#i was never super into 70s heavy metal but that was still huge when i was growing up

[matoitech]

that i havent draw blue in a linkin park shirt yet it actually shocking like when i’m not busy with five thousand things i gotta do that

[goddessofthedawn]

publishing wrap-up 2022

originally posted on my blogspot blog

Hello, hello--it is that time of year, the end of the year, where I take a look at what books of mine did the best, what did the worst, and let me tell you, it is absolutely the worst book-selling year so far. My first year that I had books out, 2020, I made 200$. Last year I made 80$. This year? $63.74. 

Thank God for day jobs, right? 

But! I don't do this for the money, obviously. I do this because I love it. But let's take a look at this broken down. I have twenty-two books out. 

First, let's get the ones that made zero money out of the way. Didn't sell a single copy, no KNP pages read, nothing. 

Iscariot

This one is actually shocking, because it has been my most popular book, consistently, since it came out. It was my first book, the first in a five-book series, all of which is out now, following a bunch of kids going to Hell and meeting up with the people who are trying to take over. Urban fantasy/horror/adventure. It's a fun time. 

Spahn

This series has never been popular so I'm not super surprised. The Vendettic books follow an 80s heavy metal band and all of their adventures dealing with demon shit. The first two books in the trilogy are out. Main character? Stupidest motherfucker to ever exist. Love it. 

Life in Anachronism

This is my first collection with both short stories and creative nonfiction essays. The people who have read it have enjoyed it. Honestly, I'm not super upset about this one not making money because collections don't take as much work as novels and novellas do. I write stories in an attempt to sell them to lit mags and when they inevitably don't sell and I have enough of them, I throw them together. That being said, everyone who has read this one has enjoyed it. 

Sacrifice

Book 2 in Vendettic! I will say, looking at it, it looks like the paperback is highly discounted right about now, so it might be the time to purchase. This came out last year. Book three will come out at some point, maybe even in 2023, despite the relative unpopularity of this series.

Beyr

Beyr is almost a companion novella to the Pentalogy of Hell series, but it can, definitely, be read on its own. It was an experiment. I'm not gonna lie, I do count it as one of my worst books. Not the worst. But one of the worst. That's maybe something I shouldn't say. 

Carl & Jimmy

Speaking of my worst book! Carl & Jimmy is my worst book. Um. It does have its charms, I think; it's definitely got stuff happening constantly. It's kind of--well, it is--a 70s retelling and reworking about American serial killer Carl Panzram? 

Right or Wrong

Okay, this one is sad because it is the only book on this list of "not making any money" that came out this year. this is the third Aughts Boys book but it does not have to be read in order--honestly, this is the first one chronologically. Follows a kid who becomes friends with a real jerk named Matt and has to struggle with that. My little sister got emotionally connected to Matt and cried, so. 

 So, now that that's over with, let's get to the books that did make money, in order from the least to the most. 

15. Circus Wings (.02)

 My foray into fantasy. This is the first in a trilogy, the third book of which I am currently rewriting, so that will be my next book out. I don't quite know about this book. I don't know. We do have an environmentally conscious lesbian princess, so, there's that. I like the characters. This is also almost an experiment--I'm not a huge fantasy guy. 

14. The Crucifixion of Craig Knox (.35)

These next couple (that I clearly only sold one kindle book of, lol) are technically tied. I'm a little sad about this being down so low, because I do still consider this my best book. I dunno. Like Hell (which you will see a little farther down) might have beat it out. But I really like this one. It's my WM3 one. 

13. The False Prophet (.35)

Book 4 in the Pentalogy of Hell! While I didn't sell any of the first book, I did sell some of the subsequent ones. 

12. The Son of Perdition (.35)

And Book 5 in the Pentalogy of Hell! This one's kinda sad seeing as book five did come out this year, but, you know. I'm just banking on one day, maybe, someone just binging them all on KU. That's what you do when you self-publish six books a year. You hope for the binge-readers. Unfortunately, I'm not a romance author, and write in a million different genres, so I'm definitely doing something wrong, but. You know. 

11. Lake of Fire (.36)

Book 3 in Pentalogy! And it looks like the hardcover is severely discounted right now, like, 5$, so I'd snap on that right now if I were you. 

10. Rewind (.39)

My collection from this year! This one is all short stories. Also, don't get put off by the fact that the title is "Rewind" and the cover shows a record player. It's referencing two different stories. In hindsight it was maybe a poor decision. 

9. Forty Days (1.45)

Book 2 in Pentalogy! Hardcover here is also really discounted, so. You know. If you wanna purchase. Feel free. 

8. The Morph Suit Murderer (2.16)

Sequel to Serial Killers With Cookies. The official series title for this is "abnormal murders" but in my heart and also in my hard drive I call them "stupid-ass murders" because honestly. Also the main character is straight-up nuts by this book which is super fun.

7. One More Sad Song (2.18)

I'm gonna say that out of all of my series, I am most attached to the Aughts Boys books. Maybe this is because I'm still writing books onto it. Like, first-draft-wise. The 'verse keeps growing. But this is the first book based on publication order. Like I said--don't gotta read these in order. The only one that you should probably make sure to read this one before would be the most recent book in the series. 

6. Columbiner (2.86)

Yeah, so, I'm gonna say consistently? This is my most popular book. Like, there's not weird rushes to buy this one, it just so happens that I sell a Kindle copy like, once every couple of months and it's been that way since I published it in 2020. People love school shooting books, I guess. 

5. Serial Killers with Cookies (3.23)

Yeah, so, Amazon's all jacked up mixing up SKWC and the Vendettic books. There's nothing I can really do on my end; I've double-checked the series settings. But trust that this is the first book in the Abnormal Murders books, before the main character goes nuts. I mean, she gets there by the end. God I love Justine.

4. The Horror at Camp New Woods (4.54)

Hey, paperback is currently discounted for this one! Buy now! But this is the second book in the Aughts Boys series, and it is one of the weird, uh... left turns into straight-up horror that happens a couple of times in this series. I mean, this is the only time so far in the published ones, but like, it's gonna happen at least three more times? Look forward if you don't care about 2004 and only care about murder? I guess? 

3. Like Hell (9.41)

Paperback is also currently discounted on this one. But this is the one that I might be like, okay, this might actually be my best book. It's like Beyr but good. This was my first book published in 2022 and honestly? I do think it is a good one. Short and quick, too. 

2. Royal Blood (11.99)

Sequel to Circus Wings. New POV characters. Can I say I like this one less than Circus Wings? I do. But that is definitely a YMMV thing; that one was more action-focused, this one has more political stuff going on. Book 3 we will get a mix because I threw all the POV characters that were still alive into a blender. 

1. Hit or Miss (19.10)

The latest! Book four in the Aughts Boys books; maybe read book one before this one but otherwise you are good. Maybe book three if you want to understand Matt a little more. Maybe book two if you just wanna deal in a little murder. Uh, I got a new cover artist for this one because my original one ghosted me, but I asked her to kinda try to at least match the original covers and I think she did a great job. Also, this book is, I hate to brag, the number one new release in children's hockey books. It beat out a whole grand total of zero other books, but I do have the little orange banner on the Kindle page, which is hilarious. It's not a children's book. It's YA. Amazon counts them together. 

But that's that! That's what my sales looked like this year! Absolutely nothing! But no, it's fine. Obviously I would love to sell more books. Obviously I would love it if you would purchase one or two or twenty-two books right now, or start flipping through them in KU, or whatever. Obviously I want to make money doing this. But it is more important for me to have them available. But if any of these look interesting, please, please, please give them a look. All of my kindle editions are only .99, and like I said--a lot of these are discounted physically right now.

Let's see what next year brings! How many books will Aurora write/publish this year... it bodes not well that the first book is the last Tinon book because those take me forever... 

[falcqns]

Mad

Pairing: post endgame!Bucky Barnes x Barton!Reader

Summary: Bucky has a hard time coming to terms with Steve’s departure. 

Warnings: swearing, angst, fluff, Steve Rogers slander, first kiss. 

A/N: As usual, this came from a shifting experience! Poor Bucky just needs a hug :( Hope you enjoy!

You tossed and turned in your bed. No matter what you did, you couldn't fall asleep. You never had trouble sleeping, so you didn't know why you were up. You decided to give up on sleep, and turned on your lamp on to read for a little while. You had only red two pages when you heard Bucky’s door shut and you heard his heavy footfalls make their way to the living room.

You decided to stop reading for a little bit and check up on him. He was quite distant with you, considering that he had met you a few weeks ago, but the rest of the remaining Avengers had warmed up to you already, and you were unsure why he seemed to avoid you. There was always a nagging thought at the back of your head that made you think he hated you, but you didn't want to assume anything.

Bucky, on the other hand, was absolutely terrified of you. Well, not of YOU, but of hurting you. The first time he met you, he immediately took notice of how your eyes were locked on his metal arm, and he immediately felt like he needed to remove himself from the situation before he scared you even more than he had. Over the course of you living here, he had begun to notice how much he liked you, and that thought terrified him even more. Since Steve left him to go back to Peggy, he was terrified to get close to anyone. He was a super soldier, and logically knew that he would most likely outlive those who he loved dearly, another thought that terrified him. He hated being alone, but he wanted to seclude himself to spare himself the inevitable pain. 

When he had awoken from his most recent nightmare, his first instinct was to run to Steve. Steve had nightmares as well, but not at Bucky’s level, and he had always been good at calming Bucky down. But, the realization that Steve had left him for a girl he kissed once, soon washed over with him, and he felt the feeling of abandonment creep up on him once more. As he looked around the room, all he could see was Steve. Steve had done everything in his power to make sure Bucky felt safe and at home in the compound before he left, and Bucky should have known he was compensating for something. He was never one to splurge, after growing up with almost nothing. He felt his chest tightening, and he couldn't bare to stay in that room any longer. 

He stood up, and walked out of his bedroom to head to the living room. He passed your door, and briefly considered seeing if you were awake, but decided against it. You were already scared of him as it was, and he didn't want to cause that fear to grow. He continued on to the living room, and took a seat on the sofa. He stared at the dark TV, almost willing it to turn on by itself so he didn't have to touch something Steve had. A few minutes later, he heard your bedroom door open, and was prepared to apologize for scaring you before heading back to that god forsaken room where he didn't want to spend another second, until you walked in the living room and sat next to him, shoulders almost touching.

“Are you okay?” You asked, and you noticed his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why were you talking to him? You were terrified of him, and he didn't want to force you to do something you were scared to do. But, he was intrigued. Maybe, he had read you all wrong at your first interaction. So, he shook his head. 

“No. But I will be. I’m sorry I woke you up,” He said in a timid voice, not making eye contact. 

You gave him a soft smile even though he couldn't see it. “You didn't wake me. I was having troubles sleeping. It seems you are too, so I decided to come and see if you were okay.” You said, and your smile grew when you noticed he slowly turned to face you, although his eyes remained locked on the ground.

“I-I thought you were scared of me,” He admitted, and your brows furrowed. 

“Why would I be scared of you, Bucky?” You asked, and he looked up at you, tears brimming in his steel blue eyes. You rested your hand on his thigh for comfort when he spoke again.

“T-The first time we met, I noticed you staring at my arm, and I instantly thought you were scared of me because of it, because of what it could do, and because of what it has done. Of what I’ve done. T-Thats why I avoided you, and never spoke to you. I didn't want to give you any more reasons to be scared of me.” He said, a sniffle following his little speech. 

You inched closer to him. “Before I met you, and before you were revealed to be him, I was. Dad had told me the things that HYDRA made you do, and it was scary. I think I was just scared that dad’s life would be in danger because of his affiliation with S.H.I.E.L.D., but when it was announced during th Accords situation that you were The Winter Soldier, I knew it wasn't your fault. I had learned about you from going to the museum with my dad when I was little, and I was always fascinated by you. I knew HYDRA had to be brainwashing you. I brought it up to Dad and he agreed. You are NOT The Winter Soldier, Bucky. You are Bucky Barnes, the boy who risked his life for his best friend without question. You are not what they made you. I was staring at your arm because I thought it was cool, and because my best friend made it. She told me all about you whenever I called her. About how you would entertain the Wakandan children, how you raised those goats, and took care of the land you were given to protect. She told me how the first words you spoke to her was “Thank you.” You deserve to be happy, and not to live in fear.” You said. You watched as Bucky’s chin and lower lip trembled before he launched himself into your arms, hugging you tight to his chest. He hugged you to his chest like a teddy bear, and almost afraid to let go. 

You ran your hand up and down his back to soothe him, and he eventually got ahold of his emotions enough to pull away. You noticed something lingering behind his eyes, and asked him another question.

“What else is going on, Bucky? I know something else is wrong,” You said, and he sighed.

“I’m mad.” He said, and looked up at you, almost half expecting you to realize you were scared of him and take off running. But, when you didn't, instead taking his metal hand into yours for comfort and reassurance, he spoke again. “I’m so mad. At Steve, so much. I took care of him for a lot of his life. I stood by him, and I fought beside him. I lost almost 70 years of my life because I was fighting HYDRA with him, only to be caught by them, and have to be tortured for 20 fucking years and slowly lose my memories of him, and my old life. Then, I save him, escape HYDRA, he finds me, helps me, and him and I fight side by side again. Then I died. For him. Did you know he didn't even talk to me until the final fight was over? Not a single goddamned from him while I fought for him. I thought, that when Thanos was finally turned to dust, he and I would be okay. That we would have a normal life. That we could reconcile all those years we lost because of HYDRA depriving us both of that. But, he chose her.” He said, tears rolling down his face.

“He chose a woman that he kissed ONCE, over his best friend since childhood. I was the one who took care of him whenever he got sick. I was the one who stepped in whenever he got beat up. I’m the one that got captured by HYDRA because I was fighting FOR HIM. And he still chose her, the girl who helped him become Captain America. It fucking hurts. Maybe if I hadn't been snapped away, he wouldn't have gone back. Maybe-” He ranted, and you cut him off with a hug.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself. His choice was a purely selfish one, and it was the wrong one. It had nothing to do with you. You risked everything for him, more than once, and its so shitty that he wouldn't do the same for you. If he was here right now, I would kill him. For everything he put you through. He thought about himself, and this was the one time he shouldn't have. But don't blame yourself. It was ultimately his decision, not yours.” You said, and slowly, Bucky melted into your embrace.

He rubbed his stubbly cheeks against yours, and slowly pulled out of the hug. He pressed his forehead to yours, and his eyes drifted over your features. He had noticed how beautiful you were, and he knew he had a crush on you. But, he always saw you as untouchable. Your father was Clint Barton, the best archer in the world, and he really didn't want an arrow in the head. But, right now, as he rested his head against yours, watched your slow smile spreading across your lips, and smelled your scent, he couldn't think of any of the reasons why he never let himself be happy, especially with you.

Without thinking, his eyes locked on your lips, and he slowly pressed his against yours. He tensed up when you didn’t return it for a few seconds, but relaxed when he felt you kiss him back. He pulled away when the need for air became dire, and rested his flesh hand against your cheek. 

“Thank you. This is the first conversation I’ve had with you, and you've already helped me immensely. C-Can I take you out on a date?” He asked timidly.

Your face broke out into a huge smile. “Of course, Bucky.” 

Bucky felt tears springing to his eyes, and pressed his lips to yours again, tugging you into his lap in the process. And for once in the last two weeks, he wasn't mad at Steve. If it wasn't for Steve leaving, he wouldn't have you.

And you were all he needed. 

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Poliwag Line

Ah, Poliwhirl, the main character of Pokemon.

...What, you thought it was Pikachu?

Well, sure, Pikachu became it, because people didn’t like Poliwag, Poliwhirl, and Poliwrath enough, but if you go back and look at the earliest Pokemon promotional material, you’ll find the Poliwag line everywhere, because Satoshi Tajiri himself wanted to push it as the big symbol of Pokemon and Evolution- the tadpole turning into a frog.

Back in the day, Poliwag’s line was inexplicably everywhere. There’d be toy lines of “Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, PIkachu, Meowth, and Poliwhirl.” Poliwhirl was on all the promotional material. Hell, when Pokemon was on the cover of Time Magazine, guess who was front and center.

But nobody actually liked Poliwhirl all that much so eventually the Pokemon company stopped putting it in everything. Eh, they can’t all be winners. DESIGN:  Poliwag is actually super cute. It’s a tadpole with a spiral reminiscent of real tadpole intestines (visible through translucent skin) but not gross at all. Feel free to google that on your own time. I’ve decided not to share the picture here. The little feet show it’s just starting to turn into not-a-tadpole and it’s got a cute little mouth for blowing bubbles. I love Poliwag. Poliwhirl is... fine. Trading the tail for arms makes sense, but what I don’t really get is losing any semblance of a mouth. It just looks weird. Incomplete maybe. There’s something inherently offputting about Poliwhirl’s appearance and I honestly think it’s that it has no mouth, so it’s not clear that that big swirly thing is supposed to be its tummy. 

Poliwrath is just a design I don’t like. It’s just Angry Poliwhirl.   It’s thicker and has bicep, but it still suffers from the weird mouth issue that Poliwhirl does, and it doesn’t actually look like a different creature. It might just be the least noticeable change in an evolution in all of Pokemon. Seriously, look back and forth between Poliwhirl and Poliwrath quickly and tell me those are two different Pokemon and not just, like, the male and female variant of one. At least with Poliwrath I think I see where its mouth is sort of SUPPOSED to be, but with it closed so tight I can’t really tell.  Its made even more confusing because Poliwag shoots “Water Gun” out of its mouth, but Poliwhirl shoots it out of its belly.

And then there’s Politoed. Politoed has a mouth! I approve.  Unfortunately, I feel like Politoed diverges too much from Poliwag and Poliwhirl. 

The coloration is entirely different, which would be fine if Poliwhirl wasn’t the exact same color as Poliwag, there’s suddenly a huge mouth, the hands and feet are three-fingered instead of whatever’s going on with Poliwhirl, and while there’s still a stomach swirl it’s not only less pronounced, it’s a different color. Now, I will say that overall I do like Politoed’s design. I think it’s a cool frog monster that’s clearly a frog but also has enough unique traits to be interesting. I just don’t feel that it looks like the frog Poliwag was destined to become.

Now, Shiny Politoed actually goes a long way to fix this just by being the same colors as Poliwhirl, but my general feeling here is that if Poliwag to Poliwhirl’s transformation involves big gloved hands and raised eyes, then the Poliwhirl to Politoed evolution should’ve kept those.   Also, I don’t get why it has a single long hair. The Pokedex says that hair is proof of its status as a King, and it does evolve via King’s Rock, so maybe there’s some Frog Prince shenanigans going on there, but I just don’t see it. EVOLUTIONS:  I love Branching Evolutions, generally, especially ones where you just get a choice.  Poliwag to Poliwhirl is a normal level 25, and Poliwhirl to Wrath or Toed is Water Stone or Traded With King’s Rock... And I gotta say, I kind of hate “Trade with King’s Rock.” I don’t think I’ve gone into this yet but I’ll definitely say it a lot in the future: Trade evolutions that require additional items are a pain in the butt, a waste of everyone’s time, and there’s too many different items for them. Also, Trading is already a bit of a thing. Why not just make Poliwhirl evolve into Poliwag by using the King’s Rock like an evolution stone?  You know there’s like 40 evolution items and most of them only apply to one Pokemon?  And King’s Rock only applies to two. 

Look, I understand and begrudgingly respect that, until they came to their senses in Sword and Shield, Pokemon didn’t want to include evolution methods that were attemptable and failable in an earlier game, like using a Leaf Stone on Eevee, but I will never understand while Sneasel needs a Razor Claw but Gligar needs a Razor Fang even though both work by being held items that trigger evolution on level up. And King’s Rock, Metal Coat, Upgrade, and Dragon Scale were what started this mess.  And why the devil can’t Seadra become Kingdra with a KING’S Rock? Somehow Politoed is more king than Kingdra? Anyway, split evolutions are cool when they’re sufficiently different. Though Politoed and Poliwrath seem similar, they have a decently different move list and, most importantly, Poliwrath leans Physical while Politoed leans Special. TYPING:  Poliwrath is a rather unique Water/Fighting combo which gives it a whopping seven resistances. Sure, this comes with five weaknesses, but if you play smart it means you can switch Poliwrath into a lot of attacks.  Also, a Water/Fighting combo gives super effective coverage against seven types, and nothing resists both types.  This is a really comfortable place to be. Politoed is pure water, which is fine defensively with four resistances and only two weaknesses, but with only three types of STAB coverage and three types that resist all its STAB attacks it’s going to have a much harder time putting out damage.

STATS: You know what’s weird? Poliwhirl has speed 90. Both Poliwrath and Politoed have speed 70. While it’s not unheard of for a Pokemon to have a stat decrease, especially a speed decrease, on evolution, Poliwhirl is the only Gen One pokemon to have this issue, other than Caterpie and Weedle who lose Attack and Speed upon cocooning but got it back in their final forms. Some Gen One Pokemon retroactively got it later, like Onix and Scyther both losing speed when they become Steel types, but Poliwhirl was the first. Anyway, actual stats. Both Poliwrath and Politoed have above average HP and below average speed. Poliwrath has comfortable defenses at 95 and 90, and a decent 95 attack. It’s not exactly a heavy hitter, but it’s good all around.  Politoed has 75 Attack and Defense, just a bit below average, but a Special Defense of a good 100. Its Special attack at 90 is just a smidge lower than Poliwrath’s attack, but it’s still fine.

ABILITIES: For main abilities, both Poliwrath and Politoed have Water Absorb and Damp. Damp, as mentioned for Psyduck, is basically useless. It shuts off self-destructing moves, but those don’t really come up enough to matter. Water Absorb is just good. Water Absorb replaces their Water Resistance not with Immunity, but the ability to heal any time they’re hit by a water attack. In a normal battle, this lets them catch Water attacks even better than they’d be able to otherwise, and jump into them late game to heal. In a 2v2, this allows your ally to spam Surf, healing your Poliwhatever while also damaging both enemies. We’re going to see Water Absorb a lot in the future, and it’s always an entirely solid ability.... but both hidden abilities are worth talking about. Poliwrath’s Hidden Ability is Swift Swim, which doubles it speed in the rain, and it’s another ability a lot of water Pokemon have. Obviously this takes some setup to use, but Poliwrath’s speed is right at the level where it’s poor normally but suddenly really good with Swift Swim up. If your team can reliably trigger it, it’s a serious boost to Poliwrath’s overall effectiveness. Whether this is better than Water Absorb absolutely depends on your team. Politoed... gets one of the greatest abilities in the game. I said this when Ninetails came up, but if a has Drought, Snow Warning, Drizzle, or Sand Stream it’s automatically useful.  Politoed is one of only three Pokemon with Drizzle, and while Kyogre is the Obvious Best of the three, it’s a Legendary that’s banned in many tournaments, so the competition is just Politoed and Pelipper- and honestly, they’re both entirely reasonable options. Drizzle is a free action Rain Dance. That’s it. And that’s all you need. Politoed comes out and oh look it’s raining.  Now water attacks do more damage, fire attacks do less, and all those other fun rain abilities are triggered. Politoed is a strategy in himself, and even if his stats were much worse, Drizzle would still be reason to use him.

Unless you’re in a format where Kyogre’s legal in which case, to hell with the little frog.

MOVES: As always we start with our attacks.  Poliwrath has two main fighting options, the defensive Drain Punch or the offensive Close Combat.  As Poliwrath is a bit on the bulky side and not really strong enough to reliably one-shot things with Close Combat, I’d lean toward Drain Punch.  For Water, Poliwrath gets.... Liquidation. It’s not impressive, but it’s STAB Physical.  Poliwrath actually has a serious move problem in that many of its best moves are Special rather than Physical, but it’s physical attack stat is much higher.   With a Swift Swim Poliwrath, Waterfall becomes a lot more desirable than Liquidation, as it’s likely to outspeed its foes, but if your Poliwrath isn’t built for speed, that Flinch is unlikely to happen. Politoed has this question a lot easier. It can learn Surf, Hydro Pump, and Scald, depending on which better fits your tactics.

Poliwrath’s coverage options are Darkest Lariat, Earthquake, Ice Punch, Rock Slide, and Poison Jab.  Of these, Darkest Lariat works against Ghost and Fairy, Earthquake against Poison and Electric, Ice Punch against Flying, Grass, and Dragon, Rock Slide against Flying and Bug, and Poison Jab against  Grass and Fairy.  Obviously there’s no way to win them all, but Poliwrath can reasonably threaten a lot of types.  

Politoed’s coverage options are Ice Beam, Psychic, Earth Power, and Focus Blast... But with guaranteed Rain Dance and STAB, it’s better off using Water against anything that isn’t Dragon, Grass, or Water. Nothing it has hits water, so Ice Beam is the only secondary attack it needs to pick up. (Politoed would be utterly busted if it could learn Thunder, but it can’t so... Ice Beam it is.) And then there’s the question of utility, and Poliwrath has a lot of it. Option A is Belly Drum. Belly Drum punches your pokemon in the gut, hard, dropping their HP in half... and raises their Attack by six stages.  It’s a dangerous gambit, but Poliwrath is bulky enough and has enough resistances to give it a shot.  Option B: Rest.  Poliwrath can take a nap and heal to full. Lots of Pokemon can learn rest, but most Pokemon don’t have above-average defenses and seven resistances. Poliwrath can combine Rest with Sleep Talk (but don’t combine Sleep Talk with Belly Drum or you’ll just kill yourself,) in order to keep performing moves while asleep. Of particular note, Circle Throw changes from -6 Priority off of Sleep Talk to using Sleep Talk’s priority, making it a solid option that keeps your opponent from properly fighting back against your sleepy frog.  With this strategy, using Scald over Waterfall or Liquidation becomes reasonable. The damage is much less, but Burning an opponent cuts their Attack and deals damage over time. Option C: Bulk Up. If you’re worried about the HP loss of Belly Drum, just Bulk Up instead. It’s weaker, but it raises Defense too, and then you can get back to Drain Punching.  Politoed doesn’t have that much for utility options (though Perish Song, Protect, and Encore all have their uses) but that’s fine because the goal here is to just set up rain and then blast enemies with a water attack and  Ice Beam or switch out into something that can better take advantage of the rain. You don’t need other utility when you have Drizzle.  Take Splash for all I care. It doesn’t matter: Hydro Pump, Surf or Scald Ice Beam Whatever. Maybe take Rest and Sleep Talk, too. Politoed’s pretty bulky.  It doesn’t really matter. Drizzle means that Politoed is secretly one of the strongest Special Attackers in the game. Just make sure you have a Ground type on the team so you can safely switch when you’re staring down an Electric type, because you do not want to eat a Thunder. OVERALL:  Poliwrath and Politoed, despite being counterparts, are very different pokemon. Poliwrath’s near-unique typing, shared only with Legendaries, and solid bulk gives it an interesting defensive position, with a wide range of attack coverage. Meanwhile, Politoed has Drizzle, which makes a pokemon on its own. Everything else is just gravy.  And I seriously wasn’t kidding about Poliwhirl being on EVERYTHING.

[spiceylotion]

Creepypasta Personalized Playlist 1

Side note: I’m still getting used to this whole headcanon thing, and I apologize if it’s not up to standards :((((((

*also i feel like this is trash and might delete it later hfwjfjdnfisjd

Jeff the Killer

Jeff used to listen to heavy metal or emo music exclusively but he’s grown out of it and explored some new genres. But yeah other than that, the music he listens to is mainly alternative with some underground rap and just a few heavy metal songs. He actually also likes soft songs but will never admit to liking them.

Creep - Radiohead

I’m Not Okay (I promise) - My Chemical Romance

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

One - Metallica (he will listen to this when he’s sad/angry)

Disorder - Joy Division

Radicals - Tyler, the Creator

Chanel - Frank Ocean

Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond (there’s a back story to this,,, whenever he and Liu woke up to this song, they knew it was cleaning day. Whenever he listens to it now it gives him a bittersweet feeling)

Ben Drowned

Ben listens to alternative and underground rap (however a different spectrum from what Jeff listens to) with some occasional rap. He really likes music with good bass and psychadelic-like sounds. He either plays music that’s fast and upbeat or slow and super mellow, depends on the mood... Ben will be very defensive if someone teases him for liking soft alternative. Also secretly likes to listen to The Beach Boys.

Borderline - Tame Impala

New Person, Same Old Mistakes - Tame Impala

Palace / Curse - The Internet

Kokomo - The Beach Boys (in his playlist for when he smokes w33d)

Kickback - Omar Opollo

GONE, GONE / THANK YOU - Tyler, the Creator

Cool Cat - Queen (guilty pleasure song)

After the Storm - Kali Uchis

Eyeless Jack

Eyeless Jack’s music taste is super mellow. He likes sad songs with a good beat. He can enjoy some fastpaced music too, but would rather enjoy the slow, soft songs about heartbreak or love. He’s that type to get surprised when he hears a sound in a song that he’s listened to countless times that he’s never heard before.

Easy - Mac Ayres

Nice Boys - Temporex

Sunflower - Rex Orange County

I Miss You - Blink-182 (one of his favorite songs before the... s a c r i f i ce)

Care - Temporex

Chamber of Reflection - Mac Demarco

Ivy - Frank Ocean

Helena (So Long & Goodnight) - My Chemical Romance (his angry/sad song)

Masky

Masky really fucking loves Frank Ocean. He lowkey fangirls over him...also a diehard fan for Nirvana. I guess you could say he likes whatever genre cuz mans also likes 80s music.

Nights - Frank Ocean

Pink + White - Frank Ocean

Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana

About a Girl - Nirvana

Don’t Dream it’s Over - Crowded House

Eyes Without a Face - Billy Idol

Heart of Glass - Blondie (guilty pleasure song)

I Melt With You - Modern English

Hoodie

Hoodie’s music taste is similar to Masky’s which is kinda obvious since they’re like best friends. He really enjoys listening to music from the 70s-90s since they give him a nostaglic feel. Sometimes plays the Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack on Youtube when he’s bored.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

(Feels Like) Heaven - Fiction Factory

Another One Bites the Dust - Queen

Under Pressure - Queen

I want to Break Free - Queen (did I mention that Hoodie is also a huge Queen fan?)

Creep - Radiohead

Boys Don’t Cry - The Cure

Baba O’Riley - The Who

Ticci Toby

Toby listens to a bit of everything but generally speaking, he listens to indie/alternative music. When his thoughts are driving him crazy he just lies down, connects his phone to his speaker and blasts music.

Robbers - The 1975

Still Beating - Mac Demarco

Truss me - Lower Dens

Decode - Paramore

Where is My Mind - Pixies

Let My Baby Stay - Mac Demarco

Always Forever - Cults

Dream a Little Dream of Me - The Mamas & The Papas (backstory,,, Toby’s mom used to sing this to him when he was younger before he went to bed. so whenever he has trouble sleeping he just pops his headphones in and plays this on repeat... and yes... he does cry ;-;)

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

Stitched Up Heart – Out of the Darkness

Dead Rhetoric: Do you feel that releasing all of the songs on a monthly basis has given the album the support you were hoping for?

Mixi: To be honest, I have no idea what the sales look like now.  It’s hard to compare because I have no idea what it would be if it was released all at once.  The one thing I do like about it, is that it keeps momentum going.  Instead of giving everyone the whole thing at once, you get a taste every month or so.  You aren’t just throwing everything out that you have, and people’s attention spans are so short these days.  I just feel that this is the way the rock industry is going to start moving – I think singles in general.  I think the whole musical world is going to turn into a singles world instead of albums, just because of the way that the streaming situation is.  But that’s just what I believe.  Who knows what will happen?  We were just trying to be innovative and try something new.

Dead Rhetoric: I can completely agree with that.  There’s a lot of bands that are going towards more EP-type approaches, where they can put out 4 songs and maybe even just do that twice a year in some cases.  It keeps you more in the loop.

Mixi: It took us three years to release new music.   We are probably going to continue to do it somewhat like this.  We’ll see how exactly it goes down, but I have a feeling that it is doing well.  Obviously, our first week sales are going to be a lot different as well.  But first week sales on any album in the industry today is a lot more difficult too.  We’ll see what happens [laughs].

Dead Rhetoric: You had over 70 songs written for Darkness.  What became the guideline as to what made a song one that you could work with versus one that was cut?

Mixi: We really wanted to evolve and grow.  In the beginning, we really threw paint in opposite directions.  From super, super heavy to super, super poppy.  It was probably more than half way through the writing process when we realized that this was working.  Lyrically, I changed what I felt that I wanted to say.   Originally, I wanted this album to be all about strength, power, and hope, like “You can do it,” you know?  The lyrics weren’t coming out completely authentically because deep down inside, I am a little girl [laughs].  I had stuff that I had to go through to make me feel strong. I found that writing the dark and the light together again was where I felt I could be the most authentic and real.  

When it came to the music and sound, in the end, we finally dialed in where we wanted to go and the producer that we wanted to do it with.   For us, the producer that we end up going with ends up kind of being the icing on the cake when it comes to the music.  Never Alone was Mitchell Marlow, who I am actually going to be writing with next week. You can hear a different quality in producing versus Matt Good, who produced Darkness.  They are two totally awesome producers, but also totally different and unique in their own way.  They kind of turn into an extra band member.  Out of the 70 songs we wrote, in the end, we used the last 11 or 12 that we wrote.  We didn’t use more than two of the songs that we wrote previously.  It was the last bunch that we ended up using for the record.  

Dead Rhetoric: Was there anything you took away or learned from Never Alone that you wanted to do differently this time around?

Mixi: I think that we did pretty good in finding a good guideline [with Never Alone], but I don’t want any album to sound the same.  We built a radio world with Never Alone, and we wanted to explore more on the artsy side of things with Darkness and see what happens.  With Never Alone, we learned what a radio chart was – it was our first album with a label and a booking agent.  We were really like a ‘baby band.’  We had been doing everything on our own before then.  So I wouldn’t say there was anything we would do differently because I’m very proud of that album.   But we just wanted to change it up and not write the same exact record. We are already working on thoughts and ideas for the next album, because we don’t want there to be such a gap.

Dead Rhetoric: Is there a song that you feel sticks out, or you personally identify with on Darkness?

Mixi: Every single one of them, but I think “Warrior” is one of my favorites.  “Problems,” “Darkness,” “Lost” are all some of my favorites.  I’m really very proud of this record.  As far as lyrically, for me, I really tried to dig as possible and “Darkness” is probably the deepest I got, in terms of the content of the song.  I really can’t pick a favorite, but for now I’ll say “Warrior.”

Dead Rhetoric: How important is the band’s relationship with fans – do you feel that the interactions has led you to a more devoted fanbase and larger following?

Mixi: I think it’s changed a little bit over time.   When we first started touring, we would be out watching the shows and the other bands, hanging out in the audience front-and-center, hanging out with people the whole time, and then going to people’s houses and hanging out there until whenever.  We were a lot more social, but as time goes on and touring happens – you get tired and things can get a little more dangerous.  You kind of have to be a bit more careful as the fanbase grows.  We’ve realized that we can’t always be out at the shows.  There’s been a few scary situations.  We try to be as connected as possible without putting ourselves into a situation that would be unsafe.  But I definitely think that when bands are connected to their fans, and are available for them to reach out to at any point, to where there’s a level that fans feel more connected, they want to stick around longer.  They aren’t so different.

Dead Rhetoric: With safety, I don’t think anyone is going to argue that point.  As you get bigger as a band, there’s more exposure and for lack of a better term, there’s a lot of creepy people out there.

Mixi: [Laughs] Yeah, the bigger the band gets, it gets harder.  It’s tougher to give all of the attention to everybody too.  I would still come out to the merch tables and try to meet everyone but one person would cut like, and I had no control, and then someone wants to talk for an hour while the next one is waiting, and I wouldn’t know what to do.  We have found that doing the VIP thing is better to filter people out – people that really want to meet the band and want a guarantee to meet us and hang out.  It also helps the band afford to be able to keep touring.

Dead Rhetoric: What have been some of your favorite touring experiences?  Do you feel you learn something new each time you go out on the road with different bands?

Mixi: Oh yeah, absolutely.  I think the Godsmack tour and the Halestorm tour were probably the biggest learning experiences for us.  We had never been on an arena tour before.   Halestorm took us out on our first arena tour and it was just like, what we got a taste of it, “Wow!”  There’s so much that goes into it, and so much to learn.  You try to soak up everything that you can.  But everything is a learning experience though.  We learn a lot of what not to do [laughs], and I think that’s why bands progress and grow.  We tried to learn from what we did right and wrong in the last run, and try to fix it in the next tour so we can get better and grow.  We’ve learned a lot from those bigger tours.

Dead Rhetoric: You’ve toured with a number of various musical bands on tour, do you feel that Stitched Up Heart has an advantage in that regard?  It seems like you are pretty malleable as a group, where you can do a tour with Godsmack or Lacuna Coil, or you can do Steel Panther or Sebastian Bach.

Mixi: It’s really interesting, because I don’t think the active rock radio genre has really hit the market or ‘80s hair metal, or the mix in-between very much.  The response we got from the Steel Panther fans was a surprise.  We didn’t think anybody would latch onto us, because our music isn’t really like theirs.  But with the show, they were really so excited and it went over so well, that when the Sebastian Bach tour [offer] happened, we’ll see how his fans go – but so far, I think we can try different genres and see what happens.  I mean, how many times can you go out with the same band?  We are trying to do something different, as you can tell, we like to do that a lot.

Dead Rhetoric: You’ve also made a lot of connections with other bands out on the road – does that networking aspect help among bands?

Mixi: It is huge.  To build relationships, in general, with everyone.  There’s so many bands that I look up to, and we are doing a bunch of festivals soon.  I just can’t wait!  I want to meet everyone.  But building relationships is such a big deal – be it with bands, radio stations, our fans and followers.  It’s important.   It’s probably the most important thing – to build big, genuine relationships.

Dead Rhetoric: Patreon is a platform that more bands are doing, but there was some pushback when it first started.  How do you feel that you’ve benefitted from it?

Mixi: Well, I met you [laughs]!  I definitely wouldn’t know you so well [without Patreon].  Behind the scenes, you can go out of your way to ensure that they [supporters] are happy and you can go out of your way to give them a little extra little things that you can’t do with the usual person who watches your social media or Spotify.  There’s t-shirts, paintings, handwritten lyrics, Skype hangouts – it’s definitely helped to grow this family that supports and helps each other.  Again, it helps the people that really, truly care – I feel like I can go to them with any concerns or what I’m feeling any day and just tell them and it will be totally fine.  They aren’t going to judge me like the rest of the social media world would.  They really, really care.  

Also, when it comes to the money – musicians don’t make a lot of money, I feel that Patreon is such a huge movement for independent artists, or even artists like us who are on a label.  The music money goes to the label for paying for the albums.  When we go on tour, we make money.  When we get home, we are just sitting there, on our hands, like what do we do?  No musician wants to get a job delivering pizzas, which is what I have been doing for years and years before Patreon happened.  I’d go on the road and be a rock star, then come home and deliver pizzas.  It was just the worst!  You can’t keep a normal job when you are constantly touring.  I realized that Patreon has made me able to focus solely on music and art, and it has been amazing.  It also gives me time to do more volunteer work as wel.

Dead Rhetoric: I think there is a difference too – if you look at your Patreon compared to some others out there.  There’s a lot of focus on your end.  Not all of them have that same level of effort.   It’s a testament to what you do that you are able to grow with it as well.

Mixi: I don’t really know what other people do, but I like to be able to touch base with the secret groups every single day. I try to make sure that everyone hears from me at least once a month with the signed autograph things, but I really can’t compare since I don’t know what other people do.  But I’m glad that you think I do a good job, because I feel like I never really do enough.  You have no idea how grateful I am for it.  I think about it every day.  If I didn’t have this, I would be so bummed.  I want to make sure that everyone is happy, all the time.  Maybe that’s why there’s not too many people that every really leave my Patreon, they usually just drop down.  I hope that we’ve built a pretty decent community.

Dead Rhetoric: You just mentioned the volunteering piece.   You do a lot of work with animals – rescue kittens, horses and have the Filthy Animal clothing company, among other things. Is it important to give back?

Mixi: Absolutely – I feel like this world, if you are constantly taking, the world will take too.  It’s a balance.  When I do things to help the kittens, I feel like it helps me more than I am helping them.  Right now, it’s not really kitten season, and I’m bummed that I can’t bottle-feed.  It’s starting up soon, but I’ll be on tour most of the year.  But when I can between tours, it doesn’t even feel like volunteer work when you love it.  The horses – when the fires happened in Malibu I got kind of drawn into it.  They haven’t really needed my help much lately, so I feel I need to find more stuff to volunteer for until kittens are back in season.  I feel like doing stuff for others feeds your soul so much.  You get back way more than what you give.

Dead Rhetoric: At this point in your life, what does Stitched Up Heart mean to you?

Mixi: It is probably one of the most important things to me.  The band is on my mind constantly, 24/7.  I think about it all the time, and I don’t know what I would do without it.  It’s a top priority.

Dead Rhetoric: In looking at the cover for both albums, is there any connection with having birds on the covers of Never Alone and Darkness?

Mixi: Obviously, I love animals so I wanted to make sure that the artwork for Never Alone had animals on it.  It needed to be something that represented what the lyrical content was – hopefulness and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  All of that positive energy that was a part of that album. The doves being a very light representation of being able to break free through the window, with the darkness inside.  You are in the darkness and going into the light.  

With Darkness, I kept seeing crows everywhere.  I looked at it as a sign, and it would coincide with the doves.  I wanted it to be the opposite, where you are going back into the darkness again, but you aren’t as afraid.  It’s like the dark dove diving back into the clouds with the white background.  It’s like life, there’s ups and downs, tunnels and light.  The more you go through it the more you grow and learn.

Dead Rhetoric: You have some dates for the coming months already announced.  Is the plan for 2020 basically just to tour as much as possible?

Mixi: Yeah, lots of festivals, and lots of tours.   We are going to try to start writing more music, so that when this album comes out, we can keep a more consistent release time in the future.   We’re trying to keep things moving!

[elysiumwaits]

Ely’s Ever-Changing Playlist - Sat. Aug 31st

You can find the playlist on Spotify right here. The Ever-Changing Playlist is best listened to on Shuffle Mode. I plan on updating this playlist every Saturday, and rotating songs out and in with new releases and whatever’s caught my fancy this week.

Feel free to send me music you like, I’m always open to new songs to listen to and I like literally every genre except death metal and polka. (I’m also not a big fan of musical theater, tbh). But like seriously, fuck polka.

This first playlist is a pretty eclectic mix of new releases and not-so-new releases, in a variety of genres. Probably a little heavy on the rock, to be honest, but that’s the mood I’m in this week. You’ll get whiplash, though, ‘cause there’s some good country and pop on here too.

Song list and comments are under the cut!

Scrawny by Wallows - I love self-deprecating but somehow still kind of cocky rock (like Polaroid by Imagine Dragons). They also have that bedroom rock kind of vibe that I love. Plus I love the line “I’m a scrawny motherfucker with a cool hairstyle” and hardcore relate to the line “I say the wrong shit at the right time.”

Wild Roses by Of Monsters and Men - I honestly didn’t know how to feel about the new album for a couple of weeks. They’ve definitely gone for a more pop vibe to their songs - Alligator was catchy but it seems like a lot of the songs on their Fever Dream album just don’t have the same lyrical depth as songs like King and Lionheart or Wolves Without Teeth or Little Talks. It’s a good song - catchy, like I said - but honestly I was hoping for better when I heard a new album was coming out.

Blame It On my Youth by Blink-182 - This may actually be my most highly-anticipated release this year. For one thing, Blame It On My Youth actually sounds like Blink-182, like you could follow it with All the Small Things and there’d be no real musical shift. Which is honestly amazing, considering how much they’ve been through as a band, and of course, the lineup changes. Hoppus still sounds like Hoppus, though, and the music is still that glorious “fuck you, watch this” guitar that kickstarted the whole early 2000s guitar rock (you wouldn’t have FOB without Blink-182, and you can tell in the early FOB albums). I love to see Nine come out on September 20th - Blink-182 is a legendary band in the punk genre and hearing this song felt like coming home. “I was bored to death, so I started a band/ Cut my teeth on the Safety Dance, my attention span never stood a chance.”

Love All Night (Work All Day) by Yola - You know those gentle 70s rock/soul songs? Vaguely influenced by country, definitely influenced by R&B, leave you with a feeling of home and comfort while also kind of inspiring you to go out and work on some social change? It’s definitely got a Memphis rock vibe, but it also really made me want to listen to The Temptations and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The best part about it is that this album came out this year.

Circles by Post Malone - I’m actually a huge Post Malone fan, because I’m a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. You might be wondering how those two things add up. Post Malone cites one of his major influences to be Stevie Nicks, and in fact his vocal (when he sings, instead of rapping) draws a lot from Stevie’s unique vibrato and slurring of the words. Circles captures this beautifully, but if you really want the best that Post Malone has to offer (in the singing department, I’ll fight people over how good Wow. is), you really need to check out his remix and mashup of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams from his August 26th mixtape. Check it out here. The unfortunate thing is that it can only be found on Youtube or the mixtape app DatPiff.

Drive by The Cars - So this is on the list because Tim McGraw put out a cover, and I usually like Tim McGraw, but Drive is not a song you can make a country cover out of. You can’t do it. Listen to this one instead of the Tim McGraw version, and if you’re really wanting a Tim McGraw fix, Neon Church is good.

Refugee by Melissa Etheridge - Speaking of covers, this is my girl Melissa’s cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s Refugee, and frankly, I like it more. She goes hard, is the thing, sings every word like she fuckin’ well means it. That’s the thing about Melissa Etheridge, she is passionate about her music. This cover was released on her greatest hits album in 2005 - fun fact, this album included four new songs total, including I Run for Life, written for others, like Melissa, who have gone through breast cancer. It’s a damn good album, I had to recently buy a new hard copy because I wore the first CD out.

Mornin’s Gonna Come by Brent Cobb - I actually don’t know why this hit the Apple playlists this week, considering it was released on the album Providence Canyon back in 2018. It’s a pretty southern-rock style song, despite the country label, and sounds like a party song right up until you’re listening to the lyrics. Turns out it’s about the fact that everything done in the dark will eventually come to light, whether that’s a hangover or something deeper.

Soon You’ll Get Better by Taylor Swift feat. Dixie Chicks - Okay, listen. I love this song. Hearing Natalie come in on the vocals in the background for the first time since 2006 made me bawl. The Dixie Chicks were the main music of my childhood, I grew up with Wide Open Spaces and Fly. Add in the poignant lyrics about watching someone struggle through illness - Taylor opens up in an article that it’s about her parents’ battles with cancer, but we all take something away from music we listen to and it made me cry because I relate to it from a mental and chronic illness standpoint. 

60 & Punk by Death Cab for Cutie - So, Death Cab actually has a new EP coming out and the new single on it Kids in 99 is pretty good, but I’m still stuck on their album Thank You for Today. I don’t know if it was my stint in the Pacific Northwest that kickstarted my Death Cab love, or if I’m just naturally drawn to their music, but I would argue that Thank You for Today may be their best album. 60 & Punk is sad, honestly, about watching your heroes grow old and give into the world around them. But it’s good.

Reaper Man by Mother Mother - Mother Mother is one of my favorite bands, and Reaper Man is right up there in my self-deprecating-but-cocky genre. Released in 2014, and a staple on my playlists since. 

Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne feat. Travis Clark (of We The Kings) - Okay, raise your hand if you can still sing Complicated or Sk8er Boi from memory, because I sure as hell can. I can also do Check Yes Juliet from memory, because I grabbed it off the free iTunes download back in the day before it ever blew up - I’m a hipster. Anyway, Avril’s surfaced with a frankly marvelous album about growing up, getting divorced, and dealing with the devastating effects of Lyme disease. This is a bonus single - you can find her solo version on the album also titled Head Above Water. 

Hollow by Barns Courtney - There’s really no deep meaning to this one for me, I just really love Barns Courtney and haven’t found something they’ve put out that I didn’t like yet. Catchy and rock and pop, this song makes me want to dance.

Summer Girl by Haim - Everyone I knew back in 2013, in my little pocket of rural America, turned their noses up at Haim. I was like, “Oh my god, they’re amazing!” and my coworkers are like “Why does she sing like that?” It was weird to me because The Wire was named one of the best songs of the year, hit charts all over the place - weird. Anyway, Summer Girl has a super lowkey acoustic vibe, and I love it.

Far From Born Again by Alex Cameron - So Alex Cameron is pretty hit or miss for me - I either hate what he puts out, or I obsess over it. Far From Born Again is an obsess-song, because it’s honest-to-god the best sex worker song I’ve ever heard. Every time a “positive” sex worker song comes out, it’s always something like Porn Star Dancing or Shakin’ Hands or Pay Me. The worker is always over-sexualized and vilified in some way or another, and frankly, it’s exhausting. I like Far From Born Again because it’s super realistic to my experiences - lines like “It ain’t your goddamn business if she does it for pay” and “pays bills while you all still text jerks” and “she’s a woman earning more than a man” - puts the focus where it should be. She’s not some over-sexed nympho doing it for the thrill of it, it’s a job that she’s good at. 

Don’t Call It Love by Quiet Riot - So, literally everyone has heard Cum On Feel the Noize or Metal Health. It’s interesting to see Quiet Riot pop on charts again, especially considering that they haven’t had a founding member of the band in the lineup since 2010. That said, the members currently do include Banali and Wright, who were in the band at the height of Quiet Riot’s success in the mid 80s. Current vocals are done by James Durbin, as the vocalist Kevin DuBrow passed in 2007. Quiet Riot as we know it was revived mostly to celebrate the memory of DuBrow, actually, and on the insistence of DuBrow’s mother.

Last Day Under the Sun by Volbeat - I just really fuckin’ love Volbeat. That unique mix of hard rock and rockabilly, mixed with my frankly inappropriate feelings for Michael Poulson’s voice, gets me every time. I was drawn in by Lola Montez and here we are today.

All Apologies - Live & Loud by Nirvana - So this live album was actually released in 2013, and just popped up on my feed because it was just put onto Apple Music, which is where I get all my music from. You can also watch the whole concert for free, which I can’t bring myself to do yet. Nirvana is my favorite band of all time - literally of all time - and All Apologies has the ability to bring me to tears. I actually have “All in All is All We Are” tattooed on my back. Vinyl is coming out, concert is up, go live your grunge baby dreams with me.

Black Hole Sun (Live from The Artists’ Den) by Soundgarden - So this is a recent release of their 2013 Artist’s Den concert. It’s a bittersweet release for the band, who decided earlier this year to disband after the death of Chris Cornell, following their only concert without him. They chose to release the live album because they remember how much fun Chris had that night, according to a Spin article. Of the major original Seattle grunge bands, that means that only a few remain - Alice in Chains lost Layne Staley, Nirvana lost Kurt Cobain, and Soundgarden lost Chris Cornell. Pearl Jam is still going strong, though. (Technically Alice in Chains is still active, but DuVall has nothing on Staley). 

Can You Feel It? by White Eskimo - Okay, so following all that rock trivia, I was absolutely floored when I found out that White Eskimo had recent music... because I only know them as the band that Harry Styles was in before One Direction. Anyway, it’s a pretty catchy pop-punk song, I dig it. I love that the first actual info I found about them, with current news, was on the Harry Styles wiki. 

Lullaby by Kalie Shorr - Here’s that whiplash again, how about some country? Brand new country, even. I have a bone to pick with country lately about how it all sounds like pop with exaggerated accents and how that pisses me off, but I like the acoustic vibe Kalie Shorr has going on. It’s that good old country song about loving someone you shouldn’t and then letting them go. She honestly reminds me a lot of Sunny Sweeney.

Tennessee Whiskey (Live from City Winery Nashville) by Sara Evans and Olivia Barker - This is a classic country song, written for a half-drunk slow dance with your sweetie at the dive bar (which is honestly the best way to hear it, not gonna lie). The best version is the without a doubt Chris Stapleton’s cover, and this cover is a cover of that cover, but if you want to go back, it was originally recorded by country great David Allan Coe - of “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” fame if you do the bar circuit like I do. It was also recorded by George Jones in the 80s, and then a bunch of other people. There’s a reason Sara Evans is a modern country great.

The Chain (from The Kitchen) by the Highwomen - I got a lot of bones to pick with the Highwomen - I don’t like them and I’m not afraid to say it. I think it comes from the fact that The Highwaymen was created by the pioneers of outlaw country, who were pretty much on the outskirts of country music due to their lifestyles and other factors. The Highwomen have good sound and good writing, but they’re all pretty mainstream, and they should have chosen a different name. Anyway. This is a good country cover. 

The Daughters by Little Big Town - I like this song because it tackles a lot of issues still prevalent in societies in country and rural areas, primarily feminism. A lot of people don’t realize that out here in the sticks, the gender norms are alive and well - if you don’t have a kid by 21 and you’re a girl, you’re out of the norm and you’re gonna die alone. You get a lot of women who get married young, then spend their lives cooking and cleaning and never thinking about anything more because this is all they know, this is what their mothers did. The song goes over the delicate balance a woman plays down here - you have to be strong but not too strong, and you have to “know your place.”

The Louvre by Lorde - I wasn’t a fan of Lorde’s second album at first, because I was very much stuck in the sound of the first. It’s growing on me. 

Remember the Name by Ed Sheeran, Eminem, and 50 Cent - So I’m a big fan of Ed Sheeran, and my mom loves Eminem and 50 Cent. I like some Eminem, and some 50 Cent, but overall I’m not a fan of rap. What I like about this song is that it sounds like an early Eminem a la “The Real Slim Shady” so it’s catchy and easy for my audio processing issues to follow. I also just dig cocky songs.

20 Something by SZA - I started listening to SZA when my brother sent me the DJ Khaled song Just Us that featured her vocal. I love her voice and lyrics, and also the fact that my little bro relates so much to a lot of her music that it sometimes makes him cry (apparently Just Us made him cry). 20 Something is my favorite off her debut album - I mean, everyone I know is a 20-something right now, and the lyrics hit home.

[lestatdesade]

I've been trying not to take adderall bc its been fucking up my skin big time but when I take it I feel so. much. better. It doesnt entirely remove the fatigue but it does mitigate the brain fog and lets me avctually think about things. Also yesterday I was like "wow i've been so unproductive" but actually I plowed through my entire list minus a couple drawings that I cant do bc I ran out of decent paper to draw on. Like I work 5 days on, then 5 days off, but the museam is closed on certain days that are low traffic or have privately done tours. So its a bit weird. But yeah yrsterday I scanned ALMOST ALL THE FILM IVE BEEN PROCRASTINATING ON, I just have one more roll to scan left!!! Then I can justify sending out some more rolls that I have to be developed. Oh, and I got a 45 year old sx70 camera from a flea market thats in super good condition and the 2 pics I took look great but I havent had the chance to take it somewhere nice to use it. It kind of needs full daylight to work and it's been raining or too hot for me to go outside at all. It's such a nicely built camera. I said that I wouldnt get one bc it requires different film than my other polaroid cameras but it's really nice, heavy leather and metal build. and it folds up to be super compact??? It's so, so nice and I'm forever salty that modern tech devices just don't have thje same quality. Everything these days is built to be shitty and have no life. This camera is older than me, and tbh, it'll probably outlive me and still function well. but with the huge advances that we've made technologically, none of my current electronics will ever hope to outlive my 70s camera. I don't think its a lack of ability for companies to construct quality goods, bc manufactuering in a digital age of laser tech thats very uniform and not human made is easier, but they PURPOSEFULLY skimp on quality to sell more. to me, thats just the fuckin epitome of stupid. Like hey, we have such incredible technological knowledge, but lets fuckin ignore it so we can make more money from having phones and computers that are pretty much disposable in usage bc they have such a short lifespan. idk it just bothers me, but as a lead on, I've been working super hard on learning new art skills. I've been working a great deal w/ watercolors and I am dabbling in using UV resin. when i visisted my grandma for her birthday, I asked if I could pick one of her beloved pansy flowers. So I picked it, pressed it and encased it in resin to make a pendant. I think she's really going to love it. She makes great pressed flower art, so i fee like its a collab between us, though I don't have nearly as much experience. She gave me a pressed flower arrangement she did and framed it for me for christmas and everytime i see it I m just filled with this kind of overwhelming happiness that she made it for me. I always feel very bleak about my life expectancy since my dad died before he hit 50, and my mother is in her midsixties and I doubt if she'll make it to 70. But my grandma is like, in her 90s and walks without assistance, climbs stairs, routinely spends time with friends, and is probably more mentally sharp than I am. So I'm hoping my parents bS will skip a generation and I'll get my grandmas health. I'm not really afraid to die, but I think looking at how my parents lack of longevity doesnt really make me feel positive about the fact that I'm inching closer and closer to 30 and that I'm sure that all the psychiatric meds I've taken, and all this stress and fatigue have greatly shortened my life span. But I'm trying to keep positive and realize that much of my goals in life that have been long term were made out of internalizing toxic ideas and psychological manipulation and gaslighting. I know that deep down, most of the ideas that I have formed around even the most basic concepts of life, death and selfqworth are tainted by the abuse I went through as a kid. But I'm reearning a lot of it and really thinking about things in a way that is detached from my own experiences, and trying to reposition my perspectives. I think the idea that anyone can unlearn the hatred they are taught and that even some really "defined:" beliefs we have are more or less conditioning has really hanged the way I feel about myself. I'm less concerned about my own mortality, my legacy, and the thoughts of others. I just want to enjoy this experience of being alive, and anything more was really a lie and a delusion that I was tricked into thinking. I used to belive that if I didn't EXCEED EXPECTATIONS and make a mastery of myself then that would prove my abusers right, and confirm the idea that I am worthless as truth. But I have learned that basing peoples worth off of their success is stupid, and I can't change the illness that has destroyed all my hopes and dreams. And also that well, I don't NEED to have these crazy, unattainable goals and pipedreams to make myself feel like I deserve to live. I deserve to live, exactly as I am, even if I am a nuerotic loser who lives with my mom despite being nearly 30 and having a job. I domt have to be some fucking legend to show people that I didn't need to kill myself. I never should have felt as though that was an obligation to begin with. I exist because I do, and I don't hurt others or act recklessly in a way that endangers other people. I don't hoard resources so that others cant use them. I'm just a nuetral being, thats akll

[themurphyzone]

Absolutely Disastrous Ch 9

Ch 9: Bonding Over Brunch! The Man Who Stepped Out of the 70s!

It took another hour and a lot of twisting, turning, and five narrowly averted disastrous fates before they stumbled out of Petalburg Woods alive. In hindsight, taking directions from a businessman who almost tripped face-first into Cascoon evolution grounds hadn’t been the best idea.

The path led to a long bridge that appeared to be a popular fishing spot for both fishermen and novice trainers. A fisherman yanked up a Magikarp, and Melissa had to grab Zack’s arm to stop him from retreating into the forest.

Zack gulped, eyeing the bridge suspiciously. “There aren’t guard rails on that thing! What’s stopping a Magikarp from feasting on the bones of a helpless passerby?”

“Don’t worry, bones aren’t in a Magikarp diet!” Milo exclaimed. “In Hoenn, Carvanha is the only unevolved fish Pokémon with enough jaw strength to even break a bone.”

Zack made a strange noise in the back of his throat.

“You’re great at this reassurance business,” Melissa drawled.

Milo smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I’ll leave the unnecessary horrifying details out next time.”

“We’re good,” Zack said. “I’m just gonna dip into my happy place for a moment and forget about the existence of fish Pokémon.”

“Can’t ignore them forever,” Melissa said. “Eastern Hoenn, remember?”

“Still a long way off. There’s plenty of time for me to procrastinate on confronting my fears.”

“Guys, I know you’re both a little cranky, but there’s nothing a little food won’t fix!” Milo pointed to a building labeled ‘Pretty Petal Flower Shop and Café’. A brilliant red flower framed the entrance, and several berry trees were lined up perfectly in a dirt field next to the pond.

“This isn’t over, Underwood,” Melissa growled. “I’m only dropping it cause food takes precedence.”

Zack crossed his arms. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Chase.”

A worker greeted them at the entrance. She gave them a dainty bow, her bright red hair bouncing with the motion. “Hello, welcome to Pretty Petal! My name’s Rita, and I’ll be helping you out today! We have a ton of great selections for traveling trainers, but first we ask that you either recall or release your Pokémon into the field. We also have outdoor seating if you need to keep a close eye on them.”

“I say field,” Melissa said. “Poochyena hasn’t really gotten acquainted with everyone else yet.”

“Field,” Milo agreed, knowing that Diogee would never willingly go into a Poké Ball.

“What they said,” Zack replied.

Rita beamed, leading them around the building and into a large enclosure. The gate was high and looked strong enough to withstand an entire herd of Lairon.

“Here we are!” Rita declared, sweeping her arm to a line of Pokémon bowls filled to the brim with kibble and berries. “Pokémon food is complimentary so they can chow down to their heart’s content!”

Diogee immediately dug into a bowl of sliced Pecha berries.

“Diogee!” Milo scolded. “Wait for your friends!”

Rita laughed. “Hungry little guy.”

Mudkip, Poochyena, Torchic, and Treecko were released, and they wasted no time in claiming a bowl for themselves.

“Okay, we’re going into the restaurant to eat, so behave yourselves,” Milo lectured. “We’ll come back for you in an hour or two.”

Only Treecko gave any indication that he heard Milo, since the others were too engrossed in an eating contest.

Rita playfully shooed them into the restaurant, gathering up menus as she passed by a podium. A large archway separated the café from the floral shop, though in terms of decorations the two areas were indistinguishable.

Milo noticed every customer in the restaurant had a glass filled with a colorful smoothie.

“Smoothies are a specialty here,” Rita explained when she caught him looking. “We raise the berries that go into them with a whole lotta TLC!”

She led them in a booth that had a huge metallic sunflower dangling precariously above their heads.

“Um, Rita?” Melissa said nervously, pointing up at the decoration. “Do you think we could be seated somewhere that doesn’t have an object with the potential to cause a concussion?”

Before Rita could respond, the ropes holding the sunflower snapped. The resulting crash drew everyone’s attention.

“Nothing to see here!” Melissa snapped at the curious onlookers. “Please return to your food!”

Several people quickly reseated themselves in tables without dangling objects.

“Sorry about that!” Rita quickly chirped. “Guess we got check that structural integrity, huh? How about over here?”

Zack moved a potentially breakable vase out of the way while Milo and Melissa settled in.

“Could you give us a few minutes?” Milo asked.

Rita put down the menus and hurried off to greet a family who’d just entered.

Melissa flipped to the smoothie section and pointed at one with a wicked smirk. “I dare somebody to try this one.”

Try our Super Spicy Kiss Your Taste Buds Goodbye Smoothie!

Blended with hand-picked Tamato, Cheri, Razz, and Figy Berries!

Special note: We at Pretty Petal Flower Shop and Café will not be held liable for burning eyes and lips. Read the menu yourself before complaining, okay?

“With our luck, I wouldn’t be surprised if it burned the flesh off our bones,” Zack said.

Melissa rolled her eyes. “What is with you and bones today?”

“He’s got a bone appetit,” Milo claimed. He earned a punch to the shoulder for that.

Zack shrugged. “Can you really blame a guy for wanting to keep their insides on the inside?”

Even with Melissa and Zack bickering over the subject of bones at the lunch table, they all managed to find something on the menu by the time Rita came back to take their orders.

“Sitrus Berries are more acidic than Oran,” Rita said helpfully to Zack, who was having trouble deciding on his smoothie. “The Tropical Punch smoothie is all the rage these days. Nanab and Pinap Berries pair really well together, and-oh, Dakota, it’s been a while! How’ve you been?”

Dakota grinned lazily, slipping his hands into the pockets of his red and yellow tracksuit which reminded Milo heavily of ketchup and mustard. “Eh, same old thing. Just realized I left my other tracksuit in our…my old apartment. Had some important stuff in that one.”

“Aw, that’s too bad,” Rita said sympathetically.

“Yeah,” Dakota agreed. “First time this week I had a chance to slip out from the rest of the team and this happens. These new trainers? Don’t think I’ve seen them around before.”

“This is our first time here. We really wanna try the smoothies,” Milo said.

Dakota nodded in approval. “Yeah, the smoothies are great. Especially the Tropical Punch one.”

“That’s what I ordered!” Milo exclaimed.

“You got good taste, kiddo,” Dakota said. Something buzzed in his pocket, and he ran his hand through his brown curls with a heavy sigh. “Sorry, I gotta take a call.”

“You wanna join us when you get back?” Zack offered.

Dakota agreed to the invitation rather quickly, then he headed to the bathroom to answer his cell phone.

“You kids are so nice,” Rita sighed. She lowered her voice so she could barely be heard above the bustle of the restaurant. “He went through a messy breakup recently. He and his partner were a bit of an odd couple, but they were so cute together. And lately he’s been working on a Pokémon habitat restoration project, but he’s been so distracted that he can’t focus on it. Just don’t tell him I told you all this, okay? Oh, and we already know what he likes to order so we’ll be fixing that up. I’ll go ahead and get these to the kitchen! Be back with your drinks soon!”

Once Rita left them alone, Melissa placed a finger on her lips. “Don’t mention the breakup to Dakota. We need to be sensitive.”

“Since when are you-“ Zack cut himself off when Melissa started cracking her knuckles. “Okay, sensitive! Got it!”

“He’s better than Sara,” Melissa said. “When Dr. Magnezone and Time Infernape broke off their partnership, she was sobbing on the floor with a gallon of double fudge ice cream.”

“Then she obsessively read angst fanfics for the next two weeks,” Milo added. “I think she was just making it harder on herself.”

Dakota came back in five minutes, and Rita dropped off their smoothies not long after that.

Milo, Melissa, and Zack glanced at each other awkwardly, waiting for someone to broach a topic of conversation. Dakota seemed oblivious to the atmosphere and sipped at his own smoothie.

Eventually, it was Milo who broke the silence. “Do you have any Pokémon?” he asked, figuring that talking about Pokémon was safe enough.

“Yeah, Sharpedo and Swalot. They’re good loyal partners,” Dakota said. There was a touch of bitterness in his tone though, one that made Milo wonder if inviting him to their table had been a good idea after all. “Huh. I can’t believe I forgot to ask your names. I would’ve been scolded for sure by-well, never mind.”

Milo pointed to each of his friends in turn. “I’m Milo, that’s Melissa, and the worrywart over there is Zack.”

Zack scowled. “I am not a worrywart.”

Melissa and Dakota snickered into their napkins.

“Melissa and I are childhood friends,” Milo continued. “We met Zack at the beginning of our journey. His dad was stuck in the middle of a lake cause this Patchy guy was releasing way too many Magikarp into the water, so we fought him off with Diogee and the Hoenn starters. It was so cool.”

“So you met Patchy then,” Dakota said casually. “Guy’s a real nutcase. He took initiation into the group way too seriously. Talking like a pirate was only required for the first three hours of membership.”

Melissa almost choked on her smoothie. “You know Patchy?”

Dakota shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich as soon as Rita set his plate on the table. “I’m his boss. We banned him from taking part in karaoke night. Couldn’t carry a tune. And he always insists on sea shanties.”

“So…what’s your occupation?” Zack asked, sounding like he’d prefer not to hear their answer.

“Boss of Team Aqua,” Dakota said.

Everyone stared at him blankly.

“Okay, so you’ve never heard of us. S’cool. We’re just trying to revive the ancient Pokémon Kyogre and make it rain enough to provide new habitats for Pokémon. Nothing more to it than that,” Dakota continued to eat his sandwich as if he hadn’t said he’d planned on disrupting the delicate balance of nature. “And between you and me, water’s a ton cooler than magma.”

“Obviously,” Zack muttered.

“So, uh, good luck with that?” Milo said.

“Thanks,” Dakota grinned. His phone buzzed frantically this time. He checked the caller ID. “Sav again. Sorry she keeps interrupting like this.”

He headed for the bathroom.

“Does he look like someone who’s trying to revive a legendary?” Zack asked.

“No, he looks like a displaced time traveler from the ‘70s,” Melissa said. “If I were trying to revive Kyogre, I’d at least wear blue to match.”

“He has more of a warm color aesthetic, I think. Fall colors,” Milo added.

They finished their meal without Dakota, and Milo signaled Rita over for their check.

“Dakota said you’d offered to pay for his meal,” Rita smiled as Melissa studied the receipt closely. “That’s really sweet, you know.”

The receipt crinkled in Melissa’s hand. “Where is he right now?” she asked pleasantly, though there was a dangerous edge in her voice.

Milo hauled Zack away from the table and towards the side door that led to the outdoor enclosure.

“Oh, he left a few minutes ago.”

“HE DINED AND DASHED ON US?”

Rita tapped her chin in thought. “Ah, I remember now! His partner used to have these really loud arguments with him outside cause he always forgot his wallet! Dakota must have a lot of tracksuits if he can never remember which one he put his wallet in!”

She laughed, completely oblivious to Melissa’s irritated glare.

Melissa slammed a wad of Pokédollars onto the table and stomped past Milo and Zack.

“Dakota owes me for the sandwich and smoothie, plus taxes and interest.”

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | MICHAEL C. HSIUNG | VANS US OPEN 2018

Michael C. Hsiung has a special imagination, one filled with mermen, dragons, creative landscapes and intriguing narratives. His humorous illustrations will evoke your inner child and leave you wanting more. If only everyone could see the world through his eyes, maybe we’d live life a bit more light-heartedly. Now let’s dive into who this creative genius is and what he created on this year’s Vans US Open skate and BMX course.

Photographs courtesy of Ginger Caranto

What is your background? I was born in Chinatown, Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. My folks emigrated from Taiwan to the US in the mid-late 70’s, and I grew up in Northridge where I discovered art, comic books, fantasy, skateboarding, Dungeons & Dragons and heavy metal. Now, I’m a self taught artist who has been lucky enough to draw and show my art to folks who hopefully like a good chuckle or two.

How did you get into art? My childhood was always filled with drawing, scribbling, and coloring books. I was always really stoked on comic book art, Dungeons & Dragons artwork, Pushead, Frazetta, Gorey and anything with skulls or dragons.

How did you start making art / what drives you to continue to do so? I grew up doodling, coloring, and using my imagination to play and have fun. So naturally I always kept a sketchbook or journal to record my thoughts through drawings or doodles. Tried endlessly to draw my own comic to no avail. Eventually I stopped drawing for a long time because I just didn’t think my drawings were good enough. I didn’t think I had the talent for it, so I stopped. Years passed . . .  I didn’t find myself drawing anymore, not until, I moved back to Los Angeles in 2007. I was hanging out with my old skate friends, and one of them was making art (Mike Stilkey - amazing artist), as was my sister, Pearl. They both encouraged me to draw with them while we chilled out from nights out on the town or when we were killing time. It was the perfect window for me to create and revisit drawing.

Eventually with enough encouragement through my friends and various random folks on the internet, I started to draw more and more. This eventually led to me showing work, taking on projects, and ultimately finding a purpose for myself. That was about 10 years ago, and it has been quite the ride. What drives me to continue has changed over the years, as I think it does for most folks who try and make a living doing art or freelance. It isn’t a easy career, though it may seem super fun and exciting, which it is of course. But also there’s what the reality is too– it is a lot of work, sacrifice and constant ups and downs. That being said, drawing is so much a part of who I am that while it has its challenges I know if I stopped, I’d be unsatisfied with life. I draw and make art to keep my sanity, and hopefully bring joy to folks who come across it.  

Who are your biggest influences? Hands down my older sister Pearl who is an amazing artist and painter. She was always drawing me things or painting my door with cool comic characters. Later on in life, she encouraged me to draw again, just for the therapy side of having an outlet.

What does your creative process entail? My process has changed over the years.  I used to just sit down, draw immediately, form ideas, and BOOM – that would continue for many years. Nowadays, I really have to find time and a spark or inspiration, then spend the hours sitting, pondering, sketching, and erasing before I even get to the point of wanting to pen in the lines. Sometimes I chuck things before they have even been half way finished. It is hard not to overthink what you do when you’ve been doing it for a bit, but I try and stay fresh by focusing on ideas and interests that inspire me. I also try and create a fun and relaxed environment in my studio with little to few distractions–almost as if to take me back to when I was a kid drawing just for drawing’s sake.

What is your most important artist tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio? My most important artist tool is my imagination. Growing up I was lucky to really have to use my own imagination to play and create worlds, which has helped me as an artist. Imagination and creativity is what gives life to my art.

Many of your drawings feature a hybrid animal. Who is this character and what does he represent to you? I think the first hybrid animals I started drawing were merman. I am fascinated by mythology and old tales, so I wanted to re-imagine what these creatures were like, who they were, and why the mermaids left them. I started to create these stories in my head, so I wanted to draw out my own narrative. I love reading and exploring the origins of mythological creatures such as centaurs, harpies, satyrs and then re-creating my own tales about them in the modern world or with modern vices. They allow me to explore the world in a different way as well as express my passion for cryptozoology, mythology, and fantasy.

Where do you find inspiration for your work? Inspiration is a strange thing, but I get inspired by things I read, strange facts, old books, sometimes movies, adventurers, old tales, friend antics, mythology, fantasy, crystals, nature, skateboarding and the list goes on. I try and let my mind find other interests that can inspire my work in a new direction.

How has your style changed over your career? When I started drawing again in 2007 my art was looser, naive, and more freeform but thematically I was drawing what I touch upon now. I was and am still drawing mermen, weird animals, and strange people. I’ve worked on honing my ideas, drawing with intention, and making my art cleaner, straighter and well executed. That’s what happens when you start to show art with other amazing artists - it makes you up your stuff!

Can you tell us about the mural you created for the Vans Park Series course? This year for the Vans Park Series course I created four different painted illustrated pieces–a bear skating on all his paws, a Slip-On shoe wizard, a mustached dude on a log board, and a bear with a sun hat on one as well.

The bear on the board is a character I’ve been drawing for a few years. She’s kind of a combo of a California State bear, a friend and a reference to my last name, which in Chinese translates to BEAR. Bet you didn’t see that one coming ha.

Well I’m super into wizards and super into Slip-Ons, so it was just a natural thing that came to being hah. I did that piece for my wife Rachel too! I even added some crystals for her since she’s a total rock hound.

The last character is just a rad cruiser dude who I imagine seeing all over town just laying back on his deck with his road soda. Just enjoying life.

What is your favorite part about painting a mural? My favorite part about painting the mural is when you see it getting shredded by all the amazing skateboarders!

What was the painting experience like working with multiple artists on the course? It’s such a great bonding experience when you’re painting a huge skate course in 3 days with other artists. I love seeing everyone’s approach, style and learning about their art and who they are.

It was my first time meeting Benjamn Marasco and Ellen Rutt, and I have to say those are some inspiring folks. They tackled their massive murals within tough conditions and never flinched.  I love that.

It is always fun to work alongside Jack Graydon! He’s the best. You wanna learn about spray paint? Jack’s your man. You need help with a color choice, Jack is the man!

Then it was a special treat to work with artist and bud Phil Morgan. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was real special. We helped keep each other on track and just like always bounce ideas off each other. Lots of time I feel like you’re working out your problems in the bowl with other artists. It’s fun!

Do you have a favorite memory from your time spent at the US Open? So many fun and memorable moments, but my favorite memory from the time in the park was definitely the last day when we were all finished with our murals and sitting together on the spine looking around and checking out each other’s pieces.  I mean you spend most of the time there focusing on your mural and painting that you don’t actually get to see each other’s work before it gets skated - so that end moment is special :)

What was the most challenging part of the mural you created? The most challenging part of the mural really is the weather (super hot in the bowl!) and painting on the transition. You don’t realize how many muscles start working until you wake up the next morning. Standing and balancing while trying to paint a straight line is probably the hardest part, but you learn to get loose and go with the flow. Let it flow!

Do you have any advice for people who have dreams of becoming an artist? My advice to people who have the dream of becoming an artist–if you have a great imagination, feed it with books, music, art, and play a board game once in a while.

Follow Michael on Instagram and check out his online shop here.

[thisaintascenereviews]

Album Review by Bradley Christensen Black Sabbath – Paranoid Record Label: Vertigo Release Date: September 18 1970

You might have read a lot about Black Sabbath’s second album, 1970’s Paranoid, when I talked about their debut self-titled LP, also released in 1970, but I felt like I had to two things with that review – talk about the history of heavy metal, and how that LP was influential to the genre (arguably being the first metal album ever made), and my personal history with the band. Black Sabbath has always been a band that I have a rather “complicated�� relationship with, because I respect them more than I like them. I’ve always felt like that. I talked a lot about Paranoid in that review, simply because that’s the first album from them I’ve ever heard, as well as the first metal album I’ve ever heard. I was super into classic rock at the time when I heard the album, and I thought it would be neat to venture into heavy metal. I chose Paranoid, because it’s an album that’s often considered by critics to be a landmark metal album, and it truly is, but when I first heard it, it wasn’t an album that resonated with me too much. I mentioned a bit why in my review of the self-titled, but let’s go over it again. The first thing that didn’t do a lot for me at the time was its sound. I was hugely into metalcore, deathcore, and post-hardcore at the time, and that’s the heaviest that I’ve gone. Later on that year, I’d get into metal through death metal, which made much more sense than listening to Black Sabbath’s second album that’s very slow, menacing, and dark (although I love it for those reasons now). It made more sense to introduce me to metal through something that I was more familiar with, but the last year or two has been spent getting into styles of metal that I haven’t gotten much into, such as thrash and death metal. The second biggest reason that I never got into Paranoid as much as I wanted to, even after knowing it was a classic album is that I just didn’t care for vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. That might be the main reason, actually, because I just didn’t care for his voice much.

Like I mentioned in my review of the self-titled, later on in that same year, I actually picked up some albums from the Ronnie James Dio era of Black Sabbath, Dio, if you’re not familiar with metal, is a big deal in the metal world. He was the vocalist of Rainbow, started by Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, and after fronting Black Sabbath for a few years, he started his eponymous band, which went on to be a pioneering band for power metal and neoclassical metal. I’m a big fan of the Dio era of Sabbath, even more so than the Ozzy era, just because Dio is a better vocalist. You can’t really argue that, either, Dio just has the better voice. Who was more of an influence, though, that’s where you can debate it. I would lean towards Ozzy, just because of Black Sabbath, but Dio did a lot for metal, too, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Regardless, though, I got much more into Dio’s era of Black Sabbath, because Dio’s vocals were more interesting, and he managed to take Black Sabbath’s doom-laden and dark sound and put a new spin on it, so I really enjoyed his first two albums with the group, 1980’s Heaven And Hell, as well as 1981’s Mob Rules. I’ve wanted to come back to Paranoid for the longest time, because I’ve gotten more into metal over the years, especially 1970s / 1980s metal, and Black Sabbath is one of the forefathers of metal. Before I could do that, however, I picked up 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath at FYE, because I was there one day with my girlfriend, because I saw the album for only $5 there, so I thought, “Why not?” I didn’t get too huge into that one, either, but something made me go back to it. I got more into doom metal recently, and I thought that I should listen to some Sabbath-esque metal, so along with a ton of newer albums, I picked up a few more Sabbath albums, as well as decided to revisit Paranoid. My thoughts on this LP have changed immensely over the last few years, and it’s because of a change in perspective, as well as tastes.

The reasons that I didn’t care for the album in the past are reasons that I love it now, and one of the most interesting things about this LP is that it’s a lot more refined than the self-titled. When people think of Black Sabbath, they think of this type of sound – dark, doomy, menacing, strange, and slow-moving, all the while Ozzy Osboure wailing over everything. This is their most iconic album, and for good reason, because it features a couple of their signature songs – “War Pigs,” which opens up the album, and “Iron Man.” People know the latter song as being in the movie of the same name, but the former song is one of those songs that people know, they just may not know it is as Black Sabbath. What’s interesting about Black Sabbath is that their sound is quite basic. There’s not much to it. These guys came up when metal was just becoming a thing, and it’s got a relatively basic sound to it, it’s just that everything is very well done on it. The instrumentation is tremendous, just as the sound is great, especially now that I’m warming up to this slower brand of heavy metal, but there’s not a whole lot to it. This thing isn’t insanely complex, but at the same time, it’s groundbreaking. Not all groundbreaking albums need to be complex, insane, and intense, because this album came out when metal was just forming. Honestly, this would be a great album to recommend to rock fans that want to get into metal, because metal had a lot in common with blues rock, psychedelic rock, and hard rock of the late 60s and early 70s. It wasn’t until bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden came along that removed the bluesy elements from metal, but I feel like rock fans could get into this album a bit more than someone like myself, who was more into metalcore, deathcore, and post-hardcore, genres that were heavier by nature, so listening to blues rock-influenced heavy metal from the early 1970s wasn’t a good idea.

A few years later, though, I can definitely see this LP is a classic, and frankly, I love it. It’s my favorite Sabbath album that I’ve heard, maybe even including the Dio era, because it’s such a groundbreaking release. I still don’t really love Osbourne’s vocals, as I’m not a huge fan of his style, since he’s not really a technically good singer, but I feel like the vocals aren’t the focus with albums like this. It’s on the instrumentation, atmosphere, and overall sound. That’s the only real nitpick I have with this LP nowadays, but it’s a nitpick, since the rest of the album is amazing. For Christmas this year, I sent my best friend a copy of this LP, actually, and he said it was great. I mean, he knew it was a classic, too, but he really enjoyed it. He’s more of a rock fan, too, and that tells you something. This is a perfect gateway album for rock fans to get into metal, but I can understand someone being hesitant to check this out. Personally, though, I love diving into the past, because you could understand where your favorite bands and genres came from. With the case of Black Sabbath, they helped to pioneer heavy metal, because their first two albums are two of the first heavy metal albums ever made. Heavy metal itself came from blues rock, psychedelic, and hard rock from the late 1960s, so in that case, you might like bands such as Cream, Led Zeppelin, and Iron Butterfly, too, but we’re talking about heavy metal here. I’m glad that I decided to revisit Paranoid, and I know that I have quite a lot to say about it, but why wouldn’t I? This LP changed everything as we know it. Without this LP, metal wouldn’t be the same. It would still most likely exist, but not in the same degree that we know it. If you’re a metal fan, and you haven’t listened to this, no matter the kind that you like, you’re missing out. For a long time, I respected this band more than I liked it, but now that a few years have passed, I love this LP and I respect it.

[rustjungle]

Mahoning River Archaeology

Steel Valley, O. - The Mahoning River forms in Columbiana County and merges with the Shenango river just south of New Castle, PA to form the Beaver River.

This river served as the main artery for the miles and miles of steel mills that once lined the Mahoning. The mills used huge amounts of water for various purposes which was pumped in from the river, and eventually returned. Industrial waste and super heated water poured into the river for a century. The river did not freeze, even in the frigid north east Ohio winters, for decades. When the local steel industry began to collapse in the 70s and 80s the Mahoning finally began to freeze again, but even with the mills closed the river still showed the scars from the area's industrial past. The levels of heavy metals, PCBs and other contaminants made the Mahoning one of the most polluted in the United States.

There has always been a stigma around the river, people would say that there were three eyed fish that lived in it and that you would be poisoned if you swam in it. The river is cleaner now, it's safe to eat small amounts of the fish even, but people still made those comments when I told them I was going to 'yak the riv as they say.

Pollution or no pollution, I still wanted to explore the river to see the Steel Valley's industry from a vantage point that most people never have or will. Years ago, my cousin suggested we make a raft from 55 gallon drums and scrap lumber to float down the river, so I started doing a little research. I really wanted to float from Newton Falls, all down through Warren (WCI Steel was still in business then, it would have been something to pass between the blast fce. and BOF sides of the active mill), Niles, McDonald, Girard, Youngstown, Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville and New Castle through the remains of industry. I found a few river maps online, and saw that there were dams and obstructions that seemed like they could kill us all along the river so we tabled that idea.

Earlier this year I was contacted by Chuck Miller from the Mahoning River Paddling & Restoration Group who saw the story WFMJ TV21 did on this site. He was familiar with the river, how to kayak it safely, and offered to loan me a boat and take me from Youngstown to Lowellville. I let him know that hell yes I wanted to go.

We started just south of the abandoned steel truss bridge that was West Avenue when it still crossed the river. We paddled down past the B&O station, under the Peanut bridge and then the Marshall Street bridge. There were stretches of the Mahoning near that point that looked nothing like Youngstown, it was like being out in Cook's Forest. Very quiet, very beautiful. Peaceful. It's a shame the river has never been dredged and the dams have been left behind. If that happened it could be a terrific recreation area. I was there to see the dams though, there is something to be said about all of that industry being overtaken by nature.

 The first industrial relic we came across was just past where the William Tod Co. / Wean United stood, south of the Market Street bridge. (No traces of the Tod Co. remained.) The Covelli Centre replaced Republic Steel, but the water intake still exisits. The same intake is pictured on this postcard and appears on this map dated 1884. Built to last in Youngstown.

Compare the postcard above to the modern photo below. The trees along the riverbank have really bounced back, not just here but all along the river; it was amazong kayaking throguh that tree canopy. 

Across from where the Republic mill was I noticed what looked like a boxcar on the hill just down from the active railroad tracks. That is definitely a boxcar, or at least a mangled part of one. A CSX freight train happened to pass by as I was photographing this wreck and wondering how the hell it got there.

The next two photos are the remaining pier for what was Cedar Street when it used to cross the river, and a piece of 2" threaded rod that was growing out of the hillside just before the next Republic Steel mill we came across: the Hazelton works. 

This pipe jutting out of the man made stacked stone retaining wall was the first indication that we were back in an industrial area. A bird was hanging around inside of that pipe, it flew out and startled the hell out of me. I missed the shot.

We were entering what was a a highly industrialized stretch of river, see the image from Youngstown, Ohio: Steel Valley Artifacts below. From this point down to Lowellville we passed places that employed relatives of mine. Youngstown Sheet & Tube (John D. Grilli, Dominick Grilli, Don Meenachan, Bob Grilli, John W. Grilli [via Industrial Mill Service]), J&L Steel/Cold Metal Products (Albert Grilli) who also drew water from the river all the way from the other side of YS&T, but I couldn't find their intake. Further down would have been Sharon Steel's Lowellville works (Mario Grilli and possibly Freddie Retort). These men that spent years here were on my mind the entire time.

  Two monolithic Republic shed buildings, visible in the photo above, peek through the heavy tree cover on the banks of the river.

The bridge piers {L} and abutment {R} below. Per Rick Rowlands of Youngstown Steel Heritage: "Since it would connect the Republic track from Brown Bonnell to the operations at the other side of the river I would say that it was a Republic Steel bridge.  Possibly the route by which hot metal got to the open hearth from the blast furnaces."

Below: A Republic Steel shed and a sand tower that I would say is 100' tall.

Below: Republic Steel Corp. intake. The river was a bit low that day so you were able to see the intake grates exposed at the bottom of this structure.

Below: A section of brick wall that I assume was pushed into the river during the demolition of the Republic Steel Hazelton works.

Below: Another Republic Steel rail bridge which is abandoned, and in the background standes the still active Norfolk Southern (formerly Pennsylvania Railroad) Youngstown line and yard office. 

The next images are from the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company's Campbell works, beginning with this image of a tree that has grown around several lengths of pipe. There were rail lines at the top of this bank that ran through the Sheet & Tube propoerty, I wonder if pipe spilled off of a train that was moving it around in the mill.

The photo below was taken from underneath of the shiny new Walton Street bridge, with a Sheet & Tube bridge in the background. The remaining bridge is very industrial in it's design, it features an expanded metal deck and large diameter pipes that ran across it. The really interesting item here is the abandoned bridge pier in the foreground. 

This pier supported the original Walton Street bridge, which was the main entrance to Youngstown Sheet & Tube. There is a very Youngstown story behind the reason that bridge had to be replaced, one that involves a shot and a beer bar that steelworkers used to frequent right up Walton St.

I will leave names out of this, but here is the story of the Walton Street bridge and the Bloom Butt Inn as it was told to me: "When they cut the ends of a slab (bloom) off to get the right length for the order , it's called a bloom butt. Three guys on midnight shift pulled a scam where one guy ran a locomotive crane, one drove truck and the third guy did the hooking and unhooking. They would sell the butts as scrap in Pittsburgh. After a while they got lazy and started taking the butts to New Castle to sell as scrap. YS&T would periodically check scrap yards to see if anything came from them. YS&T found about $180,000.00 worth of receipts from just New Castle. They fired the three guys. One eventually bought the Walton bar and named it The Bloom Butt Inn. Don't know about one of the guys, but the locomotive driver got his job back after about a year. One day on day shift he was running late at the end of his shift and was rushing back to the shop in the loco crane and forgot to put the boom down. He hit the bridge that went to Walton street knocking it out of whack. The bridge was never able to be used after that. Men going into the mill from Walton street had to go down steps to ground level and take a round about way to get into the plant." 

Below is a photo of the aformentioned bridge in the 80's when they were tearing down the Campbell works. She looks a little bit out of plumb.

 I could not find any information on this Bloom Butt Inn online, but with today being the 40th anniversary of Black Monday (learn more about that here, and the impact it had on my family here) there has been a lot of talk about Youngstown's steel industry in the media. I was watching a segment on the shutdowns on WKBN and sure as shit they cut from a shot of the mill to interviews of people at "a mill bar" they called it. The Bloom Butt Inn.

I don't think stealing all that scrap was an ethical decision, but skimming off the top is as Youngstown as pierogies and homemade cavatels. Anyhow, enough with story time. The next image was the main water intake for Youngstown Sheet & Tube, located just southeast of where the blast furnaces once stood.

The remains of a massive dam that sat between the coke plant and blast furnaces. Per Rick Rowlands: "Dam to create cooling water pool for Campbell Works.  A tramway that hauled coke in self propelled transfer cars ran over a trestle built on top of this dam."

Intake and pump house for the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Struthers works. The water pulled from this location was needed for the 9" and 12" bar mills (where my grandpa was a craneman) as well as the conduit plant and powerhouse.

Below are photos of the former Sharon Steel Corp.'s pump houses that served their Lowellville works. "Sharon Steel Lowellville Works pump house.  Actually there are two pump houses.  This one is the oldest of the two.  It was replaced by the larger one next to it. This one might date back to the Ohio Iron & Steel Co. days"

The newer of the two (but still long forgotten) Sharon Steel pumphouse.

A nine mile trip down the Mahoning River revealed another side of our industrial heritage that needed to be documented, and I feel lucky to have been able to do that. These buildings will likely stand for years and years, there is more concrete than steel scrap, plus you would never know they were down there. Out of sight out of mind. I like to think I changed that.

  Unless otherwise noted, all photos copyright Paul Grilli - The Rust Jungle 2017

[escribirsinsaber]

HOLLYWOOD POETRY

Biometrical America

 America is under surviellance

24/7 under biometric HD

dear customers, we are being recorded

for the future

& present

our past makes the point

everytime on screens

 you may feel cold

under the sun

 on your own

you´ll watch your own picture filtered

  Permítame la clave del Wi-fi:

 Airtravelling exclusive

                          exclusion

                        experience

 Boarding pass double SS

relax your nerves

 right after the extra ordinary SS SS

inspection, feel free to enjoy at large

our selection of

ultraproduced Latin Pop

with international style dressing

 Total High Definition XP

slow motion romances

sending autotuned kisses

 Equalized sound

Normalized sound

Autocorrected lyrics

 I.

Apure su espresso

y deje de escribir

mariconerías

en el café de paso

 II.

Si vas a cantar en inglés

debes saber en inglés.

Antes de cantar en inglés,

aprende a hablar inglés

because you sound very much Tarzán.

 Antes de cantar en inglés

verifica la pronunciación.

 III.

Si usted puede cantar en inglés

y cantar en Español Latinoamericano

(antes llamado castellano)

la misma canción,

es posible que usted tenga una Serpiente

combinada con un Águila

en la Lengua.

 IV.

Si va a escribir

y no va a consumir

usted se debe ir.

 V.

Cuando algún otro

te envíe aquella mirada lasciva

solamente mantén

las cuencas de la calavera bien abiertas,

en el momento en que aprietes el mentón,

el tipo sabrá que solo el Quijote podría enamorarte.

 VI.

Cualquier declinación

de casos de género

es sexita por autonomasia,

salvo el caso neutro

que no aplica

para el Español Castellano Latinoamericano

 VIII.

I´m so lucky.

Got the SS SS boarding pass

 Sicherheit

security

seguridad

sagrada

 The lady, Airport Voice,

she calls my name

she calls my name

and she repeats

 Airplane Mode:

 I´ve successfully created

a twitter account

got not an elaborate username yet

but got a password

kinda related to my secondary e-mail account

at the gooleador

 gool

goooooooooool

gooooooooooool

 goooooooooooooool de Goooooooogle

 Goooolazo

Goooolazo

Goooolazo against everybody.

 Airplane Mode Brightness Correction:

 No google in the airplane

but maybe a tweet

                      a tweet

 I write tweets like singing

pop birds short songs

tiny 140 songs

less than one minute-long songs

 Tweet while flying

eat my tweet, my dear

 You know my GPS

so call me maybe

 I´ll give you some Wi-Fi Hotspot, (lady)

  DATA CONNECTION FULL TIME SINCE BIRTH

 That´s realität

 there is no point

asking for time

 Aeroplano

Teléfono

Audífono

 impulsado

powered by light

                  by kerosene

                  by Benzin

 from B to M

from O to E

from G to X

from A to Z

from U.S.A to ABC

 Aeromexperience:

 First Heineken then Tecate Light

first canciones en inglés en el comercial

then another canción en inglés en el comercial

 First no cholos en el comercial

but nice models dressed in white

 sonrisa perfecta

 using

super nice smiles to speak

about the possibility

of a cathastrophy

 Remember to take off your shoes

in order to use

the floating air rollercoaster

"the slide"

 8 slide lifeboats

 Ferrari 300 Rollerball:

 70 USD Ferrari 300 rollerball

 Do you know it?

Can you imagine?

 It writes so fast I cannot think

fair enough to make it

articulate a single word

 futuristic trace,

red sexy body,

black ink,

diamond ball,

 gimmie one

and gimmie speed

and I´ll pierce

every tablet on earth

 in the blink of an eye

in the spin of a roll

in the rolling spin

 Hole in the sky sobrevolando San Diego:

 Hole que tengo de hambre

de pagar tinto de 4 USD

Snickers de 5$

 what sky are we talking about?

El cielito lindo que todos cantan

y luego reclaman: oye, porqué estás tan mexicano?

y el aeroplano rompiendo la velocidad del sonido

en picada pa´ Hollywood

 let´s do some Debord Graffitty

no wildstyle hip hop

but old school

post-marxist situationist site specific

right in the face

of Herr Weinstein

 Hermosa Beach:

 Do not drink the speed limit

mein Schatz

do not drink the Tzunami

 this lovely hazardous beach is kinda quiet

the pacific is at my back

take sun dressed in black

record the lines written in the sand

with videos of the tide

 you can always come to the ocean

and watch the waves

& the seagulls

they glide taoisticly flying

or walk on the supersmooth

special pavement

listening to the american way riding on bikes

 Heavy Metal Emergency:

 Firefighting the streets

with riffs

of salt water

from the Pacific

 we extinguish the conflagrations

here

with liquor

and rubber tires

 We got fire to go

water & sand to stay

we got all what you would like

and more than you actually do

 Writing Stretching:

 Lie completely belly side

to the green

extend your legs wide

opening chakra

 wide open Alpha

wide open Gamma

 open wide Dali

open wide Kali

open wide Delta

 wide open Kimi

wide open Chuen

wide open Akbal

wide open Ix

wide open Oc

 so the vowels

will come slowly

 steady

flowing

creamy

chewy

 Leather Letters:

 The scalped goat

got to be ivory black

 bloody as well

bloody rare

 and you have to wear it

everytime

to sweat ir

deeply wet at the dance ball

 then the batttlejacket

has to have several homemade patches

expressing concern about no cat

 The missunderstanding of the Valkirias:

 At first

you cannot nicht glauben

they are just like that

 carring gold

and different manners

ready for disputations

about all

consequently they

become soft hunger

shinning from their eyes

 they won´t cry it out loud

they´ll suggest

                            implicit likes

 Gimmie the look:

 I see you are looking, bad, man

you´re ogling

hard

 it can be seen from almost a mile

how you stare while

how the cone comes out

and the periphericall space

is totally excluded

from the edge of the knive of your eyes

 I see it totally clear

your iris

glowing, sparkling,

so much like the midday sun

 equinoxial

 Attitude Issues:

 can´t smile like that

sorry I don´t use to

even if I try

 I never know who am I talking with

 alone

 it´s gonna be okey, okey?

the point is

don´t say everything you think

 ´cause you´re awfully wrong

Mister Höfflichkeit

  Tomar el sol:

 Tomo el sol

acostado

supino

sobre el pasto

del cementerio de Hollywood

 tengo una total vista

en contrapicado

de dos palmeras elongadas

y un par de árboles

que no sé nombrar

 Y veo un ave,

pienso que es un halcón

planeando

en la corriente tibia del summertime eterno

 sin estar buscando,

perdiendo el tiempo

 pienso que debería meditar

o hacer estiramientos

 pienso en lo difícil que es estar

 O.K. L.A.:

 In the neighborhood

there are some

salvatruchas

pretty much sympathetic

´cause they take care of the barrio

 they drink light beer,

enjoy themselves out in the parking lot

at the backyard

and invite me

a hablar español y

spanglish

y Shakira y James

 cabrones

 They make fun of me

because I still live with my mom

back at Colombia, Bogotá

but they say I can make it here

they said I´m lucky

and I believe them

because I believe in myself,

as a persecutioner

of something

which I do not know how to call

  Chocolate Brownie Breakfast:

 I know how I like my

chocolate brownie

 not too early, sunny,

foamy

 I like it conspicous

and transnational

with a tolerance trust

kinda like it

 I kinda like it not fat

not too milky

 I like it like it

              like it

              like it

not like me

 Chocolate Stains:

 These chocolate stains

all over my body

make me this cacao impression

 I´m so like a fruit

when... you know,

when you go out

 the chocolate runs

through my bloodstream

going around in circles

it´s a roller-coaster feeling

a rolling sugar cube,

molecule,

 such a sweet caoba mahoganny muddy deep brown

tiny thing running hot

 UNWASHABLE:

 Cannot be unseen

the thing

goes on your skin

also within

huge social constructs

of unequility

huge machineskin

and you may feel like

taking a bath

but it cannot be washed

   Seaweed:

 She gave me this

letter size sheet of

green

crunchy salty thing

 and she devoured hers

and I was like,

wow

let´s try

 never ate so much before

this is a book made by the sea

 gives you

Schreibenlust

a wish to write

 The Treehouse:

 They were doing cocaine

while we were at the treehouse

 They had an oil barrel burning

outside

these crust punks living in a 8 bedrooms house

they look wild

but at the end they are just kids wasting time

 You can easily know ten or twenty new people

on just one night

 For example this one black cyclist

had speech impediments issues

buy was a such a charming ladiesman

hitting directly at Corazón

with every known trick

 Up in the treehouse we were shooting comercials

for fun

 Banana and Corn Allergic Reactions:

 So the doctor said it was

neuro-related

years of itching

and years of my skin falling appart

kinda like an autumn tree,

dried by the sun,

little flakes flying off

 Everything has corn inside

because corn is some kind of god

 On the other hand

bananas taste like war

 It´s just bloddy geopolitical

cosmologically prehispanical fucked up

 Burning Sun:

 Got burnt at the pacific coast

where the sun shines

hard hard

really bright

and when you take pictures of it

is such a huge

white round

corona solar

above the palmtrees

above

            the valley

 sunscreen 100

sun protection factor

 Eat Like:

 Me ha pasado dos veces:

-una torta con todo

-una Diablo thick

 llego a la mitad y quedo lleno

o solo la idea de comer me llena

 you can have it all

if you have enough

 make it to go

 I´ll eat later the other half

or give it to my pal

 I´ll make this sweet chili beverage

I´ll sell this Diablo blood online

 California Games:

 Váyase al bar a jugar billar

tómese un whisky coffee no-baileys

puede ser cool estar solo

un rato

siéntese a escuchar

por fin una cosa que no sea vallenato

otra cosa

clásica de la cultura popular

 americana

 sin problemas, my friend

póngase a tirar dardos a la foto

que le de la gana

 ¿dónde está su identidad?

déjeme ver a ver

una requisa para entrar

quieto que no es por joder

vállase a surfear en el bus en skate

   El Cuaderno Negro:

 Ese man de cuero

está escribiendo en su cuaderno

todo el tiempo

 hey, venga y le cuento

 ese man ahí va

     está contento

pero no lo anda diciendo

 perdón, brother

what the fuck is the problem

is not like its over

solamente

   anda

         mirando

 a ver

a ver

a ver

a ver ese video

  Alergia Indoeuropea:

 Digamos algo bonito

en sanscrito

comic sans con serifas

hechas a mano

pero prescindiendo

del árbol

 digamos que

en hebreo mal hablado

no se puede sino comer pescado

y que todos los demás

son unos cerdos

 por las ramas de una lengua

sin diccionario

sin las pandillas de la academia

 Es bien jodido oír hablar

al Cuervo

proponere que diga algo nuevo

 me pica la piel

me pica la lengua

 Renders:

 time is processed

by the machine

 cut & pasted

& faded to black

 may use some soundtrack

may correct it

for it is too bright

and then

 let it load

let it get shaped

cluster by cluster

 walks the timeline

transforms hours into bytes

 reminding framed memories

 76,4%

may I go for coffee

 78,27%

may I have a smoke

 85%

Don´t watch the screen

it gets nervous

 97%

pray to St. Gates Jobs

 100% Export

copy it to the flashdrive

 and may Sony make you enjoy

 Productos Americanos:

 Estoy confundido con el concepto

de lo americano

 en el medio

un skateboard

y autos 4 x 4 Family Trucks

 atrapado entre las hamburguesas

y los burritos

siempre encuentro un menú

más o menos igual

con fotos fotochopeadas

con pinturas muralistas

 las manos de obra son de los inmigrantes

los capitales son fotogénicos

y sonríen en las vayas junto a los centros comerciales

 y son blancos

o están bronceados.

 Los Angeles CAR MEDIA TRANS CITY:

 On foot you´ll get but and dehydrated

still there are some brave walkers

pulling their supermaket cars

                                                  hall full

let´s say you want to go downtown

pretty easy, take the bus

let´s say you want to meet the Ocean

man, you need a ride

 ride the space

use any ship you can

cycle hard

skate for fun

get on get off

 drink gass

tap and then

show the card.

 Aire Incondicional:

 Cuando se abre una ventana

o se entra a una tienda

 el soplido

la corriente que viene

atraviesa medio globo

va empujando barcos

eleva a las gaviotas

las hace estacionarias

vigilando los restos de comida tirados en las playas

 el ventilador más grande del mundo

es el viento

 SK8 IN L.A.:

 There goes the skater

I mean the skateboarder

he´s at the border

he´s rolling

through the landscape

I mean the cityscape

There goes another

he has this oldschool deck

he has

nothing to lose

nowhere to stay

he remains

and he´s doing fine

There´s the last one

he´s taking the bus

he´s in a hurry

but he´s coming back

 Jukebox Democracy:

 Use 25Cents to play

something nice

cheer up

maybe dance

 Just need a little patience

to do the line

if you liek, deliberate,

 what would you like?

what would we all like?

what do I want?

 You don´t know

but it´s cool

it´s money

the commonground

even if you don´t have

why would you mind?

 Hear this ballad,

little twang,

the crooner is such a big

classical white or black man

or if you go down south

there´s this little

spanish speaker

making girls cry

 wait for the blues, man,

do not get depressed bad

 Jimmy undead everlasting guitar

or

Robert wooden sound

reverberator metal thing

with this low tech

acoustic flavour

 We got´em all

just show me the money

you are free to buy it.

 Drive Thru Land:

 60 the compact

100 the truck

 I see some Hummers on the street

I´ve never driven one

 While we were crawling

the freeway 101

a pouring Lamborgini

ran leaving the traffic jam

far behind...

 Let´s find the parking spot

1 dollar 1 hour

time relates to money

in this ratio: 100 to 60

 turn the motor on

back to neutro

back again

to drive mode

 I think I´m scared of freeways

and it´s also kinda scary to think

about the NS war-legacy

in transportation interconnecting America

 I think their driving is so polite

until the roadrager breaks in

until you imagine a getaway car

running a loop

inside the bank parking lot

 sorry

sirens

fire department

LAPD sedans

down crossing under

intricated bridges of pure solid

grey concrete

 I was affraid of nighttime downtown L.A.

it was this casual dystopical picture

 Welcome buddy, where are you from?

Colombiano? eh?

First time in L.A?

 Let´s see your reservation, OK,

let´s go

 that time the mini-van

dropped me at the Greyhound´s entrance

 this time I´m much of a

compact copilot

 here´s the thing:

it´s huge

I´m always looking through the window

 signs fill everything all around

 be fast, man, be smart

write it all down

while you can

 Again

inside the car

let´s run run run

70MPH

85MPH

expect the cops

slow down

 at the STOP sign,

watch out

 don´t even think of touching

a walking body

 you cannot really afford it

 slow down,

oh man, slow down

 the caffeine is mixed

with the oil tycoon state

going so fast you are late.

  STUPID FANCY HEIGHT:

 Well, the place smells good

we got background music

skim pop rock

and the knives, spoons and fork

are the real thing

engraved art-nouveau

the walls, the chromatics

of the whole

even the knapkins

feel so special

almost about to break

 the waitress recognices me

and him

and her

as others

 but she´s well trained and professional

and chic

 one portion is just

baked vegetables

lost in the middle of the dish

 of course, the omelette,

feels incomplete

 and that´s the strategy,

looks good, looks really fine

tastes good

just

 don´t feed the employees

we are supossed to be always unsatisfied

 HIP STAR:

 Cuz ´you know

is kinda like this

is kinda like that

and you don´t know

if you really like

 sort of not fresh

sort of edgy-vintage

it´s definitely recycled

skinny flip floppy

 one drop trashy, one half snoby

 normcore mixed

punkrock nerd

hardminimal (wannabe)

 hard hip, hip star

  normal panfashional straightjacket:

 Shinny no-one

goes massive

 no gimmickry

wants to be himself clean

wants a non-semiotical bridge to any kind

but a Mao

in the armie of the self-reflection

he´s a militant

 a mirror without light

 DIRT GIRL:

 I love your hair

because is greasy

                             and bright

and your armpits stink like feathers

because they are

 I also love

the paint under your fingernails

 it is not just a matter about

ripped clothing or good old boots

 it´s ´cuz you don´t care,

cynic girl,

it´s because all the attention you don´t pay

 LAX MICE

 hay una pareja de ratones

en al sala de espera

 y todos hacen escándalo

hasta quieren matarlos

 pero qué,

si aquí todos llegan

con ganas de quedarse

porqué no dejarlos vivir?

 DO STUPID

 kick rocks

kick´em all

talk fast

walk & talk

 chew, chew

choke, choke

and then chop the head off

 fuck, fuck,

snif, buzz, fuck

 tell a joke

tell me more

tell the story you don´t know

 SLAVE LABOUR MAKES HAPPY RICH BITCH:

 so nice to wear new kicks

we all wish we had more

omg i wanna be a hip hop star

omfg i wanna wanna Iguana

 so cool nobody has mine

I´m special in terms of stuff

I collect because I can

it makes me powerfully chic

interesting & globalized

 look at this wonder crap

 shit, it fullfills my desires

this neverending thirst

 different packages

fake new smiles

 ALASKA AIR EMERGENCY ROW

FILA DE EMERGENCIA ALASKA

 Me tocó este gordo

asistente de vuelo/soldado encubierto/agente contra el terrorismo

sentado al lado

 silla 17E

en sánduche

entre este gordote

y un mexicano patrocinado por adidas

 a la hora de la merienda

le trajeron una cada Deli deluxe

primero

y luego le vieron el hambre

y recibió otro sánduche caliente

 we take credit or debit only,

ah si? pues

mire usted esta tarjeta

de crédito NarcoBanco

está chimba

pero hágale la pasada

 y me salió gratis la corona extra

y ni siquiera así ha dejado

este gordo mono

de tragar tortillitas con chili light

 y le encanta fisgonear

mi passboard not doubleSS

 pero el mono gordo ni saluda

no quiere que lo saluden

porque es un gordo

white supremachista

 no hablo español [gringo accent]

 El gordis está que se duerme,

le tocó al lado

un cabrón alterado

en proceso de transición

espaciotemporal

y con un fineliner 0.1 afilado

por años de escribir

una serie asistemática de mariconerías homofóbicas

y resentimientos socioeconómicos,

intentos de insurrección gramatical

e imitaciones de rockanroll

 y ahora me dieron café

 gordo gringo

no te cabe el culo en el asiento

 Hey, que grosería y procacidad

 puta madre

estética Prozac

le llamamos

 -I don´t know

 pero déjame escribir

también putadas

que de eso también se trata

 El gordo anda sano jugando celular

 Y usted, señor Uribe

anda, para variar, rayado

 ¡Ja! típico,

aprenda a volar.

 Coffee Beat

 Ha, ha, ha

Ja, Ja, Ja

 one more time

and black

 no sugar

no milk

no cream at all

 just one just another one

 a smoke

in between seems fine

 and join me for a walk

 sip a little hot sip a little hot warm

sip blow the aroma

sip blow watch out

 sip sip sip

release the smoke

sip the blackbrown sip

the fluid inside my skin

 Sobrevalorado:

 Lo que a mi me gusta es que me hablen español

español castellano latinoamericano

me parece mejor la comunicación

 el sonido de la eñe

es algo que extraño

 y las cadencias de los dialectos

del Norte y del Sur

 en general

que lo sepan hablar

                             maniobrar

                             con lugares siempre

lejos de la previsibilidad

 cuando alguno llega de volar

y extrae de su aventura

alguna muestra de lengua fresca

 pues venga para acá

ñero macarra txocoflan

           [style=��yky�

[metalindex-hu]

„The crazier it was, the more we liked it!”

„The crazier it was, the more we liked it!” - https://metalindex.hu/2021/06/01/the-crazier-it-was-the-more-we-liked-it/ -

Guitarist Bob Clic recalls the story of Murder and the early days of Bay Area Thrash Metal

When the Bay Area started to emerge, there was no Thrash or Speed Metal. It was Hard Rock, Heavy Metal. Back in those days, the Bay Area bands were mostly influenced by the N.W.O.B.H.M., but tried to create their own style and sound. One of the earliest Bay Area outfits was Murder, and former guitarist Bob Clic told us the history of the band.

Bob, do you still remember at which point you started showing an interest in music and in Hard Rock/Heavy Metal particularly?

I got into music as a little kid. Top Ten Radio in the early 60’s had a lot of good bands mixed in with whatever else. I got into heavy music whenever I first heard it I think, garage rock, Count 5, Yardbirds.

What were your very first faves to start with?

Cream, Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix. Blue Cheer especially.

How did you end up becoming a musician? When did you first start learning to play an instrument and which instrument was it?

I started playing guitar in 1965. I was 9 years old. I had older brothers who bought rock records. They were a big influence, the records they had.

Were you self-taught or did you regularly take lessons?

I took folk music lessons. I learned old timey Carter family stuff and American folk songs until I could play decent. My parents insisted I learn to play a couple years before they hired one of the guys from the high school to give me rock lessons. He taught me to learn pretty much anything off of records. He taught me to teach myself. It was good for me.

When did you decide to be part of a band?

I always wanted to be in a band. It just didn’t really happen until much later. In the 70’s when punk rock started.

What about the Bay Area scene as a whole? How did it come into being? How did it start taking its shape?

I don’t know, maybe around the time Motörhead came to town? After that SF had what seemed like a pretty thriving young metal scene at that time I was still playing punk rock in the Lewd and Kurdt Vanderhoof was trying to start that first version of Metal Church and he and I and a few others went to the Anvil Chorus practice room and jammed on some songs we were making up that night. We called it Murder. This was in 1980. Kurdt moved back to Washington so I got other guys and put a band together, eventually leaving The Lewd to just play in Murder.

Murder (l-r): Tom Wilsey, JU, Carl Sacco and Bob Clic

Were Exodus, Leviathan/Anvil Chorus, Vicious Rumors, Metal Church, Control, Sinister Savage/Griffin, Blind Illusion, EZ-Street, Agents of Misfortune, Trauma, Murder etc. those bands that were popping up at the same time and started everything? Did they belong to the first wave of Bay Area metal?

Yes, I saw most of those bands. We knew the guys from Leviathan, pre Anvil Chorus. They used to visit the Lewd house and are still friends. Ha, those guys liked punk rock and saw all the great punk bands back before they were old enough to drink. When we got Murder going at first there was a bigger division between the punk and metal bands. We mostly played with punk bands because metal wasn’t really very thrashy or punk fueled yet. The punk/metal uneasy friendship hadn’t taken root yet except for a few of us. But right from the first night we knew Murder was playing punk/metal. You couldn’t call it anything else really. We came from the other end, we had the punk power already, we just added what we liked from Heavy Metal into what we already knew.

Do you agree with the notion that the earliest documented roots of the Bay Area thrash scene date back to the formation of Exodus in 1980?

Well, to me Exodus weren’t very thrashing at first, they started out with more of a N.W.O.B.H.M. sound. Judas Priest and Scorpions were a big influence on all the earliest SF metal bands. Not until Metallica came and played. After Metallica came it was like the local bands realized it was ok to speed it up and they started adding that thrash sound.

Do you think, that the Bay Area thrash scene might not have had the media attention L.A.’s glam scene received?

The Bay Area did ok, several of them became huge bands. But no, you can’t beat LA when it comes to promoting a bunch of crap bands. They had MTV.

Would you say that Rampage Radio, created by KUSF DJs Ron Quintana, Ian Kallen and Howie Klein, and has been assaulting the airwaves with metal on a weekly basis ever since its official birth on Sunday, March 6th, 1982, played also an important role in the Bay Area scene?

Totally! Yes, Ron Quintana especially really helped it form and was like a spiritual center for the scene. He turned everybody on to something, some band they never heard or rare live recordings. He knows more about this stuff than anyone.

Do you recall one of the very first fanzines Metal Mania, that was done also by Ron Quintana?

Yes, of course. I still have several early issues stashed away in my old stuff!

What can you tell us about the club scene? What were the first clubs that started opening their doors for Hard Rock/Heavy Metal?

Well, the punk clubs and bookers were pretty open to having metal bands play. The Mabuhay Gardens had metal bands mixed in and gave them metal nights. Also clubs like the Stone, Old Waldorf and Ruthies most of those bands you are talking about grew too big to play those clubs within 3 or 4 years.

What do you think about the idea that Metallica’s move to the Bay Area was an important step? In your opinion, were they the fastest, rawest and most brutal band at this point?

Yes, it was super important. Like I said, Metallica showed a direction and brought another piece of what would become the Thrash Metal sound. Bands had already starting absorbing the British and European N.W.O.B.H.M. sound and they added the thrash rhythms and ran with it. They wouldn’t have done that without Metallica.

In the early 80’s, more and more heavy metal bands started popping up in the Bay Area, such as Mordred, Ruffians, Death Angel, Laaz Rockit, Warning, Legacy, Ulysses Siren, Havoc, Assassin etc.? What were your views on the scene at this point?

It was predictable actually. The same thing happened in the punk scene: there were so many bands that took their inspiration from the exact same places. Bands end up with similar looks, sounds and attitudes. They still do that.

Is it correct, that Kurt Vanderhoof, bassist for the Lewd originated the basic concept for Murder and wrote two songs (The Butcher, Cease to Exist) before leaving the Lewd to eventually form Metal Church and he passed these songs onto you?

Yea, I think there were five or six songs that Kurdt wrote that we played then. When he left and I decided to continue it those two songs are the ones Nyna wrote words for.

You approached bassist and long-time friend Ed Ju MacNeill (Fuck-Ups, Legionnaires Disease) with the concept of a Heavy Metal band doing songs about serial killers, maniacs ect., shared Kurt’s two songs and conceptualized a splatter rock band and together wrote a set of songs in that genre. Where did this idea come from?

Growing up watching horror movies! At that time I worked in a movie theatre on Market St in SF and Ju and I and Danny loved that stuff. The crazier it was, the more we liked it!

By the way, did you desired writing originals or were you mostly jamming on covers?

In the time that Murder was together we only played two cover songs, Second Time Around by Blue Cheer and Hot Smoke and Sassafras by the Bubble Puppy.

Drummer and graphic artist, Danny Dui (Flyin’ Fucking A-Heads) was then added and he supplied poster art and the blood dripping Murder logo, while Nyna Crawford (VKTMS – R.I.P.) joined the band as a singer. How did they get in the picture exactly?

Well, Danny was involved right from the start, he thought up the name! We knew him from the punk scene, he came from Hawaii with a punk band called The Uptights and befriended the Lewd. He was a long time roadie and artist for us and other bands around town. Nyna I knew from The VKTMS and she left that band about a month before I left the Lewd. A very important friend suggested I go see what Nyna was up to. She wanted to play louder and faster so it seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately she and Ju had previously been going out together and putting them both in the same band was a stupid idea! They hated each other at the end.

A single was then recorded with Murder and Chainsaw Love (Slight Return). What do you recall of the recording sessions?

We played a benefit for Ginger Coyotes Punk Globe and Ginger was able to gift us some free recording time at Hyde Street Studios, one of the big time studios in town. I mostly remember that I daisy chained five complete amp rigs in that big room, one of them was a Sony reel to reel tape recorder with those speakers that become the lid for the recorder. That was mic-ed up in an isolation booth. No distortion pedals, just a wahwah. The engineer combined those amps all into one overloaded guitar sound.

How would you describe the material? How did it sound like?

Punk metal. Loud and fast with plenty of guitar!

Did you shop it around to attract labels’ interests?

No, we used the tape to get gigs I think. I gave it to Ron Quintana of course. I don’t recall if any of us even talked about record labels back then. We assumed what we were doing was underground it would stay that way. We figured if we got a record out it would be because someone we knew did it from their living room, not a big label.

Have you regularly gigged in those times? How about your performances?

We played once a month or so.

Is it true, that Ju designed macabre stage sets, choreographed the lighting, smoke, dry ice and pyro for the live stage shows and live skits with various beautiful women being butchered were added?

Yes, we had no budget, but we had lots of imagination! We had a full guillotine, and several fake corpses onstage and behind things. On our final live show our singer shot the guy who introduced the band as “America’s Favorite Sport – Murder”. That guy had condoms filled with blood and firecrackers under his shirt front so the folks up front all got blood splatter in their faces! At the end Ju and I slit our girlfriends throats and dragged them backstage. We had a song called Abduction, about kidnapping and torturing a beautiful girl on her wedding night, so our friend Shoshana allowed our singer Tom to rip her guts out.

Did it help fill the venues?

No. Probably not! I think it would have if we kept going. Our best show was our last show.

Was your goal to appeal to the audience? Did it cause a lot of harm for the band? The crowds were titillated by the backdrop of eerie atmospherics and the music, weren’t they?

Well, our audience was made up of our friends from both the punk and metal scenes. They all grew up watching horror movies, too. I know people who saved and probably still have bloody souvenirs from our shows.

At which point did Danny leave the band and was replaced by Carl Sacco (Metal Church, Heathen later on)? Was he your first choice becoming the new drummer?

Danny pawned his drums one time too many. He’s my good friend still after all these years, but we couldn’t count on him then. Our next drummer was my friend Harley Flanagan from the Stimulators and Cro-Mags. He came out to Ca, when he was 15 and played with us for about two weeks or so. He was young and wild and he was out rambling…. our perfect drummer. I was sad when he left town. Harley and I stay in touch, he sends me his new recordings…. very heavy and also very good I think. After Harley we got Carl.

There was another line-up change, when Nyna left after a while, because the shear volume of the band was corrupting her voice and Tom Wilsey was then added as front man…

Yes, she had trouble with the volume, and we weren’t very sensible. She was right, but you know how it is, louder is better! You gotta remember that amps and foot pedals and guitarists rigs were different back then. Things didn’t work the way they were supposed to. You had to turn amps up loud to get them to sound cool. Now it’s easy. Anyone can sound heavy with whatever modern amp they find and just thinking about which distortion pedal to use gives me a headache! I prefer the old ways. Get a big old amp and turn it up. When Nyna left we regrouped, got Tom Wilsey to sing and that was when we kinda got focused. His lyrics were all about murder.

Several songs were recorded in the studio; what were those ones and did you evolve compared to the demo? Did your style somewhat change?

We recorded some songs for a demo at The Vats, a punk rock squat in an abandoned beer company. Like I say, we got more focused as a band, what we wanted to sound and look like. I prefer that lineup.

Nothing was released from the band except the aforementioned single. What were the reasons for it?

We just weren’t music business oriented. When people start talking to me about record labels I just tune it out. We wanted to play music, we didn’t really think about much else. I’m still that way, my relationship with music doesn’t involve “business” in any way.

Finally the band dissolved during a dormant period as you rejoined the more active Lewd, and Carl Sacco joined Heathen, while Nyna later joined Smashed Weekend, reunited VKTMS in 1995, and passed away of ovarian cancer in 2000. What can you tell us about it?

I didn’t rejoin The Lewd until 1998! After Murder I started another metal band called Die Seiger, we played shows with Metallica, Slayer, even Spinal Tap! By the end of the 80’s I was done with it though. I took a year where I just went to work everyday and let my guitar strings rust. No playing at all. I needed a break. During that time I started buying records that I remembered loving as a kid, the bands that got me into playing guitar. I dug deeply into 60’s blues rock, Peter Green, Savoy Brown. I sort of rediscovered my guitar, dusted it off and since then I’ve pretty much ignored all the heavy groups and punk bands I used to like.

In the mid 80’s there was a kind of Thrash Metal boom in the Bay Area, more and more new outfits appeared on the scene, such as Forbidden Evil/Forbidden, Heathen, Death Penalty (later known as Vio-lence), Defiance, Redrum, Sentinel Beast, Führer, Mercenary, Desecration, Epidemic, Sacrilege B. C., Betrayel, Sadus etc. How did you find this movement? Were they the second generation of Thrash Metal?

Yea, some of the second gen thrash bands really got that sound, like a whirling dervish of hardcore rhythm. It’s pretty impressive sounding when it’s done right!

A lot of musicians crossed their ways since they played in several groups, correct?

Well, yes, like Carl Sacco: he was in The Lewd, Murder and Die Seiger with me before going on to Heathen. We all ran in the same circles socially. Sometimes it was easier to call someone you already know is weak in some way and try to work around it, auditioning new musicians is hell on earth.

Do you think that it was an exciting period, but the scene became oversaturated later on?

It did for me. I love aggressive music, I’ve played in a lot of bands that were aggressive sounding. But jeese, it’s not the ONLY thing. However I lived through periods of really great music, and without a doubt I saw the best of the punk bands and the best of metal at that time. It doesn’t interest me much anymore, but I still love the Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath I grew up with.

Compared to the New York or Los Angeles-based thrash bands, the Bay Area ones were more melodic, technical, had a tight rhythm section, catchy riffs, killer solos and often sing along choruses. Do you agree with it?

I don’t really know. Probably.

Were the Bay Area bands easily distinguishable from each other in terms of songwriting, producing, sound etc.? Did all of them have an own/unique music, style, sound etc.?

The ones that got bigger like Exodus and Metallica each had something unique. Those guys were inspired by early classic heavy rock and the N.W.O.B.H.M.. The next generations of bands after that were often inspired by Exodus and Metallica. So things start sounding the same. This also pushes bands like Metallica to struggle with staying “ahead” of the kids, because the kids sound just as good as they used to. That’s a vicious circle to be caught in from what I can see.

Would you say that Bonded By Blood is a milestone in Thrash Metal and if it had been released the same year as Kill ’Em All or Show No Mercy, as intended, it’s almost certain that Exodus would’ve seen similar success?

It’s hard to say for sure. Success is a motherfucker. I’d point out that Exodus did pretty well for themselves, but it’s a little bit like the Misfits. There are plenty of punk bands who put out records better than the Misfits, but none of them are more famous. What punk band is more famous with more people than the Misfits? When a band really takes off they leave their peers behind.

There was a third wave with bands such as My Victim, Extermination, but they never managed to reach the fans’ attention…

By then I was no longer paying attention. I never heard of them.

Did you take part in the Thrash of the Titans that was a benefit concert held on August 11, 2001 at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco and the concert was a co-benefit for Testament vocalist Chuck Billy, who was diagnosed with germ cell seminoma (a rare form of cancer) and Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.), leader of Death, who was also battling cancer?

I was aware of it but didn’t go.

During the past years a lot of Bay Area musicians passed away, such as Cliff Burton, Jon Torres, Sam Kress, Jim Larin, Kevin Mahoney, Mike „Yaz” Jastremski, Bob Yost, Randy Laird etc. How do you feel about it?

Well, I’m in my 60’s. I’ve had a lot of friends pass away. It still hurts though. Cliff’s accident is still pretty upsetting. Bill Skinner passed recently.

Who are/were your best friends from the Bay Area scene?

From the metal scene it would be the guys from Anvil Chorus, Bill, Doug, Thaen, also one of the guys, who was in that first SF version of Metal Church, Rick Condrin, we stayed close until he passed…. Jeese, now that you ask a lot of them are gone.

Do you still keep an eye on what’s going on in the metal scene these days, and what do you think about it compared to the glorious 80’s?

Not much. I ignore more music than many people listen to! Before the pandemic hit I was able to take my 13 year old grandson to see Metallica, it was interesting seeing them in a baseball stadium. Seeing him react to songs I first heard at the Mabuhay Gardens was a trip.

Bob, thank you for the interview! What are your closing words?

Only to thank you for being interested in one of my old bands. I appreciate your reaching out to me and wish you the best!

[mechagalaxy]

John T Mainer 28840: Meat Shields

Meat Shields

The war was not going well. Rockets Raccoons were up against the Mullah's of Mayhem, a threepeat gold clan in the division the Raccoons had found themselves advancing into as the fresh meat. Out of the gate the Mullah's of Mayhem issued a fatwa calling Racoons trespassers in Division X and an abomination in the sight of the Craftsmen. They were ordered to burn their own mecha, or burn in them. The Racoons washed down a plate of bacon with a fifth of bourbon and told the Mullah's of Mayhem where they could insert their gold medals, and offered a boot to pound it home. They expected to have some time to scout before things got hot, that is the way things worked in Division W. Turns out Division X is more intense.

The second the clock struck O murder hundred, the Mullah's struck. Rolling out of the darkness in a tide of niode powered intolerance, they cut through Rockets Raccoons like a Galaxy Eye through an open cockpit. Two of the Raccoons were in specialist lineups to go hit the Mullah's scouts, just a few minutes from ready to hit the badlands to go hunting, but caught in tens and twenties when the Mullah's Kami, Notas, and Charon tore through, freezing, burning and stomping everything in their path.

My job is usually pretty chill. I pilot a third rank Magnus in Chubby's Cherubs. Me (Grinner) and Sweet Meat Stevenson act as flankers for Isabella in her Regis. We have a bit of niode gear here and there, but our guns are pure crystal. Best guns forward is the Raccoon creed, but each of our lines is designed to fight as a line. Me and Sweet Meat have pretty decent freeze, good trample, hit hard with missiles or cannon. Sweet meat has a lot of forking missiles, nothing super hot, but it spreads the love around. I pack a mix of good crystal cannons and OK crystal cannons. We keep being promised upgrades as soon as we score some loot, but every time I get a good one, I get a new weapon slot, so retiring my third rate guns keeps getting put off.

Isabella though, her Regis "Body-Count" is a real killer. I mean, sure her guns do less damage than mine on paper, but her lizard is a real laserbrain, and gets almost as much extra out of them as a Red Ant would, and packs about three times as many. It also loves to kill. I mean its not the fastest beast out there, but it loves to get the pure kill shot, often passing up an opening to wound to wait for the clean kill. Grinner and Sweet Meat our Magnus are sluggers, but Body Count is a pure killer, so is Isabella. We make a good team. Or we did until the Mullah's of Mayhem hit us. Isabella was shut down by trample before we even knew the second rank was under fire. I had my Lightning Shield on, so I lived, but I got frozen by the forking hit on Meat Shiled and never got my guns to lock on before both my legs got taken out by some kind of advanced plasma weapon I have never seen before. Some kind of Vortex crap that I will be having wet dreams about owning probably forever after seeing it burn through my Magnus legs like hot coffee through a sugar cube.

Sweet Meat got off three shots before he fell. One miss, two clean hits, one forking, and the Mullah Notas and Charon didn't even notice. The hits exploded all over the shields in their niode perfection and didn't even break their concentration. No weapon we had could touch them. They were just outclassing our crystal machines, too fast, too many guns, and shields we could not even scratch. There was literally no point in my Grinner and Sweet Meat firing at all.

As we were getting anti-radiation chelation therapy at the aid station, I made the mistake of bitching to Isabella about how useless we were against those bastards.

"We can't beat their shields, what is the point of even trying?" I complained.

Isabella slapped me so hard my head just about hit my shoulder it snapped so far around. She was furious. All five two of her. She should have looked ridiculous, little her tearing both my own six two, two forty, and Sweat Meats six even three fifty a new exhaust port, but all she looked was fierce and intimidating, because she was not intimidated. Her response was pure Isabella, as irrational as it was inspirational. She had a point.

"Sheilds? You are worried about their shields? I will teach them to fear MINE!" Isabella shouted.

Sweet Meat kneaded his temples, the big Chinese pilot looked like a defeated Buddha, and his words were filled with dump shock and despair.

"I know you have some good fire shields, but honestly each of us has one niode shield, but the rest of yours are nothing to write home about, I mean my own Magnus probably has better shields than you when you crunch the numbers" Sweet meat was a bit of an analyst, as well as manic depressive, magnus pilot, and avid gardener. What can I say, a weird dude.

Isabella gripped both of us by the back of the neck and pulled our heads together against hers in a fierce hug. She continued her rant low and intense, practically the same height standing as we were sitting getting our blood cleaned of the radiation from our engine breaches.

"No you morons, not my mecha shields, my meat shields. You two losers are going to keep me alive long enough to EAT THEIR SOULS!" She was scary intense sometimes, but there was a reason she anchored the third line, if we were needed, it was bad, and when it got bad, you needed somethign scarier on your side. We had Isabella. She kept on, finally getting through to us. "OK, so they are faster, stronger, tougher than we are. So what? I will swap out my niode shields with you guys for anything you have against trample and fork. I am maxed out to do two things, strike first, and kill things. You losers only have to stand upright, look, big stupid and ugly, to keep their attention while I tear their hearts out. It almost like you are over qualified!"

Sweet Meat and I started to laugh. What could you do? The Mullah's of Mayhem had read from their Scrolls of Holy Ass Whooping, so now maybe it was time to read them a passage from The Book of Payback. Payback is a bitch they say, and her name is Isabella.

This time we were the ones attacking. Not the brightest idea in the world, but Raccoons are curious critters by nature, and there was loot to the victors, if you had the nerve to dig for it. Nerve we had, so dig we didl.

Our front line can match anyone out there. The boss is a badass. We always wondered why he stayed with us when the big outfits kept offering a place in their own ranks. He laughed it off. He got through the first two of their ranks before they got him. With the front rank gone, that was 70% of our niode weapons, all our niode BFM, the next rank was niode heavies, but the gear was mixed, the weapons were mostly crystal. They were pretty chewed before they stepped to the line, and only got one kill before they got eaten alive. A smart man would have made a career change at that point, but I stopped thinking when Isabella screamed.

"EAT THEIR SOULS!" She screamed as her Regis roared and charged forward.

I opened up my own engine amplifiers wide, Race Engines spooling up pure power for my engines and guns, Lantern engines howling power into my limbs and overcharging my capacitors (also making me a huge target for any wandering missile, but life is like that). We charged at her side, two gun metal grey Ogers flanking a hunting dragon. We got hammered. Something called a Rift Beam hit Bubba on the left wing square, and the Xango that fired it milked every erg out of it. Damned thing had so much power that after blowing him right the heck up, it tracked right to take me where I was shielding Isabella's flank.

Alarms went off everywhere, my gun capacitors overloaded and exploded. I had NO GUNS. I had no sensors operating beyond peeking out the cockpit and seeing bad guys that a way. I was able to move because I needed no external data to do that, but was helpless as a newborn babe. Helpless, not useless.

Isabella cut loose with a Galaxy Eye and caught a Kami that had just ignited Sweet Meat's Magnus. Her beam was a pale thing against the bright fury of the flashing niode powered laser shields that fed that monster, and even healed it as they did so. On its own, the Galaxy Eye lacked the power to even warm the Kami's paint. Isabella on the other hand was a matadora. In her hand a slender blade that you could stop with a thick button could slide into and out of the heart of a charging rhino before it even realized it was dead. That Galaxy Eye flowed through an eddy where shield emitter zones interfered with each other, splashed against a plasma charging chamber feeding the Kami's own guns and caused a dissonance in their own shielding. The plasma to punch through shields, armour, and still have enough power to devour two mecha at a time was released INSIDE the Kami, and it died in a shattering explosion.

Isabella and Body Count screamed their joy to the world, and we, her meat shields, howled with her.

The Xango pilot was a veteran, and spotted the threat, swinging his Planetary Defense laser to take her under fire. It could punch through her laser shields and blow her reactor core through the rank behind her. It could not punch through her meat shields and do it. I stepped my tottering and shut down Magnus into the path, and snapped my arm cannon mounts up to bring his cockpit into line with their gaping muzzles. Reflex triggered his burst before thought could interfere. His coherent light death beam wasted itself in incoherent frustration as it screamed through my already shut down mecha. Sure, it gutted me and shut down the Yallan to my rear (poor tyke looked like it was about to trip and fall on my exploding ass too), but Isabella's splash shiled shrugged off the hit like rain on a dragons arse as she triggered a Vulcan Phaser. The Xango did not live long and prosper.

The Charon did not take that well and closed with its great claws to tear Isabella in half. His Leviathan punched with killing force, but Sweet Meat took it on the chest plate. Freeze fractures shattered his chest and took his right arm when he tried to take a step forward. The Charon's claws were deep inside Sweet Meat, ripping his torso off his legs when the Flavian Spear took him in the armpit. Nanobots contained in the great tanks flash activated from the laser energy bleed and instantly absolute zero was achieved in the crystal metal matrix of the bones of the mecha. DIfferential cooling of the couplings caused the unstoppable power of the Charon to be, well, unstoppered. Charon got to ride his own ferry across the Styx as Isabella gave him a taste of what he fed Sweet Meat.

The Apatotron that remained in the line cut loose with a Heartbreaker missile swarm, and without us to shield her, what little armour remained on her Regis failed under the 75mm armour piercing warheads coming in two converging swarms to overwhelm her point defense lasers and ECM lures of her missile shields. She fell, but not before gutting that line. The fourth line buried the Apatotron in fire, as it spent its last rockets on a Yallan that was already shut down anyway. Our boys carried the fight. It wasn't pretty or cheap, but it was a win.

We pulled Isabella from Body Count, what was left of her noble Regis. She was bleeding and laughing (she was that kind of girl) and hugged us as we slapped trauma patches on the bits that were spurting not dripping. She was almost shouting before the trauma patches drugs took her into unconciousness.

"Meat shields over niode shields boys! Those bastards got Raccooned! We got it done"

Sweet meat listened to her rambling as she drifted into unconciousness. He was grinning his soft Buddha grin. He looked at me and said what we both were thinking.

"She's crazy as a bed bug. She's right too,, but crazier than a pet raccoon" He held up his fist to me.

"Meat shield!" He said.

I banged my fist into his

"Meat shield!" I swore.

Welcome to Mecha Galaxy. Prepare to be Raccooned.

John T Mainer 28840

[racingtoaredlight]

Guts

*Matchless DC-30 (point-to-point)

Today we’re going to dive into the guts of guitar amplifiers and talk about the differences in construction methods, and how that translates to sound.

Some point soon I’ll be able to speak about the different components and their functions with a more knowledgeable and experienced angle, as I continue to read up on this and begin to start building my Tweed Deluxe.  For now though, I want to talk about how these things are built...for what purpose...and how that translates to producing sound at the end of a signal.  I’ll be speaking on these things from a practical sense.

Lets start off with a super-condensed context before we head to the jump...the earliest amps were handwired point-to-point.  In order to produce more units, and hire more less skilled labor, companies like Fender, Marshall and Vox would use what are called “eyelet boards.”  These boards laid out how to wire and where to solder, and were still handwired.

Then printed circuit board (PCB) came around.  You could take an eyelet board, have machines pre-wire it, then have the whole board dipped in liquid solder, saving time and the cost of human labor, while manufacturing exponentially more units with consistent standards.

The question now is “does it matter?”

***

The Matchless DC-30 at the top is an absolutely stunning piece of amplifier.  I have a good bit of experience with Matchless amps...point-to-point handwired Vox (when they were owned by Jennings Musical Instrument Co., the company owned by the guy who invented the classic Vox circuit, Thomas Walter Jennings) homages...but on the smaller 15-watt Lightning combo that was designed to be a studio amp.

The DC-30 is a battleship amplifier, with a complex interactive circuit (meaning that the EQ and gain/volume knobs interact with each other as they’re adjusted), and the example at the top is about as good as point-to-point wiring gets, beautifully clean workmanship with a high degree of difficulty where every inch of wire length needs to be exactly accounted for and soldered.

...but what does that actually mean?

From a broad standpoint, your tone is a giant variable signal.  It’s absolutely 100% true that things as minor as the type of pick you use...or how long of cables you’re using in your chain...or, yes, even something as granular as type of battery...all can have an impact on your tone.  Laugh, but if you played with a handful of different stlyes of picks made from different materials, you’d be blown away by how different each makes your guitar sound.

Whether you give a shit about that type of granular OCD is a different argument entirely.  But what I want to impress is that everything in your signal has an impact.  And when you’re talking about things like amplifiers and speakers, things like wire length does have a difference.

And if you want the best sounding signal, a technical argument can be made that the best tone comes from amps that are handwired point-to-point, where the signal (the amp receives) has the least amount of time to decay.  You look at the holy grails of amps...Tweed and Blackface Fenders, early Marshalls, JMI Vox’s, Dumbles, Trainwrecks, etc...each grail is point-to-point handwired.

Either because that’s all they could do during the era (Fenders, Marshalls, Vox’s) or because of the belief that the least amount of time signal can be lost, the better your tone will be (Dumble, Trainwreck, Matchless).

***

Which manufacturers who use eyelet boards and PCB would agree with 100%, these camps accurately being able to claim these methods make it more consistent and repeatable.  Both sides have a point.

To cut to the chase...not only are PCB amps as good as point-to-point, they allow for a hugely expanded ability to add on features that would be impossible to design point-to-point.

*Bogner Ecstasy 100b

I’m not even going to try and describe what’s going on with this amp because it’d take easily 1,000 words.  But I’ve played the shit out of these things, and they are MONSTROUS.  The PCB isn’t about mass manufacturing or not having to pay someone...it’s about being able to build multiple different gain structures, EQ sensitivities, circuit paths and buffered effects loops to make sure complicated high-gain metal and rock sounds come through as hi-fi as possible.

Here’s another PCB example that you could hardly say was about cutting manufacturing corners...

*Mesa Boogie Mark V

Three different amps in one, all with individual huge sweeping gain and EQ sections, a parametric EQ on top of all that, variable wattages...the features just go on and on.  You couldn’t do this wiring an amp point-to-point.

While Mesa Boogies and I are like oil and water, I’d be a fool to say they don’t sound great.  In the right hands...guitarists like Carlos Santana, Larry Carlton and John Petrucci (Dream Theater)...they can sound fucking incredible.

There’s a wide marketplace out there to find an amp that fits your style.  Santana isn’t exactly a chameleon when it comes to tone, pretty much using one sound his whole career, but Larry Carlton sure as hell is.  Both used similar styles of Boogies, despite approaching the guitar from philosophically different places.

***

*1957 Fender Tweed Deluxe

One of the things about the early amps that were wired point-to-point by guys who really had no idea what they were doing was their little quirks.  In the video above, go to 0:50 and listen for 30 seconds.  Watch how that amp transforms from something nice and gritty, into this screaming hell beast by turning the knob for the channel not being used.

That’s a quirk that can be deliberately wired into a point-to-point amp...every one of the multitude of Fender 5e3 clones has exactly this...or a handwired amp using an eyelet board can be built to operate like the traditional amps everyone is used to, but still benefit from the sonic benefits of very deliberate construction.

*Dr. Z Maz 38

...or a amp builder could decide to make an amp that has a very wide range of EQ and gain settings, but puts the sausage recipe behind a curtain so the user doesn’t get overwhelmed, only having to turn a volume and tone knob.  Looking at the control panel, you’d never know how much is going on behind the scenes to sculpt the end resulting tone.

*Dr. Z Carmen Ghia

If you go to 1:45 in the video above, you’ll hear how much that tone control changes the guitar’s sound, and you’d never how much thought and deliberate wiring went into the design of that amp if you just looked at the two knobs.

And that’s the thing...you can get great sounds from either one.

***

Lets finally get to the practical differences.  Tone is subjective, and you can get great tone from anything as long as you know how to play.  However there are pro’s and con’s to point-to-point vs. PCB...

Point-to-point is going to give you the purest, highest-quality signal, specifically designed for one or a small handful of purposes.  The easiest tradeoff is expense...you’re not likely to find any point-to-point wired amps suitable for a studio or practice room under $1,000.  None that are the size able to be played in a club for under $2,500.

If they’re lightweight, you’re sacrificing any versatility because you have a one-trick pony.  If they have a lot of versatility, they’re heavy...because a lot of components and big transformers add up quickly.  But you get that incredible tone...

You also get the easiest repairs and longest lasting amp.  There’s no guesswork or any Achilles’ heels in point-to-point amps.  For simple repairs, some vacuum cleaner repair shops are able to handle it.  Soldered connections typically are more solid and last longer.  Construction is typically more robust...if you’re going to take the time and effort to build a point-to-point amp, you want it to last.

For musicians with a defined sound that don’t have to cover a lot of bases, there’s no argument against point-to-point amps.  Economic arguments only last as long as asking these types of musicians how many amps they own.  It’s typically not many.  One point-to-point amp is the same outlay as buying two or three PCB amps, and if you really only use one or two sounds, you don’t need more than a single amp.

***

PCB is a little more complicated.  Yes, you can get great tones out of them, but not all PCB is created equal.  For those high-quality examples above, using thick, hardy circuit board and consciously thinking about the wiring, you have the big boys.

*1981 Marshall JCM800

*2019 Marshall JCM800 reissue

Here are the downsides to PCB.

Firstly, you’re paying more (when adjusted for inflation) for inferior components and subsidizing Marshall’s profits while they sell you a product for the same price that required exponentially less labor costs.  All for a very simple amplifier circuit.

There’s a concept called BIG IRON in the guitar world.  It’s hard to say it’s definite or end-all, because it’s hard to call PCB-based Bogners and Boogies BIG IRON even if they’re more than capable of holding their own in that world.  BIG IRON refers to massive transformers, huge tubes that led to that beautiful overdrive we came to love in the 70′s and 80′s.  Marshall literally is the godfather of BIG IRON.

Well new Marshalls don’t have anywhere near the reputation of their forebears for a pretty easy to spot reason.  Those moves done to save money came at the cost of their soul.  They just don’t sound anywhere near the same.

That alone would be worth enough to slam the book shut on PCB, but the other big problem is durability.  You can’t really tell from pictures, but I’ve touched the Boogie and Marshall PCB’s in real life...the Boogie’s is thick, robust, high quality and proprietary.  Marshall’s is barely thicker than a nice business card.

When you’re mounting tubes onto PCB, quality matters.  Those bottles heat up and can warp the board and dry out the solders leading to cracks.  That method of dipping PCB in liquid solder is great for convenience, but it’s not as durable as doing it by hand.  And if anything goes wrong in the PCB, it’s not a trip to the vacuum repair store...it’s digging a grave.

***

We’ll get into the parts and functions of these things in more detail once I start building my Tweed Deluxe.  I’ll be wiring it by hand using an eyelet board (provided), but the goal is eventually to build one point-to-point.

That’s all i got for today.