#don't be basic be fantastic ⋈ promo

[fcllederage-moved]

NORTHERN ATTITUDE. selective and private roleplay blog for HYACINTHE LEROY, an independant, original character penned & loved by alix (30+, she/they). est. 03.06.2023. TRIGGERING CONTENT will take place.

CURRENT STATUS: medium to high activity IMs open & Discord available upon request

[fcllederage]

& F C L L E D E R A G E           ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯          . an independent and original character. SELECTIVE. MUTUALS ONLY. penned & loved by alix (30+, she/they). utc+2. medium activity. if you are under 21, do not follow or interact. themes explored: violence, swearing, depiction of blood/gore, sexual situations, ptsd, mentions of abuse and sequestration, relationship abuse, homophobic situations.

[theoutcastrogue]

According to EN World (I mean I wouldn't know and couldn't possibly be bothered) the author of this tweet is "former gaming executive turned culture warrior Mark Hern".

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons is a WotC book that just came out for the game's 50th anniversary, and the passages are from "the foreword written by Jon Peterson, one of the foremost historians about Dungeons & Dragons and who also collaborated with Wizards of the Coast on the book".

Elon Musk, famous idiot, immediately piped in supporting the tweet

and obviously fuck Musk and fuck the "culture warriors", here's how I see it (without having read the book, but I'm confident my guesses are educated enough).

This book is promotional material. The good part is that it brings to light primary documents, which are invaluable for research. The bad part is that it's promotional material, like everything that comes out of WotC. No one should trust a fucking brand (silence, brand) to tell its own story. I've read some of Jon Peterson's previous work, and I thought he's an excellent researcher but only moderately able to pick up the prejudices baked in the hobby. Gets some of it, misses a lot. I'm guessing his criticism came about by WotC's own request, and would not be printed if their PR team (and legal team, probably) didn't approve it. And I'm gonna note that said criticism, while in the right direction (to be clear, the basic stance of "this was shitty, but erasing it from history and pretending it didn't exist doesn't help; what helps is acknowledging the shittiness" is absolutely correct), is very light and very careful. The history of D&D needs STRONGER criticism, which will never happen in a WotC publication.

And what I'd like to see is a comprehensive critical history of D&D, which I don't think exists yet. We have EITHER involved and well-researched but largely uncritical histories, even when they delve deep into the cultural environment that made D&D's birth possible, OR works that explore a single topic or focus on a handful of problematic™ elements. AFAIK. If I'm missing something, by all means, let me know! Here's my bibliography so far (not including papers, which can be VERY critical):

David M. Ewalt, Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It (Scribner, 2013)

Jon Peterson, Playing at the World: A history of simulating wars, people and fantastic adventures, from chess to role-playing games (Unreason Press, 2012)

Michael J. Tresca, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games (McFarland, 2011)

Jennifer Grouling Cover, The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-playing Games (McFarland, 2010)

Sarah Lynne Bowman, The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity (McFarland, 2010)

Joseph P. Laycock, Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds (University of California Press, 2015)

Ashley ML Brown, Sexuality in Role-Playing Games (Routledge, 2015)

and the promos

30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons (WotC, 2006)

Michael Witwer et al, Art & Arcana: A Visual History (Ten Speed Press, 2018)

Michael Witwer, Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons (Bloomsbury, 2015) [not a promo per se, but fully a eulogy]

[tequitoclown]

List of programs and stuff I use

[pt: List of programs and stuff I use ./end pt]

Disclaimer: This is in no way trying to say I have the best setup of all time or anything. The point of this post is mostly to introduce people to cool things they may not know about, or a place to point to when someone asks what I use!

(Last updated: 6/28/24)

Browser

[pt: browser ./end pt]

Firefox (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Obviously I recommend Firefox above all else, especially with chromium-based browsers moving onto manifest V3.

Bitwarden (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Good password manager! Used it for years with no complaints!

AdNauseam (Firefox/Chrome) - My adblocker. It's built upon uBlock Origin and has all the same features, but it actively clicks on the ads to waste advertiser money. If that's not up your alley, uBlock Origin is fantastic too!

Wayback Machine extension (Firefox/Chrome/Safari) - Allows you to make snapshots of pages, or view old snapshots if a page isn't loading correctly!

XKit ReWritten (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for Tumblr. Has a ton of features to make navigating this site much better. Full feature list here!

Discord

[pt: Discord ./end pt]

Vencord (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A modified Discord client that adds support for plugins and themes. Basically allows you to install plugins from a massive list that improves Discord. (Technically against ToS. Basically, don't post that you're using it in big servers, and turn off your themes before sharing screenshots.)

Bunny (Android/IOS) - If you miss Vendetta for Discord, Bunny is an actively maintained fork of Vendetta! Basically the same as above, but for Android/IOS instead of desktop. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Aliucord (Android) - Miss the old Android app feel, and still want to have plugins/themes? Pretty cool but has a less impressive theme/plugin selection. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Bluecord (Android) - Another Discord modification without the new Discord UI!

Youtube

[pt: Youtube ./end pt]

Freetube (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A desktop Youtube client with adblock and sponsorblock built in. Still in beta, but very good.

Sponsorblock (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for watching Youtube these days. Automatically skips over sponsors, self-promos, interaction bait, outros, intros, etc. Highly configurable!

Dearrow (Firefox/Chrome) - Haven't used this very long but I love it. Gets rid of vague or clickbait titles/thumbnails and replaces it with descriptive and more accurate thumbnails. Also built into Freetube now!

Newpipe (Android) - Lightweight Youtube client. I haven't used it myself much but people swear by it!

ReVanced (Android) - Modded Youtube client with Sponsorblock, Return Youtube Dislike, and Youtube Premium features. Doesn't support Dearrow as of 6/25/24 :( (PLEASE BE CAREFUL INSTALLING THIS. If you don't know what you're doing, you can cause some damage!)

Spotify

[pt: spotify ./end pt]

Spicetify (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - Spotify modded client. Has adblock, themes, etc! Think Vencord, but for Spotify.

Misc.

[pt: Misc ./End pt]

Obsidian (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Basically a personal wiki for notetaking! A bit of a learning curve. Fanfic writers and worldbuilders... go feral.

Notepad++ (Windows) - A must-have text editor. Might be on more platforms but can't confirm?

Mullvad VPN (Windows/Android) - The only VPN I can 100% recommend. Cheap, fast, and really cares about your privacy. It's a little under $6 USD a month!

NVDA (Windows) - A free screenreader I use for reading large blocks of text. (Notice: I am not visually impaired to the point I rely on a screenreader to navigate my PC. I use it on occasion to read text to me because I have a hard time reading. If you're looking for advice on screenreaders for the visually impaired unfortunately I'm not a good source! Maybe check out the #visually impaired, #blind, or #accessibility?)

Syncthing (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android) - Lets you sync folders across devices. It's especially good with Obsidian.

"Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!"

[pt: "Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!" ./end pt]

I'm sorry. :( If you're looking for a program I have personally mentioned using in the past, feel free to shoot me an ask or DM! Or hey... maybe try searching the letters "FMHY" and having a look around? *wink*

[beautifulpersonpeach]

It's true that Scooter is an opportunist but you did not really touch up how he's heavily involved in JK's promotion. That man has literally made Jk his personal project. I understand that one of the probable things that they're doing that is to compensate for the changes in Billboard rules, but what does that tell you? He and BangPD are ready to give JK the world now just to get that #1. they literally gave JK a song for free and are handing everything to him, no sweat for the maknae. So it's okay if JK gets the special treatment? What sets him apart? I doubt Tae will get the same promotion because Scooter doesn't give a shit about him. If Tae does not get the same promotion, what then?

***

Hi Anon,

Normally, this is the sort of ask I'd delete because it's a waste of time to repeat myself. But I want to use your ask as an example of the hate thrown towards Jungkook, and Anon if you're remaining active in ARMY spaces, of someone who simply isn't being honest with themselves about what they are.

Like I said, Jungkook's promo style is consistent with what BTS has done so far for exclusively English releases promoted only in America/Europe, and so if Tae does this, he should get similar promotions for his roll-out. There are exceptions too, for example, BTS went on NPR Tiny Desk and BBC Radio 1 live, Jungkook didn't attend NPR Tiny Desk (possibly impacted by the writers strike) but Namjoon did, while Jungkook instead is doing a BBC radio 1 live. With the BB rule change, possibly all releases going forward will have more of a hybrid push, even for Korean releases.

We'll see.

Feel free to mark this post to check back in ~6 months.

But that's not really what you're asking, is it?

"He and BangPD are ready to give JK the world now just to get that #1."

'...giving JK the world' in this case being BTS Western style promotions, and yeah I'm glad they're doing it. I see a win for any BTS member as a win for BTS. As cliche as it sounds, that's how I genuinely feel. Obviously.

"they literally gave JK a song for free and are handing everything to him, no sweat for the maknae."

Funny thing is this reminds me of the drags Yoongi and Jimin solos were trading two months ago - about how Jimin got 'handed' remixes and what not, while Yoongi mostly produced his own stuff; and Jimin solos retorting with pics of Yoongi's song camp in the big house when he got stuck putting together the album. It's just such an ignorant and hateful thing to say lmao. Yeah Jungkook, like Beyonce, got a song from his agency. I personally don't care for the song, but he seems to like it, feels it matches with the image and message he wants to convey at this point, and he did a good job on it. Jimin, for FACE, wanted a more personal involvement and that's fantastic as well.

"So it's okay if JK gets the special treatment?"

If by special treatment you mean an exclusively English release getting the typical BTS treatment, then yeah. I actually don't mind it. Jungkook has been extremely vocal about the grand plans he has for his solo album, for years. I don't even bias him and I know that. He's also got good English pronunciation, has an easily marketable image already, and a literal ARMY of fans (I'm assuming not including Anon) in the US. When other members want that and are prepared for it, they'll get it. Just as when other members want to do a solo tour as Yoongi did, and are prepared for it, they'll get it. Because, you know, we can all see Yoongi getting a tour isn't 'special treatment', it's more consistent with how the group has always operated.

Basically Anon, you're angry, bitter, and overly invested in a situation over which you have almost none of the information and absolutely no control over the outcome. You've made up your mind that everything that Jungkook is getting should actually have gone to the member you bias, regardless of the nuances or context around each release. That's a recipe for disaster and misery a.k.a. turning into an akgae if you aren't one already.

Overall, this idea of dick measuring promotions between the members, is an exercise in futility IMO. To what end exactly, are you lining up their choices? Like, what's the play here? /gen.

There's much ado about parasocial relationships in k-pop, but people usually just toss that word around without actually understanding what it means. Anon, I suggest you find a way to process your emotions and be honest with yourself about what you actually know, why you're feeling the way you are, and what that means for you going forward. This has practically nothing to do with Scooter, or Bang PD, or Jungkook, or even Jimin. It's 100% to do with you.

[sorenblr]

Prepare those calzones rojos and don't choke til you swallow that twelfth grape.

Any "best of '23" lists you wanna expose to this here tumblr audience?

I've waited until the very end to answer this, since my yearly vacation lines up with the last week of December, allowing maximum time to devote to "gaming like a monster". I still didn't play shit for new games this year, but I am confident that every title on this list makes Baldur's Gate 3 and Tears of the Kingdom look like a bunch of muddy, wet shit:

Heart of the Killer

The 8th and penultimate episode in thecatamites' Anthology of the Killer series, which in aggregate is the most compelling project to come out of the medium in recent memory. Follow zinester and aspiring murder victim BB as she navigates a strange world of maniac killers and maniac killer paraphernalia. Combines the warm trappings of pulp horror and associated genre schlock with the profound literary sense and humor of the author. Boasts the rare perfect art design.

This one features 'liminal spaces' and is about the regulation and dictation of desire. Oh shit!

Varney Lake

Another 'pixel-pulp' title by the Argentine LCB Studio, this time a King or Bradbury-esque portrait of mournful childhood nostalgia set in the summer of 1954. Three friends find a dracula in the woods and he turns out to be basically just a stand-up kind of guy. Sincere, intelligent writing and gorgeous CGA-inspired art that transcends mere imitation of that style.

Pseudo-sequel to the fantastic Mothmen 1966 and best enjoyed in sequence with that game.

Stomp Plonk

It's just good old-fashioned fun to stomp and plonk around in Marek Kapolka's wordless fantasy world. The character designs and animation here bring me a lot of joy. Sometimes a game just needs to be a collection of little cretins.

Pseudoregalia

Sharply designed 3D metroidvania based on an earlier game jam project. Strangely melancholic tone and a nice, expressive moveset. One of the more engaging translations of the genre to 3D.

You can tell the developer didn't expect so many eyes on this because the protagonist has her big goat ass hanging all the way out and they had to include a toggle for pants in the options menu.

Honorable Mentions:

Shards of God: point-and-click agatha christie murder mystery set on a dune-esque desert planet. good

Orbo's Odyssey: kinetic 3d platformer. movement funny... but good?? slay 4 golden draculas

Kowloon's Curse: Lost Report: any game with an explorable desktop w/ fake sites and shit is good

Tommy Gun Witches: if you haven't seen the main promo screen for this game, there's still time for you to correct that

DOCTRINESPACE: cool twine game about a future where crypto bullshit is king, and the doctrines are hotter than ever

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days: mostly about killing chinese police officers and any civilians foolish enough to enter your line of sight. kane and lynch are craaaaazy!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2023 games that I would like to have played but couldn't squeeze in: Blasphemous 2, Crypt Underworld, Bahnsen Knights, Knuckle Sandwich, 24 Killers etc.

[azurdlywisterious]

Tell me your fave vaults

Okay, I somehow narrowed it down to a top five (honorable mentions are basically every single other vault) (except Vault 81) ( i wish the experiment actually happened and the overseer didnt shut it down i wanted the psychological horror :/ )

Vault 77- This is the crate of puppets vault, featuring the crate of puppets guy. This Vault wasn't a part of any game, rather it is from a comic that was promo material for fallout 3. and like, penny arcade understood the assignment on demonstrating how fucked up vault-tec is in thirty six panels. Like my one critique is that it's so short, but with the direction they went with the plot and the topics they tackled and it being 2008, it was probably for the best. Anyways the whole comic is free on the Internet Archive and its a nice snappy read (almost to its detriment like straight up plz someone get ari aster on the phone he'd make a fantastic adaptation of one man and a crate of puppets legit)

Vault 112- ooh hoo hoo unlike most vaults that I just remember from reading the wiki blurbs back in high school, this one was fully brought to my attention in a game of magic where i exiled a ridiculous amount of my library to get a winning card and also my missing dad (shout out to adventure costs!!!) and in that game i vowed to find it. I didnt know that it was a part of the main plot of fo3 yet but that didn't take long to find out. This is the creepy simulation one that i see as almost a proof of concept for the evil within vibes-wise (i fucking love the evil within series but thats besides the point). Legit terrified me in a way that should not have been possible (maybe im the one with unchecked issues that people being saccharinely nice to me sets off alarm bells in my head but it could also be that i had to get into a vr pod first) (who knows?) Anyways I proceeded to ignore like half of it and I'm looking forward to the next time i play and actually interacting with it a bit more (also one of my twelve fallout ocs is from this vault i made it work given this vault's canon ending)

Vault 11- Oughhhhhhh epistolary enviromental just altogether wonderful storytelling. the posters. The Posters! The ones that read "I Hate Nate" but the deeper down you go the more you find that have been graffitied to read "I Hate Kate" perfect wonderful amazing. Not to mention granting us with "Don't Vote Glover He Has A Family" which idk I love that out of context but I do. In context it's downright horrifying and the absurdity of it actually adds to the horror. Love love love Vault 11.

Vault 108- Gary. Gary Gary? Gary! Okay in all seriousness the story of this one is bonkers and also I'm a sucker for cloning (I had a cloning phase in third grade). Like, they found a guy that was going to die in a few months to be overseer so that there would be a power vacuum. Okay, normal social experiment for vault-tec. This eventually leads to them cloning a guy named Gary and then all the Gary clones killing the rest of the dwellers so now the only people in the vault are Gary clones. For the life of me I do not remember the chain of events that led to it and no i will not look it up it's funnier this way.

Vault 88- Look this one is boring to most people. Its a mix reviewed Fallout 4 DLC but dammit, I like getting to design my own Vault. As someone who got into Fallout because of the Vaults it was incredibly appealing to get to be the villain for once. And then I saw that my victim was this sweet guy named Clem (and also I was playing a goody two shoes but thats besides the point). Like I can tell they wanted to write Clem to be annoying so that you felt less bad basically torturing him but I found him so sweet and earnest I just couldnt. I fucking love Clem I would die for Clem hes like if a golden retriever was a person that I wanted to make sure kept his agency and autonomy. Plus it was really fun getting to piss the overseer off with some actually decent written dialogue. Like bonus points for that. And I still havent finished building the vault! amazing. absolutely wacky but also amazing.

[tennelleflowers]

you got me hyper fixated on kingdom hearts and I don't know where to go from here. Can you maybe give advice for how to expand on the basics?

I've gotten a few requests to share videos and such, so consider this my answer: Best place is to play the games! And be sure to read the journal! After that, there's a lot to sink your teeth into if you want to know more, like reading the Ultimania's, Character Files, and Novels.

The Manga's are also cute, but generally considered less canon than the novels, for example.

Plus there are DECADES worth of interviews, I recommend using KHInsider as they are a great source :https://www.khinsider.com/dark-seeker-saga (You can click on the game you want to know more about and then look at Interviews, but they also have promo art on there and just a bunch of stuff)

There's also this great playlist made by GamerSpice of CHOICE KH videos, you'll find all my videos there but also all of Howler's vids and SRT vids as well as others: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLROrAtfTLrh6njOkpzREkZXXvCcINa8iO SuperButterBuns has made fantastic KH videos in her "For Beginners" series, RegularPat makes great content all around discussing the games, Damo279 has great videos covering the mobile games, BioRoxas has great videos breaking down the combat of the games, PlayFrame has a couple of great videos talking about how great the animation in KH is ( https://youtu.be/Z8aygr-1xAA), and of course I gotta recommend hanging out in Niku's streams where they talk about KH on the reg: https://www.twitch.tv/nikutsune (You can also watch their vods here: https://www.youtube.com/@nikustreamarchive ) There's so many people I could also recommend following for their art or metas like @blowingoffsteam2, Kipper on twitter (https://twitter.com/kicktwine), @smovs, @nicedracula, jiji on twitter (https://twitter.com/isleofji), aaannd damn there's just so many...

you can also follow my KH-blog @khllentxene, where I reblog a lot of stuff so that's a good way to start following other cool people.

IT'S A LOT! And also doesn't include everything and everyone I could mention, but I think it'll at least give you a good jumping in point!

[eddiegettingshot]

I think abc (who presumably approves all the PR — like I assume all this interviews and stuff would be pulled if it wasn’t like, up to their standard) is aware that even like, alluding to buddie in promo/marketing material is a technique that works to bring people in unlike fox who seemed to basically ignore it constantly, and do actually look through the promo material and sign off on it — even if oliver is … saying more of what he wants to say, lol go for you, man and not self censoring as much. I’m kind of pessimistic and think this is all only being done to boost ratings to get people to watch the show but maybe things will be different, idk. abc has been doing a surprisingly better job so far with the show imo (they’ve got plenty of shows in the past with fantastic queer protagonists, starting w Callie Torres all the way back in the 00s, so I wasn’t surprised when buck finally came out with the network change), and it seems like maybe some things are being figured out behind the scenes in the 911 writers room, so who knows

yeah lol, i will admit i wish i could be apathetic about this but i'm kind of just swinging between pessimism and hoping that they wouldn't bait this hard after all the stuff they've been saying about doing right by buck. idk! i guess we'll see what happens in the next month or so. i don't need a flashing sign that says buddie canon but i would like to see.......... something. literally anything.

[sublimesublemon]

wicked thoughts, under cut for brevity:

oh no. there is exposition text at the beginning. this ain't a good start, y'all. this is a very very bad start

okay okay this is winning me over, it does just look so joyful in oz, during the overture

why the change from "atrocious" to "uncanny"? seems unnecessary, and i don't think it gets across the anger and hatred as much - "uncanny" is weird, "atrocious" is bad

a burning efigy in the middle of the this cutesy little colourful village

the flash-forwards of their friendship........ guys why are you DOING this??? your audience isn't stupid!!! even if they didn't already know the story of wicked going into the theatre, i think the subtle "glinda the good witch is singing about how wonderful it is that the wicked witch of the west is dead, but has a pained look on her face" acting is an intriguing hook to get them curious about the story to come!!!!! "is it true you were her friend?" "yes... well, i did know her... (*flashes of glinda and elphaba touching hands*) our paths did cross..." is NOTHING. cut that shit out, wicked 2024! (of course, it's a 2-hour 40-minute movie that is the first act of a 2-hour 45-minute musical, so i imagine there will be lots of time for throwing in exposition dumps and whatnot (i swear i'm not trying to go into this with a judgement already. i love wicked so much, and i want to love this movie so much))

i do admit it's nice that the dialogue has a little space to breathe. i've never really minded, but on reflection the stage production is very... rapid

i really do love the environments. like, the sets and costumes and shit in the background - it really is such a fantastical world, cartoonish and childlike and bright

GOD cynthia erivo can fuckin BELT it. this might be telling on myself a little bit, but i was so focused on how stunning i knew ariana grande was gonna be as galinda (i was right, ofc, btw) that i didn't even consider that this newest elphaba might possibly hold a candle to idina menzel (high praise)

get the fuck out of here with ANOTHER FLASHFORWARD????? of something bad happening in oz???????? god trust your fucking audience

oh my god this fiyero is here to FUCK (and i agree with every person at the school also wanting to reciprocate)

the reality of oz such that sometimes people just break into song and/or dance, and that any given group of people can potentially just join in a dance number, choreography and all, without batting an eye - that this is just how the world works is a wonderful way of demonstrating how oz is just simply a different land than our own. much like barbie 2023

i mentioned before that i liked letting things breathe in this movie - elphaba's and galinda's scene where they dance at the oz dust ballroom has literally made me tear up, something i don't think the stage production did, and the ost hasn't

this movie is so gay. we love it

in the promos when i saw oz displayed as an actually green city, i was a little upset bc i've always been especially tickled by the fact that the emerald city isn't made of emeralds. everyone just wears emerald-colored glasses. i think that's a very pointed and sinisterly funny commentary on self-delusion of the goodness of a blatantly shitty government. furthermore, the green glasses were an explicit part of the show. they sold em with the posters. i still have a pair from when i saw the production in high school. i'm very disappointed that they didn't find some way to use them. they would have fit right into this movie. sigh

i do love oz as this exaggerated retrofuturistic steampunk land. that sort of thing was always implied in the book and musical but it's so cool to just see all the gears and cranks and steam and shit

i do like the cameos. i do not like that it's a new song that's basically another iteration of the expo dump at the start. hate it.

jeff goldblum is fucking inspired casting. cold take, but not wrong. love it

okay okay okay we're here at the end of part one, the climax of the show... please don't let me down, "defying gravity" from wicked 2024...

i can't believe they turned a 6-minute song into the last half hour of the movie. i can't believe i was fine with it. it could have been so cheesy, so flat, so pretend. it was...

good. this movie was good. still shouldn't have been 2 movies. i loved this adaptation so much.

[fcllederage-moved]

& F C L L E D E R A G E           ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯          . an independent and original character. SELECTIVE. MUTUALS ONLY. penned & loved by alix (30+, she/they). utc+2. medium activity. if you are under 21, do not follow or interact. using beta editor.

themes explored: violence, swearing, depiction of blood/gore, sexual situations, ptsd, mentions of abuse and sequestration, relationship abuse, homophobic situations.

[fcllederage]

& F C L L E D E R A G E           ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯          . an independent and original character. SELECTIVE. MUTUALS ONLY. penned & loved by alix (30+, she/they). utc+2. medium activity. if you are under 21, do not follow or interact. using beta editor.

themes explored: violence, swearing, depiction of blood/gore, sexual situations, ptsd, mentions of abuse and sequestration, relationship abuse, homophobic situations.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Roc-A-Fella Presents...This Thing of Ours 1998 Hip Hop / Hardcore Hip Hop / Gangsta Rap

Whoo boy, do I have some straight-up vintage late 90s ephemeral New York rap FIRE for you all today. Here's Roc-A-Fella Presents...This Thing of Ours, a short promo sampler EP from the label that Jay-Z helped co-found and grow, and that you could only find as a bonus disc in limited edition copies of Jay's own instant classic third album, 1998's Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life. This here is the type of shit that used to lace the 🔥hottest🔥 of mixtapes back in the day; stuff you might find on either a DJ Clue? or Funkmaster Flex CD; gratuitously non-commercial gritty street raps laid over monster beats that had been strictly made to induce the hardest of constant head-nods. Basically a hip hop head's paradise 😤.

But before we get into this little CD itself, I need to provide some background for one of its best tracks. And in order to do that, we need to go all the way back to 1993, because that's the year that a New York rap group called Original Flavor dropped their most well-known single, "Can I Get Open," which featured none other than a young and unsigned Jay-Z on it. And within that group was a guy by the name of Tone Hooker too.

Now, Original Flavor ended up parting ways following the release of their second album in 1994, but a few years later, Tone Hooker would resurface with the only solo release of his career, a 12-inch on Profile Records called "Crew Love," which would feature both NY underground great O.C. on it, as well as Jay-Z, with Jay supplying its chorus. And I don't know who ended up producing that track, but its beat was a bit sparse and darkly crystalline.

However, the following year, another song with Jay-Z on it called "Cru Love" would come out too. And Jay would also rap the *same exact* lyrics on its choruses also! But instead of Tone Hooker and O.C. providing the verses, this one would feature Roc-A-Fella labelmates Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel both rapping about drugs, guns, money, and the rap game, with Beanie's verse containing a bars-long extended metaphor that very cleverly equated a drug enterprise with Monopoly. And what's more is that this song's extraordinarily knocking, big-string beat that sounded like a boxer's walk-in music, and was provided by a little-known guy named Derrick Trotman, had clearly drawn inspiration from the far more understated production of the other version of "Crew Love" too 😯.

Then there's another banger on here that comes courtesy of a pretty unknown group who were briefly on Roc-A-Fella and Tommy Boy called Diamonds In Da Ruff. These guys never put out an actual album, but they had a couple 12-inches. And their song, "Respect," which came with a terrific blues-piano-and-guitar driven beat, first appeared on this very CD, before also being included on a DIDR album sampler cassette in '99. But, like I said, even though an album sampler was able to materialize, no actual album for them came afterwards 😕.

So, some really fantastic rap goodies on this little Roc-A-Fella EP here. It's not a very uncommon practice for a label to throw in a bonus sampler along with an album, but for that sampler to be as quality as this one is, is definitely a treat. Some real hardcore New York magic on this thing that ends up making for a wonderful late 90s time capsule 🤩.

Highlights:

DJ Clue? - "DJ Clue Snippets" Jay-Z feat. Memphis Bleek & Beanie Sigel - "Cru Love" Diamonds in da Ruff - "Respect" Memphis Bleek feat. Jay-Z - "Can I Live" Beanie Sigel - "Beanie Sigel Freestyle"

[capricornsicle]

So here's a comment I received on this post (I shared the promo picture of Amy Workman as Hikari Zhang for the Teen Wolf movie, as well as a behind-the-scenes of her that was posted on her official Instagram page).

(Image: Comment from Tumblr user @thyfggfy. It reads, "I don't see a problem as long as she looks the part. I mean isn't that the whole idea of acting? Pretending to be someone you are not. Should we also be mad that Stiles wasn't portrayed by a half Polish actor?")

My tags on this post, which thyfggfy responds to, are basically "hope they don't send her to the desert" and "there's a joke here about Hollywood assuming all East Asians are the same".

To take things one at a time, the first statement. I am assuming none of this is meant in malice, and is genuine, as I see no reason to assume otherwise.

"She looks the part." But does she? Amy Workman is a Chinese-American actor. Hikari Zhang is a Chinese-Japanese character. There's a similar situation with Arden Cho (Korean-American) as a Korean-Japanese character. Can you hire any East Asian to play another, or to play a mixed East Asian character when they are not mixed?

Well, yes. You can hire anyone to play anyone. But is it good? No. Because saying a Chinese actor looks enough like Japanese to play the character is like to say a Russian is basically Serbian or Bulgarian or Polish or Swedish. It's not the same, and people will get offended if you assume it is. Especially when there is race involved, because it's so common in the US (where the show/movie is made) to hear "all Asians look the same" or "all brown people look the same" or "all poc look the same", or so on. A close Chinese friend of mine is often asked to translate something from Japanese or Korean. I am often called Mexican (I am mixed Native American/Cree and Arab/Syrian). It's rude, and it's racism.

Not to mention, you can circumvent this problem easily. Either send a casting call for a Chinese-Japanese character, if one is needed, or change the character to be just Chinese when you hire a Chinese actor. I like the second, as Amy Workman is fantastic and I'm excited to see her in the movie. It's not like kitsune is specific to Japan. In Japan there's きつね/kitsune, in China there's 狐狸精/huili jing, in Korea there's 구미호/kumiho or gumiho, in Vietnamese there's 狐狸精/hồ ly tinh. All are fox spirits. So why keep the character mixed Japanese? I think because, to Hollywood, and especially to the Teen Wolf writers, it's close enough, right? But it's really not.

Next, "acting is pretending". You're right, it is. In grade school productions, I pretended to be Brutus in Julius Caesar, a forest fairy in Midsummer Night's Dream, a man with a broken hip in The Man Who Came to Dinner, and, in other plays, variously dead, grieving, injured, drunk, old, young, rich, poor, a traitor, a villain, a hero, a martyr, and so on. But I was pretending to be a kind of person having a certain experience. I wasn't pretending to be another race. Because that is a bad thing.

Lastly, "should we therefore insist Stiles is half Polish?". Well, first of all, he's not. What we know about Stiles' ancestry is this: he is named after his mother's father, his grandfather, who is Mieczysław, a Polish name. That's all we know. We don't know if his maternal grandfather is Polish or he was a first- or second- or x-generation immigrant or anything else. We don't even know if this person was Polish, or if it was another Slavic country. We certainly can't say that Stiles is half-Polish. We don't know that his maternal grandmother is, we don't know that his mother is. But it's fair to assume that Stiles is around 1/4 Polish and his grandfather is a first- or second-generation immigrant.

And because literally all we know about Stiles and being Polish is a name, we can't say that the character himself would identify as Polish, would speak the language, would practice Polish culture. We simply don't know. Fandom likes to assert that fanon and headcanon is basically canon, but headcanon does not make absolute truth, and it doesn't serve in place of canon. We can't assume a level of Polish heritage is absolute fact that may or may not exist.

That's not to say that you can't headcanon Stiles as being thoroughly Polish, because you can do whatever you want, and that's why there are such excellent fanworks as this one by KuriKuri (a fantastic Sciles fic that heavily involves Polish language, food, and overbearing grandmothers -- go read it!). I enjoy anything that expands upon the world characters live in.

But another important thing here is that Polish is not a race. It's a nationality. You can cast one white American guy to play another white American guy no problem, because you can't visually tell one white American from another. The only real differences are language -- there are dialects and accents in English that are harder to imitate and, depending on what kind of story you're telling, might have benefited from a different actor or a change to the character.

And if casting for a character who is European-American, you can often benefit from an actor who is the same, especially if the story involves them speaking the language a lot, but it doesn't necessarily mean you need an actor of the same heritage. For example, while Crystal Reed is a great actor, she did not make a very convincing French woman in 5x18 Maid of Gevaudan, and as a native French speaker I would have preferred if they had taken some measures to alleviate listening to a fake French accent that wasn't very good -- an American accent would have done less to take me out of the story, or if her lines had been dubbed over by a French speaker, or whatever. But it's not hurting anyone to have someone do an unconvincing French accent, because French is not a race which is often discriminated against and subject to racism. The same does not apply for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean actors and characters, because racism is always hurting people.

In fanwork, though, you can do whatever you want. Let me not be maliciously misquoted as saying anything but. You can write characters with how much or how little heritage you like, because you're not tracking ancestry, you're telling a story, through writing, through art, through audio, through any medium. But it is vitally important to recognize fanwork as just that. Fan-made work that appreciates some part of the source material, and fills in a gap that the source doesn't go into depth on -- or tears it down and rebuilds it, for fix-its and AUs and the like. Fanwork isn't canon, and you cannot treat it like canon. Everyone's interpretation of the source is valid and acceptable, because it is an individual, personal interpretation they have chosen to share. Biased? Often. Prejudiced? Unfortunately, also often. But acceptable? Always.

Though when it comes to Teen Wolf, well... A lot of the time people who headcanon Stiles as more Polish than he appears to be on the show also refuse to believe that Scott is Latino. His mother's maiden name is Delgado, both his parents are Latino, the actor is Mexican. And yet so often fandom will, on the one hand, call Stiles Polish and talk about his heritage and culture, refer to Derek's "Native American cheekbones" (I wish this was fake. I wish I did not read the post that talked about this. Sometimes I hate it here.) and assume based on a later-retracted tweet by Hoechlin that he was learning more about his ancestry and believed there was something Native American there (and I have a lot of posts about dubious Native American "ancestry") that Derek is therefore Native American (I love fanwork as much as the next person, but No.), or blah blah blah, and insist that Scott cannot be Latino.

And of course there is a lot of racism there, because there is a lot of racism in this fandom. I don't think the vast majority of people are doing it on purpose (although I can think of a few people who have all the resources to know better and remain obstinate about being a tool), but it's impossible not to notice when you look for it.

If fans want to talk about characters having interesting heritage to connect with, how about the Hispanic/Latino heritage of Scott McCall/his family (actor/mentioned in canon), Erica Reyes (by surname), Nolan Holloway (actor is Latino/Caxcan), Gabe Valet (actor is Brazilian), Josh Diaz (surname/actor is Brazilian), Theo Raeken (actor is Penobscot tribe -- like, actually a member), Tracy Stewart (actor is Chinese -- and while there's a lot to dislike about Kelsey Asbille her character remains interesting), Danny Mahealani (actor/character is Hawaiian), Corinne/The Desert Wolf (actor is Latina), Nathan Pierce (actor is Singaporean), the Calaveras (all Mexican), Hayden Romero (surname/actor is Latina), Jiang (actor is Chinese), Satomi Ito (Japanese), the Yukimuras (Korean and Japanese).

The reason no one seems to want to write about these characters, and Stiles is always the center of attention, even in posts like these where he was never even implied? Well, to paraphrase @princeescaluswords, I'm sure it has nothing to do with race.

[judoletteflip]

𝖘𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊 !! ind. prv. rp blog for TOHOMIKO KIMIKO of XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN. basic rules below. by mavis ( 28 - she/her ). previously seen on firewields.

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