#if you have old videos recorded on dvds i hope u see this

[convivialchemist]

Public fricken Service Announcement:

Someone is fixing scratched games, DVDs, CDs, and recording discs!

I've been waiting so long for something like this to be offered to fix my old Zoo Tycoon game and my Kiki's Delivery Service dvd! 😭💜

[dailybayonetta]

what are your thoughts on gifmakers having a ko-fi? do you feel like it's profiting off of someone else's work? (whether it be movies, shows, animes, video games, etc) a mutual of mine is considering creating one but is afraid of the potential blowback. what do you think?

I mean, technically, people do this all the time, like, look at youtube essays and all that with their patreons, artist selling prints of a fanart, it isnt illegal to monetize your content even if it's a property based - unless you got copyright striked or DMCAed from a start, or you originally know the owners of said property copyright anything they see (look at most anime owners or Nintendo who's very strict with fan games and all that, or Genshin devs who require for you to fill what you do and how you do and where u sell it). Fair use does exists after all and gifs, I as much I know, do fairlu fall under that category. To the point that to promote stuff nowadays with gimmick accounts on twitter, that do make gifs for people to use and make gifs with official watermarks and etc, even though that’s what tumblr usually does but for free or hence it might even be just stolen content but people still like to speak as if this site is dead

And, I still think that kind of way (patreon/ko-fi/donations) of profiting IS miles better than what tumblr tried to do with it's subscrtiption posts and else. Like of all sites there it shouldn't be a thing, it's this one (hell, it's not even working properly 80% of the time). Not only tumblr is probably not going to protect you on your fair use, but overall the way your work isn't secured is like... whatever. At worst you'd probably got deleted and be done with it.

Honestly, back in the day (flash to stuff before 2017, as i got into making this blog) I would probably say that people trying to profit off gifs is silly or that it's not going to happen, but simply because I was giffing for fun and my works were usually pretty simple.

But once I started doing more complicated stuff and trying running dedicated blogs and being part of networks, I released how much of the time it takes put the actual sets on the consistent basis (along with answering to people, because I felt like talking too), hell, even on weekly basis it's was time consuming, you know? Finding good footage (or recording as i did to make it crisp as possible, or if it's shows for example getting somewhere bluray/DVD version, or taking time to restore old stuff so it would look GOOD), writing subtitles with no mistakes, making sure that gifs didn't scaled past 4MB (ah, old times), hoping that gifs would appear in the tag, or making something specific that barely few people would reblog but you still would make that because u just want and many more things people while giffing, despite staff constant efforts of making their tagging system and site worse. 

Like, I’d still probably wouldn’t do it, but I can totally get behind and see why people would open ko-fi or take donations, like it’s still just like the art posting, or video editing and different kinds of work and considering that users of this site like to ignore reblog button, always did, but in recent history even more, I can’t even be upset in any way and kind of sympathise with people who would probably open a patreon and ko-fi or something. 

Answering your question - I would probably say it would only backfire if your mutual is doing Disney shows/content or something (which I also doubt), do seen plently of people doing it and so far no big problems whatsoever. 

And just like I said, considering twitter is just a bunch of tumblr stolen content (the amoung of times I’ve seen gifs from my blog being reposted there, as if it’s original post or something, with no appreciation whatsoever or recongising mutuals gifs because i remember their URLs and twitter doesn’t even bother) and not mention that people just straigh up screenshot your gifs and post it to instagram (I’ve even been asked by someone if they are allowed to do so), I think people sure can be allowed to get something in return. For sure. 

[brettyimages]

hello!! i just started out with suede and im in a bit of a loss, so if you could help me a bit that would be greatly appreciated :-) could you recommend me some songs? I only ever listen to self titled and coming up at this point haha. also, do u have some lives to recommend? And does the band have any documentaries of tour diaries or whatever? last but not least, is there a place to read their older interviews??

Hi!! Of course I can help you! Self-titled and Coming Up are my faves and they’re definitely good places to start, most of their well-known songs are on those two. My other favourite is Dog Man Star which came out between those two - The Wild Ones is the one that Brett thinks is the best Suede song ever written and he might be right because it’s really beautiful. That album has a bit of everything, there’s the angry dramatic songs like We Are The Pigs and This Hollywood Life that kind of follow Animal Nitrate, but there are also tons of ballads on there - Still Life is my favourite of the slower ones. I don’t know what other sorts of bands you’re into but if you like psychedelic rock or shoegaze or any of that sort of stuff that has long instrumental bits definitely listen to The Asphalt World. If you haven’t already checked out their b-sides you must - apparently nobody told Suede that b-sides weren’t meant to be a bit worse than album songs so there are absolute classics like To The Birds and He’s Dead and Killing of a Flash Boy and My Dark Star lurking on their b-side compilation (Sci-Fi Lullabies). Oh, and Stay Together is VITAL, they kind of hate it and it’s not on any of the albums but it’s the most beautiful nuclear apocalypse love song (if you love synthpop you’ll know that’s the best topic for a love song - looking at u Dancing With Tears In My Eyes & I Melt With You). Beyond Coming Up it starts to get a little… lower quality in places. She’s In Fashion was the first Suede song I ever knew and it’s good, it’s really chill but it has that “Brett is taking a lot of drugs” vibe. Can’t Get Enough and Obsessions are also good singles from before they broke up. There’s 3 albums from their 2010s 2nd life - I’ve not explored them in great detail yet aside from The Blue Hour which is amazing but very different to the likes of Coming Up. My fave songs from the current Suede are Barriers, Outsiders and It Starts And Ends With You which are all total rookie choices so I guess a good place to start?? If you grew up with emo music you’ll probably love 2010s Suede, I honestly don’t think it’s a world away from the sort of songs I think MCR would have made if they’d been British, and there’s a dark-lyrics-hidden-in-catchy-tunes vibe that AFI’s last few albums have had.

For lives, I’d recommend their Royal Albert Hall show from 2010 which is the reunion show that made them stay together! They also played the same venue in 1995 and if you can find a recording of that it’s really good too! For a good early Suede live show, look for Love And Poison, which is the video they put out of their show at Brixton Academy in 1993, and the Casino de Paris show from that year too which is Brett in peak exotic dancer androgyny mode. Both those are on YouTube. Finally the most important Suede live video is Animal Nitrate at the BRITs in 1993 (when bands like Suede didn’t get to play those sorts of shows - look out for the reactions of the crowd having watched Brett spank himself with his microphone and have his nipple fall out his blouse every 10 seconds). They do have a documentary called The Insatiable Ones - if you’re British and have Sky it might still be on Now TV or whatever because Sky Arts made it, but if not it’s out on DVD (but like, let me know if you want to see it and I’ll slide you a d/l link). Simon Gilbert, who is Suede’s excellent drummer, had a video camera in his hand from 1994 onwards so there’s loads of footage of them on tour and in the studio on the documentary and floating around YouTube if you search for it! There’s also a book originally called Love & Poison but reprinted as Suede: The Biography post-reunion (which I actually haven’t read yet but have heard is v good) and if you haven’t read Brett’s memoir Coal Black Mornings I cannot recommend it enough. I found it in the library but if you’re British you can get it in Fopp or The Works for only £3! Finally, old interviews aren’t hard to find on tumblr. The best place to find them is in @kalluun-patangaroa ’s archive 😊

Thanks for sending me this and letting me type the longest recommendation post ever, I hope this helps! Once you get through the music there’s a Spotify playlist someone made called “Suede-All Albums” which has every song ever on it for you to find your own faves 💖

[kirinda-ondo]

Rant/tell me about Cobalt and why u love him so much??

Ok so this is probably going to get very long, and very, very cheesy, and I hope y’all are ready for this.

Cobalt is a very special character to me and is absolutely my favorite character of all time, from anything in the history of ever. It doesn’t matter what other fandom I’m hyperfixated on or what character I’m saying is my son at the moment, if you bring him up at any time, in any context I will be there.

So you’re probably wondering how I got here.

Once upon a time, it was 2009 and I was a young weeaboo, constantly absorbing everything anime or manga I could. I had just come out from the Astro Boy movie, and I immediately wanted to watch the source material. I’d already seen a bit of it on adult swim when they were running an Astro Boy marathon, but I had to go to bed at 11:30 then so I didn’t get to see much. So this time, I went to youtube and I found all the (dubbed) episodes of the 60s series. (Sadly you can’t find them all there anymore and it’s a crying shame).

I basically marathoned them, but over in the sidebar where the recommendations were, I kept seeing the thumbnail for part 2 or 3 (this was back when youtube only let you post 10 minute videos and you had to watch anime in 3 parts) of the episode “Brother Jetto.” You could plainly see him, and so it was clear this was supposed to be Astro’s brother. I thought it was neat that Astro even had a brother, as I’d only known about Uran before. I wanted to know more, but I promised myself I wouldn’t skip ahead. Though it was very tempting at times, I stuck to my guns and watched all 83 episodes up to that point.

However, it was not actually love at first sight. When I finally got to this episode 84, I wasn’t really impressed. “Wow, he’s kind of annoying, what’s the point?” I had thought like a fool, but I was still willing to accept him as part of the canon, as I figured I’d be seeing a lot more of him now that he had been introduced. After all, that’s what they did with Uran! But then…. that pretty much didn’t happen at all, which I thought was kind of weird. After all, why introduce a new sibling if he’s not going to show up again?

But then I got to the episode “A Deep, Deep Secret” about 6 episodes later, and I found myself a little relieved that he wasn’t completely canned. Upon watching that episode, I’d found that he’d started to grow on me a bit, but he still wasn’t my favorite. However, the trend of him being gone for several episodes only to show up once in a blue moon continued until I’d run out of episodes. I moved on to the 80s series next (and then the 2003 series) having learned that Cobalt had been replaced by Atlas as Astro’s brother. While I enjoyed those series (the 80s one a bit moreso than the 2003 one), I found myself kind of missing Astro’s dingus brother that had barely seemed to get a chance. After marathoning all the series (at the time), I started doing some googling and found out he had a slightly better run in the undubbed Japanese episodes (which was also how I discovered AB-O! Hi fandom!) and I’d learned a lot more about him. But the most important thing I’d learned was that I was in fact very emotionally invested in this character now and I was in deep.

Mind you at this time the undubbed Japanese episodes were nearly impossible to find without purchasing the complete DVD set and a player that could play them (on account of the fact that the set was region locked from western DVD players) so for years I sat wondering more about what those Japanese episodes were like, as the forums only had plot summaries with a handful of screencaps to go off of. Nowadays you can watch all the undubbed (and sadly unsubbed) episodes here but 13 year old me did not have the knowledge to do foreign language googling at the time.

But still, my Cobalt-loving heart wanted more, so I scoured the English speaking internet for whatever I could find, official or fanmade. Official content was virtually nonexistent, and the amount of fanmade content, I could count on one hand. The general fan consensus at the time seemed to be “Who the hell is Cobalt” or “Eh, whatever,” which was a far cry from how it is now. But being horribly deprived back then, I did the only thing I could: I combed through the dub for every episode he was in, coming up with a whopping total of…..four (well technically five but in that one he’s literally only in the last five seconds with no animation or lines), and I watched them religiously. I could pretty much quote Cobalt’s debut episode by heart. (For the record I can no longer do this to the extent I used to, but should the opportunity arise, I can still quote large chunks of it).

As I did this and learned more about him in my desperate googling, I started developing jokes for what would become my first silly comics, for which I am known in this fandom for. The art and writing for these was….. painful, to say the least, so I don’t even like to think about it, but as I’d already had a decently sized following from drawing silly (read: bad) Sonic comics, they caught on decently well, and I’d even managed to drag my friend and son down with me into Cobalt Hell™. Together, we made a group for Cobalt fans on deviantart (which is still up, but I no longer run it, as I deactivated the account that modded it without transferring ownership, so now it’s likely a wild west hellscape that I’m a little scared to look at).

This seemed to help do the trick though, as Cobalt fans were slowly coming out of the woodwork and appreciating this good boy. On and off I’d spread my yelling about Cobalt (and my silly drawings) to different platforms like the Astro Boy forums and tumblr, and even as I got into different things, after awhile, things kinda grew without me. Now I’m not gonna be out here claiming I built this city myself with my own two hands, as a lot of people got dragged into this hell of their own accord, but I do like to think my, umm….passion at least helped generate some interest, and I can’t help but be proud of how far this fandom has come from “Who the hell is Cobalt” to “Look at this good boy, I love him” and literally all the other Cobalt fans I’ve met have been the coolest people (in general, not just because of their good taste).

I think what really changed my life though was when AprilSeven, a mod on the Astro Boy forum and also probably the original Cobalt fan, as she’d seen the 60s version back when it was originally airing, finally got a hold of the undubbed Japanese episodes, and graciously allowed me and a few of the other big-name Cobalt fans get in on that action, and boy howdy, the screenshots and plot summaries really did not do these episodes justice (at least in terms of Cobalt content). My understanding of him as a character expanded like tenfold, and my appreciation of him expanded even more than that.

…Which brings me into a nice segue in which I shift more into just exactly why I like Cobalt so much. Yes, there’s more. I warned y'all, this was gonna be a Pandora’s Box that could not be closed once it was opened.

I honestly just find him a joy to watch. A lot of what made him grow on me was just how funny he is. I’m a sucker for comic relief characters in general, and he has a personality that lends itself to comedy. In the anime version, he’s literally introduced right out the gate as being kind of a dingus. He’s naive, he’s way too trusting of obviously suspicious people, he’s easily confused, he’s easily distracted, he’s a klutz, and he just… regularly destroys the laws of physics and/or the fourth wall just because. Sometimes he also gets weird ideas in his head to do things that could have been done a completely different, easier way and weirdly enough, it actually kind of winds up working? It’s so fun to watch him approach problems because he’s just… so far out there sometimes.

But beyond being absolutely weird and hilarious, he’s just a really sweet kid. He doesn’t like to fight, he wants to make friends with everyone and everything, he will drop literally anything he’s doing, no matter how important it is, to help someone in need, he’s good with babies and small children and puppies (sometimes), he would fight (and sacrifice himself) for his family, and just means well even if he tends to bungle things up and make them worse sometimes. Honestly, and this is gonna sound dumb, but he helped me be a better person. I used to be an absolute asshole when I was younger, but once I’d gotten into Cobalt Hell™, I was like “I wanna be that sweet and good (but with a better sense of stranger danger)” and I made that effort and did that shit.

That being said though, he’s not perfect, and I wouldn’t want him to be. His flaws, though they kind of give him the short end of the stick in life, are a lot of why I find him so endearing. All the naivety and confusion and general lack of coordination I mentioned before aside, he’s honestly just really relatable. He’ll say jokes so bad that Uran wants to punch him, he’ll opt out of the plot because he doesn’t want to get out of bed, he’ll fight with his siblings over silly petty things, he’ll get frustrated if he tries something and it doesn’t go his way, he’ll absolutely partake in his siblings’ mischief (if not start it sometimes), and just so much more. He just feels like a kid you would know (or maybe a kid that you were at one point) and I really appreciate that about him.

Unfortunately, the canon was not kind to Cobalt, and I think a lot of that comes from Osamu Tezuka just… not knowing what to do with him after making him? Like in the manga, he was just kind of created as a really rushed contingency plan because they thought Astro was missing. Sure, he was taken in as part of the family afterward, but not many appearances later, he was killed off in a firey explosion… Until Tezuka decided to change his mind and let him live in the end. His grave’s still there though. He gets to see it. I know it’s a framing device to explain the circumstances of Cobalt’s retconned death but it’s kind of fucked up to let a boy see his own grave..

Even being brought back, Cobalt didn’t get to do very much. He’d get some good scenes with Uran, but a lot of the time, he was sort of just relegated to filling up space in the background, provided he actually survived til the end of the chapter. When he wasn’t getting forgotten by the plot and thusly zapped out of existence, he would wind up sacrificing himself in some way that wouldn’t allow him to continue to take part in the plot anymore (be it parts, energy, etc.) The most painfully egregious example of this is in the chapter “Youth Gas.” Astro and Cobalt are convinced to fight each other to the “death.” They’re not really dead, but Ochanomizu says they are and can’t be repaired. At first, there’s mourning for “two of the world’s greatest robots,” but then we see a funeral service in which only Astro’s body is shown and his parents are only mourning him, completely forgetting Cobalt exists. He’s never seen again for the rest of the chapter. Now I would assume this is just a writing mistake, but it really does make it look like Cobalt’s own parents wouldn’t even bat an eye if he died, so there’s that.

The anime isn’t quite as horrible, and it is kind enough to give Cobalt a more prominent role once he finally shows up (even getting a handful of focus episodes!), but he doesn’t go unscathed either. In this version, he has the misfortune of being created by Dr. Umataro “Father of the Year” Tenma before Astro was made and was scrapped because, to quote dub!Ochan, “his electronic brain wasn’t as perfect as Dr. [Tenma] wanted.” (read: he thought Cobalt was a dumbass). Cobalt is eventually found and brought into the family, but because he still winds up not being relevant to the plot a lot of the time, he is once again zapped out of the existence and looks like a victim of child neglect. As a result, he gets left out of family vacations and holidays, even in favor of Chi-tan, who is usually even higher on the scale of irrelevant Astro Boy characters. Unlike Astro, Cobalt doesn’t have any consistent friends to even remotely justify what he could possibly be doing offscreen by himself, so it just kind of implies a very sad and lonely existence in-universe.

And of course, the final, meta blow that literally every fan of Cobalt is still despairing about to this day: basically being yeeted out of the canon. After the 60s series, he disappeared off the face of the earth until 2015 when some lovely soul decided to bring him back for Peeping Life TV: Season 1?? (The question marks are part of the title). He’d be referenced again a couple years later in Atom: The Beginning, and will be here for the game Eshigami no Kizuna sometime in 2019 as a… moe anime girl. That’s a little weird, but I’m hoping these sorts of weird appearances will mean a trend toward putting him back in the canon (and hopefully being treated better).

It just hurts my heart to see such a good character get treated like this by canon. He deserves way better and it just seems really clear to me that Tezuka didn’t really know what to do with him. I feel like he has a lot of potential as a character, though. Regardless of what origin you pick for him, Cobalt is essentially existing as a worse version of Astro. I feel like you could have some good character development regarding how he would feel about himself in relation to Astro in sort of a parallel to how Astro might feel about himself in relation to Tobio, the person he was based off of. You could go some neat places with these sort of questions about identity and expectations, I think. Or if you want to just do something funny because your character arcs are getting too real now, you can just let Cobalt do some silly shit. He’s a versatile character!

I’ve done all this rambling and now I’m not really sure how to wrap all this up, so umm

Cobalt is a good boy and deserves better, please hire me Tezuka Productions, and thank you for coming to my TED Talk

[thirstyfortom]

High School Band AU: Ch. 9

Hope you like this! ^^

In your defense, you were really trying to pay attention. You really want to learn everything about Isaac Newton and the three laws of motion. Well, not everything, just… enough to pass the test tomorrow. You’re really trying, but the crumbled paper balls falling in your desk in the studying room aren’t letting you focus.

You didn’t unwrinkle any of them, if the sender notices you’re not having it, they’ll stop. Or that’s what you thought before the sixth or seventh little ball fell in your book. What the hell?

You look over your shoulder, there’s only one person sitting diagonally from your desk, but you can’t see who it is, because they are hiding their faces with a book. Well, trying, a few strands of hair at the top of their heads aren’t being covered. Red strands of hair.

So… Saeran or Saeyoung? Even though Saeran was becoming way less unbearable in the last few days - and it was about him, you’re pretty sure it has nothing to do with you trying to be more patient since he basically prevented a rape from happening with you – you two aren’t that close to the point of him trying to get your attention like this. Well, you’re not that close to Saeyoung either, you just forgot he doesn’t know that.

But it is Saeyoung, of course it’s him. And knowing the little you know about him, you better read one of these little balls or he won’t stop being a third wheel between you and Isaac Newton.

“Watchu reading?”  or… something like this, his handwriting can be a little hard to decode sometimes.

“Isaac Newton and the laws of motion.” You throw one of the balls behind you , nobody notices. Because, can you imagine, some people use the studying room to study.

“Spoiler alert: he dies in the end. Would there be more laws of motion if he hasn’t died? It’s open to interpretation.” You muffle a giggle and look at him, still using the book as a disguise.

“I know it’s u behind me and u r not really reading ‘Basic Principles of Genetics’”

“How dare u accusing me so unfairly? :O” did he really draw an emoji? Oh God…

“The book is upside down, Saeyoung.”

You look over your shoulder to see him turning the book to the right position and adjusting himself in his seat. Rolling your eyes lightly, you muffle another laugh.

“See? I’m learning EVERYTHING about Mendel and peas. In your face, MC!”

“Good, so go back to studying the peas and I’ll go back to Newton.”

You avoid looking behind you, you know it would just encourage him on keep exchanging notes. And though it’s fun, you really need to study right now!

And he apparently gets it, as the balls stop flying. You’re relieved! And… bored. Seriously, so bored… your eyelids are almost getting heavy. Where’s Saeyoung and the paper balls attack to keep you awake?

“Ok, tell me more about the peas.” You see him smirking when your paper plane lands on his desk.

“I know shit about the peas. Can I kidnap u in 15 minutes?”

“Such an improvement from when u used to kidnap me without asking me first.” Now he is the one holding his laugh, but he’s less discreet and some other students glare at him.

“I’ll be waiting for u next to the exit.” He lets the last note when passing next to your desk before leaving the room.

Well, you’ll apologize for ditching Isaac Newton. See, it’s not you, it’s him. It’s just not working and you think you should see other people. Saeyoung, in that case. He might be a handful sometimes, but he’s definitely not boring.

“I thought you wouldn’t come.”

“I really shouldn’t, to be honest. But this book is almost making me sleep. Especially now that you told me the end.” You stick your tongue out and he laughs softly. “So, where are we going, mr. kidnapper?”

“What kind of kidnapper would I be if I told you that? It’s a secret! Come on!”

You two take the bus. And you were worried about not having much to talk to him, but Saeyoung lets almost no blanks. He always has something to say about some place you’re passing by. And that is pretty comforting, actually.

“That’s our stop.”

“Usually it’s mine, indeed.” Yes, your uncle’s record store is just a few streets ahead. You noticed between all his blabbering that the way was being very familiar.

“Mine too.”

“Really? You live nearby?”

“No, I work nearby.”

“How come I never saw you before if we take the same bus?”

“Because you usually sit right there with your headphones and a resting bitch face that make people think you don’t want them sitting beside you.” Well, you really do use your phones and the… resting bitch face in order not to be bothered, especially by boys. But Saeyoung is a boy and he never bothered you. How long have you two been taking the same bus? How long has he been observing you? “And here we are.”

He stops in front of a store. A little bigger than the record store you work, the glass window and the light tones of yellow and white in the front gives even more depth illusion, but it’s an old building, for sure. And judging from the movie posters in the window, it looks old on purpose. It’s a video rental store.

You heard about this place before, actually. You passed by in your way to the record store and couldn’t help but thinking there is another shop lost in time very close to yours. You would imagine if the people who worked here were aware that the owner looks for nostalgia rather than profit, or would they really hope having a lot of customers.

“You’re not the only one in the band dealing with obsolete medias, MC.” Ah, so Saeyoung knows, just like you. “Come in.”

“Wait, it’s closed. Won’t your boss get mad?”

“It’s fine. He gave me those keys so I can come whenever I want. He doesn’t want to lose his only employee, after all.”

“And what do you do here?”

“Look at all these movies! What do you think I do?” you look around, yes, there are a lot of movies… how many of them did he watch? “I mean, I watch them, but there is another thing, come with me.”

He guides you to the back of the store, where the poster of a semi-naked lady is doing the shush gesture in a sexy way, and the warning “Do not enter if you’re under 18 years old.

“Come in, MC.”

“Ugh, the sign…”

“It’s a sign, not a cop. Come in.” he grabs your hand and brings you inside.

You look around and most of the movies are piled in the corner. Oh, thank God, you were so sure it was going to be walls stuffed by VHSs and DVDs covers of women being filled in holes you’re not sure they should be filled… instead, there is a pair of DJ pickups, a sewing machine, two mannequins, and records. Lots of records.

“Recognize some of them?”

“You got them at my uncle’s store?”

“Most of them I bought online. I must say the hip-hop’s selection at your uncle’s store is not that vast. I even wrote a note and put it in the suggestions box you have there.”

“My uncle neverreads it, sorry. So… you’ve been there before I joined the band?”

He smiles while turning on his equipment. “I was looking for Tupak and you told me there wasn’t much hip-hop, but I could look it up.”

“Then you asked me for help, but I didn’t know where the hip-hop albums were, because… it was my first day.” He nods, putting his headphones. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“We’re not that close.” Oh, so he knows that. “And I don’t want you to think I’m a yandere stalker or something like this.”

“Well, this room is very yandere-ish. The mannequins, the pink light, I mean… I think the phantom of the opera would have something like this if he lived in the90s.” he laughs loudly.

“You know what’s funnier than your joke? Saeran said exactly the same thing.”

“He did?”

“Yes, you two have a very similar sense of humor. Too bad you don’t really like each other, you would have fun together.”

“I… I don’t really hate your brother, Saeyoung.”

“I know, and he probably doesn’t hate you either. He’s just… he doesn’t know how to express his feelings too well, I… think he meant something completely different when you told us that Rika wanted to kiss you.” And you know that by now. You could tell him you do, but… you don’t really want to remember that night…

“Gosh, when you put it like that, it makes me feel really ridiculous for even considering that.”

“It’s not ridiculous. Maybe you and Rika has that… hot rivalry tension like Crystal Connors and Nomi Malone in Showgirls, you know?”

“I can’t believe you’re saying something in my life resembles such an awful movie, Saeyoung.”

“Hey! It’s a great movie! Great quotes, great dancing moves, great, uhm… breasts.”

“Of course you liked the boobs.” Even under the pink light, you can see him blushing. “But it has a pretty cool sex in the pool scene… I guess.”

“MC, you’re 15! You can’t watch things like that, young lady!” and you know he’s teasing, since he basically dragged you to the porn section of the store.

“Tell that to my uncle. I swear he has no idea how to deal with a teenage girl.”

“Especially one like you, I suppose.”

“What is that suppose to mean?”

“I mean, you’re very… well, you’re very unique, MC. You know a lot about culture from past decades, and… you’re a salty little smug, and… stupid people can’t really hold a conversation with you for too long.”

“You know you could easily be describing yourself right now too, right?” another blush under the pink light, from both of you now. “So, uhm… the pickups, huh? So vintage, do you remix?”

“I try, but it isn’t as easy as doing in the computer. Here, listen to this.” He hands you one of his headphones, and you immediately shake your head according to the rhythm.

“Public Enemy.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so cool, Saeyoung.”

“Thank you! My stuff in the laptop are better, to be honest.” He grabs his laptop in his backpack and sits on the floor, you lean your hands on your kness and bend down when he connets the headphones in the laptop. “See? I asked Yoosung to play the piano for me and I basically recreated the base in No Diggity by Blackstreet.”

“And the waves here are you singing?”

“Yeah. It’s me trying to… rap, actually.”

“Oh my God! Let me hear this!” you press the play before he can protest.

“It's going down fade to Blackstreet. The homeys got abby collab creations, funk like acne. No doubt I put it down never slouch, as long as my credit could vouch, a dog couldn't catch me straight out. Tell me who could stop with Dre makin' moves. Attracting honeys like a magnet. Giving them ig-asms with my mellow accent. Still moving his flavor with the homeys Blackstreet & Teddy: the original rump shakers”

And you could laugh and make fun of him, but all you do is:

“Shorty get down, good Lord. Baby got 'em open all over town. Strickly biz she don't play around, cover much grounds. Got game by the pound, gettin paid is her forte. Each and every day true player way”

He joins you in singing: “I can't get her outta my mind.I think about the girl all the time”

And he moves to the second part of the song: “She's got class and style. Street knowledge, by the pound. Baby never act wild, very low key on the profile. Catching villians is a no, let me tell you how it goes. Curve's the word, spin's the verb. Lovers it curves so freak what you heard.”He’s… he’s looking straight at you, like… he’s singing to you, like he means it.

Who knew he actually knows how to sing? You remember Saeran teasing him for not playing any instrument, but the thing is he doesn’t even need it. Look at what he has here, he sews the outfits for the band, reproduces beats for famous songs in modern and traditional equipment, he… knew you almost since your first day in this town. And yes, you weren’t close, and that’s a shame.

“So, uhm… pretty lame, huh?” he asks, taking you aback.

“Well, I don’t know if it is ‘ig-asms’ material… yet.” He laughs, and you chuckle from his laugh.

It’s just in that moment you realize how close you are, you can almost fell his breathing against your nose, his… exhilarating breathing, actually. Your eyes lock with his, and you’re so glad those guys couldn’t do anything to you at that party, because, if they did… this wouldn’t be your first kiss…

And it isn’t, because Saeyoung lowers his head and looks back at the computer.

“Don’t let yourself be carried by where we are, MC.”

“I…”

“You’re sorry, I know.” Oh… not really what you were going to say. “Don’t worry. I… I won’t tell anybody about this.”

“Saeyoung, I…”

“It’s fine, MC, really. Oh, it’s late, I… should walk you home, you have a physics test tomorrow, right?” what is he doing? Why isn’t even looking at you?

Of course he’s embarrassed, you would be too if someone tried to kiss you and you didn’t really want to, but… if he says it’s fine, why doesn’t he even act like it’s fine? Again, why doesn’t he even look at you? Like you’re not worthy of it?

“I can go home by myself.”

“Are you sure? It’s getting dark and…”

“I can take the bus, I’ve done this before a lot of times, you know?” he does.

“MC, you don’t…”

“Goodbye, Saeyoung.” You gather your stuff on the floor and walk out of there.

What happened? You could swear he wanted this to happen as much as you did, it’s like… it’s almost like… he was waiting for you to make a move just so he could push you away, why?

You were so close to him, but, then again… you and him weren’t really close.And he knows that.

← Chapter 8 | Chapter 10  →

[gwynnew]

‘Rogue One’ Sound Editors Reveal How They Found Princess Leia’s ‘Hope’ and More Production Secrets

Carrie Fisher in Star Wars (Photo: Rex)

In many ways, Rogue One is unlike any previous Star Wars film — and yet, even in scenes featuring all-new characters, vehicles, and creatures, it feels like a Star Wars movie. Part of the credit for that goes to sound editors Matthew Wood and Christopher Scarabosio, who inherited the job of creating the Star Wars soundscape from original sound designer Ben Burtt.

Both Wood and Scarabosio have worked on every Star Wars film since Attack of the Clones, with Wood also supervising the sound in the Clone Wars and Rebels TV series, the Battlefront video game, and the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the original trilogy. Rogue One, however, offered some fresh challenges — including (spoiler alert!) the task of restoring a young Carrie Fisher’s voice to Princess Leia for the movie’s climactic final scene. As Wood explained to Yahoo Movies, Leia’s line was lifted from an alternate take of Fisher’s “help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi” speech in 1977’s A New Hope, found deep in the Lucasfilm archives. For more details on that and other secrets from Rogue One’s Oscar-nominated sound editors, read on.

Related: How the ‘Rogue One’ Ending Leads Us Right Into ‘Star Wars: Episode IV’ (Spoilers!)

What were your respective jobs on Rogue One?

Matt Wood: Chris and I were both supervising sound editors, but our tasks were split. So basically the easiest way to say it would be, Chris worked on sound effects, and I worked on dialogue. And we both have a huge knowledge of Star Wars lore. Ben Burtt [the sound designer on the original Star Wars films] has been a mentor to both of us.

Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, and K-2SO in Rogue One (Photo: Lucasfilm/Disney)

Ben Burtt created all the iconic Star Wars sounds: Darth Vader’s breathing, the lightsaber whoosh, R2-D2’s beeps. How does your work connect to his?

Wood: Skywalker Sound, the sound division of Lucasfilm, was basically created around the work that Ben Burtt had done in the ’70s and ’80s. He’s still there, and he created a really vast library of Star Wars that is loved the world around. It’s our challenge to come up with new sounds to populate Star Wars, and then know when to play the old stuff and keep it connected. Like, you can drop in a Rogue One Blu-ray against Empire Strikes Back against The Force Awakens, and they’re all going to sound like they’re from the same universe.

What are your ground rules for making a film sound like it belongs in the Star Wars universe?

Chris Scarabosio: We both know the sound library so well that it’s kind of ingrained into our essence. There’s a certain aesthetic that we have working on these films, that you know when they’re right and when they’re wrong, and you just start trying stuff from there. Like certain sounds that I started with on some of the spaceships [in Rogue One], I thought initially that they were really new and original-sounding, but as [director] Gareth Edwards pointed out, they sounded a little too much like something that would be in a Tron movie and not something that would be in a Star Wars film. Which I totally agreed with.

It’s like you guys have an extra sense when it comes to the Star Wars universe; you notice things that are invisible to most viewers.

Wood: It certainly is that. John Gilroy, who’s the picture editor on the film, once looked at Chris and I, and he’s like, “You guys have a really great shorthand.” We both can make sounds with our mouths about what kind of thing we want — we’re looking for more of this, or that — and we just know the library really well to be able to pull stuff or create something new that’s going to work in a particular scene.

Did any sounds from the original Star Wars sound library make it into Rogue One?

Wood: Absolutely. For instance, that little mouse droid that Chewbacca screams at on the Death Star in the original New Hope. When K-2SO is retrieving the data out of the other Imperial droid so he can get a map of the station, you see a mouse droid go by. And that’s where we were like, “Well, we definitely have to play that original sound. We can’t make something new for that!” So those little details are something we try to put in as much as we can from the original. We have so much new material in there as well, so we’ve got to connect you back to it, and sound has that great ability to do that. It’s almost like music — how it can make you feel like you felt when you first [heard] it.

What would you describe as the signature sounds of this film?

Scarabosio: I’d say that the three ships — Krennic’s ship, Bodhi’s cargo ship, and the U-Wing — those ships all have what I feel are signature sounds. And then there are the weapons: Chirrut’s weapon, Baze’s weapon, all the rebel weapons. Then K-2, the new droid, and Bor Gullet, who was a new creature.

Watch a scene from Rogue One:

Carrie Fisher, who died suddenly last month, has obviously been on Star Wars fans’ minds. What was your role in creating the Princess Leia scene at the very end?

Wood: First off, we kind of knew what the script was going to be for that final line, how they wanted to put the button on the whole movie and then connect it right up to New Hope. So I got a call to try to find the original tapes of anything that Carrie had done from ’77. I found the original quarter-inch rolls in an archives box at Lucasfilm, and I just transferred every single take of the “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” scene, the hologram scene from the original film. And there were a lot of takes. So I grabbed all that.

The machine that it was played back on doesn’t really exist that much anymore, so I was able to grab the special heads for that and transfer it into Pro Tools and just go through [the takes]. And John Gilroy and John Swartz, the producer, found a take that they thought really worked for that. So it is an original line from Carrie in 1977. [Producer and effects supervisor] John Knoll’s department had the main challenge of making that scene work visually, and I know that he mentioned that Carrie had seen almost the final project of what we had done there and actually liked it.

That’s so cool that you found all of the alternate takes!

Wood: It’s always fun listening to that stuff. Carrie Fisher used to always joke about those particular lines that were really tough to say, and I heard her original takes on those. She’d flub every fifth one or something, and it was funny because it really is a mouthful! And then she had to come back and do it again because there was another setup that I had found — they must have wanted to get two different angles, so they had to do it all again — and she was like, “I’m sorry!” when she would mess up. It was really cute.

K-2SO is a new droid who feels like he’s always been part of this universe. How did you approach the sound design for him, as opposed to other droids like C-3PO?

Scarabosio: Obviously I wanted it to sound different than C-3PO. K-2SO is a 7-foot-tall droid. So when I first heard about him, I thought he was going to be this big, really heavy droid — and he is — but there was something very elegant about the way he moved and the way he walked, and putting superheavy footsteps and big motor movements just didn’t feel right once we actually started seeing some renderings of him. So I tried to make his walk cycle rhythmic and not overly heavy on the footsteps.

For his motors, there were some motors I actually heard up in Vancouver the last time I was up there working. It was a front door in one of the places I was staying, this really big glass door. I really liked the motor, and so I had recorded it, but it wasn’t a great recording. It turns out that the type of motor it was is on handicap-assisted doors that open when you press a button. There’s one in the tech-building garage at Skywalker, and it’s that exact sound, so I went down there and just recorded the heck out of it, and then I started processing it to try and make it feel a little lighter. And that’s where we ended up.

Do you have a favorite Star Wars sound?

Scarabosio: The TIE fighter is one of my all-time favorite sounds.

Watch a video about how the characters in Rogue One were named:

[vinylbay777]

Week in Review: New Songs / Music Videos Released this Week (August 5-11, 2018)

The weekend is finally here! That means it’s time once again to take a look back at some of the new music released over the last week.

This week saw the release of a lot of great new songs and music videos, especially when it came to rock music. Twenty One Pilots completed their video trilogy. Billy Gibbons released the first original track from his upcoming second solo album. We got some new alt-rock tracks from the likes of The Kooks and You Me At Six, as well as a folky new song from Passenger. In pop-punk, We The Kings, Alkaline Trio and With Confidence put out some great new tunes.

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, loves new music. That’s why we’ve once again scoured the internet for the best new songs and music videos of the past week. Here are seven that we think you should give a listen to this weekend.

1.       The Kooks, “No Pressure”: “No Pressure” has a feel-good melody that makes you want to bob your head and sing along. As the song suggests, there is no pressure, just pure joy and enjoyment. (video)

2.       You Me At Six, “I O U”: When I think of You Me At Six, I don’t necessarily think about radio rock. But their latest single “I O U” has this familiar, easy alternative sound that is all over rock radio right now. The kick drum beat drives this song forward with a bit of funk, reflected back in the bass, guitar and vocal phrasing, which is enough to keep it interesting and hold your attention throughout. (video)

3.       We The Kings, “What I Wouldn’t Give”: I’ve mentioned my love for sad songs before and “What I Wouldn’t Give” is a real tearjerker. The lyrics unfold like a letter to a lost loved one, pleading for more time with them. There are no frills, just straight minor key understated instrumentals and Travis Clark’s pain-tinged vocals. (video)

4.       Passenger, “To Be Free”: “To Be Free” has a very old school James Blunt feel to it with a little bit of Ed Sheeran storytelling prowess. The song is folky and pensive, but ultimately hopeful, telling the story of someone longing to find their own freedom. (video)

5.       Alkaline Trio, “Is This Thing Cursed”: What stood out the most to me when I heard “Is This Thing Cursed,” the title track to Alkaline Trio’s upcoming album, was the storytelling. The way Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano wrote the song in such a way that you can see and feel the frustration that this unnamed “thing” is giving them. Paired with Alkaline Trio’s dark brand of pop-punk, the song really stands out. (video)

6.       Twenty One Pilots, “Levitate”: “Levitate,” the third single and final video in Twenty One Pilots’ “Trench” trilogy, was released this week. The duo delves further into the rap-rock side of their sound, opting not to have a sung chorus, but to rap straight through. Lyrically, the song seems to be about rising up above the demons trying to pull him back down, but that’s just interpretation. The video finds Tyler Joseph and his band of rebels marching in the wilderness leading their revolution. (video)

7.       Billy Gibbons, “Missin’ Yo’ Kissin’”: After nearly five decades in rock, ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons is getting back to his blues roots. The first single from the ZZ Top frontman’s second solo album, ‘The Big Bad Blues,’ “Missin’ Yo’ Kissin’” intertwines rock and blues sounds to a point where the two become almost indistinguishable from one another. A steady, traditional blues guitar riff frames the song, with separately defined crunchy metal guitars giving it some character. The song expands on the rock sound that he has become known for. (video)

Bonus: Dave Grohl, “Play”: Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl released a half-hour documentary/music video this week documenting himself playing a roomful of instruments to create one complete song. As an introduction, he interviewed children and their reactions to first learning their instruments and the sense of wonder it brought them, giving this kind of wonder as his reason for recording the 20 minute-long “Play.”

This past week saw the release of a lot of great new rock songs and music videos. Check out some of our favorites above and let us know what new songs you’ve been enjoying this week in the comments below.

                                                            ---

Discover music new and old at Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s favorite new independent record shop. We have thousands of titles to choose from in a variety of genres to satisfy most music fans. Browse our wide selection of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia in store at our Plainview location or online at vinylbay777.com. Whether you’re looking for something new or to rediscover the classics, we have you covered. And with more titles being added to our selection all the time, you never know what you might find at Vinyl Bay 777.