on the linked form. I cannot guarantee you will be chosen to become a mod, but you will be considered.

General Expectations

18+ years of age

Accepting that all other Magnus ships are valid and not bashing them

You recognize that this blog is not a platform to be used for anything other than its direct purpose. There are a lot of things happening in the world right now, but this blog is not the place for them. It was established and remains a space to create and find joy in the jmart ship. Attempting to use it for anything other than that purpose could see your removal as mod.

If you reveal yourself to be racist, queerphobic, antisemitic, or prejudiced against a group in such a way, you will be removed as a mod.

If you are chosen, you will be made a member of the Jonmartin Week blog, but not an admin of it. What this means is that you will be able to reblog to Jonmartin Week, but you won’t have access to backend settings or blog editing control. After your first event as a mod, this could change, but not before.

Responsibilities:

The Prompt Submission/Voting Process

Prompt Submissions and Voting are decided through Google Forms. At this point, the process is fairly well-established and runs smoothly. Prompts are collected over a period, placed in an alphabetized list, and then presented for voting, where people have the opportunity to choose their top 14. If there is a high enough number of prompts submitted, there could potentially be multiple voting rounds.

Submissions generally take place Late November/Early December, with Voting following in Late December, and the Official Prompts Announcement generally happening by January.

A Mod will:

Aid in organizing the submitted prompts for voting and remove any submissions that don’t qualify (ex. a repeat of one of the past year’s prompts).

Discuss and decide which prompts will be paired with each other, and on which days those prompts will be placed.

Mods have access to the event prompts before their official announcement. The expectation will be that you share them with no one outside the mod team prior to the announcement going out.

During the Event

Jonmartin Week sees submissions in the form of both Tumblr posts and postings to the AO3 Collection.

Mods are responsible for reblogging event submissions to the event blog with organizational tags:

Event Year (ex. Event Year: 2024)

Type (ex. Type: Fanfic, Type: Fanart, etc.)

Day & which prompt was used (ex. Day 1 Prompt: First Kiss, or Day 1 Prompt: Season 1).

On AO3, mods are responsible for reading through fic submissions to the AO3 Collection and approving their entry into it.

The Magnus Protocol

This past year (2024) content relating to The Magnus Protocol was not allowed in the event. We will potentially be revisiting this topic again prior to the 2025 event. A mod will be expected to help lead the discussion along in a firm, but respectful manner.

Link to Moderator Application

[sztansheadache]

my top 35 of esc 2025 so far

like last year here is my top with reviews (because if anything i’m a yapper).

i decided not to include georgia in my ranking as i feel like we have another belarus 2021 situation, where the song is undeniably supporting the georgian dream party and further russian influence in the county which the georgian people have been protesting against. “freedom” my ass, if “we don’t want to put in” was dq why shouldn’t this song be as well. ebu wierd politics are on full display once again but are we really surprised atp

my top 35

1. lithuania - i don’t know if i can put into words how much i love this song. i knew form the first listen that i won’t have any other favourite if it wins eurovizija.lt. it’s eerie and deeply moving with its lyrics and especially the sound. atmospheric and raw. lukas’ voice gives me chills. the part where “tavo” is repeated like a chant leaves me absolutely speechless every single time. beautiful, i cannot get over how amazing this song is and feels. i said it many times and i’ll say it again - the 20s are lithuania’s golden age, we’ll see them wining sooner or later (my wish would be with this song but a girl can dream) (also welcome back “aija”)

2. albania - it’s actually insane, this song was released in december, i’ve been listening to in non stop since then and it hasn’t grown off me even a little bit. it’s perfect, the lyrics, the instrumental (mixing electronic sounds with traditional instruments always gets me), the performance (beatrice is such a captivating performer) honestly tirana 2026 (<-delusional)

3. belgium - give me references to rave culture and i’ll eat it up every time. sebastian’s voice is absolutely crazy, the song goes hard with the techno parts and somehow the live performance elevated it even more. i love it so much

4. finland - horny and camp - what more is there to desire? i’m actually in love with erika, her charisma has me in a chokehold. the song is fun and obnoxious (positively) and erika sells it like no one else. vundebar!!!!!! (and fuck ebu for telling her to go less horny bc apparently according to them it’s ok if a dude shows his ass or has a gay sex on scene but not when a woman wants to express her sexuality and have fun with it)

5. greece - im glad that greece has finally got over their (undeserved) nq with “oneiro mou” and came back around to sending ethnic inspired songs. klavdias voice is crystal clear, it’s actually unbelievable. the instrumental and the song as a whole are breathtaking

6. germany - germany is in my top 10, crazy times are upon us…….. but yeah i’m obsessed with this song, it’s modern it’s in german, the “balalalalaler” part doesn’t get tired for me ever a little bit. i think the best adjective to describe “baler” is cool. insanely fucking cool. good job germany (finally)

7. latvia - hypnotising, like a chant from another time, another reality. before supernova i thought this song was unstageable but somehow the performance made the song even more gorgeous. it’s just pure magic. like nothing esc stage has ever seen.

8. italy - sanremo tumblr truly won with this one. i’m so happy he’s actually going to esc, lucio is such a talented and creative artist. the song feels honest, really down to earth and heartwarmingly moving. listening to it for five days right, in a sleep deprived state probably effected my opinion but who cares. VINCITORE LUCIO

9. portugal - i actually had this song in my fdc top5, so i was quite positively surprised when it won. i enjoy this type of music a lot and portugal does it exceptionally well. the lyrics are one of the best (if not the best) of all entries. i realy hope they pull a black mamba or maro with this one bc it’s just such a beautiful song

10. ukraine - biggest grower of the year for me. i love how many beautiful indie rock songs we’ve got this year. and this one hits hard - with the parts sung by the women, the instrumental, the over all flow of the song. idk how to explain it - it’s just charming and i’m glad ukraine gave them a chance

11. sweden - all it took was three finish guys singing about sauna for sweden to send a song in swedish after 27 years. a blast of a song and a great performance to make it a whole package. fr i can’t stop replaying the melo performance, it is just so good. i can’t belive that im saying this but good job sweden

12. austria - im not always the biggest fan of opera songs at esc, but this one blends it so well with a pop ballad and the electronic outro. jjs vocals are absolutely out of this world. will this song be austria’s shot at a victory? we shall see

13. czechia - great song unfortunately suffering form an unnecessary dance break. czechia is making a name for themselves as their quality streak doesn’t break with its song. i have high hopes for the performance

14. azerbaijan- this is my guilty pleasure this year. is it extremely basic? yes. am i absolutely obsessed with the sound of this song? also yes. i dont have a reason it’s just an earwarm for me

15. switzerland- so cute. zoe’s voice is soft like a cotton candy. we needed a soothing ballad like this.

16. poland - yes i liked witcher-tarahoro more but over all it’s an ok song. im glad it’s mostly in polish. what realy makes it stick out is obviously justyna, her insane stamina and stage presence. im glad she got the chance to go again, so polska gurom i guess ????? (while i have the occasion i have to say that her song form 1995 “sama” is to this day my favourite polish esc song ever)

17. france - it didnt impress me as much as i expected but it’s still a powerful ballad with beautiful lyrics.

18. montenegro - i like a solid balkan ballad. as always i have my fingers crossed for montenegro, maybe if dons got to the finals last year, nina zizic can to……?

19. denmark - like with azerbaijan - is it an extremely basic radio song? yes. does it work and is it a good three minutes o music? also yes. with a nice staging this might be denmark best shot at qualifying in years

20. malta - i gave in to the cunty diva hype……. i’m still not the biggest fan of the melody but this is really fun, so so campy and self aware, miriana is such an icon i cannot pretend i don’t like it when kant is being served. possible grover ngl

21. iceland - a good icelandic bop. i like “biomynd” more but this is decent

22. the netherlands - while “run with u” and “hallucination” work for me (as the radio friendly songs of the year) i kinda forget that “cest la vie” exists….. i really like how smoothly the languages blend in this song and by production standards it’s really good but i just can’t get into it unfortunately

23. norway - i can’t really say much about this song besides that it’s well produced and executed. it’s pleasant to the ear

24. estonia - my immense dislike for this song has lessened a bit since eesti laul. i still think it’s not funny and it won’t do as well as many people think it will. it’s not another kaarija as he had a from zero to a hero, people’s champion kind of story, it’s not another joost as he had a personal history and message under all the unseriouseness and, at least for me, tommy cash is just there. (fun fact one of his backup dancers is kajtek januszkiewicz, polish waacker)

25. slovenia - i wanted be one of those people saying this is just a snooze fest of a song, perfect to fill up the bottom of my ranking. i don’t have a heart to do that though. this song feels (and is) so deeply personal, the lyrics tell a story which is both poetic and very raw in portraying a struggle with loving someone terminally ill. kinda reminds me of one of my favourite albums of all time - “hospice” by the antlers. it wasn’t my first choice from slovenia but this song will have a little corner in my heart for sure

26. croatia - on paper i should love this. alternative, kind of edgy, kind of earrapey but something just feels off about it. i was exited to see marko back at dora because i loved “moli za nas” but this just misses the mark for me. it’s like under produced?? and more cringy and edgy lyrically

27. cyprus - i like the instrumental but the lyrics and the delivery ruin it for me unfortunately.

28. san marino - im still baffled that they actually chose the sanremo intro (or should i say the song that was like a sleep paralysis demon for sanremo watchers this year) as their entry. the funniest thing ever actually. for previously mentioned sanremo reasons i cannot put this higher but san marino you do you and have fun with it

29. spain - i like the revamp more that the original actually but yeah it didn’t grow on me as the other diva did. it’s that kind of basic that it just slips through your memory. i couldn’t even hum the melody to save my life

30. uk - it started nice and then it got confusing. idk what to make of this song, it’s like 3 songs in one glued together with some pretty nice vocals but they cannot save this song for me. another 0p for uk

31. serbia - listen i adore balkan ballads, im still waiting for zijeko joksimovic to save music and drop another one of his masterpieces, but “mila” definitely isn’t a substitute. its kind of boring, dated and with the context of current political situation in serbia and how pze went this year because of it, the song just falls incredibly flat

32. australia - you either love it or hate it. and well…….. call me a hypocrite for putting finland so high and this one so low but i just simply don’t like this song. the melody feels off, i don’t like his whispery tone, not my vibe and not my favourite sexual innuendo this year. i don’t want a taste of the milkshake man, get him away form me

33. armenia - im writting this before the revamp but idk something about this song feels forced, it’s dated as well, prags vocals aren’t great idk i don’t like it that’s all

34. luxembourg - too junior esc for my taste

35. ireland - im so sorry but everything about this song annoys me. the melody and emmys vocal tone are one thing (both i don’t like) but the fucking lyrics about the dog that got sent to space by the ussr and probably died in agony after years of solitude - and we’re supposed to have a “laika party in the sky” - don’t know if i should laugh of cry. one of the most bizarre songs i’ve ever heard. i wish i didn’t

[valtionrautatiet-official]

An introduction to VR multiple units, part 5: Sm6

The Sm6 Allegro. When I started this series about our multiple units, I first thought I would cover the Sm6 in the "operated for others" -series, then thought I would leave it out altogether... but events overtook my plans and now I'm introducing them as VR's own multiple units, although they are not yet in operation as VR trains.

An Sm6 unit on the Kerava-Lahti line, currently the only bit of high-speed rail in Finland, 2011. Teemu Peltonen, Vaunut.org.

Since the 1990s, two daily return trains had been operated between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg, Russia: the Sibelius, which used VR carriages, and the Repin, which used RŽD carriages. In 2006, the two rail operators decided to replace the locomotive-hauled trains, which took five hours to make the trip, with jointly-owned high-speed trains. For this purpose, a new jointly-owned subsidiary Karelian Trains was established.

Two Sm6's during pre-service entry test runs at Vainikkala, the border station between Finland and Russia, with the locomotive-hauled St. Petersburg train Sibelius on the right. Lari Nylund, Vaunut.org.

After a round of tenders, Karelian Trains opted for the Pendolino design (already used by VR in the form of the Sm3) from Alstom in 2007, with four units to be delivered in 2010 (there was also an option for two additional units, which was never taken up). Although the exterior design of the new Sm6 units was almost identical to the Sm3, in terms of technology they feature numerous improvements compared to the older class, and were outfitted to operate both on the Russian and Finnish electric systems. Due to the small difference in gauge between the two countries (Russia uses 1520 mm but Finland 1524 mm) the trains were given near-unique gauge of 1522 mm.

Interior of the Sm6's first-class carriage as delivered. Otto Karikoski, Wikimedia Commons.

Branded Allegro, the new Sm6 units begun operations in December 2010, cutting the travel time between Helsinki and St. Petersburg to 3½ hours. In addition to services offered on Sm3 units, the Sm6 has (or perhaps more accurately had) a space for the border patrol to use, as passport control was done en-route on the train, and a kid's playroom. The original grey-dominated interiors were replaced by new, more colourful blue designs in 2018-2019.

The new interiors were not in use for long before the Covid-19 pandemic caused for passenger train services between Finland and Russia to be suspended in March 2020. The Allegro services were restored in December 2021 (the Helsinki-Moscow sleeper train Tolstoy, however, was not), and ran for less than four months until closed again in March 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (VR subsequently stopped freight traffic to Russia too - other Finnish rail operators continue to serve freight to and from Russia, however).

Second-class carriage in the post-2019 look. VR.

After March 2022, the four Sm6 units languished at VR's Ilmala depot in Helsinki, without maintenance as RŽD refused to make any payments for their share in Karelian Trains (which, although jointly Finnish-Russian owned, was registered in Finland). In March 2023, when Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin visited Kiev, Ukrainian Railroads requested the Sm6 units be handed over to them, but nothing ever came of this. Instead, in December 2023, when Karelian Trains was on the brink of bankruptcy due to RŽD not paying their share of the company's bills, VR bought out Karelian Trains and took over the Sm6 units.

The trains will be given a thorough technical refit, which will include removal of the systems to operate with Russian electrification, and will enter services on routes within Finland in 2025. How they will be branded is unknown, though a VR representative said in an interview they will not be called Allegro. Presumably this will make the Sm6 the first VR rolling stock class to be fully painted in the new livery.

[black-arcana]

IN THIS MOMENT: We 'Will Now Be Stepping Away To Take A Break And Create The Next Chapter Of Music

Grammy Award-nominated act IN THIS MOMENT has thanked fans for their support during the band's just-completed headlining tour across North America, featuring special guests KIM DRACULA, NATHAN JAMES and MIKE'S DEAD. "The Godmode Tour Part 2", which continued the celebration of the release of IN THIS MOMENT's 2023 album "Godmode", saw the band perform at arenas and amphitheaters across the country.

Earlier today (Thursday, December 12),IN THIS MOMENT released the following message via social media: "ITM just wants to thank everybody for all of their overwhelming support for this last 'Godmode' album cycle. We appreciate you all more than words can even express.

"ITM will now be stepping away to take a break and create the next chapter of music."

"Godmode" arrived in October 2023 via BMG. The LP was produced by Kane Churko (ROB ZOMBIE, DISTURBED, PAPA ROACH) and Tyler Bates. Bates produced, wrote songs for, and played multiple instruments on albums by MARILYN MANSON, BUSH and ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell. He is best known, however, for scoring the box office smash "300", the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series "Californication", the "Guardians Of The Galaxy" and "John Wick" film franchises. IN THIS MOMENT's song "I Would Die For You" appeared on the soundtrack for "John Wick: Chapter 4", for which Bates wrote the score.

With a Grammy nomination ("The In-Between", 2021),platinum and gold record sales, multiple Top 25 entries on the Billboard Top 200 ("Black Widow" and "Ritual"),hits including "Whore", "Blood" and "Adrenalize" and career streams of more than 1.3 billion, you'd think IN THIS MOMENT might rest on their laurels. Instead, they've created "Godmode", 10 dynamic songs that mark a new high for the quintet, further cementing their legacy in the heavy music world. Proof positive is in "Godmode"'s first single, the industrial-heavy yet ultra-melodic "The Purge", and its darkly cinematic video directed by Jensen Noen (BRING ME THE HORIZON, DEMI LOVATO). From the portentous start of the '90s-tinged "Godmode" with Maria Brink's powerful primal scream to the pitch-perfect cover of Bjork's 1995 "Army Of Me" to the impassioned pain to partnership in "Everything Starts And Ends With You", "Godmode" is a cut above.

IN THIS MOMENT, a touring juggernaut who've slayed stages worldwide at Ozzfest, Warped Tour, Download, Knotfest and Rocklahoma, put out "Mother" in 2020, during the pandemic, giving fans something to hold on in during that bleak time, and earning "The In-Between" the band's first Grammy nod. It was 2021 when Howorth and Brink first wrote with Bates on "I Would Die For You". Following that collaboration, the duo were writing organically, for pleasure, not focused on the next album. As the pandemic waxed and waned, Howorth learned programming, and created music around synthwave sounds, which Brink leaned into. Her lyrical ideas arose both from soul-searching and "humanity and so much crisis and so many heart-wrenching things in the world. That negativity and darkness is how songs like 'The Purge' came about," Brink explained.

Photo credit: Joe Cotela