#general case nobody minds you integrating styles

[feral-possum-posting]

Well yeah but if you want to convince artists who are on the fence, you do need to meet them where they're at. Dithering over whether they're using the right name for their feelings when you know perfectly well what's being communicated is just going to make people feel talked down to.

(trust me, as someone who had to unlearn correcting people's language after a sit down with my partner)

People don't usually care if you learn their style by hand, and even then it would still suck if you start advertising your services as capable of replicating this or that small starving artist. AI has already done that. The difference is now it's done *at scale*.

And idk, if you aren't trying to convince artists that's fine. But I suppose my next question is what *did* you want when you started wading into the discourse?

on the other end the copyright argument against ai art is just so bad. I hate how that's the most common one people use, like I'm sorry but an interpretation of copyright law that classifies images made with generative ai as "plagiarism" or "theft" would be a worst-case scenario for everyone except the walt disney corporation

[radramblog]

Album Discussion- Shinjuku Mad

Usually on a Tuesday I like to take my time with a blog post. Listen to a full album, do a little research, put some real effort into it.

Unfortunately, time is not my ally today. So I kinda have to do one that’s a bit easier- in this case, I think I’d rather go after one of the ones that’s already on my phone, in case I have to do this on the bus or something.

(wait, I drove in today…)

Today we’re going to go into a self-titled album that is somehow not the artist’s debut. Rather, Shinjuku Mad is the second of two albums released under the name- the reason I specify as such is that one of the two (and later, the vocalist would help out again) members would go on to relative fame under a different name- Vaportrap pioneer Blank Banshee.

Peering into this album is like looking at a beta version of what was to come. It’s very much a different genre, an IDM album that completely predates Vaporwave’s explosion of popularity and Blank Banshee’s seminal album, Blank Banshee 0. It’s a solid enough album in addition to this, but it’s kind of hard to talk about seeing as there’s basically nobody who knows about Shinjuku Mad that didn’t learn about it through Blank Banshee. As such, expect a lot of BB coming up in this post.

Also a block of words, because no music videos exist for this at all. It’s one of those obscure albums.

This album opens on Cure for Fear. It’s one of those introductory tracks you often get in albums, at about a minute and a half long, with very reverb-y percussion and vocals and an almost ethereal haze of noise. It’s got these chimes that occasionally come up, reminiscent of some of the tracks from the AKIRA soundtrack, but beyond that there’s not a huge amount going on here. It does introduce a problem, however, one which we’ll get to later. It’ll be pretty evident if you’re listening along, though.

Track 2: Kowloon. I really did forget how short a lot of these songs were, with this being 2:13- the whole 10-track album clocks in at under half an hour. There’s a mix of drum machine and hollow wood percussion on this track that gives it a really interesting sort of feel, and some of the effects on the vocals feel extremely vaporwave- it’s no surprise that the dude behind this went on into that genre. Here’s where I can’t help but hammer on that issue I mentioned earlier, though.

The vocals on this album are quite weak. I know they’re very much trying to be ethereal, the reverb and falsetto make that much clear, and that style very much suits the instrumentation. But it just doesn’t sound great. It kinda comes and goes, but by and large I’d label them as subpar. I don’t really think it’s the fault of the performance either, it’s not like the bloke is missing his lines or mumbling more than is necessary for the album’s aesthetic, but there’s just something about them. They might be too loud in the mix for this kind of genre? I’m not 100% sure.

Resistor, the third track, is the best known song from this album by an order of magnitude. I mean that quite literally, as the track as over 540,000 monthly listens on Spotify as compared to Kowloon’s 32000. It’s kind of shocking, I mean for such an obscure album with zero singles, why is this of all tracks the one people suddenly latched onto?

As it turns out, it’s because again of the artist’s future work as Blank Banshee. Resistor would be reworked into one of the more popular tracks from BB0, Dreamcast, and it would appear that people got curious as to what the source was.

The thing is, aside from sharing a vocal performance, the tracks are very different. As it is, Resistor is a much faster track than the previous, driven by this fast percussion and bassline, making for a genuinely solid exercise track of all things (I say from experience). It’s got a fun little synth solo in the middle, the vocals are pretty solid (aside from like right at the end of the last chorus, holy shit), and the song’s coda and outro are a fun little bit of controlled chaos. I’d put Resistor as one of the better tracks on the album, is what I’m saying.

I’m going to do something I haven’t done in a while when discussing music on this blog- I’m going to jump through a few things. As much as I like this album, the songs aren’t nearly interesting enough to justify a song-by-song breakdown. I think if you listen to Resistor and like it, it’s probably worth chucking on the rest of the album- it is, again, less than half an hour long. But its an album where it’s more valuable on a meta level than it is sonically.

Shinjuku Mad as an album feels a lot like a hybrid between older IDM trends and the synth/vaporwave elements that would become popularised in the 2010s. There’s also tracks like Inductor, which border on rock songs with the power behind that bassline and percussion- in general much of the instrumentation is cleaner than you’d expect from an artist like this, especially considering how muddied much of the vocals get. There is a real focus on the vocals, which as I’ve discussed is a weakness of the album, but I do think it’s possible to look past that issue. There’s some really fun synth lines, some excellent percussion, and real aesthetic. Songs like Human Wave Attack feel stark and lonely, notes echoing into the void, which ironically is not at all like Track 4, Void- with synths and vocals disguising a guitar and drum line that feels extremely garage band. As in, the concept, not the program. Singularity is a song that feels again predictive of Blank Banshee’s future work, a low, slow synth track reminiscent of BB songs like Hyper Object or Metamaterial.

There are some genuine gems on here in addition to Resistor, though. City of No Tomorrow, the eighth song, has got to be one of my favourites- somehow, despite featuring none of the instrumentation typical of the genre, it’s extremely cyberpunk, a sense of struggle and futility resonant through the track. It’s the one song on the album I listen to regularly, getting myself lost in the groove of the bass and tapping my foot along to the percussion. It’s just really good, man.

If this isn’t your first time encountering Shinjuku Mad, reading this might cause you to go back and have another listen, upon which you may notice a few somethings missing. I don’t expect that to be the case for literally anyone reading this…but I needed a segue. This is because, upon the reintegration of Shinjuku Mad and its predecessor Organic Thoughts from the Synthetic Mind into Hologram Bay’s catalogue for the 2019 reissue, two songs were cut, likely for fears of legal issues regarding sampling. The version of this album that I remember has those tracks!

Those songs are Negatives (formerly track 6) and Neon Exodus (formerly track 12). Negatives is another one that’d show up as a Blank Banshee track (in this case, Gunshots), and is actually really solid? Like it integrates a raid siren into the instrumentation without having it sound weird, out of place, or, well, alarming. Neon Exodus is…wow I just don’t know this track at all. It’s fuckin aesthetic though. Welcome to this spontaneous live-reaction, I guess. I recognize the sample this is built around (and thereby why it isn’t on the album anymore) but I cannot name it for the life of me. It’s, uh, interesting. I dunno, 6.5/10?

Anyway, part of the reason I bring this up is that before I want to close this out I have some complaining to do. Said 2019 reissue was something I tracked at the time, and noticed both SM albums were releasing on Vinyl, Cassette (because, you know, nerds), and digitally. But not CD. I threw an email at the website about it, and they did eventually respond (it genuinely took like two months though), but not in the positive. The reissue had no plans to include a CD, unlike all three previous Blank Banshee albums.

But the original 2010 version of the album, along with a few slight differences in songs and in album order, does have a CD release, albeit an extremely limited one, according to Discogs. These CDs have to exist, they’re now listed on the new Shinjuku Mad website. Apparently one sold 6 months ago through Discogs. I need to find a copy, though considering on that site 7 people list it as owned and 72 (including myself) list it as wanted, it’s probably not going to happen.

And that, ultimately, is Shinjuku Mad. It’s a very odd piece of history as far as vaporwave goes, considering it’s both a prototype and also something completely, utterly different. The album is pretty decent on its own, but not mindblowing, and something you could probably live without. There are like two tracks (three if you include Negatives) that are 100% worth it, but the rest are skippable. Which is a shame, but mediocre music has to exist somewhere, right?

That I apparently haven’t discussed Blank Banshee on this blog before (aside from when I was talking about Vaperror) is actually kind of shocking. I suppose, then, that there might be some lacking context. I probably will have to do that at some point, though I probably won’t do BB0 because I like picking the hipster options- so either BB1 or MEGA. Metamorphosis didn’t really pique my interest, and I somehow missed GAIA existing in the first place and still haven’t listened to it. So if you’re interested in seeing me ramble over some of that, I’ll see you then. I mean, it’ll still happen if you aren’t interested, but nobody’s going to make you read it.

Or am I…?

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

19. What They Deserve

5336 Words, No triggers detected.

Previous

People loved to hear about the trials and tribulations of others. That was the core of half of the entertainment sites. Grace didn’t like to put her hurt on display, but she did want to reintroduce herself, or rather, debut the new Grace to the world and she realized that would entail people bringing up her past and/or intruding on her private life. 

For instance, people would ask her how her relationship with her parents is…

Grace’s first day out, her mother was in the car whenever she got in. They were driven, in silence back to the estate, where guards were posted for the occasion, in case someone noticed or tried to get in, as they sometimes did. Her room was still the same, but there was someone there to help her pack up her essentials and her pleasures. She was going to be moved to a secure location that people didn’t know about, because her parents didn’t want the family house to be any more of a sideshow that it had been following her institutionalization. 

Her mother still had not said anything to her and it took hours for her to go through her personals and decide what she couldn’t live without and see the things that she could live without go into a donations box or a trash bin. “Where are all of my pictures of me and Simon?” she asked, when she opened the designated box for those.

“Surely, you’re joking,” was the first thing her mother said. She tossed the box into the donations. Her father didn’t even show up during this time frame. By the time she was moved into her new home, she had only gotten one word from her mother and none from her father. So, whenever someone asked about them, she would say, “How is everybody’s relationship with their parents? It’s personal. It’s a relationship between one and one or two more people, and their dynamic and their emotions are fluid. The three of us have very different wavelengths and concerns, so my relationship with them is something between me and them and then, my relationship with you all is what’s between me and you.” She’d laugh a little, but after a few times, people got the message. 

People would ask her about her mental health - if she was better, what happened in the first place, does she think it could happen again, etc.

Hazel wound up in another facility after a few months with her new foster family (mere weeks before Grace was released). The charm bracelet was sent back to her and for several days, she didn’t know what that meant for Hazel. If she was okay, if she was hurt or worse. They had only told her that they thought that she should have it back, then failed to communicate anything else about Hazel, for legal purposes. Grace was in shambles, until FINALLY she was told that Hazel was fine, but she had a relapse and was “in turtle form” for several days, making them have to take her to a doctor and seeing her file, they committed her for 72 hours. She was fine and heading back home. 

When Grace got out and looked her up, she was no longer at the same home. She had been redirected elsewhere… They couldn’t give Grace that information at the time. She thought she would lose her mind trying to contact someone who would be willing to help her out with this information, but most of them informed her that such information was secure for the safety of the child, and she understood it and couldn’t argue with it or convince them that she was more concerned for the safety of this child than anyone. It remained at the forefront of her thoughts. 

“I went somewhere to get help. I got help. A lot of people just get bounced around in life and never truly get the help that they need or deserve. I’ve been very fortunate, so I try to focus on that. Some days, I succeed. Some days, I do not succeed. I feel good today.”

They would ask her about new music, what beauty products she used now that she was no longer associated with her old brands, and if she would be dancing again. All things that she still wasn’t completely certain of yet, but lighthearted enough that she didn’t get too stressed out about that line of questioning.

The questions that brought her the most visible displeasure and clear distress were the ones about Simon. What about your relationship with Simon Laurent? Nobody has heard your side of the story. Have you seen or talked to Simon? Are things well between you? Has he forgiven you?…

“I don’t speak about Simon. The most that I can tell you is that I hope he has what he needs and gets everything that he deserves.” They might try to make jokes to prod about what she thinks he deserves, but she generally redirected the conversation. “He deserves what he deserves, and that’s what I hope he gets.” She would smile and nod, but her eyes would be sad. Eventually, people stopped asking her about him. She began posting dance videos, remixes, and songs again. This time, being confident in herself and away from her parents. It was no longer an escape from her life, because her life was lonely, but she was happy with it. There was freedom in her world that she hadn’t imagined in the past. She had more followers than ever before. Some people still called her Apex, but she never put that into any of her bios or captions, herself. 

She had a routine that worked for her wellbeing, from the time that she spent in the center, and she still had very regular sessions with her therapist, not to mention a medication regimen that assisted in her wellness. 

Anyone who wanted to contact her did so through someone else who would be the go-between, just in case. She moved out of the house that her parents placed her in and found something more suitable for her style, and closer to Julliard, because she still wanted to try to go, if she could make it in. In the meantime, she enjoyed the music scene in New York, branched out to finding new artists that she hadn’t heard of, made a few new friends in the industry, got hired for music videos and song demos. Some days, she expected to wake up and discover that her life had all been a dream. She would wonder if she actually did spend over a year in a mental facility, if she had gotten into some trouble with Simon, if she ever actually had met Simon… He seemed so far away, so long ago and so unfamiliar sometimes. But, whenever he did come back to her, he came flooding back.

Like if somebody casually asked, “You got kids?” and she remembered that while the answer was no, she had gotten pregnant at 16 and was so stressed out, that she hadn’t noticed for several weeks that her body was behaving differently, and that she spent several more trying to figure out what she would say, what she would do, how she would handle this. “No, no kids. But, I did have to make a decision to terminate a pregnancy when I was younger.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. There’s a stigma about it, but it was something that was best for me and I don’t harbor anger or disgust with myself about it.” Then, she could remember Simon’s eyes, his hands, other parts of him, the way that he held her, the things he had said to her. She would have to try not to cry and if she did, be totally honest, “Sorry. I haven’t really thought about the guy in a while, and I’m just in my feelings, Don’t mind me.” She didn’t like to lie, if she could help it. She tried to be as honest as she could these days, without saying too much. But, she had a pretty good crew in NY. They always were understanding and if someone said something, they’d gather them up pretty quickly. Her therapist told her that friends do things like that. It made her feel bad. She thought that friends shared everything, and since she was still very closed off to these people, she didn’t really consider them to be friends of hers, just associates that she really liked.

“That can be considered friendship, too. You don’t have to tell every friend that you have your life story and every person who you share mutual connection and kindness with isn’t going to be your lifetime bestie. Just enjoy the company of people who make you feel good and let the people who you make feel good enjoy your company.” That’s what she did. 

She got into Julliard when she was 20 and she was pretty known in the music scene by the time she was 21. Grateful that she had been able to finish high school in the institution and happy that she hadn’t gotten so comfortable that she was afraid to get better and leave there. Because, she was living a life that she had always wanted, and whether or not she deserved to, she told herself that she did and she was sure to enjoy it. 

.

That bitch was trying to ruin him! Simon could hardly catch his breath as he paced outside of the hearing for his academic integrity. She’s just mad that you’ve done BETTER than she has, with her work!

It was one thing when she was taking her bitterness out on you, telling you that your weapon failed to meet the requirements of the assignment, even though it was theoretically FLAWLESS. The CIA spoke with you about your plans for this weapon! But her? She told you to stick to something that your “childlike little mind” could actually comprehend the endgame of. “How about your little robot figures?” she’d taunted. 

Other students had laughed. LAUGHED! His project was miles ahead of everyone in that class, and her tone was disrespectful and condescending! “I haven’t had a childlike thought in my mind since I was 10, you old bitch!” It just stumbled from his lips. She frowned at him and demanded an apology to her and to the rest of the class. He snatched his presentation supplies and stormed off. He’d be damned if he apologized for her antagonizing him! He heard a few more laughs and he knocked the items off of her podium on his way out. He knew that couldn’t work out well… at least in hindsight, he did. In the moment, all he knew was rage.

He even sent her an email apologizing to her and the class and offering to replace anything that he damaged in his outburst. She had only replied to him not to return to her class until further notice. But… he needed her class. It would throw off his entire educational trajectory not to be able to come to her class! Even for a few days!! He was almost ready to grovel. Almost. That would be too much like showing weakness. He apologized, what more could she want.

So, Simon filed a complaint on her, accusing her of being combative, rude, and making her classes toxic environments. Now, the Committee on Discipline was meeting to look over all of the details of her complaint. 

“I truly wanted to give young Mr. Laurent a moment to think about his actions in the classroom and to realize the err of his ways. His complaint against me during this time, being both unfounded and untrue, caused me to have to rethink my decision. I don’t think that Simon Laurent is capable of the behavioral status that we require of students here. I don’t think that he has the temperance for all of the criticisms his flights of fancy are sure to get over the course of his career. I gave him the option to try another avenue for the assignment, as his assignment, while a very significant project did. Not. meet. The. requirements. Of. the. Assignment. He needed to be able to give us a small demonstration. His project was a weapon. He could only grant me a simulation and that is not what I asked for. Telling him this incited him to rage in which he disrespected myself and his peers, disrupting the classroom with his antics. Like a child, throwing a tantrum.” 

Even then, his face was looking like all he wanted was to murder her right then and there. When the committee allowed him to speak, he changed his tune. He was calm and even voiced. “Professor Hughes made a lot of points about me and my particular struggles when it comes to being disregarded. I did respond angrily and I know that it was wrong of me to react the way that I did. That’s why I sent her an apology after I had the chance to cool down. But, she didn’t decide to turn me into the committee until after I filed a complaint on her for even bringing me to the point that I had such a meltdown in her classroom in the first place!” Amelia frowned and members of the committee shared various facial expressions.

Simon looked directly at her and said, “I’ve been a long time fan of your work and your accomplishments. I specifically fought to be in your classroom because of the way that I regard everything that you’ve done throughout your career and I just wanted the privilege to be able to learn from you. But, you’re very unkind. You make people feel bad. You don’t think about the things that you say to people and how those things might affect them. You didn’t even care about my psychological makeup until you could use it against me in these proceedings. You humiliate people in front of others and you don’t even break a sweat.”

“This is not my hearing, Mr. Laurent.”

“But, it matters to this hearing, because I never would have reacted that way if you weren’t being so abrasive.”

“That is a word that men like to use against me whenever I meet them with the very same energy that they put out. I’ve been called worse. By professors, colleagues, and for over 30 years my own psychological settings came into play whenever a discussion was to be had about me. This isn’t about your mental disposition. It’s about your behavior. Your angry and hostile behavior at any old sign of criticism!”

“Professor Hughes,” one of the committee members said. She went silent.

Simon proceeded, “I know that I’m not good at handling criticism, especially coming from a woman. My mother was… difficult to communicate with and the only other woman I was close to…” His eyes grew damp. “I’m sorry. My education means a lot to me and I’ll do anything to stay here.” He rushed out of the chambers, covering his face as he did. Amelia pulled herself up to go check on him. He was in the waiting section, in a seat in the corner with his back to the wall, still covering his crying face. She took a deep breath, grabbed a seat and sat next to him.

“There’s not a person in that room who isn’t familiar with the hardships you had to face in order to get here. We know about your family. We know about your abuse.” He wiped his face and glared at nothing in particular. “We also know how smart you are. You were able to get into this school based upon your intelligence. Nobody is doubting that you are capable of doing great work. I wasn’t even implying that I hated your work that day. But, it wasn’t the proper assignment, Simon. I needed you to give me one thing, you not only gave me another, but you refused to even consider that what you were trying to give me was impossible to meet my requirements. Then, you got angry because you had refused to listen to me in the first place. Now, I admit… I’m not the most courteous member of staff at this institute. I can be…”

“Bitchy.”

“Unapologetic.” She chuckled. “Let me tell you, I know how it is to be in a room full of people who underestimate you and make you feel like you shouldn’t be in the room. There wasn’t much respect for female engineers in my day and there’s not a proper amount even now if you ask me. Half of this staff is composed of pretentious, pompous, puffed up paragons, and it takes next to nothing for anybody outside of their ideals to be met with disdain. What you did, by reporting me was to make me a target. I disagree with your evaluation of me and I can’t tell if it came from a place of genuine thought or retaliation, but you can’t be trusted to continue your education here unless you are willing to listen to others, especially those of us who are trying to help to teach you!”

He wiped his eyes with his sleeves. “They’re gonna kick me out. It’ll look bad on me, and all of my research and work from the past two years might not even matter anymore…”

“That doesn’t have to happen, Simon. Listen… I think you’re brilliant. I am willing to vouch for you this time, under the circumstances that you see someone about getting professional help for your responses to adversity.”

“You… want me to see a shrink.?”

“I think you could benefit from getting mental healthcare and I don’t want you in any classroom of mine unless you do.”

He shivered. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world. She went back in to explain this to the committee and he went through the campus counselors, hating most of them whenever he met with them, switching every time he didn’t like something about one of them, making very little progress, but still fulfilling the deal he made with the committee, for a time. He and Professor Hughes bickered a lot, but he had kept his temper in check whenever she aggravated him, and he eventually settled on a counselor that he didn’t completely hate, too.

He’d always come in, not at all wanting to speak to them. He tossed some books on the table and said, “That’s my dream journal, my intrusive thoughts notebook, and the standard journal. Look through them and then tell me whatever you need to tell me for me to get my paperwork signed off on.”

The man pushed the books back to him and said, “I’m not going to read those, but you’re free to talk about anything that you’ve written in them to me. Let’s start there.”

Simon flopped into the seat and rolled his eyes, “There’s nothing in these that I want to talk about. That’s why I wrote them in here. You’re the brain person. The information gets to you whether you read it or I say it.”

“Okay. Well, let’s see what the first entry is in this one…” He picked up the standard journal and read out loud, “I saw that they let the void out into the world again… What’s the void, Simon?”

Simon turned red and didn’t answer. After a while, the man continued reading, “It didn’t look like Grace. It was beautiful like her, but it looked older, which makes sense, because it was gone a while, and now it’s back…” 

Simon snatched the book from his hand and stuffed it into his backpack. “This was a bad idea. I’m not here to talk about or hear about the void.”

“I don’t know what the void is, but you wrote about it, so I’m inclined to believe that you think about it.”

“I’ve seen it!” Simon snapped pounding his fist on the desk. He took a deep breath. “I had a vision, at least I thought it was a vision. Whenever I was 16, when I was with my ex… we weren’t together for a long time, not that way. We were friends, first. We were friends for a long time, but I always loved her. I loved her before she even knew herself. I loved her with all of my heart.” He picked at his forearms where his tally marks were. “She just saw me as a friend, even though it was obvious that we should be together. Maybe I pushed too hard. Should’ve just left well enough alone. I had to have her and what I got was something else. She wasn’t the same. That wasn’t the girl I loved and I didn’t know it until I saw this… vision that I call the void. It came out of her, it engulfed her and consumed her and it took her place.”

“In a dream?”

“I’m not crazy.”

“I would never use that word to describe anyone.”

“I’m not whatever word you would use for crazy people! I know that it wasn’t real. But, I saw it and I knew that it was what replaced my friend. I hated it for taking her away, and I hated her for letting it. The void was just a way of dealing with the separation. I omitted everything connected to it from my life.”

“You voided her out.”

“Yeah. The person who looks like my friend got out of a mental institution a while back. That’s what that entry was about.”

“Do you honestly feel like the person who you saw is a different person than the one that you used to love? Do you believe that this void that you saw replaced her and that the entity you refer to as the void is now existing in the form of your friend?”

“What? No. I’m not crazy!”

“I’m asking you if when you refer to your ex as The Void, is that because you don’t see them as the human that you knew or because you have purposefully reduced them to something subhuman?”

“What difference does that make?”

“One would be purposeful dehumanization of someone you didn’t like and the other would be out of your control.”

“Nothing is out of my control,” Simon said.

“Some things have to be, Simon. Like the fact that you don’t want to be here, but the school is making you in order for you to remain enrolled. You can’t control everything, not even everything in your life. But, just because you can’t control everything, that doesn’t mean that you don’t control anything. So… Did you force this dehumanized version of this girl into your mind, or was it something out of your control?”

“I… I created it. I didn’t want to see the person that I needed turn away from me, so I imagined her as something else.” The man just nodded. “But, she made me do it! She was going to…” he shook his head. He couldn’t think of what it was that Grace had done that was so wrong. He needed to think back, remember the pain she caused him. Remember the damage she was willing to inflict… but, he felt like he was grasping. There had to be some reason. He couldn’t believe that he spent close to what 4 years now hating her for something that she didn’t actually do… No! She definitely was going to hurt him more than anyone ever had. “You had to know her. You had to know who she was to know what she could do to me.”

“I looked her up. She recently gave an interview about you. I can send you the link, if you haven’t seen it and are interested.”

“Grace did an interview about me?” He shook his head, “Whatever she said, she’s lying! It didn’t happen that way!”

“Simon… why don’t you do this… See if you can handle what she has to say and we can speak about how it made you feel next time." 

Simon left pretty upset. An interview? She hadn’t had anything to say all of this time. Why now? Was this some sort of reckoning against him? He waited until he got home, glanced around him at all of the destruction he’d caused in the past but few weeks. He had been enraged so frequently that he couldn’t even see his floor. 

But, he couldn’t rush into this. First, he picked up his mess, put things away, discarded what needed to be thrown out thanks to his destructive anger, and washed up for the night. No working on any projects or hobbies. Nothing that he loved or cared about in the event that this interview pissed him off. He let his hair fall and grabbed his phone. They were easier to replace than laptops. You could STOP raging when you get mad… Yeah right. And risk doing it at school again? They’d put me out for sure. 

He opened the link and the first thing he saw was Shana’s face. "This is already a bad start." 

"Hey Shady Kindred! Welcome to Shady Shana’s Dish, where we partake of both relevant and ratchet news. I’m your host, Shady Shana and today, I have a very special guest. My… frenemy turned… friendly associate?" 

Grace laughed. It sounded like music to Simon, even though he glared at her. "Let’s.. just say associate.”

“OOF. Shade. Okay, well… classmates, former classmates, at the very least. This is Grace Monroe. I think my audience would definitely know you. From your videos and songs and stuff. But, let me dish this out, I saw homegirl perform live in NYC, and this bitch had a cello. Okay? A cello! She was singing some opera stuff.”

“I don’t sing opera!”

“She was hitting high notes, this kinda alluring witch noise… you sounded like those tuning things, but like high-pitched… you had to be there. Just… check out her page. I’ll have her links in the description. She’s working on music, putting stuff out all of the time and also attending Julliard. Many talents, very beautiful, sweet, when she wants to be… But, we’re actually here to dish about something that Girlfriend hasn’t talked to anybody about in a long time. Mr. Simon Laurent.” Shana exaggerated how French she said his name and had a look of disgust when she did. 

He rewound to see Grace’s reaction. She nodded. She had prepared herself for this. She didn’t look angry or grossed out. Faking. Lies…

“Yes. I agreed to sit down with you in your really nice little studio here and talk about how I feel about Simon.”

“And just to let you messy ones at home know, we will not be speaking about the old school stuff. Grace was nice enough to give me an exclusive about her current day, so if you came to see what she wanted to say about the old stuff, this will not be the place. What he did do, didn’t do, how he done it, naw! None of that! So, I guess, my first question about it is how would you describe your current feelings about Simon Laurent?”

Grace laughed nervously, licked her teeth, sputtered out air (Simon hadn’t heard that sound in so long), and she shook her head, “It’s a loaded question. Ummm… I can’t say that I really have feelings about Simon. I have memories. I know that we were virtually inseparable for a long time. I know in my mind who I thought he was to me when we were younger, but, none of that has had any real bearing on my life in a while.”

“You don’t think about him or nothin?" 

"I mean… I’ve thought about him, but no, not like actively. It’s not a part of my day. It’s more like an occasional experience, when something triggers it or… even sometimes, it’ll be put of nowhere, but just not often. I don’t even know what Simon looks like right now. If you were to trick me and have him backstage or whatever and he came out here right now, Girl - it might take me a moment to recognize him.” Simon felt himself trembling. She didn’t even check up on him? She didn’t want to know? Of course she didn’t! She didn’t care about him..

Shana laughed. “Well, not to be messy…” was her trademark line for when she was about to say something really messy, “Sounds like he’s basically become, what did you two used to call those mediocre types? Non-essential!” Grace’s lip dropped and she titled her head and squinched her face, “Well…” she said in a high pitch, “I… he’s not present. He isn’t part of my life. He detached himself from my life, and I had to learn to move on and now, there’s simply no attachments. Like, if I ran into him, no, I might not know him right away, but the moment I realize, I’m sure I’d be overcome with emotions. I couldn’t tell you how I’d react.”

“Would you uppercut his ass?” Grace cackled and covered her face. “I mean..  if anybody deserves it…”

“I don’t think I’d uppercut his ass, as you so eloquently put it. I think… I’d check to see how he’s feeling. How he’s doing. If he’s found his peace now that I’m not there to affect anything. If he’s better off without me, like he figured he’d be.”

“Sooo… if I can get you two in a room, you wouldn’t even lay hands on him?”

“I… remember what happened. I remember how it felt. I remember pain. But, since then, I’ve learned empathy. I’ve learned pacifism. I’ve learned healing. So, it’s not that I’ve forgotten how hard that time was, but I’ve forgiven everything and I’d just be curious if he had forgiven things too.”

“Whooooooooooo,” Shana let our a long deep breath, “You are better than me. Because if I see him, it’s hands on sight. He’d better not have his head turned. I’ll bust him right in his neck vein." 

Grace laughed and shook her head, waving her hands, "I do not share in this sentiment. If you are a Simon stan, do NOT message me. I didn’t say anything bad about this man.”

“Which surprises me, because I know YOU won’t say anything about this, but I’ll say this and I’ve said this to him, as well… I still think that a lot of the things said about you were not true and a lot of the things done to you were just something that basically the lowest form of scum would do to someone. Something a… girl, I’m reaching back for this terminology… it was some… null type shit. Somebody less than zero would do that kind of thing, to anyone, much less someone that they cared about.”

“Well… I can’t speak for him, but you know… maybe he didn’t care about me as much as he seemed to… maybe these things are things you do to people you hate and maybe that’s what it was always gonna be with us. That’s why I would ask him how he’s doing. Maybe he was tired of being stuck around somebody he resented. I don’t know. But, I’ll always value any type of growth that I have. And if nothing else, Simon was definitely a harbinger of growth in my life.”

Simon didn’t realize that he was crying. Shana and Grace wrapped up the show and it went off with some music video that they worked on with a little girl. He didn’t watch it… his vision was too blurry. But he heard the song asking “Where would you be, without me?” And he couldn’t help but feel attacked. But, he closed out the video. If she wanted to see him and ask him how he was doing, sure… he could make that happen…

Next

[disneyat34]

Fantasia at 34

A review by Adam D. Jaspering

By 1940, Disney proved he was as large a titan in the world of feature films as he was in animated shorts. But as the saying goes, a man's reach should exceed his grasp. His third feature, Fantasia, would be an audacious experiment.

Disney had been synchronizing animated cartoons to classical music since 1928. His trademarked Silly Symphony shorts earned him seven Academy Awards. They were a foundational element of the Disney empire, but they were outmoded by 1939. Audiences were preferring plot-driven shorts. 

Coincidentally, another Disney creation was also in decline in this era. It’s hard to fathom, but Mickey Mouse’s popularity with audiences peaked in 1935. By 1939, he was eclipsed by both Donald Duck and Goofy. More frequently, Mickey appeared alongside the two than appearing in his own independent shorts.

Disney had plans to bring both musical shorts and Mickey Mouse back into the limelight. Disney employed the assistance of The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Leopold Stokowsky. The Sorcerer's Apprentice was completed in 1938, pairing Mickey Mouse with the music of Paul Dukas in a nine-minute cinematic epic. 

However, Walt Disney’s brother Roy, accountant for the company, crunched the numbers. The $125,000 budget made the short a logistical nightmare. To make a profit, the short needed to be released as a feature film. And to be a feature film, it needed to be feature length. 

The Concert Feature, as it was initially called, grew in size and scale. The budget grew to $2.8 million. The crew ballooned to over one thousand artists and animators. After much effort and many headaches, Fantasia was finally released in November, 1940.

The film starts with a heavily stylized depiction of the orchestra and their instruments. The background is blue and vibrant, but every musician is ensconced in shadow. Lights from the music stands illuminate a negligible part or their personage. We can see the musicians, but only just. 

From the onset, the film accomplishes two goals: First, it wants you to understand you are seeing live-action people. Mickey Mouse is on all the posters. Disney’s name is attached to the film. But these are real, non-animated people. Quite possibly the first live-action people filmed by Walt Disney since his Alice shorts.

Second, Fantasia wants you to realize you are seeing real people, but they are not the focus. The attention is not on them, but their instruments. This is a film not about people, but sound and music.

This is furthered as the sounds of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor begins. The silhouettes of the musicians are projected onto the backdrop, scaled larger than their sources. The musicians become literal giants. The shadows create a form of puppetry, becoming indistinguishable from animation. Fantasy and reality, sound and imagery have become intertwined. It’s difficult to determine when the cameras stop rolling, and the ink and paints take over.

We are informed from the outset that Fantasia’s visuals are not those of trained musicians or scholars. These images are the thoughts and feelings of animators and artists. We are privy to new interpretations of classic works (well, new to 1940), beginning with Toccata and Fugue. 

Defined as “Absolute Music,” Toccata and Fugue is an instantly recognizable piece of classical music. It is the go-to stock music whenever a movie, TV show or cartoon wants to quickly and unmistakably associate a scene with a sense of foreboding doom. But Fantasia undoes this eternally mired association; the booming bass offers no semblance of the intimidating or macabre.

Emcee Deems Taylor warns outright we’ll be experiencing non-representative form and abstract imagery. If the impressionist movement coexisted with film, it would probably resemble something like this. In a way, it’s almost a warning for impatient and fickle audiences. Doubly so, as it leads the procession of animated shorts. It’s a fair warning: This is experimental film. Your mileage may vary.

The abstraction gives way to the first representative piece. Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite; perhaps the most widely known ballet in modern society. We get a great demonstration about the longevity and shifting legacy of classical works as Taylor informs us “nobody performs it nowadays.” Art does not belong to an era, it belongs to the ages. I’m 34, and I’ve never known a Christmas where The Nutcracker wasn’t being performed somewhere in the city.

The Nutcracker Suite depicts the various flora and fauna of an enchanted forest, all engaged in a unique and stylized dance suited to their physique. What’s more, each movement is indicative to a nation and culture. We see Russian flowers, Arabian fish, French blossoms, and Chinese mushrooms (questionably stylized Chinese mushrooms. Thank you, 1940s).

As problematic as the mushrooms are, I’m more perplexed by the Arabian fish. Obviously the sequence is an allusion to the eroticized stereotype of middle eastern women, particularly the Dance of Seven Veils and other subsequent belly dance numbers.

It’s a very g-rated version of the burlesque staple, but one has to wonder why it exists at all. At some point in the late 1930s/early 1940s, someone designed a fish to look and act like a belly dancer. Those eyes exist only for the purpose of portraying a sense of eroticism. Not to kinkshame somebody on Tumblr, but it’s very clear somebody on Disney’s staff was working through some things.

Each of these dances feature plants and animals evocative in style and movement of their corresponding dance’s nationality. This implies the animators were indeed versed on the background of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and his original intent. This breaks the promise from the start of the film: interpretations of artists, not of scholars. 

It’s not an invalidating breach, and not total (surely Tchaikovsky never intended Clara and the prince to meet an amorous fish). But if Fantasia deliberately specified itself to not utilize scholarly interpretations. They waffled on this promise, and it should be noted.

Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an interesting specimen. Not only has Mickey Mouse’s cautionary tale of a proper work ethic completely eclipsed its musical source in popular culture, but the short has eclipsed the entirety of Fantasia.

When one hears the word “Fantasia,” one’s mind immediately leaps to Mickey Mouse in a bathrobe. They think of the blue hat, festooned with stars. They think of an army of brooms, brought to life, obediently and endlessly carrying buckets of water. They think of the bassoons secondarily. Most are unaware the music existed before the movie.

That said, there is no better representation of Fantasia’s central tenet: a marriage of animation as an artistic medium and classical music as an eternal font of inspiration. In The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, not a word of dialogue is spoken and not a single intertitle is used. An idea is formed, expressed and delivered by the movement onscreen, buoyed by the themes and mood of the orchestral score. What results is a tale beloved for generations.

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring offers a brief history of prehistoric life. We see the cosmos create planet Earth. Tectonic plates shift and form land. Life is formed, evolving from single celled organisms, progressing up the evolutionary ladder. But this truncated history of eons and eons comprises only half the segment. The remainder is a grandiose depiction of life in the nadir of the Mesozoic Era. Dinosaurs in all their titanic glory.

Every few years, an animation company attempts to create a dinosaur-centered film. Either through lack of confidence or executive meddling, these dinosaurs aren’t allowed to simply be dinosaurs. We don’t see the glory of the creatures or the power struggle between herbivore and carnivore. Instead, these dinosaurs speak. They learn lessons and have character arcs. They’re often used as a parable of teamwork and community, or an allegorical tale of standing up to one’s oppressors. 

Disney themselves fell into that trap in the year 2000, but we’ll address that soon enough. Dinosaurs are mesmerizing in their own right, as the animals they were. They require no personification. They need no story and no character. A musical short may be the closest we’ll ever get to such a film. For now, we can still enjoy the sight of a tyrannosaur fighting a stegosaurus to the death.

An interesting element of Fantasia, a remnant of a bygone era, is the intermission. When Taylor announced the film would break for a 15 minute intermission, I was concerned as the orchestra began slowly shuffling out of the amphitheater. Was the movie really going to stop? Fantasia is already fighting an uphill battle, trying to keep audiences with temperamental patience captivated. Stopping all inertia for fifteen minutes is suicidal.

Many films from the first half of film history, especially those longer than three hours, survive in their current forms with an intermission built in. Their home release is presented exactly as their theatrical release. The score’s overture plays over a meticulously designed title card, encouraging theater-goers to stretch their legs and visit the lobby. These intermissions have been preserved for posterity, but are wholly inconsequential with fast forward buttons and chapter select options.

I was concerned such would be the case for Fantasia, which barely crests the two-hour mark. It’s the longest of all Disney’s animated features, but surely that record is not because of a deliberate 15-minute time out? If persnickety audience of the 1940s needed a break, what of children in the digital age? They would minimize the window and never return.

Fantasia’s title card is present, but immediately returns back to the film, all for the better. It’s a pointless detour maintained for an illusion of legacy and integrity. Fantasia’s musical numbers are all well and good in their own right, but the live-action segments with the orchestra is full of questionable moments like these. 

For example, at one point, a percussionist interrupts Deems Taylor by knocking over his bells. There’s no build up to this, no explanation, and no commentary. It happens, and is promptly forgotten. If it’s a joke, it makes no sense. If it’s a mistake, why was it left in?

Perhaps Disney had no idea how to carry these live segments. He was afraid to let the segments speak for themselves, feeling obligated to inject them with more than a curated introduction. He needed to pepper in little moments that would either change the dynamic or mandate attention.

These moments rob the gravitas delivered by the orchestra, interrupt the flow of the picture, and make the audience wait impatiently for the next segment. Disney Studios would experiment with live-action film over the next decade, but these missteps display exactly why Disney Studios was not ready for a fully live-action film until the 1950s.

Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is not the strangest segment of the film, but it becomes more surreal the more it’s examined. Early on, after a brief dance with satyrs, unicorns, and pegasi, we’re greeted with a number of topless, bathing centaurettes. One wouldn’t think Disney would brazenly depict frontal nudity, but there we are. Fully nude cherubs further the dissonance.

Greek and Roman mythology contains stories of heroes, legends, monsters, and adventure. It’s also rife with depictions of incest, rape, violence, and general malfeasance. Adapting any tale concerning the Olympians requires great skill, lest it be so thematically vulgar, it’s outright rejected by modern sensibilities. Even moreso when the tale is to be presented in a G-rated setting. As obvious a statement this may seem, it’s odd for Fantasia to have an entire segment dedicated to the Roman deity Bacchus and his trademark love of wine.

To say the wine flows is an understatement. A golden chalice overflows with some of the most tantalizing violet liquid ever depicted on film.I don’t even like wine, but I would take up a glass if it was offered.

Bacchus merrily sways back and forth in a drunken stupor for his entire appearance. Caught in a mixture of revelry and lightheadedness, the inebriated god is the central figure of a literal bacchanal. Fantasia was released the same year as Pinocchio, which depicted drunkards in such a negative light, they were turned into donkeys. Bacchus rides a unicorn-donkey who enjoys the taste of wine as much as his master. Behold: The duality of Disney.

Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours is perhaps the second most famous segment to come from Fantasia. The premise behind the segment is simple. Ballerinas are renowned for their lithe bodies and graceful elegance. What if, instead of traditional ballerinas, they were depicted by animals? Animals renowned for their girth, gangling physique, or stumpy limbs? It’s the contrast that provides comedy. Whatever age, whatever era, it will always be funny watching a hippopotamus do ballet.

As such, Fantasia gives us the sight of ostriches, elephants, alligators, and hippopotamuses, dressed in traditional tutus and slippers, dancing to the best of their ability. To the animator’s credit, the disparate physiques of the animals are hardly an issue. The absurd sizes and shapes of the animals bend and flex in a comical, but equally elegant manner. 

The final segment is a combination of Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain and Schubert’s Ave Maria. Here, the devil presides over Walpurgis Night, welcoming ghouls, ghosts, and witches alike from the realm of the damned into the world of the living. They are then conquered, banished back from whence they came, by the choir of a mere church processional. 

For the longest time, I’ve heard the central figure of this piece referred to as “Chernobog,” a central figure of Russian and Balkan folklore. Much like Honest John in Pinocchio, this naming must be supplemental or subsequently; he is never referred to as Chernobog in the film. He is simply referred to by Taylor as “Satan.” 

So far in Fantasia, we’ve been exposed to murder, alcoholism, nudity, and sexy fish. Having the Prince of Darkness make an appearance is the final taboo that Walt Disney could break. Perhaps this is why the name Chernobog was attached retroactively. Pious Americans couldn’t abide a depiction of the devil in an animated feature.

All in all, I prefer the idea of the horned figure being a literal depiction of Satan over Chernobog. Primarily, it makes much more sense thematically. Why would a Russian myth be toppled by a Christian hymn? He wouldn’t, unless it was some misguided attempt at an analogy of Christianity versus Paganism. But why make an analogy when the literal interpretation is exactly appropriate? 

Possibly, western righteousness defeating a Russian emblem could be interpreted as a Cold War fable. This is rather unlikely, as the Cold War didn’t start in earnest until years after Fantasia’s release. 

Second, if we interpret the character as the devil, it further serves the story Disney’s animators were trying to tell: one of good versus evil. Darkness versus light. Chaos versus order. The sacred versus the profane. Dramatic conflict in both imagery, mood, and music. The wild, unbridled chaos of Walpurgis Night, contrasted against the elegant calmness of a serene morning in May.  If the demon was indeed Chernobog, it shows either a complete misunderstanding of the mythic figure, or a complete noncommittal to the story.

The Night on Bald Mountain portion is impressive and magnificent. The terrifying monstrosities are a cornucopia of Halloweenish delights, and they move with such intensity and power. Fire is used as a uniting theme throughout this segment, and the heat and intensity can be felt through the animation. 

I cannot find any sources confirming this, but it feels like the spiritual successor to 1922′s Häxan. Disney animators evoked the sensation of German Expressionism (particularly the works of Robert Weine) in certain moments of Snow White. I wouldn’t be surprised if Häxan served as a primary influence here.

Satan is depicted in an imposing, terrifying form. It’s a laundry list of every evil hallmark. He has glowing eyes, fangs, horns, bat wings, a muscular physique, sharp claws at the end of each finger, the ability to manipulate shadows, and more identifiers plucked from the nightmares of children everywhere.

Ave Maria sits in an odd position in popular culture. It’s been completely co-opted by the Christmas season. So much so, hearing the music detached from a holiday setting strikes up feelings of confusion. Moreso is hearing a quiet, choral interpretation backed by strings, and not a tenor vocalist belting out the opening at full force. It’s beauty is in its restraint. As the beatitude goes, blessed are the meek.

What’s more, after the thundering bravado of A Night on Bald Mountain, the hushed woodwinds and strings seem almost ashamed to make noise. Throughout, I was wondering when the piece would truly begin. Then, before I received my expected answer, the film ended. Ave Maria truly is the counterpart; quiet, dignified, and penitent.

Sitting in the darkness, watching a black screen, I’m met with nothing but a void. There’s no farewell from Stokowsky or Taylor. No final bow from the orchestra. No coda. We the viewer are simply left with a vacuum of sound and imagery. A moment, at last, to fully reflect on what we had seen. Music had provided us images and stories for two hours. In the aftermath, silence and darkness were just as powerful.

Unsurprisingly, Fantasia was a commercial failure upon release. The avant-garde presentation simply didn’t meld with audiences expectations. The film earned back roughly $325,000 of its $2.8 million budget. 

But, as I previously mentioned, art does not belong to an era, but to the ages. Critical and audience approval of the film has grown in subsequent years, and Fantasia is considered one of Disney’s masterpieces. It even turned a profit in 1969 after a series of re-releases.

Sometimes a grand experiment begins with a meager idea, like marketing a corporate mascot. Sometimes that idea can blossom into a grand work. And sometimes a showpiece needs to age like wine before it’s appreciated properly. We’ll never know our true legacy, but a truly good idea, like good music, will be appreciated through the ages.

Fantasia Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Pinocchio 

[ckcker]

I Walk in Madness

Nobody has or can have all the information, but they have the requisite amount of information and agony in combination to believe they accurately see the entire thing.  I don’t and can never have all the information, but still I must have an opinion that seems binding or confident.  The information I selected and pressed into an opinion is now my special soul, and defines me.  It must be released and time-stamped to show that at one point, I made this all-encompassing definition, which is a summary of my self and the window of all my beliefs hereafter.  Elevate yourself to say, “I no longer wonder.”  

I have made myself publicly available; all that the community asks of you is that you participate.  To not participate is to disrespect those who put all of their time, effort and mental filaments into the ideal of community.  Such a reclusive impulse should be modified swiftly but in the most holistic way if possible, it is not helpful for others.  It is not helpful for you.  It is, at heart, cowardly, as it turns away in fear from the difficulties involved in building a resilient, healthy and just community.  It courts isolation as a comfort, when in fact voluntary isolation is the fortification of unhealthy habits and delusional or paranoid thought processes which precariously redirect the lost person away from the tough but rewarding civic duties necessary to building a fact-driven social network.  If I am lonely at night, the solution is to participate.  Though I walk in madness, I end up at the voting booth.  A discussion takes place in which everyone pretends to know how recycling works; one inches towards integration.  Recipes are shared, and an evening passes with an attempt to perfect avocado gazpacho.  

I love traditional open-toed sandals.  Making the body more vulnerable to the elements of the outside world shows a general dissipating apprehension.  Though current events inevitably fade in relevance and thus sustained public attention, their emotional immediacy and rousing thrust are exceptionally good at forcing the under-opinionated to participate and commune with others. Opinions always coalesce under the pressure of current events, and since current events are established and projected much more widely and much more often in this era, it follows that one should have more opinions, and participate more.  Of all the methods I’ve tried, the most effective and least artificial toner I’ve used is two tablespoons of rose water mixed with 1 cup of filtered water.  The rose water I use is a brand from Lebanon and you can probably find it in a local middle eastern grocery store.  Having a very public life no longer makes me uneasy!

I published the post and I was feeling satisfied, though very likely no other person would see it.  My only patron appeared to be a woman in her early 40s with hard bangs and a diamond choker smiling in her icon’s bubble, with arm around a presumed husband and the suggestive text “Be Kind” pegged in lower left corner in hot pink with white outline.  Miscellaneous background details in the icon, particularly a hanging silver streamer, communicated that at the time of the photo this woman had been at a New Years party.  Her silent interpretation of my persistently scarce content was eager musing territory for me when her icon focused my attention in the midst of a wild scroll, or when her face and militarized endorsement of kindness intruded with the elegance of a twirling maple samara upon my mind during a bout of fear-walking.  She made no effort to contact me, had no posts of her own or even personalized layout style, and yet she hypothetically watched me.  Of course it was pointless on her end — my posts were designed solely for the tactical misdirection of algorithmic spectres, conceived and published only in order to convince those supra-wiggly archivists of instinct that I was overwhelmingly a different person.  I did not want even the smallest gleak of truth to land online.  This “lost mind” plan even extended to my video watching and digital window shopping maneuvers, though in the case of the former it was impossible to totally restrain myself from a true curiosity and craving to pursue certain videos.  This lack of impulse control expanded even more robustly when porn entered an afternoon; it was insurmountable to search and watch against the specific desires and images I knew would satisfy me the most.  Yet I tried in rapid toe dips, once spending eleven minutes on a video of a nude bodybuilder shot-putting a collection of corns and lettuces into a wall, and with no o-face to conjure.  

“I walk in madness” was both my unorthodox phrase of meditation and most important sentence of self-parody.  When walking around at night in a certain state, I would now and then repeat to myself, “I walk in madness.”   After this I would laugh and say, “that’s dramatic.”  Self-parody swooped in to dehydrate the potential mirages, delusions.  But no other summary was as accurate — literally I walked in madness.  From the habits of my mind, a complex system had emerged and, quite simply, enveloped my unhinged ass.  I had strobe-nurtured my preferences for “the best way to think” over the last several years, so that now I was only sufficiently energized when mentally combining (1), an act of making fun of myself for feeling out of sorts, with (2), an earnest attempt at my own healing.  This perverse combo made me feel very aware but rarely good.  And when these thought commands then marinated in the head to a fully abusive gush, there was one more thing to consider.  What was the source of that powerful sensation that took me over when I went walking alone and without a plan at night?  What was it in the body that prodded me along that highly nummy snack trail of mini-catharses?  What was the source of those tiny pecks of transcendence that scattered down the back of the neck when nearing the production of an abyss?  That is, I did not only walk in madness because I had to, but also because it had become fun.  It raveled me on a line leading to some other connection, a connection which was not to The World.  It promised recognition of and commune with everything that did not matter or had not ever been confirmed to exist.

These areas were very important to pay attention to — I had ignored them for the majority of my, to be acutely real, goofiest years, it was important to know everything that was possible.  This was my routine.  I walked with glamour in circular patterns around less populated city neighborhoods at night, always listening to music that accentuated a spike in insane flavoring.  I only chose music that had the strength to combine halo and blurred hole, it was always music that floored my sensation to its final speed.  I knew I was so lucky to have built-in machinery that let me expand all of my reserves through music.  It was my only advantage.  It made me proud to turn inward.  If my skill was extreme sensitivity, it could only flourish in its most insular and native format.  

But I desperately needed new songs to fill me up, and over-listened as a resting state.  I over-listened, and a night out, i.e. the sustained advancement of nightlife over several hours, was an exhausting condition for me.  In a bar, I was penetrated by the old song I had heard over two thousand times before, but which now had been remixed in a contemporary style wherein synth stabs commanded by creatine hands had replaced what was once very clean, antiquated AOR guitar strumming.  The popular song I had highly ignored for the length of my life, and which hearing did not provoke outrage (or even flashback to wedding dance floor) but instead perpetual indifference in me, had been updated using the most cutting edge technology to produce aural depths not possible with the recording equipment available when the song was originally produced, and which now plunged the emotions much further down and much harder.  The original voice was now placed in a melancholy minefield of hysterically deep bass and plummeting, omnidirectional dynamics and, when the remix passed through the tequila that I was allowing to patrol my body, it replicated itself with viral menace to produce in me the extraterrestrial threat of a single tear.  

In this instance of a night out, Rob had invited me to this bar and party that I had never been to before.  Where I had expected to see more of his friends or even the endless hallway of acquaintances he seemed to be able to mobilize at random, instead I only saw Gail, revealing the conditions were such that Gail and I were the only people Rob had invited to the event.  There I stood under the song, almost leaking with melody-induced sentimentality or globular nostalgia mucus.  I looked across at Gail who was leaning on a wall, who did not seem to be able to observe me after our initial greeting when I arrived at the bar.  She appeared to not take in much information when moved from location to location, and when looking in her eyes I did not ever get the sensation that enormous perspectival changes were part of her social rhythm.  A common conclusion from a young person would be that she was fried, but whether as a condition of drugs/alcohol/trauma or some combo, there had not been any stories shared on which to focus a rock hard drama-horny eye.  Though I yearned to know what details flanked the long road leading to her hellscape, I realized it was unjust since I wasn’t prepared to present the full set of demonic coordinates that had led to mine.  How can one appeal with another story of lost sleep?  “Awake all night” is not the story anyway, yes we know, please make your complaining entertaining.  I was in the heart of the club, I understood it was not the moment to emerge brumal vapors in the form of uninteresting plot points excerpted from my very personal checklist of booboos.  “Oops,” the convicted serial killer said when the public did not like the realistic paintings he made of his victims while in jail.  Gurn: it was possible for the public to see horrifying paintings made by a serial killer.  

Several screens around the bar played the same music video, which the dance floor area magnified via projection on the wall, so that, in the most emotional part of the bar, emotion was keyed up considerably by the illusion of entering the world suggested by the song.  Rob and the bartender were near cheek-to-cheek, taking turns cocking their heads to the side so the voice of the other could enter the ear successfully over the newest Chicago house-derived, 80s-synthpop-infused rap song scorching the lair.  Gail stayed against the wall, looking around but appearing totally comfortable, a woman in her 60s drinking a High Life surrounded by a different generation, I was moved.  Being young is incredibly dangerous.  The bartender poured Rob and himself shots and they downed them together.  

Snippets of Gail’s circumstances had reached me, I knew she had been living with her son in Texas but now was essentially homeless, that Rob and Q.C. had met her at a goth club where she was hanging out with a much younger woman named Lillian.  Lillian would often be run into at the goth club or other clubs and bars, flirting with Rob and Q.C., and though she was definitely younger than Gail, she wore enough makeup to sufficiently alter minds and, with the support of moody bar lighting that left certain preferred corners in medium darkness, had an age that was unrecognizable.  “My instinct tells me she’s at least 35,” Rob had suggested after explaining to me the situation and after a long silence in which I didn’t respond or engage at all with what he had just said.  The pause had felt uncomfortable and also unnatural after such bulbous gossip so he apparently felt it important to break the silence with this one more detail of her estimated age.  I knew it would make both of us more comfortable if I said something in response to the story of Gail and Lillian but I didn’t, in the end, have anything to say, and so Rob told me he thought Lillian was at least 35, and I responded, “oh.”  Lillian and Gail were good friends and Lillian would often bring Gail along to the goth club; Gail did not dress on theme.  Eventually Rob learned she lived in her car and he invited her to stay with him for an unspecified amount of time.  Inevitably this increased my estimation of Rob’s worldview.  When he would decide once again it was time to throw trash from the neighborhood off the 2nd floor apartment balcony — for instance a decommissioned flatscreen or legless American Girl doll — Gail, watching through the open door from the beige velvet couch, would laugh once.  

Rob concluded his interaction with the bartender, turned to me and explained the bartender was hot and straight, and when the bartender worked the weekly gay night they held at the bar, he would appropriately enhance his image in honor of the conventional gay male eye — pouring himself into a tight black tank top that demonstrated his tactful chest hair and relevant bicep gains was the respectful thing to do.  “I’m going to dance now,” Rob said as a commanding female voice shook the establishment with its first notes.  

I wandered over with him but stuck to the doorway that connected the bar area to the dance floor, watching as he threw himself, alone, into the writhing environs, quite clogged with personal freedoms.  The mass of dancers sang the chorus of the song all together, the subject matter concerned a protagonist that felt jealous and sad to see their long pined after crush dancing with another girl.  In fact the protagonist likely never had a chance with the person who was their crush but had built up a dream narrative in which their idealistic love with this person was nearing possibility.  In the midst of such crushing circumstances, the protagonist, now left alone and heartbroken at some event they likely attended simply to engage further with their crush, has decided to dance through their loneliness despite it all, even if it will only enliven them for a moment, and for the length of the song.  Rob danced “with” almost anyone he turned his body towards.  Some people engaged, dancing back, and others stealthily maneuvered away.  At some point it was discernible that he no longer had on shoes or socks.  A girl very much liked that, drawing her friend’s attention to the fact, then touching Rob on the arm, saying something inaudible.  All three laughed.  I stood and watched, occasionally pinged by passing bodies gunning for the most emotional part of the bar.  I watched the video on the projection screen.  The female vocalist danced specifically, had short pink bowl cut hair, conveyed well-lit and accessible agony.  Several bar dancers unmistakably entered a sub-orgasmic flehmen response.  My left shoulder reflexively darted front and back — a significant space-grabber had brushed me by on their way to the dance floor.  It was eventually revealed to be Gail.  I watched her scream “YAHHHHHHHHHH!!!” as she launched herself into the crowd.  

[honeylikewords]

You know why I’m here. Let’s hear it.

thank you for your service, cydney, you are so brave in sacrificing yourself so as to allow me to Infodump about my Angel, Walter Cruz, whomst I love so dearly and so well

so anyway silly stuff aside I’m going to now reply using proper capitalization and punctuation so as to make this post somewhat legible (since I know my rambling will be... dense), so HERE WE GO

This is Walter Cruz.

Well... sort of.

Technically speaking, we never see Walter Cruz. So there are no gifs of him. And, technically speaking, that’s a gif of Oscar in Operation Finale, but, in my defense, that particular style and facial expression is generally how I headcanon Walter as looking. But that’ll get explained later. For now, I should just say that, yes, technically, we never see Walter’s face. Still, I know what he looks like, because that face up there is the face behind the voice we hear in Gimlet Media’s Homecoming, a podcast wherein stars my dearest, darlingest Walter Cruz, as played by Oscar Isaac.

Walter Cruz is a 26-year-old Army soldier coming home to the U.S. after three tours with the military, most recently having been stationed in North Africa. He has been brought to Tampa, Florida, and is staying at a rehabilitation center for soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, the center being tied to the Geist company’s Homecoming Initiative, a privately-funded but governmentally connected initiative that he doesn’t fully understand, but assumes is friendly and in place to help him re-adjust to civilian life, as he was told was the purpose of the center. 

The podcast is comprised of audio clips from recordings of Walter’s sessions with his therapist at the Homecoming Initiative, Heidi Bergman, as well as outside audio clips, such as phone calls between Heidi and her boss, Heidi’s boss and his own boss, dialogue between Heidi and others, et cetera. Heidi Bergman is, by default, the protagonist, but at the heart of the show is Walter, and what’s happening to Walter at the Homecoming Initiative.

I don’t want to give away too many spoilers in case people want to listen to the show (it’s a total of twelve podcast episodes, each one approximately 30 minutes in length, which you can listen to here), but we as listeners slowly start to realize that the Homecoming Initiative may not be as well-intentioned as it makes itself seem, and that Walter is in danger from manipulative medical practitioners, an abusive system of experimentations taking place on him, and may be being medicated in a way he neither consented to nor needs. So, for anyone for whom that may be a trigger, please go in carefully!

Now, on to more stuff about Walter on a personal level.

Walter is very sweet and down-to-earth, very humble. Within the first few moments of hearing his voice, we know he’s unassuming, protective of his friends, and understanding of the difficulties in other people’s lives, being very empathetic and caring. He speaks in a gentle tone, and while not necessarily loquacious or excessively talkative, he’s clearly intelligent and thoughtful, finding careful ways to explain himself to others. 

Walter loves animals, particularly dogs. He loves telling jokes and playing little pranks, often being a little bit of a tease, but only ever in a loving, playful way. He knows when to stop messing around and be serious, and has a very level head on his shoulders. Still, he has a warm, friendly sense of humor that seems to naturally bleed into everything he says, as if he’s always a few words away from trying to make someone smile. Plus, he has a wonderful laugh; kinda breathy, like he’s trying to stay quiet, but as it builds into something bigger and fuller, his voice comes in and it’s just so warm and fluttery.

Walter loves road trips and believes they’re essential to getting to know one’s partner as their truest self. He wants to be an accountant once he leaves the military. He likes pineapple cobbler and camping. He doesn’t like Titanic, but he’s seen it more times than any normal person has. He has sisters and a mother who he lived with after being discharged from the Homecoming Initiative, and who he loves more than anyone in the world. He has a dog named Sammy, who loves to eat bacon.

Walter loves Yosemite National Park and, without giving away too much, there is good reason for me to believe that Walter spent a great deal of his time after the events of the Homecoming Initiative in a cabin in Yosemite. I like to imagine he climbed Half Dome Hill without a permit.

Walter is also headstrong, determined, not always one to follow rules, full of hope, and almost a little naive. He believes in the best of people, and many bad, bad people use that against him. He wants to help people and do good, and live a life of love and togetherness. He cares more about the problems of others than his own problems and will gladly put himself aside to do anything for someone else.

That being said, because of his generosity of spirit and trusting attitude, Walter’s... Walter’s been through a lot. A lot of people have used him for the wrong things and abused him, and for a very long time, particularly immediately after being discharged from Homecoming, he couldn’t even take care of himself, as he was so damaged by the abuse. He’d been lied to, psychologically manipulated, physically manipulated, and medically abused to the point where he could not so much as even tie his shoes and was in, essentially, a catatonic state for several months. 

But he, somehow, even through all of that, came out the other side as strong, hopeful, and charitable as ever. Clever, quick-witted, and tender. The same Walter, unbroken, just bruised. He’s very brave, very kind, and so sweet it aches.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I probably will, eventually, just so I can accurately describe all of Walter’s experiences when I write about him, but this next portion of the post is going to be speculative stuff about his life after the events of Homecoming as a narrative, so I’ll try to step carefully around any major spoilers while also integrating his story arc accurately (or, well, as accurately as I want. I’m the boss, here, and I’m valid to want to give him a soft ending!). 

Anywhomst.

I love to imagine Walter and his sweetheart in Yosemite. While his first trip there was so he could heal and take time away from being Walter Cruz, case-patient, and instead be Walter Cruz, normal nobody, and therefore likely wouldn’t be a good time for him to be in a romantic relationship, I like to think he’d come back there in the future, once he’s more at ease, ready to be in this relationship. In fact, the two of them choose to live just outside of Yosemite when they decide to move in together.

It’s only a few hours from Bakersfield, where his mother, Gloria, lives, after all, and he could come visit her every now and then. He knows, now, that it’s hard to live with her-- not because he doesn’t love her or because she doesn’t love him-- but because, for her, the past will always be visible on him, like a stain he’ll never manage to fully wash away, and he wants to let the past go and feel clean, and be seen for his present and future potential instead of just the pain of the past.

That’s why, when Walter falls in love, he feels so... different. 

He’d grown so tired of everyone looking at him and seeing Walter Cruz, soldier, Walter Cruz, Homecoming Initiative victim, Walter Cruz, human vegetable. And he felt like everyone who had known him before was so fixated on why he wasn’t the exact same boy he’d been when he was 19 that they wouldn’t let him move on from his pain, forcing him to stagnate in it.

But she doesn’t make him feel like that. 

She met him long after Homecoming, more than five years later. He still has episodes, of course, spans of days where he can’t figure out if the things he thinks are dreams or memories or erased half-memories of things that happened, or if he’s missing something important, but she never judges him, never forces him to speak. It never makes her change her mind about him.

She’s not a therapist or a doctor or some prying caseworker trying to coax his life out of him as if it’s a state secret they’re entitled to knowing; she’s just a woman who loves him, adores him, holds him close at night and lets him squeeze her and bury his head in her neck like a little child, safe from the world, safe from anyone trying to drain him of himself. 

He fell in love with her because she makes him laugh; he hadn’t really laughed in so long, and then she happened. She makes him smile, makes him feel normal and accepted, light and free. She doesn’t treat him like fragile glass or like some manila envelope to be wrenched open and shaken for its contents. She doesn’t push him to talk about anything he doesn’t want to, which is why, in a roundabout way, he talks to her the most.

Out of everyone he’s had to talk to-- his mother, his therapists, his doctors, the federal agents, the cops-- she knows the most. In fact, she kinda knows everything. Everything he knows, he’s told her. He spread it out over time, letting her in slowly, the details falling into place organically over time as she pieced together the truth from the strands of information Walter willingly gave her, but the truth is, she doesn’t care about the Geist corporation, or Homecoming, or Heidi Bergman. She only cares about Walter.

It’s not that she doesn’t care that he suffered-- of course she cares-- but rather that she doesn’t care about the conspiracy, the facts, the X-Files-esque ‘unveiling’ of the gritty details: she only cares about taking care of Walter, and helping him move on, leaving all the scum and garbage that ever hurt him behind. He’s not a case to crack or a puzzle to solve, he’s someone she loves, just the way he is, no matter what. She knows he’ll never be ‘all better’, healed of every wound inflicted by these monsters, but she wants him to be able to grow and live a life beyond what came before. It’ll always be there, in his past, but it doesn’t have to always be where he is in his present.

And Walter loves her all the more for this alleviation.

They live just outside Yosemite, a ways away from any cities, in a nice, quiet place. Walter was insistent on a cabin, and it works out well for both of them. Sammy has plenty of room to run and chase squirrels and rabbits and birds, and Walter’s got lots of quiet and calm to keep himself from getting too stressed. His sweetheart and he love to take long hikes into the park, having their own special little spots all throughout the park, locked in Walter’s memories for different reasons.

One outcropping of rocks overlooking the valley was where they had a romantic picnic, one where Walter laid his head in her lap and just closed his eyes and let himself feel okay, safe in her hands. Another place is the base of Bridalveil Falls, where he’d held her from behind and rested his head on her shoulder, the spray of the falls brushing his face as he kissed her cheek, allowing himself to smile and be happy with someone he adores. 

He likes to tease her about the name, Bridalveil Falls, wondering if she’d ever be the bride of Bridalveil Falls, asking if she’d like to have a veil train as long as the sheet of water that tumbles down those cliffs. Walter plays it off as a joke, but he knows why he watches her face carefully as he makes that ‘joke’, he knows why he leans in closer, listens for every possible interpretation of her words, for the delicate meaning of her inflections in her answers.

He does, deeply and truly, long to know if she’ll marry him.

Walter’s always been one to commit himself to what he believes in. He stands firm and fast by what he wants, and he knows what his heart wants. It wants her, now and forever; she’s his someone to lean on in his darkest hours, and his someone to uplift with the strength he knows he can only garner through his love for her. She means the world to him, and she makes it easier to live in his painful, confusing, ephemeral plane of existence.

So, he tells himself that when the time is right, and the stars align just the way he wants, he’ll ask her. He probably won’t wait long at all-- lord knows he loves her too much to practice anything even remotely close to self-control-- but he’ll wait just enough to let her know that he’s not off his rocker, not manically suggesting this to her on a whim. Walter wants her to know it’s real, it’s honest, it’s earnest, and it’s true: he loves her, and wishes to spend all his life building on that love.

Nowadays, he works as an accountant. He likes the work: it’s simple, steady, solid, and he’s good at it. It leaves him lots of time, too, to wander the park, or around his house, or in the small town they live in just outside Yosemite. He likes it, as well, when he and his sweetheart stay in for a day, just curled up together in the cabin, holding each other close, hovering near each other if they have to move around.

They still go on trips, though. Long, long road trips, with Walter behind the wheel and his beloved by his side, talking and reading and listening to music, but mostly, just being together, even when it becomes quietly tense to realize they’re in the middle of nowhere with someone (who they assuredly do love) and it’s awkward and uncomfortable yet somehow so natural and as it was meant to be, the frustration of the road melting into the comfort of being together.

He likes to stay up just a little bit later than her when they get to the hotel room, watching her fall asleep. It makes him feel something gentle and protective inside of himself, because he sees her resting there, by his side, and knows she trusts him enough to be so vulnerable in his presence. She trusts him to keep her safe through everything, and he appreciates it. Plus, she’s cute when she sleeps; he likes a little snoring and turning from her when they’re in bed, since he was used to the sound of his platoon all snoring like chainsaws at night.

It’s a good life he has, now. He sees his mom regularly, he has a woman in his life who he loves beyond his own capacity to put into words, he has a home and a job and a sense of existing in his own body as himself, not as anyone else’s puppet or playing or practice experiment. His dog loves him, and he gets to eat as much cobbler as he wants (he’s even tried his hand at baking his own, though he prefers baking them together with his darling).

And it feels good to stop trying to outrun himself, to stop chasing this invisible thread he hoped would lead him out from the labyrinth of his own mind. He has to live with who he is, but he can live with that and also live with others. He can live with the people who love him and want him to be safe and happy and wholly cared for. And no one can ever take away his innate goodness, not even himself, not even if he tried.

So he’s happy, in the understated way truly happy people are; he’s not always giddy and gleeful, nor exactly “happy”, but he’s content, and even when he’s in pain, he’s not alone. He’s loved, and love endures everything. Loved and not alone. That’s all he could ask for. So, perhaps, he’s not simply ‘happy’, whatever that means: he’s well. And all is well.

[romeneverfell]

Why did it take human civilizations so long to figure out pants? Or were the Romans just THAT obsessed with copying the Greek togas?

Fun question! I think that the answer first depends on what we’re considering a “civilization” because there are a few definitions. For the purposes of this answer, I’m going to assume that you meant civilizations as in societies with the presence of cities, and not a broader definition of civilizations. Keep in mind that I’m not an expert on the history of clothing or fashion, so these are just my speculative thoughts. Note that I’m also going to just blanket call non-pant bottoms either “skirts” or “dresses” although the actual styles and names of these clothes obviously vary widely across cultures. 

There is a very visible trend between cradle civilizations across the globe and the absence of pants. I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all. Keep in mind though that “no pants” isn’t a hard rule, and even societies that are popularly depicted as never wearing pants had some members of the social strata that wore pants at various points in time (ex. Roman soldiers). Still, generally-speaking, the trend holds up. Given that pants are the norm in the West now, and are appreciated for their safety and practicality, it seems kind of odd that they weren’t more common prior to the Middle Ages among civilizations (in the West, at least). 

Ultimately, I think this comes down to necessity (or lack thereof). First off, cradle civilizations spawned in temperate or warm climate zones. India, Mesopotamia, China (note that most of ancient China was within modern China’s temperate or subtropical zones), and the later civilizations of South America are such examples. Draping, spacious fabrics are best suited for these climates (and particularly for more arid regions, thin fabrics) and so there’d not be much need for pants or long sleeves throughout the year. During the winter, layering long skirts with a cloak or even leg wraps suffices since winters in temperate zones rarely get cold enough to necessitate a dramatic change in fashion. 

It’s also not necessary given the modes of living of the people in these civilizations. Living in a city, walking around on foot all the time and usually engaging in some kind of commerce or servitude rather than hard labor, doesn’t really require pants. I’d imagine that pants become more common the further from cities that you go because they become more practical, which is why you see some pants being worn by farmers of some ancient cultures. Still, it isn’t necessary. Roman farmers got along all right by just wearing long tunics. 

Really, I actually think that the answer to the question can be best understood if you flip it on its head: what made people start wearing pants in the first place? Two answers that I can think of: colder climates, and/or horse domestication. For the same reason that wearing pants isn’t necessary in temperate or hot climates, wearing pants is necessary in cold climates. You could still get by with thick, multi-layered dresses, but for the guy out in the cold or snow most of the day, a garment that closely insulates your legs is logically much more appealing than something that allows for air flow. If civilizations began in cold climates instead of warm climates, then we’d probably be seeing many more ancient civilized (i.e. city-dwelling) cultures that rocked pants and wondered why everyone else was wearing those barbaric skirts. 

The second part of this answer is equally logical but much more specific. Try riding a horse without anything covering your inner legs or groin and see how well that goes. Nobody likes chafing. Pants evolved out of a need for more protection riding our faithful steeds, which is probably why the oldest pair of pants found yet belongs to a Central Asian nomad. Central Asia does tend to have cold winters, so the climate factor is also at play, but I’d imagine that the selective pressure (if you will) of horseback riding played a significant role too. If you happen to be curious about early horse domestication, I answered a question on the topic directed at my sideblog, @barbariansatthegates here. Looking at the dates, and you’ll see that the first known pair of pants dates roughly to the earliest speculated date of horse domestication (3000 BCE vs 3500 BCE). Cities don’t have much use for horses beyond transport, and so, not much use for pants. Those using horses in early civilizations would be the vast minority. On that note, you again see horse use coincide with pants-wearing among Romans: their cavalry. 

Pants spread through contact (i.e. takeover) between colder-climate or steppe cultures and their neighboring civilizations. In the specific case of the Romans, pants didn’t become commonplace until late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages pretty much as a direct result of the “barbarization” of Roman society by Germanic/Gothic armies and immigrants. It’s also because of militarization, but I digress. Then (I speculate) you have the spread of pants through the Near East via increasing contact with Eurasian steppe confederacies. Although it still wasn’t any more necessary for city-dwellers in these temperate/hot regions to wear pants, their adoption of the fashion was probably just a natural progression in the integration of elements of their culture and the newly-introduced outside culture… Who knew pondering the spread of pants to civilizations could be so interesting! Thanks for sharing your question! 

[draftno9000]

Lady Gaga’s Enigma: Inside the outside.

"Music is essentialy twelve notes between any octave; all any artist can offer the world is how they see those twelve notes.."

It's an understatement to say that Las Vegas is one of the most important cities for the music industry and entertainment, to the visitors it offers endless sources of multiple activities that take the daily routine and stressful daily life pressure away and bring lights, fun and even gambling to the table. But in this case, the city specially takes music performances and concerts to another level. For years, the streets of this city in Nevada kept in their hearts the talents of enormous and really iconic legends as Cher, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey, (just to mention some of them) and made them look like they were a gem needed of perpetuation and admiration that attracted millions of followers to one single place. On an artistic way, we should consider Las Vegas residencies as a museum of the most emblematic artists that are not afraid to build a mind-blowing show that could easily overshadow their scene domination and vocals skills. 

On March 2018 Lady Gaga made official her Las Vegas residency starting on December 2018 until late November 2019, with a total of 74 shows. As the name was published, 'Enigma' quickly created a hot burning fuss around her loyal fans and set the record straight on aiming to give a premium quality show. As months went by since the show announcement, Gaga flashed on social media a bunch of pictures and videos that were able to get into the followers minds and grow inside the seed of high expectations and enigmatic elements that would make the attendants gasp and ask for more. It was already clear that the main objective was already fulfilled: entertain. But the game-changing factor about preparing a full pop concert for months is to go further than the expected.

It's really important to remember that music labels bet more than money on letting one of their artists sign an exclusivity contract with a single venue or hotel as Ceasar's Palace or MGM hotels when there are hundreds of safer reputation-linked options for an artist career. A residency is an ultimate risk: it could make a whole career that took years to be stablished among thousands of other singers or bands look like a forgotten artist ready to farewell, or add a priceless milestone to the ongoing performer. 

As the main doors for general admission opened at 9:00 pm on December 28th for the opening night, Gaga's crew had already made a fucking big statement by letting people witness a breath taking simple stage that could only make you wonder: What is this? in a good way. When you hear 'Gaga' you can think of a million ways to descrive her, but I think the most accurate and simple word to break her down is: crazyness. Which is not helping her at all. Even if she wanted to sit on a chair with brown hair and make everyone shiver on their seats with her un-taming vocals, everyone would be asking for more. Because we're at Park MGM in Las Vegas, you'll demand to make every penny spent on your ticket worth it. 

The lights turned off and a flying- full of light and mirrored-suited Lady came down the ceiling with a keytar attached to her guts and her hands, ready to unbelt a nailed opening track: Just Dance, followed by general public recognized bangers as Poker Face and LoveGame. At this point you already owe money to the backstage work made to wow you. The perfectly fitted outfit, the theme-according electric blue wig that remains flawless through original choreographies, and the sassy-attitude dancers beg for more than your attention, your live-experiences passion. 

As the 'Venus' performer quickly changed her look from weave to heels, a set of fan-favorite hits were about to play. 'Dance In The Dark' refilled the fan base's hunger with a live perfomance of a song that she didn't sing since her 'Monster Ball Tour' on 2010; full of energy and obscene pop dance moves Gaga gave her little monsters the flashback moment of the night. As 'Beautiful, Dirty, Rich' and 'The Fame' blasted the speakers for a 5,000 crowd, the attendants were singing along to memorable non-single lyrics but the critics went to the doubt point as wondering if they were a wise choice to include on the setlist, which personally I think it wasn't.

With only 5 studio albums, an original soundtrack and 21 official singles, it gets complicated to dismiss songs that most of the people awaits and include long-time forgotten and underestimated tunes to bring a spin to the expected. 'Telephone' made the cut by closing the second act of the show while 'Applause' got to open the next one with no big excitement along. Choices.

The whole 2 hour show is narrated and story-told by 'Enigma' a digital high technology character that interacts with Gaga through the interludes and give an unnecesary story to the experience. As we know, the thin line between giving meaning to a concert's concept and making it hard to understand, was crossed with Gaga's abduction into another kind of paralel universe. When alienated Gaga is flying on a metal orbit above the crowd while singing Paparazzi we couldn't help but to enjoy the obligated awaited song and ask for more. But then, it happened. 

The awkwardness swallowed the crowd into Gaga's versatility as writer, singer and performer while she sang an epic performance of ARTPOP's opening track Aura while her black-leather corset pushed her vocals and body moves to her finest. '..Enigma pop star is fun..', right?

Nobody asked, but she gave us anyway a recipe for jaw-drops: First, get back on stage while riding a metal-aracnic robot. Second, play a fake-german non-single for your most loyal fans: 'Scheisse'. And last but not least, rock a metalic and futuristic styled outfit that lights up your boobs while you command everyone to dance and sing their lungs out. Period. And, as a hardcore pop enviroment was flotating in the air, 'Judas' started playing hitting the high notes and a violent role-play for almost 4 minutes. For the third song of the act production could have wrote *Madness* on the setlist instead of spelling the track's title 'Government Hooker'. At the end of the segment comes a cover of David Bowie's 'I'm Afraid Of Americans' as a friendly reminder of two essential Lady Gaga's components: legends as inspiration and a political message hidden underneath colossal synths.

I will always stay true to the belief that when you have an integral timeless pop hit as 'The Edge of Glory' or 'Alejandro' all you need to do is sing and dance your talents off and you'll get to a most memorable moment on the attendant's memories than a full of props-already expected performance. The MGM Park venue bowed down to sing along the piano chords fully live played by Gaga while perfoming 'Million Reasons' and 'Yoü and I' with the tender and notorious comfort that she gives to every note just to achieve a moment of recognition that bleeds vocal maturity and passion.

The night was almost done when a latex-styled, blue-wiged and fearless Gaga performed her 10-year career anthems. 'Bad Romance' set the room on fire with an explosion of pop mixed with nostalgia just by standing alone underneath a bright light dancing it's iconic choreography that's been kept on our minds through the years. You don't need to be a fan to recognize that those dance moves were born with the melodies and brutal lyrics that made this tune a hymn. The encore wouldn't be as satisfying if she didn't put 'Born This Way' at this precise moment to remind once again that she's come a long way by staying true to her beliefs and fighting for them.

The last song threw us out off the deep end while Gaga performed 'Shallow' along a black simple shirt that belongs to her first moments on the industry and a squicky-clean-mirrored piano to reach the already legendary high note that everyone can now sing to make your emotions shiver and open your senses to a melody that will now, last forever.

Just as her versatility and mind-blowing open-hearted talent, there is no conclussion here. Enigma takes all the little things you expect it to be and bury them on the heated Vegas floor to make you understand that you just witnessed a well-thought show built around 21 songs that tell a story and make a statement that this is not retirement show, but instead, a big moment on the entertainment history in a city where anything can happen.

[janeaustentextposts]

I've just finished rereading Persuasion and at the end Anne says that listening to lady russell was The Right Thing and it seems really forced. Isn't the whole book about making your own choices and taking some risks? How is submitting to the persuasion right? she was young when she did, of course, but the fact that she says, after eight years of sufferings, that she did the right thing always leaves me confused. what do you think?

I think with Anne it’s not so black and white. We tend to think in terms of “this wasn’t wrong” to then mean “it must have been right” when Anne also elaborates and points out that in her case, it turned out to have been the wrong choice. My reading of it is that she’s saying in the moment, aged nineteen, she did make the best decision she could have made at the time, with the information she had available. Also recall that had Wentworth swallowed his pride a couple of years later and renewed his offer, she would have had the certainty she needed to accept him. So of those eight years of misery, in hindsight, two of those years could be blamed on her choice, and six of them could be blamed on Wentworth’s choice.

Lady Russell’s place in Anne’s life can’t or shouldn’t be minimized. In adaptations, where characters are kind of broken down into their basic note-hitting points, Lady Russell’s position as a neighbourly adviser kind of takes center stage, and in order to highlight Anne’s isolation and unhappiness, she’s often shown as being very lonely. Which she is, in a sense, but she is not alone, nor is she without love. Her family is ridiculous, but Lady Russell is her lifeline, and I don’t think either adaptation really shows that–she’s played off as a meddling but well-intentioned older woman with no perception for Anne’s true feelings. But the text tells a different story. At nineteen, Anne is only five years on from having lost her dear mother, and Lady Russell has stepped into that void and cherished and loved Anne as nobody else has done. Lady Russell has been the next thing to a mother Anne has had as she matured into a young lady, and certainly the best friend in the whole world. Lady Russell is noted as having been a sensible and deserving woman, who helped to guide Lady Elliot, while she lived–and Anne is noted as being very like her mother, in many respects. A superior creature, yes, but everyone can do with a sensible and worthy friend to talk things over with when times are hard.

So here is Anne, at nineteen, with her one consolation and emotional outlet being Lady Russell, who is halfway between a mother and a best friend to her.

[Lady Russell] was a woman rather of sound than of quick abilities, whose difficulties in coming to any decision in this instance were great, from the opposition of two leading principles. She was of strict integrity herself, with a delicate sense of honour; but she was as desirous of saving Sir Walter’s feelings, as solicitous for the credit of the family, as aristocratic in her ideas of what was due to them, as any body of sense and honesty could well be. She was a benevolent, charitable, good woman, and capable of strong attachments, most correct in her conduct, strict in her notions of decorum, and with manners that were held a standard of good-breeding. She had a cultivated mind, and was, generally  speaking, rational and consistent; but she had prejudices on the side of ancestry: she had a value for rank and consequence, which blinded her a little to the faults of those who possessed them.

So from this we can determine that Lady Russell has her faults–as does anybody–but she is certainly no evil meddler, and a very worthy friend to have. Her objections to Wentworth as a match for Anne are indeed material–that he has no high connections, and no fortune, but even were Lady Russell not on the snobbish side, these would still be valid concerns. Lady Catherine’s objection to Elizabeth Bennet’s low connections is true snobbery–Eliza has no career to speak of. But in the case of a professional man, particularly in the Army or Navy, a single connection in the right place could be the difference between a life of hard graft and no promotion, and access to wealth and rank. Though the Navy in war-time certainly allowed for more merited promotion than the Army and peace, it is acknowledged that young Captain Wentworth can offer no guarantees for Anne’s support and comfort, and as a gallant young officer, will run the very real risk of injury or death throughout his career. We see the Harvilles living very poorly, though they strive to be happy enough, with the support of Benwick and other brother-officers…and that is with Captain Harville alive, on reduced pay, and still able to do gentle work in mending nets. They are getting by, but only just, and in the best-case scenario. Any crisis–another child born, Harville’s health worsening, some accident or unforeseen cost–can still be the tipping point into abject poverty. This is the uncertainty which rather rightly terrifies Lady Russell on Anne’s behalf, who perhaps has not even thought of these things until Lady Russell points them out to her. Anne has never been married, or really known a married couple other than her parents; Wentworth is a bachelor, and has saved nothing to support a wife and family, though he’s confident enough to propose, anyway.

Anne, being genteel and elegant and high-minded and young, Lady Russell cannot bear to see risking all her happiness on a man who is barely known to any of them. This was very much a whirlwind romance, and now Wentworth is that boyfriend from the other side of town saying “What do they know, babe? Trust me.” If Anne is not persuaded by Lady Russell, she is to be persuaded by Wentworth…so this is less her making up her own mind independently, and more her having to decide who to trust to ensure her future happiness. And Wentworth…Wentworth is not unbiased, here. Sure, Lady Russell has her blind spot of snobbery (but note she doesn’t object to Wentworth the man so much as Wentworth’s career being uncertain and risky and her fears are for Anne’s material style of living being adequate and consistent, rather than believing Wentworth is some stupid peasant who isn’t worthy of a daughter of Kellynch. That’s Sir Walter’s view.) But Wentworth’s blind spot is that he’s deeply in love and all he wants is to be married to Anne. Which, fine…but at what cost? Could his love and his hopes have over-inflated his belief that Everything Will Be Fine well beyond what is reasonable to expect? Lady Russell sees his confidence as foolhardy, perhaps even tempting fate, and it worries her deeply. That Anne eventually sides with Lady Russell causes deep resentment in Wentworth, and rather than understanding Anne’s position and feelings, he leaves the country in a fit of pride which lasts long enough to prevent him renewing his offer two years later.

Now hindsight is 20/20 and we know it’s Wentworth and Anne and true love and all will be well (kinda sorta the risk of injury or death is still there but hey he’s fine for money now) but what kind of mother/best friend figure wouldn’t step in at that point with teenager Anne to be like

Lady Russell, whom she had always loved and relied on, could not, with such steadiness of opinion, and such tenderness of manner, be continually advising her in vain.

So when, in the end, Anne says “I don’t think I was wrong to listen to Lady Russell” it’s a defense of the deep bond and respect she has with her closest friend, and the trust she had placed in her. In the time to come, Anne would learn the value of relying more on her own judgement, yes, and admits that she made the wrong choice in doing precisely as Lady Russell advised (why not settle for a long engagement, instead of breaking it entirely?) she must admit that, given the circumstances, Lady Russell’s caution was entirely reasonable, and that *in general* young people could do much worse than heed the well-meant guidance of older people who have some perspective and loving concern for their well-being. In this particular case, yes, it’s not so simple, and Lady Russell was proven wrong by what, in time, happened…but that’s not proof anybody could have whipped out in 1806 to support Anne and Wentworth’s arguments in favour of the marriage. Wentworth can only hope to make his fortune–he cannot claim with any certainty that he will. His personal convictions are strong enough that he feels able to rely on them, but that’s not enough for Lady Russell, and ultimately, Anne’s doubts work to persuade her, as well. Wentworth resents this, of course, and Anne regrets it…but Anne is doing her best with what she’s got. Should she have ignored her best friend? Specifically, yes, because Wentworth’s gamble prevailed. In general, no.

It was, perhaps, one of those cases in which advice is good or bad only as the event decides…

If Wentworth had died or sunk into poverty, Lady Russell’s point would have been proven. Luck was with him, however, (yes, he is brilliant and brave, but in such a profession one cannot wholly discount the hand of fate,) and he has been raised to wealth and power enough to make Anne and their family secure.

The book, I think, is about weighing risks, rather than simply taking them, and how to best judge and allow the influence of others. Louisa Musgrove is our cautionary tale from the other end of the spectrum–no one can persuade her to do anything she does not wish to do, and ultimately she suffers for it when she is too headstrong and the advice of her sensible friends goes unheeded.

[micaljason123]

Things To Do Immediately About How To Choose A Financial Advisor

I've welcomed in the many years of encouraging folks because of their investment strategies there seems to be two kinds of economic advisors. The primary style will be the one who can express or maybe do anything whatsoever to generate a greenback off all you. Regrettably, this seems to be nearly all experts out and about there. They'regarding interested in Investigation an individual whichever product or service can gain all of them the greatest fee, whether or not this task satisfies your own needs.

Additional kind of counselor will be the one who genuinely does worry about your own needs. Nevertheless even those people experts can and will take issue upon the ideal approach regarding you. On this in the second.

Exactly how do you separate the particular counselor that only wants to generate a greenback off all anyone with a just one nobody loves you? The ideal suggestions will be don'capital t get whatever from face value. Do your own research. Talk to the wide ranging counselor and go over your own objectives. Handle this specific as a conversation, as your counselor is really the employee. Study the specific set of fiscal counselor warning flags (see base , once for a connect to the particular report) to assist you to weed out the not so good ones. Screen out and about people try to conceal the main points of your stuff or maybe try and boasting upward just about any certain investment.

Right after you've narrowed down this list, it'vertisements time for it to opt for the counselor that ideal complements your own principles and objectives. And this can be the particular roughest - and most important - task.

Very smart, innovative and looking after experts will surely have totally different beliefs upon perhaps you excellent investment. Let'vertisements makes use of the variable annuity being an example. I've authored extensively upon the difficulties having variable annuities. Each and every time My spouse and i create among those posts, I recieve a number of email messages through fiscal experts that I'mirielle positive are certainly solemn and also a wide range of integrity, however they take issue emphatically having the position. And they'll put forth quite a well-thought-out argument revealing the case.

I've frequently considered, what exactly is both have our clients' hobbies and interests in the mind nevertheless come to contrary results? Right after having this example again and again, it occurs in my opinion this it has to come down to anything you value and precisely what you determine a priority on.

Trading is really precisely the management of a few trade-offs. Every one of investment is about levelling threat and incentive, and threat and incentive both arrive in various forms. The counselor that applies safety and security very first and is focused on hoping not to shed any cash regarding his customers will probably highly recommend low-yielding nevertheless very safe investment strategies including CDs and bonds. The counselor like me, conversely, that applies a priority upon starting a highest possible total of revenue that you survive on can highly recommend a thing different. Any CPA that is usually concerned with lowering this specific Investigation taxes could tell you that remodeling an old-fashioned IRA to your Roth is a really terrible idea, though I may believe it'vertisements an excellent idea. We'regarding both trustworthy and attuned so that you can your requirements; we occur to reckon that something more important need to get priority.

Therefore what'vertisements a venture capitalist to do? Before you'll find the counselor, if it'vertisements the educator or perhaps a money supervisor, believe for a while concerning your targets and your values. Figure out where your own goals lie. After that inquire many problems while you meeting to get the counselor that ideal complements track of your own needs. While it'vertisements a superb accommodate, the chances are you'll find out reasonably quickly.

Any fiscal counselor value her / his sea salt can delightful the prospect go over your requirements targets, and they'll identify whenever the beliefs isn'capital t a new match with yours. While My spouse and i speak to customers, I can tell whenever somebody is a superb fit. When they'regarding a bad accommodate, I'll nicely actually tell them so and continue to primary all of them to an alternative counselor that are sometimes a better match.

[aion-rsa]

Assassin’s Creed Doesn’t Need to Be Live Service When It’s Already Too Big

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Many in the gaming world let out a sigh today as Ubisoft formally announced their intentions to develop a project currently known as Assassin’s Creed Infinity: a reportedly live service take on the Assassin’s Creed franchise that may just prove to be the future of the series.

“This change means we’re also evolving along with the video game industry,” reads a blog post from Ubisoft regarding the Infinity project. “Rather than continuing to pass the baton from game to game, we profoundly believe this is an opportunity for one of Ubisoft’s most beloved franchises to evolve in a more integrated and collaborative manner that’s less centered on studios and more focused on talent and leadership, no matter where they are within Ubisoft.”

Now, it’s important to note that the words “live service” are not mentioned in that blog post. That idea was instead prominently mentioned by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier who published an article about this project shortly before Ubisoft confirmed its existence (Schreier was previously speaking with Ubisoft representatives as part of his investigation). Schreier notes that the current plan is for Infinity to be a “live service platform” that “may be some sort of hub that allows people to play multiple AC games both big and small.” He also notes that the game is “years away” and that “Ubisoft may say screw it and give up to chase the next trend 3 years from now.”

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That’s the thing to keep in mind for the moment. Nobody is entirely sure what a live service Assassin’s Creed game looks like. It may prove to be a Destiny-style experience with a shared world, it could end up being a fairly traditional Assassin’s Creed game that is just constantly updated rather than built from scratch, or it might indeed be a kind of “hub” that encompasses a variety of experiences and timelines that all exist under the Assassin’s Creed banner.

Live service games come in many forms, but the one thing they typically have in common is that they’re big games. That’s kind of the whole point of the live service concept. It’s designed to offer a gameplay experience that you’re meant to play for weeks, months, and, in increasingly common cases, years. Studios who make live service games typically want them to be the only game you play, and they try to ensure they give you enough content to make sure you never think of leaving them. Of course, that often means that you’re also encouraged to give them another $60 or so here and there rather than buy an entirely new game.

That’s the biggest problem with Assassin’s Creed Infinity based on what we know about it at the moment. Live service games are designed to be big, and the Assassin’s Creed series has suffered from being too damn big for far too long.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla took about 40-50 hours to beat if you were trying to see the credits as quickly as possible. More “casual” playthroughs take about 50-80 hours. That’s not inherently a problem (and more than a few people would consider that amount of content to be a selling point), but what is a problem in the minds of many is how much of Valhalla was clearly designed to pad the length of the game.

Too many collectibles in Valhalla are just laying out in the open and often yield disappointing rewards. Too many of Valhalla‘s side quests task you with completing objectives that are mechanically familiar and emotionally lacking (which is a real shame given the quality of its other side stories). Too much of Valhalla‘s world starts to bleed together as repetitive geography makes you more impressed with the measurements of the map than how you feel exploring it. Too much of Valhalla‘s combat starts to feel too familiar too soon even as the game relies on it more and more.

Yet, Valhalla‘s worst padding sin was its story. You can argue about how good Valhalla‘s story ultimately is, but its pacing was an absolute nightmare.

Rather than offer a much smaller, tighter story that you could conceivably see the end of in about 20 hours if you chose to do so, Ubisoft tried to stretch Valhalla‘s story across most of those aforementioned 40+ hours and often made you endure what should have been optional content to see the next chapter of the main narrative. It certainly didn’t help that Valhalla tried too hard to insert confusing franchise lore of diminishing returns into its original story, which also doesn’t exactly bode well for the idea of a live service Assassin’s Creed game where even more content could one day be tied together by those same plot threads.

That’s really the point here. Assassin’s Creed games have long been pushing their luck in terms of gameplay bloat, but since the series’ started adopting more “RPG” mechanics, things have gone nuclear. This is a series that’s starting to feel like it’s more interested in bragging about how many hours you can spend with it and less interested in talking about what those hours are filled with and what kind of creative vision they represent. Considering that there are too many live service games that suffer from those same issues, it’s a little hard to be optimistic that an open embrace of that format will somehow inspire Ubisoft to fix their worst habits and use live service as a way to make smaller, more focused Assassin’s Creed games once more.

Yet, that’s exactly what they should do.

There’s a great game at the heart of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (and most of the recent AC games), but stretching a great 25-hour game into a 50-hour game doesn’t make it more of a great game. Actually, it makes it a game that often prods you to continue playing it rather than making you feel genuinely inspired to do so. The problem there is that we live in a world where many people can only really buy and play a couple of big games a year at most. For them, it’s often ok if they have to spend 50+ hours with a game they generally like over the course of weeks and months, even if that game was clearly designed to pad the runtime.

With Assassin’s Creed Infinity, Ubisoft can still please that crowd without dragging everyone else along for the ride. If they were to either offer a series of smaller Assassin’s Creed games in a single live service package (including, perhaps, the welcome return of AC‘s multiplayer mode) or expand a solid, core Assassin’s Creed adventure with that supplementary content they seem to love so much via DLC updates, they could actually use the live service format as a way to offer their developers more creative freedom and give fans the chance to enjoy the AC experiences they want most. If Assassin’s Creed games are so damn long because they’re supposed to be “valuable,” then Assassin’s Creed Infinity gives Ubisoft a way to offer that same value across a variety of experiences you want to play rather than one you sometimes feel obligated to play.

Assassin’s Creed Infinity could be the vehicle that finally allows Ubisoft to go back to the kind of tighter Assassin’s Creed adventures and original stories that initially helped this series stand apart while retaining the RPG elements and open-world design that make modern Assassin’s Creed experiences such an appealing proposition for many. I’d love for Ubisoft to find a way to tell an emotionally gripping 60+ hour AC story complimented by unique world design and constantly surprising new mechanics, but in lieu of that, I’ll gladly take four 15 hour AC adventures distributed over the course of a much longer period of time, or a solid 25 hour AC game expanded upon by DLC and live service updates for those who are into that thing.

Of course, this is Ubisoft we’re talking about, so the more likely explanation is that they’ll continue to hope you forget about those harassment complaints while they use the concept of a live service Assassin’s Creed game as a way to ensure that Assassin’s Creed is the only game you play in a year not because you necessarily want it to be but because it’s designed to keep you playing past the point of reason. Still, we can always dream of something more interesting.

The post Assassin’s Creed Doesn’t Need to Be Live Service When It’s Already Too Big appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[suzanneshannon]

Asynchronous Design Critique: Giving Feedback

Feedback, in whichever form it takes, and whatever it may be called, is one of the most effective soft skills that we have at our disposal to collaboratively get our designs to a better place while growing our own skills and perspectives.

Feedback is also one of the most underestimated tools, and often by assuming that we’re already good at it, we settle, forgetting that it’s a skill that can be trained, grown, and improved. Poor feedback can create confusion in projects, bring down morale, and affect trust and team collaboration over the long term. Quality feedback can be a transformative force. 

Practicing our skills is surely a good way to improve, but the learning gets even faster when it’s paired with a good foundation that channels and focuses the practice. What are some foundational aspects of giving good feedback? And how can feedback be adjusted for remote and distributed work environments? 

On the web, we can identify a long tradition of asynchronous feedback: from the early days of open source, code was shared and discussed on mailing lists. Today, developers engage on pull requests, designers comment in their favorite design tools, project managers and scrum masters exchange ideas on tickets, and so on.

Design critique is often the name used for a type of feedback that’s provided to make our work better, collaboratively. So it shares a lot of the principles with feedback in general, but it also has some differences.

The content

The foundation of every good critique is the feedback’s content, so that’s where we need to start. There are many models that you can use to shape your content. The one that I personally like best—because it’s clear and actionable—is this one from Lara Hogan.

While this equation is generally used to give feedback to people, it also fits really well in a design critique because it ultimately answers some of the core questions that we work on: What? Where? Why? How? Imagine that you’re giving some feedback about some design work that spans multiple screens, like an onboarding flow: there are some pages shown, a flow blueprint, and an outline of the decisions made. You spot something that could be improved. If you keep the three elements of the equation in mind, you’ll have a mental model that can help you be more precise and effective.

Here is a comment that could be given as a part of some feedback, and it might look reasonable at a first glance: it seems to superficially fulfill the elements in the equation. But does it?

Not sure about the buttons’ styles and hierarchy—it feels off. Can you change them?

Observation for design feedback doesn’t just mean pointing out which part of the interface your feedback refers to, but it also refers to offering a perspective that’s as specific as possible. Are you providing the user’s perspective? Your expert perspective? A business perspective? The project manager’s perspective? A first-time user’s perspective?

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back.

Impact is about the why. Just pointing out a UI element might sometimes be enough if the issue may be obvious, but more often than not, you should add an explanation of what you’re pointing out.

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow.

The question approach is meant to provide open guidance by eliciting the critical thinking in the designer receiving the feedback. Notably, in Lara’s equation she provides a second approach: request, which instead provides guidance toward a specific solution. While that’s a viable option for feedback in general, for design critiques, in my experience, defaulting to the question approach usually reaches the best solutions because designers are generally more comfortable in being given an open space to explore.

The difference between the two can be exemplified with, for the question approach:

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Would it make sense to unify them?

Or, for the request approach:

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same pair of forward and back buttons.

At this point in some situations, it might be useful to integrate with an extra why: why you consider the given suggestion to be better.

When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons so that users don’t get confused.

Choosing the question approach or the request approach can also at times be a matter of personal preference. A while ago, I was putting a lot of effort into improving my feedback: I did rounds of anonymous feedback, and I reviewed feedback with other people. After a few rounds of this work and a year later, I got a positive response: my feedback came across as effective and grounded. Until I changed teams. To my shock, my next round of feedback from one specific person wasn’t that great. The reason is that I had previously tried not to be prescriptive in my advice—because the people who I was previously working with preferred the open-ended question format over the request style of suggestions. But now in this other team, there was one person who instead preferred specific guidance. So I adapted my feedback for them to include requests.

One comment that I heard come up a few times is that this kind of feedback is quite long, and it doesn’t seem very efficient. No… but also yes. Let’s explore both sides.

No, this style of feedback is actually efficient because the length here is a byproduct of clarity, and spending time giving this kind of feedback can provide exactly enough information for a good fix. Also if we zoom out, it can reduce future back-and-forth conversations and misunderstandings, improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of collaboration beyond the single comment. Imagine that in the example above the feedback were instead just, “Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons.” The designer receiving this feedback wouldn’t have much to go by, so they might just apply the change. In later iterations, the interface might change or they might introduce new features—and maybe that change might not make sense anymore. Without the why, the designer might imagine that the change is about consistency… but what if it wasn’t? So there could now be an underlying concern that changing the buttons would be perceived as a regression.

Yes, this style of feedback is not always efficient because the points in some comments don’t always need to be exhaustive, sometimes because certain changes may be obvious (“The font used doesn’t follow our guidelines”) and sometimes because the team may have a lot of internal knowledge such that some of the whys may be implied.

So the equation above isn’t meant to suggest a strict template for feedback but a mnemonic to reflect and improve the practice. Even after years of active work on my critiques, I still from time to time go back to this formula and reflect on whether what I just wrote is effective.

The tone

Well-grounded content is the foundation of feedback, but that’s not really enough. The soft skills of the person who’s providing the critique can multiply the likelihood that the feedback will be well received and understood. Tone alone can make the difference between content that’s rejected or welcomed, and it’s been demonstrated that only positive feedback creates sustained change in people.

Since our goal is to be understood and to have a positive working environment, tone is essential to work on. Over the years, I’ve tried to summarize the required soft skills in a formula that mirrors the one for content: the receptivity equation.

Respectful feedback comes across as grounded, solid, and constructive. It’s the kind of feedback that, whether it’s positive or negative, is perceived as useful and fair.

Timing refers to when the feedback happens. To-the-point feedback doesn’t have much hope of being well received if it’s given at the wrong time. Questioning the entire high-level information architecture of a new feature when it’s about to ship might still be relevant if that questioning highlights a major blocker that nobody saw, but it’s way more likely that those concerns will have to wait for a later rework. So in general, attune your feedback to the stage of the project. Early iteration? Late iteration? Polishing work in progress? These all have different needs. The right timing will make it more likely that your feedback will be well received.

Attitude is the equivalent of intent, and in the context of person-to-person feedback, it can be referred to as radical candor. That means checking before we write to see whether what we have in mind will truly help the person and make the project better overall. This might be a hard reflection at times because maybe we don’t want to admit that we don’t really appreciate that person. Hopefully that’s not the case, but that can happen, and that’s okay. Acknowledging and owning that can help you make up for that: how would I write if I really cared about them? How can I avoid being passive aggressive? How can I be more constructive?

Form is relevant especially in a diverse and cross-cultural work environments because having great content, perfect timing, and the right attitude might not come across if the way that we write creates misunderstandings. There might be many reasons for this: sometimes certain words might trigger specific reactions; sometimes nonnative speakers might not understand all the nuances of some sentences; sometimes our brains might just be different and we might perceive the world differently—neurodiversity must be taken into consideration. Whatever the reason, it’s important to review not just what we write but how.

A few years back, I was asking for some feedback on how I give feedback. I received some good advice but also a comment that surprised me. They pointed out that when I wrote “Oh, […],” I made them feel stupid. That wasn’t my intent! I felt really bad, and I just realized that I provided feedback to them for months, and every time I might have made them feel stupid. I was horrified… but also thankful. I made a quick fix: I added “oh” in my list of replaced words (your choice between: macOS’s text replacement, aText, TextExpander, or others) so that when I typed “oh,” it was instantly deleted. 

Something to highlight because it’s quite frequent—especially in teams that have a strong group spirit—is that people tend to beat around the bush. It’s important to remember here that a positive attitude doesn’t mean going light on the feedback—it just means that even when you provide hard, difficult, or challenging feedback, you do so in a way that’s respectful and constructive. The nicest thing that you can do for someone is to help them grow.

We have a great advantage in giving feedback in written form: it can be reviewed by another person who isn’t directly involved, which can help to reduce or remove any bias that might be there. I found that the best, most insightful moments for me have happened when I’ve shared a comment and I’ve asked someone who I highly trusted, “How does this sound?,” “How can I do it better,” and even “How would you have written it?”—and I’ve learned a lot by seeing the two versions side by side.

The format

Asynchronous feedback also has a major inherent advantage: we can take more time to refine what we’ve written to make sure that it fulfills two main goals: the clarity of communication and the actionability of the suggestions.

Let’s imagine that someone shared a design iteration for a project. You are reviewing it and leaving a comment. There are many ways to do this, and of course context matters, but let’s try to think about some elements that may be useful to consider.

In terms of clarity, start by grounding the critique that you’re about to give by providing context. Specifically, this means describing where you’re coming from: do you have a deep knowledge of the project, or is this the first time that you’re seeing it? Are you coming from a high-level perspective, or are you figuring out the details? Are there regressions? Which user’s perspective are you taking when providing your feedback? Is the design iteration at a point where it would be okay to ship this, or are there major things that need to be addressed first?

Providing context is helpful even if you’re sharing feedback within a team that already has some information on the project. And context is absolutely essential when giving cross-team feedback. If I were to review a design that might be indirectly related to my work, and if I had no knowledge about how the project arrived at that point, I would say so, highlighting my take as external.

We often focus on the negatives, trying to outline all the things that could be done better. That’s of course important, but it’s just as important—if not more—to focus on the positives, especially if you saw progress from the previous iteration. This might seem superfluous, but it’s important to keep in mind that design is a discipline where there are hundreds of possible solutions for every problem. So pointing out that the design solution that was chosen is good and explaining why it’s good has two major benefits: it confirms that the approach taken was solid, and it helps to ground your negative feedback. In the longer term, sharing positive feedback can help prevent regressions on things that are going well because those things will have been highlighted as important. As a bonus, positive feedback can also help reduce impostor syndrome.

There’s one powerful approach that combines both context and a focus on the positives: frame how the design is better than the status quo (compared to a previous iteration, competitors, or benchmarks) and why, and then on that foundation, you can add what could be improved. This is powerful because there’s a big difference between a critique that’s for a design that’s already in good shape and a critique that’s for a design that isn’t quite there yet.

Another way that you can improve your feedback is to depersonalize the feedback: the comments should always be about the work, never about the person who made it. It’s “This button isn’t well aligned” versus “You haven’t aligned this button well.” This is very easy to change in your writing by reviewing it just before sending.

In terms of actionability, one of the best approaches to help the designer who’s reading through your feedback is to split it into bullet points or paragraphs, which are easier to review and analyze one by one. For longer pieces of feedback, you might also consider splitting it into sections or even across multiple comments. Of course, adding screenshots or signifying markers of the specific part of the interface you’re referring to can also be especially useful.

One approach that I’ve personally used effectively in some contexts is to enhance the bullet points with four markers using emojis. So a red square 🟥 means that it’s something that I consider blocking; a yellow diamond 🔶 is something that I can be convinced otherwise, but it seems to me that it should be changed; and a green circle 🟢 is a detailed, positive confirmation. I also use a blue spiral 🌀 for either something that I’m not sure about, an exploration, an open alternative, or just a note. But I’d use this approach only on teams where I’ve already established a good level of trust because if it happens that I have to deliver a lot of red squares, the impact could be quite demoralizing, and I’d reframe how I’d communicate that a bit.

Let’s see how this would work by reusing the example that we used earlier as the first bullet point in this list:

🔶 Navigation—When I see these two buttons, I expect one to go forward and one to go back. But this is the only screen where this happens, as before we just used a single button and an “×” to close. This seems to be breaking the consistency in the flow. Let’s make sure that all screens have the same two forward and back buttons so that users don’t get confused.

🟢 Overall—I think the page is solid, and this is good enough to be our release candidate for a version 1.0.

🟢 Metrics—Good improvement in the buttons on the metrics area; the improved contrast and new focus style make them more accessible.

 🟥  Button Style—Using the green accent in this context creates the impression that it’s a positive action because green is usually perceived as a confirmation color. Do we need to explore a different color?

🔶Tiles—Given the number of items on the page, and the overall page hierarchy, it seems to me that the tiles shouldn’t be using the Subtitle 1 style but the Subtitle 2 style. This will keep the visual hierarchy more consistent.

🌀 Background—Using a light texture works well, but I wonder whether it adds too much noise in this kind of page. What is the thinking in using that?

What about giving feedback directly in Figma or another design tool that allows in-place feedback? In general, I find these difficult to use because they hide discussions and they’re harder to track, but in the right context, they can be very effective. Just make sure that each of the comments is separate so that it’s easier to match each discussion to a single task, similar to the idea of splitting mentioned above.

One final note: say the obvious. Sometimes we might feel that something is obviously good or obviously wrong, and so we don’t say it. Or sometimes we might have a doubt that we don’t express because the question might sound stupid. Say it—that’s okay. You might have to reword it a little bit to make the reader feel more comfortable, but don’t hold it back. Good feedback is transparent, even when it may be obvious.

There’s another advantage of asynchronous feedback: written feedback automatically tracks decisions. Especially in large projects, “Why did we do this?” could be a question that pops up from time to time, and there’s nothing better than open, transparent discussions that can be reviewed at any time. For this reason, I recommend using software that saves these discussions, without hiding them once they are resolved. 

Content, tone, and format. Each one of these subjects provides a useful model, but working to improve eight areas—observation, impact, question, timing, attitude, form, clarity, and actionability—is a lot of work to put in all at once. One effective approach is to take them one by one: first identify the area that you lack the most (either from your perspective or from feedback from others) and start there. Then the second, then the third, and so on. At first you’ll have to put in extra time for every piece of feedback that you give, but after a while, it’ll become second nature, and your impact on the work will multiply.

Thanks to Brie Anne Demkiw and Mike Shelton for reviewing the first draft of this article.

Asynchronous Design Critique: Giving Feedback published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[venuspeebles]

Web 2.0 Backlinks Can Be Fun For Everyone

Look at the increase in his referral traffic. web 2.0. If you desire to get going with BLB, then read my broken link structure guide. You don't need content to score backlinks with BLB. However, if you integrate it with other tactics like the Skyscraper, then it'll accelerate your success rate. Media sites have a substantial quantity of traffic and high domain authorit Bear in mind that, link structure shares just 28% of the total rank power. However your supreme target is to increase quality traffic. So, you might make a W2 site with 100% pertinent material to your cash site for better ROI. So what should a 0 visitors site do to get up? Can't do SEO( There won't be any SEO), nobody will not post links, why would brand-new sites even exist? Google goes on block SEO, to get more marketers right? 5eqsqrtof25: Google goes on block SEO, to get more advertisers right? 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Get DA50+Web 2.0 post - From Asia Virtual Solutions Domain authority (DA) is utilized to estimate the overall power of the hosting domain, considering it's backlink profile.Page Authority(PA)is utilized to approximate the total relevance and power of the private page a link originates from, as measured (mostly)by its own backlinks - using web 2.0. Basically, these two metrics can supply you with a price quote of how effective another site is holistically, in addition to how powerful any individual page may be. For example, the domain myweb2blog.wordpress.com essentially has the exact same DA score as wordpress.com. At first, Google got tripped up by this method however has pretty much stabilized the weight they give these types of links at first. A fresh web 2.0 backlink will have a high DA ranking, however usually have a PA rating of 1indicative that it's likely never ever to rank without assistance. 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[dipulb3]

2021 Toyota Camry Hybrid first drive review: A hard formula to mess up

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/2021-toyota-camry-hybrid-first-drive-review-a-hard-formula-to-mess-up-2/

2021 Toyota Camry Hybrid first drive review: A hard formula to mess up

It might not be the most exciting car on the planet, but the Toyota Camry Hybrid absolutely excels at its intended purpose. It’s comfortable, efficient and sufficiently equipped with modern creature comforts. For 2021, a smattering of nonessential updates slightly refines the formula, making a contextually excellent vehicle just that much better.

New tech, but also not

The most immediately noticeable upgrade in the 2021 Toyota Camry Hybrid is the addition of a new “floating” screen that replaces the one set into the dashboard. The entire middle of the dashboard is redesigned to accommodate this new display, which measures 9 inches on my Hybrid XLE tester, although lower trims make do with just 7 inches. Either way, it’s prominent, and the new look still packs the same physical buttons for the climate control, which are easy to reach and use with little distraction. Charging takes place via several USB ports, but only the one under the dashboard is capable of running smartphone mirroring; the USB-A and USB-C ports in the armrest are for charging purposes.

While the screen might be new, the Entune software on it is not. It’s the same familiar user interface found in every modern Toyota, and it’s the same one we’ve been privy to for the last couple years. It’s not a bad setup by any stretch, with sufficient response times and both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, in addition to Amazon Alexa integration, as well as an embedded nav system that looks old but functions just fine. However, nobody seemed to tell Toyota that when you start making much larger screens, you might want to upgrade the resolution, because everything on my tester’s display is simply upscaled and, as a result, hella pixelated.

Image quality isn’t the best in other ways, either. The head-up display that comes on high-end trims is surprisingly blurry, enough so that it becomes a distraction. The backup camera is, frankly, among the worst on offer across the industry, with an image so grainy (and blown up, given the screen size) that details just disappear into fuzz. Oddly enough, the small color display between the gauges is crisp and incredibly easy to read at a glance. I don’t get it.

What most buyers will appreciate, though, is the upgraded Toyota Safety Sense 2.5 Plus system, which is standard on every Camry. While I don’t feel like testing out the improved pedestrian and cyclist detection, nor the left-turn detection system that prevents me from creeping into an intersection at the wrong time, it’s solid peace of mind that they’re there. The adaptive cruise is updated, and I like that it now accelerates during a lane change, but the active lane-keeping assist is entirely too heavy-handed, just like it is in the updated 2021 Lexus IS that I recently drove. Leave that bit deactivated, though, and it’s smooth highway sailing, so long as you can center your own vehicle.

New look, but also not

The 2021 Toyota Camry has updated styling. Can you tell? Me neither. In case you’re curious, the cushier LE and XLE models get new wheels, the latter rolling on 18-inchers, which look sufficiently luxury-oriented on my tester. This Hybrid also rocks a new interior herringbone seat pattern, which actually looks the business, even though it’s on the subtle side. The sportier SE and XSE variants get some lower fascia tweaks, too.

That’s it. It’s a Camry. More often than not, folks are buying it because it’s a damned good family car. Sure, the lower grille’s a little large, but the whole shebang looks handsome enough to pass muster in the valet line.

Effortless hybrid power

The 2021 Toyota Camry Hybrid’s powertrain remains unchanged for this year, and that’s good, because it’s already stellar. Under the hood is a 2.5-liter, naturally aspirated inline-four that combines with a pair of motor-generators to produce 208 horsepower. While that might not seem like all that much for a midsize sedan like this, there’s a good amount of get-up-and-go if I need to shoot a gap when turning onto a faster street. Once it’s up to speed, it’s all about balancing the throttle to maintain efficiency, something that’s easy to do with the big ol’ power gauge on the right side. No matter how much motive force I call up, though, the Camry Hybrid responds with smooth delivery.

One might not consider a Camry to be all that luxurious, but the ride quality that comes at this price is very, very hard to beat.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

The body is tuned similarly. In fact, it’s pretty close to Lexus‘ ride quality, with supple damper tuning that turns harsh roads into soft undulations. The XLE is a luxury-themed trim, and on the road, it excels at keeping occupants comfortable. Sure, it’s a little nautical in the turns, but you’d spring for the Camry TRD if you wanted flatness.

The Camry Hybrid’s ride isn’t just effortlessly comfortable, it’s efficient, to boot. The EPA rates the 2021 Camry Hybrid XLE at 44 miles per gallon city, 47 mpg highway and 46 mpg combined. My right foot is clearly government-approved, as I earn about that much in each category, perhaps 1 or 2 mpg lower, but some of that can be attributed to Michigan’s drivers being, um, a sprightly sort.

Down to brass tacks

The 2021 Toyota Camry Hybrid is good, but that’s because the current generation of Toyota Camry Hybrid has always been good. It’s comfortable, efficient and more affordable than before, with my range-topping XLE trim commanding a $33,165 price tag, down $560 from the year before. Include the fact that buyers get more bang for their buck than last year, and this car makes for an opportunity that’s pretty hard to pass up.

Climb in the driver’s seat for the latest car news and reviews, delivered to your inbox twice weekly.

[wesleybates]

15 Effective Web Designing Techniques

In today’s competitive scenario, it is of critical importance to design an exceptional website that would help you stand apart from the rest and stay way ahead of your competitors. A web design should suit its concerning business model. Whatever you’re company needs, a digital communication platform or a sales-focused website, competent Web Designers in Westminster, CO are using specific tools to create websites that definitely enhance your presence and takes your business forward.

A wonderfully designed website however, is not just enough; a good website should assist you in building your brand as well as business strategy.

An efficient team would be delivering personalized design concepts for literally every project. Your website should be suited to your business model. Whether your company is looking for a communication platform or sales focused website, competent designers today use suitable tools to create a site that certainly enhances your online presence and definitely takes your business forward.

Having your website designed professionally could generate additional new potential clients. This is a reason why everyone nowadays has their focus on effective web design and this is why UI design matters.

1) Responsive Web Design Strategy

Thanks to the incredible rise in the number of mobile devices, responsive web designing is not anymore a UX-only discipline. All marketers need to understand and consider responsive web designing as a component of their strategic planning. It may not be necessary for you as a content marketer to know all the tricks of the designing and development of a responsive web. However, you need to know what exactly RWD is. Also, you need to know your exact content marketing responsibilities.

The web world is said to have undergone some technological changes and responsive web design is at the forefront as far as content marketers are concerned. Responsive web design implies you can write content and publish it once. The layout actually changes according to the capabilities and size of the device.

There has been an astronomical rise in web surfing through mobile devices. You are confronted with a multitude of diverse screen sizes across tablets, smartphones, phablets, desktops, TVs, consoles and even wearable devices like smart watches. As the screen size is constantly changing, you need to optimize your website for all these mobile devices. Your website should be designed in such a manner that it should be able to adapt to whatever screen size.

2) Maintaining Consistency

It is a good idea to keep elements such as color, layout or font fairly consistent in your site. Your site should have a smooth flow from one page to another. This means that your font, color and layout structure should be basically the same throughout your site to maintain consistency. It is important to keep the elements across all pages constant so that the viewers do not feel lost.

3) No Stock Photography

People are no longer interested in the glamour shots. They are looking for definitely more realistic view of exactly what a product is portraying or representing. Dry stock photos with dull white background are definitely not in vogue. People are looking for story and personality. Use only meaningful images in your website. Your images generate subconscious messages that are transmitted to your audience.

4) Using Responsive Images

Designers can now create responsive layouts which are known to serve various image sizes of different resolutions. Designers are now able to develop mobile-optimized images that are ideal for smaller screens and they can then come up with higher-resolution versions for larger screens. You may use JavaScript and htaccess files for different sized images according to screen width. You could also, use tools such as TinySrc that lets you only prefix all large pictures with a TinySrc URL and the rest is left to the tool to do.

5) CSS Media Queries

You could follow a tutorial from CSS-Tricks, which discusses ways to bring about subtle modifications with media queries and ways of using media queries on a single style-sheet. For example, in case of a fluid-width design with a sidebar that is 35 per cent of the actual width of the page, then based on the actual width of the browser window, one could tell what to do if the browser is very narrow, or what to do if it is wider, and also, what exactly to do if it is really quite wide.

6) Using Responsive Data Tables

Data tables are often pretty wide. You may see the whole table by zooming out, but in that case, you would need to scroll both horizontally and vertically to be able to browse the table. One best solution seems to be reformatting the table for much better readability. Yet another way out is to display a pie-graph according to the data.  You may even consider adapting the table into an effective mini-graphic which is just right for narrow screens, (instead of interfering with the content, while the full table is on display.)

7) Design a Great Navigation System

The best way to engage visitors in your site is by developing a solid and impressive navigation system that would effectively support all search preferences. The most vital factor in web design is the ease with which one can find information. If visitors are not able to find the information they are looking for, they would lose interest and leave. The navigation system should be intuitive and self-explanatory.

Your primary navigation structure should be simple.

Always integrate navigation controls into the footer of your site.

Breadcrumbs should be kept on every page barring the homepage so people are well aware of their exact navigation trail.

Provide visitors with an option to search your site using keywords, by adding a visible search box towards the top.

Minimize the provision of unnecessary navigation options as far as possible.

It is a good idea to keep three levels of navigation, and not too many.

Should you include links in your webpage, clearly mention and explain their destinations, and this is also very effective for SEO.

Prepare your site keeping your target audience in mind.

Ensure that the overall navigation of the site is simple, so that users can find their way to what they want without running through a complicated procedure. Ensure that deliberation on the part of the user is minimized by integrating a simple interface.

8) Minimize Flash and Animation

Minimize the use of JavaScript and Flash as far as possible, as a number of mobile devices and tablets do not support Flash, and this would sorely inhibit the navigability of your website. Several web browsers run outdated versions of Flash plugins, and some may not even have Flash installed, so you must keep the masses in mind. Switch to HTML5 if applicable, in case you require animations. HTML5 is a fantastic browser-compliant substitute for Flash.

9) Make Your Site Accessible

If you are aspiring for an overwhelming traffic then you need to make your site compatible and attuned to multiple devices and browsers. You must ensure that your website can be accessed by everyone visiting it no matter what application or browser they are using.

10) Usability

It is important to keep in mind that the success of a site depends on its usability and not on its visual design. It is best to use a user-centric design if you have a profit-oriented website in mind. The success of a website depends on its usability because its existence is meaningless if users cannot use it. There is absolutely nothing wrong in using eye-catching 1-2-3-done steps or large buttons with attractive visual effects. It is necessary to let the user view all the available functions clearly. Feature exposure contributes to a good user interface design. The visitors should be able to interact with the system comfortably.

11) Pay Attention to the Writing Style

Web content writing is much different from print. You need to write as per users’ browsing habits and preferences. Use objective language. No one is interested in reading promotional content. Everyone would avoid long text blocks without keywords and images. You need to talk business and provide crisp and concise content. You need to categorize your content, remember to use subheadings, use bulleted lists and visual elements to break the monotony of blocks of uniform text.

12) Minimize User Workload

First of all it is best to minimize cognitive load so that it becomes easier for visitors to understand the idea behind your system. Also, ensure that less action is needed from users to try a service. Only then would a random visitor try it out. First time visitors are not interested in filling web forms for some account which they may never use again. It is a wise idea to design your website in such a way that visitors have the ease and freedom to browse the site without being compelled to share private data. They would keep coming back to your site once they discover your services.

13) Use Negative Space

Using negative space in your web design is an excellent idea. Nobody wants fluff. Visitors should be able to figure out precisely what they have in front of them without too much searching. Designers should not worry about negative space while creating a site. You just need to create normally and then go through it and remove stuff wherever required to get the desired look.

14) Conventions Are Fruitful

Incorporating conventional site elements need not necessarily make your website boring. In fact, conventions are good for reducing the learning curve or the need to understand how a particular thing works. Don’t you think it would be a usability crisis if different websites had completely different RSS-feeds’ visual presentation? Conventions help you to achieve users’ trust, confidence and reliability. It is a good idea to keep track of users’ expectations and understand precisely what expectations they have from search placement, site navigation, text structure etc.

15) Test Early, Test Often

TETO-principle is vital for all web design projects. Usability tests are great for providing critical insights into the major issues and problems associated to a given layout. You must test early and never too late. You should go for comprehensive tests.

Conclusion

There is something quite common between web designing and fashion designing. It is a dynamic world and what’s in today will have no relevance a few days later. It is best not to follow trends. Instead, you can try out or test your own ideas.