#idc if it's a controversial opinion it's just a new development that is not in characther with him until up to at max 5 years ago

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Watching this vid and the idea of the relationship between Query, Echo and Riddler being used as an opposition between Harley and Joker is something I had never thought of but it's very interresting.

Them being platonic soulmates that have no romance or sexual relation whatsoever but still have a good chemistry, common goals and a surprinsignly equal partneship while still cleary having the rogue-henchgirl dinamic in contrast with Harley and Joker that are romantically involved but are deeply abusive and unequal to the point that even when fans stopped seing Harley as a henchgirl she still was only that to Joker until she left him. Is an interresting concept that could have created a whole discussion about the representation of henchwoman on comics.

Instead they decided that Eddie should be an incel.

P.S: This isn't the only direction or even take of the video, it's mostly following all Query and Echo appearances and their creation and Sasha (thd youtuber) sugests some directions they could've taken. It's a really great video overall.

[belle-keys]

I read your opinions about swordcatcher and I was curious about what you consider to be the light borrowing of tlh.

I see bits and pieces of both Grace and Cordelia on Antonetta (good god how I hate this name, I know it's a real name but it doesn't sound like one, why couldn't it be antonella? Idc it rhymes with salmonella, it still sounds more legit), and lady alleyne is sona and Tatiana's love child.There is also the matter of marakand being their equivalent of Persia and Conor and Kel (allegedly) being half Persian, but if I'm being honest I see this more as Cc having the opportunity to express her love for Iran than with tlh specifically. Cordelia and Alastair were white and French originally, after all. Besides that tho none of what I like to call "elements of a cc book" present in sw are really a prerogative of tlh.

I would even argue that it was a smart move on cc's part to bring them on this new universe.As much as she may want to cement herself as name on adult high fantasy, she's not starting from scratch and it is to her advantage to endear her enormous fan base, many of whom grew up with her books and now are adults themselves, to this new world by bringing familiar elements into it.

I would also argue that she repeats them not out of a lack of creativity, this rich new worldbuilding is proof that she has that to spare, but rather bc at this point she knows her public and what appeals to them.It may be controversial, but I think Tda is her least liked series precisely bc it lacks some of those tropes and subverts others

When I said “light borrowing”, I actually was just trying to be sarcastic in my original review, but I would now rather say that Cassie very heavily borrowed from not just TLH but the other TSC books. And Kel and Conor allegedly being half-Persian is the last thing that even crossed my mind when I thought of this.

Lin is so very much Cordelia personality-wise in my opinion. Shy girl looking for a sense of empowerment and independence in a male-dominated place. Dips her toes into high society/court and recoils from it. Does a public sexy dance as a means of embracing her sexuality and femininity even though the sensual element from her personality is very much repressed in the name of female propriety in regular daily life. Red hair. Fairly oblivious. Quite sheltered from society’s depravity.

I would also argue that Kel and Conor’s relationship is just James and Matthew’s relationship but on opioids laced with fentanyl. We have the more serious, obvious, trusting main character and his hedonistic, secretive, higher ranking best friend who is absolutely keeping things from him and vice-versa. Kel is the ground to Conor’s sky and whatnot. They love each other but miscommunication and, gasp, a girl is driving a wedge between them. Kel regularly has to slap sense into an inebriated, flirtatious Conor who can’t get his priorities straight. Sounds a little familiar!

Antonetta is very much aligned with Grace’s character as well. Pretty, dainty, blonde character who knows way more than she lets on to people and with an overbearing mother who has spent her life grooming Antonetta for high society and entrapping powerful men into marriage with her. Of course the simple boy at court (Kel) is obsessed with her.

I have a few more minor examples, but all in all I think I’d take the opposite view of yours in that Cassie gives 110% to worldbuilding and story arcs and layered plot and as a result, she uses up a lot of her energy and spark and focus when it comes to fleshing out her protagonists. Don’t take this post as hate towards Sword Catcher or anything - I loved it. I gave it four stars, and I didn’t minus any stars whatsoever because of the Cassie-isms I detected. But I think she needs to diversify a little more when it comes to character development, that’s all!

[mingjue]

also momiji :]

I love momiji so genuinely much no one understands me

My opinions here are going to be a bit more open ended since we dont have sp momiji in global yet, but overall momiji has been one of my favorites since the beginning esp with her dynamic over shuten and ibaraki. And i say Over instead of With for a reason, bc i think she cldve had legitimate power if she wanted to LOL

From what i DO know of sp momiji, her bg is honestly Very similar to what i personally had for her? The only exception is that i never made her have a fiance, just that her dad was a genuine asshole and abusive. So apollo slammed me with the dodgeball on that, BUT another key thing that sp momiji doesn't do is fucking murk the entire family + fiance? I think she shouldve killed everyone & i think this is where my opinion on her gets "controversial" to some

I do want her to love herself! I want her to fully accept who she is and Love who she is, but she is still a being of spite. I want her to genuinely injure one of the seimeis. I want her to curse orochi-- and should that mf try anything again, this could lead to her temporarily siding with seimei. But i also just want her to kill jst bc she can. Idc. Literally every single woman in onmyoji that kills kills for some form of love. And ARGUABLY i would say this is still killing out of love, but love for herself, not for a man or as a mother or even as a sibling. For Herself. My god

I also kind of wish her relationship with shuten was more sinister? In my rewrite for mt oe a Lot of her relationship built with amnesia era shuten is over their bonding in hunting/eating humans & its messy. It becomes an unhealthy obsession on both sides that builds up and spills over the more desperate shuten gets for her, and she only takes advantage of it in order to get to seimei, and even holds it over ibaraki as shuten listens to what she tells him to do. I think shuten would be the first man To listen, but its still out of sexual desire that momiji is well aware of. She strings him along until she gets sick of him, and until seimei gets sick of Her.

It couldve brought in SO many interesting things to the plot-- demons on mt oe worshipping Her as the new demon king, seeing how "easily" she was able to bend shuten to her will, the noble family she's from hailing on seimei and trying to rebel against the Minamotos seeing as he used to be apart of the clan, on top of trying to exterminate Mt Oe once again upon finding out shuten is latched onto her. Like she couldve had So much power built up over people ans be a genuine antagonist to Seimei if she was given time to develop further, ESPECIALLYYYYY over mt oe

And the fact that Shuten isnt even addressed in sp momiji event as far as i know . . . . Like in canon i want him to at least compensate her for emotional distress. LMFAO. But of all times they actually wldve had a reason to give shuten screen time they just didnt and it makes me so mad 😭😭 mf will pop up in other parts of the world to stick his nose in but wont come apologize to the woman he harassed for god knows how long.

Ok anyways im her wife.

[chcrrysprite]

10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags :)

rules: show us your ten favorite characters from ten fandoms and then tag ten people to do the same.

i was tagged by @manonisamelon :) thank you!! i love to do these because it means i get to be extra and slap a filter on some screencaps. and also be opinionated. i was going to do this earlier on mobile, but tumblr started running Super slow and then didn’t save my draft, so here’s take two!

the movies / tv shows aren’t in any particular order, and some of them are kind of random...i evidently don’t watch that many things, so it took me a while to come up with ten LMAO. feel free to give your opinion about my favs in the replies...i’m interested to see if we have any in common or really don’t.

1.) theo raeken - teen wolf i think we all knew this one was going to be first. love u <3 alternate: liam or hayden, probably :) 

2.) layla keating - all american i don’t even watch all american anymore because of the way the writers and the fanbase treats her :,( unproblematic but still for whatever reason controversial fav. no one could ever get me to hate her. argue with the wall  alternate: asher 

3.) jane villanueva - jane the virgin i’ve been re-watching jane the virgin for the third time and i think she’s the only one who i’ve Never had any problems with liking. so sweet and motivated, and even though she’s made some bad decisions (coughcough love triangle coughcough), idc what anybody says, she’s a good mom who does not deserve slander ! alternate: rafael 

4.) john murphy - the 100 the 100 was genuinely a terrible show in all honesty, but he + emori made it worth watching through till the end...kind of. he’s the second murdery mf with childhood trauma on this list, but he stopped trying to kill people, so he’s good now :) alternate: emori (let me into ur relationship pls)

5.) alexis rose - schitt’s creek i just think that she was one of the funniest and i love her <3 she literally always had good love interests too. every single relationship was interesting. wish she would’ve gotten her endgame but i like to think she’s doing big things on her own :) alternate: stevie, patrick, david

6.) adam groff - sex education some of you are going to Hate me for this one but like,,, season two was His. love his development and everybody on here knows i’m a slut for redemption arcs so this shouldn’t be a surprise. alternate: eric, maeve, jackson

7.) nick miller - new girl absolute disaster of a man. keeps all of his overdue bills and unfiled paperwork in a shoebox in his closet. in So Much Debt. but he writes books and respects women and i fuckin love him alternate: winston, cece

8.) poe dameron - star wars sequel trilogy hhhhhh. i know that i loved his leadership skills and personality when i was watching the movies, but also i can’t recall anything he actually Did at the moment because i’m too busy looking at him. like. god. not to be horny on main or anything, but.... Whew Sir

9.) lupe - plan b (2021) plan b doesn’t really have a fandom and i’m biased because *victoria moroles* but pls,,, i love her so much. my favorite line of the whole movie came from her - “glad to know you spend your free time thinking about what my pussy looks like, megan” - and i’ve watched the movie twice and cried Both Times at the ending scene with her dad. once again, not to be horny on main, but there is literally No way to deny i like girls too after this movie LMFAOOO alternate: sunny! she and lupe are pretty much equal here, but i’ll take any excuse to talk about victoria, lupe, or hayden hdbfjs

10.) neil perry - dead poets society </3 </3 </3 help me alternate: todd or charlie

okay!! tags!! obviously you don’t have to do the whole thing with the pictures and explanations, i just like to waste my own time </3

@inabottlelikelightning @thecenturiestrickle @frustrateddumbbar @li0nh34rt @curlsinthewind @rosesraeken @idk-ilike5sos @theowhy @edge0fmydesiree @thiamficrecs​ :)

once again...very much inviting conversation in the notes :)

[sternbilder]

that holst post from earlier awakened the slumbering basic orchestra bitch in me and now i’m wild about classical music again all of a sudden for one (1) night only, i’m going through my old classical playlist and here are some unsolicited opinions?? recommendations?? top 10 piece rankings?? from yours truly, most of which i have played personally

10. rossini, barber of seville overture - SPEAKING OF BASIC let’s get this one out of the way, literally everyone in the universe knows this piece but it’s just so goddamn catchy and also fun to play?? sometimes it just gets stuck in my head at random times for no reason but i do not care it is welcome to live rent-free in my brain always

9. bizet, intermission from l’arlesienne suite no. 2 - ok this one is a slower piece and i never see anyone talk about it ever but imo?? highly underrated with a gorgeous, well-developed melody from beginning to end not to mention an INCREDIBLY satisfying build-up & payoff and ok maybe the ending is a little dragged out but that climax makes me cry real human tears pls give it a chance?? it kind of reminds me of a soliloquy in a musical where the main character like. breaks down and spills their entire heart out at the audience and it’s so dramatique™ and good

8. von suppé, poet and peasant overture - the violin part in this is SUPER fun but that’s not important compared to the fact that that cello solo is the reason i lowkey have a crush on every single cellist tbh,

7. dvořák, largo from the new world symphony - this is probably the most Basic Opinion on this list but idc i love this melody to death, even all the dumb corny choir boy editions of it, a+, top 10 songs to die to if i’m gonna b real

6. bruch, finale from violin concerto no. 1 - i just ADORE how the violin solo in this piece manages to balance being playful and light with being colorful and interesting, it def makes me wish i was good enough to be a soloist LMAO?? also this lush middle section (which kind of reminds me of the tchaik romeo & juliet a little bit??) makes me want to die, it’s so beautiful

5. dvořák AGAIN, slavonic dances op. 46 - everybody loves the brahms hungarian dances yes but my favorite “collection of folksy fun orchestra tunes” is DEFINITELY the slavonic dances, really all of them but ESPECIALLY no. 7 bc it starts off sounding like it should be accompanied with an animated montage of a dopey little cartoon knight or something plodding along, fantasia style, but then it swells into this GORGEOUS sweeping middle section for just a few bars then back to cute cartoon nonsense for the rest of the piece?? i don’t think i actually ever played no. 7 myself now that i think about it but i love it anyway. also no. 8 bc i love how FUCKING dramatic it is

4. rimsky-korsakov, capriccio espagnol - i got to play this for a summer camp once and again recently with my company orchestra, it’s so fun?? it’s so light and festive with great solos and great melodies and with all its short sections it’s both SO listenable but also v cohesive, i’m a huge fan

3. márquez, danzón no 2 - i think this is a pretty modern piece actually but i’ve also played this multiple times at this point and love it a lot, it has a lot of really great solo bits (like this sexy little trumpet solo) and it just makes me want to dance, i love watching dudamel conduct this bc he looks exactly the way i feel the entire time

2. shostakovich, allegro non troppo from symphony no. 5 - listen i know for sure this has some deep symbolic or ironic political meaning about something something living under an oppressive, propaganda-and-censorship-controlled state or whatever but it just. fucking rules. my favorite part is that eerie little part with the high violins near the middle which i’m SURE i fucked up when i played it back when i was a wee high schooler just kiddding it’s actually this OTHER part with the soaring violins but anyway. my favorite performance is the bernstein one bc it’s the only one i can find that’s as fast or aggressive as i remember it being

1. beethoven, egmont overture - i’ve always thought that if you threw a slow punchy drum loop over the beginning of this you’d get some epic trailer bgm tbh?? idk maybe a controversial opinion but this is my favorite beethoven symphonic work bc the entire piece is a BANGER that’s not only fun as hell but also incredibly listenable all the way through, and also the ending fucking slaps!! anyway not to be lowkey sacrilegious but here’s a space jam remix of the ending part which i love but my fellow orchestra members did not appreciate so now i am sharing it all with you all instead,

honorable mentions:

holst, jupiter from the planets - this honestly deserves to be on the list, i just didn’t want to talk about it AGAIN bc i already started ranting in the tags a little bit but really this is self-explanatory, the i vow to thee section is one of the most beautiful pieces of music i’ve ever had the pleasure of playing or listening to and that’s THAT 

saint-saëns, bacchanale from samson and delilah - danse macabre is also fun and carnival of the animals is ok but bacchanale is the saint-saëns piece that makes me go absolutely feral. it may be a go-to “we need something to spice up this concert program to make it not sound just Totally old and bland and white” but man. what an absolute party of a piece to play

mussorgsky, the great gate of kiev from pictures at an exhibition - i really love grandiose, epic pieces like this but this one in particular holds a special place in my heart bc (i think) this was the finale for my last high school orchestra concert which, while not the most rigorous group, was definitely the one with the fondest memories for me 😭i’m not gonna link it but i found a youtube clip of that performance and man. i miss.....this part through the end brings goosebumps to my skin and a tear to my eye aaaAAAA IT’S SO GOOD

[wildpokemon]

ML Season 3 Rewatch: Stormy Weather 2

Production No. 317

Ohhh boy here we go. I feel like this could be the most controversial episode of the season lolll. As someone who’s still relatively new to the fandom, I started watching season 3 a week or so after Stormy 2 aired, and so I had zero disappointment in hoping for a “full” episode and instead getting a flashback episode. For me, it was just another episode to binge along with the rest, and I actually thought it fit in well with the others AND I liked the callbacks to previous episodes.

That being said, I can totally see how/why people would have a bit of a sour reaction to the episode only being like 25% “new” content bc we wait so long and hang on the edge of our seats for new episodes. And the fact that this episode aired SUPER out of order lol. My personal opinion is that is due more to the crazy fluctuating release schedule messing with our expectations rather than Stormy 2 being a poor episode. I actually really really like this episode lol 🤷🏼‍♀️

Also, I know everyone and their mom has probably read this post about the positives and importance of the episode - I know I’ve personally linked it like three times lol. But it’s good, and makes me like the episode more

Anyways, my play by play thoughts and ramblings under the cut as usual

can i say that marinette offering to give the homework to adrien as a favor to alya and nino and NOT because she just wants to have an excuse to go to adrien’s house is already good development? we got NONE of her being flustered just now, it was really just to help them out

aurore is so tallllll.

marinette is such a homie going over to defend aurore against chloe

oooop and there’s chloe already bringing up the theme of change for the episode

as we go into our first flash back sequence, i gotta say that....i like this? i LIKE seeing what moments marinette chooses to remember and to see her reflect on all the times she’s flubbed around adrien and see how she wants to improve that

this episode is one of the first steps toward marinette realizing she needs to see adrien as a friend before she could be with him romantically and thats a GOOD thing

also we NEED the callback to the valentine so that the scene at the end of this ep makes sense

and then change is emphasized again by tikki

man this episode really feels like the writers trying to gently tell us “hey btw shit is gonna change and go down like real soon - so be ready for it” and im here for that tbh

the lUCKY CHARMS aaaaaah i’m crying that shit was so cute idc if ive seen those scenes a million times

“adrien has become a friend i can talk to about anything” !!!!!! HELLO!??!? that is so IMPORTANT!!??!

“can you be in love with someone even after they become your friend” aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh GIRL!! this has been said but this is like the core of marinette’s struggles right here. she sees romance as romance only and not as an extension of friendship, which is why when adrien calls her “just a friend” she sees it as a step backwards omg BUT her even asking tikki this right now shows that shes changing!! that she’s curious if being friends will be a good thing!!!

woah woah woah. i know we saw gabe and tomoe signing that contract in Animaestro, but what IS the agreement, and HOW is it not going well so far??? oooooo so many questions. i completely forgot about this since the episode aired so long ago

nathalie being like “i should never have taken this job” NO SHIT HONEY. your boss is LITERALLY working you to DEATH

emilie is in “an endless sleep” confirmed

“i would do ANYTHING for gabriel agreste, no matter the cost” 🤢🤢🤢

the gabenath is strong in this episode

i still cant believe that the show is really going for “this secretary lady is in love with her boss and helps him literally terrorize the city so that he can bring back his comatose wife.” i mean, i’m not against it narratively. i just cant believe it

god i hate gabriel

awww adrien actually had fun at a photoshoot?? damn you gabriel for not listening to him, I wanted to hear about it!!!

poor poor nooroo :(

okay it shouldnt be funny, but the cut from nooroo trying to tell gabriel not to continue down this path, cutting directly to gabe completely smashing and destroying his office back in The Collector made me laugh. it just read like such a temper tantrum

gabe commanding nooroo not to talk to him a certain way, and it works?? thats some new shit. i dont like it. kwamis and holders are supposed to be partners, extensions of each other, not masters and servants

gabe is like, “am i taking this too far?” *remembers adrien jumping off a building* “hmmm nah it’s fine, i’ll pay ANY price”

like FUCK you dude what the fuck

i like that aurore gets akumatized in the elevator AGAIN lol

everyone still talkin bout change

but adrien saying his dad will never change in that sad voice :/

“does this mean my life will never change?” mY HEART oh my god some one PLEASE come save this poor child. i know we all joke about adopting adrien but holy crap please someone let him out of this house

adrien rightfully blaming all his problems on his dad, thats good that he sees it i guess

ouchhhh the scarf thing STILL hurts

plagg’s cheese metaphor “the inside is all soft!!.....or slightly rotten” omgggg he got it right!! gabriel IS rotten

stormy’s powers in this episode are so cooool

BIG VOLCANO

that little ladynoir moment is so sweet, with her making the pun and then saying a little change is good. chat’s laugh, and “i love that girl” <3

i love that they gave alya and nino a little flashback moment too, theyre so sweet

godammit chloe, ladybug has TOLD you that you aren’t getting your miraculous back!!

chloe really doesnt see the irony of her saying “once a villain always a villain” does she lol

god i LOVE ladybug talking about how much she and Chat have grown together <33

“a pencil? whats she going to do with that?” nice, love it

i actually like the change of seeing the battle from the citizen’s perspective for once

marinette is so freakin cuuute

SHE REMEMBERED TO SIGN IT. hows that for character development lol

hahha i don’t care if its a flashback, adrien jump scaring marinette from behind the locker and her screech is so funny!!

and the fact that THIS is the moment adrien thinks of when he thinks of marinette AH. he’s teasing and playful, and she’s actually barely stuttering in that scene, BUT he’s also confused between her words and her actions and holy crap is such a good representation of how he sees her AND it’s good setup for Puppeteer 2 coming up soon

and the sad music over the lukanette montage?? our boy is in LOVE

“it’s just someone with similar writing, that’s all” ah, oblivious adrien at his peak. i love him though tbh.

Mmm the gifset for this one should be interesting considering there aren’t a ton of new scenes to choose from lol. Anyway I do really like this episode, it’s nice to see how far we’ve come

[babyi]

Thank U, Next: Album Review

Disclaimer: These opinions below are my own and only opinions. It’s okay not to agree with anything I will say here, this is my personal experience of the album. Also the album hasn’t been out long yet so it hasn’t had the chance to marinate yet and opinions might change in time. Y’all asked for it. 

Imagine: 4/10

This is not the most interesting song on the album, but it’s chill and nice to have on. The whistles are everything and really, for me, pull the song from boring into being an interesting experimentation piece. I don’t have a lot of reasons why this would be the first song but it’s not a bad opener. I guess this song is an alright song, a little underrated and a weird choice for a single given the other singles and how much Ariana doesn’t appear to care about it. The lyrics are similarly okay, not groundbreaking but not a fuckup (except the use of ‘sleep’ instead of ‘asleep’?) and the concept is sweetly sad. 

Needy: 8/10

Bop bop bop. It’s not a strong song like a big ballad or brave r&b statement but for what she is, she’s still important. The concept is everything, and it didn’t let me down which is important to me. It was the snippet that I was looking forward to and it did deliver the slow jam with a unique depreciating but honest message. The vocals aren’t stunning but she does sing and it feels really personal and heartfelt. And the babyloves instrumental at the end cinches this as a favourite of mine, it just sounds so pure and it’s a real relatable song. 

NASA: 5/10

Apparently quite a controversial one, either people are loving it or ignoring it. It does have a ‘kiss me thru the phone’ vibe, but I think she’s cute. Again, not a big statement but satisfying as a basic r&b moment. The lyrics are great in this song, despite the repetitive ‘imma need spice’ chorus, the verses have some original concepts and storyline. It has a really cool alternative, almost spin-off vibe to God Is A Woman with the space parallels and some linking lyrics about ‘your orbit’. And whenever Ariana manages to have a concept that doesn’t just revolve around penis in the vag I always nut, and this song is actually about the opposite and pushing someone away which is refreshing. The song is ultimately a bit forgettable but has some redeeming qualities that make me glad it made it to the album.  

Bloodline: 2/10

Nonna is a nice touch but I don’t really care about it? I don’t think about it unless it’s on. It’s good to come to a more upbeat song after the first three, and it’s catchy- with a kinda havana spanish vibe? It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if this was a single instead of Imagine, but as a 2019 song it’s almost a little outdated as music has evolved from despacito’s popularity. The lyrics are basic and something more familiar to Ariana’s usual style of vocals with some signature ‘yuh’s. I can see why people would enjoy it, and I think if it played in a club, no-one would object but for me idc. 

Fake Smile: 4/10

Starting to get tired of these alternative ‘sample’ beginnings to her songs on this album. But I like the sound of the song a lot. It reminds me heavily of Lily Allen? And y’all know I don’t like unnecessary swearing which the chorus of this song has a lot of I think. It has some of greedy’s backing vocals but goes in a different direction with vibe, however the concept really puts me off. We have this ‘’my life is hard the media and rumours are hard’’ in SO MANY other Ariana songs and I am TIRED. Go talk to You Dont Know Me or IDC for those tired concepts. She really doesn’t seem to be focusing on the positivity when she’s always putting out songs like this which is a shame because I really like Lily Allen’s music. 

Bad Idea: 7/10

We start out so strong with this song, and I really like it. The chorus really makes me wanna bop, it’s a good catchy song. Since someone pointed out the ‘ari-chan’ bit I’ve really not been able to unhear it which sucks. But in my opinions it’s like a better/alternative version of dw’s Bad Decisions. It’s not the most unique of concepts but I really like the climax vocal moment in it and it reminds me of breathin at that part. The orchestral part at the end confuses me a little? It doesn’t really go but doesn’t ruin it for me- I’ll always take some strings. 

Make Up: 0/10

I’m not a fan. It’s another one of those trippy pharrell-esque beats with no real content and some more rap-singing. Not much to say about this one, I just don’t really like it, it’s a skip from me. Issa mood issa vibe isn’t good lyrics, it doesn’t have any good melodies or vocals that would endear it to me. The beat kinda sounds like it’s falling down the stairs slowly. I just don’t think it’s album material. 

Ghostin: 10/10

Now she’s a CONCEPT. Her voice sounds heavenly and in my opinion this song has some of the best concepts and lyrics on the album. It’s a sad bop but so so needed after all Ariana has been through with her bereavement and loss. It’s so sad and sends my heart to her, she’s serenading her tears and fears to us on this song and really telling us what is going on with some of her sadder moments. It’s bittersweet and uses the concept of ‘ghosting’ as a double meaning for mac’s spirit and as the colloquial slang meaning to break up with or ignore [her current love]. It’s clever and meaningful and so good, we were blessed with the harmonies and strings on this one. 

In My Head: 9/10

Doug PREACH, this is one of the only times I will praise speaking samples in music because his part of this song is so good and necessary. Doug telling Ariana ‘enough is enough’ is PEAK reliability and you get a good sense of their friendship and her life at that point in time. The song itself pops off, it takes some of the previous ‘pete’ concepts of ‘i thought you into my life’ and develops it into this idea that she actually created that version of that person and how detrimental that can be. I think we’ve all created a vision of a person in our heads before and can relate to the concept. The lyrics are good, and the melodies and vocals are good. Mostly on this one I like the concepts that arise in the lyrics. It also lyrically ties to why try with the demons and angels visuals which i cant get enough of even if ariana shits on why try. I even enjoy (and laugh at) the scoot scoot part. It’s just a good ass r&b song that I thoroughly enjoy. 

7 Rings: 1/10

Listen, do I sing along to this song: Yes. Does that mean I think it’s good music? No. I dont like the concept nor the unoriginality of the verses just being a big sample from another song. I dont care about this flex, and I dont relate. Ariana is too rich and always has been so this song holds more jealousy and distaste for me. I don’t mind the ‘you like my hair?’ lyric but I do know about the controversy with that black woman who sang that lyric about weave and imo it’s a whole ass messssssss. The review of this song by itself could be a whole post but I’ll leave it with just saying I don’t like it. 

Thank U, Next: 10/10

A sweetheart. Really the only pop song on the album, and just a good song. It’s a classic successful max martin song, and I like the self love addition to the lyrics. It’s finally a song that ISNT about penis in vag and I was very excited when it came out. This song is going to get overplayed soon but I’m very proud of it as her first #1, I feel like it’s real and she tried very hard with it. It’s a good concept and aside from not promoting it well, deserves more recognition for the good all-round song it is. Kinda wish the U was a You but this is Ariana so I’ll just live with it. 

Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored: 1/10

This song starts hot and a bit like an attack, which is in contrast to the likes of Bad Idea which is a softer but still strong start. My opinions on the MV aside, it’s catchy but it’s basic. This is probably the least produced song on the album imo, and is what people would expect of her probably. It’s darker and I don’t go out of my way to play it. I do like the chorus and would sing along, but it doesn’t thrill me. I think it’s kinda funny? But unfortunately the song is not meant in satire. Also the title is just too damn long. 

Overall:

The album is still new to me but it has a few really redeemable songs on it. I’ve said it before but my view on it is of this album being a kinda darker side B of sweetener. I think it’s sonically cohesive as an album, only thank u next the title track really sounds different from the themes of the rest of the album. I was pleasantly surprised by the lyrics on this album, and how several of the concepts were a step away from basic fucking tracks. I dont hate it or think it’s a bad album but coupled with sweetener you can definitely see a strong move away from pop or anything ballad-y which would make any sort of good use of her voice which is a shame because she has the talent for broadway, not rap. Ariana’s career mistakes aside, it’s as good an album as I would expect to see from her at this stage and she is definitely getting more confident in sharing real parts of her life in music which is positive. 

[cunyappliedtheatreblog]

Alumni Spotlight : October Ramy El-Etreby (13′)

Photo: Emery Younes

What are you up to, Ramy?

These days, I am working as a teaching artist for a few theatre companies here in L.A.: the Geffen Playhouse as well as Center Theatre Group. I’ve been doing this work with them for a few years—I take students to see professional productions and then I lead workshops with them. That’s a very specific way in which I’m working. And I believe the MA in Applied Theatre has given me some very useful skills in doing that work.

I think this past summer hit six years since I graduated.

“This summer.” You had your show! Would you describe that?

So, I’m currently in the afterglow of having performed my solo show at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Throughout the whole month of June I did six performances of my solo show.  It is a 55-minute long personal storytelling, memoir based piece of theatre in which I play multiple characters from my life, including my parents, my siblings and my best friend. These are all characters who tell a very specific story about a very pivotal time in my life- when I’m in my early 20s, like 22-24. So, I crafted this play that I’m very proud of, from a writing standpoint.

The show tells a compelling story, it’s funny, and it’s heartbreaking. Most of the audience would cry, which I see as an element of success. I don’t want people to cry, but if they’re moved by something I’m doing, sounds good to me.

It won at least one award.

It won a producers’ encore award. What that meant is that I was given the opportunity to do an encore performance. The last three of the five had sold out, so we added a sixth and that sold out as well.

Congratulations, Ramy. You mentioned you were basking?

I’m basking in the afterglow of this feeling that I created something important and beautiful and moving and it makes me want to do it more. So I’m thinking about the next steps…who do I send this to? Which companies across the country would maybe be interested in featuring this piece? It could be theatre houses. It doesn’t have to be in a traditional theatre space at all. It can be in a community center, at a university.

I’m thinking about readers knowing what the show IS. The blurb online is:

THE RIDE. After being outed publicly in the LA Times, Ramy’s world is turned upside down. As his relationship with his family becomes strained, so does his faith in God. THE RIDE takes Ramy down a dark hole where he loses touch with the most precious parts of himself. Featuring multiple characters from Ramy’s life: his Egyptian immigrant parents, his caring best friend, and his snarky “catterpist” (that’s his cat/therapist), THE RIDE offers lessons learned on Ramy’s bumpy road from self-loathing to self-love.

Photo: Lea Darjes

And, friends, the poster design, it looks like a fashion magazine cover—

—that’s exactly what I was going for! That’s funny. It’s compelling. Would you want to see that show?

Yes!

Maybe I’ll do it in New York. I did come to New York last November. I performed an early version of this in Queens and had many MA alumn come see. A lot of class of ’12 and ’13 was there, and saw it, and that experience in New York last year was so important for me to truly get behind the piece and see if it was worth developing further.

What would you say to yourself at the beginning of your process that you’ve now learned on the journey, that would help you know what it takes to make the work?

I think you have to really believe in yourself and believe in the piece. Truthfully—and it’s what I lead with what I’m most proud of—I think it’s a good piece of work. I invested a lot of myself in the craft.

To be able to perform it multiple times in the Fringe was such a gift. I don’t think it was until the fourth or fifth performance that I understood why it was that I wrote the piece.

Why did you write the piece?

I think I am trying to connect to my younger self. I told you the Ramy in the piece is between the ages of 22 and 24. And…I might get emotional…I really miss him [cries]. I really miss that guy. I lost touch with him and I feel like at this point in my life, I feel so far away from who my younger self was. You know…I lost him through things like trauma and hardship and numbing myself and detaching.

And the hardships that I refer to, they’re in the show. It’s not just about connecting to my younger self. It’s trying to make sense of everything that happened to my younger self that made me lose this person. I think I’ve never really processed the journey, truly.

Everything I’ve learned about healing from trauma is about, first of all, getting safe, and then being able to reintegrate the painful stuff that happened and look at it holistically, so that it’s all part of a story. There aren’t these gaps where the story just goes on freeze and can’t be experienced.

Yes. Yes. That’s very true. Thank you for saying that. My intuition was telling me to do it [the show]. My brain was taking a while to catch up. Because the show deals with some of the trauma from my past, it was very difficult to perform, from a personal—in front of certain people who were around me during that time. It was difficult for them to have to see me perform this thing. And I just kept opening up these old wounds and I was like, why am I doing this? Why am I reopening my trauma? Shouldn’t I just be moving on?

That stuff is stuff I still question. I think when it comes to creating theatre, and being applied theatre artists, you know, you always want to know what the political implication of your work is. And I just was very, as a solo theatre artist, you don’t want to be seen as seen as narcissistic—

Talking of the political implications, and talking about these pressures to not tell the story, I think about the double cultures of silence about being gay and being Muslim.

—Gay, Arab, Muslim—

It’s not neutral.

There is a culture of silence, and sometimes you wonder whether you’re…I feel like sometimes just by telling the story I’m already doing a revolutionary thing, and it doesn’t even matter what the story is. Just by having this queer, Arab, Muslim artist in the Fringe telling their story, and the story has to do with faith and god and all that stuff, I feel from a political standpoint that that’s amazing. And I’m very proud that I am putting work out there, that artists like me are putting their work out there. But, should Ramy be doing it? Should Ramy’s community be there to support him doing it?

Can I say, spoiler alert: yes.

Yeah? Yes. Yes. See, I guess, but you understand the questioning of it all.

The reason I’m so confident about saying yes is because you get to reconnect with joy and spontaneity and freedom that was silenced by the hurts that you explore in the piece.

Oh, that’s beautiful. I needed to have recorded that.

I’ll send it to you! And the show sold out night after night, so people were getting something, and I would dare to say that those tears were about their own reintegration.

[Voice breaks] Ah. Thank you for saying that, Michael, I appreciate it.

Yeah. Easy to see from the outside. And speaking of being out and about, you did this video, “Alhamdu: Muslim Hipsters.”

[Laughs.] The “Mipsterz!” Yeah. They’re doing this project in which they’re trying to feature fashionable, stylish Muslim people, in a sort of futuristic quality. I think they’re inspired by Black Panther’s Afro-Futurism quality. They want to do a Muslim futuristic musical art piece, and they started by shooting on the west coast, back in May. There was a big search for Muslim artists. I got personally invited, which was nice.

I’m grateful to be in it, because it does look amazing, and what a gift to be able to be a part of an art piece that showcases Muslims in a positive, joyous manner. Politically, I am here for that.

Photo: Mipsterz

It’s been a minute now, but you had a TIE piece that went to a conference or conferences some years back? It’s about the Arab Spring?

Yeah. We first did it in 2012, in our IDC class, we took it to Face to Face in 2013, and then to AATE in 2014. I know that Amy Sawyers-Williams (‘13) has taken it a couple of times locally in Raleigh, NC. She has found other artists to perform this process drama in North Carolina more than once. This piece has had a life beyond the program for sure. Michelle O’Conner (’13) did it with me in 2014 in Denver at AATE. I would love to create more work like that. But you want me to talk specifically about the creation of the process drama?

I want to hear you talk about the practice of applied theatre.

The teaching artist work that I have done here, post-MA, the one workshop that I am the most absolutely proud of, is the workshop that I led with students who went to see a play called Disgraced. I don’t know if you know this play. It won the Pulitzer for one thing. It was on Broadway, I don’t know, 2014, 2015. It was written by a Muslim-American playwright named Ayad Akhtar. The play has a Muslim-American protagonist who is a controversial character. Theatre companies across America in 2016, every company was producing this play, including Center Theatre Group here in L.A. And they could see that the play was controversial.

They were specifically looking for Muslim teaching artists to lead a workshop around the themes of the play with students at a youth summit in advance of them seeing the play. It was my first gig with Center Theatre Group. Three and a half years later, I’m still working with them. I’ll be honest, I’m really bothered by the fact that I didn’t get an opportunity to show my skills as a teaching artist until the company was doing a Muslim play and they specifically were looking for a Muslim teaching artist. Because I am skilled, and four years later I am still working with them.

The truth looks good on you, Ramy. Now, you said you were really proud about it [the workshop]. Why?

My personal opinion was that the play reinforces stereotypes and doesn’t challenge them. There are all these young students who are about to see it and for the most part I perceive them to be like, white American students and I don’t know what their prior knowledge is about Islam or Muslims. What do I do as a teaching artist? What do I do as an applied theatre artist? How do I get the participants to be critical of their position and their understanding and be critical of what they hear and to be critical of what they hear in the play?

I was very much inspired by some of the process drama [work] that Chris Vine led with us in IDC. I used so many of these conventions…the pre-text, there was a poem on the wall and that was the first thing they [the students] entered with and they were reading it aloud. Then I did activities asking questions around biases and prejudices.

I placed them all in role as “truth seekers.” I fashioned a room, I asked for a second room in which I delineated a sacred space for Islam. I asked the students to stay in the [first] room and they were looking at all these statistics, like pictographs on the wall about Islam in the world, where is Islam practiced, how many people…I said, “peruse this for the next five minutes, and when the buzzer goes off join me in the next room.” I asked them to take their shoes off. So they take their shoes off and they walk into this [second] room and the first thing they do is they see me praying. By the time I’m done praying (my back is to them), they’re all sitting there with their shoes off, waiting to have a conversation. I did that on purpose. You just learned a bunch of facts. Now you’re going to meet a real person.

I’m so proud of this piece. Look, it’s been over three years. I think I truly did the most applied-theatre thing I could in that moment. I used myself as a Muslim facilitator to be able to share what I considered a very important perspective. I feel like I was able to achieve this balance of me as this professional teaching artist and the students and the content of this play. I was able to weave all of that together in a very nice way.

Is there anything else you would want readers to know about you and your work?

Um. I would love the readers to know that I am 100% grateful and appreciative of the education that I got in the MA in Applied Theatre program. I believe that Chris and Helen create an atmosphere and a culture of questioning and always advocating for the participants and having very honest conversations about power, class and access. I’m so grateful to have had the space to learn and have important conversations with colleagues, because that has truly taken me through my practice here.

There are other applied theatre artists that I meet here who studied more locally, at a different institution, and… the truth is, they had a much more narrow curriculum. It was theatre of the oppressed focused and it was one year, I did it in two years, so I literally have double the working experience in terms of focusing on the field. I just learned more tools. The MA in Applied Theatre at the CUNY School of Professional Studies is a unique program and it’s very, very important. I’m so grateful I went through it.

Thanks Ramy.