#in 12 eps that man set a whole new standard

[sohyuki]

HELP MINE IS ALSO AT 99% SINCE YESTERDAY 😭😭😭 WHERE'S THAT 1 CHEST NOW

AUNI!! BESTIE I KNOW I KNOW I FEEL YOUR PAIN 😭😭😭

i combed through the area 3 times yesterday. 3 TIMES and even with a video as help on the last time but i still shsgfjhfj WHERE ARE YOU CHEST STOP TORTURING ME LIKE THIS

(also, how are you auni??? i hope you're doing well angel! <3)

[kinetic-elaboration]

September 29: 3x09 The Tholian Web

Today’s episode, The Tholian Web, was completely new to me and I came in with no expectations at all. I wasn’t sure about it at first but ultimately I really liked it!

In uncharted territory looking for lost ship the Defiant. Space appears to be breaking up. Idk but for some reason this sounds very familiar.

Like truly I don’t know what this is reminding me of but hasn’t space broken up before?

And now there’s a mysterious object! Nothing is going Kirk’s way today at all.

“Fascinating.” / “Explain.” Truly the root of this relationship.

It’s the Defiant! Looking ghostly.

Uhura’s on the case already. You don’t need to tell her how to do her job.

Scotty and Sulu looking badass together.

Conveniently, it’s another constitution class, allowing all the sets to be reused. (Though also I do think it makes sense only a large ship like that would be in uncharted space.)

Look at them in those suits. They look like they’re going to the grocery store in May 2020.

How do they know this isn’t an illusion? Because “we can see it, but the sensors don’t pick up anything” screams “illusion” to me. I wouldn’t want to beam into open space!

The triumvirate + Chekov, fourth wheeling again. (My mom suggested he’d be incapacitated soon, which is fair--he IS the red shirt in this scenario.)

All of this is feeling very familiar--missing ship, unusual space phenomenon, people going mad--but I'm not sure if it's repetitive or classic.

NO mutiny ever? That seem unlikely. Also didn’t Spock literally commit mutiny? Chekov would appreciate knowing this.

Kirk manages to look intense even through the space suit.

I find it really weird he doesn’t know the captain of this ship. Like, first off, he knows everyone, and second, there only about 12-14 constitution class vessel Captains so I really do think they know each other.

“Spock, stay with me.” Don’t have to tell him twice.

Lol the ship looks so silly just...drifting away. Adorable, but silly.

Seeing an Asian man in sick bay reminds me how few Asian people there are in Starfleet. Like... 1.

“What the devil?” That’s a Southern man there.

Is the ship actually dissolving or is it an ILLUSION? (It’s actually dissolving.)

Uh, the transporter’s not working? That’s not good.

I love how Scotty hears that and immediately abandons the bridge, like there is NO other man for the job.

O’Neil’s face when Kirk asks to be beamed aboard is hilarious. Human embodiment of the :O emoticon.

“You too, Spock.” He delays ordering Spock back to the ship because he KNOWS Spock’s going to argue.

“Completing the data set” yeah okay. He just doesn’t want to leave Jim alone. Especially in the extremely suspicious circumstances of there being 4 people and 3 transporter spots.

He’s vanished!

Spock is NOT having this.

The fabric of space is very weak here. Sounds legit. And there are many alternate dimensions that are very close at hand. So in other words... Kirk is literally stuck in an AU right now.

This is sorta like The Alternative Factor but way better.

You know it’s serious when they break out the fish eye lens.

When Bones rushed in, I was expecting him to sedate Chekov but Spock has it covered.

I feel like Spock is extremely concerned for Chekov here. Like it’s subtle, but just the attention he’s paying to him. And Sulu is obviously very concerned too.

His “environmental unit” only has so much oxygen. What a great name for a fancy spacesuit.

Spock will not believe Jim is dead!! Never. (This is the plot of the whole episode in 8 words essentially.)

That’s an alien!

“According to the Federation, this area is free space.” ...Okay, that sounds a little colonialist. In his defense, he doesn’t press the point. He basically says, kay, we’ll go as soon as we’re finished rescuing.

And I appreciate the Tholian’s respect for that even though surely he must feel gaslit by Spock--rescuing WHO there are NO other ships??

Also I like the look of the alien.

Nifty lab equipment there.

MCCOY FIGHT SCENE.

Wow that orderly was easily disabled lol. I guess Chapel hypoed him but it really looked like she just tapped his shoulder and he fell.

Hmm, there are still 30 minutes left so something tells me this Kirk rescue mission won’t work.

Captain Kirk is not in his designated area. I repeat Captain Kirk has wandered away from his designated area.

The space was disturbed by the Tholians. I guess they weren’t factored into the delicate calculations.

Something about this exchange really screams Southerner meets Alien. Like more than most McCoy and Spock exchanges.

You can tell Spock is thinking about this whole "nothing’s being transmitted, it’s just the nature of space; everyone's already sick" thing but also not caring because CAPTAIN KIRK.

Now they’re being fired upon! A lot is happening here.

“Renowned Tholian punctuality” lol. Always a sense of humor on this one.

Spock’s face when Sulu questioned his order was 100% “Did I stutter?”

“I know you don’t like to use the phasers.” Because he’s a pacifist.

Well he changed his mind on those phasers fast enough.

“You’ve lost Jim.” UM no I think NOT.

Everything happens so much.

“That is the mark of a starship Captain like Jim.” I mean Spock is no Jim but there’s no need to be rude about it

“Doctor, go to your room and do your homework.”

Aw, the ships are kissing.

Now they look like little weaving shuttles. Adorable.

Hmm, it IS a web. Appropriately named episode.

“We shall not see home again.” Lol Spock way to be the Most Dramatique as always.

Tholian web screensaver Windows 98.

No, not a funeral!!

“This service requires my attention, Mr. Spock.” Crying emoji.

(I’m with Spock in almost everything in this ep but come on, you can’t ban McCoy from Kirk’s funeral, that’s just rude.)

This seems more like an assembly than a funeral tbh.

[agonizing scream] is also how I feel about Kirk “dying” and that’s why Generations isn’t real.

AOS Kirk would 100% approve of a brawl at his funeral.

Sulu and Uhura <3

“Each of you must evaluate the loss in the privacy of your own thoughts.” Spock definitely will.

Wait, that was it? The whole eulogy? Both Kirk and Spock really suck at eulogizing the other.

McCoy probably could have skipped this honestly.

Wait, Kirk left his space husband and his BFF a final in-case-of-death message? Noooooooooooooooo I can’t.

McCoy is so insistent they watch it and Spock is like “nah, that makes it too real, not gonna do it.”

“The Captain’s last order is the top priority.”

Why does everyone always assume Spock wants power? He obviously doesn’t. He could be a Captain if he wanted, probably. He’s early enough in his career where he still has time to become a Captain, too--eventually he does! Most of his career and literally every statement he’s ever made would kinda imply he’s not interested.

Also, if he didn’t care about Jim and he just wanted to take over the Enterprise, he would have left 3 hours ago? Like multiple people were saying he should? Including Bones??

“He was a hero in every sense of the word.” True.

McCoy is being VERY mean today.

And now he’s mad at him again for fighting the Tholians instead of leaving without Jim! Like which is it! What did he do wrong? At least pick a specific thing to criticize lol.

"I need not explain my rationale to you or to any other member of this crew." That’s true but also all I can hear is “I love him. I’m in love with him. I must have him back.”

What is that art work on the wall? That’s new.

I don’t get how Bones isn’t getting this. He KNOWS about the “warm, genuine feeling.”

Vulcans clearly aren’t immune to the...space weirdness. But yes, another pot shot at his alienness is always welcome lol.

“I AM in command of the Enterprise.” You tell him.

Finally, the secret message!

Omg Jim is literally dead and he’s still reassuring Spock. What a good boyfriend. I know this is the hardest thing you’ve ever done, but you got this bb.

Now he’s lecturing them both from beyond the grave and getting everything right and they’re just standing there like chastised schoolboys.

That “take care” was so soft.

“It does hurt, doesn’t it?”

“What would you have me say Doctor?”

Like??? I can’t stand this.

Uhura! At home.

I like that twirly thing they have in their quarters; very efficient use of space and also I want one.

I also love that her chair has crocodile arms.

Kirk shows up in the mirror just to be dramatic and disappear again.

“Of course you saw him. We’d all like to see him.” Lol. Yes, yes, he’s still with us... in our hearts.

If the Tholians complete the web, what will they do with what’s inside? Eat it?"

“Are we any closer to the cure for space weirdness?” / “No. Except also yes.”

Love all the vague science that goes into solving their problem at the last minute but also extremely quickly by any objective standard.

Is Chekov restrained with seat belts?

Whereas Uhura’s just chilling. She knows what she’s about.

Ghost Kirk! Ghost Kirk!

"Do you suppose they're seeing Jim because they've lost confidence i you?" Damn bones, harsh. I thought we were done with this.

Pretty distressing that everything relies SO much on Scotty lol--arguably the MOST critical single member of the crew.

“I’m  sorry.” Glad to hear him say it, finally!

“He would just say ‘Forget it Bones.’“ Adorable.

I feel like everyone’s simultaneously thinking, ‘Okay, we ALL see that, right?”

I am overwhelmed by the longing in that shot of Spock trying to reach Kirk through the dimensions. Like, we’ve established everyone loves him, everyone misses him, everyone wants to see him, but Spock actually approaches him and tries to meet him...

“We were separated. He couldn’t touch me.”

I want to know Scotty’s opinion on Spock’s crazy statue.

So Spock shouldn’t have fired those phasers? Because they... did something... bad to the dimensions? But what other choice did he have, other than to leave without Kirk?

Wasn’t Scotty literally just saying this wasn’t fixable? And now he’s like ‘eh, I can fix it in 20 minutes and get you 80% power’?

The antidote is derived from a nerve gas used by the Klingons...that’s honestly rather hilarious. They’re good for something I guess.

“It simply deadens certain nerve inputs in the brain.” / “Any decent brand of Scotch’ll do that.” Starfleet’s finest lmao.

Lmao Mccoy's no longer drugging the crew he's straight up killing parts of their brains with booze and deadly nerve gas. The man must be stopped.

Noooo don’t give Scotty the whole bottle. We’ve already established the ship doesn’t run without him.

They still gotta get out of the web.

If I shipped McCoy/Spock I would DEFINITELY ship it in that little moment where they look at each other over the glasses.

I have no idea what happened but they seem to be free. Bye Tholians!

Kirk back in the chair where he belongs <3

“No problems worth reporting”--I mean that is technically true, I GUESS.

Kirk is trying to get the gossip.

“Only what one would expect when humans are involved.” / “What humans?” The oxygen hasn’t fully returned to his brain, I see.

Also he is completely lying about understanding McCoy’s explanation.

Sulu and Chekov are having a great time listening in. Collecting future gossip for the cafeteria.

“M-my last orders. That I left for both of you.” He’s adorable.

"The crisis was upon us and then passed so quickly that w-we...." Lol yes the crisis came and then 4 hours later, it was passed! Just like that.

I totally get that Kirk wants them to admit they watched the tape. It was his orders that they watch it first, plus he knows he said helpful stuff and he wanted to be helpful! But I also get why they don’t want to admit they saw it, because it is rather awkward to admit they watched his last words when he’s... not dead.

That was a great ep overall! I really enjoyed it.

My only two complaints are that there wasn’t enough Kirk, and I wasn’t fond of Bones’s characterization. I mean, I get that he was affected by the... space weirdness and maybe his usual prejudices were purposefully exaggerated to show that but it still felt like he was constantly piling up on Spock and in the most unhelpful way. Like, they often disagree, in part because they have different general philosophies, and Bones often misunderstands Spock. But Bones wasn’t really offering anything helpful in terms of command advice, and his criticisms were both repetitive and incoherent. Did he want Spock to leave Jim behind or not? Was firing the phasers bad or necessary? Is Spock doing too much to save Jim or is he just out to get rid of him and take command? And again, he had like 6 moments where he said something cutting and cruel and...one or two of those go a lot farther to show the point. I also just... Bones really, really doesn’t get Spock, and I can see how he’d get meaner given the space aggression. But he’s not cruel. And he and Spock are friends, and he does know that Spock loves Kirk more than anything. So I did not find him IC overall.

But I did really like Spock and his characterization. I could feel all the emotion in him, so pent up and controlled but so present--especially in the moment when he held the tape Kirk made, but in so many other places as well--the “funeral,” the first moment after Kirk failed to materialize, reaching for him on the Bridge...

I also liked this portrayal of Spock in command. He is a good commander and he has obviously grown a lot since the Galileo Seven. But he’s not Jim, and the show is clear about that. Kirk is not replaceable and his job is not easy. I’m not even sure that Kirk would have done much different than Spock--he wouldn’t have left without one of his crew, and that probably would have involved firing on the Tholian ship. But when Spock did it, it really felt like he was overwhelmed, frustrated, and not thinking--he didn’t want to, but then Scotty said he should, and he did. Kirk would have made the decision, not been pressured into it. Would it have mattered? It comes out to the same, but I think it would have been a different scenario. Kirk only ever makes his own decisions--then he can own them, no matter what. That didn’t feel like Spock’s decision, and it affected others’ confidence in him (cough cough McCoy).

I would have to watch again to see if I thought there was any other choice.

This ep made me think of the cave scene in ST09 where Ambassador Spock meets Kirk and thinks he is HIS Kirk, come on purpose to find him. Because obviously Kirk is like that: he comes back from the dead, he finds Spock no matter what, he comforts and reassures and supports him no matter what. He would cross dimensions, he’d travel through time, he’d become No Longer Dead, if that’s what Spock needed.

I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see Kirk’s adventures in the AU lol. I think he was lying about being alone in the other universe. I want to see the fic where he was actually in the AOS verse lol.

Even though there wasn’t enough Kirk in this ep, I appreciated how strong his presence was anyway, seeing everyone love him so much, and seeing just how effective he is as a Captain by comparison with Spock, who is good and who did get them out of the situation, but who lacks that certain... Captain’s quality.

And it outright was a great Spock episode, and a good Spock and McCoy ep except for all of the OOC-ness in McCoy. I’m starting to feel like actually there’s a pretty significant amount of Spock and McCoy stories (this one, The Paradise Syndrome All Our Yesterdays, even Bread and Circuses) and I wish there were more Kirk and Bones stories, too. They are best friends after all!

Next is Plato’s Stepchildren, which is a pretty meh episode, but not awful.

[waejinyoung]

Can’t Swim - EP . 1

word count: 4.6k+

a/n: this is my first ever post. i hope you guys enjoy! since we recently found out that jinyoung has been learning how to swim, i wanted to write a fanfiction related to this new fact. enjoy! :)

warning: minimal swearing, a lil suggestive, nothing else

EP . 1 , EP . 2 , EP . 3 , EP . 4 , EP . 5 , EP . 6 , EP .7 , EP . 8 , EP . 9

You were a part time swimming teacher/coach at a small leisure centre in Jinhae. Many questioned why you moved from a city like Seoul to a small town, but you knew you needed a break from the city.

The pay was a little less but so were the bills. You were paying less than half your rent and had made amazing friends at your new centre. What more could you ask for?

A gentleman who would meet you when you arrived home would be nice but a man who would meet your high standards would be a miracle. You had closed the romance book a long time ago.

Now you devote your time to teaching people how to swim. A skill that’s regarded as vital. Your groups tend to be filled with children aged 5-10. A reasonable age for students to start learning a life-long skill. Until one day a new student joined your group. A bit older. Much older.

PRESENT TIME

“YA Y/N! YOU’RE LATE AGAIN”, Jooheon was screaming again for the 100th time since the start of your job.

“Sorry boss!”, you waved Jooheon off and went straight to your locker to change into your full bodysuit.

You and Jooheon were childhood friends so the worker-boss relationship was very light-hearted. Meaning being late wasn’t going to cut it for Jooheon to sack you, luckily.

You came back to the staff room to check up on which group you had for Monday’s morning group.

“Right, I have my 8 student group for the morning lesson.”

“Make that 9!”, shouted Jooheon as he exited the staffroom.

“Right, I HAVE 9 STUDENTS!”, you shouted back.

Hmm, 9 students? I guess I have a new student, you thought to yourself. Jinhae was a small town so your groups tended to be no more than 10-12 students. This was a plus compared to the place you worked in Seoul. Seoul’s population meant bigger swimming groups. It was hard having to supervise and teach 20 students at the same time. You would get paranoid every time you lost sight of a child only to find out they had gone to the bathroom without asking. In Jinhae it’s much more relaxed. You’re able to control all students and they seem to be more understanding too. That could just be your luck.

“Ahh, Y/N looking good!”

That’s Max. The swimming teacher of the teenage groups. He always came in early to fit in his own morning swim to then continue with his lessons. Also, top notch f-boy material. He’d take any chance to check out the females in his groups. If I’m honest though, they love the attention so it’s a win-win situation for both sides.

“Max cut it; you have an all-girls group in the afternoon. You can feed your eyes then.

Funny enough, you didn’t spend much time in obtaining that perfect body. Other than the swimming lessons you don’t really work out. You don’t diet either. But you were lucky. I mean that’s what Max says anyways. Apparently to him, your fat goes to the right places. You just take that as a compliment and don’t question it or he’ll get very… explicit?

“Come on, Y/N I’m just playing with you.”

“Take your games elsewhere, I have a group to teach. See you at lunch.”

“See ya!”

You headed down the hallways towards the pool. These short haul walks tend to be a bit… creepy? You realised the first time round walking down this corridor that there are many more guys just like Max. Thirsty. In other words, pathetic. Like damn, do you need to express everything that’s on your mind out loud? Most days it feels like you’ve just stepped foot into the Amazonian Forest surrounded by tropical parrots all whistling. But today was different. For you anyways.

There were whistles again but you caught glimpse of a parrot. A very silent one unlike the reckless individuals around him. He was new. You had been working in Jinhae for around 4 months now, so you knew more or less when you saw a new face at the centre. He seemed very… shy? You couldn’t tell since it was just a glimpse and you had come to the end of the corridor.

You were early for your lesson. In 5 minutes, you’ll have all 8 kids + the newbie running towards you with joy. You had an amazing bond with the kids in this group. They say you as their big sister who they saw weekly. Before they would arrive, you always fit in a quick 2 laps to get your heart pumping. Although, this time your little heart didn’t need the 2 laps. If only you had known beforehand that an individual would do the same job as those 2 laps.

“2 laps in 90 seconds. Not bad” You looked at your Fitbit.

“Y/N!!!”

“Y/N eunnie!!!!”

“Noona!”

You could see your little herd of minions running to the edge of the pool where you were. They greeted you with little waves knowing you don’t like it when they jump in the pool without warming up. We wouldn’t want someone having a cramp mid front stroke.

“Hello, everyone! How have you all been?” Hmm, weird you couldn’t see the 9th student that Jooheon had mentioned earlier on.

“Good!” They all replied back in synchronisation. Cute.

“I heard that there’s somebody new joining our group. Have any of you happened to meet the new student yet?”

“No~” another reply in sync.

Maybe they got lost trying to find the pool? Maybe they are shy? Shy. No… you thought maybe the silent parrot from earlier on could be the new student and realised the age group of your students. See the groups were not categorised through age groups it was just a coincidence that all the beginners ranged from 5-10 year olds. The groups are organised as beginners, intermediate and advanced. Parents tend to send their kids to swimming classes at a young age hence why the beginner’s classes consisted of young children.

“I heard from Jooheon Oppa that there’s a new student joining us today. Jaehyun could you please lead the morning exercise whilst I try and find the new student? Once you are all done make sure to sit on the ledge of the pool and wait for me to come back. Jaehyun you’re in charge until I get back. Understood?”

“Aye, aye Captain” Jaehyun saluted back.

Jaehyun was the lifeguard at the pool you taught your lessons at. He was a year younger than you. Exactly a year funny enough. Same birthday, what a coincidence. Also, something else to point out which you may have realised. All the staff besides the receptionist are male. Don’t know why, it just happened to be that I was transferred here upon my request to move from the city to a town.

You headed off to grab the register for the morning group. The new students name should be written there. Right? You entered back into the staffroom and grabbed the register of your desk. You ran your finger down the list and got to the last person of the list. Park Jinyoung. He must be the newbie. You fast paced it back to the group and mentioned the name to all the students again. Nope… they don’t know who it is.

“Jaehyun, any sight of a newbie from up there?” Jaehyun had returned back to his lifeguard dock after seeing you return.

“No captain, actually- “

“H-hi…”

You whipped your head round. Silent parrot? Wait no, Y/N he has a name don’t be so rude. Park Jinyoung.

“Hi, Park Jinyoung right?”

A subtle nod.

There’s a whole ass adult standing right in front of you. Note to self. He’s really handsome… and fit. Anyways back to reality.

“Just to double check. Beginners class at 10 am on Mondays?”

“Yes, Miss”

You whipped your head back round to the group of children whispering among themselves. Children. God knows what’s going through their minds right now. The new generation are a bit… advanced.

You had to keep yourself composed. Cheeks are not turning red this easy. Knees are going to be fully functioning throughout this lesson. Breathing. Right we need to keep breathing, duh. You let out a deep breath and turned back round to Jinyoung.

“Well. We are now set. We have all 9 students. Anyone want to teach Jinyoung our exercise routine before he enters the pool?”

All hands were up. Wow. When were these students this hyper Monday morning? Kids these days.

“Me miss! Miss please me! Miss y/l/n please can I?!”

And that was Woojin. An enthusiastic ball of sunshine. Can be mischievous at times but his smile makes up for it.

“Sure Woojin. Everyone else scoot along to give them space.” This was going to be funny.

You had this exercise + a song to go along with it that you prepared a couple years ago for when you had a kids group. Once you were assigned to these minions you have been using it since day 1. Some may say it’s… well… cringe? I don’t blame the older ones but honestly its fun.

“You’re in for a treat Mr Park. No ifs, buts, or ands. We students in this group participate in everything. We expect the same from you.”

“Understood.” One word answers. I guess he isn’t much the talker, you thought to yourself.

“Take it away Woojin”

“Baby shark dudududududu, baby shark dudududududu, baby shark dudududududu, baby shark…”

Yes. We went there.

Woojin was amazing. Jinyoung on the other hand. Well, you could definitely tell from his face that this exercise was more an embarrassment than a warmup for him. He wasn’t in the plan so he couldn’t blame you for it. You and the other kids were having the time of your lives giggling at the site in front of you all. You could also hear Jaehyun trying to keep his giggles in. One customer complaint and he could be dismissed, and he wasn’t going to throw away this job.

“Mr Park, for a new student that was an impeccable performance. Right everyone?”

A roaring applause came in response and Jinyoung realised you were trying to lighten the situation. But rules are rules and everyone in your group had to obey them. The slight blush on Jinyoung’s cheeks had died down a little by the end of the clapping.

“Now that everyone’s all warmed up. Grab your floats and enter the pool”

You helped everyone put on their arm floats and guided them to a spot in the water. Jinyoung being the grown adult he is was given a float board. The arm floats would have been the second stage of embarrassment.

You positioned everyone and guided Jinyoung to the last spot of the circle. Usually you would get straight to teaching but since you had a new student and introduction game was compulsory.

“Now since we have a new student, we’ll be playing a ‘get to know each other’ game to find out more about Jinyoung and for Jinyoung to know more about us. Understood.”

“Yes, miss” in sync.

You glanced at Jinyoung and he responded back with another subtle nod. Cute.

“I’ll begin and then we’ll continue clockwise.” This meant Jinyoung was going to go last. Exciting.

“As many of you know, my name is Y/N. I’m turning 25 in May- “

“So am I! But I’m turning 24…” Jaehyun had interfered into your introduction. Typical.

“Jaehyun. Nobody asked.” The kids started giggling again and you’re sure you heard a slight chuckle escape Jinyoung’s mouth.

“As I was saying. I’m turning 25 in May so remember to bring me presents. 6th May to be exact. You guys can also see that I’m a foreigner. Both my parents are from the Mediterranean hence the coloured eyes and unfamiliar name-“

“I like your eyes Miss” Classic Woojin with his cute compliments.

“I like your eyes too Woojin”

You could see from the side that Jinyoung had a smile on his face. I guess he’s fitting in? you thought.

“Have I missed anything?”

“Are you single?” At this rate from all the neck whipping you’ve been doing today you’re sure you’re going to dislocate it if you whip it one more time. Jinyoung being the source of the sudden personal question.

“Huh, Oh. Yes, I am”

“YA, No personal questions!” Jaehyun yelled down towards your group. I swear this kid has superman powers to hear us all the way from up there, you thought to yourself.

“YA, have some respect. I know where to cross the line. I’m willingly answering the question so mind your own business.”

Jaehyun sank back into his seat after realising he shouldn’t have been eavesdropping.

“Ignore him”, you directed towards Jinyoung. He just nodded.

The introductions went around, and you did the register simultaneously.

“Woojin, it’s your turn.”

“My name is Woojin. I’m 5 years old. When I am older, I will be Y/N’s future husband- “

“HUH?” You let out a loud gasp due to the aspiration the young one had shared with the group. The other kids started laughing.

“Woojin you can’t take away my future wife away from me like that” You hadn’t realised but Max had been sitting on the bench near the edge of the pool. Weird, he’s usually in a different pool for his morning workout.

“Max, your 6 other girlfriends would be distraught if they heard that they weren’t going to be the supposed ‘lucky’ one. Let’s not upset them.”

You heard a scoff from Jinyoung. He seems to be entertained and Max was not having it.

“Do you have something to say newbie?” The situation wasn’t moving in a good direction but Woojin stepped in before you could.

“Y/N is mine Max hyung. My favourite subject in school is colouring. I have a dog called Jae…”

Luckily, the situation died down as Woojin continued with his introduction. You thanked him in your head. That was close. Last but not least it was now Jinyoung’s turn but you felt uneasy since Max was still in the vicinity.

“Hello! I’m Jinyoung. I was born and raised in Jinhae. I am 26 years old. I like listening to music and reading.”

“What do you do for a living?” You were curious about what the handsome gentleman chose for a career.

“I would like to keep that private, if it’s okay with you all”

“Yh sure that’s fine. Right, now that we’ve gotten to know each other, I’ll be splitting the groups into two. One half will go with Jaehyun to that side of the pool and practice staying float without your arm floats. The other half will come with me to learn front stroke. Agreed?”

“Yes, Miss!”

He’s mysterious too. Newbie is becoming more and more interesting. Obviously, you purposefully put Jinyoung in your group. You swam to the end of the pool you had assigned to your group, completely forgetting you have a bunch of immatures that need to be here too. You named your method of teaching, “survival”. For the students to start learning how to swim they need to find a way of getting to this end of the pool as soon as possible. This will give them an inkling to try and swim and overcome any form of fear towards water.

Minutes later all 5 students had arrived at the point you were at. You had sent Woojin to the other group. As hard as it was for him, he finally agreed to join Jaehyun and the rest.

“Alright. As you all heard earlier, we’ll be learning front stroke today. It’s the most common and popular type of swimming style. I’ll first demonstrate with one lap what front stroke looks like. I want you guys to pay close attention to the movement of my legs and arms. After that I want to see you guys attempt front stroke from purely seeing what it looks like. I’ll then come around to all of you and individually tweak your weak points. Is everyone okay with that?”

Everyone nodded. You proceeded to push off the wall and drifted under water. As you surfaced you started kicking your legs and rotating your arms. You shifted your head sideways when you needed to catch some air. When you arrived at the other end, you flipped and kicked back off the wall again and swam back to your group. You arrived back to a crowd of clapping seals, including Jinyoung.

“Did we all watch like eagles at the technique and movements I displayed?”

“Yes, Miss”

“Great, now can we all line up to get ready for a race?”

“A race?” Jinyoung questioned whilst the other students positioned themselves.

“Is there a problem Mr Park?”

“Please call me Jinyoung, I was just a little surprised”

“I’ll quickly explain why it’ll be a race. As humans we all have our competitive sides. If we are competing, we all want to win right?”

Everyone nods.

“If we want to win, we’ll perform our absolute best to not come last. This means I’ll be seeing your optimum performance of front stroke. It’s your survival mode kicking in trying to avoid becoming embarrassed in front of everyone. Understood?”

“Yes, Miss. Can we start?”, Hyeji insisted with some confidence.

“Yes, sure Hyeji. If everyone’s ready, when I say go I want you guys to swim to that end and back. Remember, try to copy the same movement I was using when I swam. The closer you get to using the technique the quicker you’ll go. It’s not necessary to move quickly.”

Everyone takes their positions and you start to countdown.

“3… 2… 1… GO!”

All 4 of the beginner swimmers start swimming towards the other end of the pool. You watched them eagerly to see where each swimmer was struggling. To your surprise Hyungwon came first. He was a student you have been teaching for only 4 weeks so it was rewarding to see him improve in such a short span of time.

“Hyungwon well done! You’ve improved so much since the first time I saw you swim. High five!” You high five Hyungwon and then the rest of the students. Jinyoung was hesitant at first but was willing to comply.

“I’ll now come around to all of you and help you improve your front stroke, until then you guys can carry on practicing.”

You moved to Hyeji and explained to her how she needs to kick her legs. At first she was hesitant on how much her legs were splashing but you told her the stronger she kicks the better. Hyungwon had more or less nailed front stroke. You were with him for only a couple of minutes. You moved onto the other student and helped him out too. Then moved onto Jinyoung.

You were quite surprised on how good he was since he had mentioned it was his first ever swimming lesson. He was struggling with his hands.

“You’ve gotten the harder parts of front stroke. With your hands you need to capture as much water in it in order to move forward. To do this you need to cup your hands whilst you swim. Does that make sense?”

Jinyoung bit his lip. You could see he was pretty nervous. You couldn’t understand why but you didn’t push him out of his comfort zone unless he refused to swim. He moved away and started swimming, but something was off. His legs were kicking but they were completely submerged under water.

“Jinyoung!”, you yelled to get his attention. He stopped in his lane and swam back.

“You’ve understood what to do with your hands, but I’ve noticed something else.”

“What is it?”

“You’re kicking your legs which is great, but your legs are completely submerged under water. You need to make sure that you are kicking at the surface of the water.”

“How can I keep them lifted? They just seem to sink.”

You couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

“It’s nothing against you. Just the way you described your legs it through me off guard.”

There was an awkward silence. You realised that he may have taken the chuckle to heart.

“Let’s do this. How about you get into the front stroke position and I’ll lift your legs where they need to be? Then you can start lightly kicking and I’ll slowly move my arm away and you can continue swimming. Deal?”

“Deal.”

You hadn’t noticed but Max was still sitting on the bench watching your every move. Once he saw you make contact with Jinyoung’s legs, jealousy started kicking in. See Max wasn’t the type to commit to a relationship, but he always questioned himself, if he had to settle down with someone this very day who would it be? and you were the first option that would come to mind. He was using all his strength to not jump into the pool and pull you away from Jinyoung.

“That’s it, you’re getting it” You cheered Jinyoung to make up for the awkward encounter. Jinyoung continued to swim and you concluded that he was a fast learner. You felt sad though. You’ve had many students who got the basic hang of swimming and so progressed to the intermediate classes which meant you no longer taught them. You kind of liked having Jinyoung around as your student so seeing him go so soon will be a bummer.

It had marked an hour since the start of your lesson which meant it was the end of Monday morning for your students. Your group and Jaehyun’s cohort re-joined and everyone spoke about what they had learnt today. You hugged all your young ones and shook Jinyoung’s hand. It was awkward but hugging might push Max of the rails.

Everyone exited the pool. Once Max saw Jinyoung off site he rushed to your side. He was ready to confront.

“Who is he?”

“Max, watch your tone. He’s my new student.”

“Newbie seemed very excited when he heard you were single.” You flushed a light tone of red.

���And it seems like you’re a little excited by it too.” He snarked which started to piss you off.

“Who are you to be questioning my relationship between my student? Why do you even care?”

“Because- “

“Y/N?”

You snapped your head round to the direction of the voice. Worst timing Jinyoung.

“Yes Jinyoung. Was there something you needed?” He also realised that he had interrupted a heated conversation. If anything, this was your escape from Max.

“I heard that there’s some sort of form that I need to fill in for new students. I didn’t have the time to fill it in before the lesson, by any chance do you have one for me to fill in?”

“Yes, I do. It’s on my desk. Give me 2 minutes and we can go.”

Jinyoung dropped back and waited for your conversation between Max.

“Because? You were saying?”

“I- never mind. Just don’t mix your personal life with work.” And with that Max left the pool area.

“What is up with him?”

You turned to face Jinyoung and showed him the way to the staffroom. You opened the door to see an absent Max and a present Jooheon.

“So, did you find out who your new student is?”

“Yes, Jooheon I did.”

“You have another munchkin to teach now. Luckily for you, you actually enjoy your job.”

“I would exactly describe him as a munchkin per say.” You look at Jinyoung.

“Waaa, if you’re going to not describe him as a munchkin then he must be a real nuisance.”

You look at Jinyoung again and let out a small chuckle.

“Jooheon if you could give me a minute to explain- “

“If you want me to transfer the student to a different group I can happily do so.”

“Jooheon!”

Jooheon and Jinyoung both look at you with a surprised expression.

“Jooheon meet Jinyoung my new student.” You gestured towards the young man standing beside you.

“New student?”

“Yes Jooheon, new student.” You let out another chuckle.

“Now do you understand why I wouldn’t exactly describe my new student as a munchkin?”

“Yes, I do. I mean you could if you wanted- “

“Jooheon” You laughed his name.

“Was there something you needed?”

Before Jinyoung could answer you shifted back to what you were doing in the staffroom.

“Jinyoung asked for a new student form. You know the one with extra contact details for emergency needs.” You grabbed a copy of the form and a pen of your desk and handed it over to Jinyoung.

“Yes, sir. I wasn’t able to fill in the form before my lesson or I would have been late so I asked Y/N about it now.”

“What do you think of our Y/N, Jinyoung?”

You shot your head up towards Jooheon to try and translate his facial expressions into his intentions. What was he trying to do? You thought.

“I think she’s a really engaging teacher. You can tell she likes to teach and doing so her students thrive in swimming. I too improved so much in the span of an hour. I look forward to my future lessons with Y/N.”

You couldn’t help but smile. It’s always rewarding to hear students are glad a with your teaching. It’s also good for your boss to hear from your students first-hand.

“It’s only been one lesson and you seem to be very diligent in learning how to swim. I’m guessing this is the effect of Y/N’s amazing enthusiasm.”

“You’re correct.” Jinyoung placed the pen down and was quickly done with the form.

“Done?”

“Yep”, Looks like it was time to part away with Jinyoung. You were already beginning to miss his presence.

“I’ll see you next week Jinyoung. Continue practicing and you’ll be progressing up to the next difficulty level in no time.” Even though this wasn’t what you wanted, the true reason he was here was so to learn how to swim.

“With your help, I’m sure I’ll do great”

“Bye Jinyoung” You waved.

“Bye Y/N, have a great week.” And just like that he was out the staffroom.

It was now just you and Jooheon.

“Jooheon?”

“Yes Y/N.”

“Max has been acting a little off today. Do you know if something’s up with him?”

“From what I know, nothing abnormal has happened. Why’d you ask?”

“We all know he goes for his morning routine on Mondays before his lessons. Today he was watching my lesson. Then he questioned my new student over a small matter. Not only that he thinks I’m mixing my personal life with my work. Can you imagine, me? You know how far away I am from even having a personal life let alone to mix it with work.”

“Do you really don’t get why he’s acting that way Y/N?”

You took a minute to try and find an answer, but you didn’t get it. You shook your head.

“He’s jealous Y/N.”

Jealousy and Max. Nope, I’m not buying it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me Jooheon. He has so many toys to keep himself busy with, why would he be jealous?”

“Y/N I don’t think you realise how many of the male customers and male workers would want to date you. You’re up there in top 3 hottest females they’ve probably seen in their lives. Such low standards.”

“YA Jooheon! Just because you’re jealous too don’t make rude comments.”

“Me? Jealous? Y/N don’t make me laugh. You’re like a sister to me. Brush Max off for now, he’ll get over it. I don’t blame Max though. You’re someone to be jealous over especially when there’s strong competition.”

“You guys are really hard to hack, honestly. He could have just said but instead he trys to play a masculine role trying to win me over. Hes not even my type.”

“You do you, Y/N.”

You and Jooheon hadn’t realised but Max was listening to your dialogue from the beginning. And he wasn’t the happiest.

———

That’s it’s for the first episode of “Can’t Swim”. I’m so excited for this series. I’ve already more or less finished writing up the second part too. I hope to fulfil your expectations with this series ahgases!

writer-nim x

[jean----ralphio]

Band of brothers liveblog ep 4

Episode 4: Replacements – AKA Babe is here! And Dick is a grandfather!

Sigh. It’s daytime. No whiskey. Even I have (very low) standards.

03:34 Credits and the IRL men are not to be joked at.

04:15 Babe <3 He looks so young compared to the big kids aw

04:17 This whole scene is hilarious, love the Luz/Buck dynamic. Aw Babe’s making new friends while his replacement buddies sulk in the corner.

04:43 James McAvoy!

04:49 “Don’t take much to set my guys off.” LMAO Bull they’re freaking about to wet themselves.

05:01 “I don’t know much about gambling…” Lol @ Buck trying and completely failing to do as Dick advised. He did not try very hard at all.

05:19 Bill. Come on.

05:23 Hey Web <3

05:27 No, you’re James McAvoy.

05:46 “What would I do without George Luz!” Buck is so valid.

05:47 “Boop! OHHHHHH!!” This may just be my fave bit in the whole series. The entire darts scene gives me so much life, little Babe hanging with the big kids, Joe/Charlie in the background about to shank someone, Luz on top form…

06:33 Aw Babe

06:43 Bill’s laugh omg

06:53 Johnny stop flirting, you have a wife

07:05 Johnny, no

07:12 JOHNNY! NO!

07:29 Fuck off Cobb, that’s pathetic and so are you

07:48 Bull stop him

07:53 Oh, poor James McAvoy! It’s OK, Fassy is around, go find him instead

08:01 Baby no

08:29 “Shit Cobb, you didn’t fight in Normandy neither.” GET WRECKED.

08:47 RICH

09:10 Oh. Not what Smokey was expecting.

09:14 Look it’s my angel son

09:16 RICH

09:43 Lip aw <3

09:45 RICH! God, his eyes <3

10:56 I wouldn’t be aiming to emulate Cobb, sweetie

11:04 How would you know?

11:19 Bull’s like no, son, just stop before you hurt yourself

11:20 Popeye <3

11:23 Ew Ross

11:31 RICH

11:33 Fuck Rich is so fucking good-looking it’s like staring into the sun

12:04 The pause to gather himself. He’s nervous. Man Ross did a great job acting this role

12:16 Popeye we’ve missed you!

12:59 “Maybe he’ll court-martial me later!” LMFAO

13:07 RICH <3

13:11 His little upswept fringe tho

13:22 LOL RUN RICH.

13:40 How did Ross even know?!

13:52 Ugh piss off

14:15 He’s colour-blind, Johnny, use your brain

14:31 Aw Bull and his babies

15:56 It’s OK, your Dad’s here. That makes Dick a grandfather now, right?

16:28 Roe disapproves and therefore I disapprove

16:53 Web, you dork

18:15 Aw! So happy!

18:26 Bull’s still going on his cigar lmao

18:46 So cute

18:54 Perco lol

19:07 Dick’s like oh, OK. Nix is like no, ew, get off, you’re not Dick

19:32 Grant, that was smooth, I approve!

19:33 Tab omg

19:35 Hi IRL Babe!

19:48 I don’t like this bit so ima fast forward

20:44 The Dad squad is not happy

21:16 No that is a child! Dick disapproves

21:58 I don’t trust hot resistance man for some reason

22:26 That looks comfy, I’d chill with Web and the random other guy on that haystack for sure

23:10 Lmao @ Web “They don’t tell us much.”

24:08 Cute. Oh the kid is cute too, I guess.

25:08 Lmao @ Web again, the guy is hilarious “Vincent van Gogh was born in Neunen.” No one cares, sweetie. I’m forced to agree with Cobb, “Yeah, so what.” Never thought I’d see the day.

26:00 No, baby, don’t

26:50 Fuck

28:00 So. Stressful.

28:43 I hear a doggie

29:08 An effective way to get the fence down, I guess?

29:16 Hey Skinny

29:55 Oh Lord

30:16 Go, Johnny, quick

30:57 “I believe you, but if I can’t see the bugger, I can’t bloody well shoot him, can I?” Iconic. I love it. Johnny ‘unimpressed’ Martin is so done.

31:38 You were warned, baby, sorry to say

32:05 Bull ☹

32:34 I feel like Rich is there with Buck, but I can’t see him

32:38 Run, don’t crawl!

32:59 in a complete reversal of what I just said, why the fuck would you stand up and run through that, idiot!

33:15 Meanwhile, back in the ditch, Bull is still crawling ☹

34:49 SO MUCH DESTRUCTION OMG

35:30 GTFO Cobb no one likes you

35:46 GUYS I’M ON THE PHONE!!

36:00 Naw, Johnny wants his bf back

36:22 Oh James McAvoy ☹

36:41 Buck! Poor Buck! RICH I SEE YOU

36:53 How can Roe tell that already?

36:56 Rich, be careful. And you other guys too. But mostly Rich.

37:01 Lol @ Buck “Leave me here for the Germans!” Dramatic af! You’re fine!

37:22 Aw. RICH.

37:38 RICH. EVERYONE. LOOK. RICH IS THERE.

37:46 Dick is hot when he’s barking orders tbh

37:55 I scream every time

38:05 That’s some prime Winnix <3333

38:13 Hey Lip, missed you this ep <3

38:39 Careful of the grenade, baby

38:59 Oh, Johnny ☹

39L20 Piss off

39:51 I’d stay there, tbh, it looks safer, no one would think to look there

42:07 Ok I’m sorry Hoob is looking bae. Not as bae as Rich, because that’s fucking ridiculous. But still.

42:31 WTF are these idiots still doing hanging around in a bombed out, invaded town! Fuck off!

43:17 Ick

43:29 Mood tbh

43:49 God. BAMF.

44:23 Teeeense

44:33 Piss oooooooffffffffff

45:07 I freaking told Bull the barn wasn’t safe, he didn’t listen to me and now look!

45:30 Oh no. The blood is still clearly fresh.

46:17 Oh look, the German soldier is scared too.

46:45 So noisy! Thank God the planes are overhead

47:01 What do you expect him to do, lady! It’s kill or be killed, plus he’s trying to protect you!

47:24 I love how Bill calls him ‘the Bull’! And how he refuses to believe he’s dead <3

47:37 OK Hoob is def turning into a bae, NGL

47:44 Naw Bull’s sons miss their Dad

48:01 LMAO @ Web, he’s like OH FINE, I’ll come along I guess…

48:05 Cobb is a weak punk bitch

48:07 Still a weak punk bitch, fight me

48:46 DON’T. MOVE. A. MUSCLE.

48:55 Shhhhh

49:39 Nix can see that for himself, Dick. He just doesn’t care, tbh, as long as you’re safe.

50:30 Aw James McAvoy ☹

50:53 Have this little band of idiots been walking/looking all night? Dorks, that’s adorable.

51:22 Aw, they’re so happ

51:26 “Shut up, Cobb.” Valid.

51:45 I can’t say I don’t ship it, tbh

51:54 Look at Johnny’s happy little face <3

52:03 RICH!

52:14 “Never did like this company none,” Bull is a certified Icon.

52:16 RICH <3

52:14 Oh look, Roe <3

53:04 Cute

53:08 RICH

53:19 “I don’t like retreating,” omg Dick is so petulant, I love it. Cheer him up Nix!

53:29 I’m fucking living for the pure Rich content in the background, I’m not listening at all, sorry Winnix. ILY RICH.

54:13 The Brits lost 8000 men? Fuck. Fuck war.

In conclusion, Bull needs to listen to me when I yell at him through the screen to do stuff, Winnix are in love and are grandparents now, and I will never love anything like I love Rich when he’s being hilarious in the background of scenes the end.

[tiesandtea]

Interview with Artmagic from July 2012 for Spindle Magazine

By Amy Lavelle on July 12, 2012. Archived here.

Doors close; windows open etc. One of the many valuable lessons to be learned from the Sound of Music and when Suede’s door closed, another window of shining opportunity opened in the form of Artmagic: the new project and meeting of minds of Richard Oakes and producer, now vocalist, SeanMcGhee (Imogen Heap, Britney Spears et al.). Then yes, Suede’s door reopened, but fear not, that won’t be affecting the duo.

We caught up with them for a chat/‘peak behind the magic,’ if you will.

Full interview under the cut. Teaser:

SEAN: Please don’t call us “indie”. Do we look like skinny 18 year olds? I was never skinny, or young. This policy will continue. RICHARD: Please do call us “indie”. It’s funny to watch Sean’s reaction!

SPINDLE: Before you hear Artmagic’s music, it seems at first like an unlikely pairing; how did you form? What’s the story behind Artmagic? SEAN: I was a big admirer of Richard’s work and was curious that he’d seemingly disappeared when his other band split. Here was this enormously talented guitarist and writer, suddenly off the radar. I must have been in a fearless, bolshy mood, because I just decided I wanted to write with him. A friend of mine was egging me on, and it turned out that he knew Richard’s brother. So I was able to get in contact and arrange to meet up. We wrote our current single, Forever In Negative on the very first day of working together; once that was under our belts, we both knew this wasn’t going to be a one-off. RICHARD: We exchanged show reels via our manager Charlie in late 2007, but we didn’t actually meet until July 2008, and started writing straight away. Not really the traditional way bands form – meeting at art school, sharing a squat etc… But right from the off Artmagic was never going to be a typical rock ‘n’ roll outfit. I think of it as a project, rather than a band, with none of the clichéd behaviour, image or attitude. Sean doesn’t model himself on his influences, and this definitely attracted me to working with him. SPINDLE: Why the name? SEAN: It comes from something film director John Waters said about modern art; he noted how it lets you take seemingly unrelated everyday objects and, by using them in the right way, turn them into something meaningful. Art, he said, is magic, like alchemy – transformative. And I loved that, immediately, because song writing is art. We take disparate fragments and craft them into the whole. I’m not afraid to appear pretentious when I say that. I’m get exasperated by the clichés of rock, so framing what we do in artistic terms suits me much better than relying on tired posturing. RICHARD: Sean chose the name, my input was a shameful zero! My past career has left me with a strong ethic that the only thing that matters is the music; everything else is secondary. It’s easy to spot the bands in the past who have concentrated on name, image and impact first… and then forgotten about the actual music. SPINDLE: Obviously there were a lot of expectations for the band; were you at all apprehensive putting new music out there in the beginning? SEAN: Not at all; the moment we released the I Keep On Walking EP was when Artmagic became real, and I think we were both hungry for that moment. I can’t really imagine what expectations people had, but I hope we confounded them by giving them a moody song cycle about 3 unwillingly intertwined lovers. I’m immensely proud of it, and I think it was a gutsy way to lead off. RICHARD: Releasing your work to the world is always exciting yet daunting, no matter what you believe the expectations to be. I’ve had reviews of my past work that have ranged from glowing to utterly awful, and I’ve learned to take both with a pinch of salt. The most important thing is that people get to hear it; I believe there will always be someone in the world whose life is touched by it, and that’s the whole point. SPINDLE: How have you found the reception so far? SEAN: Gratifying. It’s thrilling, really, that we’ve already got some very passionate fans and it’s very exciting when we do shows and we can see the audience getting it. Obviously some people have had difficulty moving beyond our previous work, and get upset or confused because it doesn’t sound the same, but you can’t please everyone, and I wouldn’t want to anyway. Pleasing ourselves is the first priority, and will remain so. RICHARD: I believe we’ve attracted the kind of people who like music in the same way we do. When talking to someone at a gig you can instantly tell if they’re there for the right reasons, a genuine open minded love of music as an art form, or whether they’re there just to stare at you. People who have the usual prejudices won’t appreciate what we do, and I have no interest in playing to them. SPINDLE: Sean, how was it making the transition from ‘behind the scenes’ as it were to taking the mic and being at the forefront? SEAN: Artmagic happened because we realised that no-one else could sing these songs we were writing – they were too personal. That, and Richard’s support, gave me the confidence to be the man to sing them. Doing so was both the realisation of a long-held ambition and a serious challenge. But that’s a good thing, because anything that’s easy to do is generally not worth doing at all. SPINDLE: Richard, after taking time out of the spotlight following Suede’s split, how was it releasing new music? Is it something you’ve been working on since the break or did you take time away from it all? RICHARD: I did take some time out to move house, but I had been working on a whole load of music, some of which became the backbone for the album, for a couple of years before I met Sean. The intensity of being a Suede member for so many years cast a long shadow over my work, and it took me a lot of soul searching to realise exactly what I wanted to do with my career. The one thing I was certain of was that I didn’t want to simply join another band, or have a new band formed around me. I wanted to just write and write, and when I met Sean, that’s what we concentrated on. I threw a lot of (probably very confused-sounding) music at him, and he was able to pinpoint the underlying emotions and feelings, and turn them into very personal songs. SPINDLE: How does the creative process as Artmagic differ from previous projects for both of you? SEAN: The process is both the same and different. I’ve written with a lot of people over the years and I’m past being tentative; you have to fearlessly throw down your ideas and say, “what about this?” to get a song happening. Truly poor songs get written by the disinterested or uninspired. That is never an issue with Richard because he’s always got something great up his sleeve, and that means I have to respond in kind. That’s not always been the case for me in the past, so I relish it. RICHARD: The biggest difference for me is that Sean invites me to be involved when he writes the melodies, there is no separatism. This was never the case in Suede; almost all co-writing would be done alone, often even by post. It just goes to show how many different ways there are to write a song. We have a few that have come out of spontaneous jamming round at Sean’s, but they’re a world away from the traditional band rehearsal room jamming! Something that rarely works well. SPINDLE: Have you faced any major hurdles so far as a band and if so, what? SEAN: Not really. Any musician who has a career is living a charmed life, and they know it. Never mind the endless whining we hear, saying how hard it is. It should be hard, because that weeds out the faithless. I’m a true believer in Artmagic specifically, and music generally. I crave widespread appreciation for Artmagic, because I think our work deserves it. RICHARD: The only hurdles, the only hoops we’ve had to jump through have been self-imposed, in the writing and recording. We set ourselves a high standard, and despite having no corporations breathing down our necks, it was hard work, but the end result was all the more satisfying. SPINDLE: What’s next?

SEAN: Touring and festivals in July, more touring in September. Our second single Down In The River comes out in October. We’re working hard to give Become The One You Love its due, and once that’s done and dusted we’ll start thinking seriously about album two. We already have some songs in hand, and some very interesting ideas about how to approach the process differently next time around. But I don’t want overthink it; better to run on instinct.

RICHARD: Live appearances in the many different guises of the band, up and down the country. I’m especially looking forward to the album release gig at St Pancras Old Church on 9th July with the whole band. But I can’t wait to start writing again – I believe that is the most important part of our job. Creativity will outlive industry. SPINDLE: Anything else to add? SEAN: Please don’t call us “indie”. Do we look like skinny 18 year olds? I was never skinny, or young. This policy will continue. RICHARD: Please do call us “indie”. It’s funny to watch Sean’s reaction!

[neo-shitty]

hi toffee !!

i’ve been wondering if you’ve ever done anime recs… ?

i’ve been following you for a while and i really love your taste in books, so i got curious about your taste in anime as well 🫢 do you have any recommendations?

i don’t think i’ve been asked to do anime recs HAHA probably bc i haven’t watched enough to have non-generic and diverse recommendations but here we go!!

bungo stray dogs - yep, i’ll never shut up about this. i think it might be my all-time favorite. something abt irl authors being used as the basis for the characters here that was very fascinating to me >:’( i’ve been in love with it since i watched it last year.

another - short 12-ep anime but packed a punch !! my first 5/5. idk what to say without spoiling (assuming you haven’t watched it yet) but i just like the whole thing—concept to ending.

attack on titan - i know, *rolls eyes* i used to refuse to watch this because of how boring the first five minutes were (2020). i stand corrected. i think it’s one of the most well thought of worlds/stories i’ve ever watched or read about. still hate the ending tho iykyk

banana fish - again, the literary references here piqued my interest. though it fell kinda short in the end, i still loved it and i’m forever pissed that i got spoiled. i get sad when i hear angel eyes by abba bc it reminds me of the show. kinda want to read the manga bc the art style is AMAZING.

haikyuu (new) - another thing i refused to watch bc of the hype around it, and now i get it 🤕 it was just so fun to watch!!! i got so attached to the characters so quick it’s unreal man. kinda made me sad that this isn’t the reality i live in but i just have to accept that.

and a few honorable mentions:

classroom of the elite - i love me class conflicts *u* also main boy is my everything 😵‍💫💞

akame ga kill - emphasis on kill as my friend said HAHA i liked how not typical it was and if i watched it earlier it would’ve set my standards on anime higher

erased - SO UNDERRATED. idk why i found it boring midway, still glad it tied up well.

kakegurui - yeah i think i do like high school-set animes x.x while the episode formula gets redundant, i like all the ways they cld gamble AHAH reminds me of how my friends and i played cards in the back of the class a lot :(

tokyo ghoul - but only season 1, epitome of wasted potential 🙄 i want to read the manga instead bc everyone says it was better

[krispyweiss]

Outlaw Music Festival feat. Willie Nelson and Family, Van Morrison, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Sturgill Simpson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Particle Kid at Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey, Penn., Sept. 8, 2018

Though he's absolutely earned the right, Willie Nelson probably shouldn't follow Van Morrison and the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

But Nelson did just that Saturday night in Hershey, taking the stage in a steady rain just before 10 p.m. to close out the latest iteration of his Outlaw Music Festival in front of a massive Texas state flag. Though he played and sang well, Nelson, 85, seemed tired as he ran through a truncated, 65-minute version of his standard set with a band that included sons Lukas (guitar/vocals) and Micah (percussion), both of whom had played early slots backed by Promise of the Real.

Opening with "Whiskey River" and closing with Hank Williams' "I Saw the Light" with Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi augmenting his Family, Nelson proved his still-supple chops as he took Trigger on a ride through Django Reinhardt's instrumental "Nuages," and tossed gorgeous fills in to "Angel Flying too Close to the Ground," even as he struggled with the lyrics to the latter.

Higher in the mix and busier than is typical, pianist "Little Sister" Bobbie Nelson, who at 87, is two years her brother's senior, played not only her usual showcase of "Down Yonder," but also took over for "Twelth Street Rag” while Nelson briefly doffed his Willie's Reserve sweatshirt before putting it right back on. Lukas served as bandleader for "Texas Flood" and the elder Nelson mocked his advacing years with "Roll Me up and Smoke me When I Die" and "I Woke up Still Not Dead Again Today," reminding his adoring fans to take every Willie Nelson show not for granted, but as a gift.

He followed an uncharacteristically jovial Van Morrison, who, dressed in his trademark dark suit, fedora and shades - even though it was mostly dark when he took the stage in a light drizzle - visited many corners of his storied songbook in a generous, 90-minute set.

Backed by an eight-piece band that included peerless players on percussion; drums; backing vocals; violin; nylon-string acoustic guitar; electric and pedal-steel guitar; bass; and keys and trumpet; Morrison joined the ensemble on hollow-bodied electric guitar, sax and blues harp. Fully engaged, he cued the band with his right hard, yodeled, growled, cracked himself and his band up on "Broken Record" and threw them a couple of curve balls by calling out "Carrying a Torch," "Wonderful Remark" and "Warm Love" on the fly.

They're super-tight and had no problems tackling the audibles.

The 20 tracks bled into one another as Morrison and the band played jazz on Mose Allison's "Benediction," country on Don Gibson's "I Can't Stop Loving You," soul on "Here Comes the Night" and more jazz on a sped-up, horn-driven take on "Moondance," a fantabulous choice on a cloud-covered night where the moon was simply a rumor.

Morrison walked off the stage following "Did Ye Get Healed," the band vamping and the music director calling for applause and bellowing his boss' name again and again. The show seemed over, but the man returned for a rearranged and newly jazzed-up version of "Brown Eyed Girl" and Them's "Gloria," which smoked, and Morrison's segment ended for real.

Making their Outlaw debut, the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks band slayed the smallish audience in the cavernous stadium as Trucks and Tedeschi traded searing guitar solos, Tedeschi and the group's trio of backing vocalists sang to the heavens and the group's three-piece rhythm and horn sections goosed the music along like a runaway train that somehow maintained control.

Tedeschi had the crowd eating out of her hand on a red-hot reading B.B. King's "How Blue Can You Get?;" Trucks showed why he's a slide-guitar master on "Down in the Flood," which along with a mournful "Going Gone Gone" was one of two Bob Dylan songs to pop up during the 90-minute set; and the whole house sang along to "The Night Time is the Right Time" in the grey light of the overcast late afternoon.

Originals such as "Midnight in Harlem," "Let Me Get By" and "Don't Know What it Means" found the group channeling its influences while being uniquely original. Tedeschi Trucks Band is one of those ensembles that makes room for every one of its dozen players without sounding like it's making room and that never fails to be anything less than staggeringly good.

Saturday was no exception, which was a good thing as they had to follow Sturgill Simpson. The guitarist played a jaw-dropping, 80-minute concert that was boiling stew of blues-based rock with the faintest hint of outlaw spice.

With a baritone that recalls Waylon Jennings and a playing style that follows the arc from Jimmy Page to Trey Anastasio, Simpson is a low-key stage presence who lets his guitar do the talking as he turns to his amps to coax feedback and walks bandstand letting inspiration pour through his fingers. When the quartet kicked into a blistering version of the Jeff Beck Group's "Going Down" late in the set, everything about Simpson came into focus and the relative newcomer - who has three LPs under his belt - surely made a bunch of new fans.

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real played an all-too-short, 40-minute set of material from their eponymous 2017 LP and the just-released Forget About Georgia EP that earned them a well-deserved standing ovation. With Micah Nelson on guitar and percussion, Lukas performed tracks such as "Turn off the News," "Die Alone" and "Forget About Georgia," which was extended to show off the rhythm section at the expense of his own guitar solo.

This was rememdied on the climax, when Nelson, sporting a Jimi Hendrix T, played with his teeth and jumped off the drum riser in a swell combination of showmanship and musicianship.

The Particle Kid, aka Micah Nelson, opened the eight-hour marathon with 30-minute set that concluded with "Everything is Bullshit," which featured big brother Lukas on air guitar and vocals and, as Micah played a grungy, stabbing guitar solo, illustrated why Neil Young tapped POTR to be his latest backing band.

The opening set began 15 minutes before the scheduled 2:45 p.m.start time and set the tone for a well-oiled festival that ran right on schedule for the entire day, with 20- to 30-minute gaps between artists. It proved that even stoners can be on time when they set their minds to it.

Grade card: Outlaw Music Festival feat. Willie Nelson and Family, Van Morrison, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Sturgill Simpson, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Particle Kid at Hersheypark Stadium - A (Overall)/B+/A/A/A-/B+/C

More photos here and here.

9/9/18

[airadam]

Episode 145 : Setting Levels

"Appetite for construction..."

- Swigga

We celebrate another birthday for the podcast this month, marking twelve full years since that inaugural experimental episode! This month's mix includes new tracks from artists who are setting themselves new standards, as well as some deep album cuts, B-sides, and unreleased gems. Sadly, we also mark the passing of Gift of Gab of Blackalicious, who left us just a few days ago. We include just one of his tracks this month, but he's an MC who left a deep body of work behind for us to continue to celebrate.

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Children of Zeus : I Need You

Manchester's finest are back with their brand new album "Balance" and this was an early favourite of mine. Not uptempo, but much more so than "I Want You", with lots of bump, Tyler and Konny gave themselves a perfect canvas to get busy on the vocals. Go get that album!

Ilajide : Please Set Me At Ease

If Ilajide punches as hard as his beats are, a lot of heavyweights could be in trouble. Always bringing the heat, he shows his literal chops right here on this beat from the "Latex" LP.

Cocoa Brovaz : Get Up

For those that never knew or had forgotten, there was a period of almost ten years when due to the threat of legal action from the firearm manufacturer of similar name, Smif-N-Wessun had to change their name to Cocoa Brovaz. During this time you could hear the Brooklyn legends popping up on all kinds of quality records, and this was no exception - the B-side to the Mos Def/Pharoahe/Nate Dogg "Oh No" single, and a worthy inclusion on the "Lyricist Lounge 2" collection. Hi-Tek's beat on this was unconventional back in 2000 and still stands out as unusual today.

Special Teamz ft. Sean Price : Boston To Bucktown

Special Teamz was a Boston supergroup made up of Edo G, Jaysaun, and Slaine, who dropped the "Stereotypez" album in 2007. As signees to Duck Down Records, it was a natural move to tap them up for a guest appearance - and here, the late great Sean Price joins them on this Pete Rock-produced cut.

LL Cool J : Summer Luv

The B-Side to "Loungin'" and an inclusion on the deluxe edition of "Mr. Smith", this is a track I just don't hear enough! LL isn't showing love to the weak MCs he takes out on this one, and Rashad Smith's beat is a punchy and relatively sparse bit of 90s boom-bap crispiness.

Rakim : Last Resort

I think this one may have slipped past a lot of listeners - I got it on one of those random bootleg 12"s - entitled "Unreleased Jewels", released in 2003. According to Discogs, Da Beatminerz provided the beat, and it's an overall solid track. The hook is borrowed from a line from one of my favourite Rakim records, "Teach The Children" from the "Don't Sweat The Technique" LP.

Moods, Yasper : Vibe Vibe

From the "Endless Sunday Vol.1" album, these two Dutch producers on the Chillhop label do indeed bring the vibe. This would do the job for cruising with the top down, BBQing in the backyard, relaxing in the park - it's a pure summery feel-good track!

Swigga : Pendulum

1/3 of the great Natural Elements crew here, from his brand new LP "Sunset Mindset (Swigga SZN)". I can't quite describe the sound - it's dramatic, with a little rock edge to it - almost like a stadium track. Swigga (who some of you will have known as L-Swift) matches the vibe without going head-to-head in loudness, and keeps the flow accessible on the surface - but check the multisyllabic rhymes.

Blackalicious ft. Lyrics Born : Do This My Way

RIP Gift of Gab. He may have been in less than ideal health for some time, but his passing still hit the community hard. On this track from the Blackalicious debut LP "Nia", Lyrics Born of Latryx produces as well as supplying his half-sung, half-rapped vocals as the special guest, but without Gab, it wouldn't have been the tune that it is. He holds down his side of the lyrics with the skill and insight that made him a favourite for those that knew throughout his whole career.

The Mouse Outfit : Sunrise (Shift Ops Remix)

We switch into a little D&B mode here with a remix of a fairly recent track by The Mouse Outfit - in fact, I played it here on episode 132 when it came out! You still get the vocals of One Only, but Chini and Metrodome's production has to move over a little for the work of fellow Mancunian Shift Ops, with sharp drums and plenty of low end.

Lenzman & Konny Kon : Food

Staying with the vibe for one more track, the Metalheadz veteran combines with Manchester's own Konny Kon - no stranger to D&B by a long shot - who flows at half time over this extra-clean track from the 2019 "Bobby" LP.

[Charlemagne] Natural Elements : Paper Chase (Instrumental)

A dope 80s sample for those in the know, with the added bass and slow-walking boom-bap drums on the top make this a personal favourite. 100% check the vocal version of this track by the incredibly underappreciated Natural Elements - I played it a while back, pick up a copy if you can!

Mobb Deep : All Mines

"...where the people do murder for money" is a hell of a half-bar at the kick-off of the second verse, the kind of classic Prodigy line that would have been scratched and sampled in the late 90s for sure. Not much info on this track, which was on a 2005 bootleg release, so I don't know if Havoc produced it or not, but that menacing beat with that muted trumpet accent running through it is dopeness for sure.

Skyzoo & Aaria : St. James Liquors

Brooklyn bars from Skyzoo, from his new "All The Brilliant Things" album, which is themed around the gentrification of his home borough. Kenny Keys' beat is a bass-heavy gem, and Detroit vocalist Aaria adds a little sparkle on the hook.

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth : What's Next On The Menu?

Classic Pete Rock and C.L! This was banging heavy on the pirates and mixtapes when it dropped back in 1993 - it was on the soundtrack to the Hip-Hop cameo-packed "Who's The Man?" as well as the apparently unofficial "Never Coming Out" EP (banned from Discogs). Pete Rock blends three huge staple samples on this one but still has ir sounding fresh, and C.L. glides on the jeep-rocking beat. Straight winner.

Platinum Pied Pipers ft. Jay Dee : Act Like You Know

Heavy, nasty, grinding. Perfect. The late great Jay Dee/J Dilla features on this track produced by Waajeed, one of his protoges. Waajeed and Saadiq made up PPP, whose debut "Triple P" definitely worth having in your collection - a mix of Hip-Hop and soul with a kind of jazzy sensibility in places. 

Marco Polo : Ps and Qs (Remix Instrumental)

Just a nice instrumental from Marco's "Baker's Dozen" compilation. I had to loop this up a little bit to stretch it out, as he kept it very short and sweet. MP on the MP strikes once again! 

Nipsey Hussle and Jay-Z : What It Feels Like

A cross-continental meeting of the lyrics, if not the minds, as the late Nipsey Hussle combines with Jay on this selection from the "Judas and the Black Messiah : The Inspired Album", taking its spark from the film about the assassination of Black Panther Fred Hampton. Nipsey recorded this verse eight years ago, and didn't like the song at the time. It was developed in stages over years, with more and more instrumentation and arrangement, plus Jay's verse rougly a year ago. The final product is bombastic and epic-sounding, with the production headed up by Mike & Keys, and there are a stack of guests in the background - for me, highlighted by the distinctive vocals of James Fauntleroy. It was clearly worth the wait,

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[sillystarshine]

90210 season 4

ep 12 Radar love

do we need anymore proof that Dylan and Brenda are endgame?

Kelly was practically begging him to come to her gouse for thanksgiving

Brenda just casually mentions that he always ends up at her house for thanksgiving and is pretty much just checking in that he’ll be joining them again

and Dylan with no hesitation is like okay...and he may say it’s because of Cindy’s cooking but you know the people involved (*wink* *wink* Brenda) played a factor into his decision 

lol at Andrea subtly revealing she’s lost her virginity 

Brenda and Kelly will never be as close as they were back in seasons 1&2 this phone conversation is just further proof...it just sounds so clunky and awkward especially(well mostly) from Brenda’s end

if they were still really BFF’s i think the convo would go more like: 

“Hey our parents talked you’re coming to our house for thanksgiving. Come early because i need someone other than my mother to talk to while the food is cooking”

okay it’s one thing for these kids to refer to their parents by their first names in conversation with friends but to call home and just be like “that’s right Cindy...” like what? idk i guess my parents just drilled it into me that they’re mom and dad and nothing else

Whoa Emily looks like a whole new person!

is everyone just randomly going through Brandons underwear drawer? how did they know that Brandon kept a picture of emily there

also ew/weird he keeps her picture in his underwear drawer

and again we witness Jim’s double standards when it comes to his children and who they date

Emily threatens to set a parade float(that was in the Walsh’s driveway which was really close to the house) on fire =She’s not a bad kid just a little mixed up

Dylan: I don’t want you even going near him because his dad is a crook and a con man which makes Dylan bad news by association the only time Jim’s dislike of Dylan would’ve been justified was when he found out that he broke his daughter’s heart by cheating on her with her Best Friend

And then you have Cindy who is truly looking out for kids and just doesn’t want either of them to experience heartbreak again :)

Looks like Brenda really dressed up for Dyl- I mean Thanksgiving dinner ;)

and to your left folks you will see the inevitable return of the Brenda-Dylan-Kelly love triangle 

ummm Kelly Last I checked you and Dylan broke up?

Erin is sitting so still at the dinner table...like creepily still...lol

yes it does look like a cold Thanksgiving

Brenda-Dylan-Kelly Bermuda Love Triangle perfect name because like the Bermuda Triangle it needs to just disappear and go back to Brenda/Dylan

If everyone wasn’t looking at you before Brenda they sure are now

Seriously Kelly & Dylan should’ve taken this argument outside

and get over it Kelly so what he didn’t want to have thanksgiving with you;  you were the one who ended things because you wanted to go out with John Sears

[seauxfientertainment]

Is "How You Like That" by BLACKPINK worth the hype?

[July 11th, 2020]*

It's been only two weeks since BLACKPINK (BP) released the seemingly hit or miss, record-breaking single; "How You Like That" (HYLT). It is the pre-release single from their upcoming debut studio album and there has been a lot of talk surrounding it.

People seem to either hate it or love it for a multitude of reasons. Reasons I will explain in this post.

I'll be talking about the song itself, the aesthetics, the music video and the controversy it incited, as well as the records it broke, and then I'll give my final thoughts on the song.

So if any of this interests you, you can continue reading. I'd appreciate it if you did.

*this post was originally written a couple weeks ago for a different platform.

                                                            •••

                1. CONCEPT PHOTOS AND PROMOTIONAL ASPECTS

The hype for HYLT actually started about a month before the name of the track was even revealed (longer if you consider the year long hiatus BP took between the "Kill This Love" EP and this new comeback.)

On May 4, 2020 reports came out stating that BP had finished recording their first full length album and then on May 18 YG ent. projected a June 2020 release.

The first teaser poster was posted on social media on June 10, confirming that the release date would be June 26.

Finally, the Blinks' more-than-a-year-long wait for a comeback was coming to an end!

On June 12 YG ent. released a prologue to BP's new reality show "24/365 with BLACKPINK" on the BP YouTube channel. In the video Jisoo gave a spoiler to HYLT saying, "if our previous songs gave off the vibe of being strong and powerful, I think this song is more hip [hop], that shows us our swag." (Translation comes from the in-video captions.)

So, at this point we'd been told that BP would be taking an artistic turn from their previous discography. Things were going good. For those who were complaining that most BP songs were essentially the same song, now were being promised something different.

Then things started to look really good.

From June 15 to the 21st YG released individual posters, concept photos, and videos promoting the single.

And everyone was excited for the new comeback. The previews were nothing short of enticing. It seemed like we were getting a dark concept. Jennie had red smudged tear stains. Lisa had deep red hair. They all looked so stoical. Maybe this comeback was going to be a serious one?

YG dropped the Music Video teaser on June 24 and everyone was hyped.

Although the theories were flying and everyone seemed to have differing ideas for what this new song would have to offer, in general everyone was happy. We might just get something unlike the typical BP comeback and the hype built up from there.

                                                            •••

                                                      2. MUSIC

Now let's discuss what we actually got.

On Wikipedia, HYLT is credited as a blend of trap and hip hop, but I would include electropop into that mix. To start, the song is fairly short, barely making it to three minutes long (a little bit more about the hastiness of a couple parts on the track later), a common theme that has been occurring in pop music in the past several years.

I listen to this podcast called "Tiny Meat Gang" (it's done by two comedians, Cody Ko and Noel Miller), and in one episode they mentioned what they believed was the direction the music industry will take in the future. They believed that TikTok was pushing the music industry in a direction where all songs can be shorter since only 10-15 seconds of the song actually goes viral instead of the whole track.

(The clip is from 38:25-41:40, if you're interested)

HYLT definitely has the elements needed to go viral. Something I'll continue to point out throughout this post.

The song opens up with an orchestral instrumental beginning, then slowly builds with Jennie, Jisoo, and Rosé's vocals to the bass drop and into a chorus, which to put it nicely, leaves something to be desired by those who were expecting a drastic change of pace from BP's previous comebacks.

The recycled beats and the over use of tag lines and onomatopoeia are just some of the reasons why people have been critical of this particular BP comeback and previous ones.

mera (Youtube channel), her video titled "The Real Problem with Blackpink" goes way more into detail on this topic of repetition in BP songs. I highly recommend you check it out.

In the second verse Lisa raps over this Arabic sounding beat that's actually really cool. By far my favorite part of the entire song and was the only part that really stood out to me and was distinguishable from other BP songs. Lisa's style of rapping fits the song well in my opinion.

Up until this point the song had been fine, it wasn't the best thing ever but it also wasn't the worst. This is where things started to seem rushed. The bridge, with Rosé and Jisoo, was barely there and then we go into the usual beat switch outro with chanting.

                                                        •••

                                                 3. LYRICS

The lyrics are quite vapid, at least in my opinion. The message of the song isn't ground breaking and doesn't really tell us anything about who they (the members of BP) actually are or how they feel.

In essence, the song is a revival track. At quick glance it may seem that the song is about coming out of a bad breakup feeling empowered despite the circumstances (which make sense since that was essentially the same concept used in "Kill This Love"), however, according to Genius, the meaning is actually 'deeper' than that.

Apparently, the meaning of the song is that the girls were in a dark place with all the hate they had received and now they're back stronger than ever.

As mera so colorfully says in her video, BP's music suffers from "forget to write the chorus" syndrome. All they do is repeat the same phrases over and over again. I will say this though, the chorus can easily make it a viral song. It's simple and easy to sing along to, as well as the dance isn't super difficult.

They also stick in seemingly random phrases. Such as the reference to the 1950s "Adventures of Superman" with the line "Look up in the sky It's a bird, it's a plane". Some had mentioned that it's a play on their group name.

Bird = B

Plane = P

BP = BLACKPINK

But I think there are visuals that better support these lyrics in the music video.

As for the line distribution, it's pretty good for BP standards. Rosé and Jennie together make up more than 50% of the song, each finishing with 29.4% and 29.3% respectively. Lisa's in third place with 23% and Jisoo is last with 18.3%. However, what Jisoo lacks in lines she gains in screen time in the music video, so in my opinion it levels out.

From what I understand there is a small group of people that make BP songs but prominently this man, Teddy, is the main producer and lyricist for them. He's made songs for them for basically their entire career.

Personally, I think YG needs to either find someone else to make their songs, someone with new ideas, or have Teddy and the others on the team work with the members themselves. Let the members write some of their own stuff so that it seems more personal. Many groups do this and it adds an authenticity to their sound.

This is only the first song released from the new album, so who knows, maybe the other songs are very personal. But until then, HYLT is all we have, and things don't look too promising.

                                                          •••

                                         4. CHOREOGRAPHY

I'm not going to lie, I actually really like the choreography.

I know a lot of people complained that BP uses 'recycled' dance moves. I did some research and they've used the same choreographer, Kiel Tutin, for their past couple title tracks ("Kill This Love" and "DDU-DU DDU-DU") so that's why things might seem familiar.

Side note: Kiel Tutin has choreographed for a ton of K-POP artists. For example, 4minute ("Crazy"), TWICE ("Feel Special", "Fancy", and "More & More"), Big Bang ("Bang Bang Bang"), and he also even did Jennie's "Solo."

I think the choreography matches the tone of the song. It's fun and not super complicated yet it looks elaborate with all the staging.

My personal favorite parts of the choreography is Lisa's little body roll movement in the second post-chorus:

And when Lisa and Jennie make an little arch with their arms for Jisoo to walk under:

I don't really have anything else to say about the choreography. It's just good.

                                                          •••

                               5. MUSIC VIDEO AND AESTHETICS

The music video is gorgeous, who is anybody kidding? Nothing too mind blowing but just beautiful to look at:

The sets were so intricate and gave atmosphere to the song. Rosé in the flowers, the arctic oil field, the tropical jungle, the staircase with the wings, the street market, the pink world dome. It's all so aesthetically pleasing.

However, the music video wasn't just nice to look at. It did reveal a lot more to the story told in the song.

Jordan Orme, a music video editor made a video breaking down all the little details the director and editor(s) used to show the story written in the song. I found it very useful to better understand the meaning of the song and the visuals. Check it out if you want.

Some of the visuals that I appreciated the most were the umbrellas during the second pre-chorus with Jennie and Jisoo.

Jordan had spoken about how he thought the umbrellas represented protection or being shielded from the hate. And then with Jisoo the umbrellas are burning because they no longer need protection, they can take on the hate themselves. It was just a little detail I enjoyed.

I also quite liked the buildup to the outro and the outro itself.

Each of the members stood in front of the wings as Rosé and Jisoo sang:

"The day I went down with my wings lost / Those dark days when I was trapped / You should have ended me when you still have a chance"

During the Superman reference ("It's a bird, it's a plane") they showed the heads of the Trojan horses and then later showed their wheels, rolling in, when Jennie yells "Bring out the boss bitch!"

It's the little details that get to me.

Although now I know that the Trojan horses represent the BP members passing themselves as a gift to the music industry but in actuality they're preparing to 'attack' (supposedly with their upcoming album), when I was researching the meaning behind them I found this user on Quora, Hamedah Badmus, who while answering the question "What does a Trojan Horse means in the latest Blackpink video clip 'How You Like That'?" gave their interpretation of the music video using Greek mythology. It's amazing how people can imagine things that others can't. They created a whole other storyline.

The music video for HYLT appears to be universally liked. However, there is one problem with the video. Which brings me to my next topic.

                                                          •••

                                           6. CONTROVERSY

In the scene where Lisa is rapping on a throne in a North African street market, there is a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesha:

This upset many followers of the Hindu religion, and rightfully so. There's no excuse for making fun of someone's religion. It's personal and should be taken seriously.

From what I understand Ganesha is the Hindu God of New Beginnings, Success, and Wisdom, and the Remover of Obstacles. In regards to the statue, the proper way to display Ganesha is on an alter. You are not supposed to place the statue on the floor or in low energy areas, such as the bathroom, garage or laundry.

I'll probably talk about this in more depth in my next post about Agust D's new album, because he dealt with a separate but similar situation, but here I'll simply say that ignorance, such as haphazardly using a religious icon in a music video without real knowledge on how to properly display said icon, is unacceptable. Especially with a group as popular as BP who reach millions of people from around the world.

This isn't the first time BP has upset followers of the Hindu religion. In "DDU-DU DDU-DU" Jennie was criticized for wearing a Bindi, a decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead by Indian women. Jennie's, I believe, was a jewel one. And in the "Kill This Love" music video when Jisoo is shooting an arrow she's wearing an Indian headpiece.

I've also seen clips of the members mimicking traditional Hindu dances. It's tasteless and done out of ignorance. Like any other instance of cultural appropriation, it must be addressed and learned from.

                                                          •••

                         7. LIVE PERFORMANCES AND FASHION

The live performances have been a bit lack luster for me (so far.)

The members just don't seem that into it. The dancing was uninspired to say the least. Lisa's always giving it her all, but the other members are just going through the motions. And it hasn't even been a month yet.

The Inkigayo Comeback Special from 0628 was by far their best performance. They got to do a short intro and the set looked like a jungle temple. I also really liked the costuming during that performance. Lisa has these red boots and all the background dancers were wearing cute pink tops with jeans and their hair in braids. It all looked great to me.

They also looked stunning on Jimmy Fallon. (They wore the outfits similar to the top photo down below). I liked Jisoo's bell sleeves and her little pigtails.

In general, the outfits for this comeback have looked really nice and complement each other well (except for Jisoo's purple dress in the bottom picture from above. A lot of people said they liked it, that it made her stand out but I didn't care much for it. I think it clashes with the other outfits.)

(BTW did not notice Lisa's yellow glove in the winter scene of the M/V)

This comeback also has many different looks. It would be nice to see all of them with slightly different sets similar to the music video during their live performances.

I believe that this era is Lisa's era, at least fashion-wise. I mean Jennie's modernized Hanbok is nice and everything, she's definitely been given some pretty amazing outfits:

And the hair, you can't forget about the hair. From braids, to blonde streaks, to a shoulder length cut, the stylists seem to be giving Jennie everything.

But Lisa's outfits are killing it.

My favorite look from her, and probably from the entire comeback, has to be the jewel-beaded top and blue (denim?) pants she wore during her rap in the music video.

Also she looks gorgeous with that black bob cut hair.

(She also looked great in her LILI's FILM dance performance but that's on the side)

I did very much enjoy their encore performance. There's something about watching them in a relaxed environment where they don't have to worry about messing up the choreography. They can just sing and have fun.

YG should include more moments like these in their performances.

                                                         •••

                                         8. INITIAL ACCOLADES

One of the biggest reasons why HYLT is garnering a lot of hype is the amount of records it's breaking and how much success it's gotten since it's release.

HYLT has broken five Guinness World Records:

—most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours

—most viewed music video on YouTube in 24 hours

—most viewed music video on YouTube in 24 hours by a K-POP group

—most viewers for a premiere on YouTube (1.66 million concurrent viewers)

—most viewers for a premiere on YouTube for a music video

They received what they call in South Korea as a 'perfect all-kill', charting #1 on Melon, and charting on Genie, Naver, etc.

HYLT debuted at #12 on the Gaon Digital Chart. (The Gaon Music Chart is essentially South Korea's version of the Billboard Chart.)

On Spotify, HYLT debuted #5 on the global chart with 4.073 million streams and #10 in the US with 762k streams. Although that's not that surprising since BP is the most followed girl group on Spotify.

                                                         •••

                                          9. FINAL THOUGHTS

So, is "How You Like That" worth the hype?

The short answer: probably not.

The song itself isn't bad, it's just repetitious. Like we've already heard this song before, and we kind of did with "Kill This Love" and "DDU-DU DDU-DU", among others.

I think the song fits it's purpose; a fun song for people to dance to and make videos with. It has its catchy tag lines ("How you like that?", "Look at you, now look at me", etc.) and its electropop dance beat. It doesn't really need anything else.

I was reading many of the opinions on Reddit, one person had suggested that if the outro was used as the chorus the song would have been better. Everyone's saying the song would have been better "if Jennie had her own rap", "if Rosé got a high note", or "if the song went on longer."

Another person said that if HYLT was sung by another artist it wouldn't be receiving the same amount of hype. That's probably true.

I don't know, man.

Those who like BLACKPINK songs will keep on liking them, those who don't will keep on complaining. And that's that.

                                                            •••

I believe a majority of the problems BLACKPINK faces is due to their company YG. They have the money and the resources to make unique, sentimental music. They just decide not to. Rather, they make budget cuts, putting the least amount of money into the group and maximizing capital. Especially because, just like this comeback has proved, BP can put out anything and it will sell. Only further encouraging YG to put in the bare minimum.

I don't dare to question the talents of the BP members when it comes to song writing, because, honestly, I don't think they've even been given the chance to try. Like I said earlier if YG had Teddy work with the girls to write songs and get their input into the creative process they could release innovative and inspired songs.

I hate to make comparisons because I don't want to say one particular group is better than any other. In actuality they're all talented, they just need the support from their company. That being said, I do look at groups like BTS who were given a whole lot more reign when it came to the creative process. And it certainly has never hurt them. If anything it increased their popularity since more people could relate to the deep meanings in their songs.

You can't feel empowered all the time. It's only human that we feel weak and vulnerable at times. I want to hear about those sides of BP. It would humanize them rather than being idol robots that do whatever they're programmed to do.

Anyways, thank you for reading this post. I put several hours of research just to write this, no joke, but I enjoyed it.

This type of project would probably be better suited for YouTube but I'm just not a sit in front of a camera type of person. I enjoy writing though, so this seemed like a better fit for me.

Please, leave a comment on what you thought about BLACKPINK's "How You Like That" and maybe leave a suggestion for what K-POP topic I should review next (songs, albums, idols, groups, videos, etc.)

Until the next one,

Seaux Fí

                                                       •••

                                                 SOURCES

Wikipedia

Genius ("HYLT" English Translation)

BBC NEWS (BP: HYLT scores the biggest premiere in YouTube history)

kieltutin.com

guinnessworldrecords.com (BP's return sets new YouTube records with HYLT)

scmp.com (Did BP's HYLT video insult Hindu religion? Plus 4 more times K-POP's biggest girl group stoked controversy)

allkpop.com (forums: Jennie's Bindi Controversy)

kpopmap.com (BP talks about the choreography for HYLT, fashion and thoughts on breaking records)

r/unpopularkpopopinions (Mega Thread: BP - HYLT)

thespruce.com (The Proper Way to Display Ganesha)

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 30th June 2019

The reason there wasn’t a top 20 ranking today is I have an unwritten rule that if there’s more than three debuts in the top 20, I’ll keep a surprise until I release the chart episode, and, yeah, it’s one of those weeks and I am more tired than I think I’ve ever been writing one of these episodes so if I make mistakes or don’t seem passionate, I’m sorry, I’m just trying to get through this as quick as possible, and this episode might even end up a bit late, so I apologise if so.

Top 10

For the seventh week since its debut, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber are still at the top spot with their drowsy hit “I Don’t Care”, which I still don’t see the appeal in other than starpower.

At number-two, we have our highest of eight overall Top 40 debuts and two top five debuts, “Senorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, assumingly from Mendes’ newest upcoming third album. It’s also debuted at #2 in the US, blocked by “Old Town Road”, because of course it is. This is his ninth UK Top 40 hit, and his seventh top 10, as well as Cabello’s ninth UK Top 40 hit, and her third Top 10.

At number-three, we have “Vossi Bop” by Stormzy, a spot down from last week.

At number-four, however, up four full spaces from last week, we have Ed Sheeran once again, this time with Chance the Rapper and PNB Rock, for “Cross Me”.

Stormzy has also launched two songs in the top five as his new arrival “Crown” debuts at number-five, becoming his sixteenth UK Top 40 hit and seventh Top 10. We’ll talk more about this song and “Senorita” later.

“Hold Me While You Wait” by Lewis Capaldi is thankfully down two spaces to number-six since last week.

Surprisingly, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X didn’t rebound as successfully as I figured it would because of the EP release, instead it stays still at number-seven.

“No Guidance” by Chris Brown featuring Drake is down two spaces to number-eight.

The late Avicii’s “SOS” featuring Aloe Blacc is not moving at number-nine.

Finally, Taylor Swift’s debut from last week barely clings onto the top 10 as “You Need to Calm Down” falls five spaces already to #10, but I suppose it’s not as bad as the 11-space loss to #13 in the US.

Climbers

There’s none to speak of, and that’s not even an over-exaggeration really, since there is not a single boost bigger than three spaces up for a song in the top 40, but I guess it’s good to see “Mad Love” by Mabel in the top 15, so that’s something, although it should probably be in the top 10.

Fallers

Well, damn near everything. Let’s sort by genre.

Fallers for pop and “rock” outside of the top 10 with a fall down three spots or more included “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi down three to #14, “Bounce Back” by Little Mix collapsing down seven to #17, “bad guy” by Billie Eilish having a streaming cut down 15 spaces to #19, “Grace” by Lewis Capaldi down five to #22, “3 Nights” by Dominic Fike unfortunately down five to #26, “ME!” by Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco also in freefall down 12 to #30 and “Mother’s Daughter” by Miley Cyrus down four to #40.

Fallers for EDM under the same criteria include “One Touch” by Jax Jones and Jess Glynne down four to #23, “Piece of Your Heart” by MEDUZA and Goodboys down four to #24 and “Heaven” by the late Avicii featuring Chris Martin down 10 to #38.

Fallers for hip-hop and R&B also under the same criteria include “The London” by Young Thug featuring J. Cole and Travis Scott down five to #29, “OT Bop” by NSG down five to #35, “Shine Girl” by MoStack featuring Stormzy completely disbanding 14 spaces down to #36 and “Location” by Dave featuring Burna Boy down seven to #39, and that’s all.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

The biggest story here is the one I expected the most. “Omerta” by Drake is completely out of the UK Singles Chart from #33, mostly because it’s inaccessible and only got big briefly because of Drake’s existence and starpower. Other than Drake, our top 40 dropouts are plenty. We have “All Day and Night” by Jax Jones and Martin Solveig presenting EUROPA featuring Madison Beer out from #34, “Giant” by Calvin Harris and Rag’n’Bone Man out from #40, “Late Night Feelings” by Mark Ronson featuring Lykke Li is out from #35, “Falling Like the Stars” by James Arthur out from #38, and “Sixteen” by Ellie Goulding out from #27, sadly never reaching a peak of #16. Oh, and Skepta’s two hits are gone, with “Greaze Mode” featuring Nafe Smallz and “What Do You Mean?” featuring Skepta out from #37 and #39 respectively, and because it’s a very busy week, there’s pretty obviously no returning entries, so now it’s time to face the beast.

NEW ARRIVALS

#37 – “Find U Again” – Mark Ronson featuring Camila Cabello

Produced by Mark Ronson and Tame Impala – Peaked at #24 in Ireland

I’m going to be doing this in a slightly different but not optimal setting. I’ll listen to the new arrivals in a room without being chained up to my headphones on a chair but instead draining my thoughts on here with the song out loud. Sorry if I don’t notice any little details because of that but I think I’ll be able to make up what I think of a song with that and I’m boiling so we’ll have a little shake-up of the formula for once, and I’m boiling and exhausted so let’s get through it. Anyway, this is our first of two Cabello features this week, and this one is from the recently-released Late Night Feelings album by Mark Ronson, with this song debuting in the top 40, becoming Ronson’s twelth UK Top 40 and Cabello’s eighth, and well, it’s pretty okay. I’ve never liked Camila’s voice but she’s tamed down here and sounds pretty great in this multi-tracked falsetto, especially over a VERY 90s R&B instrumental (Which by the way is beautiful). The instrumental is very twinkly and incredibly synth-heavy, with a lot of fun groove in the verses, where Camila goes for a pretty quirky delivery that works very well, despite an abrupt and pretty janky drop. The lyrical content is nonexistent, really, but the 808s in the bridge especially deliver that emotion of never being able to cling onto something you previously had, in this case an ex, and while this can be repetitive, and perhaps somewhat undercooked in terms of songwriting, this instrumental is perfectly crafted and Camila stays in her comfort zone, thankfully, so I can forgive a couple lyrical issues. This is pretty damn good, and I’m suddenly much more excited to check out that album – this is much less spacey and actually delivers the mood it intends to, which is the problem I had with the title track weeks before.

#34 – “MEGATRON” – Nicki Minaj

Produced by Pop Wansel – Peaked at #9 in Hungary and #20 in the US

For Nicki Minaj’s damage-control lead single produced by a generic pop executive with no signature style and her 39th(!) UK Top 40 single, I’m expecting a complete trainwreck with no redeemable qualities.

Yup. This is terrible, so much that I almost felt embarrassed listening to it that I had to put Private Session on. The worst thing about this is that it had potential, I do like that pumping sampled guitar riff, but I can’t forgive the badly-mixed snares and incessant nonsense words yelled and stuttering effects that got old in 2010, as well as pretty aggravating and cheap Auto-Tune in the janky pre-chorus, not forgetting the chorus which is not only just “when I’m drinkin’” rhymed several times without an internal rhyme, but it only stops when she decides not to finish her line and awfully segue by a few “brat-dat-dat”s over to the next section of the song. The lyrical content in the miniscule verses that are here, is pretty standard Nicki fare about “clapping on the D”, but watered-down to fit for a radio that will definitely not put this mess in rotation. It doesn’t have a climax, or a bridge other than... a minimal instrumental forcing you to listen to Nicki and it’s just one corny bar repeated with pointless vocal effects filling time. Mrs. Minaj, do you know how a bridge or middle-eight works? The outro is maddening and honestly this whole track is an absolute disasterpiece. I would call it a stretch for it to be encapsulated madness but this really is a ridiculous listen. PNTHN did it better.

#28 – “Mr Sheeen” – Digga D and Russ splash

Produced by Gotcha Bxtch

Digga D, we’ve seen twice before, Russ splash (No, not Russ from the US as someone on Twitter suspected), we’ve seen twice before, and this song title intrigues me. I suspect it’s about Charlie Sheen, and I damn well hope it is, he’s an intriguing man, we need a Charlie Sheen concept album. Somehow I doubt it, and I’m right, it’s about using a gun as a cleaning product.. or a cleaning product as a gun. Probably both, but they’re also cleverly using an extra “E” to avoid copyright infringement. Subtle. Is the song any good? Well, the menacing synth reminds me of more EDM-influenced trap and while monotonous and repetitive, it is intimidating and this instrumental  does build up as it goes. Something isn’t clicking, and I think it’s Russ. Digga D has some decent wordplay and provides most of the content here, handling half the hook and two full verses, which are both pretty good although his flow is often a bit janky to co-operate with the beat, and does sound offbeat at times when the beat’s still developing in the first verse. I feel like it should have been one verse between two choruses instead, then Russ comes in, so structure’s a bit off there. The chorus is also pretty iffy, with a lot of blank space on the beat between Russ’ nasal flows snabbed from his OTHER hits “Gun Lean” and “Keisha & Becky”, and the transition between his verse and his chorus is non-existent and lazy, much like Russ’ second verse which didn’t need to happen. The beat is pretty okay but they have no idea how to approach it. Ideally, I would have no chorus on this song, as it just seems to have screwed up their plans a bit, since the hook is especially rushed. Russ brings nothing to the song at all, so I’d cut him off in an ideal world, but how about make the chorus the intro while the beat’s still building up into the drop, then have Digga D and Russ deliver back-to-back verses, with the hook MAYBE coming back for an outro? That just seems to be a better way to approach it in my opinion, but the song’s not bad on its own and I commend it for that to an extent, it just needs a bit of reworking.

#25 – “Panini” – Lil Nas X

Produced by Take a Daytrip – Peaked at #12 in Canada and Slovakia, and #16 in the US

This is Lil Nas X’s second Top 40 hit since “Old Town Road” in the UK and I’m just going to copy-paste what I said in my review of his (Expectedly) mediocre yet somewhat impressively versatile EP 7 (a light 5/10) and while I have warmed up to it now because of how infectious and short it is, these words still hold up pretty well in terms of my opinion on the song, which is it’s a lazy label-manufactured follow-up.

So, “Old Town Road” is genius because it’s not even two minutes and has so much energy and charisma, as well as being a massive smash hit and also kind of a bop. It worked, so he deleted all of his older music and paid rent off of “Road” and “Road” alone. It’s captivating because of its brevity. How, then, do you ask, is he going to make a song more than two and a half minutes captivating, intriguing, interesting? Answer is, he doesn't. “Panini”, two seconds longer than the original “Old Town Road”, has some pretty bland sloshy trap production, where Lil Nas X, previously seemingly rejecting Auto-Tune on OTR, croons catchy pop-rap choruses that just drones on, with miniscule verses that lead into odd, abrupt emo-rap breakdowns including an unrecognisable interpolation of Nirvana's "In Bloom"? Oh, yeah, and whistling worked the first time, but when it's not Billy Ray, it's not working, and the song ends up not feeling unfinished but definitely missing a third verse or bridge  because it is short as all hell, and adds up to nothing without having that same punch as “Old Town Road”. In conclusion, it’s probably the best Travis Scott reference track I’ve ever heard.

#20 – “Kilos” – Bugzy Malone featuring Aitch

Produced by Swifta Beater and B. Somebody

Bugzy Malone is a pretty respected British rapper out of Manchester, and he’s been bubbling and buzzing on the scene for a while now but he’s just started recently to have all that much chart success, specifically in the Top 40. So, he teams up with newcomer Aitch for a second Top 40 hit for the both of them (Bugzy only having leads, Aitch only having features, coincidentally), a first top 20 hit for the both of them, and both Bugzy and Aitch’s highest-charting song, so it’s clearly one the public has latched onto if the other songs didn’t have enough of it to chart this high. When first putting it on, I knew exactly why, it’s that Latin trap instrumentation, with some pretty plastic brass and surprisingly bouncy Latin guitar that isn’t as stiff as you’d expect, Bugzy Malone delivering an insane verse, with a couple flow switches and story-telling that is unseen from most mainstream rappers, despite an offbeat chorus, detailing his story with a somewhat generic trail but a powerful convincing delivery. Aitch tries to do the same but he’s way too generic with no quirks at all that make him interesting. He’s just listing off typical British hip hop subjects and lines I swear I’ve heard before in one flow and one flow only, and it gets pretty boring, despite his charisma. Thankfully, Bugzy comes back with a short third verse book-ending the story and the beat is incredible, so without Aitch, I’m pretty sure this would have been near-perfect. I like how the chorus and first verse focuses on what they were getting themselves into before the come-up as a hip-hop artist, specifically drug trafficking, Aitch’s is how people react to the come-up, and the final verse is Bugzy celebrating fame by mentioning three-piece suits and such. There’s a nice scale there and I think this is actually pretty good, despite Aitch wasting a lot of time, so it’s a shame he’s on here, it feels like wasted potential, although I understand the purpose of his performance here, it doesn’t come close to Bugzy’s bars and feels a bit lacklustre. Congratulations on your hit though, guys, especially Swifta Beater and B. Somebody because this slaps hard.

#19 – “Mocking It” – JAY1

Produced by Nastylgia

Now for this dude again. God, I hated that last Top 20 hit he had, “Your Mrs”, and I haven’t heard anything since, so I was dreading this, and yeah, it’s pretty bad. If you can even dignify the instrumental as a “beat”, then the beat is pretty awful. It’s an off-beat synth bleep sound and a sub-bass, except this time it’s distorted and there’s some badly-mixed percussion, much like a DJ Mustard beat with all of the charm cut out. This sounds just like “Your Mrs”... except it’s good. See, Nastylgia knows how to sound intimidating with minimalist beats, and how to elevate a song’s energy, while the producer for “Your Mrs”, Coolie was a bit of a hack, so no matter what JAY1 says, this song will be better because it has the basics on how to make an interesting beat, which his last hit lacks. The beat here is actually pretty good because of its minimalism which is intimidating yet bouncy because of the 808s having so much fun in the background. However, once that gets boring, there’s a rapid-fire 808 jab until the beat suddenly picks up some pace, with Jay here switching up his flow for the third time in the first 30 minutes for the chorus, in a more melodic flow without autotune and instead sounding pretty mocking as the percussion just goes at it, but then the climax isn’t there yet? Maybe the basics aren’t here, because immediately after there isn’t a big climax, instead a post-chorus without percussion the beat cuts off and then returns in normal form, with odd 808-jab transitions excusing making the beat sound smoothly cobbled together. Then an incredibly repetitive bridge initiates with dumb chipmunk vocals, and there’s a final post-chorus with some female moaning, but then a fourth (or fifth?) freaking verse, where a cheap flute comes in and everyone’s confused. Yeah, I overestimated this guy because this still kind of sucks, I can see improvement though, but the beat work (Yes, I am nitpicking this a lot) really bothers me, especially since nothing Jay says warrants the experimentation or menace this beat tries to give him

#5 – “Crown” – Stormzy

Produced by Jimmy Napes and MJ Cole

Now it’s time for what are supposed to be the “big” debuts this week, but honestly I don’t see much in these two songs that require this much attention and success other than starpower. First, we have a non-explicit song from rapper Stormzy, and since I’m quite a fan I checked this out when it was first released a week or two ago, and while some may see the all-singing route as new ground for Stormz, this should have been pretty evident from the gospel-tinged tracks on Gang Signs & Prayer, and this has of course an influence from that genre but this is mostly reminiscent of a lot of British pop and soft rock from people like Ed Sheeran and... Lewis Capaldi. In fact, it sounds like one of Tinie Tempah’s pop crossover singles from back in 2010, like that one with Eric Turner, but this rendition is so much better and more genuine, with the gentle vintage lo-fi piano loop providing Stormzy’s surpisingly good singing voice (Of course it’s not amazing but it’s not supposed to be incredible, and it fulfils its purpose). The piano loop is used in a completely different way when it’s flipped to a hip-hop beat, which hilariously is just a clean brag-rap for the kiddies, but it works well, as he acknowledges “heavy is the head that wears the crown” and how hypocritical this verse is in comparison to the soulful chorus. I’d love to see this in an album context, as I’m curious to who is being honest here, the hardcore rapper or the gospel (Children’s?) choir. The lyrics are also pretty funny, the line ending off the first verse in particular. The climax of strings and vocal samples and an 808 are a great way of ending the chorus, and the elevation of the verses with gospel vocalising is pretty great. This is excellent, I’m excited to see where this goes, success-wise and in the album, and I’m happy this is here.

#2 – “Senorita” – Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello

Produced by watt, benny blanco and Cashmere Cat – Peaked at #1 in Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Slovakia, and #2 in the US

Okay, this is kind of disappointing. I hated the last Mendes single, which I thought was overproduced trite without any sense of passion, so surely a stripped-back seductive Latin song would be up my street and what I would want out of Mendes’ upcoming album, but no, this really is undercooked. I don’t have much to say, but the slick guitar here, despite somewhat bouncy with the finger-snaps, really doesn’t work as a backing against Camila’s squealing, and Mendes’ falsetto doesn’t sound great here either, with a surprising lack of chemistry between them. The chorus is undercooked in that it’s filled to the brim with “la, la, la” repetitions that get on my nerves instead of all that much interesting lyrical content and substance. I mean, I should look at the verses for that and I shouldn’t care about the poetic structure of a pop song, but I can’t help but feel this chorus, although incredibly catchy, is a very rushed part of the song. I don’t mind this, but it does feel very lightweight, especially for Camila, both of whose vocals sound great on the outro when it’s just subtly Auto-Tuned riffing. The song itself is just about an obsessive, sensual love, that they can’t take themselves away from. Apart from seemingly being released in pretty rushed form to fend off “Does Shawn Mendes is gay?” rumours, I can’t really get too mad at this, but I feel it could have been a lot better.

Conclusion

Best of the Week goes to Stormzy, no question, for “Crown”, with Honourable Mention going to Camila Cabello and Mark Ronson for “Find U Again”. Worst of the Week, I’m left with a lot of options, but there’s no way in hell it’s going to anyone but Nicki Minaj for “MEGATRON”, God, that’s a trashy song. Dishonourable Mention goes to JAY1 for “Mocking It”, but that’s all I have to say really about this week. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings and I’ll see you next week!

[thebeautifulzoo]

KEHINDE: THE COME UP.

Over the years we’ve seen a new generation of African youths try to redefine the sound of the mother land Africa, upgrading conventional genres like Afro beats into a more progressive and futuristic form, creating new styles of music like Afro pop and Noir wave. The success of this movement have been so apparent lately as we’ve seen these new forms of music being appreciated so much on the international level with African acts like Wizkid and Davido getting featured on notable global chart-topping tracks and albums and performing at big stages and major concerts all over the world.

Kehinde is one of the new acts coming out of Nigeria trying to lift the standards of the African music scene. The young Lagos-dwelling visionary has already released tracks catching major attention and getting endless listens on music streaming site Soundcloud. One of the tracks, “Colored Music” is a beautiful, poignant African love song lush with hypnotic melodies and vibes.

https://soundcloud.com/omokehiinde/colored-music

We talked to Kehinde on his creative process, his upcoming mixtape set for release in August and his whole experience working on the project and how excited he is for the release. We’d have loved to talk with Kenny more but the man is really crisp, very brief and straight to the point. Also this was done over the internet because well, we here live in the zoo. Thank God for what you have now.

1. What's your upcoming project titled?

Yung.

2. Can you give an insight on the upcoming project? What would you want the listeners to get from the project? What vibes would you want this mixtape to give off?

As far as the title; it's just me trying to explain to the listeners that I'm young and I'm getting better, but this is where I am now, this is Kehinde right now. This tape is really just a comprehensive view at my sound so far, from the first songs to where it is now, that's why I put two old tracks from the extended play here just so someone who isn't familiar with Kehinde can pick up the mixtape and get a comprehensive view at who I am or what my music sounds like, it's almost a debut of some sort.

3. What collaborations can we expect from the mixtape? Who are the producers and guest features we should hope to see on the project?

Yo, I got everyone that matters as far as me getting to where I am now on the tape/production, either it's Chibzy and that one song with Soliddrop, but I'm actually very happy I got to work with Kelani again man! I mean, we have old tracks but nothing released, love that guy’s process. It's just pure vibes, nothing else.

4.  What was the experience like creating this new project, easy or strenuous?

It was fucking twisted, I almost got depressed half way through. Thing was, I had a heart condition half way through recording most of these songs and I needed to have surgery, but that's not what was sad though. It was seeing how my plans fell apart, as far as schedules for this release, plus seeing how people I expected to be there for me weren't. It was a teachable moment, but I'm good now to be honest, I've had time to let it go so I can be happy about the good things going on in my life.

5. Can you give an insight on your whole creative process?

Spontaneous, I actually don't write my lyrics but it's not like I go in free-styling either. I just listen and premeditate lyrics in my head and try my best to remember them, I think it's because I work with melodies and I still think it has to be from the soul for it resonate with anyone.

6. How long have you been working on this project and how much excited are you it's finally coming out?

I've been compiling since February but I'm not excited to be honest, I'm just curious on how the listeners would perceive it.

7. What do you hope to achieve with the release of this project?

I just want more people to listen man, that's all for now.

8. What would you describe your music as, like genre wise?

Afro pop.

9. What type of music do you listen to most? Who influences your style most?

Everything, literally anything and everything, but I just listen to enjoy, it doesn't really affect my music, that's from inside.

10.  Who are looking to work with as time goes on, both mainstream and underground?

I really don't know, I'd record with just about anyone. But I can't put just about anyone on a song too, you feel me?

11.  What's your take on record labels in Nigeria, do you feel they are still needed or do you support the DIY movement in music?

I'm okay developing myself by myself for now.

12.  Are you signed to any label right now? If no, have you been getting offers lately?

No such thing.

13.  What does Kehinde do in his spare time, when he's not making music?

Regular people stuff.

14.  What's next for Kehinde? Can we expect more music this year after the release of this project?

Yes, Yes. There's a lot of music, maybe an EP to be honest.

You can preview the artwork for the Yung mixtape below.

[buttonholedlife]

“The amen will always rule!” how Boylan brings breaks & dubstep together…

No genre, no boundaries, no rules, no problem mate… Nomine has set up his stall with clarity and consistency over the years and his label Nomine Sound has established a playfully unpredictable reputation as a result. It leaves no clue as to what style might come next, from Digital’s bassline bully business to the technoid spasm of Cocktail Party Effect, but few releases on the label shed such a bright light on the label’s anarchic low-end spirit as Boylan’s 2 Hours Sleep.

Make that a dark light. 2 Hours Sleep is a stinking cauldron of rough shades and textures. Part dubstep, part grime, part jungle, pretty much all breaks; there’s a hardcore melting pot attitude that runs through the album, ricocheting us off the walls with crusty amens and long-dark-tunnel basslines. Inspired, in part, by seminal jungle label No U-Turn’s sister imprint Saigon and guided by some of the most consistent and prominent voices in grime – RikoDan, FlowDan, Devlin – 2 Hours Sleep sees the Peckham-based Oil Gang affiliate capturing the most visceral aspects of 140 and 160 music and brings it together in a hurly, burly heavyweight sucker punch that fans of any genre in the bass continuum can appreciate. We called up Boylan to find out how it came to life…

This album feels like a big old melting pot. Nomine’s ‘no rules bass’ in full effect…

That’s definitely what I had in mind When Nomine first approached me. It came off the back of the No Cure EP I did for him. The no rules bass thing he pushes is very enticing. I was in the throes of making the Bedlam album with Trends when he asked me for a full album. Me and Trends were exploring the horror stuff so this album was an opportunity to do something completely different. I loved the freedom – you can throw breaks in there, you can go dubsteppy when you like, you can do whatever you like. I’m glad it comes off that way.

You must have gone from one album into the next!?

Well me and Trends had an EP that morphed into an album. I think we were about half-way through it but the Trends album had to finish first before I properly started this one. It was cool; I kept it under my hat a bit which was good, there was no pressure… I didn’t tell anyone I was working on this album for quite a while, which meant no one was asking how the album was going. I just had to write tunes. I didn’t send them to anyone until the Bedlam heat died down. That did its thing and then I could start talking about this.

So when the two albums were both being written, the whole two hours sleep thing was probably pretty relevant…

Haha. That’s a better reason than it is in reality. It did represent the lifestyle for a while. But it actually came from an album called Incoming on Saigon – the No U-Turn sister label – and there’s a tune by Future Forces Inc and Nico called Brain. Right at the start there’s a spoken vocal sample that says ‘two hours sleep, that’s why I look like shit’. That album was truly, truly inspiring for me at the time. It’s such an experimental form of dark new dystopian drum & bass that’s never been far from my mind. So it’s a nod to that more than anything. But I do have a lot of sleepless times. If I’ve got a sound engineering job the next day after a long studio session, for example. But it’s more of a reminder of the old days when I had a full time, do a 12 hour day and then do a four or six hour session, have a kip and go back to work. Life is a better balance now but if you do music you do have to be prepared to do your work on two hours sleep from time to time.

Amen. There’s some powerful MC damage on this album. RikoDan on Suspect especially. When did you start reaching out to them?

Hell yeah! Riko smashed it didn’t he? Oil Gang Simon has been a major help – he was listening to stuff as I was making it and helping me make decisions. Nomine asked if Devlin would be up for it because he knew we’d worked together before but I didn’t have anything I thought would totally suit him. A lot of it is maybe a little darker and harder for his style. Then I knocked up this instrumental and he was all over it.

With Suspect I thought Riko would be best because he’s so versatile – he can jump on a different vibe and smash it and he did. We’d already worked together on a track called Dutty Harry with Trends and I knew he’d smash it. But in terms of who I reached out to first, it was Flowdan. I sent him a beat at 8pm, I went to bed late then woke up at 2pm, checked my phone and he’d text at 9am saying he liked it and would do something. By the time I replied he said he’d have something over in an hour. It was unbelievable. The concept of the tune and the vocal was all there in that rough take. His spoken word verse worked so well. It was different to what you expect from him and I love that. No rules in all directions.

Did you say you’d worked with Devlin before?

Yeah we actually lived in the same place for a little while. We were connected through a sound engineer called Dave Pemberton who works with The Prodigy and had this studio in this massive house we all rented. I was there for years and I’d put together a live act at the time.

A massive house eh? Baller.

Haha yeah. One of the guys in the band’s family had this big mansion in Essex and we were renting it out. It had an indoor pool and all these mad rooms. We went and took it over and over the course of time different people came and went. A guy who produced Devlin’s tunes was there and Devlin lived there for a bit. It was a mad time and I learnt so much. It was my equivalent of going up into the mountain and coming back down as a man. I learnt about recording and engineering. Then I ended up coming back to Peckham, linked up with Oil Gang who I’d been doing mixdowns for. That’s how I moved more into that grime and dubsteppy vibe.

I imagine all that learning could be good for working with MCs?

Maybe. Being a vocalist myself in a band too, I learnt from both sides of the mic. Collaborating isn’t easy. Coming up with ideas in front of people isn’t easy. There’s pressure. So by the time I was back in Peckham, Simon could link me up with people and I could work with them easily. I can either bring lots of music but make sure they have their stamp on it. Or I can come in and work with someone who’s got some strong musical ideas but I can still find a way of putting my own stamp on it. You can get so much out of collaborations, but you do have to compromise and you can’t be shy. It’s an interesting artform. Another think another thing that helped me was recording voiceovers for documentaries. Keeping up to date with voice files, having good management and work flow and good templates. So that’s something I’ve learnt from as well. It’s about being quick and smooth.

Tell you what’s not smooth? Biblical Proportions. What a monster of a tune. It’s almost baroque!

That’s an interesting one actually. The guy I collaborated with was the drummer form that period of time, he was in my live band! He brought round that choir style sound and normally in a situation like that I get an 8 bar loop but we kept building it up and up and up but this took us one session just to get the intro sorted then a few days to do the drop. It was an epic track. These things don’t come round that often. When we finished it there was this feeling like ‘okay if we can keep on at this level we’ll be alright’. Don’t Stop was a turning point for me as well.

Yeah that’s got savage breakbeats too. We’re in a good time for breaks aren’t we?

I hope so. I do feel things have gone back to being a bit rawer. The production standard in drum & bass is unbelievably hard. But, for me, when it’s too over-produced it’s to the music’s detriment. Breaks give that rawness, the amen will always rule. Trying to recreate that with percussion sounds is great but there’s something particular about using those old breaks. That with the solid electronic elements is a great fusion for me. It’s not typical of drum & bass production but I like that feeling. That distortion and graininess and push behind the music.

Amen! Literally. What else do we need to know and what’s coming up next?

The release is up for pre-order and will be ready mid-October. Then more DJ sets, hopefully a tour next year, more music and hopefully some teaching and working with Nomine and Nurve at Education & Bass.

Boylan – 2 Hours Sleep is out on Nomine Sound on October 18

Follow Boylan: Soundcloud / Twitter

This content was originally published here.

[shanethvarosa]

2018: In Review

At this point in time, I feel like my blog is 100% reblogs of memes and ridiculous videos of animals and maybe some gratuitous selfies. Originally, Shaneth Varosa was supposed to be a place for me to publish some of my articles about music and try to facilitate discussion about these releases. Unfortunately, life gets in the way, and I can’t write like I used to. While here on Christmas break from work, and with the next hour or so of free time I have, I wanted to go over some of the artists that did The Most this year and recommend their work in case you’re in need of something new and exciting. See more after the cut! 

I’d like to start with about five honorable mentions and then move in to the ten artists who did the best job at promoting their craft and developing something sincere and meaningful. These honorable mentions all had really great releases, but overall didn't feel very impactful to pop culture overall. 

1. Florence And The Machine - High As Hope  was absolutely one of my most anticipated albums this year, especially after the amazing lead single was released out of the clear blue sky. The follow up single, Hunger, is one of the most relatable tracks in her discography. However, the lack of overall energy was somewhat disappointing despite the lyrics being 100% on point. 

2. Miyavi - I’m not sure I’m as big a fan of the Samurai Guitarist as I used to be, however he really is expanding upon his talents and schmoozing with the right people. A feature from Samuel L. Jackson was no small feet and he really did some neat guitar work on his third collaborative album this year. 

3. Crystal Kay - A Japanese/American pop star with a voice like Janet Jackson, but does not always make the strongest choices when it comes to album tunes. Her singles for this era were almost entirely ballads, so when she released an album with actual bangers for the summer, I was very impressed.

4. Cher - Usually, when Cher releases an album it is a shoe-in victory for album of the year. However, she really only did a cover album of songs, even if they were completely amazing songs. Here’s hoping she has a collection of original material to release soon. 

5. DADAROMA - A newer VK mainstay, but they haven’t actually released a full collection in over two years. Instead, they’re focusing on singles and EPs. This year, they began with “This is Live” which really blew me away following their lackluster third installment of the Dadaism series. They rounded out the year with the fourth installment which was also a significant improvement. However, in 2019, they should consider an album. 

Without any further ado, the top ten artists who really Did That this year:

10. Troye Sivan: I am a sucker for a good Gay Tune and “Bloom” had 12 of them. It’s rare when you find an album that has no tracks you want to skip, and maybe I’m biased, but there isn't one track that isn’t relatable to me and most of my pals. Highlights: Plum, Dance to This, Animal. 

9. CHVRCHES: Every couple of years, I’m guaranteed an over-the-top synth album from this group. Their debut found me at just the right time and their follow up found me at just the right time as well. These two albums really struck a chord with me personally and so naturally I was through the roof the Love is Dead was announced. While the production and vocal performance was totally still there, the lyrical content didn’t quite get me the way the previous albums did. Highlights: Graffiti, Graves, Deliverance.

8. Kamijo: Interesting how my favorite male singer and my favorite female singer both released albums this year and how neither of them made top five. Well, of course they were both excellent, but something stopped them from being everything they could be. Kamijo’s newest solo effort came in four parts and they were all a little confusing. Sang’s main storyline seemed to insinuate Napoleon Bonaparte was a vampire and the third installment of the album was a duet with vocaloid Hatsune Miku. Not to say the vocal performance and composition weren’t top of the line, but I just don’t know what he was trying to do with this era. Highlights: Sang II, Emigre, Nosferatu. 

7. Dir en grey: The world’s most iconic shock-rock band finally returned to us after a four year hiatus. This year’s Insulated World really did give us something to behold: A concept album that wasn’t completely based on mindless violence and fake-deepery. Sure, Kyo does his standard noise-making throughout a lot of the album, but I firmly believe this is their best work in about ten or more years. Highlight: Ranunculus, Keigaku no Yoku (Ravenous Greed), Ningen wo Kaburu (Suffering Human Beings). 

6. The 1975: A recent favorite of mine. Their singles for this era really enraptured what it is to be in your late 20′s in today’s day and age. Their whole album ended up being somewhat bizarre and ballad-heavy, but everything they put out before the main LP was fire and deeply, personally relatable. Highlights: Give Yourself a Try, Love it If We Made It, I Like America and America Likes Me. 

5. David: Most who will read this post will probably not know that “David” is a pseudonym for VK heavy-hitter Sui. This man started out in Metis Gretel many years ago, moved to a band called Megaromania, worked briefly with Lin before ultimately achieving his solo project which is easily the best thing he’s ever done. Probably because it is produced by Kamijo, but I digress. This year, he gave us his first solo album released in too-many parts, but the overall product was outstanding. His visuals even made him look like a true-blue cartoon character. Highlights: Confession (Awakening and Genesis), Genesis (In Bible), Metempsychosis. 

4. Panic! At the Disco: This band, whom we all know is just Brendan Urie, blew me away several years ago with Death of a Bachelor and the only way he could go at the time was down. DOAB was one of my top 25 albums of all time and I didn’t think he could outdo himself, but the energy given to us on Pray For the Wicked was genuinely dumbfounding. His lyrics were and are always at the forefront of what makes him special and for that reason I’m ecstatic that I have “Filthy as Charged” on a t-shirt. Also, he managed to make the title track of “The Greatest Showman” into the banger hit I knew it could be. Highlights: Dancing’s Not a Crime, Dying in LA, Old Fashioned. 

3. Asagi: For those of you who don’t know, Asagi is another heavy-hitter in the VK world. He did attempt a solo project back in the day, but it didn’t take off. This year, thankfully, it really did in the biggest way and he didn't let his main project, D, suffer at all. Fans were getting bored of D’s constant Vampire and/or Alice in Wonderland themes and so he basically said “I hear your pleas, here is what we give you” and released a traditional Japanese album with a modern twist in January as the true beginning of his solo presence. The man then followed up with several incredible singles with D including Revive and Deadly Sin, both of whom had insane B-Sides. Highlights: Madara (Chestnut Tiger Butterfly), Gekkai no Miko (Children of the Moon World), Homuzakura (Hidden Cherry Blossoms). 

2. the GazettE: An absolutely legendary band, one of the fewest VK success stories to be told. They’ve released so many concept albums over the years with stacks and stacks of successful singles, but 2015 really was their comeback year. They revamped everything about themselves and gave fans the darkest album in recent history. How do they follow it up? With their 9th LP of varying intensity, which was actually quite refreshing. My personal favorite aspect is how absolutely self-gratifying it was. Highlights: Ninth Odd Smell, The Mortal, Sono Koe wa Moroku (This Voice is Weak). 

1. BoA: My favorite multi-national pop-star had a... Kind of ridiculous last few years. In 2014 she released a Japanese comeback album that was literally a collection of singles that came out since her last album. In 2015, though, she brought us back with a Korean album really showcasing her talents as a singer/songwriter and then in 2018 she did THE MOST!!!! She starts the year with a Korean EP called “One Shot, Two Shot” which was all bangers, and then followed up with a Japanese LP called “Watashi Kono Mama de ii no Kana (I Wonder if I Can Remain this Good).” This album was a little less perfect than the EP, however it will be forgiven as it had a perfect selection of ballads with one of the hottest tracks of the year: Mannish Chocolat. Don’t ask me what that means. Almost immediately after, she released an EP called “Unchained” which was an acoustic set of some of her recent ballads. Most notably, “Close to Me” was released as a completely acoustic piano ballad. Several months go by, and she comes back with a Korean LP called “Woman” which was almost completely perfect as well. “Encounter” and “No Limit” are probably the hottest tracks, but the title-track really showcases her feminist nature. She rounded out the year with yet another Japanese single called “Amor” which is, truly, the hottest dance track of 2018. I hope she keeps this momentum up next year! 

[kylieeminogue-blog1]

Netflix can unleash a replacement Ghost within the Shell anime in 2020

When it involves anime, Netflix has been on a tear recently. In Nov, the streaming service declared that it had been making a live-action version of Cowboy Bebop, new shows Tokyo Ghoul “Jack”  set within the worlds of Pacific Rim and Altered Carbon, which it had been transportation atomic number 10 Genesis Evangelion to subscribers. Now, another classic is coming: Ghost within the Shell.

 As noticed by io9, Netflix declared that a replacement Ghost within the Shell anime is coming back — Ghost within the Shell: SAC_2045 which can be directed by Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed), and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost within the Shell: Stand Alone Complex). Netflix doesn’t reveal any extra details, apart from to mention that it'll be free someday in 2020.

For the uninitiate, Ghost within the Shell could be a long-running anime franchise that began its life as a cyberpunk manga in 1989, following a machine named Major Motoko Kusanagi World Health Organization worked during a counter-cyberterrorist organization known as peace Section nine. it had been later custom-made into a flick in 1995, similarly as many follow-up TV shows and sequels. Notoriously, Paramount’s live-action adaptation of the story sparked arguing over the casting of Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi. Hopefully, this new story are simply the issue for fans to place that recent film firmly behind them.

Yahoo Reveals Its Most-Searched Anime of 2018

2018 has been a reasonably smart year for anime. there is been continued hits like My Hero world and amazingly smart releases like Devilman Crybaby. however what quite anime makes individuals mount up on-line search engines? For Yahoo! Japan, one series force before the remainder.

 Yahoo! Japan's annual Search Awards -- that ar precisely what they sound like, being awards for many standard searches -- recently discovered that Pop Team Epic, the flaky, parody-filled anime, diode the Search Awards' anime section. different standard anime series reportedly enclosed Darling within the Franxx and 7 Deadly Sins. The awards embody different sections for voice actors, musicians, and more.

 For those unacquainted with, Pop Team Epic was originally created by Bkub Okawa for Takeshobo's Manga Life Win web site, and therefore the webcomic created waves for pairing its central 14-year-old women with fully wild circumstances. Profanity, popular culture references, and parodies occur the series that is each become {a standard|a well-liked|a preferred} acculturation and a fair a lot of popular anime series.

 The show even ventilated on Toonami earlier this year. The promo for the Toonami airing could be a smart introduction to the series and it's specific whole of humor. you'll check it out below:

The series is presently streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW, and therefore the outline for the series is as such:

 "Crude, rude, and a little…cute? prepare for the epic angle of Popuko and Pipimi, the tiny and tall stars of Pop Team Epic! primarily based off the flaky four-panel webcomic by Bukubu Okawa comes a comedy that’ll throw you off with its out-there jokes and intense absurdity. you're thinking that you’re prepared for these girls? check, F#%**er!"

 Have you ever obstructed "Pop Team Epic" into a quest engine? allow us to understand within the comments!

Who wants faculty, United Nations agency wants baseball, and United Nations agency wants friends? that is the angle of highschool delinquent, Taishi Fura, United Nations agency became a lone wolf when rift together with his peers. One day, he witnesses the brutal attack of a ghoul, that left one among his former friends within the hospital and also the different dead. Determined to punish them, Fura decides to pursue the man-eating monster.

 His efforts enable him to cross methods with Kishou Arima, a quiet student United Nations agency conjointly attends his highschool. Arima, however, isn't any standard student. Despite his young age, he's a full-fledged investigator of the CCG, a government task force that strives to influence the ghoul threat. Together, Fura and Arima seek out the ghoul, called lamp, however it presently becomes apparent the monster could also be nearer than anyone suspects.

 In this facet story, national capital Ghoul: "Jack" offers a glimpse into the past of Kishou Arima, well before he ever became the CCG's feared God of Death.

 Tokyo Ghoul “Jack”  EP.1

Tokyo Ghoul “Jack”  EP.2

Tokyo Ghoul “Jack”  EP.3

Tokyo Ghoul “Jack”  EP.4

Tokyo Ghoul “Jack”  EP.5

Tokyo Ghoul “Jack”  EP.6

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[howardlyontx]

2018 BMW M4 CS vs. 2018 Porsche 911 GTS – Head 2 Head Ep. 95

– We’re in Germany, I’m in the brand new BMW M4 CS,and right now I’m doing 270 kilometers an hour. And Jonny, Jonny is right behind me. – And I’m driving the all new 991. 2 Porsche 911 GTS. And if Death Row Jethro here would get out of my way,I’d be in the 300 club. Oh hey, look at that, I’m in the 300 club. (maniacal laughter)Woohoo, oh that is moving, woo!So the bomb and I were on the ultimate Germancar guy holiday, Autobahn, Nurburgring andsome awesome mountain roads up in the alps. This is the stuff you dream about. Usually people ask me, I say the greatest countryon earth is Italy, not this week. This week it’s Germany. (upbeat dance music)- [Jethro] So our contenders for this head to head are thenew, lighter, more powerful, more focused M4 CSand that perennial benchmark, the Porsche 911here in GTS spec. But what makes the M4 CS worthy to stand toe to toewith the 911 GTS?The CS is maybe where finally the M4 starts to fulfillit’s potentially. It’s got a little bit more power than the compact,some of the lightweighting from the GTS. Cup 2 tires and chassis that’s been honedto extract every last little bit from them. All the signs point to this being the best M4we have ever seen. Want proof?Okay, well the three liter twin turbo charged straight sixhas been lightly tweaked to produce 454 horsepower. That’s just 10 more than the competition packagebut torque jumps by nearly 10%. Combined with a 77 pound weight reduction, thanksto a carbon fiber hood, less sound deafening,and some lightweight interior fittings,and the CS dips well below four seconds forthe naught to 60 miles an hour sprint. It also benefits from Michelin Pilot sportCup 2 tires and re-tuned suspension, although it retainscomfort, sport and sport plus modes. The CS is only available with a seven speed dualclutch transmission. The sticking point, well is the sticker price. Let’s call it circa $110,000 which brings us neatlyto Jonny’s car. – And I’m in the Porsche GTS, I’m going to call it theGoldilocks 911. It’s right in the middle of the rank, 450 horsepowerbut just does everything right. Follows the classic GTS recipe, you get a little bitmore power, they lowered the car and every performanceoption you can get on the carrera S, is includedfor a slightly lower price. In this case the Porker makes 450 horsepower,30 more than the standard S engine. Torque is also up by 37 pound feet, from 368 to 405. This particular Guard’s Red GTS has a few more tricksup it’s sleeve, namely, carbon ceramic brakes,dynamic chassis control, PDK and four wheel steering. As such if you were to look up sports car in the dictionary,you’d probably find a picture of the car I’m driving. Meaning that BMW’s got it’s work cut out for it. That’s the other crazy thing man, modern cars are so good. Like if you were going to do this a generation ago,and try to hit 300 kilometers an hour or 302 inthe case of this, that’s 190 miles an hour. You’d have to rebuild the engine that night, the tireswould delaminate, you’d die of heat stroke, everythingwould go wrong, it would never happen. Now, (scoffs) no problem and now I can use Bluetoothand navigation and just everything works. I’m comfortable, they’re amazing, these cars arejust absolutely amazing. – [Jethro] Jonny’s right, both of these carsare pretty amazing on the Autobahn. After a brief spell reveling and hitting near v max,reality sets in. We stop for two hours straight as a crash is cleaned upand then the rain comes and just more frustration. Fortunately that sat nav Jonny is so impressed withwell it’s leading us to a much, much better location. And rumor has it that the sun is smiling on the Nurburgring. – We are here, we have made it, we are at theNurburgring Nordschleife in fact we’re in a cornercalled Brunchen which you’re familiar with becauseif you’ve ever seen a sky shot taken of the Nurburgring,it was taken just over there. Listen, if you are a car guy or girl, you’ve gotto come here, it’s the greatest place on earth. Believe us, we’ve checked. – And the best thing about it, it’s just so accessible. There’s people over here just watching. If you bring your own car, any car, hire car, caravansuper car, doesn’t matter. You pay 27 Euros, you get to do a lap, that’s like30 bucks, and you get to drive on the greatest racetrackthat there has ever been. – So let’s go do that right now. – No no no no, the public laps are great, but it’s a zoo. We want to do it properly. I’ve got a friend called Darren, he runs somethingcalled Destination Nurburgring. No bikes, no caravans, just cars, open pit laneand we’re doing that tomorrow in our cars. – That’s awesome but what are we doing tonight?- Steak on a stone at the Pistenklause- Pistenklause, cool!How many things in life have never disappointed you?I can think of exactly none, save for the Nurburgring. It’s 12. 9 miles of automotive paradise. 2017 marks the ring’s 90th year in business. And it’s still the car world’s benchmark. All serious manufacturers develop their serious cars here. You have to, not only has a vehicle’s Nurburgring lap timebecome as important as it’s zero to 60 number,but it’s said that one mile at speed on the Nordschleife,is the equivalent of one thousand mileson a conventional road. Still, the ring is more than that. The culture that surrounds this place fills me with joy. Even after only a few hours here, you realize you aresurrounded by an entire community of people who havenever said 500 horsepower, when are you ever going to use that?The Nurburgring really and truly is car guy and gal nirvana. Even the gas station, the gas station is awesome. Why?Because in it you’ll find what has to be the besttoy car store in the world. They even had two cars with Death Row’s name on them. Talk about home away from home, and yeah, the steakon a stone of the Pistenklause, 100% worth it. (cheerful music)- [Jethro] And today we get to experience itat it’s best. Destination Nurburgring run open pit lane track days hereand they are fantastic. Unlimited track time, courteous drivers, and thatcommunity spirit Jonny mentioned, is overflowingin the car park packed with fantastic and oftenbattle-hardened cars. Oh and it’s really hot and sunny, this never happens. First up, the M4 CS and Jonny is driving. And he is not hanging around. (car accelerates)So before we start we should have a littleappreciation for the weather. – Oh my God. – This is not normal Nurburgring weather. – No there’s no rain and I said it with confidencethat it’s not going to rain. – Regardless of the weather, this place is still theultimate test so the M4 if it works here, it shouldwork anywhere. And if it’s going to justify it’s price tag,it’s going to be here as well. – I’ve driven a bunch of these M4s, and with theexception of that GTS, which is a whole nother price pointand they only made like 800 of ’em or whatever,this is good. This is good, you know I was really kind of impressedwith the M4 competition. – Yeah I think for me the first lot of M4’s I drovewere just nowhere, they didn’t feel like theyhad control or anything. Then the competition really improved it a lot. I love the GTS when it was set up perfectlywhich was rarely. But it seems to me yeah, they’re trying tobring some of that GTS excitement into the normal car,but make it work on more than likeone specific GP circuit. – Yeah I mean look we’re literally on the Nordschleife,but it’s working man, it’s totally working. – [Jethro] So we’ve got Cup 2 tires,so a lot more grip I’d say than the standard car. – Great grip, once the tire pressures really come up,wonderful grip, they revised the suspension,it’s good, you don’t get much understeer, a little bitin the really hairy stuff. – So I’ve driven all sorts of stuff around here andI can have fun in a 90 horsepower high car or aterrible SUV or whatever, but this is real fun becauseit does feel to me more serious, more capable, more stablethan the competition pack. – It’s a really fast car so the power’s up,it’s what is it 453 horsepower. – [Jethro] Yeah but that almost doesn’t sound a lot butit feels quick and it’s just instant as well. There’s so much throttle response. – Now they’ve done a good job, I used to not care forthis engine but I got to say, it’s really scooting thisthing around the track well. – Yeah and they’ve even made it sound almost good. – Almost good, yeah, heythat’s a huge improvement for a 3700, 3750 hundredpound car, I mean, we’re just whipping around this track. – Yeah I guess that’s it, you only start to feelthe weight over some of the quick bumpsit just feels a bit fidgety, you want it to landand just deal with the compression and sometimesit doesn’t it scoots around a bit on you. – The only time I was having a real problem with itis on like big curving, the back end like hops. – So the other thing for me, I’m slightly disappointedin the brakes, I think you just feel the weightat high speed. The gear box, it’s starting to feel a bit old fashionedsomehow the gear box. – Right the old fashioned dual clutch. – It’s stupid but, to me it feels like they’ve revisedit for this car, made it more aggressive so in top modeit punches really hard. – Yeah, ’cause there’s the three positions for shifting. – Yeah, but it’s too hard and then you dialed it backone position and it’s a bit too soft, a bit too auto-likeso it’s not quite got the sweet spot. – I got to say for an M4 I am very impressed. Was not expecting this. – It starting to justify what it costs,but we need to jump in the Porsche to see if itcan really play with the big boys. – Oh we need to jump in the Porsche?- We have to jump in the Porsche, we have to!- That’s our job man. – Get to the Porsche. (laughing)- Wow, the CS really is a different and bettersort of M4. And it is awesome on the Nordschleife. No wonder it ran a seven minute, 35 second lapin BMW’s testing. Right on the heels of cars named Pagani and Koenigsegg. You know what though?Porsche claims that this 911 GTS can run a seven minute24 second lap, which is quicker than a Ferrari Enzo,and neck in neck with a Gumpert Apollo. But can us normal folks feel the differencebetween the two?There’s only one way to find out. (cars accelerating)- This car just feels so hooked up, straight awayas soon as you leave the powder basically. It’s just got that Porsche thing of absoluteprecision and accuracy but still feedbackand no one else does it like that. That’s my feeling. – Well let’s just cut to the chase, so the 911starts about here, the poor BMW starts about as a 320down here and then they got to like add stuff to makeit quicker, but this one’s already like, this is the GTSso it’s already like, the Carrera S has been on themarket for a couple years, all the options everybody wantsthe performance stuff, they’ve tweaked it, they’velowered it it’s got more power like it’s just,it’s kind of the perfect weapon. – I think as a bridge between a Carrera S and a GT3,it just works really really well. It’s just so smooth. – [Jonny] I got to say though,forget about a bridge between ’em’cause with the extra torque from the turbo,this might be quicker, honestly this might be quickerthan a GT3. – It probably, it probably is for most people, but justit’s just so in control of itself and thatalmost sounds boring but it isn’tso down here in the BM you start to move aroundbecause of the weight, because the dampening’snot quite as good but the Porsche is just completelynailed, it’s just nailed but it isn’t, it doesn’t feelboring it doesn’t feel like it’s doing it for me. – So you just hit a ton of curbing right, soin the BMW, that rear end was not happy, right?You hit the curbing and it would just move aroundand wheels in the air, and then traction wouldkick in, this loves it. You could just abuse the curbing. – It does, I mean there’s a reason why every carin the car park is a 911. I mean it feels built for it, it soaks it up. It’s just, I’m actually shocked at how good it is. The rear wheel steer is an option on this carbut it just, it works. It’s almost invisible, it just means these tight cornersyou don’t need much steering angle, the car’s nailed in. And it just goes exactly where you want all the time. Which is just so impressive. It’s just built to do this. – It starts out as a sports car. – It wants to do it all day, all day just keeps going. The brakes just the pedal is perfect and it never changesno matter how hard you use ’em, it’s the same. – Well there’s that old cliche like a car’sonly as good as it’s brakes, and in this case that’skind of the biggest difference between this andthe BMW, these brakes you just trust ’em inherently. You never think about it. Where the BM the pedal’s getting longer. – I trust the whole car. Everything I touch on this car, feels like it wasdeveloped here for people who want to really enjoythe car at maximum attack and that’s to me,that’s what’s really important. This thing, whatever you do, there’s a test driverwho’s done it before you, twice as fast, twice as good. And it shows. – But we should also talk about the weight advantageis gigantic. And the BMW’s a larger car, the M4 has an actualback seat you can put people in, this is for luggage onlybut there’s about a 300 pound difference,but it feels like a six or seven hundred pound difference. – You just feel a bit more on top of the car. But yes, certainly over the bumps, when you’re turninginto corners, it feels lighter, there’s just a naturallike athletic feeling to the car. – and you just pass everything, it’s hard to explainhow potent this engine is. And it’s like 30 more horsepower than a Carrera S,37 more pound feet of torque, but it feels likea stage up, it really does. That’s always been the case with the GTS right?It’s like the best of the breed, it comes outafter the regular car, after the turbo, after the GT3. Sorry, I was trying to be philosophical and nowI’m like wow we are just hauling ass. But anyways, you know what I mean?They’ve worked the kinks out of everything else,this is they take everything they’ve learnedfrom all the development and that’s what your GTS is. And it’s kind of a good bargain too. What we’re talking about though is around theNurburgring, this is like a very hardcore, differentweird environment, this is not a normal placeto take a car. We’re very spoiled and lucky we get to do this. – This car feels perfect for here. Right on the limit or near the limit. The question for me with these new 991s, does it feelexciting enough on the street when you’re justdriving the car?Does it still feel like a sports car?- Well, there’s a road I’ve been hearing aboutit’s in another country, but it’s close by. – You’re a small man. It’s hard to leave the Nurburgring, it always is. But doing so with the cars in one piece,well that feels good. We bid the guys at Destination Nurburgring goodbye,and head south. To Austria and a road with a glacier at it’s summit. I guess that should’ve been a clue that it couldbe pretty cold and miserable, but hey, we’ve done rainon the Autobahn, sunshine on the world’s best track,so why not snow on a mountain pass with no safety barriers?- So we’re 9000 feet up in the air in a winter stormin late August on a glacier in Austria. So I think in these conditions there’s no way any carcould be boring. So to answer the question is the 911 GTS boring on the road?No, not even a little bit. – Especially not today. Now you’ve spent a lot more time in it than meon the road trip down from Germany, but even the brieftime I’ve spent in it, yeah it’s just not boring. It’s just good, it’s so complete, it’s got so muchgood stuff going for it. And you want to keep picking holes in it, but wheredo you find them?- It’s tough, look so the one knock I can think ofis that it’s not necessarily a 911 in the traditional sense. So rear engine cars, they have a lot of advantages,you’ve got all the weight on the back tires,the acceleration’s better. Braking’s inherently better. – Traction. – Yeah, there’s certain disadvantages they always havethey have this lift-off oversteer, they’ve eliminated that. Really starting with the 997 or 996. And it’s gone with the 991. The car does not behave badly. – I mean I love 991s, I guess my only question mark,if you erase all the foibles of real engine behavior,do you erase some of the character as well?- I think if it was a bad car, sure, we can makethat argument, but it’s not bad, it’s a really exciting car. I cannot get like, dropping in the fox hole or whatever,on the Nurburgring and you can’t say this is a bad car. You can’t say oh I don’t like it, it’sabsolutely incredible, like what a machine. – I think it’s worth saying that even in the lifespanof the 991, they’ve made massive improvements. The steering, just the sense that this car is a 911 again. It’s got some of that back and even when you go turbochargedand everything, the engine doesn’t take away from thefact that they’ve just improved everything up a levelin terms of ability and also I think they’ve dialed backsome of the character as well. They’ve got some of that back. You know everyone was crazy, oh they turbocharged it,but you know there’s so much torque that it’s worthwhatever sacrifice in sound there might be. And with the sport exhaust, it’s good enough,let’s be honest, it sounds good enough. We’ve both driven the new GT3, that starts to get backto a little bit of the classic 911 stuff, you get alittle bit of lift off oversteer. – That’s cause of age. And that engine shames any engine, but you’re talkingabout driving them back to back. In isolation, you might miss the normally (inaudible)engine if you used to have a screamer, an old engine. – This is a wonderful, twin turbo flat six withmore torque than I know what to do with half the time. – Yeah but what’s great is not just a big fat headof torque, it feels like you could meter out the performanceto it, you could still get accurate with it and that’swhat this car’s all about. It puts you in control. This car does everything but there’s no compromise,that’s what’s cool, how does it do that?It covers all these bases, but it isn’t making a compromiseso it still feels like a pure sports car. – Yeah, they’ve done a remarkable job. I guess if there is a knock, and let’s try andreally figure this out is when you’re on a road trip,it kind of becomes a luxury car, not that there’sanything wrong with luxury cars, but it maybe fora couple hours a day, it doesn’t feel special. There are times that I forget I’m driving a 911 GTS. I’m just driving like a shrunken Panamera maybe. It’s just like a nice Porsche. In the M4, I think you always know you’re in an M product. – Yeah, it’s just, that’s the one chink of lifefor the M4 for me, you can forget you’re in a 911in this car, the M4 like you say, it feels special. They’ve found the ingredients to make it feellike a proper sports car the whole time. – Even with rain, snow, hail, goats and God knowswhat else being thrown at us, the CS remainsthe M4 you want to own. It’s the best one, end of story. The question is, whether that’s enough to overcomethe talents and might of the blood-red Porsche. Well Jethro, your British rain has turned to Austrian snow. – [Jethro] It’s gorgeous. I can’t believe it. At least we have got Cup 2 tires, so we’re well-equipped. – Frozen Cup 2 tires. No but I mean you cannot say this is boringin any way, shape or form. – And I think what we were saying in the 911you feel that in this car. You feel that it is compromised to a certain extentby the extreme tires, by the fact it’s got thiscrazy whatever it is hemp door cards. – With nothing to hold on to other than the stupid strap. – And they’re sort of ridiculous, but they give the carsomething different, and it needs that to competewith the 911, is such a complete car now. To compete with it like toe to toe in every area,I don’t think that’s going to happen so this car,it needs to be something different and that’swhat it feels like, it feels like a differentproposition, more extreme, still usable, but it’sgot a just a bit more craziness to it. – To me this feels more like a GT3 than the GTS does. You have less sound insulation, the ride is not likebad, but it’s a firm, flinty right, like it’sup on it’s knuckles. And it feels real sporty even at low speeds like this. And it’s louder, and you get a little tighter,it’s a little angry. It’s kind of a really cool thing. – It is cool and like I say, you have to make somecompromises, but you get little spikes of excitement. (laughter)(crosstalking)- [Jonny] Or a big spike!- But there are not many cars, certainly not any Porscheswhere in a straight line in like third gear, tractioncontrol on, when you hit the torque, it lights up the tires. It’s like, this thing I mean traction limited, yes. But it keeps you awake and it makes you feel likeyou’re in something special. I sort of like that about it. – This is the first M product in a long time,really for me since the X6M where I’m like it’s mental,it’s really crazy and I like that. – It’s got some decent noise, it’s got some spikycharacteristics, but basically it’s trustworthy. Maybe not in snow on Cup 2 tires,but basically it’s trustworthy. It’s fun, it’s actually got that sense of motorsport back. – I wouldn’t say M is back in this car. – It’s just got that feeling that you’ve boughtsomething different and special and you are remindedevery second of every drive. That’s what’s cool and that’s where it does scorea little bit over the GTS actually, I’m surprisedto say that but it does. – [Jonny] Alright so now comes the tricky part, which carwins this head to head?- It’s a lot closer than I thought. – It is a lot closer than I thought, however BMWran up against a juggernaut, right?I mean the 911 is just so damn good. And it’s about as good as a sports car gets,let’s be very clear and very honest about that right?- You judge every car against the 911,then you drive the GTS and you remember why. It’s because it does everything so well. Yeah this gives you little moments of real magic,the 911 is just delivering real high heights fromthe second you turn the engine on to the secondyou turn it off. – Yeah so, the winner of this head to head isthe Porsche 911 GTS. It’s just the better car. – [Jethro] Same old. (car accelerating)

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