#i need music. all i do is listen to music. 32 hours on spotify this week if you were curious.

[lesbiangiratina]

Oh my god i need to get a phone with a headphone jack before i end it all.

[quartercirclejab]

christmas in the time of hyperabundance

when i was a kid, my favorite Christmas song was a Paul McCartney single called "Wonderful Christmastime"

this schmaltzy ear worm was recorded in 1979, in the short interim between the release of Wings' final album and the release of Paul McCartney's second solo album. it got a lot of radio play over the years, eventually becoming a holiday classic. hearing it on the radio was how i first discovered it, in fact- and the minute i heard it, i knew i wanted a way to play it anytime i wanted to hear it

but that was the challenge: for many years, the only way to actually own the single was to get the 1993 reissue of that Wings album from '79, "Back to the Egg." my childhood was mostly in the pre-to-early internet years, so that meant my options for tracking down that specific reissue of that specific album were limited to local music stores and whatever Wal-Mart happened to be carrying... which meant owning "Wonderful Christmastime" was all but impossible for me

for many years of my childhood, i would look forward to the months when the local radio stations would switch over to playing Christmas music, because it was the only time of year i would get to hear "Wonderful Christmastime." like i said before, it was a popular song in its day, and remained so even in mine, but it was competing for airtime with dozens of other holiday standards. i was lucky if i heard it more than three or four times a holiday season

everything changed in 2001, when Universal Music put out their first holiday compilation album, "Now That's What I Call Christmas." it was the first time i was able to own a version of "Wonderful Christmastime" and play it any time i wanted. a game changer for certain

that was more than 20 years ago. now, at the age of 32, i'm reflecting on how different things are. music is so accessible now- pretty much any song you can think of, by any artist, from any era, is available in some form on the internet. all you have to do is remember the name (sometimes you don't even need that much) and plug it into youtube.

naturally, this is true for "Wonderful Christmastime." the song is on spotify, both in its original and extended mixes- there are also 57 different covers of the song, enough to listen continuously for just over 3 hours.

it's such an extreme reversal of the circumstances of my childhood that it's almost comical, and it's been making me think about how much of American culture in the 2020's relies on hyperabundance and the illusion of choice

it's been observed by parties cleverer than myself that the modern American myth of freedom is intrinsically tied to consumption- we American citizens have been conditioned to view freedom through the lens of what we're allowed to buy, and how much of it there is, and how many choices there are, and how fast we can get it. sure, our leaders regularly disregard the will of people and none of us have the ability to influence how our nation is run, but there are six different brands of mustard to choose from at Wal-Mart, and we can buy as much of it as we want, whenever we want! how can you say we aren't free?

i guess i don't know exactly where i'm going with this, except to observe there seems to have been a shift in the last 20 years toward drowning the American people in a deluge of options that seem distinct, but aren't actually different in any way that's actually meaningful, as a way of pacifying our growing dissatisfaction and providing the illusion of stability. we may not be able to control that our tax dollars are funding genocide, but we can control what brand of donuts we buy. we can control what month of the year in which we listen to Christmas music

[puppymuttelias]

1. First one that came to my head was Paris from The Dummys Dummy on webtoonwho is great but id probably say the 12th doctor from doctor who hes awesome

2. Lighter

3. Neverrr my windows are never ever open

4. A lot of them honestly

5. Hazel

6. Autism

7. Hair ties

8. 0

9. Id say cold cus im assuming its iced

10. If theyre shit people absolutely but if theyre good rich people then no

11. Not too sure maybe volleyball or drums i dont play volleyball but id like to

12. So boiling hot i was getting cooked alive earlier

13. 3 hours ago atleast

14. Sometimes

15. Nope

16. Nuh uh

17. Nearsighted 100% i cannot see shit

18. Nothing honestly

19. Sure, itd be shit but i definitely would if you asked

20. Neither i just say the brand name

21. That most of my emotions were super over exaggerated and my real feelings would literally just show as a straight face 😭

22. Idk how to describe myself, i guess im quite anxious

23. Love it purely cus i sleep better

24. Listening to music and maybe smoking

25. Dont really use any of that

26. Playing games with people in a very specific way (an example is the way blarg, smii7y, soup, dooo and the rest of them lot play games with each other)

27. Less than 10

28. No im asthmatic lmao

29. Hot

30. Theres a glass but surprisingly theres not anything else in here

31. Metal and stuff that was super popular in like 2014 when glmvs were around more

32. Yes

33. Dont remember

34. Grenade in the Gravy by TheDooo

35. Gmt/Bst

36. Once

37. My best friend who i met when i was 2

38. Idk

39. No but i own nivea ones i used the raspberry one the most out of them all when i did use them

40. Yeah

41. Iced with caramel

42. Spotify my beloved ♡

43. I loveeee spicy food

44. RISHI SUNAK

45. Nope :3

46. Assuming you mean halloween type of holiday lmao, probably christmas chronicles and scream (for Halloween) i love scream ive almost watched all of them i only need 1 more then ive watchee all the scream movies my favorite is the first one though

47. "Actually so real you should do that, go buy a gun" referring to a message saying that our dm should hold our other players at gun point to get them to play dnd

48. I think i was around 8 or 9 my dad gave me a sip of rum (IN PUBLIC BTW) cus i was thirsty

49. No

50. If you want but i might not look at it lmao

here’s weirder asks

who is/are your comfort character(s)?

lighter or matches?

do you leave the window open at night?

which cryptyd being do you believe in?

what color are your eyes?

why did you do that?

hair-ties or scrunchies?

how many water bottles are in your room right now?

which do you prefer, hot coffee or cold coffee?

would you slaughter the rich?

favorite extracurricular activity?

what kind of day is it?

when was the last time you ate?

do you love the smell of earth after it rains?

are you a parent? (all answers qualify)

can you drive?

are you farsighted or nearsighted?

what hair products do you use?

imagine we’re at a sleepover, would you paint my nails?

do you say soda or pop?

something you’ve kept since childhood?

what type of person are you?

how do you feel about chilly weather?

if we were together on a rooftop, what would we be doing?

perfume/body spray or lotion?

a scenario that you’ve replayed multiple times?

about how many hours of sleep did you get?

do you wear a mask?

how do you like your shower water?

is there dishes in your room?

what type of music keeps you grounded?

do you have a favorite towel?

the last adventure you’ve been on?

is there a song you know every word to by heart?

what’s your timezone?

how many times have you changed your url?

someone in your life, other than a relative, you’ve known for 10+ years?

a soap bar that smells good?

do you use lip balm?

did you have any snacks today?

how do you take your coffee?

an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken site?

what’s your take on spicy foods?

you get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it?

can you remember what happened yesterday?

favorite holiday film?

what was the last message you sent?

when did you first try an alcohol beverage?

can you skip rocks?

can i tag you in random stuff?

[pazak-thion-brady]

1. Bedroom or cafe's if I know I need to focus and hit a deadline. The human noise helps.

2. When the plan comes together and the ideas just slot together properly.

3. Starting a new song and having no inspiration for what it should be.

4. I usually have PM Seymore binge compilations on in the background.

5. Composer, Steven Sondheim and Joe Hisaishi

6. I don't usually create characters, but fav character I've written for was Chloe Price in Life is Strange musical demos.

7. Terry Pratchet/Rick Riordan.

8. Five man band.

9. Romantic or ballad scenes

10. Ana's Mitchel

11. Listen to songs in the style I want it to be, go ajzijejzdisj this doesn't work, listen to different songs until something sounds right, copy down the sheet music, fuck with it, delete it then try to re create the fucked with version from memory.

12. Alcohol, partying, gaming, general forced socialising.

13. Listen to new music and broaden my stylistic knowledge.

14. For Gideon The Ninth the musical demos, I reaserched Gregorian chant music for the first tike since I dropped out of university due to stress of not understanding shit.

15. Listening to new music

16. Spotify

17. 3-5 hours on a good day. When starting a new project I always spend like 8 hours making the first song taking little to no breaks in a writing frenzy then regretting it the next day.

18. I'll usually throw out the whole song and write something completely new.

19. This is a show of death and love a grizly tale we tell, of liers, lyctors, lesbians and cavaliers that fell.

20. Check my YouTube in bio for the first 5 songs.

21. She owns you.

22. Most I've had is 22, current one is only 4.

23. Multi, that's what works in musicals best. Just to give the lead actors little breaks and time for quick changes.

24. Lyrics are basically just poetry.

25. Linear, non linear plays don't do that well. Might try one, one day.

26. Stand alone. It's hard to do a series of plays. Not impossible but hard.

27. Roughs are my demos that go out as part of a pitch document.

28. Fucking everyone.

29. The gays. Aka me. I write things I want to see.

30. "Oh Rachel see you someday, upon that silver screen. I will hold you close, again, see you soon my queen." Sung by a hopeless tumblr lesbian in a story set in 2013.

31. Captain Aiglamene, she appeared in 1 scene and I couldn't get a vibe for her musical identity so I just went generic as fuck with her.

32. Surt. His music was so fun and just flowed. I wrote his song in 1 sitting.

33. Technically yes. I'm writing music though.

34. Scrawled on the walls. I'm mentally sane I swear.

35. Jesus the lesbian is a wannabee escape artist who just wants to escape Pluto and join her dad's army.

36. She dies.

37. "What's the point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes" Dan Hardcastle. Aka Nerd³.

38. Well the outline is someone else's story I'm adapting sooooo, very good, great success.

39. Not my original characters.

40. Essentially fanfiction, of what if this story was full of gay people singing.

41. Currently 3. Trying to focus on 1 but 3 are burning in the background.

42. Look at fan art and take an amalgam of popular costume parts.

43. Yes in audio book format. I'm horribly dyslexic and books hurt my eyes and brain.

44. This will be in my head all day.

45. It's impressive to make boring non classical music.

46. It would look fucking dark and need to be animated. Animated musicals are fucking pumping potion cat snake.

47. I start by reading the book that already exists and song spotting. Going through the book and going, that scene should be a song. Oh this is dramatic as shit, song. Awsw tender, song.

48. Rock.

49. The middle, it slogs.

50. The current one, lesbian necromancers solving a murder mystery in space and singing.

51. Skeletons, ginger, Catholic, goth, lesbians.

52. I started writing when I was fucking depressed and it helped me out of my mental illness. 5 years ago.

53. It means escape from the darkness.

54. If you're thinking about writing, write. If you keep putting it off you'll never write anything.

New ask game for writers

1. Favorite place to write. 2. Favorite part of writing. 3. Least favorite part of writing. 4. Do you have writing habits or rituals? 5. Books or authors that influenced your style the most. 6. Favorite character you ever created. 7. Favorite author. 8. Favorite trope to write. 9. Least favorite trope to write. 10. Pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about. 11. Describe your writing process from scratch to finish. 12. How do you deal with self-doubts? 13. How do you deal with writers block? 14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book? 15. Where does your inspiration come from? 16. Where do you take your motivation from? 17. On avarage, how much writing do you get done in a day? 18. What’s your revision or rewriting process like? 19. First line of a WIP you’re working on. 20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on. 21. Post the last sentence you wrote in one of your WIP’s. 22. How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied and a project is ultimately done for you? 23. Single or multi POV, and why? 24. Poetry or prose, and why? 25. Linear or non-linear, and why? 26. Standalone or series, and why? 27. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? 28. And who do you share them with? 29. Who do you write for? 30. Favorite line you’ve ever written. 31. Hardest character to write. 32. Easiest character to write. 33. Do you listen to music when you’re writing? 34. Handwritten notes or typed notes? 35. Tell some backstory details about one of your characters in your story ________. 36. A spoiler for story _________. 37. Most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you. 38. Have you shared your outline of your story ________ with someone? If so, what did they think of it? 39. Do you base your characters of real people or not? If so, tell us about one. 40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why? 41. How many stories do you work on at one time? 42. How do you figure out your characters looks, personality, etc. 43. Are you an avid reader? 44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten. 45. Worst piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten. 46. What would your story _______ look like as a tv show or movie? 47. Do you start with characters or plot when working on a new story? 48. Favorite genre to write in. 49. What do you find the hardest to write in a story, the beginning, the middle or the end? 50. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had. 51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _______ in 5 sentences or words. 52. How did writing change you? 53. What does writing mean to you? 54. Any writing advice you want to share?