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coochiequeens · 1 year ago

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By Reduxx Team November 6, 2023

Editor’s Note: Reduxx has submitted a detailed report on the subject of this article to CyberTip, a leading digital child protective authority which connects reports with local law enforcement. In accordance with our ethical standards, CyberTip was contacted PRIOR to the writing of this article.

A trans-identified male who promotes nudism has been reported to child protective authorities following a disturbing video beginning to circulate on social media showing him exposing his genitals and breasts in the presence of a small child.

The video first began to circulate on November 5. Reduxx is withholding the direct link to the video as the child’s face is not censored.

In the video, an adult post-operative transgender male is seen lounging nude in what appears to be a family residence. The man spreads his legs repeatedly, exposing his surgically-constructed vagina, while a young boy is sitting a few feet in front of him. He then stands to retrieve a trans-pride flag which he holds in front of his body.

Reduxx has identified the male in the video as Marie Willa Bobo-Smith, a nudist activist who resides in Fort Bragg, California.

Bobo-Smith, formerly known as Maurice Smith, has been a pro-nudist activist for a number of years, maintaining a strong presence in the nudist community since 2012.

Bobo-Smith prior to his transition.

Bobo-Smith has maintained a blog titled Simple Naturist for 13 years, regularly posting lengthy diatribes about his belief that public nudity should be made legal and protected by the law.

“As Americans, we live in an insane world, where you can legally carry and conceal a gun, but risk imprisonment should anyone see your genitals,” Bobo-Smith wrote in December of 2012. “We live in a world where children entertain fantasies of killing innocents in video games, but the sight of a nipple is unacceptable and psychologically damaging.”

Bobo-Smith began transitioning in 2018, beginning a hormone regimen. The next year, he launched a GoFundMe campaign requesting donations to help him afford the “gender confirmation surgery” he wanted to undergo with Dr. Marci Bowers in the Bay Area.

Bowers, a trans-identified male, is the current President of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health, and has become controversial for his role in promoting the medical transitioning of children.

An old Vimeo account belonging to Bobo-Smith pre-transition featured videos of the man doing a number of tasks while nude, including cooking, washing his dogs, and cleaning.

But in some of the videos he is in public, such as in one where he is naked while driving, and another while he is pumping gas at a service station.

In 2021, Bobo-Smith participated in a nudist rally in Fort Bragg, giving a speech at the event in which he condemned the stigma surrounding nudity and relating it to an experience he had walking topless following the hormone-induced growth of his breasts.

“Imagine: that as a transgender woman I am the living embodiment of a sexual double standard. Men can walk around top free and post photos of themselves on the internet and when a woman does it, she then becomes a slut, a whore and illegal,” he declared.

Bobo-Smith has been married since 1993, with his wife remaining with him throughout his transition. According to his social media history, he has children and grandchildren.

Over the years, Bobo-Smith has admitted to exposing his children to his genitalia, slamming critics of the practice as close-minded puritans. He insists there are no sinister motives to the practice, and advocates for nudism as a “lifestyle.”

In one post recently shared to his Instagram, Bobo-Smith uploaded a photo of a child’s doll representing a little girl with a penis. Bobo-Smith describes keeping a stuffed animals in his bedroom, along with a child’s doll intended to resemble a little girl with a penis.

“I got to have a great conversation with my grandson [name redacted] this morning. He’s six years old. He finally saw this naked doll sitting amongst our stuffed animals in mine and Marge’s bedroom,” Bobo-Smith describes. “When he saw it, he shockingly exclaimed ‘meemaw!'”

Bobo-Smith then describes a short exchange in which the child says “boys have penises,” to which he responds: “some boys have a penis and some boys have a vulva.”

On TikTok, Bobo-Smith has claimed he also has fostered children, with other “nudists” curiously asking him how he managed to get approval to become a foster parent despite his open nudism.

In the comments from a TikTok video uploaded in May, Bobo-Smith advised another nudist aspiring to be a foster parent that his nudism had been “addressed and resolved” at one point during the fostering process.

While Bobo-Smith has now deleted his TikTok account, Reduxx was able to archive multiple videos Bobo-Smith published following the initial outburst of concern prompted by the footage of him exposing himself to a child.

“People on the bird app formerly known as Twitter seem really shocked by a recent post of mine and asked ‘you mean your family and your friends have all seen you naked?’ Well, yeah. Everyone I know has seen me naked,” Bobo-Smith says. “I see nudity as normal and I do my utmost to show other people that nudity is a normal thing.”

#Marie Willa Bobo-Smith is Maurice Smith #usa #California #fort bragg #If he needs 1k for the surgery how is he going to take care of his post surgery cate?#Is he going to expect his wife to support him financially and be a nurse during recovery?#He has grandkids #He keeps children's toys in his bedroom #He was an exhibitionist before coming out as trans #Another midlife crisis transition

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nobodysdaydreams · 1 year ago

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I'm too sick to think of a clever title, but I finished the time loop episode.

(Or my reaction to episodes 48-49 of Wolf359)

Welcome back dear readers! I'm sorry it took so long to get to this (I know, I know, it's been a while), but now that I have fallen under the weather, it seems as good a time as any to catch up on some Wolf359 instead of doing the actual work I have to do. I can't say for sure when I'll get to the rest of Wolf359 because work starts tomorrow, but I hope to react to more soon. Please enjoy!

Tagging the mutuals who got me invested in this, and if you want to be tagged or untagged from these posts, lmk, or you can follow my blog or simply follow the tag "#bods wolf359 reactions". Anyone who has followed me for a while knows my updates are inconsistent, so I apologize in advance for that and for any spelling/grammar mistakes in my posts.

@sophieswundergarten @oflightningandstars @acollectionofcuriousreblogs @herawell @commsroom

Episode 48: Theta Scenario

What a musical introduction! Is that a harp I hear? Who is this? Who is Dr. Gillan? Who is Dr. Smith? What? Who is Grayson? What is the incident?

Well it is festive music...oh ew it's Kepler.

"Partial remains." Oh dear. Alien life since 1978.

"All in good time" stop talking like a supervillain Kepler. You suck. No one likes you.

Doug 😂 "That's how they get you "ooo... don't you wanna know"" they really do just hold back enticing secrets to keep themselves alive when they have a mutiny on their hands.

The commander self destructed the ship? ...

I don't like that.

Richardson and Keller...not sure if we've met them.

Delusion??? Oh they got duplicated didn't they! Oh...

Theta scenario? Does that mean aliens or "we need to self-destruct"?

Oh aliens. And WOW...saying HILBERT outranked them...that's a low blow. And irrelevant. Even if he did, he's dead now. Promotion 🥳

"There's a theory isn't there. Show us how smart you are" is that Jacobi? Why is he there.

Oh shoot Eiffel was outside and they did copy his voice.

Yeah Lovelace's shuttle WAS consumed by the star.

And no Kepler. No one wants you to vote. You need to show more interest in a redemption arc before you vote.

"Those without hands" considerate to think of Hera. Not you Kepler.

A flare out of nowhere? Uh-oh. And yeah, the ones who come back are the aliens. Well they know who the originals are, but that would be difficult news to receive.

Oh Minkowski. I want to hug her. 🫂It would be a hard situation to be in.

SHUT IT KEPLER.

Ah yes Duck Boy. Start questioning your authority.

Kepler's great story 🙄 The decima was the aliens all along. Fantastic. Now Doug is part alien. Cool.

"He doesn't know" YES! CALL HIM OUT JACOBI!

"You can tell when he just loves the sound of his own voice" oh, you mean all the time?

"Some things are need to know even for me" aka you're a pawn Kepler.

Duplicate put a gun to his head? Uh-oh. That's not good. And then the duplicates come back??? Oh wow. So it's confirmed that the duplicates are pawns and the aliens don't care about them. They're just...cameras. Data acquisition devices.

Look. Lovelace going back to earth and the aliens taking control WOULD be a concern if it wasn't coming out of Kepler's mouth. Because Kepler is a lying liar who is only in it for himself.

"What's back on earth for me?" YOU COULD LIVE WITH EIFFEL, HERA! YOU COULD FIND A HOME THERE TOO! YOU WON'T BE HURT OR EXPERIMENTED ON.

"It doesn't have to be that way" thank you Doug.

"My brain is the size of a house" You could be turned into a truck or plane or mobile house! Maybe your brain doesn't need to be that way! Maybe that was just something Pryce did to handicap you! Don't give up on your own happiness Hera!

Final transmission? Oh dear. MORE OF THEM? How many do they need? Slight differences: short tempers, manic periods, well that does track, no offense Lovelace.

"Each iteration brings out a different angle of the original person" hm... maybe they are running experimental trials? This means we could get some interesting versions of Doug and Lovelace.

Decaying Orbit? Sabotage? Well this isn't good.

"I keep seeing people. People who aren't here. And hearing things in the walls. Clark has been going through it too."

I KNEW IT. THE EMPTY MAN.

"I think they are running experiments on us now." Probably. But why?

"I'm not going to pretend this is safe" "Then let's get far away from them" good thinking Eiffel, voice of reason.

"We need to figure out what these things want" well you could have done that without sentencing innocent people to DEATH Kepler.

"We'll go through it together" there you go Doug. See Hera, Doug is there for you.

There you go Hera. I hope you get the family they made you want.

And yeah! Screw you Kepler!

Oh of course there is one more thing. Fine time to bring it up Kepler. Of course he has another sneaky surprise in his pocket. "Do not give these things any way to go back to earth."

Well...there goes Doug and Lovelace. Oh no. This is bad.

Episode 49: Out of the Loop

"The ungrateful lout" I love Hera 😂

"Fine everything is fine" except for your fear of Ducks, Duck Boy.

I hate it when Minkowski and Eiffel fight. And quiet Jacobi, you know enough to know you were one of the bad guys. The least you could do is be a little apologetic and grateful.

"out of the two of us, which one is actually a captain" maybe you should be co-captains?

Yeah, they are gonna have to talk to Lovelace about this. She's a literal alien. The one Kepler's audio said not to return to earth. If I were her, I would have refused to go with them, for the safety of those on earth, but...if the aliens are controlling her, maybe not.

THE UNGRATEFUL LOUT AGAIN 😂 Hera is hilarious.

Wait. Wait. Wait. No. This is a time loop again! Remember, Minkowski had one like in season 1 or 2, and then I forgot about it, but now I remember! Why is the day repeating? Is this part of the alien's experiment?

AGAIN??? Oh my gosh, Lovelace is gonna go insane.

Who is Phil Conners? Oh the groundhog day guy.

EXACTLY! MINKOWSKI HAS HAD DAY REPEATING TOO!

"I did tell you. Repeatedly" Thank you, Minkowski!

"Only you notice it" Lovelace, that's not what they meant. And shut it Duck Boy. Minkowski experienced it too and she's not an alien. Maybe. Probably.

"It can't go on forever right?" Stay up until midnight with everyone in a specific spot to find out!

Oh my gosh what if it's not the aliens doing the looping but Cutter. Because he kind of did that with Eris right? And how would Minkowski have experienced it before where the food came back and the clocks reset? She's not an alien.

Ah...Kepler. Gross. If only he had died instead of Maxwell. She'd probably have the answers. And shut it Kepler! YOU are the reason she died. YOU are the reason Hilbert died. YOU could have been a good person. YOU chose to be a bad person instead AND YOU chose to drag Jacobi, Hilbert, and Maxwell down to hell with you.

Nothing stays the same forever, just give it time.

But that makes me wonder. How many loops have they been in without noticing?

Her nose is bleeding? That's not good.

Doug has never seen groundhog day and clearly it is weighing on his consciousness.

Yikes what a speech.

Now for Eiffel and Jacobi. "I'm pretty sure you want to kill all of us." "Yeah, but other than that we're cool."

Did he just call Hera the brave little toaster? Kill him, Hera. WOW Jacobi, you're blaming HER for Maxwell's death? YOU are DISGUSTING.

Tell him who Maxwell really was Hera. Tell him the truth!

Oh poor Doug is traumatized. Doug it's not your fault you're afraid of your friends! That happens when they're actually killer aliens.

And shut it Jacobi.

Did that fix the loop?

Oh ugh. Not the alarm again.

I see. They fixed it, but the computer is shot.

Interesting. The aliens don't want them to leave. But they want Lovelace to chose. Weird. Really weird. Huh.

Well, I don't have time for another episode, but I hear the next few are gonna get really good. So thanks for reading everyone, and I'll see you next time!

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katie-the-bug · 6 months ago

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The Mark of the Bees

Title largely unrelated to subject matter (The Mark, book eight of the Left Behind series). I just wanted to say "The Mark of the Bees." And now I have. Thank you for your indulgence.

The characters, in case you've forgotten:

The Tribulation Force: Rayford Steele, pilot; Buck Williams, journalist; Chloe Williams, organizer; Kenny Williams, infant; Tsion Ben-Judah, internet evangelist and ex-rabbi; Chaim Rosenzweig, new Israeli convert; Mac McCullum, backup pilot; Abdullah Smith, backup to the backup pilot; Albie, former black-marketer, espionage expert; David Hassid, IT guy on the inside; Annie Christopher, David's girlfriend; Hattie Durham, bitter ex-girlfriend of the Beast.

The Global Community: Nicolae Carpathia, risen lord and deity of the GC, in other words, the Antichrist; Leon Fortunato, Satan's little helper; Viv Ivins, role unclear.

Okay, so Nicolae's just come back from the dead, but, despite extremely limited changes in demeanor, our lead characters know he's possessed by Satan. Alright, what does this mean for Nicolae himself? Is his soul in Hell? Is he trapped in his body? He had a decent relationship with Satan already; maybe they're copiloting? Stay tuned while I figure out which answer is funniest.

Tsion leads Chaim in Bible study, saying that soon he will be "an expert about our own people," meaning the Jewish people. Because, as we all know, Christians know more about Judaism than Jews do.

Many of the group's capers owe their success to Albie's fake identity as a GC officer. Rayford seeks a similar false identity, hoping that David can get him into the system at a higher rank than Albie. Never mind that Albie has proven himself better at this whole "Impersonating the enemy" business - Rayford's the leader, so he should outrank him in disguise too.

Buck gets a new car, which the narration gushes about. I guess I can't begrudge the authors their hobbies.

Rayford and Albie go looking for Hattie, who wound up in GC custody in the last book. On the way, they find Steve Plank, Buck's old boss who vanished from the story a few books ago. He's wounded and deformed, but he converted and opposes the GC from the inside under a false identity. I suppose the only question now is how he'll really die, given that no character with more than a few pages of relevance can leave the story any other way.

It turns out that Annie was killed in the last book, randomly lightning'd to death by Leon, but we only learn about it now. I think it would have been more impactful for David to see her die at the hands of the enemy rather than finding out about it after the fact, but maybe that's just me.

Hattie becomes a Christian, and I can only assume that her days are numbered now that her ongoing struggle has been resolved.

Tsion, via his blog posts internet transmissions, tells people not to take the titular Mark (of the Beast), despite the threat of death for not doing so, because it will irrevocably damn them to Hell, but he also says that True Christians with the seal of God on their foreheads "will not be able to turn [their] back on Christ." It's never explained what this means for people who might take the Mark. Do you lose your salvation if you take it? Does the Mark not affect the saved? Will the Mark simply not apply itself to a sealed believer? I have many questions and the book is very slow to answer them.

Leon discusses the rollout of the Mark, mentioning that people can choose "design and size" as well as its location. A few preset designs have been mentioned, but I wonder - can you design your own? That'd be kinda fun actually - a visual mark everyone gets, but everyone puts their own spin on it. New worldbuilding idea...

"You can just squeegee me off the floor and pour me down the drain." I will give you no context because it's funnier that way.

Nicolae's office is being renovated, and he asks for several full-length mirrors, because "Why deprive myself of the joy others luxuriate in? They get to look at me whenever they want." I aspire to this level of confidence in my body.

This series has exactly one running joke, and it's at the expense of Abdullah's limited English - he used the word "pout" as an adjective rather than a verb once, and now people ask him if he "is pout." It's funny only by comparison to the rest of the book, but I'll take what I can get.

Apparently "amateur craftsmen in their backyards" are making guillotines for the GC. All I can think of is reddit posts in the woodworking subreddit featuring pictures of cute, intricately decorated guillotines with a blurb about the wood and techniques used and how it'll be donated to the GC.

Buck and Albie, disguised, watch a group of Greek Christians get martyred for not taking the Mark. Too often this series tells without showing, but here we get the experience of watching your comrades die lovingly described to us. More of this please.

The narration refers to people who've taken the Mark as having "ignorantly sealed their fate." This is something I don't understand about whatever brand of Christianity the authors are pushing. In Catholicism, for example, if you commit a mortal sin without knowing it's wrong, your culpability in the eyes of God is reduced and you wouldn't automatically go to Hell if you died right then. But in LaHaye and Jenkins' world, you can do something without knowing it's wrong and God will reject you forever. Catholicism has its issues - why do you think I'm an atheist? - but at the very least its God is understanding of circumstances. The God of Left Behind wants to see people suffer.

Tsion finally reveals why saved Christians can't take the Mark to decieve their enemies and further their cause - God "miraculously overcomes" your self-preservation instincts and provides the "grace and courage" to go to your death. In other words, you can't take the Mark because God will mind-control you to refuse. That's not the answer I was expecting, but okay.

Our new friend Chang, a teenage believer who's about to be employed by the GC, is drugged and given the Mark despite his protests. He is still saved, because he never agreed to take the Mark. You'd think the same logic would apply to people being threatened with death if they don't take the mark, because consent under duress is not consent, but God wants to see people die for him, so Chang gets a special exception.

It's said that "no one would fake the mark of the beast," and it's mentioned that the penalty for doing so is death, but why wouldn't you at least try if the penalty for being caught without a Mark is death anyway? With the GC terrifically understaffed and security at an all-time low, it could buy a disguised believer some time, even if they didn't have the microchip that all marks contain. And there's nothing in the Scriptures that says a fake Mark will damn you.

Well, that was certainly a book. I can only assume the next one will be more frustrating.

#katie reads left behind #left behind #long post #stay tuned #tw antisemitism #death mention

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crowdvscritic · 6 months ago

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round up // JUNE 24

This post is late 'cause I'm a writer, Though Austin Butler's cute in The Bikeriders, Who didn’t have time for post creation Before my big summer vacation. And it marks the 12th year Of this little blog now. With a 283rd post, I’ve know I got it down. Too bad anxiety don't do it for ya, John Wayne, he dream came trued it for ya, Bad Boys rebooted up for ya. Now I’m singin' Sabrina all night, oh, Is it that sweet? I guess so. Type it up, down, left, right, oh, Switch it up like Nintendo. Crowd vs. Critic, I know That's that me espresso

June Crowd-Pleasers

1. Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)

The fourth Bad Boys is functioning on three levels:

It reminds us just how fun buddy cop comedies can be.

It’s a soft reboot of the franchise.

It’s testing the waters for Will Smith’s future.

Read my full review for ZekeFilm. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10

youtube

2. “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter (2024)

It may be technically too early to call the race for Song of the Summer, but it’s going to take a major earworm to dethrone Sabrina Carpenter’s caffeinated pop hit for me. I’ve started playing it on repeat and daydreaming dance routines while driving—is it that sweet? I guess so.

3. Inside Out 2 (2024)

This sequel works because t’s a logical next step for Riley’s growth, but also because of its precision in identifying the competing emotions of middle school. That’s a lovely subversion of the neat endings in most family entertainment, and like most every Pixar entry, it did make me cry. Read my full review for ZekeFilm. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

4. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (2019)

The narrator—a cousin of Arrested Development's—informs us this is a story about a bank robbery gone wrong. It’s also a story about realtors, falling in love, rabbits, therapy sessions, bedroom closets, police work, bridges, and strange coincidences. It’s a laugh-out-loud ensemble (with some scenes so non sequitur I could imagine them in the best Adam McKay movies) and a sentimental rom-com (with some scenes reminiscent of Nora Ephron’s tone).

5. Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

This action movie based on a true story more than lives up to its title. When Owen Wilson’s cocky Navy pilot gets caught, yes, behind enemy lines, he then, yes, has to go through a Top Gun-inspired arc. But neither Wilson nor Gene Hackman are phoning in what could’ve been a paint-by-numbers war film, which makes it both thrilling and poignant. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

MORE JUNE CROWD-PLEASERS // House Rules by Myquillyn Smith (2023) isn’t the restricting guide the title suggests but a collection of 100 decorating inspirations // Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) make me miss Adam McKay’s true comedy days, when his political views made his jokes more poignant instead of overwhelming the intent of his script // Poms (2019) is a fun entry in the recent trend of Older Screen Lady Legends Doing It For Themselves subgenre (See also: 80 for Brady) // I.S.S. (2023) is more thoughtful than a junkie space thriller needs to be // In the Land of Saint and Sinners (2023) is a classic Western that just happens to be set in Ireland // Snack Shack (2024) is more crass than I prefer, but what works has American Graffiti vibes

June Critic Picks

1. The Bikeriders (2024)

It’s like Austin Butler overheard Robert Redford say, “Paul Newman and I are the handsomest white men who have ever been on screen,” and he said, “Hold my comb.” Butler knows he’s beautiful, and so does writer/director Jeff Nichols, who based The Bikeriders on a book of photography. Nichols also knows how cool guys in leather jackets look while smoking and riding motorcycles (even if we consciously know all of those things are dangerous clichés) and that it takes someone as gorgeous as Butler to make us believe a skeptical woman like Jodie Comer’s Kathy would sell her soul to have him. It’s one of best films of the year so far, and you can hear more thoughts in my review on KTRS's Carney Show. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9.5/10

2. Double Feature - ‘40s Rom-Coms With With Political Twists: Without Reservations (1946) + State of the Union (1948)

In Frank Capra’s State of the Union (Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10), Spencer Tracy is considering running for President of the United States with the help of lover Angela Lansbury and to the chagrin of wife Katharine Hepburn. In Mervyn LeRoy’s Without Reservations (8/10 // 8.5/10), famous author Claudette Colbert is road-tripping incognito (much like she did in It Happened One Night) after falling hard for returning soldier John Wayne. In both romances, politics are the force driving apart the couples we’re rooting for, and in Reservations, you also get a perfect rom-com BFF in Don DeFore.

3. The Cross of Lorraine (1943)

About the same time Casablanca came out, Peter Lorre played a supporting role in another World War II adventure filmed as people were escaping the Nazis in real life. This French POW drama (also co-starring Gene Kelly) walked so that Steve McQueen could jump that motorcycle in The Great Escape. Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 8/10

4. Broadcast News (1987)

What’s a girl to do when she has no time to write a valedictorian speech? And what’s a girl to do when she has to choose between two terrible love interests while working in the world of TV journalism? In ep. 140 of SO IT’S A SHOW?, Kayla and I are digging into the ‘80s romantic dramedy Broadcast News and trying to figure out what the hey it has to do with Rory’s graduation in Gilmore Girls. Why is Lorelai comparing Rory to Holly Hunter? What ethical controversy (if you can even call it that) could make Holly Hunter break up with a dreamy news anchor? And how much do we love The Incredibles? Listen in for a special report on all of these stories.

5. Fancy Dance (2023)

Part mystery, part character drama, all Lily Gladstone star power. Fancy Dance overlaps in plot and theme with Killers of the Flower Moon, but Gladstone has created a completely different character stuck in a world of crime and custody battles. Watch my full review on KMOV. Crowd: 7/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Also in June…

I reviewed Janet Planet for ZekeFilm, which was the opposite of Snack Shack: On paper it's a film I should've loved, but I didn't care for the execution.

Photo credits: Anxious People. All others IMDb.com.

#Round Up #Broadcast News #Inside Out 2 #Bad Boys: Ride or Die #Espresso #Sabrina Carpenter #Espresso Sabrina Carpenter #Anxious People #Anxious People Fredrik Bckman #Fredrik Backman #Without Reservations #State of the Union #Behind Enemy Lines #The Bikeriders #Fancy Dance #The Cross of Lorraine

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deadcactuswalking · 7 months ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 01/06/2024 (Central Cee & Lil Baby, Bring Me the Horizon's POST HUMAN: NEX GEN, Zach Bryan)

Sabrina Carpenter’s still dominant on the UK Singles Chart as “Espresso” spends a fifth week at the top - welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

content warning: language, discussions of death, trauma, drug addiction

Rundown

As always, we start with our notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75 - which is what I cover - after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid adios to Eurovision tracks like “Europapa” by Joost and “The Code” by Nemo, as well as “Family Matters” by Drake (telling that these three couldn’t make five weeks), “Outside of Love” by Becky Hill, “Jump” by Tyla, Gunna and Skilibeng, “Home” by Good Neighbours (Good riddance) and finally, “Back to Black” by the late Amy Winehouse.

We see one big return with Katy Perry’s catalogue streams rising thanks to some American Idol news or something - I don’t care, I imagine the catalogue sales for her biggest records are high enough anyway. This does mean “Teenage Dream” - the title track - is back at #72. It peaked and debuted at #2 for two weeks in 2010, being blocked by Olly Murs’ “Please Don’t Let Me Go” and Alexandra Burke’s “Start Without You” respectively, though I think we can agree which one of these three have actually managed to pass the test of time. To be thorough, the Glee cover peaked at #36 the next year. As for our gains, we have a small but notable batch of boosts for “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli at #61, “Right Here” by Becky Hill at #60, “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat at #55, “Miles on It” by Kane Brown and Marshmello at #47, “The Man Who Can’t be Moved” by The Script at #38, “The Door” by Teddy Swims at #35 and finally, all the way up in the top 10 for the first time, Myles Smith with “Stargazing” at #9.

The UK Singles Chart’s top five this week consists of Billie Eilish’s “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” spiking off of the debut up to #5, whilst Central Cee and Lil Baby debut right at #4 with their new track “BAND4BAND”. Following them up is the top three staying the same as last week’s: Shaboozey at #3 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, Eilish again with “LUNCH” at #2 and of course, “Espresso” at #1. Now for what ended up debuting in the lower realms of the chart this week.

New Entries

#73 - “Fall Back” - Lithe

Produced by Lithe

Do I pronounce this “life” or “live”? It doesn’t matter, this is a blog. However you pronounce it, Lithe is from Melbourne and this is his viral breakout hit for an otherwise underground artist who seems to have produced and released this all by himself. This may explain why it’s garbage. Lithe strikes me as the kind of person who would make for a great additional vocalist on a maximalist project by, say, a Travis Scott type, because his vocals, which are very Travis as well, lure you into a mumbling Auto-Tuned atmosphere very effortlessly due to the layering of murmured ad-libs. The problem here is the utter shit production, consisting of rote trap presets in such a static and typical pattern that it almost stands out how frozen and dull trap beats can be because of one weird snare choice that sounds way too loud and mechanical. I know this is very nit-picky but there’s so little to this song, which relies entirely on Lithe for its melodic element considering the blank grey synths that practically could be completely absent under the looming trap dirge. Don’t ask about the lyrics, it’s bottom-of-the-barrel flexing, but at least this song is very uniquely terrible. It uses basic trap tropes, for sure, but Lithe is taking his own approach to things and creates a bad song that is bad in ways more established artists probably couldn’t pull off. That’s a compliment, genuinely.

#66 - “The Craving” - Twenty One Pilots

Produced by Tyler Joseph and Paul Meany

I think it’s somewhat telling that Bring Me the Horizon nabbed three debuts this week, but the usually more accessible Twenty One Pilots, with a higher-peaking album at #2, could only snatch one at #66. I usually care at least a little to check out these guys’ records but the lore aspect has always somewhat bothered me in that I know without fully emerging into it, I’ll never get the full intended effect and relationship with the music that they intend. This week’s effort, Clancy, was one I just straight-up didn’t bother listening to, especially on the grounds of not liking those singles at all. I was thinking that hopefully this could give me some reason to check it out, and, well, there is something to this one.

“The Craving” is available in two versions, with the version on the album being subtitled “(Jenna’s Version)”, referring to his wife Jenna and�� yeah, the stripped-back, ukulele rendition on the record is pretty devastating. Starting with a static that obscures Jenna’s voice lamenting the fact their relationship may be deteroriating or stalling out as she grows older, the song is a ballad expressing Tyler’s inability to communicate and express the simple gestures that he loves her. It’s a pretty simple song compositionally but that makes complete sense as it feels like a song he can only sing improvisationally in her presence, but not with her listening. This may be a stretch, but I’m imagining “(Jenna’s version)” refers here not to dedicating the song and playing it to her but her being the muse for this version, which sounds like it could have been written very quickly in a night where he can’t fall asleep thinking about the subject matter whilst she’s fast asleep. The song explains that he can’t communicate this to her, and the visual it gives is Tyler playing the song quietly to himself as to not wake her up but knowing fully that he won’t be able to sleep for the rest of the night without it being expressed. The final chorus ends with an utmost declaration of his dedication to the marriage, complete with a voice crack, but that outro simply writes it off: once she’s awake, the promises mean nothing, and he can’t bring himself to all he promised: the simple act of reminding her that she’s loved. I will be 100% honest: this song kind of fucking broke me, and the imagery surrounding those choruses being one of waiting until demise, wherein the “she” who looks for Tyler as he lays down and tries to sleep could be both Jenna and God, made this a very affecting listen for me, or rather, several listens. I never know exactly what to expect from TOP, but I didn’t expect to be crying.

The single remix, co-produced with Spencer Stewart, is much lighter and breezier with its folk-pop production that’s reverbed to Hell and back and covers some of Tyler’s vocal faults with harmonies and whistling that makes it a bit too saccharine for my taste. I still think it’s a brilliant song but as a performance and production, not so much, and this puts me in a weird position because as far as OCC is concerned, these are both the charting song, I just happen to prefer the very slightly less streamed acoustic version a lot more. Personally, I think adding drums to “The Craving” may be an inspired touch because it takes that fear of death and adds a frolicking carpe diem feel to it but it also touches my soul a bit less by detaching Tyler further from reality: the problem isn’t that he’s separated from his wife, it’s nearly the opposite, with her continued presence acting as both why the song exists and why the emotion is so palpable. Regardless, if more of the album is this personal and honest, less lore-focused as the lead single really scared me off with, maybe I’ll find more to like on it because this acoustic version is genuinely shattering, might be their best song ever.

#57 - “LiMOusIne” - Bring Me the Horizon featuring AURORA

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes and Dan Lancaster

Another week, another album debuting three songs that I haven’t heard. I’ll be fair and say I probably should have listened to Billie’s record before the chart week, and I have since heard and greatly enjoyed her album, but for this one, can you blame me? Firstly, look at the way the tracks are stylised, secondly: whilst I did like the first edition of this POST HUMAN series from 2020, the incessant delay and consistent flow of really mediocre singles that leads to an album that seems a bit bloated compared to the last one’s conciseness because I guess all of them needed to be included. Thirdly, they lost their keyboardist Jordan Fish, also a major songwriting contributor to the band, who now has just a few more lyrical credits on this record than BloodPop, I’m genuinely quite weary that this’ll be another disappointing mess from Bring Me the Horizon. Regardless, I’ll give them this: they always experiment, and these three next songs are going to be interesting and weird, at least in comparison to what usually charts, so it’s good we have them all lined up consecutively. BMTH’s latest, POST HUMAN: NEX GEN, debuted at #5 on the albums chart and naturally, we have three debuts as that’s all OCC’ll allow.

The first to chart, “Limousine” (I’m not doing this, guys) features Norwegian singer AURORA, who had some viral success with “Runaway” a few years back, a song I never really liked and I honestly haven’t heard much else, so maybe I’m missing something by not checking her out - I’m definitely going to be missing something with these songs given the added context of understanding the album’s theme and narrative is pretty important for what seems like a loose concept album, though BMTH records can be so eclectic that it flies out of the window. See amo for a clear demonstration. This particular track takes us into the easy and quick blast frontman Oli Sykes gets from doing hard drugs and the power, authority he feels when he’s off them, hence the “Limousine” - it’s a luxury car you’re in the back of, drugged and being driven around, but you still feel in control. It does this through grinding metal riffs and some of the most strained vocals I’ve heard from Sykes, not in the sense that he hits any insane notes or belts but more so because he stretches out these melodies beyond their need, especially in the pre-chorus, with pitch correction not doing that great of a job to cover it. That sounds like an insult, but it’s really not: when he’s refuting the need for closure and the chorus starts with a stuttered glitching of the song’s last section out of existence, his slow luxury chauffer ride to death feels particularly potent and fittingly gruelling. There’s a seductive and sinister nature to some of the lyrics, AURORA kind of blends into the background which is perfect for this as Sykes’ streams drowning out the clearer, beautiful voice of reason is thematically perfect, that bridge with the keyboards is genuinely moving before everything crashes into shit in the screeching breakdown. That breakdown, however, demonstrates the one time this song succeeds in the mixing department for me, as there’s a muddiness to everything here and an unnecessary vocal focus that seems to push the heavier and cathartic elements back, which does not serve a track like this very well, when the progression into chaos should come from something that is genuinely unnerving and inescapable. A more immersive mix could have done wonders to what is structurally a very sound track that has great performances.

#50 - “YOUtopia” - Bring Me the Horizon

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes, Dan Lancaster and Lee Malia

We can actually split this episode quite nicely into the two songs below the Horizon, the two songs above them, and the Horizon itself. It works out quite nicely too because according to Sykes, “Youtopia” acts as a counterpart to “Limousine”, and I can definitely tell that from the lyrics, wherein Sykes begs for the ability to give his partner the best version of himself, a “youtopia” so to speak. He desperately wants to connect himself and his partner to that utopian setting, but can’t bring himself to do the self-improvement that would enable that kind of perfect relationship, one that you can kind of tell from the imagery either doesn’t exist or has been buried so far deep into obscurity by the constant perpetuance of negativity in everyday life. To be completely honest, I was worried that Bring Me the Horizon’s lyrics would turn as basic as some of the structural songwriting had been on the singles so I’m glad I can still both get a lot out of analysis and resonate pretty heavily with their notions, it’s the most frustrating feeling wanting to be something that no-one but your own insecurity expects you to live up to, so it just seems fruitless to achieve.

As for how it sounds, well, that basic songwriting is there for sure, but oh, my God, this is an insanely nostalgic sound for me. That late-2000s early-2010s Kerrang! TV post-hardcore sound combining fuzzy electronics with the lackadaisical guitars of 2000s emo-pop and often Auto-Tuned vocals - both the clean and unclean vocals, sometimes - as well as just killer hooks and chasm-esque mixing that makes the drums go so hard once they pound into full relentless chorus mode. Of course, BMTH take it into further electronicore territory with the sampled-sounding female vocals, tiny little vocalised riff in the first verse that’s an adorable touch, the birdsong passages of ambiance that mesh so well with the cleaner guitar build, and the hip hop drums in the second verse that actually go for a 2000s R&B groove instead of the typical trap skitter, which I commend them for doing - trap metal feels way too easy and wouldn’t have fit a longing song like this. The harmonies from Sykes and the filtered Dan Lancaster in the bridge are excellent, and whilst the guitar solo is in what I like to call Weezer-meter (very obviously and shamelessly just repeating the chorus lead melody), it’s oddly brief and inessential to the song, as the final post-chorus kind of takes its place with the string swell and incredible drumming from Matt Nicholls that winds down in an industrial squirt for the outro. Apart from once again some mixing that acts as a disservice - when there’s this much going on, I understand the difficulty in making it sound that dynamic, and thematically, sometimes it just wouldn’t make sense to - this is pretty much something I’d inject to my veins any day. I know I say this every time BMTH show up because they’re the country’s biggest left-field rock act currently, but something like this charting in the top 50 in 2024 never fails to put at least a smile on my face.

#41 - “Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd” - Bring Me the Horizon

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes and Dan Lancaster

This final song is titled like a WatchMojo video, and is a very clear single - the lyrics and songwriting are pretty basic woes, wound up in generic metaphors that Sykes and the lads have sung before. It’s got a pessimistic chorus and a vaguely motivational bridge, and so many lyrics that vaguely allude to prior singles that I can’t tell if these are purposeful references or they’re just that far into their careers that their attempt at being an “average” BMTH track is an amalgamation of all of their other obvious singles. Those lyrical allusions definitely make it a bit more obvious and distracting that this is the case, but musically, it’s in similar territory. They have a brief, cutesy electronic intro, this time slightly hyperpop-esque, before crashing into a catchy alt-metal riff and, yeah, it’s just obvious that this is pulling the tricks of their own trade in a very typical way. Sykes performs incredibly well as he pretty much always does, you can’t take away his passion, but the screaming and sound effects may be a bit much in that second verse. They even have a stop-and-start rhythm built into the chorus melody which feels very Bring Me the Horizon to do: stopping and starting is basically their motif and songwriting approach if we boil it down to borderline offensive essentials. They have an aggressive breakdown with rapid drumming and video game samples, a trap drum pattern in the final pre-chorus, a stuttered vocal, it’s all very by-the-numbers and that’s fine. We can’t all be zingers, sometimes we need to write something accessible and given the album is assumingly a mess (all BMTH albums kind of are, it’s by nature), something like this could be particularly refreshing within its context, and they did care enough to place an atmospheric ambient outro that may contextualise it even further. This is a perfectly cromulent Bring Me the Horizon song, but a bit underwhelming to end on here.

#31 - “Pink Skies” - Zach Bryan

Produced by Zach Bryan

Country star Zach Bryan is back, presumably, he’s got a 30-song album on the way and this is his lead single. As always with Mr. Bryan, it feels wise to discuss the lyrics here in some detail, as this paints a vivid picture of the life that a mother has left for her children at the time of her funeral. The kids who came from that small town are back there to celebrate their late mother’s life, and reflecting on those lessons they learned from the mundane outskirts: appreciating the “pink skies” as a sign of youthful vitality and peace and cleaning the old house as if it were never populated (which feels stereotypical but is very much true for how parents can behave), though with the caveat that those memories remain physically as what appear to be faults in the house but are unavoidable reminders of the life lived within it. The second verse and especially the chorus sing a pretty funny ode: she’d be proud of where her kids are but would still lightheartedly mock them as “yuppies”, and he even has the snark to comment that God probably heard her coming, which I assume she means that she never shut up. For a parent, that’s a great thing to have the ability to do, and it’s reassuring to think that in the afterlife, she still cares too much about her kids’ well-being. This hits particularly close to home for me, and the fact that this song makes great use of my favourite instrument, the harmonica, does not exactly help this from not being a bit of a personal tearjerker for me. Bryan’s smoky drawl comes with his typical homegrown organic instrumentation - though with a higher focus both lyrically and instrumentally on choppier rhythm which I find interesting - and the light female vocals panned into the left channel. Sonically, you could argue it’s a bit safe or easy for Bryan to come out with something that sounds like this, but think of the content: why shouldn’t he be back at home, and invite you into that warm, comforting place as openly as his mother would have? This guy already put out some of my favourite songs of last year, some of the art that emotionally resonated with me the most from that year, and it doesn’t seem like he’s stopping this year either. I adore this.

#4 - “BAND4BAND” - Central Cee and Lil Baby

Produced by Ghana Beats, Geenero and Aasis Beats

This is just such a neat week. We begin near the very bottom with pop-trap from the Anglosphere outside of the US and book-end it near the very top with a UK rapper, whilst sandwiched in the middle are rock and alternative acts, two of which are personal ballads by slightly more mainstream and lighter in sound, closer to more accessible genres they emerged from before developing their sound, and both on either side of three Bring Me the Horizon tracks from the same album. Thiss week just makes sense systematically, damn it, and I love to see it. Also, Central Cee and Lil Baby, I guess, the song’s fine. It’s a bit undercooked because - I repeat, Central Cee and Lil Baby - but the basic rising synth loop, even if very obviously just a basic and lazy implementation of a loop, has enough tension to make way for the heavy-hitting drill rhythm, which is a lot cleaner than some other drill tracks, but also uses much louder, mechanical hats - again, something it has in common with Lithe, and the grey cover arts are just furthering it all - that give an industrial and intense feel to this beat. As for our rappers, this is much more typical: Cench’s complaining about people not being real Muslims, talking about his Lambos, using rhyme schemes that prominently implement acronyms, being distracted by big booties and most importantly, going “Alllright”. It’s almost like “Top 10 Statues that Cried Blood” because Cench feels like an amalgamation of himself on here, though this isn’t a bad thing, he still has more energy than many other rappers and it was cute for him to exchange bars with Lil Baby. Lil Baby then continues to take the song over entirely, as the beat switches up slightly with that crawling trap skitter and Baby goes for his typical frog-throat, running-off-on-the-beat flow that goes insanely hard, bizarrely, without drums, as it builds into a very well-done beat drop. He’s similarly being an amalgamation of himself and his running themes, but there’s some cold wordplay with the birthday lyric and there’s always been something compelling about his relentless approach to just going on and on regardless of what the beat actually asks of him. Overall, I know I’ve sounded nit-picky but this is good, probably great even when taking it outside of the larger context and just treating it as a banger reaching across the Atlantic. There’s a real intensity and hunger to this that there hasn’t been for either in these guys in a while, and it’s refreshing to know that those efforts paid off for a very high and very deserved top five debut.

Conclusion

Considering this is a week mostly consisting of rock acts, it makes complete sense that it’s one of the best weeks for me. Hey, I listen to everything, but some genres will hit closer to home than others. As for the Best of the Week, it is genuinely an incredibly difficult decision, but unsurprisingly, Zach Bryan takes it for “Pink Skies” and the only reason that happened is because of the second single edit of “The Craving” by Twenty One Pilots that I do not care for, because Jenna’s version would run away with Best of the Week, it’s heartbreaking from the first vocal sample of Jenna herself to that final line. Unfortunately, due to the double billing, it’ll have to take Honourable Mention, and on any other week, I would easily be giving all of this praise to a song like “YOUtopia”, which I still love, or Hell, even “BAND4BAND”. Lithe takes Worst of the Week for “Fall Back”, obviously, and I hope the next batch of songs is either just as good as this one or gives me a lot less to talk about because sheesh, this is one of our shorter weeks and I’m still maxxing this word count out. For now, thank you for reading, rest in peace to Charlie Colin, and I’ll see you next week!

#uk singles chart #pop music #song review #bring me the horizon #post human: nex gen #twenty one pilots #zach bryan #lil baby #central cee #band4band #lithe #aurora

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thepsychopompsthrenody · 2 years ago

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I was going to follow you back anyway because your blog looked cool and then I saw that your ask box's title is a reference to the pink spiders and I realized that you are amazing. I hope you are having a great night (or day-- whatever time it is for you)

wow i love you you know who the pink spiders are i've never met anyone not from my city who does. this is like the meetcute from 500 days of summer let's stand in an elevator so i can say "i love the smiths" and you can say "sorry?"

also your post about a possible dunes drop on the foundations anniversary changed me

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 2 years ago

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WDAS' Next Film After WISH...

As of now, only one Walt Disney Animation Studios movie is on the larger Disney company's massive movie slate... A Chris Buck/Fawn Veerasunthorn-directed centennial celebratory picture called WISH, which was first revealed to the world at this past D23 Expo. It will, as usual, be a Thanksgiving week release.

No other WDAS film, titled or untitled, is dated for anywhere beyond that. Pixar, in addition to this summer's Peter Sohn romantic comedy ELEMENTAL, has two features dated for release in 2024: Adrian Molina's spacebound tale ELIO and Kelsey Mann's INSIDE OUT sequel. The former is a March release, the latter a June release. Given the usual pattern, the 2024 WDAS movie should be a Thanksgiving bow...

When Disney announces this release date, I do not know...

What the movie could possibly be? Well, let's see...

A while back, it was announced that the likes of Josie Trinidad (previously writer/director on ZOOTOPIA+), Marc Smith (story artist and animator whose work dates back to THE LION KING), and Suzi Yoonessi (a live-action director with no previous WDAS or animation credits) were set to direct their own pictures. At the time of that announcement, fall 2019, Carlos Lopez Estrada was also in the running to direct his own original feature. He eventually got pulled over to RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON - which he directed with Don Hall (previously co-director on MOANA, and director of BIG HERO 6 and WINNIE THE POOH), and was set to head up a "live-action"/CG-laden remake of their 1973 all-animals ROBIN HOOD film, with his own WDAS picture still on the way... Until he left last year...

Since that announcement, we've had two Don Hall pictures (RAYA and STRANGE WORLD), and a Byron Howard picture (ENCANTO), with a previously-unannounced Chris Buck/Fawn Veerasuntorn picture on the way. So does this mean one of those three directors are up next? Are they even still set to direct their own features? Given how things go into development and then get cancelled so easily, we may never know until Disney themselves announce what's coming... That is of course the usual in big-time animation, and scarily more so than ever before these days. Just look at what's happening with Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery's animation output.

So it could be one of those three directors' projects, or something never before heard of... At least by the public. We used have to very reputable blogs that got a hold of some serious juicy insider info (Blue Sky Disney, for starters), but it's not much of a thing anymore. Anyone remember those "leaks" that said an adaptation of BLUEBEARD would be announced?

Another possibility is a sequel to something. Walt Disney Animation Studios' history of avoiding sequels has many explanations. For decades, Walt himself resisted making animated feature sequels. Then in the post-Walt years, the upper brass seemingly sought to honor his aversion to such projects. Any serious idea of doing a sequel, such as a brief period of time where THE RESCUERS was to have Cruella de Vil as its villain, usually didn't last past development stages. When the outside world took over the tight-knit enterprise, namely big-time Hollywood executives like Michael Eisner and Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg, then sequels to animated movies weren't so forbidden anymore... But their stab at this, the 1990 release THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, was financially unsuccessful... This of course lead to nearly every sequel to a Disney animated feature being a direct-to-video affair produced at another animation house.

That was, until Eisner stepped down in 2005, Bob Iger took his place as CEO, and appointed Pixar's John Lasseter and Ed Catmull as heads of Disney Animation, Pixar, AND Disneytoon, the latter the division that made all of those direct-to-video films. Lasseter had them cease production on all sequels to the classic Disney animated films, and until their shutdown in 2018, the studio made CGI Tinker Bell spin-off movies and the PLANES spin-off of Pixar's CARS franchise. Walt Disney Animation Studios in the post-Eisner/post-DTV sequel age made WINNIE THE POOH, RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET, and FROZEN II... There hasn't been a sequel from them since, nor the hint of one happening. BIG HERO 6 and ZOOTOPIA saw their "official" continuations in the form of Disney+ shows: BAYMAX! took place after BIG HERO 6, and ZOOTOPIA+ was a "midquel" where all the segments were happening within the plot of the movie itself. The TIANA and MOANA series they're deep in development of will be following up from their feature-length predecessors. I bet in a little while, we'll hear about an ENCANTO series next.

However, FROZEN and FROZEN II were both billion dollar smash hits, so FROZEN III is likely happening at some point. A ZOOTOPIA sequel is feasible as well, given that that film made a billion worldwide as well and is set in a world that's ripe with possibilities, BIG HERO 6 even. However, animated movies take a while to make and Walt Disney Animation Studios only gets out one feature a year in this day and age. And that doesn't count how in 2016, ZOOTOPIA and MOANA both debuted, ZOOTOPIA probably would've been a fall 2015 release had Pixar not taken up both the summer (INSIDE OUT) and fall slots (THE GOOD DINOSAUR) that year. Pixar, meanwhile, does two films every two years. Following 2015 and 2017 (CARS 3 and COCO), 2020 had ONWARD and SOUL, 2022 had TURNING RED and LIGHTYEAR, 2024 will have ELIO and INSIDE OUT 2.

But WDAS sticks to doing one a year, that is... when other things don't happen. WDAS had to miss 2020 because of COVID-19, RAYA was originally set to be that year's Thanksgiving release, it ended up opening in March 2021 instead. So... With theaters back in business, they're back to doing one a year. I feel that if they were successfully doing two pictures every year or every two years, you'd probably see more sequels.

So... The candidates... Those three directors, a sequel to one of their recent success, *or* hear me out...

What if they were to announce something that was supposed to come out ages ago, but for whatever reasons... Didn't?

Like, imagine if Walt Disney Animation Studios sometime later this year blew your minds and said... Our 63rd feature, releasing in Thanksgiving 2024, is GIGANTIC...

GIGANTIC is perhaps, of all the films that were in development at the studio in the 2010s, the one that lots of folks online want the most. A musical adaptation of the familiar Jack and the Beanstalk tale that was about a world of giants living up in the clouds. It had a lot of potential for sure, and it got the axe under Lasseter and Catmull's tenture, its director Nathan Greno (previously director of perennial favorite TANGLED) left the studio for Skydance. (Is he still directing that POWERLESS/POOKOO movie over there?) Which, ironically, Lasseter now heads up. Its other director, Meg LeFauve (who coincidentally worked on a TV show called GIGANTIC), is still working in animation-land, having written Nora Twomey's Cartoon Saloon film MY FATHER'S DRAGON, and INSIDE OUT 2 as well. Perhaps they can get her back, or in typical animation studio fashion... Restart and reinvent the whole thing from the ground up with a different director/team, if they can't get Greno and/or LeFauve back. I'm surprised there's no movement on reviving this one, given what it was promising, and how it had such a big presentation at the 2015 D23 Expo. Its cancellation in fall 2017 came as a real shock...

If not GIGANTIC, then I'd love to see them take a crack at other scrapped features that didn't last past the mid-2010s... Such as KING OF THE ELVES, based on the Phillip K. Dick fantasy tale, that at one point could've been the studio's Christmas 2012 release. Baffling how they couldn't make that story about a bunch of tiny elves who are at war - LORD OF THE RINGS-style - in a massive fantasy world but also live at a modern-day gas station work as a feature film. Or what about that COSMIC 3000 picture that reportedly involved teenaged aliens participating in thrilling space races? Hey, maybe they could take a crack at Terry Pratchett's DISCWORLD again, but this time not opt to adapt one book in the series.

Just a thought...

We shall see, maybe come later this year. We are in Disney's 100th year of existence, so I suppose we shall learn what comes out after WISH from Walt Disney Animation Studios...

UPDATE: JANUARY 20, 2023

Well looky here...

The Walt Disney's Company new and updated release schedule contains the following dates for UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION;

11/27/2024

11/26/2025

11/25/2026

One a year, as per usual. Pretty sure this is the landing strip for all the big updates and news set to drop at this year's D23... Monster Mouse, planting the flags.

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kurt-wagner-official · 2 years ago

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Post #58: X-Men/Alpha Flight issues 1-2

This two issues miniseries sees the reunion of Claremont and Paul Smith (along with his inking partner Bob Wiacek) for two double sized issues, which is just about the best recipe you could ask for. It opens with Scott and Madelyne flying a charter flight through dark skies. Scott walks through the cabin, and we're introduced to a variety of personalities among the passengers. Some are creatives, like an architect with his sketchbook and a crew member writing a novel. Others have nothing to offer but hatred, debating the mutant problem amongst themselves. The thematic exposition is interrupted by a freak storm, which Scott recognizes to match the powers of the Alpha Flight member Shaman. In New York, Doug, Illyana, and Kitty are monitoring a Danger Room training sequence for the rest of the team, but Rachel is hit with a psychic flash and taps into the computer, creating a sequence that resembles her own time. To the others' shock, it includes Rachel as a hound hunting them, although they don't know how accurate this is or what those implications are. While they fight the Sentinels, Xavier restores Rachel to control of her own mind, and we see the reason for her episode- she had a vision of Scott's plane crashing. The team flies to Canada to confront Shaman. I'm gonna take a sidebar to say some stuff about Alpha Flight. They've had their own ongoing book for a couple years, and this mini fits in with their series the same way it does with Uncanny. I thought about reading it, as well as a few other series, but I decided to focus on the more core X-titles. If I end up continuing this blog series past Claremont's run, which I've been considering, I'll have to expand my scope a lot, because there won't be a central long term author for the line, but for now, it's usually pretty clear which crossovers and miniseries are part of the Claremont/Simonson X-world. Anyway, when the X-Men get there, Rachel goes ballistic on Alpha Flight until Xavier pulls her into the astral plane and lays into her. Usually Rachel's pretty chill, but she can be very scary when she's pissed. Shaman says he has no idea what they're talking about, but Snowbird arrives and says she was attacked by something mysterious at the same time Scott and Madelyne went down. The two teams head out together to see if there's a link. Meanwhile, Loki (the one from Thor) is talking to Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, the gods of the gods. He's struck a mysterious deal with them- he's going to create peace on Earth, and in the process prove himself worthy of their boon. Meanwhile, the two teams are on AF member Puck's plane, and tensions are running high. Rachel feels guilty about attacking them, especially for her psychic attack on Aurora. Logan talks to Heather, Jamie MacDonald's widow. She's one of his oldest friends, and they bond over missing Jamie. He wanted Logan to lead Alpha Flight someday, but Logan says that he belongs with the X-Men now. The other very interesting pairing is Northstar and Anna. During the first misunderstanding earlier, Northstar attacked Anna and she accidentally absorbed his thoughts. She learned he has "big secrets," which is code for "he's gay but Jim Shooter won't let us say it." I'm not really a fan of most of Alpha Flight, but I love Northstar, mainly because he joins the X-Men later so I've actually read stuff with him. He has a superiority complex that masks a very troubled soul, partially because he's been in the closet so long. He and Anna are fun to see together, because she stays sassy and confident no matter how standoffish and rude he is. I'm not sure if they've ever been on the same team for more than an arc, but that'd be a book is love to read. They bond a little until eventually they find something: a huge sparkling citadel out of the pages of the sketchbook we saw with the architect on Scott's plane. Scott himself comes out in shining knight's armor, with no glasses. He says that after his wounds in the crash, he and his whole crew found themselves miraculously healed of all their ills. Kitty watches as Rachel stands off to the side in anguish, wanting to go to her father but scared to tell him the truth. Scott takes them all inside, where the whole crew has fancy shiny clothes like his and Madelyne has the ability to harness the healing magic and give it to anyone. We come to learn that all of the humans have been granted powers, and they all want to use them to create a world with peace for humans and mutants. Madelyn uses her power to cure Anna the same way she cured Scott. She's afraid to test it, but Northstar volunteers and takes her hand. Northstar is terrified of vulnerability, but he also knows that Anna has the same fears, and he wants to help her. To her joy, nothing happens. It's clear now why Claremont had Ororo leave on her journey right before this miniseries- Madelyne restoring her powers would have been a huge thematic disruption of her arc. Everyone seems happy except Snowbird, who they realize now didn't come with them. Logan goes to track her down while Xavier mindscans Scott and Madelyne to make sure there's nothing sketchy going on finds nothing- except that Madelyne is pregnant. Rachel perks up, wondering if it's her- but Madelyne's powers have told her it's a boy. Rachel was an only child, and this is the final nail in the coffin to prove she'll never exist in this world. She runs off crying, and Kitty goes after her with Talisman of Alpha Flight. The rest of the group goes to the magic fountain at the heart of their citadel, the source of all their power. Heather feels drawn to walk into it, and comes out with new superpowers, which in her case is just a vague affinity for leadership. It all seems happy until Shaman's magic pouch goes haywire and starts spitting demons out. Northstar flies it away, drawing the demons off, but they mortally wounded Shaman- and Madelyne's powers aren't working.

Talisman is wandering through the halls searching for Kitty and Rachel while also trying to learn more about the place. She finds the sketchbook of Paul, the architect who created this place. She flips through, and finds that the first half is filled with beautiful drawings, but the last few pages have sloppy scribbles with no dimension. She stumbles across Kitty, and they continue their walk together to find a viking village buried under the Earth with a strange runestone that Talisman takes. In their conversation, we learn that Kitty is actually a college student studying under Xavier. Claremont fills in a lot of details about his characters' lives, but he consistently drops the ball when it comes to their studies. We didn't know for like 70 issues that Peter was taking classes, it's very unclear if any of the others are, and until now we were under the impression that Kitty was taking high school courses. Anyway, they find Rachel, who's heartbroken that she'll never exist, but Kitty points out that she herself exists, and that this could be a sign that this world is headed in a better direction. Rachel is another character that is sub textually supposed to be Kitty's gay lover, but Jim Shooter banned it. It's truly shocking how often I have to make that exact statement with different names swapped in. Just then, a cave-in starts and buries the village, and the trio (along with Lockheed) barely make it out. Kitty starts to suspect the cave-in was intentional to stop them from learning something, and she goes to talk to Logan while the other two go to the library to translate the runestone they recovered. Logan returned from his search for Snowbird a while ago when two of the humans with tracking powers told him they'd take over. He's also been cured of his berserker rage by Madelyne, which at first upsets Kitty because it was that rage that stopped Ogūn. She apologizes a moment later, though, understanding that it was Logan's pain and Logan's choice, which is a big deal and shows how she's grown since the moment Ororo first decided to make a change to herself. She tells Logan her suspicions, and he sends her to Xavier while he, Aurora, and Lockheed go back out to pick up the scent. He finds Snowbird dying in a cave, and the human trackers approaching. They tell Logan that the new world has no place for magical people like Snowbird and Shaman, and they need to put her out of her misery, but Logan refuses to budge. Meanwhile, Anna has her first dance ever with Northstar. If you didn't know he was gay, you might think she was flirting with him. But we know, Anna knows, and most importantly Claremont knows the truth. Which really makes it one of the sweetest things I've ever seen- Anna is the only one who's ever seen what Northstar goes through in his mind, and she's offering him a human connection that he's never had. Meanwhile, Talisman, with the help of a human who's been given the power of knowledge, learns that the runestone is a prayer to Loki. We cut to Loki, who's watching the scenes unfold in frustration. If the heroes don't accept his gift, he'll never get his boon. Logan bursts in with Snowbird, having killed one of the trackers and maimed the other, and tells them all that the fountain is powered by the lifeforce of magical beings. The human with knowledge power confirms that he's known all along that the gift would come at the cost of all magic. Logan believes it's unacceptable to sacrifice their magical friends for peace. Rachel says that she's already seen everyone die, and she'll do anything to prevent her future, even if it means sacrificing some people, and the line is drawn. Peter says that he's seen common people struggling his whole life, and he'll support the gift at any cost of it can prevent their suffering. Logan finds himself standing with Kitty (and Lockheed), Kurt, Anna, Scott, Xavier, Northstar, and Talisman against everyone else, including their families. A fight begins while Northstar flies Talisman to the fountain, hoping to use her magical disruption powers to destroy it. They're stopped by members of Team Gift, but Aurora starts to doubt the cause when she gets the sketchbook from Talisman. The architect, Paul, reveals the truth- the fountain doesn't just take literal magic, it takes the magic of imagination away from anyone who enters. He can conjure anything, but he can no longer imagine new designs. She brings this revelation to everyone fighting outside, and some begin to doubt the gift, but most are still determined. Fed up with the arguing, Loki descends from the heavens and tells them to accept the gift or die. Scott yells back at him, saying that he can't force a choice on anyone, certainly not the choice to give up their dreams, and blasts him. Enraged, Loki unleashes an army of frost giants on the whole group, who put aside the argument to fight for their lives. Madelyne has been denying the truth ever since she got the ability to heal people, but faced with it now, she accepts that the gift isn't worth the bloodshed and rejects Loki. But when Sam, the human in the group who was a member of her crew, is wounded, she's forced to swear her allegiance back to Loki to get her powers back and save him. She mourns for her child, who'll grow up without imagination, but she can't abandon her friend. Just then, Those Who Sit Above in Shadows appear and tell Loki he failed. If he had offered the gift and accepted their refusal, he would have been found worthy, but they reject him. They force him to swear an oath not to harm these people, and he flies off, vowing to find a loophole and get revenge. Before he does, though, he offers to leave the fountain for those present, letting them keep the gift. But now that the rose tinted glasses have been shattered and people have bled and died, the whole group rejects him, and he destroys the fountain. The heroes have gotten what they wanted, but they're all left with the knowledge that they could be living in a world without disease right now. The fountain was also keeping a blizzard away from the valley, so they hurry onto the plane to take off, except for Rachel, who runs away. She just wants a moment to herself, but Scott runs after her to save her. She considers telling him the truth, but decides that he's happy and he doesn't need to know what could have been. He doesn't know the truth, but he's still very kind to her, telling her that the future isn't set and they can make a better one. She reminds him of Jean, and he tells her that he loved her, but he's moved on and loves Madelyne. Rachel feels better knowing that her father could make peace with his ghosts and hopes that she can too. Our heroes leave, determined to take the long way and fight for the better world they want to live in.

There's not really that much more to say, cause I went pretty in depth with everything as I was going through. I really love this miniseries. The Paul Smith art is gorgeous, and while the question of free will or utopia is a very common moral dilemma in superhero comics, I think Claremont found a fresh way to tell the story. I do have one complaint, which is that it should have been longer. I agree that some of the characters would start off on Team Gift and eventually transfer to Team Free Will, but I wish we got more insight into that process. But really, wishing for more of the story is far from the worst complaint one could have about a comic book. Although he still focuses on the X-Men, Claremont seems to care a lot more about Alpha Flight than he usually does with guest stars. The scenes with Anna and Northstar and with Scott and Rachel are some of Claremont's finest work, and while I wish they had fleshed out the ending more, I would rather a story like this leave me wanting more than drag on.

#wes reads xmen

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yournewlodger · 2 years ago

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I posted 15,686 times in 2022

That's 1,336 more posts than 2021!

52 posts created (0%)

15,634 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@roberette

@weyoungender

@section-69

@a-star-that-fell

@doccywhomst

I tagged 984 of my posts in 2022

#brock - 61 posts

#lodger speaks - 51 posts

#dw spoilers - 44 posts

#doctor who - 38 posts

#star trek - 17 posts

#doctor who spoilers - 14 posts

#unreality - 10 posts

#dall-e mini - 9 posts

#tianna - 7 posts

#missy - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i think if i could get a good artist to do a nice illustrated version of the part in take me out to the holosuite where they're all together

My Top Posts in 2022:

See the full post

233 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

this might be a controversial opinion but the tenth doctor was absolutely head over heels for that old man (professor yana) well before he knew he was the master. the doctor saw that gilf and it was love at first sight

473 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

as a new-ish star trek fan part of my experience is realizing just how haunted i am by star trek actors having appeared in things i grew up with without me realizing it. every day i go to the internet movie database and every day i’m like “whoa holy shit that was that person the whole time!?” and it like rewrites my entire experience of that piece of media

everyone put in the tags what star trek actor in something else moment that just rocked your fucking world when you realized it. i’m curious

1,191 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

in the event of a multi-doctor episode with (hopefully) all of the nuwho doctors, i think that the only two who wouldn’t be derogatory to each other would be eleven and thirteen. i can picture the rest of them bickering/bantering and begrudgingly trying to save the universe, while in the background eleven and thirteen just point at each other excitedly grinning like idiots. the camera pans away from them for one second and when it cuts back they’re wearing each other’s jackets.

1,302 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Okay, so here are our options:

1. David Tennant is the Fourteenth Doctor because the Jodie Whittaker's Doctor regenerated into him.

2. Ncuti Gatwa is the Fourteenth Doctor because Ten3 does not count.

3. Sacha Dhawan is the Fourteenth Doctor because Jodie Whittaker's doctor regenerated into him.

4. Jodie Whittaker is the Fourteenth Doctor due to the existence of the War Doctor.

5. Peter Capaldi is the Fourteenth Doctor due to the existence of the War Doctor and the time David Tennant regenerated into himself.

6. Matt Smith is the Fourteenth Doctor due to the existence of the War Doctor, and the time David Tennant regenerated into himself, and Jo Martin’s Doctor.

7. David Tennant is the Fourteenth Doctor due to the existence of the War Doctor, and the fact that he regenerated into himself, and Jo Martin's Doctor, and the existence of TenToo.

8. TenToo is the Fourteenth Doctor for the above reasons.

9. Donna Noble is the Fourteenth Doctor for the above above reasons.

10. Both David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa's Doctors' true numbers are unknowable due to the existence of The Timeless Child.

11. Both David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa's Doctors' true numbers are unknowable due to the existence of The Timeless Child, and the uncountable amount of times The Twelfth Doctor died and was reborn in Heaven Sent.

12. Both David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa's Doctors' true numbers are unknowable due to the existence of The Timeless Child, and the uncountable amount of times The Twelfth Doctor died and was reborn in Heaven Sent, and all Doctors seen in noncanon materials are actually canon (Peter Cushing films, Scream of the Shalka, Curse of the Fatal Death, etc...)

13. Both David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa's Doctors' true numbers are unknowable for all of the above reasons and also because pseudo-Doctors such as The Valeyard and The Dream Lord are also The Doctor.

14. The above is true, but The Doctor is simply a title, and anyone who claims to be The Doctor is also The Doctor. Jackson Lake is The Doctor. Clara is The Doctor. Missy is The Doctor. Graham is The Doctor. Every actor who has played The Doctor are also The Doctor.

15. The above is true, but due to The Egg Theory everyone else is also The Doctor. We are all The Doctor.

16. None of the above is true because no Doctor after the Revival is canon.

17. None of the above is true because no Doctor after the First Doctor is canon.

18. None of the above is true because there is no Fourteenth Doctor. The number was skipped for some reason.

19. The numbering system is flawed and useless to current canon, and we should switch to identifying Doctors by their actors, as we do with The Master. (Example: Hartnell!Doctor)

20. The above is not true because we would still need to find a way to differentiate the 3 - 4 Doctors played by David Tennant.

21. All of the above is technically true, and Russell T Davies should put it up to a poll and see who wins, and we must all commit to the democratic vote.

4,793 notes - Posted October 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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palimpsessed · 3 years ago

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Fan Fiction Year in Review 2021

I did one of these last year and thought it was interesting to look back over what I had written and think about what I may write going forward. This retrospective list of questions is from @captain-aralias.

If you're a writer, I'd also encourage you to do this. Tag me so I can see your thoughts 🥰

List of Complete Fics for 2021

1. Lotus-Eaters and Sirens - G, 557 words

2. It's a Kind of Magic - M, 15,806

3. The Thrill of the Hunt - M, 11,230

4. Chamber by Chamber - E, 19,043

5. The Hex Files comic - G, 183 (It has a storyline and words that I wrote so I am counting it)

List of In Progress Fics Started in 2021

(because I have a LOT of words 😤)

1. Sleeping with the Fishes (co-written with @the-greater-grief) - M, 7,786 by end of 2021

2. Slings and Eros - M, 52,882 by end of 2021 (This fic alone makes up half my total year’s word count!)

I also wrote a bunch of non-fic things, mostly about AWTWB, that I hadn't expected because I wasn't used to getting asks like I did last year. I'm going to include them, too, because time spent writing is time spent writing.

1. Baggage - regarding Simon's literal and figurative baggage in WS, 480

2. AWTWB and Chosen Ones - thoughts about Simon's arc, Smith Smith-Richards, the Mage, and Chosen Ones, 686

3. The Watford Goats and the World of Mages - working out my ideas about the the goats in AWTWB and Agatha's journey, 314

4. The rest are all tumblr asks linked on my blog at the bottom of my Masterlist 19,147

Total:

4 complete fics, 1 comic, 2 in progress fics, 3 meta, 9 asks

word count: 128,114

word count for fics: 107,487

Thoughts: In my review post last year, I noted that all of the fics (4) I had completed were for events, and I predicted it would be the same for 2021. In fact, it was not! I figured out pretty quickly that I have a problem with over committing when it comes to fandom events and forced myself to scale back. I did participate in some events, but most of the content I made for those was art.

Best/Worst Title?

Best: Slings and Eros

I love this title, even though I have this fear that it won't make sense without my long explanation. Which I'm giving. I just feel like this title does so much. I even made a whole other post about it once. It's a play on words from a Hamlet soliloquy, which feels meta in itself since Shakespeare has to have quite a hold over the World of Mages (even though this isn't a magickal fic). Beyond the source, though, is the context, which is Hamlet trying to decide if he should end his own life and framing that life as enduring a series of trials ("the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"). I liked this quote particularly for my fic, because it's a Greek Mythology AU, and Greek myths frequently feature stories of a hero enduring a series of labors in order to achieve some overarching goal. This is true for the myth that directly inspired this fic, Eros (or Cupid) and Psyche, and also true for my fic. It's also a big feature of the classic Hero's Journey, which of course, ties back perfectly to the idea of the Chosen One. I also liked the fact that I was removing the word "arrows" from the quote, just as I removed Eros/Cupid's arrows from the story and replaced them with a sword, which felt far more appropriate for Simon. And instead, I could use "Eros" which very conveniently sounds almost exactly like "arrows" and also hints to the source material, Simon's characterization, and one of the major themes of the fic.

I also really like Lotus-Eaters and Sirens and Chamber by Chamber.

Worst: Sleeping with the Fishes

I stand by this title, and I think it makes sense once you've read past the first 1 or 2 chapters, but without any context, it probably sounds like a Mafia AU, when it's actually a tennis and texting AU. I like it, but I feel like it was probably not a great choice in the grand scheme of things. I just saw an opportunity for puns and went for it.

Best/Worst Summary?

Best: Chamber by Chamber

"I'd give him all that I am.

I'd give him all that I was.

I'd open up a vein.

…

I'd tie our hearts together, chamber by chamber.

Simon and Baz have been through a lot. They've also been hard at work on communicating their needs and feelings. Here's some (therapeutic) smut."

This maybe is unexpected because it's a book quote followed by "here's some smut" and there's no actual plot to summarize. But the "chamber by chamber" quote is what inspired the series that culminates in this PWP one shot, and it's smut, so...it really does tell you all you need to know.

Worst: Lotus-Eaters and Sirens

"Simon has some thoughts about sirens while watching Baz drive away from their eventful trip to the Omaha Renaissance Faire.

(This is when Simon is being cute and happy on battle adrenaline and car snogging, and reality is trying to creep back in.)"

I just reread this summary for the first time since I posted it probably and it's so clunky. I don't even know why I have the second part there. I am contemplating how much it would matter this late in the game if I rewrote it, or at least deleted the second part.

Best/Worst First Line?

Best: Chamber by Chamber "Baz is squirming beneath me. It's good. It's hot. It's perfect." Yup. It sets the scene, it sets the mood, it also helps to set up some dom/sub dynamics they're playing with in this fic, too. Also I wanted it to be reminiscent of the night spent kissing at Pitch manor. (Simon on all fours above Baz.)

Worst: It's a Kind of Magic "I can tell it's happening almost before it does. I've had lots of time to learn. I know the signs better than he does, now." I think this opener is weakest among all of last year's fics because it takes its sweet time to get to the point. I don't think I define the "it" in that first sentence for several (admittedly short) paragraphs, and even then, I think I imply, rather than state, that the "it" is Simon slipping into a depressive spiral.

Best/Worst Last Line?

Best: This one is going to be a tie between Chamber by Chamber (the fic not the series) and Lotus-Eaters. Despite them both being one shots with no plot, I really think both of them pack a wallop in their final lines and I am incredibly proud of them! I'm not going to include the last line of Chamby because, plot or not, it actually is a spoiler. For LEAS, I feel like it's safe, though, so I'll drop that one here. "And then…Well. Then I drown." What really makes this line punch for me is that it's a Simon POV taking a Baz line from canon and reversing it from "burn" to "drown", fitting in perfectly with the siren/water imagery Simon uses for Baz in the fic. (Also, points to me for using water imagery for Baz before AWTWB!) It also goes a little further in that the fic is sort of in conversation with the part of CO where Simon compares Baz to a siren (the kind on police cars) and turns that on its head, by having him revise his comparison to the other kind of siren (the singing, ship-wrecking kind). That part in CO runs parallel to Baz's part comparing Simon to an open fire, which is, of course, where the original quote "and then you burn" comes from.

Honorable mention to the Hex Files comic because I intentionally set up Penny's final line to sound like a spell, in order to make it ambiguous about whether she was actually casting on Shepard in the last panel.

Worst: Looking back, I really like all of my last lines. I felt incredibly good about every one of them when I figured out how I was closing out each of these fics and I don't think any of them need improving. So, for this I will say, the worst lines are the ones that don't exist yet because the fics aren't finished and I am a completist.

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, fewer than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I think I wrote fewer fics than expected (even though I did not place expectations on myself) but more words overall, so I guess I'm about equal. 2020 was obviously a very unpredictable year, so not really a great barometer of actual productivity. I was back working full time in person by the start of 2021, and then the day after Baz's birthday, I had surgery which kept me laid up for the better part of 6 months. Of course, I thought I'd be a lot more productive writing wise during that time, but I didn't really account for how tiring it is to regrow bones so...I spent more of that time on art. Plus, we got AWTWB?! After that, my brain melted and then I was going back to work with a COTTA deadline looming.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I wouldn't say "never predicted", especially because I was already planning it in 2020, but I wrote my first smut! And it ended up being one of my favorite things I've written so far. It was something I hadn't planned on doing, because smut felt intimidating and way out of my depth. But then I was rereading WS, as you do, and the chamber by chamber scene always sticks with me, especially Simon talking about "all that I am...all that I was..." and how those two ideas of his self-identity and self-worth really weigh on him and his relationship with Baz and what it would look like if he really could give all of that to Baz. And then I spiraled about trauma and liminal spaces and monster parts (my love). And I realized I was going to have to write a smut fic if I was ever going to know peace.

What's your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest?

Torn between two lovers... Chamber by Chamber (if it's not obvious by now given how I haven't shut up about it) and Slings and Eros. Both of these fics were/are incredibly challenging to me as a writer--Chamby for the smut but also what I think was an ambitious agenda about dealing with trauma throughout the three part series--and Slings and Eros for being a plot-heavy (for me) epic complete with epic poetry that is very likely going to break 100k. Both of them have been exercises in patience in their own ways, and labors of love that I have enjoyed even when I haven't.

Okay, NOW your most popular story?

Going by kudos and bookmarks, it's Chamby

(To the Manor Borne is still my most kudosed and A Man of Letters is still my most bookmarked overall)

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

I would have liked to see more love for my Penny/Shep comic but it's not Snowbaz and it's the very first comic I did, so maybe that's to be expected. Actual fic-wise, I'm kind of surprised that The Thrill of the Hunt underperforms its Chamber by Chamber colleagues because this fandom seems rabid for vampirism and that's what it's all about. But maybe people read the first one and get impatient for the smut and skip to the last part? I would like to see more engagement on Slings and Eros because it's my current project and I'm excited about it, but it's a beast and I get that a lot of people don't want to read WIPs, especially longer ones.

Story that could have been better?

I didn't answer this last year, and I'm not going to answer it this year, either. I just don't think it's worthwhile for me to hash over what ifs in my fan fic. If I think something can be better, I keep working on it until it is better. Otherwise, it won't see the light of day.

Sexiest story?

The one with the sex in it. 😉

Saddest story?

I think this is LEAS. There is soft and sweet to balance out the sad, but it's not really ever happy. Simon is riding a high from the Ren Faire as he contemplates how much he is just head over heels for Baz, but the undercurrent to all of that is how much he feels like he isn't good or good enough for Baz. He loves him but he can't give him what he deserves; he wants him but he's going to drag him down. It's a lovely meditation full of devotion, but that devotion is telling Simon that he isn't worthy and that's sad, even if he closes the fic reaffirming how hopelessly in love he is with Baz.

Most fun?

When I first went to answer this, I thought it meant most fun to write, but there’s another question about that further down. So then this means the story that is the most fun. And I have no idea how to answer that 😆. Probably Sleeping with the Fishes. Texting is usually a fairly good time. Anyway. I’m still keeping my original answer since the other question is combined with easiest to write, which is different from my answer here. So starting it felt like pulling teeth, partly because it required a lot of research and reading and outlining, and then I got the completely inadvisable idea to write epic poetry, and then had to slog through several chapters to get Simon and Baz into the same place...but SAE has been the most entertaining for me, I think, because of the character dynamics. Getting to write the first Penny, Agatha, and Fiona POVs was so freaking fun. Also, the boys are absolute disasters and I love to watch them just completely lose their minds over each other in every scene. And knowing where it's all going is just SO GOOD and I can't wait for the payoff!

Story with the single sweetest moment?

I think it's SAE, but I don't really want to tell what the moment is because I don't want to spoil it? There's a thing at the beginning, about Baz leaving offerings in Simon's shrine. And at one point, when Baz is having a really hard time, Simon does this really adorable and heartfelt thing that echoes the offerings Baz leaves, as a way to try to let Baz know that he isn't alone. And it just...is a very Simon thing to do and I love it. (Chapter 7 for those curious.)

Hardest story to write?

It's a Kind of Magic needed so many rewrites. I had written The Thrill of the Hunt and didn't realize until I went to write Simon's story in the series that his had to go first, and Baz's second. So then I had to sort out how I wanted to write part 1 when I already had part 2, and what parallels I was going for, and what the ultimate goals were in each part, etc. I think I had a much clearer idea in my head for what I was trying to accomplish with the Baz part than I did with the Simon one. I had a sense of what I was trying to get at, but I think I wasn't sure how to get there, or maybe even where "there" was. I started and re-started it so many times and just chipped away at it for a solid two months fruitlessly before I think things finally started to make sense in my head. Then I had story pieces and had to decide how they fit together and what order they went in. Then Baz started to lead me in a new direction I wasn't really prepared to go. Ultimately, it all feels very smooth and satisfying, but it was such a struggle the entire time. I had been most worried about writing Chamby and I sat down, wrote a full outline in one day, and just went point by point until I had 19k. It was wild. All the hard stuff had already happened I guess.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

I kind of already answered this. I think it was Chamby. There were some lines in there that had me howling when I wrote them. (Baz compares the tightening in his bollocks to the event horizon of a black hole.) There’s a line about them not holding back with each other, and I feel like I was doing the same—just letting them go and do their thing. It was also incredibly moving for being unapologetic monsterfucking PWP, but for the most part, I just had such a great time with it.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

I think SAE has gotten me to think the most about the characters, in so far as it is an AU, and I'm spending a lot of time exploring the ways in which canon and the source myth converge and diverge and how that informs the characters and their dynamics. I don't think it's shifted my overall perception of the canon characters, but the ones in my fic, yes.

Most overdue story?

Same answer as last year, so we're moving on...(I get random bursts of creative energy and then they dissipate before I can capitalize) (but I will persist)

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I wrote smut, and I co-wrote a fic, and I started a fic off with poetry in a form I'd never written before, and I made a comic, and I started a super long fic with a fully developed "external" plot. I think what I learned is to take risks.

This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it?

Liminal spaces! I haven't screamed about them for a while, but that was really the driving force behind so much of my writing this past year. Chamber by Chamber is the obvious one, but also SAE, probably just one of many reasons those two are my favs.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Write what feels good when it feels good. But also venture out of my comfort zone once in a while. Since this is next year already, my immediate goal is just to keep working on my posted WIPs, but also to let myself think about/work on other things, too, because I feel like I need that reminder.

#fan fic year in review #lotus-eaters and sirens #it’s a kind of magic #the thrill of the hunt #chamber by chamber #sleeping with the fishes #the hex files #slings and eros #spicy links

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queenie-lexieee · 4 years ago

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Hello There!

I’m Lexie, a Pinterest loving, pansexual 23 year old. Welcome to my blog. It will consist of my photography, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Good Omens, Last Of Us, Our Flag Means Death , Once upon a time, Supernatural, Marvel, Game Of Thrones and DC, my writing, and stories. Along with self-care posting and about mental health.

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Stories:

My novel

The Lost Princess Who knew making a deal would change a person’s life forever. Now she is the universe princess trying to figure out how this could be true and perform her duties. Gods and royal duties are all too much. All she wants is her normal life back.

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Short Stories

The Woman Who Loves Her: A short story about a Doctor Who Alternate universe timeline where my oc: Queen Lexie Smith is twinty-tree years old and is married to The Doctor (eleventh version), they have a daughter named Rose who was born in May 2018, but she is five years old at the time because she had made herself regenerated when she was almost one year old. There is a multi-verse where different timelines sometimes collide and Lexie gets visited by her husband’s other faces.

“Talking To The Moon”: After Regina imprisons Belle and she starts counting the days of how long she has been there. Belle sits by the tiny prison window talking to the moon in the nights, and her mind wonders what her beloved is doing. Little does she know that Rumplestiltskin is doing the same. Inspired by “Talking To The Moon” by Bruno Mars

“A Moment By The Window”: My first ouat short based on our lovely Rumple and Belle, back in the Enchanted Forest when he catches her from her fall from the window. The awkwardness and the realization of their feelings for each other. Yes the title is inspired by “Moments in the Woods” a song from ‘Into The Woods’.

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The Untold:

The Final Step: A unpublished chapter from my story named The Untold that is on my Wattpad. About my oc Alexis who is student at Hogwarts and is in love with Severus Snape(lexie_uno)

How To Safe A Life: A unpublished chapter from my story named The Untold that is on my Wattpad. About my oc Alexis who is student at Hogwarts and is in love with Severus Snape(lexie_uno)

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You can dm me any time, please no hate or bullying, I won’t want to block someone. There is a enough hate in this world. Have a good day :3

{My aesthetic}

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carryonmywaywardcaptain · 4 years ago

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A Supernaturally Marvelous Fic Challenge

Calling all Supernatural and Marvel fanfic writers!

I don’t know about y’all, but writer’s block and lack of motivation have hit me harder than ever this year. It’s no secret that 2020 has been a giant crap show for a lot of people, but our precious fics and fandoms can be such a great escape from it all. In an attempt to spread some inspiration and feel good vibes, I wanted to make my follower celebration something that might help both writers and readers.

Below you’ll find all sorts of prompts (dialogue, songs, AUs, etc.) because you never know what might inspire you. Since we’ve all had a tough year, there’s a catch! You’ve got to give it a happy ending.

Make it fun. Make it sassy. Make it steamy. But for the love of ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY please wrap it up nicely with good things and a “fluffy” bow. Cool? Cool.

Now, on to the rest:

This is my follower celebration for both blogs, so please consider following @carryonmywaywardcaptain, @carryoncaptainrogers, or both!

As you may have guessed from the title, prompts can be written for Supernatural or Marvel (extra love and virtual hugs if you choose to write about Dean Winchester or Steve Rogers because they are the loves of my life. But there’s still plenty of love for the rest of the Avengers & TFW!)

Angst, smut, crack, and fluff are all welcome, but remember to give it a fluffy/positive ending and tag the warnings accordingly (Please steer clear of smut if you’re under 18. Stay young and innocent, babes.)

No limit to how many people sign up for each prompt. Feel free to combine prompts or even combine fandoms in a crossover! Whatever gets your creative juices flowing.

Send an ask with the prompt you want to do and the pairing you’re planning to write (life gets busy, so I’ll do a reminder post before the deadline if it’s helpful for you!). Reader inserts or OCs are both fine.

Tag me in the A/N and use the hashtag #supernaturally marvelous fic challenge by December 20th January 31st. If you’re garbage at deadlines like me, I’m super flexible and won’t hold it against you if you get it done later! I’ll reblog SPN fics on this blog and Marvel pairings over on @carryoncaptainrogers so your fics are seen by the fans who need them most :)

Got another idea you want to write and/or read about? Shoot me an ask and maybe I can add it to the mix!

Make sure to check back once in a while in case more prompts are suggested and added! Without further ado (oof, this is long!):

Some song ideas:

“Boss’s Daughter”- Pop Evil

“Night Moves”- Bob Seger

“It’s Been a Long, Long Time”- Harry James

“I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)”- yes, from Hercules

“Hold You in My Arms”- Ray Lamontagne

“Better Man”- James Morrison

“Perfect for Me”- Justin Timberlake

“When We Were Young”- Adele

“Holding Out For a Hero”- Ella Mae Bowen’s version

“Come Around”- Papa Roach

“From Eden”- Hozier

“To the Man Who Let Her Go”- Tyler Shaw

“What If I Stay”- Chris Young

“Drift Off to Dream”- Travis Tritt

“Take Your Time”- Sam Hunt

“T-Shirt”- Thomas Rhett

“Not Strong Enough”- Apocalyptica, Brent Smith

“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”- Lee Ann Womack

“Right Where You Want Me” or “Better With You”- Jesse McCartney (because I love them both and just couldn’t choose lol)

Feel free to suggest songs from the shows/movies! I know the above are random. I tried to have some variety.

AUs, Tropes, etc.:

*gasp* And there was only one bed… (Bed sharing)

Confessing FEELINGS (or “everyone conspiring to make them confess their feelings already”)

Neighbors

At a concert

Fake relationship for some event/case

Royal/Medieval

Soulmates

A/B/O

Friends/Enemies/Strangers to lovers

Comforting the other person

Dialogue prompts:

“I didn’t mean to turn you on.” “Well, it’s a little late for that!”

"Stop telling me you’re okay.”

“Can you please come and get me?”

“Sometimes you can be a real dumbass, you know that?”

“Because I care about you!”

“I’m right here. I’ve got you.”

“Who did this to you?”

“Well...what if I go with you?”

“Give me a chance to change your mind.”

“Plot twist!” “Screaming ‘plot twist’ doesn’t make this suck any less.”

“What did I say?” “You told me to stay out of trouble.” “And what did you do?” “The opposite of that, obviously.”

“You can do so much better than him. I wish there was some way I could make you believe that.”

“Not enough? You’re...everything.”

“Well this was fun... Let’s never do it again.”

“I need you to do something for me. You owe me a no-questions-asked.”

“Don’t look at me like that! You know what it does to me.”

“Wait! Just...take me instead.”

“You can’t keep it all inside, you know? Bottling it up won’t do any good.”

“I can’t stay away from you. I’m tired of trying.”

“Have you seen you? You’re like a damn dreamboat.”

Random things my kiddos at school have said:

“Hey Mrs. America! Mrs. Captain America.”

“You know what your problem is? DAT attitude.”

“How did it taste?” “Like disappointment.”

“Do we got a fucking problem?”

“When am I not wearing my sassy pants?”

“Words are hard.”

“I’ve been screaming internally my entire life.”

“Can I jump over the fence?” “No, but thank you for asking.”

“That’s not very cash money of you.” “...I don’t know what that means.” “That’s okay. I just felt like saying it.”

“What do you call a blind dinosaur?” “Dead.” [P.S. the answer is Do-you-think-he-saw-rus]

Shenanigan ideas:

Karaoke night at a bar

Thanksgiving dinner

Christmas lights

Slow dancing

Prank War

Ice skating

Mistletoe

Ugly sweater party

Gift exchange

Creating/sharing holiday traditions

Please reblog or tag your favs who might be looking for a little extra inspiration!

CarryOnCap Crew (Forevers):

@abswritesfandoms @amanda-teaches @cosicas-cuquis @crist1216 @droidyouseek @emoryhemsworth @ericaprice2008 @flawless-disaster @janeyboo @jenn0755 @ksgeekgirl @maresmiley @memyselfandmaddox @notyourtypicalrose @randomparanoid @rynabarnesrogers @sandlee44 @scarletsoldierrr @shann-the-artist-moon @sheerioasteroidpanda @shynara51 @someday-when-you-leave-me @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @thisismysecrethappyplace @torntaltos @waywardbaby @waywardrose13 @weebid @whimsicalrobots @wintersoldierbaby @wintersoldierissucharide @yesfanficsaremylife

Cap’s Marvel Crew:

@amoonagedaydreamer @bangtan-serendipity @bubbabarnes @lilacs-with-lavender @msgreenverse @nomadstevergxrs @palaiasaurus64 @scarlettsoldier @selina-kyle89 @smokeandnailz @troublermalik @twittytelly @valkirsif

Cap’s SPN Crew:

@adoptdontshoppets @akshi8278 @alexwinchester23 @bi-danvers0 @deangirl7695 @dean-winchesters-bacon @fandomoniumflurry @pisces-cutie @supernaturalenchanted @superromijn @waywardnerd67 @x-waywardaf-x

Other amazing writers came to mind in case you’re interested in participating, feeling inspired to bless us with more of your beautiful work, or wouldn’t mind reblogging/tagging other writers (Please forgive me for spamming you!):

@luci-in-trenchcoats @supernatural-jackles @evansrogerskitten @cajunquandary @after-avenging-hours @fvckingavengers @mywritingsblog @bitsandbobsandstuff @prettyyoungtragedy @kittenofdoomage @angelkurenai @impala-dreamer @redgillan @gaybybirth @invisibleanonymousmonsters @221bshrlocked @sgtjbuccky @captainrogerss @katymacsupernatural @buckyofthemyscira @captain-rogers-beard-mainblog @dancingalone21 @atc74 @smol-and-grumpy @hannahindie @kdfrqqg @sis-tafics @idreamofplaid @deanssweetheart23 @because-imma-lady-assface @covered-byroses @captain-kelli @heli0s-writes @deanwinchesterswitch @roonyxx @jay-and-dean @ladywinchester1967 @spnfanficpond

#supernaturally marvelous fic challenge #CarryOnCap's fic writing challenge #fic writing challenge #follower celebration #marvel fanfiction #spn fanfiction #supernatural fanfiction #fanfic writing prompts #fanfic writing challenge #fluff #dean winchester x reader #steve rogers x reader #bucky barnes x reader #sam winchester x reader #supernatural reader insert #spn reader insert #marvel reader insert

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tiesandtea · 4 years ago

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An in-depth & really interesting review of Head Music’s various - often forgotten but actually brilliant - b-sides. Originally posted on The Vapour Trail London blog on 20 November 2019.

The folklore of early Suede and the B-sides compilation ‘Sci Fi Lullabies’ would lead the casual observer to believe that the band had peaked creatively to the point that post-1997 B-sides would not be worth investigating, however I believe differently and now, thanks to the reissues of ‘Head Music’, these can now be easily accessed for wider reappraisal.

Full article under the cut.

Coincidentally coinciding with the recent release of Brett Anderson’s second memoir ‘Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn’, Suede have issued the 20 year deluxe edition of their fourth album, ‘Head Music’. Their final number one album to date was issued in May of 1999 to much fanfare, following in the footsteps of their classic ‘Coming up’ in 1996, a record that spawned no less than five top ten singles and saw them achieve astronomical fame across Europe and Asia (indeed, Anderson remains a genuine celebrity in parts of Scandinavia as a direct result). Whilst ‘Head Music’ was a hit, its making has gone down in the annals of history as being even more fraught and littered with personal scandal than even that of their second album, ‘Dog Man Star’, the record that infamously served as original guitarist Bernard Butler’s swan song. The chief reason was Anderson’s spiralling addictions to heroin and crack, which in the eyes of the singer served to influence what he and many others deem the patchiness of the record. Indeed, when Suede first reissued their heyday albums back in 2011, Brett would include within the sleeve notes his own rewritten track listings in each, citing Suede’s fervent devotion to ensuring that their B-sides were up to the same quality as their singles and album tracks, thus costing the associated albums some potential improvements. Songs from the album that often raise debate amongst its makers and listeners include ‘Asbestos’, ‘Elephant Man’, and the almost universally-derided title track, a scrappy, crappy exercise in suggestiveness that even producer Steve Osborne initially refused to have anything to do with.

Perhaps due to all of this, the resultant B-sides of the album’s singles have been lost in time somewhat. Whereas the B-sides associated with the first three albums reached legendary status in such a short space of time that the band issued a compilation double album of nearly all of them in 1997, ‘Sci Fi Lullabies’, their 1999 counterparts are rarely spoken of within the same reverent breath. I would argue that this is vastly remiss to the point of sacrilege as, taken in one listenable chunk, they serve to create what on its own would be an incredible record.

But before we investigate further, it’s worth exploring the genesis of Suede’s musical direction at this point. As Brett and the band have noted many times over the years, Suede sought to follow each album with a record almost diametrically opposed to its predecessor stylistically. The kitchen sink gutter glam of their groundbreaking debut was consciously followed by an ambitious, widescreen and darker ‘Dog Man Star’, the pretension and bluster of which was then followed by a strict album of ‘ten singles’ in ‘Coming Up’. Each time, at least one B-side would serve as a blueprint for what would follow; 1993’s ‘High Rising’ and ‘The Big Time’ served very much of signposts for what would follow in 1994, and then again in 1995, Richard Oakes’ sexy glam pop of ‘Together’ would point the band towards ‘Coming Up’ in 1996. Here, they would seek to expand upon the sonic direction of Mat Osman-penned ‘Europe is Our Playground’, a song they so loved they reworked its arrangement live and subsequently re-recorded for the aforementioned B-Sides compilation of 1997. Caked in icy synths and led by a dub-inspired bass line, it signified something cold and electronic, the desolate melancholy of ‘Dog Man Star’ reimagined by Kraftwerk or Berlin-era Bowie. The band promised this new direction in interviews and the public’s appetite was whetted.

Early in 1998, as part of a Pet Shop Boys-curated tribute to Noel Coward’, the band released one of their prime hidden gems, a suitably synthetic and clinical version of the great writer’s ‘Poor Little Rich Girl’. Unfortunately this was shown to the masses on television via a mimed performance that saw an utterly wasted Anderson grinning inanely with zoned out eyes whilst trying not to fall off a chair. This performance distracted from the impressive song (also featuring the highly talented Raissa, who had supported Suede on their Coming Up tour, on vocals) and seemingly left no impression on anybody.

And so to fast forward to the album. The making of the record has been documented extensively not only in Anderson’s second autobiography but also in David Barnett’s authorised biography ‘Love and Poison’ and Mike Christie’s recent documentary set ‘The Insatiable Ones’. If you’re not familiar with the story, it is a jaw dropping tale of decadence, debauchery and depression, the likes of which have seemingly and thankfully been removed from the culture of music making today. Indeed, there’s not a lot of money around now for bands to blow on endless recording sessions fuelled by endless drug abuse. But what emerged was a flawed but often brilliant record that has stood the test of time well and honestly sounds as fresh as the day it was released. The album’s track list can and will continue to be debated but ultimately, had they shaved off two of the more superfluous numbers (I would argue that the title track serves no purpose as does the turgid closing track ‘Crack in the Union Jack’), it would likely be held in the same high regard as the vast portion of their other records. But we won’t dwell on that here.

First single ‘Electricity’ was accompanied by no fewer than five b-sides, all of which carry some merit. ‘Popstar’, a concise lyrical study of the relationship between fan and band, contains the kind of crystalline synths and dubby bass that the band had sought to highlight with their two musical blueprints prior to the album. Richard Oakes’ guitar parts are sparser than ever before but serve the song well, and the chorus is cold and epic in a way that takes the song from good to great. ‘Killer’, complete with a lyric that seems to expand upon the ficitonlised femme fatale of ‘Coming Up’s ‘She’, is more impressive still; a dark, brooding slice of electro-noir that slinks and stalks in the manner suggested by the song’s lyric. It builds and builds to a desperate crescendo and brings to mind the best of Depeche Mode at their ‘Violator’ zenith. ‘See That Girl’, complete with yearning Anderson vocals lamenting ‘this dog shit world’, is less impressive but still good. A real undersung high point of the time is the Neil Codling-written and sang ‘Waterloo’, an electronic folk classic that sees some beautifully melodic guitar lines almost acting as choruses, and a tenderness rarely reached by the band. The fifth and final b-side (it was on the minidisc – yes, minidisc – version of the single), is ‘Implement Yeah!’, an old co-write with Justine Frischmann where Brett parodies Mark E Smith to amusing effect over a gutter-punk thrash that the band premiered with Justine at the 1997 Reading Festival.

‘She’s in Fashion’ followed in 1999 and quickly became one of the band’s better known songs via endless radio play that perhaps contributed to it being their first single since ‘New Generation’ in 1995 not to reach the top ten. Looking back, I imagine the fact that you could walk into any shop at any time during that Summer and be exposed to it as one reason why fewer people bought it than they might otherwise. The B-sides rank among the band’s very best. ‘Bored’ continues where ‘Implement Yeah’ left off with a Stooges-like guitar thrash adorned by sweet synths and a classically anthem Suede chorus. During an interview at the end of 1999, Mat Osman threatened a harder, rockier direction for the next album which never did come to fruition and it’s possible that this would have been one of its blueprints. ‘Pieces Of My Mind’ is better still, and a rehearsal recording of it sounding very different can be found on the new reissue. Taking its cue from ‘Europe is Our Playground’, it is a dreamlike wander through almost psychedelic electronica and its lilting chorus imprints itself on your mind immediately. ‘Jubilee’, a Codling creation, is one of the best of the era and would probably have made for a better first single than ‘Electricity’, a romantic epic that chugs along like ‘Trash’ and bears a dramatic and addictive chorus that would surely have been incredible live. Perhaps the lyric was somewhat off-putting to the band, a blank retread of other songs including the ‘run with me’ hook of the ubiquitous ‘Europe’. If so, this is a shame as if we are to be honest (and Brett has said so numerous times himself), the entire era was marred by some seriously autopilot lyricism that was charming in places in its framing of the Suede lyrical lexicon of language, and just plain boring in others. The single is rounded off by the gorgeous ‘God’s Gift’, a simplistic piano piece aided and abetted by swirling synths and understated bass that had been written by Brett about Justine many years before. As with a few of Suede’s records (most notably the first album), the spectre and influence of Ms Frischmann lurks around the songs of this era but in perhaps a much more positive way; the two had rekindled their friendship prior to the making of the album and it was Justine’s love of new wave that inspired some of the music.

‘Everything Will Flow’, the great lost ballad of the era in the same way as ‘The Wild Ones’ had been five years prior, saw an interesting bag of B-sides attached that differed in style in a far more pronounced way than the two earlier singles. ‘Leaving’, which Brett sees as the ultimate casualty of this period, is prime Suede in its romantic portrait of a girl departing relationship for a new life, although the underlying sentiment is entirely opposite of that of ‘Another No One’ in 1996. Although still featuring synthesised textures, its abundance of gentle guitar and piano is much more organic and not only serves as an appropriate backing to the not dissimilar ‘Flow’ but also as a subtle nod to where the band would go next. ‘Weight of the World’ is entirely a Neil Codling construction as with the earlier ‘Digging a Hole’ on the ‘Lazy’ single of 1997, however here he is eschews piano in favour of nylon strung guitar. Ruminating on the idea of his own demise, the song finds Neil in introspective form and perhaps shows a window into how he must have been feeling at the time, his health suffering significantly during the making of the record resulting in a chronic bout of ME of which he would never fully recover. It is sad and beautiful and at the time I wondered whether he would one day make a solo record. To date, he never has. ‘Seascape’ is up next, an ambient instrumental piece at odds with the majority of Suede’s output (indeed I believe this is Suede’s sole instrumental within their canon). Pleasing and dreamy in a subtly Eno-esque way, it lures you into a false sense of security for what would follow. The final song of the ensemble is the shocking and brilliant ‘Crackhead’. Noted by Q at the time for its outlandish appeal, it remains one of the most captivating songs in Suede’s history. Built around a staccato electronic motif, it lurches and grinds in a manner the band never achieved before or since, as a hoarse Anderson vocal tears apart his own addiction to the ice with suitable ice. At the time, Brett was in recovery, however this sounds like an isolated howl from the depths of dependence. It roars and builds to a final shrieking chorus of ‘you can’t give it up’ which says all that really needed to be said.

The final single of the era, ‘Can’t Get Enough’, another candidate for what should have previewed the album in place of ‘Electricity’, limped to number 24 in the charts but boasted perhaps the greatest array of B-sides of all the singles. In archetypal Suede fashion, ‘Let Go’ cut an honest precursor to the musical way forward, which would culminate in the predominantly folky ‘A New Morning’. Three-layered harmonies and melodic acoustic strum back one of Richard Oakes’ finest guitar performances, chiming and chugging riffery that would be revisited on later single ‘Obsessions’. Brett’s lyrics convey an all-pervaying positivity minus the bland triteness of the single of the same name, capping off an irrestible euphoria that would be deemed suitable for release as an A-side in their commercial home from home that was Sweden. It’s a shame that they were unable to replicate the feeling of the song across the subsequent ‘A New Morning’ album, however upon reflection the fault may lie in the fact that said album would be over-produced to the point of clean-cut nothingness by the otherwise accomplished Stephen Street. Next song ‘Since You Went Away’ is folkier still and retains much of the same charm, with Brett lamenting the feeling of loss felt in the aftermath of a realtionship break-up. Again, this is truly lovely stuff and acts as a further blueprint for album number five that would never quite be capitalised on. Heading over to CD2, ‘Situations’ is powered by a synthesised Eastern motif and ponders the ‘lonely minds’ and ‘vacant stares’ typical of Anderson’s lyrics of the time. While slightly over long, it would have worked on ‘Head Music’ had it been the more darker record the band initially promised, and even to these ears sounds somewhat influential on final Suede single (at the time), 2003’s ‘Attitude’. The very final B-side of this era is the brilliant and biting ‘Read My Mind’. As with ‘Crackhead’, it reveals a starker, harsher sound complimented by the blank words defining a phase of depression, most likely revealing the way the writer was feeling at the time. The chorus harmonies add to the relentlessness of the piece and once it’s over, you’re honestly left wanting more.

So these B-sides make up the lost record of 1999 whilst also pointing towards Suede’s final record of their first run. The rockier record that Osman hinted at was surely influenced by the likes of ‘Bored’, ‘Crackhead’ and ‘Read My Mind’, whilst the likes of ‘Let Go’, ‘Leaving’ and ‘Since You Went Away’ were very definitely influences on what eventually did surface. The folklore of early Suede and the B-sides compilation ‘Sci Fi Lullabies’ would lead the casual observer to believe that the band had peaked creatively to the point that post-1997 B-sides would not be worth investigating, however I believe differently and now, thanks to the reissues of ‘Head Music’, these can now be easily accessed for wider reappraisal.

#suede #head music #happy HM anniversary!#head music review

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