#in the sense that their songs can be searched for 10 second clips to put a cosplay to

[stay-tinystars]

The Storyteller

Ship: non idol Yunho x fem OC (Mia)

Mostly fluff, slight angst bookstore au. ---Word count: 9.1k. ---Warnings: mentions of cheating (not main pairing), one mention of sex (non explicit), self doubt, depression, unsure of other warnings. ---- A/N: due to the lovely 250 word block limit these paragraphs run on, and for that I am sorry. I am posting this in Honor of Yunho's birthday. Though it's slightly late.

This year the summer seemed warmer than usual. Yunho noticed more heat coming through his apartment window as he worked. Writing and composing songs as he overlooked the city. He was in a rut with writing, they had asked him to write another love song. How could he write about something that broke him last year? How could he write about something that seemed so far out of reach. All his experiences with love he'd already written, and at this point he felt like if he wrote another song about his ex, he might scream. The blinking cursor on the blank screen of his laptop seemed to mock him. He got up and decided to call his brother, maybe he could help him with some ideas. "So, I got a promotion,and part of that promotion is I get to go on a cruise with the CEO and other leaders in the company." His brother said excitedly over the phone, as Yunho paced the floor in his living room.

"That's awesome," Yunho responded, maybe he shouldn't have asked his brother how work was going.

"Problem is, it's only a cruise for two, and it would help me get to know the higher ups better," his brother continued. Yunho's stomach sank, as his brother started to ramble.

"Why do I feel this means I need to watch the twins." Yunho sighed as he opened the door to his small balcony, stepping outside.

"Yunho, it would be the biggest help if you could watch them. It's only for a week, and being as you work from home, I was hoping you could just reconvene to my house for the week. We will buy all the food for the three of you. If you do this I'll also buy your groceries for the next month!" How could he say no to that. His brother had been working so hard and diligently for years. Two 6 year olds shouldn't be too hard right?

Yunho had never been so wrong. Was free food worth this? The twins were driving him crazy. Never a second of rest, and they always wanted to play, eat, or do something that meant Yunho couldn't focus at all. He hadn't gotten anything done for work in three days. He needed a break. How his brother and wife cared for these two tornadoes 24/7 was bewildering. After the twins came back in from playing in the backyard complaining that Yunho didn't do anything with them, Yunho wanted to scream. As a last resort he searched online for something to do with kids. He found a small ad on social media from a nearby bookstore, something called, 'Story time adventures' that happens every Thursday during the summer at 1pm. Recommended age was 4-10, and it was free. He sighed in relief, today was Thursday, and he could have a small break. Maybe he would get just a few minutes of peace while the twins attended. Yunho packed up the kids, and promised to go to the park after the story time, if they behaved. The twins eagerly obliged. Once they arrived at the bookstore he saw a small area set up near the back of the store, with a bean bag chair and lots of small pillows placed on the floor in front of it, a few children already sat on some of the pillows. He urged Kai, and Nami to go join, with a small nudge. Yunho took a deep breath, feeling a small sense of relief as he started to let the atmosphere of the small store put him at ease.  As he started to browse, he found himself in the fantasy section he picked a book and started to read the insert, it didn't seem interesting to him, so he placed it back upon the shelf. As he continued to wander around the store he could hear the children giggling as someone read. He turned down another isle, and could hear her voice.

"Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

Yunho was enthralled. The storyteller's voice timbre changing slightly with every character. Her narration voice was calming. He found himself looking around the shelfs towards where the story time was happening. That's when he first saw her. She looked small in the bean bag. Her white jeans, and powder blue blouse, made her match the character of Alice. A white plush rabbit sat next to her on the bean bag. A children's picture book of Alice in Wonderland was in her hands as she read so the children could see the pictures. Only after someone cleared their throat did Yunho realize he was currently blocking the main aisle way. He quietly bowed and muttered an apology and moved off to the side.  She looked so at ease around the 15 or so children who sat in front of her. Each one clinging onto her every word. Her eyes sparkled as she read about the tea party, her mischievous grin matched that of the Cheshire cat as he disappeared. She made the whole bookstore become Wonderland. As she read and placed Alice back into her rightful world, Yunho found himself leaning on the bookshelf behind her. Admiring her attention to the little details. She had a small top hat clipped in her hair, a blue butterfly sat atop. Her earrings were pocket watches. 

"Now how did you all enjoy Wonderland?" Her natural voice was joyful, still drawing him in. He listened to the discussion about the book she had with the children. Some asked about if food could really make you grow, others commenting on the mad hatter.

"How did you do so many voices?" Kai asked, obviously intrigued. She laughed. If Yunho could describe the sound he would, but he couldn't pinpoint any words, it just sounded happy to him.

"I like to make sure every character has their own personality, it makes reading even more fun!" She responded, and clasped her hands together. 

"Ok, unfortunately that's all the time for today." Her words were met with groans. "I hope you all come next week, we are going to Neverland!" Her smile widened as she lifted a children's picture book of Peter Pan.

Yunho shook his head bringing him back to reality. He wanted to return next week. Kai and Nami ran towards him. "We were good, can we go to the park now?" Nami pleaded, as she tugged on his hand.

"Of course, I might even treat you guys to ice cream" Yunho smiled, as the twins cheered.

----

Yunho found himself daydreaming about the story teller. The way she made the story come alive, made him want to go back, and listen to her again. But now that his brother was back home, which he was grateful for, he couldn't go. Or could he?

"Hey, so I was hoping to take the twins tomorrow for a few hours around lunch" he heard his brother choke on air through the phone, as he sat on a chair on his small balcony.

"I thought you couldn't be happier to be rid of them. Isn't that what you said on Sunday?" His brother's voice bewildered.

"I've had a change of heart." Yunho leaned back putting his feet up on the small metal table. 

"Yunho, you aren't trying to pick up single mothers at the park are you?" His brother's voice teased

"No, why would I do that?"

"It's the only explanation for you actually wanting to watch them. After being stuck with them for a week. I know what little monsters they can be."

"No, I just thought they might enjoy going to story time again." Yunho's voice faded as he played with the hem of his shirt.

"Oh so you're wanting to see the storyteller again? Hmm?? The kids said they enjoyed that, and that you gave them ice cream afterwards." Yunho could hear the teasing tone continue,  as his brother spoke.

"Why do you always have to bug me about seeing someone new? Can't I just enjoy the stories with the kids."

"Well you can, but I know you're not going for the stories. You're going because you want a girlfriend."

Yunho wanted to retort his brother's statement, but he knew it would just lead to more teasing. "Look, can I just take the kids to story time tomorrow?" He sighed.

"If you end up meeting someone, that means my children make great wingmen!"

"You're so weird"

"You're the one wanting to borrow my children"

----

He knew nothing about her, but her voice haunted his dreams, both awake and asleep. His only thought was to try to find a seat in the small book shop to listen to her. He got there early, and sent Kai and Nami to sit, as he found a seat off to the side, grabbing a book and pretending to read. Yunho laughed as he noticed Kai taking the front center pillow, his sister following suit, Kai was just as intrigued as he was. He watched as other children filed in, their parents starting to browse the store. Suddenly a sound of tinkling bells came from the aisle next to Yunho. He watched as she appeared, dressed in a Peter pan inspired outfit, green jeans a matching top tucked in, she even had a Peter pan hat complete with feather. Her phone making the sounds.

"Are you guys ready to go to Neverland? Does anyone know how to get there?" She inquired as she approached the bean bag.

"Second star to the right!" Nami practically screamed. Her response was met with laughter from around the store.

"That's right, and straight on til morning! Now all we need is pixie dust, and happy thoughts then away we go!" She reached into her pocket withdrawing a hand full of tiny shimmering clear glitter. She tossed it, sprinkling it over the children, who giggled in response. He watched as she sat on the beanbag, lifted the book.

"Peter Pan" she started, as she opened the book. Yunho never opened the book he had grabbed, he listened, being sucked into the story as much as the children. She even crowed like Peter, while reenacting the fight between Peter and Hook with one hand as she read the story from the bean bag. She was having just as much fun doing this, as the kids were. He rode the back of the wind with the children, until the storyteller placed Wendy, John and Michael back in London. He had to get to know her, at least her name. The discussion time for the book started and ended quicker than Yunho wanted, he hadn't caught what book she was doing next week, nor any of the questions asked. He was caught up in his head. He usually had such confidence with these situations, but he didn't know how to approach this talented young woman. It had been a while since he tried dating. Luckily for him Kai wouldn't leave the poor girl alone, he was talking her ear off. As Yunho approached, he heard Kai asking every question that popped into his head.

"What's your favorite color" Kai's voice excitedly said.

"Purple" she laughed, Kai looked between the storyteller and his uncle and smirked.

"When was the last date you went on?" Kai's smirk grew, along with Yunho's eyes. What had gotten into this kid?

"Umm, I haven't been on a date in a while" she responded looking at the young boy with a raised eyebrow.

"So you don't have a boyfriend?" Kai asked.

"No Kai, I don't have a boyfriend" she chuckled, placing her hands on her hips.

"Can I be your boyfriend?" The 6 year old asked, looking up at her with big eyes. She smiled warmly, and softly shook her head.

"I'm sorry Kai, but you are far too young to be my boyfriend. You are sweet for asking." She tried to let the kid down easy.

"What about my uncle Yunho?" Kai grabbed his uncle's shirt. Yunho's ears turned red as he looked bewildered at his nephew.

"Well, I will have to see," she laughed, as she looked at the tall panicked man.

"He's been lonely since his girlfriend left last year," Nami added as she grabbed onto Yunho's pant leg. What had he gotten himself into? Yunho wanted to hide.

"Well that wasn't very nice of her was it." She responded, looking between the two twins. Then looking at Yunho. "Kids say the darndest things" she held back her laughter as best as possible. "I'm Mia" she extended her hand.

"Yunho" he shook it, and did a small bow. She smiled warmly.

"Well these two are sweet. It's nice of you to bring them."

"He asked to bring us today, so he could hear another story." Kai smiled mischievously. The kid definitely took after his father. Yunho wished he was anywhere but here.

"Is that so?" Her eyes twinkled as she lifted her eyebrow at Yunho and winked.

"Yeah he called dad last night." Nami added, excitedly. Yunho wished he could disappear, like the cat from last week's story.

"So Uncle Yunho, are you employing kids to be your wingmen?" Her eyes full of mischief, as she smirked, he was sure his face was redder than a tomato.

"I, uh, I swear it's not what it seems. I just, uh, like your stories" he mentally slapped himself, though his panicked response made her laugh.

"Well, that's a shame because you're kind of cute." She joked, winked again, then walked away towards the front of the store. Yunho watched her for a moment, shocked at her bold statement.

"Wait, Mia! " he said following her, grabbing each of the twins hands in his.

"How can I help you," she smiled, as she went behind the counter.

"Wait, you work here?" Yunho questioned. She laughed again.

"What did you think I was doing here?" her response floating along her slight laughter.

"Well I thought you only came to read to the kids. I truthfully thought you were a voice actress." his voice faded as he looked at the counter, setting his hands on top of it.

"Well that would be an interesting career. I actually pitched the summer storytime idea. I read a book to a little kid to help calm him down after he lost his mom at the spring festival earlier this year. By the time I finished reading I had a group around me." she smiled as she stared at Yunho's hands resting on the counter. "I've always enjoyed books, so if I can help kids enjoy the stories, and start reading themselves I want to do it."

Yunho felt his heart soften. This young woman in front of him seemed to have a heart of gold. He barely knew her, but he wanted to get to know her better. He just wasn't sure if he had the courage to ask her out quite yet. His heart still fragile from its harsh break last year.

"Miss Mia" Nami peeked her head over the counter.

"Yes, Nami" Mia leaned on the counter making eye contact with the small girl.

"Will you come to the park with us?" The little girl asked. Mia laughed softly.

"Well, I still have work." She placed her head in her hands.

"For how much longer?" The small girl questioned. Mia looked at her watch.

"About a half hour"

"We can wait!" Kai didn't wait for either of the adults to respond, he just pulled Yunho back into the book store. They browsed the shelfs of the entire store until each of them found a book that interested them. He walked back up to the counter with the twins in tow, each of them setting their choices on the counter.

" 'The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon', good choice Kai. I think you will really enjoy it, and the way it describes the colors. Oh, and Nami you chose 'Planting the Wild Garden' it's a great book about how seeds actually work." She then paused with a smile gracing her lips, as she picked up Yunho's choice, her eyes sparkled with nostalgia. " 'Spinning Starlight' is one of my favorites. It's actually a retelling of 'The Wild Swans', but this book captivated me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did Yunho." Her hands gently placed the books into a paper bag stamped with the store's logo.

"You know a lot about these books," Yunho said, handing her his card.

"Well I do work at a bookstore, plus you guys happened to pick books I have read and enjoyed." laughter traced her every word, as Yunho traced her features in his mind. The way her eyes crinkled as she laughed, the small imperfections in her skin bringing beauty to the world around him, the way her lips sat so perfectly, she was imperfectly perfect, and he was transfixed. He was starting to realize he was head over heels for this girl, that he barely knew. The trio stepped outside and sat on the small bench waiting for Mia, as she clocked out and grabbed her things.

"I don't get invited to go to the park very often. What's the first thing we should do?" Mia asked as she looked between the twins a small smile on her face.

The four of them played on the playground equipment, the younger two creating their own world, and directing the older pair at what to do. Which resulted in side aches from laughing so hard. "What?" Yunho asked as Mia laughed at him, as he laid the full length of the child size slide.

"You are bigger than the slide" Mia giggled as she leaned on the side of the slide looking at him. Yunho smiled as they looked at each other.

"Thanks for coming to the park, you didn't have to." Yunho sat up, then stood from the slide.

"Well I haven't been asked to go to the park in a while, plus I didn't have anything going after work today, and some sunshine would be good for me." Mia said as she walked towards the empty bench off to the side of the playground. Yunho started to follow only to be called by Kai. Yunho ran over and looked up at the young boy through the railing of the playtoy.

"Have you asked her out yet?" Kai inquired as he played with the ship wheel in front of him mindlessly.

"It's not that easy Kai, I barely know her" Yunho responded as he gazed in her direction. She was sitting on the bench now, leaning her head back, eyes closed enjoying the sunlight on her face. She seemed to glow in the midday sun.

"Well, I think she likes you. I can't wait to tell dad I'm a good wingman!" Kai smiled to himself, bringing Yunho's attention back to the twins.

"Did your dad put you up to this?"

"Well he said if we helped you get her number, he would give us ice cream everyday for a week!" Nami said excitedly, as she took control of the wheel from her brother.

"Your dad bribed you guys to get me on a date?"

"He said someone needed to help you, ever since Yuni left you've been sad. Dad just wants you to be happy." Nami looked at her uncle with concern on her face.

"I am happy," Yunho countered softly, as he looked towards Mia again. Was he really just putting on a front? His brother surely saw through everything. Could everyone see how lonely he'd felt? How would that affect the small spark he felt with Mia. He looked back to the twins, who were staring at him. He sighed they were right. He wasn't happy.

"So I'm thinking we should go get some ice cream, how does that sound?" Mia suggested as she approached the trio. Squeals of approval came from the twins as they raced to get down to them.

"Can I have strawberry!" Nami asked as they approached the ice cream stand.

"I want chocolate!" Kai added.

"Can I get one Strawberry, one chocolate, one cookies and cream and whatever the lady here orders" Yunho said at the window.

"I can pay for myself," Mia said, opening her wallet.

"No It's on me. You came to the park, and you didn't have to" Yunho insisted, handing his card to the worker before she could do anything else. Mia shook her head and sighed.

"Um, I will also take cookies and cream," she said softly. The worker nodded and swiped Yunho's card.  Soon enough the four of them were eating ice cream at a small table in the shade.

"Thanks for joining us today Mia, it was fun!" Nami said as she devoured the last of her ice cream.

"Well thank you for the invite. I'm sure Chen hasn't missed me too much." Mia thought aloud.

"I thought you said you didn't have a boyfriend," Kai accused, pointing his chocolate smudged finger at Mia. She laughed.

"I don't, I have a hedgehog," she paused to look at her watch, "who is probably upset I'm not feeding him yet"

"You have a hedgehog!" Kai yelled, sending small droplets of chocolate all over the table.

"Yes," she chuckled. "And he is three this year" She was proud, like a mother would be of her child. "Do you guys want to see a picture of Chen?" She asked, unlocking her phone.

"Yes!" Nami scrambled from her seat, climbing atop the table to see the phone better. There on the screen was a small light brown almost cream colored hedgehog, sitting on a small blue towel

"Chen is a blonde hedgehog, I rescued him from the shelter almost two years ago"

"They have hedgehogs at the animal shelter? I thought they only had cats and dogs" Kai asked as he got closer to the screen. The two small faces stared intently at the screen. Their noses only a few centimeters away.

"The shelter actually has all sorts of pets, most people just go for the dogs and cats. But my apartment doesn't allow animals bigger than Chen." Yunho just watched as Mia showed the twins more photos of Chen. He hated to say he believed in love at first sight, it always seemed to be a stupid thing to him. Until now, ever since he first saw Mia he couldn't get her out of his brain. The more he saw her, the more intrigued he became. He wanted to learn everything about her. "Sorry Yunho, you probably couldn't see him over these two" she laughed as she handed him her phone. There was the small hedgehog, she had placed a small bowtie on him. "This is when I celebrated his first 'gotcha' day"

"He is a cute little guy, he looks like he'd fit in just the palm of my hand." Yunho smiled, handing back her phone.

"Why don't you ask Mia if you can meet him, then you can see" Kai, again, was making Yunho want to disappear. Mia was gently shaking her head, her expression was no longer peaceful. She looked slightly panicked, and Yunho's mind started reeling. What had he done wrong?

"Maybe someday" she responded, getting up from the small table. "But I should go and take care of Chen. It was a lovely afternoon, and thank you for the ice cream" she gave a smile as well as a soft bow and wave, and quickly walked away.

-----

Yunho went to the small bookstore on his own that Saturday, hoping to see Mia and apologize for whatever had happened. Mia was wearing jeans and a graphic t, nothing abnormal, yet Yunho couldn't stop staring. "How can I help you today, Yunho?" She said sternly as he approached the counter.

"I wanted to apologize for Thursday." His large hand swept through his hair, still trying to figure out what he did.

"You did nothing wrong." she seemed to brush off the subject, as she walked away with a pile of books in hand.

"I feel like something happened. Was it the twins? I'm sorry if something they said was inappropriate." Yunho said following her.

"No. They also were fine." Her answer was abrupt.

"Can I help you put those away?" Yunho gestured towards the books, as he fell in step with her.

"I'm alright, I can do this on my own." She kept walking further into the store. She seemed so warm on Thursday, but now she seemed to be turning a cold shoulder on him.

"I-" Yunho's own words caught in this throat, his feet stopping at the end of an aisle. "I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone." his soft words barely reaching her as she stopped.

"Yunho." She sighed, and motioned him to come closer with her head. As he approached she lost her own words. "It's not you." She whispered as she started to put books on the shelf.

"It has to be me. That's the only explanation I can come up with" he said, stepping behind her taking the book she was trying to place on the top shelf from her hand, and placing it where she was trying to place it.

"The explanation is me." She kept her eyes on the shelf in front of her, he could hear the slight tremor in her voice. He placed a hand softly on top of the one she had resting on the shelf. He could feel her body shake slightly as she started to sob. Yunho started to search for words. He was concerned, he wanted to comfort her. Would a hug be too much? I mean he was practically caging her in right now. Was that what was making her cry? He lifted his hand and moved backwards slightly, not wanting her to feel trapped. She dropped to her knees shaking, propping herself up against the bookcase. Mia was finally letting it all out. It was too late to stop her emotions now. Without getting closer Yunho just sat down next to her. Sometimes silence answered more than words. Today that was the case. Mia noted Yunho's presence, currently it felt like the only thing anchoring her to a safe harbor. She had been building this shell for so long, that when it broke it let a dam of emotions loose. The grief and betrayal from last winter. The constant mask she bravely put on everyday though she was broken. Mia found herself placing a hand on Yunho's knee as he went to move, she needed her anchor. Yunho placed his hand on hers.

"I never meant to make you cry." Yunho's words barely above a whisper, as he took his other hand and softly wiped her tears from her cheek.

"It isn't you." Mia rested her head against his hand. She wanted to trust him, to tell him everything, but her mind fought against it. He'll be just like Jay, he will make you believe him then he will lie to you over and over again. She shook her head. No, Yunho was different. But is he, or are his good looks deceiving you. Mia wanted to scream at the doubting voice in her mind. She looked up into Yunho's eyes. They were pure, almost puppy like. "Can you promise me something, even though I barely know you."

"Yeah" Yunho nodded, as he dropped his hands. He was now staring at her intently.

"Can you promise me that you'll be honest with me?" Her question puzzled him.

"Of course." 

"No, I need to know you're going to be honest. That you won't lie, even if it's to cover up my pain." Mia wasn't sure exactly why she was demanding this from the man she barely knew, in the bookstore after she just cried in front of him. Yunho wasn't sure either, but he nodded anyway.

"I promise I'll be honest." He looked at her, a small grin turning up the corner of his mouth. "To prove that. Can I say my butt is really starting to hurt, can we stand up now?"

She laughed, and got up. Wiping her damp cheeks with the back of her wrist "I want to explain some things." She paused as she took a deep breath. "I get off at 6. Would you be willing to meet me at the diner two doors down, about 6:15? I'll pay for dinner." Mia inquired as the two of them headed towards the front of the store. Yunho smiled and nodded.

"I will see you at 6:15"

-----

"Are you two ready to order?" The waiter smiled as he pulled a pencil from behind his ear, looking at Mia.

"I'll have #2 with over hard eggs, and bacon" Mia said, handing the waiter the menu.

"I'll have the #7 scrambled with extra bacon" Yunho smiled at Mia, as the waiter scribbled down their orders.

"I'll get those put in" the waiter nodded as he walked away.

Mia looked at her hands and as she played with her fingers nervously. How could she even start.

"I saw your boss pull you aside as I was leaving. You didn't get in trouble did you?" Yunho asked,  only to get a breathy chuckle from Mia.

"No, fortunately or unfortunately she pulled me off to the side to make sure I was OK. This isn't the first time I've broken down at work." Mia let another breathy chuckle as she played with the ring on her pointer finger. "I hope it's the last though. I feel embarrassed that you saw me like that."

"Don't feel embarrassed, I can be a shoulder to cry on." Yunho then looked at her tentatively. "Do you mind if I ask if you're ok?"

"I'm getting there." She avoided looking at him like the plague.

"Is there anything I can do to help, or make you feel better?" His words, sincere. He was truly concerned, he hadn't seen someone else break down like that in a long time.

"It is sweet of you to ask but I don't know. I don't know how to explain any of it properly, at least not without having another meltdown" her gaze found a drop of water on the table. She put her finger in it, and started to doodle with the water. She would take any distraction from her emotions right now.

"You don't have to explain anything then. I can wait until you are ready." Yunho cocked his head to the side, and bent over to try to look into her eyes.

"What if I'm never ready" she finally looked at him, her pained look met his soft caring eyes.

"I will still wait. I can be a constant in your life. Like an anchor in the storm."

-----

The next Thursday he took the twins to listen to Mia again. This time Mia was dressed in all blue as she told the tale of Pinocchio. Yunho smiled when he realized she made herself the blue fairy. The true narrator of the tale. He watched from the seat he had chosen the week before. He laughed as Pinocchio's nose grew. When the mischief started Yunho could feel the tension of the story. It amazed him to hear her read the stories, she painted the pictures so marvelously with her words, that when Pinocchio was stuck in the water just before he got swallowed by the whale he wanted to hold his breath.  He felt joy as the blue fairy gave Jiminy his good conscience badge, and when Pinocchio became a real boy he had to hold in his cheers. Everytime she told a story it was as if it was the first time he heard it, though he knew all the stories well.

"So how did you guys enjoy Pinocchio?" Mia asked as she set down the book.

"I liked the cricket. Though I don't like bugs" one of the girls said, as she pulled a face. Mia giggled.

"I like him too. So, do you guys think Jiminy was a good conscience?" She asked the group.

"I think he was. Pinocchio just didn't always listen." One of the older boys said.

"But Jiminy was supposed to keep Pinocchio from doing the bad stuff. So didn't I don't think he did very good." One of the girls piped up.

"That is a good point Sumin. He didn't always stop him, But do we always listen to our parents?" Mia asked the little girl, who blushed slightly as she looked down.

"No, I guess we don't."

"But that doesn't mean we have to give up if something bad happens. Sometimes we have to be brave and do things that scare us. Maybe we can do our best to be brave and fix our mistakes like Pinocchio did." Mia said, making eye contact with Yunho. She nodded at him slightly as she returned her attention to the group.

"Then we can become real boys!" One of the smallest in the group said excitedly, which resulted in giggles from around the area.

"Yes, then we can also become real like Pinocchio. Remember life isn't about being perfect, it's about doing your best, and apologizing if you do make mistakes." Mia smiled. "Now remember next week is our last week for this summer so come ready to listen."

"What are you going to read?" Nami asked excitedly.

"It's a surprise! But, I'm going to dress as a princess." She loudly whispered with an exaggerated wink to the group.

"Can I dress up too?" A voice called.

"Of course. We'll give special treats to the princes and princesses who come." Mia's response was greeted with cheers.

"It was a good story today," Yunho said, approaching her.

"I've always enjoyed the little wooden boy." She smiled, as she cleaned the small area up a bit.

"I was wondering if you could maybe give a real boy a chance." Yunho looked at her, his eyes pleading. She looked at her feet then back at him.

"I can try" her voice soft, as she nodded.

"Yes!!" The twins shouted, making the older pair jump slightly. Yunho actually forgot he had brought them for a minute. Mia just started to laugh as the twins started telling Yunho which ice creams they were going to make their dad buy.

"Are you available Saturday?"

-----

"Hi Mia, Are you ready to go?" Yunho leaned on her door frame as Mia answered the door.

"I believe so" she smiled as she grabbed her purse.

"You look nice," he said, admiring her jeans and brown peasant blouse.

"Thank you, you look nice as well. I like your shirt" she noted looking at his dark gray short sleeved button up. Her smile lit up the hallway as she locked her apartment. "So where are we going"

"Well, I wanted to do something a little different" He smiled. "I hope you're ready for an adventure."

As they entered the building Mia did her best not to laugh. She had never been to a place where you could fish indoors before. Let alone one that had a pirate ship that people could fish from. "I would've never expected this." Mia giggled as Yunho took her hand gently.

"Well I haven't stopped thinking about this place since you read Peter Pan. I haven't been here in years, but I thought fishing would be fun. Plus we can pretend to be pirates while we fish." he smiled as he paid.

"I've always thought of myself more as a lost boy than a pirate," she laughed, as they followed the employee to their reserved spots on the ship.

"Pirates have more fun." he wiggled his eyebrows, as they started baiting their hooks.

The next hour was full of small talk, to get to know one another. She found out that Yunho Majored in music, he had a love for writing and composing music. He also loved to dance, he loved the way he could portray his emotions and the words in the song by moving his body. He found out she had been studying environmental science, that she wanted to help be the solution instead of the problem. She said she had to take an unexpected break from school last year, and that she was hoping to start again in the spring. Their conversation lulled to a comfortable silence, until her fishing pole started going nuts. She stood, trying to hold onto the pole. "Oh my gosh! Yunho help!" Mia yelled as she tried to reel in whatever had taken her bait. He quickly stood behind her wrapping his arms around her holding the pole with her. When she finally got the fish out of the water they heard music come over the loudspeaker.

"Someone has caught the largest fish in the tank!" The voice echoed around them. As an employee came over and helped them, weigh and take care of the fish Mia ended up winning the grand prize of the day, which was two gift certificates for more fishing, as well as two free ice creams from the ice cream parlor next door. The prizes from Yunho's small catches was a small plush seal, and some jellies.

"Yunho that was so much fun. Thank you." Mia placed her hand on Yunho's elbow as they stepped outside.

"You're welcome, but the night is still young. If you are okay with it, I'd love to treat you to dinner." He smiled as he gently set his hand on top of hers, as they strolled down the busy street.

"I think that sounds wonderful, what do you have in mind?" A content sigh left Mia's lips as she enjoyed the warmth from the sun.

"Well," he started. "What if I told you it's a surprise"

"Usually I would question more, but I am getting hungry" she said, her stomach growling as if on queue.

"Well lucky for you, and your stomach, it's just a few minutes walk from here." Yunho teased, as he guided her to a pizza place, with outdoor seating on the second floor.

"Yunho!" A few employees cheered as they entered the busy restaurant. "We have your usual table ready for you." The Host smiled as he guided the two of you up the stairs, out onto the patio. "Here you are."

"So, you come here a lot?" Mia asked as she sat down.

"Yeah, a good friend of mine works here as a chef. So I started coming here to support him, but I actually really like their pizza." Yunho sat and sighed contently as he looked across the street. "Plus I really like the view of the park from here, it makes me feel a little closer to nature even though we are in the city."

Mia followed his gaze and could see what he meant. It was beautiful here. She watched as two squirrels fought around a tree. Just taking it all in.  Yunho was lost in his thoughts as he watched Mia. The view was spectacular, the sun was hitting her at a perfect angle making her glow slightly as it pitched towards the horizon. The waiter soon brought them some waters, and informed them that the chef prepared something for them, so they had no need to order. Soon they were talking about how lovely the weather had been this week.

"Yunho! I made something special for tonight!" A man with dark hair, sharp looks, and a mole under his eye came over. Carrying a full tray of food.

"Hi, Wooyoung. This is Mia." Yunho gestured, as Wooyoung set the food on the table.

"So this is the storyteller. You were right she's cute" Wooyoung took her hand and kissed it. Mia could feel her cheeks flush.

"Wooyoung, stop. She's my date, not yours." Yunho rolled his eyes.

"What, I can't appreciate beauty?" He scoffed. "I don't know what you see in this." Wooyoung jabbed his thumb towards Yunho.

"I see potential" Mia smiled looking at Yunho, whose ears were tinged pink. Wooyoung just rolled his eyes.

"Well, I prepared Yunho's favorite pizza, as well as avocado salad, and for dessert I have brownies baking." Wooyoung smiled as he rubbed his hands on his black apron.

"Thank you Wooyoung." Mia responded with a slight bow.

"I expect feedback the brownies are a new recipe I'm trying on you two" 

"That worries me" Yunho joked, as his friend smacked his shoulder. 

----

"Yunho tonight has been just perfect" Mia said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin, to get off any sauce from the slice of pizza she had just finished.

"I've had an enjoyable time as well," Yunho said, before taking another bite.

"I want to tell you something" Mia looked over towards the park, the sun was starting to set, sending golden tones over the trees.

"Anything"

"I'm going to tell you a story, you can't interrupt it ok" she looked towards him, concern painting her face along with the gold of the sunset. Yunho nodded in response.

Mia spun a tale of a young woman who had just moved to a new city. She was full of wonder and hope. She started college and met a man who swept her off her feet. His name was Jay. Everything Jay said was perfect, she felt like she was living in a fairytale. Until she went to surprise him at work one day. Only to find out he had been fired two weeks previously. When she called him, he shrugged it off. Saying he got let go for a stupid reason, and that he hadn't wanted her to worry so he hadn't told her. She asked if he had another job, and he said he did. He had told fanciful tales of what life could be like together, so when her lease was up she asked to move in with him. He seemed tentative until she said she would pay half the rent. Jay agreed, only to have the landlord kick them out two months later, due to overdue rent he never told her about. After they got kicked out, she found another place, and Jay was full of promises again. She told him not until he could be honest and pay bills on time. So he moved in with a friend to help prove he could be better.  After a few months Jay had convinced her he had changed. So she let him move in. When she asked him for his portion of the rent he would say his work hadn't paid him yet, or that he had to help pay for something for his parents. Mia started to see his pattern, she wondered if he really ever had a job, or if he was just using her to have a place to live and food to eat. She was starting to wonder what he had done with the money she had given him previously for rent. She never expected to come home early from work one day to find Jay on their couch, having sex with a complete stranger, money scattered on the coffee table beside them. That's when she had enough. She started yelling, scaring them both, and kicking them both out of her apartment without letting them get dressed. She shoved them out the door and locked it. She then gathered everything of Jay's into garbage bags and set them next to the trash bins outside.

Mia took a deep breath as silence took over the area. She looked at the brownies that had been placed in front of them.

"That is why I tried pushing you away. You came in being charming, and after I started to feel something towards you I panicked. I can't go through another Jay." Mia said quietly as she picked up a brownie placing it on the napkin in front of her and picked at the edges.

"I can promise you that I will never do those things to you." Yunho reached across the table for her hand. "I will be honest, like I promised. Jay was a fool for doing those things to you."

"Can I be honest with you?" Mia asked looking up shyly.

"Of course, I would love for you to always be able to tell me things honestly" his hand felt warm around hers.

"I'm scared. I barely know you, and those I have known have hurt me. I don't trust anymore. I need time with so many things. Honestly I have enjoyed this so much, but I have so many problems. I don't want you wasting your time with me. I'm broken beyond repair" tears threatened to fall with her every breath.

"What are you saying?" Yunho inquired.

"I'm saying you deserve someone who you don't have to wait on. Someone who can love you like you deserve. Someone who you don't have to worry about. Someone who isn't me. You deserve someone better." Her voice shook as she stood up.

"Mia, I like you-" he followed her actions.

"I know, but you shouldn't. You need to find someone who isn't broken." She said as he stepped closer to her, Yunho's arms wrapped around her as they stood next to their table. He remained silent for a moment.

"Can I tell you a story?" He asked. She nodded as she rested her head on his chest. "Once upon a time I fell in love with a girl I thought I would marry. Yuni had all the things I thought I was looking for. She moved in with me, I believed it was going well. The night I was going to propose I came home to find her standing with luggage in hand, all of her things packed. She told me she couldn't handle me anymore. She hated the life she was living, she had been cheating on me with a childhood friend. She was sick of the lies. Sick of the constant music. She told me that I was nothing.  She left me heartbroken in the middle of my apartment, the ring in my pocket seemed to weigh me down. She had destroyed most of my friendships. I sat in my apartment that night realizing that now I had nothing beside my brother and his kids. I was lucky enough to have some forgiving friends who welcomed me back, after I explained how caught up in her I had been.  So I am just as broken as you. I'm still not sure how to love again without getting hurt. But with you I feel like giving it a shot. Maybe we can help each other realize we don't have to be whole to be loved." He was holding her as close as he could. His shirt was wrinking from her tears, but he couldn't care less. He was holding her, he wanted to be her protector. Her arms were locked around his waist, she wouldn't be letting go anytime soon. They were both broken, trying to hold themselves together. Yet in that moment they each felt small pieces of themselves start mending. They held each other as the night grew darker.

"So love birds, did you enjoy the brownies?" They heard Wooyoung say as he stepped outside. They quickly separated, and looked at the table where the brownies had yet to be touched, her eyes grew wide, as Yunho smirked.

"We only ate what we liked," Yunho laughed as Wooyoung's face grew angry. Which made Yunho laugh harder.

"Sorry we haven't tried them yet. We got a little- preoccupied" Mia said as she reached over and picked up her brownie. She took a bite and groaned at the delectable taste. "Holy crap these are delicious!"

Yunho picked up a brownie himself. "Wooyoung this is delicious. Rich, but not over the top, I also like the chunks of chocolate."

"Only one thing would make it better," Mia said, taking another bite.

"What's that?" the chef asked.

"Ice Cream. Make it ala mode" she said covering her mouth as she spoke.

Wooyoung nodded a small smirk on his lips. "I knew I would like you. Yunho this one is a keeper." Wooyoung commented as he walked back into the restaurant.

"Seriously though, can we take the rest of these brownies to go? They are delicious" Mia said, turning to Yunho.

"Of course, but they are coming home with me!" Yunho teased.

"I guess that means I'll be coming over for brownies" Mia smirked as she shrugged.

"I'd like that." Yunho said, stepping forward and enveloping her in his arms once more.

Thursday came quickly, and Yunho picked up Kai and Nami. Kai was dressed in his prince costume from the previous Halloween. It was a bit short but the white outfit with the red sash and cummerbund made him look very sharp. Nami was wearing a perfectly blue Cinderella style dress with her plastic glass slippers of course.

"You dressed up too!!" Nami squealed as she ran into Yunho's arms.

"Of course. There need to be more princes and knights in this world" 

"I wish mine looked as cool as yours!" Kai grumbled, as he compared his white outfit, to Yunho's black one. Yunho's slacks paired great with the black straight neck jacket. Gold filigree adorned the shoulders and cuffs, complete with gold trim. Yunho did feel princely, aside from his crown.

"Hey yours looks great little man! I wish mine was red, plus you have a real crown. Mine is paper." Yunho gestured to the paper crown from a fast food place. "Now your majesties, your carriage awaits."

When they got to the bookstore they discovered a cardboard castle leaning against the bookshelves in the story area, and a cardboard throne placed over a chair instead of the beanbag. Yunho smiled as he saw the children all dressed up as princes and princesses. He sat in a hidden corner of the shop, wanting to surprise Mia. Mia entered wearing a full Renaissance dress, the cream bodice was paired nicely with the forest green kirtle which was corseted with green ribbon. The long sleeves flowed behind her with embellishments around the elbows on the sleeve. A small circlet crown of silver leaves sat across the top of her forehead. Yunho felt she looked like she stepped out of one of the many fantasy novels surrounding him. She truly looked like a princess. "Hello" she smiled as she sat upon her small throne. "It is like the royalty from around the world has joined me today, you all look fantastic." She looked overjoyed, as she smiled at each child around her.

"What princess are you?" One of the girls dressed as Snow white asked.

"I am my own princess today. Because I want to read you guys a book my mom used to read to me." She lifted the small book. "The Princess and the Pea." She started reading the tale of a prince who couldn't find a suitable princess. He would find them lacking in princess ways. Until one night a terrible storm came through the land, and a young woman claiming to be a princess sought refuge. The queen was leery of the newcomer and set a pea under many mattresses. The queen did this because surely a princess could tell. When the girl awoke the next day she claimed pain from something in the bed, that made her not sleep well. When the prince saw she noticed such a small thing he decided to marry her. As Mia finished the short story she smiled. "Can someone tell me why I wanted to read that story today?"

"Because you found your prince!" Nami said excitedly.

"Well, I might've." Mia winked as she felt her cheeks flush. "I wanted to read that to you guys, because I feel you can all be princes and princesses."

"But why? Do you want us to sleep on peas?" A small prince asked.

"No. I don't want you to sleep on peas" she laughed. "I feel you can all notice the small things. To me being a true prince or princess is noticing something small, and being willing to change it. You can all do something, it doesn't have to be big. A small change can make a big difference." Her eyes sparkled as she spoke. Yunho could see her passion in her eyes.

"How can I do something though. I'm not big" a girl in a beautiful green gown said.

"A pea isn't very big, but it changed a lot of life's. Maybe start doing something good, like picking up trash when you go for walks. Being kind to a sibling, or even just giving a hug to a parent. Small things make big changes. Like a ripple in a pool. Remember that as the school year starts. Be kind, have courage, and make a difference" Mia's small speech seemed to spark something within the kids. They seemed excited. "OK princes and princesses, we've got a cupcake for each of you. So make sure to grab one before you leave. They are up at the front counter. "

That is when Yunho it was time to surprise Mia. She was watching the kids converse as she stood next to her throne. "Princess, from an admirer" Yunho lifted a small bouquet of cream colored tulips, as she turned to look at him. Her eyes grew big, as she looked him over.

"Yunho, you dressed up!" Mia's eyes shone as she took the flowers with a courtesy. "You make a lovely prince"

"Thank you. So, I heard Nami ask if you found your prince." He smirked, as he pushed his hair back from his forehead. Knocking his paper crown to the ground. "She did." Mia smiled as she set the tulips on the chair. "Well have you found him" he asked as he softly wrapped his arms around her, bringing her close.

"I think I have. Though his crown might need an upgrade." She chuckled as she looked toward the ground. "I think that can be arranged." Yunho lifted her head to look into her eyes.

"I hope so" she lifted her arms to his shoulders, pulling him down slightly. His eyes closed as her lips met his.

[pollylynn]

Title: The Glass Cell WC: 1600

“You know reality isn’t fiction, right?”  — Dr. Clark Murray, A Death in the Family (1 x 10)

She wears a dress of her mom’s to prom, he decides. He imagines it in detail—cut-work lace over taffeta in bright emerald green, a satin empire waist band a shade darker, a full A-line skirt. He envisions her with mismatched quasi-punky hair hanging down to half hide her dramatic eye-makeup. She stands out, of course. In a sea of off-the-shoulder, halter neck, heavy fabrics in primary colors—crayon red, royal blue, black, black, white, white, red again, with an ill-advised plunge neckline. She stands out. 

She likes her date, though she doesn’t exactly let him know that. He imagines that, too. She doesn’t exactly let anyone know that she likes this boy on the verge of being a man, because she’s not sure that she’s supposed to. He’s quiet and sensitive. Not a dork—not outright unpopular, but a dark horse candidate for asking her in the first place, and her unexpected, unhesitating yes had sent shockwaves through the eleventh grade. 

She is awkward on the dance floor. She is a vision in her mother’s dress, but there is architecture to it. There is a hidden foundation that requires time travel of her ribs, her spine, her hips, and her date—the boy on the verge of being a man—has no idea where to put his hands during the slow songs. She has no idea where to put hers, so she locks her fingers behind his neck. She breathes Let’s get out of here well before Boyz II Men get to the spoken-word part, and they do. 

They race across the ballroom with their fingers linked, laughing like fools. They leave her friends, his friends, the tiny intersection of their friends to gawp as they bang through the double doors.They roam the streets around the hotel in a spiral pattern, talking and talking. 

She shivers and pulls the cream-colored silk-and-seed-pearl wrap close around her. With well-intentioned gallantry, he tries to drop his tuxedo jacket over her shoulders. He misses, and they both watch in horror as the long tails drag through something nameless and awful before he can catch it. 

The hem of her dress is dirty and her mom’s dyed-to-match pumps with their rhinestone butterfly clips will never be the same. But they share french fries at a nameless diner. They share a tentative kiss in the back of a cab as the boy escorts her home. They share a burning, frenzied, back-against-the-glass follow-up in the doorway of her apartment as the sun comes up. 

She misses curfew by a lot. Her mom brings her coffee and toast in bed long after morning has tipped over into afternoon. She asks a million impertinent questions about the boy she likes, about the evening, about her plans to save up for what should be an astonishing dry cleaning bill. 

This is how it happens. This is what he decides. 

**********************

She sprains her ankle on move-in day. He knows. He sees clearly how the events unfold. 

She has a plan. She has keys in hand by 8:01 am. She has a spot for the van with her things, hardly a block away, and her second-hand office chair can serve as a makeshift dolly. She has almost nothing. It’ll be two dozen quick trips, she figures, but the apartment is full of junk. 

Oh yeah, the creepy building manager tells her, last guy skipped out. 

The junk is her problem, apparently. Her problem. She plumps down on some kind of ottoman and immediately regrets it as an oily smell rises up. It’s not just the ottoman, though. The whole place reeks of food and animal fat. She registers the distant clatter of dishes, of silverware, and the hiss of a hot grill rising up through the floor. 

She props her elbows on her knees and her chin on her fists. She wastes ten precious minutes of the three hours before she has to have the van back contemplating the space that is smaller, dingier, filthier than the unit she saw when she signed the lease. 

She hauls herself up and lugs the ottoman and a broken laundry basket full of dirty t-shirts with her down to the dumpster. She bumps milk crates full of electronics odds and ends down the stairs. She carries awkward lamps like jousting lances. 

It’s a box of kitchen things that does her in. It’s a mile wide and heavy. She knows she should unpack and repack it. She should make two trips, three, four, but she’s tired of this. She misses a step. She goes down to the landing. She can feel the rush of heat into the ankle she has wrenched badly. 

There’s a neighbor—a pair of neighbors—who hear the commotion. They rescue her, Cleo and Pete, who are just a little older than she is. They extricate her from underneath the box. They help her into their apartment and give her an ice pack. They give her a stiff drink and an ace bandage. 

They share stories about the guy who skipped out in the middle of the night—his questionable activities and his even more questionable taste in music. They order pizza and won’t take her money when she offers. The three of them agree that the building manager almost certainly collects clown paintings by serial killers. 

They insist that she spend the night on their couch. She protests. She tries to put weight on her ankle, then gives in. She spends her first night not in her first apartment staring at a ceiling that belongs to strangers with tears leaking from the corners of her eyes because her fucking ankle hurts. Because she doesn’t have the money to pay for another day of the damned van. Because her mother is dead and she is alone in the world. 

He knows all this. He sees it clearly. 

************************

He cannot picture the shadows on her skin in that basement room. He sees the backs of his own hands criss-crossed infinitely with weak, unflattering light coming in through the cage. But he cannot see hers. Would her fingernails be as neat and no-fuss as they are today, or would they have been ragged with the pain of all the long years before she made it that far? 

Would she—and the possibility is like a lattice work of burning hot ice spreading through him from the inside—would she have gotten the chain for her mother’s ring when she first put on the uniform? Was there a time in that dingy apartment—in her college days with her dad drowning and her left wrist as yet bare—was there a time when when she would have slipped it on her finger each morning instead of ducking her head to let the delicate links of a think gold chain slither down over her collar bones?

He doesn’t know, any more than he knows if she would have risked the rickety table with its hard, back-breaking chair. He cannot say whether she would have waited for the most desolate hour each possible night, then set to work right where he did, or if she would have, instead, arranged herself on the cracked tile floor, knees drawn up and hunched over the tight beam of a penlight. 

He looks for signs of her in the creases and ragged edges, the rusty indentation of an ancient paperclip removed and replaced, the corner of a thin stack torn away along with a now-missing staple in a moment of frustration. He scours the faded, triple-carbon paperwork and holds the glossy, terrible photos at an oblique angle to the light from his desk lamp, the light from his computer screen. In the riot of smudged, overlapping fingerprints he wonders which might be hers. 

It’s no use, this afterthought of a search. She is nowhere. There is no detail remembered from his own few hours spent in that basement room, no physical trace of her presence in the file itself that sparks the rush of absolute clarity with which he envisions her at the junior prom, her on move-in day at that first three-story walk-up that smelled of chicken wings. 

She is nowhere, because he has never once bothered to imagine her—not once. He relives the abrupt sting of her rapped out pair of questions—You don’t think I’ve haven’t been down there? You don’t think I haven’t memorized every line in that file? He sits, staring at the file now with tide of shame advancing, receding, advancing. 

He didn’t think. In all these weeks, he has not once thought about the space between the wound delivered and the scars she bears. He has not once thought about the dreams she must have cast off, what it must have cost her to forge a path to that basement room. He has not once considered what those long years must have been like. He has never stopped to ask himself how the woman she is now—the relentless, fiercely intelligent, extraordinary woman he has come to know—could ever have come to accept her mother’s death as a random, wayward event.

He thinks now. He asks himself now. He tries, now, to picture the shadows on her skin, the tense outline of her body and the tight beam of a penlight. He tries to imagine that lonely work, but he can’t. 

She is gone from him. She is nowhere.  A/N: This is an especially weird not!thing. I had to decide that Castle has the actual Johanna Beckett file that he’s taken, not just copies. That doesn’t make much sense, but the autopsy photos look to be originals, complete with labels and handling wear. Fixation on those details is just a distraction from how not a thing this is. 

images via homeofthenutty

[bl4cklabyrinth]

ROCKIN’ON JAPAN December 2018 Interview Translation: Hiro talks about S･S･S

Disclaimer: Please do not retranslate my work into other languages, as my translation may not be accurate. I am no Japanese or English native.

The biggest thank you to Anna for helping me get the magazine clippings!

Photo from here.

The band has overcome its limits, and has given life to the masterpiece “S･S･S”

A solo interview with Hiro, where he shares his thoughts on finally getting to where he is now!

The rock band MY FIRST STORY has finally reached its full potential and came out with a simply amazing album.

Hiro has been making declarations for quite some time now – his thoughts towards his family, the meaning of his life, and the meaning behind his songs. At times they’ve been fired as a clear declaration of war and at other times as words of encouragement, but the truth is, until their last album “ANTITHESE”, those declarations naturally became a melody, a lyric, a song, against which MFS has always struggled alone. 

However, this album is different. This album is solely dedicated to music. It’s just rock. It’s purely loud and piercingly melodious. 

High quality, open, and very poppy music is being sought after. This is, so to speak, practically the first album they’ve made in which Hiro’s talent as a musician bloomed upward beautifully. It’s been 7 years since their debut, and it’s incredible how they were able to make it this far to get a chance at performing for 2 days at Yokohama Arena. 

MFS and Hiro’s journey is finally approaching its quintessence from hereon. I talked at length with Hiro, who had made a breakthrough.

- How’s the band doing?

Hiro: It’s been pretty good. For better or for worse, we haven’t been aggressive since Budokan. I think we’ve been able to maintain our pace without spiralling out of control. 

- Would it be safe to assume that that vibe was reflected in this album?

Hiro: Actually, I think this is the album that came out the best. On the flipside, it felt like everyone was just completely following my lead for our last album “ANTITHESE” (laughs). While continuing the course of the previous album, it was through our egos then and our desire to “take it easy”, “ do things freely”, and “try out all sorts of things” that this album came about.

- “ANTITHESE” was made in such a way that it just drilled you down, drove you into a corner, and squeezed you dry. Was the process completely different this time?

Hiro: About 3 or 4 songs on this album have been around since we made “ANTITHESE”. The songs “M.A.D” and “REMEMBER” are two of those, and more came about when I discussed how I wanted to make more songs like them with the members. “ANTITHESE” came together nicely, and I thought it would be nice if we could develop it further with these two songs.

- So there was no talk of putting those two songs on “ANTITHESE”, huh.

Hiro: In my mind, those 14 songs are the full maximum, no more or less than that. I didn’t want to put anything extra. But I thought, “The songs are cool, I wanna release them. Maybe in the next album.”

- I see. Did you already have some sort of vision as to what you wanted the album to be like from that stage?

Hiro: I did. “ANTITHESE” is like a boy while this one’s like a young man, as if it got a bit more mature. There are a lot of minor details that went into it like chord progressions, riffs, melodies, and rhythms, but we made it wanting to convey a sense of indirectness or something like, “Ah, this is pretty cool” when listened to.

- That sounds great. It’s like an upgraded version of the band, like “MY FIRST STORY 2.0”.

Hiro: That’s right (laughs).

- I suppose you could make another album like “ANTITHESE”, but to return to that point in your life...?

Hiro: That’s pretty tough (laughs). Once you’ve spit it all out once, the things you want to say the second time around will definitely be different. I can’t make another album like that.

- I believe you struggled in order to put out the album “ANTITHESE”, but after doing so, did you feel something like, “I’ve wrung out everything I wanted to say, what do I do now?”

Hiro: I did, I did. Personality-wise, I can’t keep writing lyrics that only convey “hope”. There are a lot of other artists who can do just that and make it resonate with everyone, so when we realized that that wasn’t what we should be doing, we thought we had to write ourselves realistically the way we are now. It’s easier to get a bird’s eye view of the song’s world rather than the lyrics’, so I would say, “We made a song like this last time, let’s try to make it more stylish by adding a tension chord,” or have an idea in my head like, “We did this last time, maybe we should do this next time”. I honestly thought it’d be boring if we only put out songs like “ALONE” or “Fukagyaku”, and the songs themselves aren’t gonna die out anyway, so “ACCIDENT” was born. Sometimes it’s harder to figure out how to flesh things out from there (laughs). 

- In terms of lyrics, what kind of changes have taken place since the end of “ANTITHESE” up to this point in time?

Hiro: Probably up until around “ALONE” and “ANTITHESE”, the lyrics had only been about me. But as you would expect, there isn’t much more to say (laughs). I’m not all hate. The lyrics I envision or write are of my ideal person. So it doesn’t mean that I live my life that way every day – of course I’ve betrayed myself countless times, and I’ve lied to myself as well, but you can’t see that part of me from the outside. Those who receive it as a song lyric always think that that’s all there is to it. Humans aren’t that strong – there are days when your mind is on the edge, and there are days when you feel like you’re not your usual self. Rather, I think it’s during times like that when people can relate to the lyrics. When I started writing with that in mind, I was surprised at how much I could write. I was so adamant about needing to write in that tone of voice, but I was able to remove that part of me after doing Budokan which made things a lot easier.

- The more you listen to it, the more you realize that the lyrics are very personal. You also feel a sense of living that you’ve never felt before.

Hiro: Yes. It’s important to show different sides of myself, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write more in the future. I also look forward to what kinds of reactions I’ll get when I put out such things. It’s like, I didn’t cook anything super elaborate, I just tried making something out of what I had in the fridge. But I’ve been doing this for 7 years now, so I think I can make a pretty decent meal with what’s stocked in the refrigerator (laughs). You can do a lot of things with the nuance “as long as the dish is good”. I think that’s how the album came to be, in a good way.

- I think that’s a great change. For the longest time you’ve been setting up some sort of hurdle that goes, “How many people truly understand what I’m feeling here?” but that was taken away and now it’s just like, “If you like music, give it a listen”.

Hiro: That’s true. In a sense, I’ve finished what I wanted to do, so I thought I’d take a more casual approach to MY FIRST STORY. I’m now able to challenge all sorts of things I wasn’t able to do in the past. Conversely, I think the 5 years after Budokan will be even more difficult.

- In the days leading up to Budokan, MFS as well as Hiro were looking for a way to end things, or even a way of life in which things would personally end in the most beautiful way possible.

Hiro: Right. It’s still the same now, it’s never ending, but I definitely don’t want to continue doing this on an emotional level. So far, we’ve made it clear that we’re aiming for Tokyo Dome. I think it’d be tough for the people watching over us to support us if they didn’t know what we want to do, what we’re trying to achieve or what our goal is. We can’t keep running in the dark with no goal in sight, but we have to keep running regardless. By putting what lies ahead of me into words, I feel like it solidifies the path I should be taking. When we started the band, our goal was Budokan, but after finishing that, it became Tokyo Dome. This time, I wonder what will happen next after Tokyo Dome is over. Only then will we know what the future holds, but right now, I think Tokyo Dome will be the end of the road for MFS 2.0.

- Then after that, you might find something new again, or you might think, “It’s over”. You never really know, huh.

Hiro: Yeah. It’s like a plot with a clear introduction, development, twist, and conclusion. We’re called MY FIRST STORY after all, so if we don’t convince ourselves that we’re in a story with a beginning and end, we won’t be able to continue running ahead. I’m the type of person who can’t pull through unless I set a goal to run for 1 hour or 10 km. Because we decide on a location to aim towards, in a sense, we become able to keep moving forward. 

- I see. That’s a good mode to be in.

Hiro: That’s right. It would be tough if I kept the same pace as I did moving towards Budokan (laughs). And even if I did go at the same pace, I don’t know if I’d be able to make it. If I thought about it all the way through until we got there, everyone else would be thinking about it too, so I thought it’d be better to stop fussing over it for a while. I’ve thought about it enough. So for now, at our own pace, we’re focusing on working with what we can sensibly come up with, what would be good for us to do, and what we’re capable of doing now. I believe it’s for the best.

- I really admire how Hiro, who was searching for his final destination, is now singing about wanting to continue on with MY FIRST STORY.

Hiro: Yeah. I as well as the members are excited for what lies ahead, not having to be bound to a certain rock band image or genre. Of course, the members and I definitely have our pride and things we want to maintain, but none of us have a “must do this” mentality. Because of this, I think there’ll be more opportunities to try things out in the future. With the addition of Kid’z, we’ve moved past Budokan, and I’m sure there’ll be even more in store from now on. The members have been getting along really well lately. We’ve been hanging out a lot, and when I taught them how to play poker, they all got hooked and played together until morning (laughs). 

- For real? (laughs)

Hiro: When you spend time together outside band activities, your perceived values become the same, and the things that come out of that will be more different than how they’ve always been in the past. I think the ideas we’ve been putting out and reconciling with each other up to now are becoming more and more whole. If you don’t experience or feel the same things on a regular basis, you won’t be able to create much. I think we blend together really well right now, so I’m looking forward to the future.

- The first thing I noticed this time was your voice. The way you sang and the variations in your singing voice were really well done. It’s like, “There’s this drawer, and this drawer, and if you’d like, there’s this ceiling”. It kind of felt like that way of singing was finally unleashed.

Hiro: Really? Thank you. For me, it didn’t feel that way this time at all, I felt it more so when I made “ANTITHESE”. But just like the “even if you overthink things, there’s nothing much you can do” thing I mentioned earlier, if you think too much about it and then try to sing, that’s when you surprisingly become unable to sing. So now, instead of trying to sing without letting the pressure get to my head, I focus more on casually internalizing what I would think if I were the listener. Mainly thinking, “If I add a little touch here, would it sound weird,” or “I wonder if it isn’t bad”, I would’ve sung it rather quickly so I wouldn’t think too much about it.

- So it would be like you were just singing along to the music?

Hiro: Yeah. As if that’s just the way I wanted it to be.

- I’m sure there were a lot of variations in terms of music, so inevitably I’d assume there were variations in the songs as well.

Hiro: Ahh, I really wanted to make an album that wasn’t straightforward. Of course there are straightforward songs as well, but I wanted to throw in a few curve balls there too. Curves, sliders, forks, knuckles, all sorts of things were thrown together to make it work, and specifically having that in mind made things easy to understand when we were putting the songs in. It’s like, “No matter how you look at it, it’s this kind of song. Well then, let’s sing it that way”. It was easy to grasp for me as a listener and as a singer.

- If you listen to this album objectively, what do you think about your vocals?

Hiro: I’d tell myself, “You had a lot in mind when you were recording, huh.” However, I can definitely sing without an issue this time around, so I feel totally fine listening to myself now. I’m really jealous of people who can shake it off and say, “This is who I am”, because I can’t. But I was thinking, if I could push myself hard enough to be able to sing like that one day, I’d feel much better, or perhaps something new will be born within me from there. This album allowed me to experience that. Rather than having me in the song, it’s something I created, something I can present as a part of myself. This album shows the breadth of my own evolution and what lies ahead. It goes the same way for MFS as a whole, too. That’s why I’m really glad we tried making an album like this.

- You’d want to say, “It’s a masterpiece!” but I feel like it’s more so “There’s gonna be more masterpieces from now on”.

Hiro: That’s right. It’s like the meat in a course meal. And then it’s gonna be like, “We’re serving pasta after this,” “Eh, seriously!?” (laughs)

- Even the band members are playing very freely, huh.

Hiro: Yes. This time, I wasn’t present for the members’ recording sessions at all. They’d call me and ask, “What do we do here?” and I’d answer, “Eh? Anything goes” (laughs). Of course I knew the dates, but I wouldn’t go even if I was free (laughs). There’s nothing for me to do there even if I went, and we all have our own things we want to pursue and things we want to do with the songs. I didn’t think it was right for me to say how things should be done. Even my parts aren’t perfect, and I wouldn’t know what to say to the member in question if I wasn’t sure whether the part they worked on was done correctly or not, and I feel like telling them what to do would take out all the fun. Realizing that it’s better for me to listen objectively to a piece of work created through everyone’s efforts was a huge help. On top of that, I’m able to do the things I want to do – it’s already an ideal situation (laughs). I don’t care what they do, as long as they don’t commit a crime (laughs).

- Amazing. I never thought the day would come that I’d hear those words from you (laughs).

Hiro: Hahahaha, it’s true. We didn’t start out as friends. We just considered each other as fellow members when we started the band, always keeping one another in check with a great deal of care and a little bit of stress. However, even if Budokan was for me and for everyone listening, it was the members who understood me the best. From that point on, we didn’t really mind each other’s businesses anymore, and it became like, “Why don’t we just say what we want to say to each other, we’ve come this far after all?” They know their parts, and they know themselves better than anyone else, so there isn’t a whole lot to complain about anymore. Even if one of us would make a mistake at a show, we wouldn’t say, “Play it right” or anything like that anymore. They know what they’re doing, and they know that there’s nothing else to respond to such a comment other than “I’m sorry”. If doing so would immediately change things then go for it, but if they continue on without changing then just tell them off. They’re not the kind of dudes who don’t do anything, and on the contrary, it is me who gets his ass kicked more often than not, so I don’t really have anything to say to that. That’s about as good as it’s gonna get.

- That’s great. You’ve finally come this far, huh.

Hiro: Yeah. I’ve been feeling like I’ve gone rather far lately (laughs).

- Is it because you made this album?

Hiro: I think it’s more because we were able to appreciate each other more, or realize, “It’s okay to do this now”. As for the album, it was a piece of work that made me feel like I could see the future in more ways than one.

- Up until now, the band’s primary identity had been what Hiro squeezes out and screams about. In that case, it’s not so much about how you want people to hear you play, but more so about how you can bring your cries and messages forward. 

Hiro: That’s a pretty hard task for the other members to do. But all of that is over. If that had been the case until now, I would have never said, “The members can do whatever they want” and this album would have never been released. Back then, I’d go, “Let’s do it like this here,” “The last chorus definitely goes after the bridge,” but it hasn’t been like that these days. Now we’d go ahead and say, “This is good,” “Interesting, interesting”. It’s like the kids who always had to ask permission from their mom have disappeared. 

- “Young man” is a great metaphor in that sense as well (laughs).

Hiro: Mhm. It’s just like disciplining a child – just because you did it before doesn’t mean you’ll grow up that way, and saying too much isn’t a good thing either. We are all different people after all, and whether we’re lovers or family, we can’t understand each other 100% of the time, so we have to accept and trust each other more. I don’t really like it when people grow apart because of work. I want to make a team like the one in “Wild Speed”. We all get along really well, getting together in a garden to have a barbecue and stuff like that. It’s partly because we have such a good sense of team spirit that we’re able to do things indie. I wouldn’t be able to continue on unless I had a team with the same ambitions and the same passion to move forward. Seeing a lot of adults being considerate of me makes me feel better about myself (laughs). The members are the ones who understand “Let’s take it easy” the most. This may seem natural, but it’s super hard to do. And now that I’m able to do so, it feels great.

- You’ve truly made an incredible rock album. And it’s good that your methods can effectively be used to make more in the future.

Hiro: In fact, it’s been going so smoothly that it has become the focal point of our work process, so I don’t think it was difficult for anyone. Scheduling was pretty tough though. In August, I was singing at shows and recordings for 15 days in a row or something like that. Some of the songs didn’t have melodies or lyrics yet, and I was thinking, “Seriously, what are we gonna do!” but we had the same situation when we were making “ANTITHESE”, so I was like, “If you have the time to say ‘Oh no’ or ‘We’ll never finish’, then use that time to continue working instead” (laughs). Because of this, I’ve learned to believe in myself. The members were on a super tight schedule as well, but they would respond to requests from me like, “I want to change the first verse” or “Sorry, take it down a half-step”, so I was confident that everything was going to be okay. We may be in a hurry, but I no longer get worried or anxious.

- There were a lot of songs that used the words “white” and “black” this time. However, rather than black and white symbolizing “win or lose”, it was more of “There’s a part of me that’s pure white, and a part of me that’s pitch black”, providing a perspective that allows us to see both sides of you in the same light.

Hiro: That’s true. “ANTITHESE” was always about me, but that was completely overturned this time, now having different main characters for each song. Then, I wrote the lyrics, sang the songs, so there are many different stories of me in this album. Sometimes they’re of a similar hue, but still slightly different in shade. Of course, I didn’t write about colors that I didn’t have at all, so I was able to recreate the colors in my mind, or rather, sublimate them in the form of music. 

- It’s like, “Sometimes it’s white, sometimes it’s black. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s just the way things are, right?”

Hiro: Yep. With this one album, we’re no longer limited to, “This is what I say in this song, so I have to keep saying this”. It’s like, “That isn’t always the case, you know. I’m only human” (laughs). Like, “Sometimes I feel that way, sometimes I don’t”. It doesn’t matter if they’re on the same album. I was able to reach that point in my life, so now I have a wide range to work with.

- That’s why Hiro’s melody-making skills are being opened up to the fullest.

Hiro: This time, I mostly worked upwards from the chorus. After breaking apart the original chorus, I’d go, “This one’s catchier”. I didn’t even stick to the general concept of the melody – I’d try to make one, but if I wasn’t 100% sold on it, I’d try to make 10 more, and then I’d go with what everyone said was good. The premise behind a melody is that it’s something you can hum along to when you suddenly hear it, so I didn’t want to change my approach of starting songs from there. Nowadays, people don’t say, “This song is good”. They say, “These lyrics are good”. Because of this, I want to create a catchy melody that’s easy to remember, one with a rebellious spirit, and at the moment, I think it’d be good if it were in Japanese. That being said, I want everyone to be able to say, “This melody is good”. 

- I think it’s a really well-made album. I thought that the Hiro who’s been shouting out what’s inside his heart has made it this far (laughs).

Hiro: On the contrary, it’s exactly how I imagined it to be from the moment we started the band up to this point in time. Our pace and work are progressing as well with a margin of error of about 0.5 mm. Thing is, we’re gonna start with a completely clean slate from here on out, so we’re in a bit of a hurry (laughs). We’re kind of in a standstill right now, but if you’re asking me how I feel about the members or the music, I’d say, “Well, it’ll be okay”. From this point forward, I think we’re just gonna have to put ourselves out there. To be honest, we aren’t really sure ourselves either (laughs), but from now on, it’s not gonna be a story that was created – it’s gonna be a story that we create while walking forward.

[beeyeah]

Jikook: Appeal to Logic

Title: Appeal to Logic

Summary: /Jikook/ Two-shot/ Canon/ Where Jimin tries to convince Yoongi why he was positive Jungkook likes him and Yoongi asks him, “What would you do with that information?”

Indeed, Jimin wonders what the point was to all this.

Notes: I wanted to post on Valentine’s but I guess my calendar is ten days late hhhhh Anyway, I lurk a lot in Jikook tags (like I’m here everyday) and I’ve read long discourses regarding the legitimacy of their relationship. I thought it’d be interesting if one of them begins to share his proofs too and joins the hot pot of convo his own way. TLDR; enter this fic lol I promise it won’t be 20 chapters this time. 

Chapter 1 under cut or you can read at Ao3

Chapter 1: Points Were Made

It was an on and off thing.

Like a passion project that you know you just would figure how to complete someday but needed time because life would get in the way.

Today though marked the moment Park Jimin was ready to lay out his cards and tell someone that definitely… maybe… with a little more sprinkle of confidence that --

“Hyung, I think Jungkook likes me.”

There was silence in Min Yoongi’s room when the statement was pronounced. It made Jimin squirm on his seat as he tried to understand the non-committal stare directed at him, right behind the bond paper that held Jimin’s scribbled notes for lyrics.

Ah, that was right.

His initial purpose was to hear Yoongi’s feedback on a thing he'd been working on. Somewhere along the way, his thoughts drifted to another which inevitably led to his bold declaration of Jungkook’s far from familial, alleged infatuation for him.

Yoongi reached out to his left where his mug of coffee sat.

“I don't know what you want me to say. Of course, Jungkook likes you.”

Jimin frowned, wrapping his head around how he should explain himself. “No, hyung. I mean Jungkook likes me.”

Yoongi’s mouth was slightly gaped and his eyes were blank. His hyung looked lost while he attempted to blink his confusion away.

Well, his observations go way way back, two years worth of evidence. Right in the hallway of their home, an evening in October.

“Jungkook treats me differently,” he told Yoongi, legs crossed and under him as he put up a finger and discussed his first point.

It wasn't as if it was only him who questioned it. Jungkook only gave Jimin a birthday present in the span of the past years, no one else and that got to mean something.

They were all tired from shoot that most of them were tempted not to shower. Hoseok was pushing him around and urging him to a quick bath before lying on his bed because that was what Hoseok was. He liked things clean and perfect and that same rule applied for his roommate. But then Jeon Jungkook, his beloved dongsaeng, appeared out of nowhere and blocked him from his merry way to the bathroom. A little awkwardly might he add because he stood there, hand fiddling with his fringes and eyes searching the floor in trepidation. At that point, both Jimin and Hoseok unlatched themselves from each other's grip to attend to the youngest who seemed to need some attention.

To his surprise, and perhaps his hyung’s too, Jungkook held out his hand and shoved Jimin a paper bag. Hoseok curiously peeked from his shoulder as Jimin tried to open it while muttering, “What's this?”

Jungkook answered with a shrug and he waited. He waited there and watched Jimin opened his present.

It wasn't even anything grand. In this stage of their career, they were just beginning to gain traction from their first win and as Namjoon had put it, at breakeven, to finally enjoy the fruits of their hard labor. Knowing how their earnings were distributed based on performance and royalty fees, Jimin was pretty sure Jungkook received the same profit he did. To be honest, it wasn't exactly much. The only difference was that Jimin was prone to lavish it on people while Jungkook would save it for practical and grander things.

The practical, grander things in Jungkook’s head was Jimin. Bought him a sweatshirt which costed around 44,000 krw. Jimin researched the price because he was curious how much the maknae was willing to spend on him.

No greeting cards. Not a high end brand. Just plain white paper bag from the department store where he bought his first gift for a Bangtan member.

Needless to say, Jimin was ecstatic and made sure to rub it on everyone's face.

“Jimin-ah,” Yoongi tried to interrupt him but he shushed the older with an afterthought.

“It wasn't the gift that's strange. Jungkook's face was really weird when I thanked him.”

Jimin knew Jungkook well enough to know when he was happy. Whatever gratefulness he saw on Jimin’s face translated on how satisfied Jungkook was on what he did. There was a sense of pride and innocent glee in Jungkook’s eyes similar to the way they would twinkle when he was offered cheesecake or lamb skewers. It was odd how he was comparing himself to food but Yoongi would probably understand the reference. He would bring Jungkook to lamb skewers so often that the maknae even vowed to stay with him forever if he would agree to become business partners.

That was beside the point.

Back then, Jimin thought he was onto something but the idea didn't linger because it was indeed a special occasion. Jungkook was a good dongsaeng and treated his hyung well even outside their birthdays so, on a second thought, it wasn't really much of an evidence.

The hand that held Jimin’s lyrics now dangled limply over the office chair’s armrest.

“Jimin-ah, just get to the point.”

Jimin pursed his lips. As far as he was concerned, he was straightforward from the get-go. He thought Jungkook likes him and he stated the fact right on, now presenting his evidence.

“Number two,” he said after lifting another finger. Perhaps Yoongi wanted him to speed things up and he should. He certainly didn't have all day with their comeback looming around the corner. “Jungkook thinks I'm beautiful.”

Yoongi’s confusion had more color to it this time. Beyond his blinking eyes that questioned where this conversation was headed, his brows met when he spoke, “Should this really be coming out of your own mouth?”

“It didn't come from me. Jungkook told me,” he replied, voice defensive.

“Jungkook thinks you're cute. But so do I. Might as well tell me that all members like you.”

“No,” Jimin answered, tucking his arm in and across his chest. His eyes narrowed, teeth worrying his lips, trying to recall the exact moment that prompted him to ask the youngest. “Ah, that's right,” he muttered when the epiphany came. He searched his pockets for his phone and scrolled through countless and countless of albums of selcas and videos of him with Bangtan.

It was somewhere in there.

“Hyung… this,” he finally said after almost five minutes of sifting through his files.

Yoongi’s back was facing him after he stopped talking to look for his proof. He really should've prepared it beforehand. Now his hyung seemed to have completely lost his interest. He was typically patient to listen, but Jimin interrupted him when he was in the midst of editing a melody submission.

Though Yoongi said it was fine. Jimin would be his breath of fresh air because the team would so rarely go out during crucial period right before their comeback. He knew better not to push the limit but it was tempting and he needed someone to listen to him.

He pulled the bean bag next to his hyung’s leg, lifted his phone so that Yoongi would be able to see what he was referencing to.

His hair was pink, the clip a mere six- seconder. He was staring at the camera, trying to appeal to ARMY. He needed it. There was this greedy part of him that wanted to know how they would react to his flirting. Tell people, ‘Hey, Jimin is right here and this is how he looks right now. His hair changed.’ That kind of drill right before their comeback and their response would in a way boost his confidence. A conscious tactic to keep his fans interested in him perhaps?

“What do you think?”

Yoongi made a face and pulled back to a cringe as he'd expected. Highly likely, he would've done the same thing if any other member showed him a video of themselves. So he merely nodded in agreement. Bangtan wasn't the audience for this video. ARMY was.

“Do you know how Jungkookie reacted when I showed this to him?”

Yoongi sighed. “Would I want to know?”

“He replayed it, hyung,” he said as a matter-of-factly. “He told me I should post it because our fans would love it. Which I did, if you remember.”

“I don't,” Yoongi admitted and turned his chair so that he was facing Jimin, a leg over the other while he waited for him to continue.

“I posted it on Twitter and do you know who posted afterwards?”

“Jungkook?”

It wasn't a wild guess.

“Yeah,” Jimin confirmed the obvious. “After 10 minutes, he posted something and you know what it said?”

No response.

“He posted a song.”

The title was right on the hashtag #ILYSB by Lany.

When it came to music that wasn't in their own language, Jimin would seldom take efforts to find translation. So long as he understood bits and pieces of what little English he knew, he could work around it. Namjoon said to be careful of listening to artists that might cause uproar by association, so he would still have to check it out if he'd want to share it with the fans. But for as much as he believed that lyricism was a key ingredient to any good music, Jimin preferred to feel rather than completely understand and analyze. That job was for their leader.

However, he decided that he wanted to fathom the youngest’s thoughts that night.

The noob part of him thought the title was some secret internet code popular in the west so he searched naver only to be greeted by a simple yet telling I love you so bad. His mouth formed an ‘oh’ when he realized that it might've been an intense confession. It invariably piqued his curious mind so that later he would be listening on loop to… and you need to know that I'm hella obsessed with your face.

“You're reading into it too much,” Yoongi told him with a shake of his head as he reached again for his coffee. “I'm not one to judge who you want to date, but think how this appears to other people.” Yoongi paused, seemingly debating what he should and shouldn't say next. “Jimin-ah, a lot could happen in ten minutes. Like you, Jungkook might be sending that message to the fans. Namjoon recommends a lot of songs. It wouldn't be about us.”

“I know, so I asked him directly.”

Yoongi almost spat his drink on him. He tapped his chest as he drowned out his cough to reaffirm. “Ya, you what?”

“I asked him if the lyrics were about me.”

“And?”

“He laughed,” Jimin confessed.

Truth be told, his ego was slightly hurt to see Jungkook’s initial response to his question. He was serious about it because he was just about more than a quarter sure about his theory. It didn't feel good to have this kid finding amusement to something he pored over. He could've just said ‘no’ outrightly and Jimin wouldn't have minded.

Jungkook’s laughter died down when he saw Jimin’s expression transform and he was reaching out for his hand in apology before he knew it.

Jimin let him hold him.

“It was…” he almost sounded uncertain. “Hyung, why are you being like this?” Sounded almost helpless and then relenting, “Yeah, it was about you. I was nervous so I laughed.” Instinctively, his free hand reached for his fringes like the night of Jimin’s birthday.

When he saw the younger fidget, Jimin felt relieved. Ah, he still knew Jungkook better than anyone. Mindful to see every little shift in the air, Jimin wasn't wrong in reading the situation.

He ruffled Jungkook's head and returned the wide staring with his own curled eyes in amusement. “I knew it,” mumbled to himself and turned once he got the confirmation that he wanted.

“You just left?” Yoongi asked him, tone surprised that it nudged some bafflement at the back of Jimin’s head.

He bobbed his head yes because, well, what else was he supposed to do? He already proved he was right. Yoongi hadn't even heard the rest of his evidences yet.

“Three,” he said to share what was left in his folder.

“Stop,” Yoongi said, planting a foot on Jimin's thigh to emphasize the urgency of his demand.

Jimin slapped the foot away and dusted off his pants.

“Do you even like Jungkook?”

He tilted his head sideways. “Of course,” Jimin answered simply, wondering why it was even a question in the first place. He liked Jungkook. Jungkook was and still is his favorite dongsaeng and BTS member. He'd take care of him even if he grew his muscles and grew taller than him.

Yoongi shook his head. “I don't think we're talking about the same thing.”

“For the third one… ” Jimin took in the opportunity of minute lag on Yoongi’s response to divert the conversation back to the task at hand. He really didn't understand what Yoongi meant but better to finish this off before his momentum dried and faltered.

He picked up his phone again and browsed through his apps. It was quite a long memory lane down Vapp’s timeline until he found the correct reference. He slid the video right on the important moment, him in his bathrobe with Taehyung’s voice singing in the background. The camera was on with Jungkook in his white shirt’s glory, sitting for all ARMY to see.

“That's right… Jimin-hyung is bad at playing games,” Jungkook said to echo his claim.

Back then, the staff berated them silently to turn off vapp. Jungkook was too loud. Jimin wasn't kidding when he said he was hearing him across the hallway. They were only given five hours to eat, take a bath, and nap before they reconvene for post-con review and plan out the adjustments in their set list but this kid chose to do an hour of live for the fans.

Jimin was out his room because Sungdeuk wanted to talk to Hoseok. They needed to work on spacing for Not Today. Their hyung thought they didn't maximize the stage well enough and he was also keen to give feedback on blockings for medley so they could properly execute group choreography for Bultaoreune.

Hoseok was too tired to get up his bed so he texted Jimin if he could get the notes in his place. Which Jimin was happy to do. He loved the fact that Hoseok trusted him and it gave him a sense of pride.

He and Sungdeuk were just about done talking when the older guy stopped him from his tracks by grabbing his arm.

“Can you tell Jungkook to tone it down a little? I heard he opened vapp but everyone's tired.”

Jimin honestly didn't want to deal with it. He was wearing his bathrobe without any make-up and only rushed out in the middle of his evening skin care routine because he wanted to be a useful dongsaeng to Hosoek and let him have an early rest. If he so much as spoke, audible for fans to hear, people were going to ask and he'd have to show himself on camera. Jeon Jungkook, really this kid should know when to stop.

“You know Jungkook listens to you well.”

Jimin jutted out his lower lip, “He doesn't.”

He could already imagine the maknae turning the volume up further for the sake of raising his hackles. Sungdeuk knew this but he was asking Jimin to do it because he knew Jimin couldn't say no when it came to Jungkook.

“Alright, alright,” he said, bobbing his head weakly and dragging his feet towards Jungkook’s room.

Across the end of the floor, he saw Taehyung towing right behind their leader who whispered him something. It made his friend glance at his direction and the next thing he knew, Namjoon was off his room and Taehyung was walking the opposite direction.

Taehyung got hold up by Sungdeuk who was midway his own room and right then, Jimin pressed on Jungkook’s room’s bell and twisted the knob open.

“I heard you from the neighboring room. Let me sleep,” he said, trying to keep his tone annoyed and nagging even when Jungkook was beaming at him so widely. “Stop singing in the middle of the night. Go to sleep.”

“You're losing me here, Jimin-ah. This is just you trying to discipline Jungkook. I would've scolded him the same.”

“Hyung,” Jimin replied sternly, eyes determined and a hand squeezing Yoongi’s thigh. “Did you watch it? Jungkook wanted my attention.”

Yoongi leaned back on his chair, challenging.

“Well, it wasn't even about that.”

His proof went beyond Jungkook's childish yet so endearing attempts to make Jimin come back and join his live. He slid the video right back to the moment and handed his phone in Yoongi’s hand.

When he crashed Jungkook's live that evening, Jimin had every intention to make an impression. After how people disregarded his precious, scant hours of work reprieve, he believed he deserved the screen time. It was tempting to test the waters to say the least. Not just with Jungkook. He wasn't dumb, well aware of his effect when he tried to appeal to someone.

“I don't know why you go to those lengths. They like you already,” Yoongi interrupted him mid-explanation, referencing to their fans. “What's more to prove?”

Jimin wondered to himself why but decided against it. “That's not the point, hyung,” he offered, not wanting to divert from the case at hand. They could ramble on about his insecurities later.

After confiscating the speaker that agitated Namjoon down to coordi noona who just finished fixing damaged buttons of their Blood, Sweat and Tears stage costumes, he went back in Jungkook’s room to greet their fans. A hand comb through his blond hair, cute sounds, zoom the bare face closer to the camera when he knew he just applied mask so he'd look good.

More important than that though was to stare at someone far longer than what was necessary that he’d be conscious to repay the attention. So he did what he knew would work, lure Jungkook's eyes to him and whisper. Mumble because that required someone to pay better heed and read his lips.

“That's not right, I was good at playing games a year ago.”

Then Jungkook would nod absentmindedly and whip his head towards his direction as Taehyung sang Chandelier in the background. Jimin wouldn't say it was the perfect song for the moment but it was good to have a song. Cause Jimin was aware they were recorded. He could go back to this, a song would help with epiphany and drama.

“What do you think?” he asked Yoongi who was squinting at his phone. Doubtful but probably a lot more convinced than he was five minutes ago. “I can be convincing if I want to.” He extended an arm to retrieve his phone.

He fell forward when his hyung suddenly pulled back to keep the small device out of reach. “I don't know if you're being serious about this.”

Jimin titled his head. “I am,” he said. “I am serious. Jungkook really likes me.”

He wasn't unreasonable. The kid had a habit of staring when someone would talk. He observed these things, sometimes obsessively, because it helped him understand the maknae better. So he knew why Jungkook would do it. He found it difficult to focus and physically directing his attention to someone would help him catch what they were trying to say better. It wouldn't be a deal then if Jimin was talking.

But when it was Namjoon who was put on spot to answer an English interview, their leader who still strove to speak a foreign language to represent the group, Jimin quite expected for Jungkook to listen… ogle.

“The korean teacher asked me a question, ‘What are the hardships of being a leader?’”

It wasn’t the first time Jungkook was caught. There was one at a fansign, then at the backstage of a music show, also during that one gayo episode and probably instances he wasn’t aware or the others he couldn’t remember. If Jimin wasn’t so busy overthinking things, he would have found it funny how Jungkook would play it cool and avert his gaze elsewhere. 

“There are hardships when we take positions, specifically being a leader...”

Namjoon continued his answer in the background while Jimin thought to himself what actually goes through the maknae’s head when he would look at him. Was the need so compelling that he’d do it or was Jimin really just that. Beautiful?

“Ya, do you hear yourself?”

Jimin giggled, his head falling back to comfortably rest on the loveseat. It was funny to call himself beautiful. Even he wouldn’t be that shameless.

The point still stands though. Jungkook would stare at him, and he would call him beautiful.

“It has to mean something right?”

He wanted to confirm the motivations behind the not-so-subtle attention. However, he didn’t want to do a repeat of the last time when he confronted Jungkook about the song. It made the air between them strained and the youngest would agonize in his presence. Jimin thought he was being shy so he’d hold back.

But then what about his own curiosity?

“You’re curious, that’s it,” Yoongi said plainly. “What would you do with that information?”

Jimin pursed his lips as he thought about it. 

Good point. Where was he leading with all these? He didn’t think that far enough. He wasn’t even done with his final proof.

“What do you think, hyung? What should I do about it?”

...To be continued

[cookypuss1989]

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[todaysbiggesthits]

The Exam

Best Music Moment of 2018:

Nasty: Hearing Red Eyes live. I've already said it on TBH, but seeing your favorite band in their relative prime is such a cool thing. 

BC: Since partying all night with my favorite band fell within the short window between Bestuv '17 ending and Bestuv '18 beginning, I'd have to say:

1. Kacey Musgrave's performance of "Slow Burn" on SNL

2. Radiohead perfectly executing "There There" which transported me back to Lollapalooza in '08 3. Despite the annoyance of sitting in lots of Indy500 traffic due to a new parking situation, I quite enjoyed working through half of the Stones' catalogue with Bronco riding shotgun and Codemin listening in from the flatbed of Dillon's pickup

Codem: Spending what was New Year's Eve for the central timezone in the USA at a Fijian medical bath facility listening to music, playing cards, downing tequeel and getting ringworm with my blushing bride. -hearing peter hook play the bass line from shadowplay live and in person. -Arden, JD and JJ encouraging me to go talk to Kyle from Swearin'. -Silver Jews and Westing (By Musket and Sextant) came to Spotify. -Watching "Random Rules" video for the first time

Larse: Sitting behind this massive (I mean orca fat) guy at the CHVRCHES show, feeling really bad for him before the show started because he was all alone and kept looking around and worrying about letting people in his row and things. As soon as CHVRCHES came on though, this guy was exactly where he was supposed to be that night. Sang the words and danced to every song and just made my day with how happy he was to be there. Jotted down every song of the setlist into his smartphone and just had an all around great time. And some of you motherfuckers won't even go to a movie by yourself!

JD: May: A moody Chinatown stroll with the new Grouper album in the rain. July: Soaking up some good tunes at the housewarming party to ring in our new pad. July: Some hilariously rambunctious youths having at it when “House of Jealous Lovers” came on during a full play of Compilation 1 at the DFA summer party. One of them (who must have been ~8 in the bygone days of 02) screamed out “this is the song that started it all!” to a crowd of stationary gawkers and I felt a brief moment of hope for the youngs. August: Shaking a leg at Pete’s wedding (also featuring a delightful hojl spin). September: A rowdy spin of “Sentient Oona” on the Levee juke with an impromptu digital jukebox dance party at the Turkey’s Nest with jj’s cousin and his lovely girlfriend. October: The best music cue I’ve ever seen at the end of Beau Travail.

Bronco: Taking John to his first concert, and that first concert was Mastodon. That was pretty awesome to be able to share that experience with him. He was super into it, and so were the metalheads at the show. "Dad of the Year" was definitely shouted more than a few times, and I thought to myself, "fuckin-A right."

Chap: My kids saying "Papa" when "She Drives Me Crazy" by Fine Young Cannibals comes on.

Best Shows Seen in 2018:

C: Open Mike Eagle at Pitchfork

Bronco: Sleep

Laser: CHVRCHES at Riverside Theater; Chromeo at Summerfest

BC: The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Radiohead

Nasty: The War on Drugs. 

Code: kraus - schubas peter hook - metro no age - the bottle swearin' - bowery eleanor friedberger - lincoln hall my bloody valentine - aragon "quickly climbing the ranks of my nice" ballroom kraus - the bottle pictureplane - bottom lounge soft moon - the bottle book of love - chop shop

JD: 1. Shame at Market Hotel 2. Hamilton Leithauser at the Carlyle Hotel 3. Beach House at United Palace Theater 4. The Voidz at Elsewhere 5. Parquet Courts’ Wide Awake! mid-day album release show with my morning coffee at Rough Trade

6. Flasher at St. Vitus 7. Deafheaven at Brooklyn Steel 8. Panda Bear at Brooklyn Steel 9. No Age at Brooklyn Bazaar 10. CCFX at the DFA summer party at Elsewhere with my girlfriend in full blown rem sleep standing up with her head on my shoulder 11. Alex Cameron at Warsaw 12. Gang Gang Dance and Interpol at House of Vans Of note: Dekkar at On Cinema Live at the Bell House.

Confession of 2018:

JD: I have a real TBH confession that I held until now. I was thoroughly enjoying the Flasher album on a recent evening after a few too many drinks when a burning urge to see them washed over me. They had a show coming up at a bar just a few blocks from my apartment, so I enthusiastically snapped up tickets for me and jj. Thinking this might be a good opportunity for a TBH outing, I emailed Chap trying to peer pressure him into attending the Flasher show and gauging his interest in a Parquet Courts concert that would be happening the following evening. No response.

We later received an invitation to a holiday cocktail party at a friend’s apartment on the same night as the Flasher show, and I hatched a cockamamie scheme to go from our home in Greenpoint to the party in Soho, leave after an hour to catch the concert back in Greenpoint, head back to the party in Soho, and finally retire back to Greenpoint. JJ wisely passed on such a scheme and I left the party to trek off to the concert solo with an extra ticket in tow. 

Awash in good cheer and excitement while Flasher set up, I thought what the hell, might as well take a flier on reminding Chap of the show. Maybe the twins are asleep, he’s just sitting around, can jump into a cab, claim the extra ticket, watch the show, and cruise on back. Mid-text I paused, wondering just why he never responded to the initial email weeks ago. A quick gmail search, and there sat my drunkenly composed beseechment to join, rotting in the drafts folder unsent. 

A couple of the dudes from Parquet Courts were bouncing around the bar, and I decided it would make more sense to hit up Chap about attending their show the next day than explain the whole snafu and extend a ludicrous invitation that required dropping everything and leaving immediately for a show he didn’t even know was happening. I ate the extra ticket, had a blast watching Flasher, zipped back to the party, drank myself into oblivion, and was way too hung over to even consider the Parquet Courts show the next day. NICK SORRY NICK! (editor’s note: too long)

Larson: I saw Timberlake at Fiserv Forum

BC: My neighbor invited me to see Imagine Dragons. I lied and said I had to travel for work. "On a Saturdee?" he inquired. "Yeah. Totally sucks," I awkwardly replied. I hid inside my house all weekend.

Bronco: I'd rather see shows by myself than with my buddy. He likes going to shows, and I keep inviting him, and we have a fine time, but he doesn't live in town anymore, so I gotta worry about him drinking too much and driving an hour home. And his wife is a psychopath and that complicates shit. Too much. And it's just so much more freeing being able to not give a fuck about anyone else during that time, to just soak it all in, it feels good and right.

Codem: -despite all of the bad things that kanye said, i still liked listening to his catalogue throughout the year. i even liked his EP that came out in 2018.   -i really liked the beach house album!   -i liked the snail mail album, skipped two opportunities to see her and then by --the end of the year, i thought the album was sort of boring.   -Arden and i went to see pictureplane open for alice glass and thought that the show sucked and pictureplane played such stupid songs. three months later, he put out my favorite album of the year and i can't stop thinking that i hated all of the same songs the first time i heard them. -i read an article on a bright fall saturday morning that exhaustively detailed the Cardi B and Nicki Minaj feud and i watched all of the instagram story clips that showed Cardi B scrolling through her phone with those outlandish nails of hers. it took me two cups of coffee to get through it all, but get through it i did. [i couldn't think of nicki minaj's name just now so i stared at the ceiling and kept running through names in my mind's eye: missy, kim, cardi, kelis, kim??, eve, trina. i couldn't remember. so i finally googled "kanye monster" and found her name. easy.]

Nasty: I'm done with new music. It’s over. I didn't listen to a single new album - I don't even know if I could name a new album. Realistically, I did like Daytona. 

Biggest Disappointment of 2018:

Nasty: MAGA Kanye

Larse: Timberlake at Fiserv Forum

Bronco: Black Tusk, Alice in Chains

BC: Getting into The Orwells literally two days before #MeToo chewed 'em up and spit 'em out

Chap: Car Seat Headrest. Can't believe he's gay! jk the album was the disappointment.

Code: -somebody hacked my spotify account and wiped all of my music and replaced it with raggaeton and halsey. i was able to get my music back, but i lost all of my meticulously cared for folder structure. -i wanted the simple minds album to be cool; it was not.   -i wanted the swearin' album to be really great; it was okay. -pictureplane and ovlov did not tour their albums.   -i had to eat two tickets to my bloody valentine after buying four. the original show sold out and i thought i was going to be able to sell my extras for a profit -- they ended up announcing a second show and there was no secondary market for the original show.   -no CCFX followup ):  

JD: Got to Hammerstein Ballroom for MBV and there was a line longer than an entire avenue. They were already on by the time we made it into the heinously oversold venue and we were stuck by the bar in the lobby surrounded by people constantly shouting in an effort to compete with the apocalyptic noise.

C: Terrible sound at Tame Impala show

Most Overrated of 2018:

Code: -probably that kacey musgraves album; i got absolutely nothing out of it. also, i liked the robyn album, but i wanted to love it after many years between releases. i think i'm just being greedy.   -i'm going to get killed for this, but the throwing the baby out with the bathwater approach to artists' criminal behavior or inflammatory tweets is pretty overrated right now. 

Bronco: Ghost - I like their schtick, with rotating members and the whole inverted church thing. It's campy but they're sticking to it, and that's fine, but their music isn't metal. It's poppy glam shit about the devil, and that's also fine, but I don't get why it's on anyone's list. Production value maybe? But the music itself isn't anything to write home about. I just don't get it.

JD: n/a. The thick layer of nonsensical, Pynchonian obfuscation the platform economy dollops over everything has made it impossible to understand how anything is rated. Almost feel bad for the click driven publications that have to just throw out a guess.

C: Mitski

Chap: Snail Mail

BC: Kanye. His new music is no longer good enough to put up with his bufoonery.

Laser: Timberlake at Fiserv Forum

Nasty: Clemson. GOARSH. 

Make It Stop 2018:

Nasty: DJT, anytime now. 

Bronco: Party politics. No more labels allowed. You can have a list of stuff you support and a list of stuff you are against, but that's fucking it. No more this side vs that side for reasons as caddy as an R vs. a D. Also religion having any influence whatsoever in the way our country is run. Believe whatever you want to believe, but don't force your bullshit on anyone else. You want to torment yourself with a lifelong christian guilt trip, that's your boat to float, but don't go poking holes in my boat just because you're a miserable fuck. Just stop. Also, Jack White.

Larse: Timberlake at Fiserv Forum

Chap: Baby Shark

BC: My shrinking attention span

JD: The cultural currency of clapbacks, shade, and tea.

Code: trap music playing from a phone's external speaker while i'm trapped on public transportation.  i'm going to go broke buying enough earbuds to distribute to these offenders.

Biggest TBH Regret of 2018:

Larse: Timberlake at Fiserv Forum

C: Not seeing Low at a church on University of Chicago's Campus

JD: -Hearing about a Grouper show at a church around the corner from my pad after it sold out. -Not necessarily a regret because I didn’t know it was happening, but oh how I wish I had seen Jon Glaser and Jon Benjamin as Dave Farina and Dave Franz, Dennis and Dennis’ sons, at a Bowery Ballroom Yo La Tengo show.

BC: -I wish I would've cooked up a way to see Shame play a midnight show in Bloomington.  I just want that kid to scream "Concrete" in my face. -I probably should've seen Smashing Pumpkins when they rolled through town too. 

Code: my flight got delayed and i missed the swearin' show at that place in brooklyn that "smelled like hot fish"

Bronco: Not a regret so much as I was super-bummed when High on Fire dropped out of the tour I saw in November. The venue we were at put my buddy and I right next to the stage. It would've been crazy awesome to see HOF there, but they've rescheduled at least, and I'll see them in January.

Bin: I haven't listened to any Kanye this year. I thought it would feel gratifying by year end - it doesn't. I'll probably still avoid this most recent album, but I'm going back to the well. I'll continue to talk shit about him though. Take that Ye!

Chap: No regrets 

Detective Murtaugh of 2018:

Larse: Getting too old to keep up with all of this new music and put a worthwhile list together at the end of the year…

Nasty:

Code: i added book of love show to my top ten concert list because Arden and i were able to take a seat on the ground in the balcony section. we had to continually move our spot on the floor to be able to peer through the railing and a mass of bodies in order to catch a glimpse of the stage.

JD: -Two of my favorite music related experiences of the year were seeing Hamilton Leithauser in the cafe of the Carlyle Hotel and the extended Niles family in The Nutcracker at the NYC Ballet. -When I googled “Detective Murtaugh” just now it was mostly pictures of Damon Wayans (Jr. no less!) playing the role on the Lethal Weapon CBS series.

Bronco: Putting up with shit instead of speaking up about it. There's room on the train but I'm squished by the door because some self-absorbed dinks won't move in? "Could you please move in?" It sounds so simple, but breaking that silence barrier was a scary thing. Now I don't give a shit. I'm on train for two stops, and I'm not going to see you again, so fuck you, move in or I'm going to move myself in and it aint gonna be pleasant for you.

Chap: A hipster female barber said I was a silver fox. AYFKM?

BC: What the hell is Fortnite?

Resolution for 2018 Update:

Larse: get my list in on time! How it went: probably horseshit! (editor’s note: it was early yet!)

NACK: While I didn’t have the occasion to catch shows this year, I anticipate doing so in '18 due to some changes afoot. How it went: Joe Dons has yet to let me know of a concert going on and I have no other friends here, so I blame him for my failure

Bin: I’m just going to keep saying “get to NY for a show with JD” until I make it happen. How it went: Didn't get to NY for a show with JD.

JD: See you gents more often with or without a show attached.  How it went: Fairly decent, but is it really ever enough?

Bronco: Get in shape. I want to stick to a schedule of running all year round. I ran a 10K back in June, then needed to recover for a bit, been recovering ever since…Fat Dad needs to keep running all year round without excuse, especially given that we go skiing between Xmas and New Year’s and I’m gonna be a floppy legged mess. During those runs, I’ll try to listen to new material each time. How it went: I ran a 5-miler in May. Haven't run since. Though I have been reasonably consistent with my prison workout (situps and pushups before bed time), so now there's a hint of muscle under my fat dad layer. Just gotta combine the two now somehow.

Code: make more playlists for my wife How it went: i said that i was going to make more mixes for my wife. i made one year-end mix for her and i'm sure she's loving it :*

BC: No more resolutions How it went: 2018 Resolution was "No More Resolutions," so pretty darn good!

Resolution for 2019:

Laser: ---

BC: Listen to one new album a week; reboot the Classic Album Review Club

JD: Greater consciousness of how I’m using my attention - an ineffectual and meaningless protest of the ways the world is burning down in pursuit of it.

Bronco: Read more 'classic' books. I didn't read many of them, even in school (especially in school? Never could read a book I was told to read). But I'm leaning in the sci-fi direction of 'classics'. I just read Dune this summer, and wrapped up Fahrenheit 451 the other day. I'm feeling an unexplained need to beef up my nerd credentials and this seems the way to accomplish it.

Chap: Learn Piano; Guilt Joe Dons into finally inviting me to a concert

Nasty: I'm sticking with it - get to NY for a show with JD.

Code: catch ovlov, pictureplane, washer, chromatics, EMA and colleen green live this year.

Most Anticipated of 2019:

Bronco: Tool. Fifth year's the charm. I'm actually hopeful this time around. In fact, I half expect them to drop it on New Year's Eve or something, just so it's post Listicle season, but not quite 2019 so it can't end up on those lists either. They're such dicks like that.

BC: Still waitin' on dat Vampire Weekend yet

Chap: Vampire Weekend, Chromatics

C: Lin Manuel in Mary Poppins... I kid, My Bloody Valentine

JD: Going to put Frank Ocean out into the universe, MBV take 2, Grimes, Panda Bear, Kanye’s escape from the Black Lodge

Codem: chromatics - tommy, MBV, washer, colleen green, EMA(?), DoM

Laser: no idea what's even on the docket

Nasty: Mueller's Report

[fayewonglibrary]

Faye's Back (2011)

by: Boon Chan

For Faye Wong fans, her concert here tomorrow is an eagerly awaited affair, despite criticisms of earlier shows on her tour

As comebacks go, Beijing born singer Faye Wong’s return to the music scene is one of the most eagerly anticipated.

Turn back the clock to 2004 and the 42-year old was one of the biggest stars in Mandopop. She had released her 19th full length album, To Love, in November and then during the last concert of the subsequent tour in January 2005, she remarked: “If I ever retire from showbiz, I hope you all forget about me.”

Later that year, she married actor Li Yapeng and they had a baby girl Li Yan in 2006. Since then, she has kept a low profile, emerging occasionally to perform for charity.

And now, she is back - on stage, at least. Her comeback tour kicked off in Beijing in October last year and has taken her to Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Changsha and Wuhan. She performs at the Singapore Indoor Stadium tomorrow, seven years after her last gig here. Over 95% of the 6,500 tickets have been sold.

For the fans, it does not matter one bit that there is no new material or that Wong is famously reticent on stage.

Telecommunications regulation officer and self-professed Faye-natic See Chee Cheng, 29, says: “We don’t need a new album or new songs from Faye as she has too many to-die-for classics. Faye’s performances are electric and so alive. This is a priceless experience and will not be downplayed by the fact that there are no new songs.”

As for the lack of banter, packaging designer Qiu Wubing, 31, says: “I am not really bothered if I receive a little ‘Hello’ or not. Let the first word she sing be the hello and the last word be the goodbye.”

Financial analyst Carmen Leung, 31, is paying “way too much” to fly in from San Francisco just for the concert. She puts it this way: “Isn’t it better to have her spend the precious stage time on what she’s best at?”

Despite her lack of interaction and slick dance moves, Wong’s live performances certainly leave an impression on those who have watched her.

Ms. Lynette Chiam recalls that the first time she saw Wong was in Singapore when she was a teenager of 14 or 15: “The stage was moving and she wasn’t. She would sing and let the stage do the moving.” The second time, Ms. Chiam was 19. She recalls: “She sang even better than she did on the CD, that’s for sure.”

The 28-year-old merchandise manager at a bank declares admiringly: “She is her own genre. She’s like the Bjork of Asia.” Bjork is an Icelandic singer songwriter with a very distinctive personal style.

Wong’s imperfections only make her seem more human to her fans. Copywriter Mervyn Chan, 31, says: “I think her voice quality has deteriorated, not that she’s not a good singer anymore but it’s just an age thing. But her voice is still beautiful and I still enjoy listening to her.”

Even criticism of her going off pitch in early performances do not faze her acolytes.

Marketing manager Esther Leck, 31, searched for video clips to see what the fuss was about and says: “It’s not as bad as it was made out to be in the press, no one can be perfect always. Especially in this industry, it takes a lot of guts and willpower for someone like her to challenge herself on the big stage again.”

Mr. Jeffered Leow, who is in sales and marketing, says: “I think, there were some glitches in Beijing. Even Faye Wong is not perfect and she has not been giving public performances for so long. This is a live show so there are bound to be some problems.”

The 29-year-old adds that there is no need to clamour for new material. He says: “I was definitely very disappointed when she stopped making new albums but I have to respect her choice.

"We should be relieved she’s coming back to give a concert and not demand more.”

Some fans here could not wait till she performed in Singapore and jetted off to other stops on her tour. Mr. Qiu traveled to Hong Kong with friends to catch her concert on March 6. He spent under $1,000 in total including airfare, accommodations and the top-tier ticket of about $200. The most expensive tickets in Singapore cost $580.

He had some idea of what to expect as he had watched clips of her earlier gigs on YouTube.

The fan says: “The costumes were nicer than the previous concerts and there were also the 3-D laser effects and the lighting. The special effects were totally different. It was worth it.”

And yes, he will be attending the show tomorrow to show his support.

The visual for Wong’s comeback tour were created by Taiwanese music video director Muh Chen, with input from acclaimed Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar Wai, Japan’s Mitsumasa Hayashi, a renowned lighting designer, was also part of the creative team.

Other fans will be catching Wong’s comeback in Singapore for the first time.

It will, in fact, be project manger Vitali Zabayrachny’s first time seeing her in concert. The 29-year-old is flying in from Moscow and tying in a vacation in Singapore together with the gig.

He says he is a fan because she sang the English number Eyes on Me for his favorite game, Final Fantasy, and adds: “She is beautiful and talented, how can I not like her?”

For copywriter Mr. Chan, this will be the third time he is watching her perform live. He says that there are two facets to her appeal: “Her sound was unique for an Asian singer and her fashion sense was always very cool, a bit quirky and very different form other artists.”

He adds" “It’s quite an experience to hear her sing live. It’s for the vocals and to see her in person. She’s been very reclusive and doesn’t make a lot of appearances, so on the rare occasion that she does, I will want to take a look”.

10 CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

MYSTERY (1994) Faye Wong had previously sung in Mandarin, most notably on the track No Regrets off the 1993 album of the same name. Mystery is her first all-Mandarin disc and is best known for the ethereal ballad I’m Willing. However, it contained too many remakes of her Cantonese hits, including a new cover of Tori Amos’ Silent All These Years. Regardless, it was a huge hit and sales went past the 800,000 mark in Taiwan alone.

RANDOM THOUGHTS (1994) At this point, her Cantonese releases were more daring and playful both musically and in terms of packaging. Unusual for a release by a major pop star, there was no sign of her face anywhere on the CD. Instead, there were fragments of phrases such as “No new image” and “No photo booklet”. While the anglicised name Faye had already appeared on 1992’s Coming Home album, this was the first time she used her actual Mandarin name Wang Fei.

CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994) Critics say that Faye Wong can only act as herself. True, but given the right role and director, her natural charisma comes through on the big screen as well. Her turn as a quirky snack-bar worker in Wong Kar Wai’s stylish drama won her the Best Actress award at the Stockholm Film Festival. Wong’s Cantonese cover of The Cranberries’ Dreams is played over the end credits.

DECADENT SOUNDS OF FAYE WONG (1995) This is how a covers album should be done. Wong took the songs of her idol, Taiwanese songbird Teresa Teng, and made them her own. It helped that the two share the same clear and sweet vocal qualities but the appeal also lay in the unexpectedness of the arrangements. They even breathed new life into the dated folksiness of a track like Sentiments of A Native Village. On the poetic, Wishing We Could Last Forever, though, little more than Wong’s pure voice was needed.

RESTLESS  (1996) The title song clocked in at under three minutes and the lyrics consist of just 22 words, and it was probably one of the more conventional tracks here. Given the experimental nature of the disc, it did not sell as well as previous albums. It was critically acclaimed though and after its release, Wong became the first Chinese singer to feature on the cover of Time magazine. The headline: The Divas of Pop

SCENIC TOUR (1998) She has never looked as serenely beatific as she does on the album cover here. And the record also contains several classics including the tender Red Bean and the showstopping Face, which sees her exploring different ways of singing on one track. The track Tong was written by Wong for her daughter with her first husband, China musician Dou Wei. Gurgles of that daughter (Wong has two) Dou Jingtong, can be heard on it. The album sold more than 2.5 million copies in Asia.

EYES ON ME (1999) It was the first time a Japanese video game, Final Fantasy VIII, had a Chinese singer performing the theme song. The single sold over 400,000 copies in Japan and paved the way for her entry into that market. She later became the first Chinese singer to perform at the Nippon Budokan venue. She even starred in a Japanese TV series Usokoi (Love From A Lie) and recorded the Japanese theme song, Separate Ways, for it.

FABLE (2000) Her regular collaborators, Hong Kong’s Lin Xi and China’s Zhang Yadong, both play prominent roles here. And while the cycle of five songs written by Wong marked another step in her growth as a composer, it was Cantonese track Love Letters to Myself which set tongues wagging. The ballad was supposedly about Hong Kong singer-actor Nicholas Tse, whom she was dating, and the fact that he never sent her love letters.

CHINESE ODYSSEY 2002 (2002) Faye Wong had as silly side to her as well and this was perfectly captured in the loony Chinese New Year comedy by director Jeffrey Lau. She was once again paired with her Chungking Express co-star Tony Leung Chiu Wai and their easy chemistry showed on-screen. Wong won the Hong Kong Film Critics Society award for Best Actress for her role as a runaway cross-dressing princess.

TO LOVE (2003) Despite the widespread acclaim for her singing and music, it was not until 2004, on her fifth nomination, that Wong won the prestigious Golden Melody Award for Best Female Vocalist. She quipped in typical straightforward fashion: “I’ve known that I can sing, therefore I will also confirm this panel’s decision.” Not counting the six low -cost cover albums she released in China as a high school student, this is her 19th and, to date, final full-length studio album.

------------------------------------------------------------------

SOURCE: THE STRAITS TIMES

[harrisjv]

Vidyz Review And Huge Bonus

Vidyz Evaluation - Are you looking for even more knowledge concerning Vidyz? Please check out my honest testimonial about it before choosing, to review the weak points and also staminas of it. Can it deserve your effort and time and cash money?

6 Ways to Optimize Well-known YouTube Content to Optimize Views

Vidyz feline sensation Grumpy Pet cat made more loan in 2014 than Oscar-winning starlet Gwyneth Paltrow. While pet cat videos astound a big share of You Tubers, YouTube is also a major player in today's brand marketing video game. It's the biggest internet search engine on the planet outside of Google, with one billion month-to-month active customers, as well as more than 400 hours of video clip posted to its web servers every minute.

The sheer amount and diversity of YouTube content offers the possibility to delight, involve, as well as hook your audience. While you may assume that customers may shy away from branded video content, the reverse is the case: 75 percent of users see a brand name's website after viewing a branded video, and according to Inc. publication, 64 percent are most likely to buy a product from an eCommerce website after viewing an associated video clip.

One of the biggest benefits of video is that the material aids communicate a message that is more easily kept in mind. In fact, four out of 5 Net individuals bear in mind the video clip ads they view online; that makes good sense, provided the diminishing human focus span.

Are You Playing The Game Right?

While 93 percent of brands proactively make use of video clip marketing, are they efficiently attracting as well as converting the right visitors? In truth, your channel might hear crickets without the appropriate elements. YouTube optimization is crucial to hooking and transforming the highly involved, energetic YouTube globe.

1. Create a Customized Branded Experience

Your Vidyz channel need to mimic every various other well-known aspect of your company. This consists of customizing the banner as well as layout of your channel. Offer audiences the best customer experience possible, also if it costs you a little additional; a personalized icon as well as background will assist put your finest foot forward on YouTube-- boosting brand name recall as well as organization. Usage YouTube's brand name channel product offerings page to recognize the parameters to customizing your channel.

2. Produce a Channel Trailer

When you have actually established branded elements of your YouTube network, take it an action even more and create a network trailer. A trailer video clip is highlighted on top of YouTube networks and is made use of to introduce a brand-new target market to your channel. It provides a visual method to define the brand experience in 15 seconds or less.

To set up a network trailer, comply with these actions:

Submit the video you want to be your network trailer

Go to the network you want to take care of

Select the "For new site visitors" tab

Select "Channel trailer"

Pick the video by selecting its thumbnail or entering its LINK

3. Place Video Metal

When maximizing material for YouTube, you require to have two separate target markets in mind. One, the real customer, and also 2, YouTube online search engine crawlers that practically can just check out-- not enjoy-- your videos. Hence, each YouTube video clip need to consist of machine-readable metadata, the underlying summary of data, to keep search robots and also humans happy and notified. To do this, make certain you include the adhering to meta-elements on each Vidyz message:

Meta Title: Your video title should be catchy, engaging, integrate keywords that will certainly come up in a user search, as well as have fewer than 100 personalities. Utilize this keyword phrase tool to discover the very best keywords for your video. The trick is finding a term with high search volume as well as relatively reduced competitors. Play around with capitalization, and think of innovative means to lead into the material.

Meta Summary: Utilize the full 5,000 personality limit to create a keyword-rich, appealing, and also descriptive description. Target one to 2 search phrases with a high regular monthly search volume. Additionally, consist of links to your social channels or web site within the summary, as well as make use of link shorteners to keep URLs short as well as track clickthroughs.

Key phrases: Make sure to additionally use the target search phrase in the keyword field. If you need assistance, have a look at what how competitors in your industry are enhancing pages.

Networks: While this is a basic step, don't neglect to classify your YouTube video. Your alternatives include songs, sporting activities, gaming, movies, tv shows, news, live, YouTube Spotlight, or YouTube 360 (virtual truth). Properly categorizing your video clip enables greater exposure.

Get this off the beaten track while you are submitting a video to your brand's web page. After your video has actually posted, YouTube will motivate you to go into the above aspects. For the very best outcomes, don't just copy as well as paste a meta description from a previous article-- begin fresh as well as be critical.

4. Video Top quality

Like Google internet search engine rankings, YouTube has a proprietary and secret algorithm to rank web content. A crucial aspect on Vidyz is video top quality and customer experience. If your video clip is dull, unnecessary, or of poor quality and/or attracts a regularly poor watch-time metric, YouTube crawlers will take notification. Additionally, due to the fact that YouTube highlights HD video clips in search results page, high-def videos will rate higher than low-quality clips.

5. Understand Your Customers With Analytics

Wise marketing experts create notified choices via client information. Whether you utilize YouTube's indigenous analytics system or a third-party remedy (certainly, we are partial to AdParlor), see to it you are considering your clients holistically. Via behavioral analytics, you can get closer your target market by understanding how it behaves, and where and when it's finest to engage. Take Advantage Of Big Data for a complete summary record on a project, supplemented with key individual understandings to guide your future video clip method.

6. Promote

Via advertising, YouTube provides a possibility to identify your Vidyz target audience with exactly the best web content at the correct time. As social channels come to be a pay-for-play area, it's even more important to enhance the overall presence of your material through paid marketing. YouTube has a range of targeting options that can help you get to the best client for your organisation by various demographics, like age, gender, place, interests, as well as extra.

In addition, there are a couple of other means to advertise: display screen as well as overlay advertisements, skippable and also non-skippable video ads, and also funded cards. Each has a slightly various function, however all are effective at getting to extremely segmented teams of customers. You can present material based on demographics, passions, contextual key phrases, video topics, kind of tool, and a lot more.

There is no doubt that YouTube uses a bounty of leads for brand names-- but you have to use it the right way. Use the tricks you just checked out to optimize your prospective reach and also to help hook new Vidyz visitors on your brand.

Introducing Vidyz

YouTube is certainly not for online marketers anymore.

It has 2 main goals:

- To take full advantage of ITS OWN marketing profits ... and - To raise so-called 'user experience' with associated video clips

In a nutshell, YouTube wishes to direct as much web traffic as feasible back to its very own web site. By forcing you to reveal 'related' video clips with numerous web links back to YouTube ... It enhances ad profits by drawing people away from your web links & calls-to-action.

Fair enough, but we weren't wanting to build Youtube's organisation. We wished to construct OUR own services.

So something needed to change ...

... which's where Brett was available in.

He saw the issues these updates had created ... and had not been willing to shed his hard-earned traffic.

Vidyz Review & Summary

Supplier: Mike From Maine et al

Item: Vidyz

Introduce Date: 2019-Feb-10

Release Time: 10:00 EST

Front-End Rate: $37

Niche: Video clip

What Is Vidyz?

Vidyz is the video marketing system made by successful marketers for successful online marketers like you!

PROS

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Increase sales normally with clickable web links, purchase switches, coupons & calls-to-action you can include in ANY video

Leverage approximately 47% EVEN MORE web traffic with videos that use all smart phones

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100% beginner friendly no tech abilities needed to delight in the complete advantages of the platform

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Vidyz Characteristic & Advantages

Fully customizable video player included

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Add clickable links right in the video clip

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Effective analytics as well as tracking included

Automobile Generated SEO Optimized, Social Media-ready video clip pages

Sustains complete HD video clips

Autoplay videos in ANY internet browser

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Plays on all mobile devices (mobile receptive)

Safe and secure video hosting

Advanced analytics and tracking

Cost & Evaluation

F/E: Vidyz ($ 37-$ 47)

Fully cloud based video clip hosting/ advertising platform: In video contact us to activities, promo codes, and offers. Auto-redirect at the end of video clip. Sustains high definition/ high resolution videos. Vehicle generated, SEO friendly, Social Media maximized video clip pages. Adjustable video gamer. Clickable phone call to activity slides in your video clips.

OTO 1: Pro Upgrade ($ 67-$ 97)

Remove branding on gamer and also automobile created video web pages. Clickable/ customizable reduced third links on your video clip. GIF creator (transform your videos right into computer animated GIF's).

OTO 2: Enterprise ($ 47 each month, $197 per year, $397 once)

Programmer civil liberties with UNLIMITED videos: eliminate the 10 video clip limit, super fast web servers and CDN (the very same network Netflix makes use of).

Verdict

" It's A Large amount. Should I Invest Today?"

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[oohaw94]

Mind if we have a discussion?

It has been awhile since I have posted anything original here on Tumblr but today is that day!

Most people know I do not talk about my father much. In my opinion it's hard to be super proud of a guy who gave his son multiple concussions and bloody noses between the years of 8,9 and 10 in the course of disciplining him mostly for trivial things. With that said, he did give me two things that I have carried forward in life. Number one: An appreciation for the sport of baseball which bloomed into a full-fledged obsession with softball later in life. Number two: He told me, no matter how smart you think you are, there is ALWAYS someone who knows more.

The second one more so than the first is especially important I think. Don't get me wrong, softball is a good time and my only real form of exercise these days but that second one has so many more applications. Any one who has a social media account has been exposed or over-exposed to the opinions of those around them. There is an old adage about the corrolation between opinions and a certain part of the lower human anatomy that notes everyone has both and they both stink. So for what it is worth, I don't mind hearing other people's opinions. Unfortunately, everyone is so caught up in having to be right all the time because to be wrong means being shunned by the herd and having to live in exile with leperous wildebeasts for the remainder of your days apparently.

I'm not scared to be wrong or to fail. Some of the most fundamental learning comes from being wrong. When I was 10 or 11, I had a bike. Nothing fancy, just a red bike with handle bars, a seat, hand brakes and two tires. I got pretty cocky when riding the trails around our house in Dittmer, MO. Popping over logs and anticipating the slide of a hill rounding into the turn of each trail and such. But one fall day when the leaves were off the trees and clogging the trails, I took off pedaling into the woods. In the trees there were birds and squirrels noting my progress but keeping their distance. I got to a section of trail that I had not ridden in awhile. In addition to the leaves, there were branches downed from summer storms and overgrown dead weeds. Being young and feeling invincible, I proceeded through the section without clearing the debris first. Most of the branches were rotten and the weeds posed no real impedence so I crunched my way through easily. Farther along the trail was more of the same with this part being a bit more of a downhill incline. So I puffed out my chest (not really) and flew along with high confidence. This is where the universe put down the magazine it was flipping through and was like: let me give you a tiny life lesson right now.

Up to this point in the ride, I was getting by even though a few of the decisions were questionable. Halfway down the incline I jounced over a not so rotten branch that flicked up an unseen string of rusted barbed wire that caught on my shoe lace. The next few seconds saw me go flying diagonally over the handle bars and land on some rough gravelly ground, shoulder and face first. My takeaways from the experience: #1 OUCH. #2 Picking gravel out of your chin is not a great feeling. #3 I should've known better.

What is the point of this tidbit from my youth? Simple, use your brain. I knew that riding over the branches and whatnot on the flat ground had caused some unplanned movement and a few precarious seconds where I was not in control. But from the outcome, I learned to avoid making that same mistake again. Was it a dumba$$ moment on my part? Sure. I didn't learn that from a book, I learned from the experience. Also I could've probably got there by using some common sense but hindsight as they say is 20/20.

In my life I have met and interacted with many, many people. Some only in a virtual context but still a large portion have been in person. Through these conversations and sharing of words and ideas I have gotten different perspectives and opinions thrust upon me. Some clinically presented and some passionately expressed in ALL CAPS! Not every one who has made an opposing point or argument to me has changed my opinion on a topic. But, actually listening to them, I got at least a sense of where they garnered their information from and how invested they were in the idea(s) expressed. Most people lock into their beliefs (non-religious) on politics, sports, traffic, certain types of jobs, ethnic groups, books, social media, divorce, etc and there is no budging them. Which is fine. They have collected the pertinent information to support why they are pro or anti on each. And here's a little secret that most people should know but don't. You aren't going to change their minds. Simply put you are not. Through reading, social contact or experience those things are locked down and will not be swayed in their minds. So save your breath or typing.

I am not saying I'm better than anyone. I'm just not. Am I more receptive? Perhaps. But the whole concept of being better than someone is pompous and ludacris. Put me on a dessert island and I could probably survive but in the end I'm probably closer to the character Tom Hanks portrayed in Castaway: scruffy and looking a little caveman-ish. Take someone else to that same island and they probably pimp that (stuff) out. Build themselves a log cabin with a natural jaccuzzi. Make a little alley for coconut skeeball or bowling. Now tying this back to what my father was saying: everyone has blind spots in their knowledge, places where their pool of knowledge is as deep as an $8 kiddie pool at Walmart. There is no one alive roaming this Earth or that has ever roamed this Earth who knows everything. Think you are the ultimate authority on Superman...guess what someone else knows more (see Stan Lee). Think you know every single element related to the Star Trek universe...nope, try again. You can solve a Rubik's Cube in 13 seconds? Someone knows how to do it in 10 seconds. But in those same scenarios the Superman expert may not be able to hang and mud a roomful of drywall. The Star Trekkie could be lost trying to make lasgna from scratch. And the Robik's Cube master would most likely would not be able to throw a knuckleball. With this on the table, let's all take a collective breath and listen to what the other person has to say with an open mind. No one should be asking anyone to mindlessly bow to anyone person's belief structure or logic process. In truth it may flat out be wrong for the other person based on home life, religion, diet, conditioning and pet preference.

Through my friends and family I've learned how to love, to hate, to be compassionate, to empathize, to betray, to be selfish, to be selfless and most of all how to stay humble. I do not see myself achieving the pinnacle of any given field or being the yardstick of what a softball player should be. However, by using my logical process, life experiences and Google, I think I can at least come across as not a totally floundering moron (most days). People tend to take themselves waaaaaay too seriously. Not everything in today's existence is a competition or life and death for that matter. If more people would allow their ideas to be questioned, I think they would grow more as a person. As a personal philosophy, I try to learn something new every day. It may be insignificant, it may be something taught to me by a child but learning keeps life interesting. Otherwise you are stuck listening to the same Hair Metal hits of the 80's. Don't get me wrong, there are some great songs there but if that is the only pool of music you draw from then over time those songs will grow stale and even those will lose their fun qualities.

Now, try to hop on one foot for a minute with your eyes closed. Google your last name and read the 31st search entry. Memorize the entire emsemble of a person you saw on lunch. Count the parking spaces at Kohl's. Think of how many Adele songs are actually good (spoiler alert: zero). Google map the cities you have traveled to and see which one is farthest. Walk into a business, pose like a superhero for four seconds then turn around and walk out. Ask a friend to name something they associate with you. Say "Taco Cat" forwards and backwards several times and then try to figure out if you ended up with the forwards or backwards format.

Through the silly we can relax and allow ourselves to be open to new ideas and learn new things. I'm not saying a joke or a comedian's bit will lead to us building a walking bridge to the moon, but someone else's bit of logic or OCD process may inspire a leap in a new direction. So for everyone calling down the Hellfire and brimstrone for the Trump supporters or the people who feel personally oppressed by a cartoon indian or are just offended by the sun coming up: I say chill. Others are entitled to their opinions and at the end of the day that's mostly what it boils down to - opinions. Save your expert witnesses, your filing cabinets of documents and the YouTube clip of Jesus backing your point of view. If you are not willing to allow the other person  an open, non-hostile forum to discuss and probably eventually break off the conversation without recrimminations, then why bother?

The world as we know it will still continue to evolve. The iPhone 7 world as we know it is not the finished product. Great minds around the world will continue to shape it and lead the human race in directions no one has even dreamed of yet. Just wait and see. And those people who are leading, are doing so based on being open to new ideas and asking, "OK. What if..."

Everyone have a fantastic day. Please read my Blog (Wordpress: Scott Latta Blog), find me on Twitter (@oohaw94), follow along on Facebook (Scott.Latta.7), listen to me and two of my softball friends on Podbean (SportsStalkers) and my own little stupid niche of butthurt on Podbean as well (scottlatta). If you would like drop me an email to: scottlatta@gmail.com.

Peace.

[boisentertainment]

Dark Lane Demo Tapes HD Review

Cover Art To “Dark Lane Demo Tapes”

“I’m losing enough sleep

dealing with envy and the news that they send for me 

got the block in a frenzy”

–Deep Pockets

Drake starts off Dark Lane Demo Tapes doing what he does best, effortlessly floating on the intro “Deep Pockets“, another collaboration accompanied by producer Noah “40” Shebib. Self-reflecting and reminiscing on adolescent aspirations before the transition of becoming one of the greatest artists of all time.

Drake breaking the record for Most Wins in one night at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards

Drake has been navigating through uncharted territory flawlessly. Proving this point yet again with his release of “Toosie Slide”. Drake’s 3rd single to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart making him the first male in history to achieve this milestone.

“500 mill and I’ll fall back in the six, 

finally give you n**** the space you need to exist”

-When To Say When

*Talk To em Drizzy* 

Drake follows up with two pre-released tracks, “When To Say When” & “Chicago Freestyle”. Jam packed with bars, a sample from “Song Cry” by Jay-Z (one of my all time favorite Hov songs) on “When To Say When”, and a nostalgic Eminem cadence reference on “Chicago Freestyle”.

You really love to see Drizzy remind everyone on “When To Say When” that his pen still outmatches all who oppose. Re-asserting his dominance as if it was ever in question. Subtle reminders like the bars above are what keep Drake and his competition completely separated. 

“Two-thirty, baby, won’t you meet me by The Bean?

Too early, maybe later you can show me things

You know what it is whenever I visit

Windy city, she blowin’ me kisses, no

Thirty degrees, way too cold, so hold me tight

Will I see you at the show tonight?”

Will I see you at the show tonight?”

-Chicago Freestyle

Giveon, a California native sings of the windy city as Drake gets ready to paint a picture of a night through his perception. From scrolling through his contacts of women’s names that are seemingly categorized by area code, to eventually just letting his boi Chubbs pick a girl out for him as if picking up women is as easy as shopping! Drake brilliantly segways into a memory that you forgot you had by referencing a cadence used in Eminem’s “Superman” released in 2002.

Eminem and Drake. Picture: Instagram

Don’t be fooled by the feature credit of Chris Brown….we didn’t get another “No Guidance” summer anthem….

Just a few background vocals from the R&B legend were enough to get his name on the project tracklist. Meanwhile Burna Boy is still waiting for his credits since More Life but that’s a conversation for another day. “Not You Too” Featuring Chris Brown is the first song on the project that I really don’t care for. It’s disappointing when you see a Drake and Chris Brown collaboration and it doesn’t slap..

What A Time To Be Alive is in my Top 3 favorite duo albums of all time. Whenever I see a Drake and Future collab I automatically get excited. Previously leaked, “Desires” is everything you want in a slower more laid back vibe from these two. The hook is addicting. Future’s verse is versatile with flows. His energy matches perfectly and his lyrics have SUBSTANCE. Listen to it carefully.

Photo From Future Featuring Drake “Life Is Good”

Drake has this ability to be able to sing 90% of the song, take the other 10%, completely spazz, and musically still have it make sense. These are the moments in songs like “Desires” and “Redemption” that turn slow R&B type vibe songs into a completely different entity within itself. Now all of a sudden you’re turning up and talking your sh*t instead of staring at the ceiling crying yourself to sleep. 

When I hear “Time Flies” I automatically think of Tik Tok. I don’t know why but if it blows up on Tik Tok you heard it here first! Honestly for me this, is another skip it and forget it type of song, I really hope it doesn’t go viral.

The first forty-five seconds is the only part of the song that kept my attention. Otherwise the rest is forgettable or just too similar to music that he’s already done thus not really elevating his ability here. During a full listen to the song I’m 100% paying attention during the first forty-five seconds. After that my attention doesn’t come back until he starts saying “Im Sorry”.

Don’t worry Drizzy I forgive you. 

“If he talkin’ out his head, then it’s off with it, yeah

Boardin’ Air Drake, then we takin’ off in it, yeah”

-Landed

Luckily, “Time Flies” is followed by a HEATER. Three hooks and three verses of aggressive, yet relaxed, reckless bars knowing there isn’t a consequence for you when you’re at the top. “Landed” is a slick talk, mean face, making breakfast with the speaker on 10 with the neighbors calling the cops while you’re trying to get hype for the day joint.

I wanna stop writing this review, get in my car, windows down, put this song on max volume and mean mug old people walking their dog in the suburbs for the rest of the day.

At first listen I was super excited about “D4L”. The production from Southside is out of this world. I do feel like it’s lacking a certain element. It’s easy to fall in love with a song featuring Drake, Future, and Young Thug, with this type of production. To me it just doesn’t sound organic. It sounds like it was thrown together rather than collectively created.

Honestly, I wish Drake and Future left Young Thug out of it, sat down together and created a dope record. Kind of wasted a great instrumental. 

To be blunt, I’m just not impressed with “Pain 1993”. It could be the fact that I’m not the biggest Playboi Carti fan, or it could be just because the song’s just not that interesting. I’ve replayed “Pain 1993” numerous times searching for something with depth or meaning because that, accompanied with creative cadences and complex bars, is the reason why I love Drake’s music. This didn’t do it for me. 

The intro to “Losses” is amazing. The song starts with a clip of Drake’s father Dennis Graham previewing a song Dennis had been working on recently. It ends with Dennis saying something like, “This songs about family, if anyone feel anyway about it I don’t give a f***”, classic.

It’s funny how you can listen to any Drake project and stumble upon a song that you personally aren’t really feeling. The next song is the exact song you’re looking for. Self-reflection is my favorite type of Drake song because the untouchable becomes relatable and humbled.

The second verse of “Losses” touches on Drake’s motivation on why he does what he does, “I do it for the Grahams not the Gram”. Then goes into depth about his sacrifices and choices that he’s made over the years and defends his reasoning behind them. 

“I did it by being myself with no dramatic acting

I couldn’t sit around and wait, I had to have it happen

Lost you to the game, I gotta face that

Really think I lost you like a ways back”

-Losses

Drakes starts off “From Florida With Love” paying homage to the late Static Major who was well known for his appearance on Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop”. Otherwise the song is a dope story about Wayne showing Drake “Lollipop” back in 2008 on a tour bus with Kobe Bryant. (RIP) Then the story continues with Drake getting robbed for his chain and how that lesson stuck with him for life. Further justifying his reasoning for his mentality and how he handles certain situations. 

“From that day I never touched the road without a (Plugg)

Ayy, from that day I never saw the point in talkin’ tough (Nah)

Hasn’t happened since, I guess you n***** know what’s up (Yup)

Yeah, haven’t seen the 6ix in like a month (6ix)

F*** that, I’m back, baby, where the love? (Love)”

– From Florida With Love

“VIRAL. MOVIE.”

Love to see Drake on some, what I define as, “murder music”. Type of music that just makes you wanna fight anybody, anytime… Drake absolutely BODIES the first verse but it’s a mere alley oop to Fivio Foriegn.

Fivio Foriegn sounds like he’s right at home on this one. His delivery is in your face, lyrics are gritty, his aggression is on another level. My only take back is Sosa Geek’s verse just feels, unnecessary. Or maybe I just really wish Pop Smoke was alive to clean this one up RIP. 

The final song on the project “War” was released around Christmas time 2019. The best part of this being the outro to the project is only that we can stream this song now. Despite being released months in advance it only became available on streaming services with this release.

War is a song that is being recognized as “UK Drill” which, obviously, was created in the United Kingdom. This is just another example of how Drake can travel in and out of different genres and subgenres immaculately.  

Conclusion

Overall the project is supposed to be perceived as a “mixtape” rather than an “album”. Drake is set to release a brand new studio album later this year. As a whole I enjoy the project, I’m trying to shy away from relating it to other albums because it technically isn’t an album. Dark Lane Demo Tape isn’t game changing, but it will hold the world over until the real album drops.

What was your favorite song on “Dark Lane Demo Tape”?

Tell me what you guys think in the comments below! 

Thank you for reading my “Dark Lane Demo Mixtape”  HD review. If you enjoyed this post check out boisandbartalk.com for more content from the bois! 

Love, 

Kev Clark HD

[sheminecrafts]

How Peloton made sweat addictive enough to IPO

It makes lazy people like me work out. That’s the genius of the Peloton bicycle. All you have to do is velcro on the shoes and you’re trapped. You’ve eliminated choice and you will exercise. Through a succession of savvy product design choice I’ll break down here, Peloton removes the friction to getting fit. It’s the leader in a movement I call “pushbutton health”. And this is why I think Peloton will be a big succes no matter what short-term investors do when it IPOs this week after raising $994 million in venture capital.

The bike

Basically, Peloton is a $2300 stationary bike with an iPad stuck to the front. The $40 per month subscription unlocks thousands of live and on-demand video cycling classes where instructors positively yell at you. When you think you’re tired already, they look into your eyes, tell you “you got this”, the soundtrack crescendos, you crank up the resistance, and you pedal harder at home. The resulting endorphin rush is addictive, and you find yourself persuading friends they need a Peloton too.

That viral loop which adds to its 500,000 subscribers is how Peloton plans to raise ~$1.16 billion going public this week at an ~$8 billion valuation. Its revenue doubled this year as it began to dominate the connected exercise equipment market, though losses quadrupled as it burned cash to become a household name. But after riding 110 of 150 days I’ve been home since buying its bike, I’m confident in the company. Whatever it invests now to build its lead will likely be paid back handsomely by its increasingly handsome customers who can’t bear to clip out. Here’s why.

Peloton classes are recorded in front of a live studio audience of riders

The Brilliance Of This Bike

The Shoes – Usually the activation energy to start a workout requires dragging yourself to the gym or suiting up to face the elements outside. That can be daunting enough that you rarely do. But once you slip into the Peloton bike shoes, you can hardly walk normally which means you can hardly procrastinate. You’re home so you don’t even need clothes. Just a few velcro straps and you’re over the hump and resigned to exercise.

The Clips – Home gym equipments reduces the barrier to entry but also the barrier to exit. You can tell yourself you’ll keep doing push-up sets or squats jumping rope, but you can stop any time. Yet after you’re clipped into the Peloton bike, you’re almost assured to keep pedaling until the instructor gives you that end-of-ride congratulations.

Just put the shoes on and you’ll exercise

The Schedule – You can get a sweat in just 10 or 20 minutes going hard on a Peloton. Combined with zero commute, that means you’ll practically always be able fit in a ride regardless of how busy you are. No more “I don’t have time to make it to the gym so I’ll just skip out”. When my calendar gets crunched or I dawdle a little before deciding to ride, classes as short as 5 minutes ensure there’s no weaseling out.

The Instructors – I wish I had these coaches to motivate me through sorting email. Peloton’s 20+ instructors range from hippie-dippie gurus to no-nonsense trainers that fit your personality type. You find yourself craving your favorite’s special brand of relentless positivity. I burn far more calories in a shorter time than exercising solo because they inspire me to push a little harder or they slow their countdown to add a couple all-out seconds to the end of a sprint. They’re even becoming celebrities, with bankers lining up for selfies during Peloton’s IPO road show. Sick of them? You can always Scenic Ride through video of some of the world’s prettiest bike paths.

Peloton instructors (from left): Alex Toussaint, Emma Lovewell, Ben Alldis, and Leane Hainsby

The Intimacy – You’re eye-to-eye with those instructors as they stare into the camera and out of the giant screen bolted to your handlebars. That generates intimacy despite them broadcasting to thousands. Even in person, a SoulCycle coach across the room can feel further away. You’re mostly guided by audio cues, but their gaze compels you to perform. Peloton almost feels like FaceTime, and that’s a sense of connection many long for more of these days.

The Pavlovian Response – Your brain quickly begins to associate the sounds of Peloton with the glowing feeling of finishing a workout. The rip of the velcro shoe straps, the click of clipping into the bike, but most of all the instructor catch-phrases. You get hooked on hear the bubbling British accent of “I’mmmm Leeaannne Haaaaainsby” as she introduces herself, Ben Alldis’ infectious “You got 5, you got 4…” countdowns, or Emma Lovewell reminding you to “Live, learn, love well”. That final ‘namaste’ followed by wiping down the bike and jumping in a cold shower forms a ritual you’re inclined to repeat.

Eye-contact with the instructors creates an intimate bond

The Soundtrack – Popular songs are more than just a pump-up accompaniment to Peloton classes. Your pedaling pace is often pegged to the tempo, with sprints starting when the beat drops. As your legs tire, you feel obliged to maintain your speed so you don’t fall behind the drums. You can even search classes by music genre and preview each’s playlist. Peloton has paid out $50 million in royalties for its music, and faces $300 million-plus in lawsuits for copyright infringement. But having the best tunes to bike to might end up worth the penalty since it helped Peloton race ahead in a lucrative market.

The Bike As Decor – Most home exercise equipment ends up in a closet or as a clothing rack. By designing its bicycles for beauty, Peloton coerces you to place them conspicuously in your home. You might have seen the hysterical Twitter thread parodying this practice, but it’s funny because it’s true. You’re a lot more likely to ride it if it’s central to your home (ours is between our bed and the doors to the veranda), and you’ll be embarassed if visitors ask about it and you haven’t hopped on recently.

“A good place for your Peloton bike is between your kitchen and your living room facing the cactus garden so you always remember virtual spin class” –ClueHeywood on Twitter

The Network Effect – Many of these smart product design moves could be copied by competitors. But by amassing a community of 1.4 million members to date, Peloton benefits from social features and economies of scale. You can ride together with pals over video chat, send each other digital high fives, or race and compare achievements. Each friend that joins Peloton is one more reason not to sign up for a competitor. The whole concept virtual personal training is being legitimized. And the cost of producing more classes gets spread wider as membership grows.

The Shared Accounts – Peloton has even built in a way to feel noble about your sanctimonious prosyletizing about how it “jumpstarted your metabolism”. Each $39 on-bike subscription allows unlimited accounts on up to three devices, so you can hook up some friends if you convince them to buy the big-budget gadget.

High-five fellow riders as you virtuall pass them

The Growth Hacks – Peloton streaks are for adults what Snapchat streaks are to kids: a clever way to reward consistent usage. But beyond the achievement badges displayed on your profile, you’ll get in-ride leaderboards full of people to proudly pass, progress bars to fill by pedaling, and kilojoule output high scores to beat. Peloton makes exercise a game you want to win.

The Shoutouts – Yet Peloton’s most explicit levering of our psychology comes from the in-class name-drop shoutouts instructors give. Whether mentioning the screen names of a few participants at the start of a session or congratulating users hitting their 50th, 200th, or 500th ride, the recognition pushes people to join the dozen live-streamed classes each day that add urgency to the on-demand catalog. Proof it works? People strategize to ensure their 100th ride is a long live class to maximize the chance of a shout-out.

A free cult shirt after your 100th ride

The ‘Transcendence’ – Peloton minimizes the isolation from working out at home. In fact, its whole product enables people to feel ‘glamorous’ and ‘manifested’ yet nonchalant in ways going to a sweaty gym or using a personal trainer can’t. It’s like being able to buy a little piece of the smug satisfaction and in-group affiliation of going to Burning Man. That’s why the company even sends you a free “Century Club” t-shirt when you hit your 100th ride. You’re meant to feel cool sharing that you “Peloton”, using the startup’s name as a verb.

—

Conspicuous Self-Actualization

Still, Peloton has plenty left to optimize. There’s room to expand use of its camera to offer premium one-on-one coaching, head-to-head racing, group video chat with friends, and augmented reality filters to make people feel comfortable on screen and take shareable selfies. A wider range of intense but short classes could appeal to overworked professionals who picked Peloton precisely because they don’t have an hour for the gym.

Novelty could come from celebrity guest instructors, or themed classes for pre-gaming for a night out, fans of a particular artist, or songs about a certain topic. And it should definitely have some iconic sounds like an om or singing bowl chime that play before each class to center you and after to release you.

Most excitingly, the Peloton screen has the potential to be a platform for exercise-controlled gaming and apps. Whether pedaling to escape zombies chasing you or piece together a puzzle, maintaining an output level to keep your cross-hairs locked on an enemy plane as you dogfight, or making a garden bloom by growing each flower during a different interval, Peloton could evolve riding to be much more interactive. Apps could offer training simulators for different sports focused on sprints for basketball or marathons for soccer. Or just put Netflix on it! By opening up to outside developers, Peloton could build a moat of extra experiences competitors can’t match.

With the strengths and opportunities of its core product, Peloton is poised to absorb more of your fitness time and money. It’s already branching out with yoga, meditation, lifting, bootcamp, and jazzercise classes you can do standing next to your bike or without one on its $19 per month app. Its second gadget is a $4300 treadmill.

From there it could break into more of the “pushbutton health” business. I categorize these as wellness products and services that rely on convenience instead of your will power. Think delivery health food instead calorie-counting apps that are a chore. My pushbutton regimen includes Peloton, six salads per week dropped off in batches by Thistle, monthly packages of Nomiku vacuum-sealed meals that RFID scan into its sous vide machine, and a Future remote personal trainer who nags me by text message.

It’s easy to get hooked on the positivity

Peloton could easily dive into selling meal kits, personal training, or a wider range of workout clothes to compete with Lulu Lemon. If it’s the center of your fitness routine, the company could become a gateway to new health products it owns or partners with.

I’m bullish on Peloton because I’m betting people are going to stay busy, lazy, and competitive. It offers the effectiveness of a spin class but with scheduling flexibility. It removes every excuse for staying on the couch. And in an age of visual communication where many seek to share both the journey to and the destination of an Instagrammable body and the discipline to ge there, Peloton provides conspicuous self-actualization through consumerism. Plus, finishing a ride feels damn good.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/3505bqp via IFTTT

[technicalsolutions88]

It makes lazy people like me work out. That’s the genius of the Peloton bicycle. All you have to do is velcro on the shoes and you’re trapped. You’ve eliminated choice and you will exercise. Through a succession of savvy product design choice I’ll break down here, Peloton removes the friction to getting fit. It’s the leader in a movement I call “pushbutton health”. And this is why I think Peloton will be a big succes no matter what short-term investors do when it IPOs this week after raising $994 million in venture capital.

The bike

Basically, Peloton is a $2300 stationary bike with an iPad stuck to the front. The $40 per month subscription unlocks thousands of live and on-demand video cycling classes where instructors positively yell at you. When you think you’re tired already, they look into your eyes, tell you “you got this”, the soundtrack crescendos, you crank up the resistance, and you pedal harder at home. The resulting endorphin rush is addictive, and you find yourself persuading friends they need a Peloton too.

That viral loop which adds to its 500,000 subscribers is how Peloton plans to raise ~$1.16 billion going public this week at an ~$8 billion valuation. Its revenue doubled this year as it began to dominate the connected exercise equipment market, though losses quadrupled as it burned cash to become a household name. But after riding 110 of 150 days I’ve been home since buying its bike, I’m confident in the company. Whatever it invests now to build its lead will likely be paid back handsomely by its increasingly handsome customers who can’t bear to clip out. Here’s why.

Peloton classes are recorded in front of a live studio audience of riders

The Brilliance Of This Bike

The Shoes – Usually the activation energy to start a workout requires dragging yourself to the gym or suiting up to face the elements outside. That can be daunting enough that you rarely do. But once you slip into the Peloton bike shoes, you can hardly walk normally which means you can hardly procrastinate. You’re home so you don’t even need clothes. Just a few velcro straps and you’re over the hump and resigned to exercise.

The Clips – Home gym equipments reduces the barrier to entry but also the barrier to exit. You can tell yourself you’ll keep doing push-up sets or squats jumping rope, but you can stop any time. Yet after you’re clipped into the Peloton bike, you’re almost assured to keep pedaling until the instructor gives you that end-of-ride congratulations.

Just put the shoes on and you’ll exercise

The Schedule – You can get a sweat in just 10 or 20 minutes going hard on a Peloton. Combined with zero commute, that means you’ll practically always be able fit in a ride regardless of how busy you are. No more “I don’t have time to make it to the gym so I’ll just skip out”. When my calendar gets crunched or I dawdle a little before deciding to ride, classes as short as 5 minutes ensure there’s no weaseling out.

The Instructors – I wish I had these coaches to motivate me through sorting email. Peloton’s 20+ instructors range from hippie-dippie gurus to no-nonsense trainers that fit your personality type. You find yourself craving your favorite’s special brand of relentless positivity. I burn far more calories in a shorter time than exercising solo because they inspire me to push a little harder or they slow their countdown to add a couple all-out seconds to the end of a sprint. They’re even becoming celebrities, with bankers lining up for selfies during Peloton’s IPO road show. Sick of them? You can always Scenic Ride through video of some of the world’s prettiest bike paths.

Peloton instructors (from left): Alex Toussaint, Emma Lovewell, Ben Alldis, and Leane Hainsby

The Intimacy – You’re eye-to-eye with those instructors as they stare into the camera and out of the giant screen bolted to your handlebars. That generates intimacy despite them broadcasting to thousands. Even in person, a SoulCycle coach across the room can feel further away. You’re mostly guided by audio cues, but their gaze compels you to perform. Peloton almost feels like FaceTime, and that’s a sense of connection many long for more of these days.

The Pavlovian Response – Your brain quickly begins to associate the sounds of Peloton with the glowing feeling of finishing a workout. The rip of the velcro shoe straps, the click of clipping into the bike, but most of all the instructor catch-phrases. You get hooked on hear the bubbling British accent of “I’mmmm Leeaannne Haaaaainsby” as she introduces herself, Ben Alldis’ infectious “You got 5, you got 4…” countdowns, or Emma Lovewell reminding you to “Live, learn, love well”. That final ‘namaste’ followed by wiping down the bike and jumping in a cold shower forms a ritual you’re inclined to repeat.

Eye-contact with the instructors creates an intimate bond

The Soundtrack – Popular songs are more than just a pump-up accompaniment to Peloton classes. Your pedaling pace is often pegged to the tempo, with sprints starting when the beat drops. As your legs tire, you feel obliged to maintain your speed so you don’t fall behind the drums. You can even search classes by music genre and preview each’s playlist. Peloton has paid out $50 million in royalties for its music, and faces $300 million-plus in lawsuits for copyright infringement. But having the best tunes to bike to might end up worth the penalty since it helped Peloton race ahead in a lucrative market.

The Bike As Decor – Most home exercise equipment ends up in a closet or as a clothing rack. By designing its bicycles for beauty, Peloton coerces you to place them conspicuously in your home. You might have seen the hysterical Twitter thread parodying this practice, but it’s funny because it’s true. You’re a lot more likely to ride it if it’s central to your home (ours is between our bed and the doors to the veranda), and you’ll be embarassed if visitors ask about it and you haven’t hopped on recently.

“A good place for your Peloton bike is between your kitchen and your living room facing the cactus garden so you always remember virtual spin class” –ClueHeywood on Twitter

The Network Effect – Many of these smart product design moves could be copied by competitors. But by amassing a community of 1.4 million members to date, Peloton benefits from social features and economies of scale. You can ride together with pals over video chat, send each other digital high fives, or race and compare achievements. Each friend that joins Peloton is one more reason not to sign up for a competitor. The whole concept virtual personal training is being legitimized. And the cost of producing more classes gets spread wider as membership grows.

The Shared Accounts – Peloton has even built in a way to feel noble about your sanctimonious prosyletizing about how it “jumpstarted your metabolism”. Each $39 on-bike subscription allows unlimited accounts on up to three devices, so you can hook up some friends if you convince them to buy the big-budget gadget.

High-five fellow riders as you virtuall pass them

The Growth Hacks – Peloton streaks are for adults what Snapchat streaks are to kids: a clever way to reward consistent usage. But beyond the achievement badges displayed on your profile, you’ll get in-ride leaderboards full of people to proudly pass, progress bars to fill by pedaling, and kilojoule output high scores to beat. Peloton makes exercise a game you want to win.

The Shoutouts – Yet Peloton’s most explicit levering of our psychology comes from the in-class name-drop shoutouts instructors give. Whether mentioning the screen names of a few participants at the start of a session or congratulating users hitting their 50th, 200th, or 500th ride, the recognition pushes people to join the dozen live-streamed classes each day that add urgency to the on-demand catalog. Proof it works? People strategize to ensure their 100th ride is a long live class to maximize the chance of a shout-out.

A free cult shirt after your 100th ride

The ‘Transcendence’ – Peloton minimizes the isolation from working out at home. In fact, its whole product enables people to feel ‘glamorous’ and ‘manifested’ yet nonchalant in ways going to a sweaty gym or using a personal trainer can’t. It’s like being able to buy a little piece of the smug satisfaction and in-group affiliation of going to Burning Man. That’s why the company even sends you a free “Century Club” t-shirt when you hit your 100th ride. You’re meant to feel cool sharing that you “Peloton”, using the startup’s name as a verb.

—

Conspicuous Self-Actualization

Still, Peloton has plenty left to optimize. There’s room to expand use of its camera to offer premium one-on-one coaching, head-to-head racing, group video chat with friends, and augmented reality filters to make people feel comfortable on screen and take shareable selfies. A wider range of intense but short classes could appeal to overworked professionals who picked Peloton precisely because they don’t have an hour for the gym.

Novelty could come from celebrity guest instructors, or themed classes for pre-gaming for a night out, fans of a particular artist, or songs about a certain topic. And it should definitely have some iconic sounds like an om or singing bowl chime that play before each class to center you and after to release you.

Most excitingly, the Peloton screen has the potential to be a platform for exercise-controlled gaming and apps. Whether pedaling to escape zombies chasing you or piece together a puzzle, maintaining an output level to keep your cross-hairs locked on an enemy plane as you dogfight, or making a garden bloom by growing each flower during a different interval, Peloton could evolve riding to be much more interactive. Apps could offer training simulators for different sports focused on sprints for basketball or marathons for soccer. Or just put Netflix on it! By opening up to outside developers, Peloton could build a moat of extra experiences competitors can’t match.

With the strengths and opportunities of its core product, Peloton is poised to absorb more of your fitness time and money. It’s already branching out with yoga, meditation, lifting, bootcamp, and jazzercise classes you can do standing next to your bike or without one on its $19 per month app. Its second gadget is a $4300 treadmill.

From there it could break into more of the “pushbutton health” business. I categorize these as wellness products and services that rely on convenience instead of your will power. Think delivery health food instead calorie-counting apps that are a chore. My pushbutton regimen includes Peloton, six salads per week dropped off in batches by Thistle, monthly packages of Nomiku vacuum-sealed meals that RFID scan into its sous vide machine, and a Future remote personal trainer who nags me by text message.

It’s easy to get hooked on the positivity

Peloton could easily dive into selling meal kits, personal training, or a wider range of workout clothes to compete with Lulu Lemon. If it’s the center of your fitness routine, the company could become a gateway to new health products it owns or partners with.

I’m bullish on Peloton because I’m betting people are going to stay busy, lazy, and competitive. It offers the effectiveness of a spin class but with scheduling flexibility. It removes every excuse for staying on the couch. And in an age of visual communication where many seek to share both the journey to and the destination of an Instagrammable body and the discipline to ge there, Peloton provides conspicuous self-actualization through consumerism. Plus, finishing a ride feels damn good.

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3505bqp Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

[ulyssessklein]

Promoting your Sync Placement: How to make the most of your 30 seconds of fame

Finding out that your music will be featured on a TV show can feel like a huge career breakthrough. It’s a major opportunity; one you need to plan for. “Every single week we see artists missing out on this chance to connect with new fans,” says TuneFind’s Amanda Byers.“Those potential fans aren’t going to come back later.”

There are simple things you can do to maximize your placement’s impact on your career, and easy ways to get your music and information out to potential fans.

Get your music online (and in online stores)

This sounds like a no-brainer, but many songs wind up on a show — and nowhere else. Setting up distribution can take time and require some diligence.

To make sure you’re not shortchanging yourself by signing a contract that doesn’t serve your best interests on the publishing side, it’s best to start early. “I’ve waited until the last minute before, and it cost me thousands of dollars,” notes singer-songwriter Aron Wright, whose music has appeared on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Empire, and The Vampire Diaries.

[With CD Baby Pro, you get worldwide music distribution AND worldwide publishing royalty collection, so you’ll be set up to collect all your royalties from the start.]

“A digital/indie distributor is ideal so you can sell your track across multiple platforms, but even Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or your own website is better than nothing,” agrees Byers. “Engage your new fans, make sure they know who you are. Get them to follow you on social media or get their email addresses. Get them to listen to your other songs. It all helps build your audience.”

Get your music on Shazam

It makes business sense to get your music in online stores or on streaming platforms. But don’t forget Shazam, which is how many viewers will identify your track as they watch.

“Shazam isn’t perfect–it can’t identify well if the clip is too short or if there’s dialog or background noise –but it’s an important channel for discovery,” Byers says.

Note: with CD Baby, your music will be included in Shazam’s database as part of your distribution.

Promote your placement on social media

Post about it. Tweet about it. Instagram it. Tag your friends. Ask friends and fans to share the news explicitly. Thank the Music Supervisor (using their Twitter handle) for the placement when you post there, and be sure to research and use the correct show hashtags.

You might also want to consider buying ads, but be strategic here. You can specifically target the show’s fans. Social media ads let you specifically target fans of the show, certain geographies, and audience demographics that match your typical fan base. Think carefully about how to slice and dice your potential fans, and target who you’re most likely to appeal to with that track.

Says Wright, “Do A/B testing with multiple ads and track conversions so you know what’s effective. You don’t want to spend $2 to make $.99. Think about where your ads are directing people who click, based on your goals.” Wright recommends advertising merchandise like t-shirts, not just mp3 downloads, to get more bang for your ad buck.

Look for and reach out to show fans

“You often don’t know exactly how the song will be used until the show airs. If you know it’s going to be at an important moment, get on Twitter,” Byers suggests. “Some shows also have fansites, forums, and message boards, too. These can be another venue to raise awareness.”

However, artists need to tread lightly with show fans: “If it’s just a few seconds in the background of a transitional scene and you’re making a big deal about it, you’ll get flamed,” warns Byers. “If your music is part of a major scene, or related to a specific character, you’ve got a good chance to interest a lot more fans.”

Interact with users on TuneFind

Going to places where people specifically look for the music they hear on screen will help your efforts to connect with new fans. Make sure to submit your sync placement on TuneFind, and check out fan activity on the site after the episode airs.

“TuneFind has seen lots of indie artists with sync placements come to the site and find passionate listeners who are excited about their music,” Byers says. “The back-and-forth between musicians and new fans is really great.”

“I’ve had so many people find me and my music via TuneFind over the years,” adds Wright. “Thousands of people may be looking for your song after a placement. TuneFind usually pops up first on a Google search because it’s the best organized website for TV and film placements.”

Put together a lyric (or other very simple) video and post it

Another platform viewers are likely to search: YouTube. Posting a well-annotated and tagged video there will help them find you.

“A lyric video is a great, simple way to get your track up,” Byers suggests. “It’s better to have something straightforward up there – that references your placement – than nothing at all.”

Wright agrees. For one of his first placements on Grey’s Anatomy, he spent several thousand dollars on a produced video, only to find that a far simpler video–a still photo with the song title, show name, season, and episode numbers–got far more views. “You want to put up a link bubble or other way to grab attention in the video, that sends people to iTunes. Put in as many relevant tags as possible, and give it the same title as the text you use in the video itself. That makes it highly searchable for people who know the episode, but not who you are.”

Talk to the music supervisor

When you’re coming up with your sync promotion plan, don’t forget the people who got you the placement in the first place: the music supervisor who chose your track.

Many music supervisors reach out to followers and show fans directly via social media. You can encourage them to talk about your track when they do. “You can ping a supe – politely! – and ask if they are going to mention your track and your Twitter handle,” Byers recommends. “If a supe tweets songs during a broadcast, make sure you’re included there.”

Make sure your team is making some noise

And don’t forget the sync agent who got you the placement. They may be happy to shout out the success, too. “We’ll sometimes see sync agencies or management posting about a placement,” Byers remarks. “If you’ve used an agent or have a team, make sure they are making noise, too.”

Reach out to the media

Sometimes you can get a little more press love thanks to a sync. It never hurts to reach out to journalists you admire and who cover your genre or scene and let them know. You may hear nothing back, but your sync may be just the nudge they need to cover your music.

“I got a song reviewed in USA Today, alongside Kelly Clarkson, by writing the journalist and saying the song was going to be on Grey’s Anatomy,” Wright recounts. He also advises patience and persistence, sound advice for any promotional or marketing effort. “Keep asking. You may only get one good thing out of a hundred, but that one good thing or connection with a person might be what changes everything for you. That’s how it was for me.”

About TuneFind

The leading site to find music that’s been featured in TV shows and movies, TuneFind has music listings for over 780 TV shows and another 780+ movies. Working directly with the Music Supervisors who select the music, composers, and our community of over 2 million super-fans each month, TuneFind compiles all the songs featured, including unreleased tracks, original score, and other hard-to-identify music. With over 10 years in the business, TuneFind is the top destination for fans, music licensors, artists, and labels interested in sync and soundtracks.

About Aron Wright

Nashville-based artist Aron Wright spends his days in a 100 year-old church-turned recording studio that is on the same street as his home. Rarely performing live these days, Aron’s focus has turned to what he is most passionate about: crafting songs and recording them. Aron has had success in the TV/Film world with placements on shows such as Finding Carter, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, The Vampire Diaries, Hart of Dixie, and Pretty Little Liars. Aron co-wrote the song “Hallelujah” by Panic at the Disco, featured on their album Death of A Bachelor, which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. A song that he wrote with Sean Van Vleet (lead sing of the band, Empire) entitled, “Walk Out On Me” was featured on the FOX television show Empire, performed by rock legend/actor Courtney Love. “Walk Out On Me” was also featured on the show’s soundtrack which was a Billboard #1 album.

The post Promoting your Sync Placement: How to make the most of your 30 seconds of fame appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

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Using music videos for promotion and to express a creative idea.

Years ago music videos were a promo tool for artists. A way to get music out beyond the radio waves. First little promo clips were created for songs, later developing into the music video. When MTV launched on August 1st 1981 the way people accessed music changed, it was the first 24 hour music video channel (Guerrasio, 2015). The first video played was ‘Video killed the radio star’ by the Buggles (YouTube, 2010) In my opinion it is a very beautiful irony because soon it wasn’t radio making stars it was MTV. This idea of changing how people consume media is now more relevant then ever.

Youtube established in 2005 has really changed how people access media, with  490 Million unique worldwide users per month, people had a way to discover whatever they wanted and they had more control over what they could see. (Turner 2011)   42 of the 100 most viewed channels on youtube (On 9/02/16) are categorised as Music channels (Socialblade 2017) and only 4 of the top 100 viewed videos are not music videos (February 2017) (Wikipedia 2017) So music videos are prevalent online from many different genres. Viral success could send songs into the charts a prime example Gangnam Style by Korean artist PSY. With over 2700 million views (as of February 2017), since its release in July 2014 (Youtube 2014)  it is the most successful music videos of all time, being the most watched youtube video of all time. (Wikipedia 2017) The success to this video can be down to a few different factors. The famous dance gave people something to copy and parody, and a simple search of Gangnam Style parody brings up tons of results all with millions of views a piece. The video is also so outrageous that people would want to show it to their friends and share it around. However to reach such a global market it had to reach the local one, the video contained some top Korean personalities giving the videos loads of views before it hit viral success. (Social Maximiser 2012)  As soon as the video began to reach the masses no marketing was needed, as soon everyone from celebrities to school people were watching and recreating the video.

This got me wondering if music videos are what give a song commercial success, however looking at the most viewed list again most songs are by artists who had established successful careers. So views can be linked more to the artist’s success. So why else do artists love releasing music videos? Its common knowledge that most successful songs do have videos, however these songs are singles; these songs get a lot of focus promotion from the artists and labels. Even now bands can release a well made lyric video and still get millions of views. A recent example is Ed Sheerans first two singles, which both got put online with just a lyric video. Video were released later however the songs popularity came from the original release.

  I believe that videos can be a more stylistic and creative medium for artists. I have decided to look at three bands approach to using music videos to express a visual idea of a album. PVRIS with their album 'White Noise’, As It Is with their album 'Okay.’ and Twenty One Pilots with their album 'Blurryface’.

PVRIS has released a video for every song of debut studio album White Noise (Released in 2015). With the exception of maybe 2 or 3 songs there is a very strong aesthetic linked to each video. There is a lot of monochrome imagery, and there is the a constant image of a hand mirror to start each video. If you look at these screenshots of different videos you can see a lot of similarities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ2rNvqiSWM&index=10&list=RDEMCzoshWcVf_Pu4prVk3x9SQ (Eyelids)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1y0y1EDcHM&index=4&list=RDEMCzoshWcVf_Pu4prVk3x9SQ (Fire)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktgKzlJ1EiU&index=6&list=RDEMCzoshWcVf_Pu4prVk3x9SQ (Holy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxyEwNE5QSs (Smoke)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0NqJgcbHe8&list=RDEMCzoshWcVf_Pu4prVk3x9SQ&index=5n (You and I)

  These videos are for the more calmer songs on the album (with the exception of Fire and Smoke).  These songs to me sound very atmospheric and the videos reflect this visually. I link it to how they are all very minimalistic and black and white. The use of minimalist video is rapidly rising, cutting back on any extra details draws focus to one thing. Not only thing it is a way people can cut back on production costs. (SproutVideo. 2016) The minimalist approach of these videos can really help the viewer focus on the song, and to me it’s more of a visual aid to the music. These videos definitely show a lot of creative expression from the bands members. However they also used the videos for promotional purposes as well. In the run up to the release of the deluxe version of White Noise they released a few music videos, teasing at big news coming soon. (Alternative Press 2016) This was then followed by the release of the You and I video and the announcement of the deluxe re-release. The music videos helped generate hype for the band again to make the release more successful.

The next band is As It Is with their second studio album Okay. The album has a very strong concept and imagery. They created a fake company, Happy Co, who commercialise and sell happiness, even with a online store which demonstrates this fact, by 'selling’ products like Happy Pills and the Happy Car. (Happy Co 2016) The company first appeared in September when the band began teasing the album. Each member changed their display images on twitter to a please stand by message and also linked people to the Happy Co twitter. This all lead up to release of the title track of the album Okay. at the end of September. The concept was still a bit vague to fans, however many people were picking up on the 50s style being used by the band. I was one of the first people to get a more in-depth idea of the concept when I got to be part of the first video from the album Pretty Little Distance. The 50s look of the album was confirmed more when they dress code was 50s High School Prom. When we were briefed for the video they explained the concept of Okay. as the idea of people living with pseudo happiness. How people were being marketed this idea of a perfect life, the slogan of Happy Co being ain’t life swell? One of the lines of the song is 'ain’t life swell from a pretty little distance’, and one of as it is team explained that line from us saying that from a distance you can ignore any negatives and just see the good, and that in the album its As Is It fighting this idea letting people know it’s okay to not to be okay. We got this briefing so we could understand our roll in the video as we had to dance and look happy. Portraying that we are living under this pseudo happiness regime of Happy Co. The band used this video to further the look and concept of the album to really help boost the story and message of the album. You can see this theme develop more in the latest video for song 'Hey Rachel’ while the video focuses on the more personal aspect of the song you do seem some of the albums themes. The 50s style is very prominent you can also see in the acting style of the mum you see a very big obviously false smile. I feel like the concept will be shown a lot more in future videos as well as exploring the idea of Happy Co.

  However in my personal opinion my favourite example of this is My Chemical Romance, they were very good at this visual artist representation of their music. While many people remember the black marching band jackets and monochrome colour scheme of the iconic Black Parade album I favour the follow up album; Danger Days:The true lives of the fabulous killjoys. This album aesthetic almost worked in parallel with  the terms of the last album. Both the sound and visuals changed drastically as the band moved on from the story of a dying cancer patient to the story of 4 freedom fighters in post apolyptic 2019. A decision which saved the band, after a vigorous touring cycle and playing out the Black Parades story every night the band nearly split. (Bryant 2014)

  The album was teased with a trailer in September 2010. (Youtube 2010) Full of bright colours and small action sequences you would think this was a trailer for a comic book coming to life on screen. Which makes sense as frontman Gerard Way is a keen artist who designed all of the characters seen. (Popbuzz 2015) There is also various other videos on the bands youtube channel which introduces the company BL/ind. However the clearest explanation to the Danger Days universe came from a more recent video on the bands channel. I’m unsure if it is a re-upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXC8bCihevU

This  video gives a strong backstory, we know the world has been destroyed in a war named the Helium war, Australia has vanished and BL/ind has taken over what remains of the USA. We also know the Fabulous Killjoys (MCR) are trying to protect an orphan girl.

Their story is told through two music videos, Na Na Na and Sing. Na Na Na is full of bright colours and you see the characters living their life in the outskirts with some action sequences and you can see who they are running from. We are introduced to the killjoys, Party Poison, Jet Star, Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid. Then at the end of the video we see them lying almost dead on the ground and the girl being kidnapped. (Youtube 2010) The Sing video is a rescue mission, the bright colours are no longer present and after a action sequence the killjoys are killed and the girl escapes with the help of ‘Doctor Deaftify’ who is seen at the beginning of the Na Na Na video. (Youtube 2010)

The Danger Days concept is a true example of a musicians artistic visualisation of music. Gerard Way explained how the album was based off a comic idea he had. He later after the spilt of MCR co-wrote a short comic series ‘The True Live Of The Fabulous Killjoys’. Where the story of the girl continued of her at age 16. (Whitt 2013) The two videos which portrayed this story brought Way’s image to life, giving the band the chance to break away from the dark image of the previous album which was dragging them down. Not only that it was a creative involvement for the fans who began creating their own killjoy characters for their own creative expression.

As someone who aspires to make music videos I love this idea of bringing an artist creative idea to life. Music is such a creative art form and I believe that having a video to further express the idea is really important and through my research I appreciate music videos a lot more.

    Reference List

Guerrasio, J. (2015) 'A very ironic video was the first one ever played on MTV 34 years ago.' Business Insider, 1 August. Accessed online via http://uk.businessinsider.com/video-killed-the-radio-star-34th-anniversary-of-music-video-on-mtv-2015-7?r=US&IR=T (Last accessed 20.2.2017)

YouTube (2010) 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. BugglesVevo. Accessed online via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs (Last accessed 20.2.2017)

Amy-Mae Turner. 2011. 10 Fascinating YouTube Facts That May Surprise You. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mashable.com/2011/02/19/youtube-facts/#ZfeO.0onbGq6. [Accessed 20 February 2017].

Top 100 YouTubers sorted by Most Viewed - Socialblade YouTube Stats | YouTube Statistics. 2017. Top 100 YouTubers sorted by Most Viewed - Socialblade YouTube Stats | YouTube Statistics. [ONLINE] Available at: http://socialblade.com/youtube/top/100/mostviewed. [Accessed 20 February 2017].

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Wikipedia. 2017. List of most viewed YouTube videos - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_viewed_YouTube_videos. [Accessed 20 February 2017].

Social Maximizer Blog. 2012. Why Gangnam Style Became So Popular – The Reasons Behind Its’ Horse-Riding Success! : Social Maximizer Blog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.socialmaximizer.com/why-gangnam-style-became-so-popular/. [Accessed 20 February 2017].

SproutVideo. 2016. What’s So Great About Minimalist Video? - SproutVideo. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sproutvideo.com/blog/what-is-so-great-about-minimalist-video.html#close. [Accessed 21 February 2017].

Alternative Press. 2017. PVRIS debut long-awaited “Eyelids” music video - News - Alternative Press. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/pvris_debut_long_awaited_eyelids_music_video. [Accessed 28 February 2017].

Happy Co.. 2017.  Happy Co. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://happyco.limitedrun.com/. [Accessed 21 February 2017].

Tom Bryant, 2014. The True Lives of My Chemical Romance: The Definitive Biography. Main market ed Edition. Sidgwick & Jackson.

YouTube. 2010. My Chemical Romance - "Na Na Na" (Official Music Video) - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU. [Accessed 27 February 2017].

YouTube. 2010. My Chemical Romance - SING [Official Music Video] - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTgnDLWeeaM. [Accessed 27 February 2017].

Cassie Whitt. 2013. ‘The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys’ comic (co-written by Gerard Way) issue one covers revealed. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/the_true_lives_of_the_fabulous_killjoys_comic_co_written_by_gerard_way_issu. [Accessed 27 February 2017].