#it's also so bad with the goats album coming out... like nothing and no one is safe

[adamshallperish]

new hozier and ethel cain out... big day for annoying people

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Hi. How do you do? I'm here to vent🪑:

So I'm a Jikooker (yes I know, foolish. But once I get into something, it's hard to let go. That's just who I am, unfortunately). I'm a Jimin-biased Jikooker and one of the well-known Jikooker blogs I follow (I won't mention their name because I don't want to bring them hate) made a shady post about PJMs about two days ago. They said Jimin is the member who attracts the weirdest solos. When PJMs came for them, they switched up on some "all solos are bad/it's dumb being a solo".

But they explained why they don't like PJMs specifically, said that group have been the one who've always attacked them the most, so they say these things based on their own personal experiences. Which is understandable, right? I know all the members' solos hate Jimin specifically and spend their days saying the ugliest things about him, but I personally hate JJKs the most because they are the worst of them all, they make Jimin biased people's experience very unpleasant online, they say the most horribly awful things about Jimin..

This blogger said it's funny how PJMs who accuse her of being a JM anti also accuse her of being a JK stan in the same breath and that she didn't understand why it's PJMs always flocking to their blog and not other members' solos. I sent them an ask about this, saying the reason why only that specific group of people keep coming for them and why they accuse them of such things is probably because they've always had high praises for JK while being dismissive of Jimin/anything about him and only praising him the context of the ship.

For example, around May last year, they'd say things like "JK is going to be the member to really blow it out of the park" in terms of success about 'Seven' and his upcoming solo album. They once answered a shady ask that said JK doesn't look like he baths these days and they said "you know you're talented as hell as an artist when antis drag you about bathing. It's because they know they can't drag him about his singing, dancing and performing because he does all those exceedingly well. Man is goated AF". There's nothing wrong with what they said, people have different tastes and JK is clearly the best thing since sliced bread for them.

But then in another ask/post, they'd talk about how they don't like Jimin's voice at all because it sounds too nasal. Which is also fine, because like I said, different tastes. But the contrast between how they talk about JK vs how they talk about JM makes sense as the reason why people would flock to their blog and call them a JM anti/JK solo, isn't it?

This person has made posts that have so obviously been heavily biased towards JK. They say they're OT7 and they don't bias JK at all but their many posts about JK vs about the other members seriously contradict that. They try to come across as "I love all seven equally" (although they did admit that their affection for Tae has waned) but just going through their entire blog or following them for the past three years as I have will show you that's a complete lie and that they obviously love Jungkook a lot more than the others.

I told them about the times they'd speak so well about JK from an artist point of view - they praise his dance, praise his singing, praise him as a person, as Jungkook the individual outside of Jikook. But every time it comes to Jimin, it's "gosh that man is so sexy. I bet you JK tires that ąss out", every time Jimin posts a dance video, it's "but JK is truly such a lucky man". It's never praises about Jimin as an individual and an artist. No, those praises have to involve JK, and they have to be about sex. And it's understandable why Jimin biased people/PJMs would get triggered because we've had to deal with the fandom erasing Jimin's talent as achievements and reducing him to being "cute, sexy, fckable".

I also mentioned the FACE to Seven to GOLDEN era when people sent them asks about how Jimin seems to be getting sabotaged by the company for JK and how the fandom attacked Jimin for getting not even 1% of what JK got but kept quite when JK got it all, and how they (the blogger) dismissed the anons who said the company is sabotaging JM but had all the time in the world to talk about how terrible Jimin's solo stans are for attacking JK for his career choices.

I told them that most Jikook accounts who seem so biased towards JK and defend what HYBE has been doing to Jimin in favour of JK, eventually became JK solo focused accounts after 'Seven'. I don't think they'd ever become a solo, though, because they seem to really care about some other members (I just don't think Jimin is one of them lol)

I told them that for all these reasons, I don't blame people for accusing them of being a JK solo/Jimin anti. I thought they'd respond to my ask because I genuinely wanted to understand their perspective but they made a bullsht post saying they've blocked all anons because people just want them to explain themselves over and over again and that they don't like PJMs and we'll just have to deal with it.

I laughed. Because it's so obvious they didn't know how to respond to my ask so they took the easy way out and at the end of the day, they win, because they get to twist things and make their followers see things as they want them to see them and Jimin stans are forever the bad guy.

Someone called them out on always having the time to write posts about how Jimin stans are "being weird" and attacking "other members" again (the "other members" is always JK lol because this bloggers posts always come out when PJMs attack JK. They never complain when PJMs are all up on Yoongi or Tae or the others) but never calling out JJK for attacking others, especially Jimin. Their response was "I actually talked about this on my personal account and vented to a friend but everything always has to be said publicly for y'all". Sure, Jan. It's very convenient how they can always complain about PJMs publicly for all to see but when it's about Jungkook's stans it has to be done privately. They talked about "solo stans" (it was PJMs who said those disgusting things and we all know) accusing JK of being groomed by BangPD and sleeping his way to the top, but there has never been a single post about how "solo stans" have been saying the exact same things about Jimin for years and especially during FACE era, and how they've said even worse things.

Anyway I just wanted to say I'm so done with Jikookers. They don't care about Jimin at all, never did. I should have seen it with the "Jimin would be ashamed to see you guys saying JK doesn't seem to care that Jimin's career is being hurt because of him", when that's literally what it looks like. I should have seen it with the "why do people hate Jikook so much?" comments, when it's actually only Jimin getting hate and Jungkook being portrayed as the trapped victim. Even Taehyung gets more defended by them: every time other Jikookers hate Taehyung for "deliberately feeding Taekookers" (as they say) these Jikook bloggers write lengthy posts about Taehyung alone, highlighting his "innocent" personality and the times he's shown how much he adores his members and would never hurt anyone of them. But when Jimin gets accused of being an attention seeker, a fanservice king who enjoys "feeding Jokers", they write lengthy posts about JIKOOK and their bond/moments.

They really do not care about Jimin at all. I wonder what they see when they look at him. I really wish I could literally see through their eyes and find out how they really see Jimin because it's all so bizarre.

I remember saying once that Jungkook biased jikookers were the most delusional jikookers. Most Jimin biased people jumped ship a few years ago, and now all there's left is Jungkook biased jikookers. They're the majority, by a landslide. Literally 4/5 jikook blogs you come across on Tumblr, are Jungkook biased. And they're all delusional, they all talk the same way, share the same theories, etc. In general, Jungkook has always had the most shipper fans out of all the members because he's shipped with everyone. Anyways, I said they were the most delusional and my point gets proven everyday.

I genuinely believe you have to be able to will yourself into ignoring a lot of things about Jungkook to be his fan, and I say that from first-hand experience because at some point in history I used to like him a lot, too. But there was always a "wish he hadn't done that wish he hadn't said that". In almost every piece of content, there was without fail a moment where I felt like I had to settle for Jungkook; "oh well he's too young; oh well he's awkward at expressing himself; oh well he didn't think that through; oh well he's impulsive". Eventually, I just got tired and bored of the same shit year after year. Speaking only about attitude though, his attitude is better than it was a couple of years ago, at least on the surface, and I have no qualms about admitting that. But I'm not really a second chance type of person so it's been over.

If she's a jikookers she's obviously gonna have readers who are interested in Jimin and Jungkook both together and separately. Why is she wondering about Jimin "solos" going to her blog? Is she stupid? She must be. Because if she didn't want pjms or Jimin biased people to reach out to her, then maybe she could just dissociate Jimin from her blog and that's it. It's not that hard. But if she keeps calling herself a joker...

This isn't about pjms. I have no business defending them and myself I've made fun of them and all before. But what's fair is fair, and the truth is that they're not the worst. Please, a lot of them even felt bad for Taehyung when Jungkook was having his 2739483rd listening party during layover's release.

Sexually charged insults, edits, racism, nepotism accusations, blowing up fake info in hopes it'll turn into a scandal. All done against Jimin by Jungkook's fans, both solos and taekookers. Who were the first ones to call Jimin a sexual predator? Who were the first people to accuse Jimin of sleeping with CEOs? Exactly. And it's been YEARS. This isn't something that started in July 2023; it's been going on for fucking years, since 2017 if not before. I talk about it because I saw it all while it was happening, and I saw pjms walking away from the fandom and becoming solos. They didn't even hate on the members until it got really bad -die a hero or live long enough to become the villain or whatever.

You'd take a look at pjm twitter in 2018, 2019, 2020 and it was all Jimin content, "hybe mistreating Jimin" threads (that had NOTHING to do with other members), and even some ship content enjoying yoonmin, vmin, jikook, because pjms actually liked them. Those were pjms. Meanwhile, taekook lives already existed. Meanwhile, DC gallery was already filling up with the most disgusting stuff about Jimin that wasn't even true.

Every time anyone mentioned the hate against Jimin, it was "move silently, block and report, do not engage". Okay, cool. Now, there's hate against Jungkook and it's rant after rant about pjms. What happened to just block and report silently? Now they're enraged enough to talk about it? Now they want to bring attention to it and call it out for the sick behavior it is? Now, when it's against Jungkook but not when it was against Jimin?

The other thing is that jikookers don't want to admit that they're in bed with taekookers. Taekookers are ALSO Jungkook stans. Jungkook solos, taekookers, they're all Jungkook stans but jikookers don't want to hold accountable for what they say and instead they charge against pjms because they don't want to be grouped with people as deranged as taekookers for being a Jungkook fan. They try their hardest to not associate Jungkook to his solos because in their mind, the fans actually do represent the idol. So Jungkookie can't have deranged fans under any circumstance; it's all and only pjms. Deep down, that's exactly what they're doing; in their minds, pjms are a representation of Jimin, but Jungkook solos, taekookers and deranged jikookers are not a representation of Jungkook. How does that work?

My personal favorite is when they say 'how can Jimin have such evil fans when he's the kindest?". What do they mean? That Jungkook deserves to have jjks and taekookers as fans? Mmmmm!!! If solo stans are a representation of the members, what does it say of Jungkook that he has fans like muri?

I don't know if you're talking about who I think you're talking about, but I've seen a blog that sounds a lot like what you're describing. Someone sent me a link once, and I replied to their ask. I can't look for it right now, but I'll try to search for it during the weekend. So, I saw that blog and it was essay after essay about seven and the tools from the company and scooter, etc. Defending all of it. Which, okay if they think it's cool. But anyone who dared to say that Jimin was neglected and Jungkook was pushed by favoritism or something along those words, while not even being mean about it, mind you, a lot of people just wondering why; they were like "just say you're a Jimin solo and go". That's how they'd reply. Everyone, anyone who dared to have a different opinion or a less than favoring one about Jungkook or his career, was immediately called an anti and a solo. A Jimin solo, mind you.

Then, I also saw this ask:

So, someone saying "I hate so many things about jimin" is "not a rare breed", but saying "Jungkook payola" is an anti, and stupid and a Jimin solo.

It seems criticism -whatever the type- about one of them is okay, but if it's about the other it's bad? If that isn't the literal definition of bias...

Imagine I went to her and said this exact thing or something similar but about Jungkook, pointing out a thing I don't like about him; do you think I would get a "sameee you're so valid" or would I get lectured on all the good things about him?

If they're so bright, so quick on their feet, so much better than solos, how come they didn't think this could be a Jimin anti pretending to be a fan? How come they didn't get labeled as an akgae of other member immediately?

I don't know how they don't get tired or bored of pretending. Is life really that dull for them that they have to create a whole personality on the internet? Pretending they like someone they don't really like?

At the very least, people should begin to question themselves why it's okay to talk freely about Jimin's voice, or any other thing they see as flaws in him, and they're okay with those conversations; but they cry and throw up if someone says the dumbest, smallest shit about Jungkook? Just accepting that you don't care about both of them in the same way, and that you believe one is more talented and more deserving than the other, could be a good start.

[shatterthefragments]

2, 12, 13? 🎶

Thank you~ music asks

2. One band you always come back to?

Marianas Trench (FIX ME MY FUCKING BELOVED… well. Most of their albums tbh. But I’m most likely to go for FIX ME if I’m having A Time)

12. What musician would you like to hang out with for a day?

Oh 👀 oh no eep 😳 hmmm

Like for who seems like a chill person to hang out with and such? Hmm.

So. Here’s where I admit I usually don’t seek out information on musicians outside of maybe a pique of curiosity I’ll read their Wikipedia once and then forget anymore. (Currently I actually know some band members names though. And I’m just??? How???) (However I am EATING UP these II Drumeo videos. I’ve even watched most if not all of them!!) and like while it would probably be cool to hang out with any of the eepies I also really enjoy the separation from their stage characters.

So like if it’s a famous musician… hmm. Maybe Emily Hopkins if YouTube counts… (I’d probably just be blushing the whole time though bc she’s SO CUTE) or Ichika Nito seems chill. My initial thought was oh maybe Tim Henson but. Actually, nah. Maybe Tosin Abasi though.

If it must be someone famous famous… Idk. Don’t meet your idols or whatever. But Noah Kahan has SEVERAL dogs. And Taylor Swift has several cats? Anybody know of one who has a mini goat farm?

Idk if Maggie Stiefvater still has goats after her move but if she does then Maggie Stiefvater! (I’ve been lucky enough to attend one of her writing workshops when she toured doing them pre pandemic but she’s also an amazing artist and musician!)

I probably would’ve had a more resolute famous person like a decade ago.

Maybe Will Ramos if I can steal his hair 👀 (when I say I want to look very similar to him 👀)

If it doesn’t have to be a famous musician first impulse is YOU Or Halo @eepymonstrr bc HALO GOSH DARNIT YOURE EVEN FARTHER AWAY.

13. Name four or more flawless albums?

CHOOSING IS HARD!!! 😁 but I’ll try to keep it to one album per artist~

I Love You. by the neighbourhood

Ever After by Marianas Trench

(All of Sleep Token’s Albums. Perhaps This Place Will Become Your Tomb is the closest to my heart though.)

Dance Fever by Florence + the Machine

Finding God Before God Finds Me by Bad Omens

DISPOSE by The Plot In You

New Levels New Devils by Polyphia

For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert

That’s The Spirit by BMTH

Back From the Dead by Halestorm

SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama

Laurel Hell by Mitski

lately I feel EVERYTHING by Willow

Circus by Britney Spears

Daughtry by Daughtry

OMENS by 3OH!3

One-X by three days grace

Going to Hell by The Pretty Reckless

Save Rock and Roll by Fall Out Boy

Expectations by Hayley Kiyoko

Cheap Queen by King Princess

And some that I almost put into this list but for some reason are separate in my head:

Time to win vol II by down with Webster

This is Gonna Hurt by Sixx:A.M.

the Long Road by Nickelback

State of Mind by the faim

Moral Panic by nothing but thieves

Babel by Sam tinnesz

[exrocist]

tag game: 3 books, 3 movies, and 3 songs

that changed your life or you just love.

Tagged by @zhabk4, thank youuu U__U <333 I don't usually do these (though it always makes me happy to get tagged!) but I was like. nnrrghhh must talk about Earthsea. soo.

(lots of rambling below the cut little bit embarrassed!!!!)

Books:

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin ; Nothing I say about this book (this series!) can do it justice honestly everyone on the Earth should read Earthsea. like really really read it patiently and intensely and with a savor because you will never encounter reality so closely and clearly ever again. everything about it is real to me but this book particularly struck me just because. well. lebannen. a force undeniable. I didn't know I was capable of loving so deeply and profoundly until I knew him. he is the best. I love you Lebannen 💥💥💥 I love everything about these books honestly. immense grace aside that shit also inspired perhaps the most intense and creatively demanding period of my life & broke down a lot of the mental partitions that I had constructed around what my hands are capable of. And I am still really bobbing through the wake of even now. Hopefully more marvelous things to come. There is much more strength to be drawn from this place yet if I can stomach it. sighs.

Death with Interruptions by José Saramago ; My words are failing me here but like. Saramago's voice and style have become real fixtures for me. I need to read a Saramago at least once every few months or my life loses its musicality. This is where I started with him so it gets to be on the list but Cain is also a great one for many many many more reasons that would be toooo much talking. for me to post.

I feel like by law I have to put Plato's Republic here which like. honestly not the most philosophically valuable work or even my drug of choice these days but was a thirteen year old's first inquest into the field that would become his only scholastic passion. so ! (He didn't even know he would have to read it seven times during his undergrad 😭) but if we want another novel to put here maybe We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver (mostly because of one sequence but also Shriver's great at writing in the voice of wry & cerebral women whose sentimentality is kind of shielded by their overt insight it gives them real internal lushness).

Honorable mention also to Isaac Asimov's I, Robot and subsequent novels of Asimov's future chronology which are currently fucking me up beyond measure. My recommendation here is read I, Robot (Or The Complete Robot!) and maaaybe Caves of Steel (tightly written marvel with only forgivable weaknesses of unprobed psychologies) and then stop. Just don't keep going okay. I've also had um Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore still swimming around in my mind despite having finished it a good while ago.

Movies:

Uhhh I don't w.atch. errr. Movies I can think of that I've watched just at all of my own volition: Raw (2016). good experience but didn't move me hugely taboo-pushing which is awesome conceptually but not in the right ways for me idk. not a bad movie at all though definitely some kind of stupid elements at play as well.

Uhhhhhhhhh.

?????????

Songs

Spent Gladiator 2 - The Mountain Goats ; I know I know I'm sorry I'm so trite and pedestrian but like. song with a non-negligible influence on me NOT killing myself <3

Wait List - All Get Out ; song with a non-negligible influence on me actively killisdukydhkuhldfhuik

I/m Not Here [missing face] - The Twilight Sad ; idk is this even a song I could live without. could I have the strength to do anything if not for this five minute dronefest. they need to start creating standardized ritual/ecstatic behaviors for the tracks off this album.

Honorable mentions: San Fermin's The Woods (if you were to ask me about artists they would most definitely be very much up there... Mr. Ludwig-Leone's artistry has been cradling me for a very long time), Say Yes to Everything by We Cut Corners (best band ever ever ever!!!), Topography by Civilian, Dump Your Dreams by A.S. Fanning (i love music).

I did badly at this but I think I made up for not having any movies by talking so much elsewhere. ermmm.

Only tagging @twilitfossil (Jesse Pinkman voice) do it bitchhhhhh also @ataliaf but only if you want to n__n <3333

[sungbeam]

HELLO?? ACTUALLY NO YOU DID NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO SHOW THE WIPS(/jkjk) BC NOW IT’LL BE THE ONLY THINGS I THINK ABT NAURRRRR

ARGH I JUST KNOW THAT SLOW DANCING WILL BE PEAK 2000S ROMCOM AS WELL AND I SHALL EAT IT UP 😮‍💨🙏🙏 e2l, rekindling of love, A WEDDING, FAKE DATING??? RAH TOO GOOD

AND THEN JACOB ALTER EGO OK I SEE YOU I SEE YOU 🫣 AND PLEEK HAWKEYE IS ONE OF THE ONLY MARVEL MOVIES I HAVENT WATCHED HELPPPP BUT I’LL SEE IF IT’S ON DISNEY+ LMAO AND THEN AN ANGSTY KISS IN THE RAIN??? LEMME KISS YOU BEAUTIFUL BRAIN RN

And also…. Bloodied up Sunwoo…. Phew… I HOPE NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO THE BOYS AND THAT THEY NEVER DROP A SPECK OF BLOOD FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES BUT YOU’RE SO REAL FOR THAT LIKE THE MAVERICK ALBUM PICS HAD ME FEELING SOME TYPA WAYYYYYYYYYYY 🫣🫣🫣🫣 but eek the perfume counter scene sounds SOOO COOL can’t wait to see it!

And I’m not sure if I would be a casual marvel fan or an actual marvel fan like I’ve watched nearly all the movies and I know most of the lore but I din’t really catch up with the comics and I’m basically only gated to the movies and series spinoffs 😭 I’ve been a lil slacking since covid but I’m trying to catch up with the wasp and now quantumania! (Hopefully I spelt that right) but yeah! I’ve been watching marvel since I was a little kid lolol so I’m always down every year to see the new marvel movie!

But yeahhhhh I feel like I was somewhat prepared to see GOTG3 just cause I saw the Rocket floor clip on youtube but damn it still didn’t prepare me to see how horrific,y they were treated 😭 Floor’s design freaked me out the most but she was still so sweetie and it just ARGH ☹️☹️

But yeah! MANIFESTING THAT TBZ COMES TO BOTH OF OUR CITIES THIS TOUR I SWEARRR 😭🙏 and hold awn, how were you able to write the Changmin fic on a PLANEEEEEE pla I’m always so embarrassed when I whip out my ipad to even watch a movie 😭 like phew you are wayyyy stronger than me JSUNFJGNE

Also, just a fun lil question, if you were to turn ANYYYYYY of your fics into a live action movie, which one would it be 😳 (could be published or a WIP 🤭)

- Love you 3000, 🌷 anon

THIS REPLY GOT SUPER LONG LMFAO

SLFNKDNFKDJFJ HEY IF THEYRE STUCK IN MY HEAD, IMMA MAKE EM STUCK IN URS TOO 😁😁😁 PLS THE 2000S ROMCOM ALLEGATIONS ILY AHAHHA i just need to write more tension for that man like it's nearly impossible NOT to atp, and i found this thing on pinterest the other day

ITS SO HARD NOT TO THINK OF HIM FOR THESE AND AKDNKEKD (´Д⊂ヽ I THINK SLOW DANCING WOULD BE THE PERFECT EXCUSE

okok i found the one hawkeye ronin scene from end game for reference, and im sure u can find the one scene on yt somewhere cuz it was FIRE

LMAO I JUST REALIZED BUT NAT IN THE BACKGROUND LOOKS LIKE 🧍🏻‍♀️ AHHAHAHAHAH BUT essentially, i saw jacob in the roar mv and thought of this IMMEDIATELY !! omg no cuz i also wish them all the good health in the world, but i just have a morbid obsession w bloodied and bruised aus and whump tropes, like i wanted bruised knuckles and busted lips and split eyebrows y'know ??? and GODDDD THERES A REASON MAVERICK HAD ME BY THE NECK FOR SO LONG LIKE IT WAS THE FIRST TBZ TT THAT I WAS OBSESSED W it's like,,, my perfect concept like it was MADE TO APPEAL TO MY DERANGED AESTHETIC??? so yeah im ready to beat up sunwoo, chxngmxn, and jacob 🙏🏼

ahhh icic, i think i would have also been a casual watcher but my parents were so into it so my brother and i also, naturally, became hooked !! i also was not able to really read the comic books bc they cost money and there r just so many of them :')) but yeah, hope ur able to catch up !! it's taken me a bit to catch up too esp w college 😭🤧 but im getting there !! quantumania was prob my least favorite release so far of the recent mcu releases and that makes me SO SAD like JUSTICE FOR PAUL RUDD!!!!!

OMG FLOOR :(( TEEFS AND LYLLA ALL OF TJEM HAD ME SO SAD AND TERRIFIED AT RHE SAME TIME?? pls what animal was floor....... a goat?? a bunny?????? FLOOR'S MOUTH TOO LIKE WHAT'D THEY DO TO HER 😭😭😭😭😭 i didn't realize they completely gave lylla ROBOT ARMS EITHER LIKE I WAS PREPARED FOR A SEA OTTER NOT A CYBORG SEA OTTER skcneknfk okay but it's also like they're all kind of disabled but super cool and i loved teefs' little wheelchair?? even tho the high evolutionary def did some cruel fkn shit to them :')))))

AJAHHAHAHA im used to writing on my phone !! so writing on a plane's no problem for me as long as im not in writer's block yk 🤡🤡 im def worried abt my neighbors seeing the banners i make tho LMFAO

KSNFKSJDJDN TULIP I LOVE U MWAH 😚😚 I HAVE THOUGHT ABT THIS QUESTION SO MANY TIMES ??? and tbh i think if i had the time energy and resources, i would've gone into film for real bc i write so many of my fics in the view of like a movie rather than like a book, idk how to explain it skcnekkckf okok but hmmmm this one isn't tbz specifically, and idk if u stan txt or know them but

this one is another superhero au and i've honestly REALLY thought abt turning the idea into a proper novel idea, or maybe a screenplay !! I've thought abt the music and cinematic scenes for a couple plot points, but it might be a little too similar to spiderman in some instances 😅😅 but it's essentially a txt choi line au where reader is the superhero, and i don't really wanna give away too much bc im very gatekeepy w ideas that i like A LOT haha but yeah skfnskfmkf

SKFNKD I JUST REALIZED THIS IS ANOTHER SUPERHERO AU PLS 😭😭😭😭 BUT this is another one i think would be SICK as a tv show/movie, maybe it's cuz it's based off of like moon knight and ms marvel and shangchi and spiderman but i think that the quality and vibe of the storyline and characters would work so well as one?? and just the potential of lighting as symbolism in this is just TOO HIGH and osdjoenfk ugh i get so excited talking abt this

THIS ONE. THIS. ONE. would work so well as like a show or movie???? i just envision it with like taylor swift's miss americana and the heartbreak prince and im in tears at how cool it would be akcnkenfkf just the vibe of that song is what that entire thing would be like, like imagine how the sky looks JUST after the sun has set, but the glow of light is still in the sky and making it this reddish kind of color— it's called half-light and just imagine that with like stadium lights and darkened school hallways and kscnkenfk it's a time travel au, so i think those r always so much fun to depict in media and yeah :')))((

i could literally talk abt this all day every day but i almost forgot to go to class so i will sign off here LOL o7

I LOVE U 3000 TULIP 🌷🫂💖

[hzrnvm]

before i go to bed, 5, 6, 21, 49, and 60 :)

5 (Favorite Genre): H'm... i've got to say i've never really thought of this before, but I guess if I had to put everything together the only thing i can think of that would cover it well would be rock. i think the main thing I care about in music is that the lyrics and at least one (1) other thing is nice. sometimes if the other thing is good enough it can make up for shoddy lyrics but that almost never happens. the other way around (good lyrics but nothing else) can happen though, but it usually results in me getting into the song for a few weeks then dropping it.

6 (Favorite Song): My favourite song of all time is This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody). Specifically the Stop Making Sense rendition but the Speaking in Tongues version isn't bad or anything. I've never really went in depth into how much i love this song and why, but I probably will someday. the conditions have to be very right though. and to make up for the fact that I can't talk in depth about the song, i'll say my second favourite song: Up the Wolves from The Sunset Tree by The Mountain Goats.

21 (too few songs for one album): See so one of my favourite albums of all time, and one that I spend a lot of my time thinking about (and as such I have a very deep understanding of), Remain in Light, has 8 songs. And I always loved that amount. It was actually a weird shift when I got into They Might Be Giants: I didn't know what to do with all the songs on one album! But when I think about it, 8-10 being my favorite amount doesn't mean 6-7 and 11-12 are the same. I think once you're dropping below 7 you're teetering tottering man.

49 (song of winter): Now since this follows "song of the year" i can't tell if this means best song that came out this winter or a winter-y song but if it's asking for a wintery song (im taking this to mean not like a christmas song or song about winter but just one with vibes I associate with winter) i can give... ok: Dinu Lipatti's Bones (The Sunset Tree – The Mountain Goats. I just realized this one mentions winter in the song. coincidence [not technically but in a way] lol) and something from In Rainbows by Radiohead (or should I say, "ne'i loi tanbargu" by "cradystedu"!), let's say House of Cards.

60 (song you dance to): I recently discovered "Strange Overtones" by David Byrne and Brian Eno! It's very danceeable, veyr fun, very singable. Also the 2023 Stop Making Sense rerelease is very danceable, it's got Cities on it (cool! it wasn't on the last release!) and also Big Business / I Zimbra (that wasn't either! wow!) and you already know how much i gadji beri bimba glandridi lauli lonna cadori gadjam a bim beri glassala gladrirdi e glassala tuffm i zimbra! And I'm sorry to all the tumblars out there who only know the studio version but Once in a Lifetime's SMS rendition is infinitely better than studio. time isn't holding us time isn't after us. holy shit i just realized there's a double meaning there. time isn't after us is both "time isn't after us" as in "time, though it will continue after we die, doesn't come after us." and "time, though it marches us towards our deaths, is not hunting us down to kill us". holy shit...

[transgothicgenre]

bleed out liveblogging

training montage: excellent as always. chorus is my favorite part mostly because the imagery of the other verses are discordant for me for some reason, but it still goes hard as fuck

mark on you: i think i actually only listened to this a few times before the album released and originally i only liked the chorus but the song as a whole is incredible. revenge songs my beloved

wage wars get rich die handsome: please release an instrumental/karaoke track of this one it goes so hard. it goes so hard even without the lyrics. i don't think i'm allowed to drive while listening to this one. the abrupt ending is so sexy tbh

extraction point: first new one yippee!!! i like how fast-paced it sounds especially juxtaposed with the calmness of the vocals. every time johnny boy mentions dreams in his lyrics that song gets +1 so this one is doing really great for me so far. loving the chorus. the vocals are quieter than the rest of the album has been so far which is throwing me off a little bit but i can vibe with it

bones don't rust: OH HOH HOH. the lyrics on this one immediately have me going ham. i didn't type anything else i was too busy listening to the song

first blood: reminds me of corsican mastiff stride. it's very upbeat and i'm grooving to it. there are a lot of references to things in this song that i don't understand but that's half of all tmg music so i'll just close my eyes and imagine what they mean and also check genius lyrics in a few days. "we worship nothing in the foxholes" reminds me of a poem! i will find it later

make you suffer: another revenge song let's fucking goooooo. i will have to listen a few times to figure out how to fit the second verse into the rest of the song but i understand on a subconscious level. AW YEAAAH another +1 for mentioning dreams. don't give up on revenge you always need to strive for it!!! adding this to the list of songs i'm not allowed to drive while listening to. oh my god the OUTRO. delicious

guys on every corner: why do you as a man have guys on every corner (original joke by yadriel(c) 2022). that aside the rhyming is really winning for me. big enjoyer of this song. it really reminds me of fight club which is a red flag if anyone else says it but don't worry guys i'm a weirdo. the last verse is decadent fuck yes

hostages: hey why is this one so long. ohhhh man it's good. i know each song in this album is telling the story of a mini action movie and whatnot but i think, excluding the fact that i haven't listened to the last 3 yet, that this one accomplishes that the best for the format. does that make sense? like the story it's telling is best told through a song and the song is the best vessel for telling the story. if i say it reminds me of die hard does bruce willis come out of the vents and kill me

need more bandages: oh DELIGHTFUL. i am already shouting the chorus while driving despite not being in a car at all. this one reminds me of tintin but like. the bad guys from tintin. y'know? i was really into tintin when i was younger. WHEN THE SHOVELS BREAK WE'VE STILL GOT OUR FINGERNAILS!!!!!! once again +1 for the dream. this one also reminds me of mad max fury road oddly enough. you're right mr goats we ARE going to need more bandages

incandescent ruins: i like the chorus. i have to admit i spent the majority of the time listening to this trying to parse the lyrics and their meaning. again this is one that i'll have to listen to a few times and get to know before i have more thoughts about it but it's very pleasant to listen to

bleed out: 30 seconds in and this is already . woagh. wow. he's gonna bleed out yknow? "every story needs a child...end up just like me" these lyrics are fucking insane. AND THE PAPER RUSTLING NOISES RIGHT AFTER? the g in mountain goats stands for genius. okay wow. this is already one of my top favorites from this album . once again it is 7 minutes long but i completely understand why it's 7 minutes long because it literally couldn't be not 7 minutes long. i love how the last song on albums always feels like a sledgehammer to the ribs. the mountain goats truly understand how to do it. the way jd's voice is cracking toward the end of the song is the cherry on top.

album thoughts as a whole: definitely going to convince my coworkers to play this tonight at work. pretty much all of the song titles are great and i'm a big fan. they really slayed!!!

[tsaritza-mika]

The Main Six LI’s as YouTubers!! Because why the hell not!?

Nadia

Nadia has a few things on her channel, and it keeps her image very intriguing to her subscribers

MAKEUP TUTORIALS!!!

This woman can work with any skin type and tone in the damn rainbow, and she proves it every damn day!

Often has Asra and Portia over to demonstrate different skin tones and types

Nail art anyone?

Videos on current fashion trends and making your old clothes work for newer fashions. It’s very frugal for those who may be tight on cash

Also well known complex puzzle solver! Subscribers and professional puzzle builders send her things to try and solve. Her favorite ones usually take many varying methods to figure out a single phase before unlocking the next

Will also do time lapse videos of her own mechanical creations!

She waited until after gifting Portia a three-foot music box to post the reaction video

Asra

Anybody watch Snake Discovery? Because Asra would be that!

Loves that special time of year when all the new clutches are ready to hatch and he and Faust can welcome them into the world!

Tips on proper housing, feeding, and reptile care

Explanations on the hows and whys of snakes and various other lizards he’s come to know on his own, and with Faust’s help!

Bo-Ho pottery? Jewelry and homemade clothes? Damn tootin’!!

Time Lapse and ASMR vids of him making his own stuff to sell on his Etsy!! Rent won’t pay itself

TRAVEL BLOG VIDS!!!

Cool places he’s traveling now, where he’s been, souvenirs with stories, and how time consuming it is to get through customs

FOOD REVIEWS!!! From the weird to the fashionable, from the savory to the salty and even to the sweet, Asra’s got your international foodie hookups, and you’re not gonna want to miss a second!

Julian

Honestly, he’s probably done it all, but he has his staples

A new vid every week where he watches a new episode of whatever medical show he’s working thru/random movies with a lot of medical references and corrects the bad medical shit they have on tv/movies

Are you fascinated by weird medical history? Well you came to the right place!

Dating Sims and how to unlock every character and special ending

SURGEON SIMULATOR!!!

Anyone for a dance video? The man has the moves and will put his money where his mouth is! Wanna learn how he does those fancy moves? Just catch his instructional video at the end of the week with surprise guests! Who will it be? Depends on the moves! Stay tuned!

Living with a Corvid and how to properly care for the little shit!

Has videos reviewing pretty much every drink at Starbucks and which he would recommend for the season

LINDSEY STERLING LEVELS OF MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT!!!

This man will pull out all the stops for his music videos! Originals, covers, there’s nothing he won’t play! Be sure to check out his album this September, available on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Amazon! Move quick and get the special signed editions with limited copies!

Muriel

Ever see those videos of the guys who literally wander off into the wilderness and build mansions out of nothing but dirt and palm fronds? Yeah, that’s Muriel

He doesn’t talk in them, he just turns dirt and mud into cool 1-2 person dwellings, often with a small pool and running water

Wood carving time lapse videos and what tools are best for different levels of detail

Leather working for long-term wear and weather protection

Foraging and making meals from scratch

INANNA CAM!!! WATCH HER SHE’S WONDERFUL!!!

Deep forest w/ fireplace ASMR and sleep and meditation sounds

Protective charms w/ Asra and how to make them so they work against goats... or whatever else might be bothering you!

Portia

My GOD the things Portia has done for her channel! Hers is definitely the most eclectic of the group, but they’re all just so her!

Want some supernatural stuff? Portia’s got it, and she’s ready to get spooky! She’ll read from either her own story collection, Creepy-pastas, or viewer recs. Three times a month join her for some Tarot readings, divination, or classic Ouija board spooks in a collab with Asra!

Remember the beginning of Tangled? Yeah, Portia does all of that! And there’s a video for all of it!!

Cleaning and gardening tips, candle making, games of all kinds!

Ways to tame that crazy, curly mane and other cool hairstyle collab vids with Nadia!!

Cottage core ASMR w/ purring sounds provided by Pepi!

Anyone for some classic Nevivon cooking? Portia’s got you covered, and she’s making a new dish every week with special appearances by everyone’s favorite salty Grandmother, Mazelinka!

Lucio

Lucio’s unboxing vids are the envy of the internet~! What doesn’t he get in the mail to unbox? It’s like X-mas every day when you get a new box of cool mystery swag!

Makeup and fashion collabs with Nadia

Dance and musical collabs with Julian

His most surprising hobby? Gold-leaf, duh! He’s got surprisingly fancy handwriting, and besides, there’s never enough gold!

Do you love dogs? Of course you do! You’d have to be crazy to not love M&M! Dog park and play cams!

Hell, why not! You just love animals? Every week take a walk with Vesuvia’s biggest collection of albino animals and meet a new one in every video!

Spirographs? ....yeah, spirographs. They’re easy, they’re fun, and just look at all the colors!! We’ll add more gold though. There’s never enough anyway.

Your favorite Count demands cookies!! Collabs with Portia trying to teach this disaster how to make his favorite snacks and sweets! Special appearances by his new best friend, the STOVE SALAMANDER~!!!

[phoebe-delia]

Hello, Phoebe. I’m back :)

How are you doing? Just put whatever you feel like here! This ask is the Phoebe Show; make it yours!

Lyssa, it is always a pleasure to see you in my notifs, but especially in my ask box! Thank you for filling it with kind words, awesome prompts, and fun questions for me to play around with.

This blog is the closest I imagine I'll ever come to having the Phoebe Delia Show, and since you have given me free rein with this ask, I shall endeavor to make it count.

I've gotten some incredible asks about my interests, but I'm going to answer a question that has been asked by exactly no one and rank Taylor Swift's albums.

This will be in order of my favorites; this isn't necessarily a reflection of what I think the rank would be in terms of objective quality; instead, this is based on my own personal enjoyment of the albums.

As always, I will provide a little explanation as to my reasoning, because I am nothing if not indulgent.

I actually really surprised myself with this ranking; as I looked through the albums I evaluated each by counting the number of songs I liked off of each one, and the ranking I thought I had has now changed. (I will explain in my comments!).

So! With that said. The Phoebe Delia Show Presents: Ranking Taylor Swift Albums.

1. Speak Now--To me, there is only one skip on this entire album; it is bop after bop. (If you're wondering, I think "Innocent" is the skip). Every song is just fun! I should also point out that this is also my favorite in part because Taylor said it was inspired by theater/Broadway.

2. 1989--I'm gonna be honest and say that I'm ashamed to have sort of slept on this album for so long. Don't get me wrong--I listened to and enjoyed it a lot when it came out, but I always sort of automatically pushed it further down on my list in favor of my 3rd choice because I liked the songs on my 3rd choice more. But now that I'm older and my music taste has somewhat evolved, I think I can say that 1989 is my 2nd favorite. There are truly no skips on this album. Yes, I know I said SN has a skip, but that album holds a special place in my heart so it gets number 1. I was thinking it over today, and while Taylor has always been amazing, I think this is the album that launched her into superstardom. We, her fans, knew she could do anything, but she still shocked us all by making the transition to an entirely pop album. Remember the "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" music videos? I still think those are two fo my favorite of her mvs, though LWYMMD is a close second.

3. Red--Oh, my beloved. This album is wonderful. I have a lot of memories associated with this one, particularly watching the WANGBT music video and the IKYWT parody with the fucking goat that makes me laugh so hard even to this day. I am SO pumped for TV in November!! And while, yes, "All Too Well" is my favorite song on the album (and my fave TS song overall), "Holy Ground" is slept on and amazing.

4. folklore--This album is probably the most meaningful to me of them all just because of when it came out. We as an entire global community were struggling, and I know I had immense privilege to have been healthy and safe during that time. Still, like everyone else, I was depressed, lonely, and felt trapped inside my home and inside my mind. I will never forget listening to this album in my room and gasping when I heard TIMT. Not long after this album came out, I also lost my family dog, and this album was essential in helping me grieve. This album saved my sanity and gave me a cathartic outlet. I will be forever grateful to Taylor for writing it.

5. Reputation--This is another one for which I have a lot of memories. I will never forget when the LWYMMD music video came out and the world lost its entire mind. Taylor said there are still easter eggs we missed and I want someone to find them please and thank you. There are a few songs on this album that I'm not obsessed with, but the storytelling is so cohesive and creative. On the surface, one might think Taylor was being petty or whiny, but if you look closer--and remember the utter hell she was going through at the time--I think there are deeper meanings than her just getting back at Kim and Kanye.

6. Fearless--Oh, this album. It has some of her most iconic songs: YBWM, "White Horse," "Love Story"," "Forever and Always," etc. I truly wish I could tie this one with Rep, but I think Rep edges this one out *just* barely with songwriting/lyrical quality. I also don't know if I'll ever fully get over the fact that she kept "Mr. Perfectly Fine" from us for so long, but I suppose I can consider the 10 min "All Too Well" on Red TV to be proper repayment. ;)

7. evermore--I could not believe my eyes when she announced this album. How can this woman write this fast and this well!! I will never forget listening to "champagne problems," "no body, no crime," and "tolerate it" in particular. I ranked this after reputation just bc I think I enjoy listening to Rep more, but some of the songwriting on this album is *chefs kiss.*

8. Lover--I know, I know, I'm sorry. I don't want to put this one so low on the list but I just kind of can't put it any higher? I really love some of the songs on this album, but SYGB is too sad for me, "London Boy" kinda annoys me I'm sorry, and I just never really got into INTHAF or "Afterglow." But, that said, every other song on the album is a bop, even ME!, although I listen to the live version over the studio recording. It's a great album though.

9. Taylor Swift (Debut album)--I feel a little bad ranking this so low but I cannot honestly tell you that this album is better than her others, and something has to be last on the list. There are also some great, classic songs on this album. So, instead of being critical, I'm instead going to say that I remember vividly seeing a snippet of "Teardrops On My Guitar" advertised on Disney Channel for Radio Disney. It makes me smile to think of how far she's come since then.

And that concludes this episode of The Phoebe Delia Show! Tune in next time where I post some other self-indulgent opinion about one of my interests and hope it reaches people who care to read it :)

Send me an ask about Harry Potter, broadway/musicals, The West Wing, and/or Taylor Swift! Or just about life in general :).

Also, I have a playlist of my 99 most listened-to songs of the year so far. Pick a number 1--99 and send me an ask and I'll write you a fic based on it!

[vagrantblvrd]

Okay, so I can’t stop thinking about the AU where Jaskier somehow ends up working in a Geek Squad-esque department and has to deal with these witchers who bring in mangled/otherwise destroyed phones and the whatnot AU?

Like, the witchers aren’t completely technologically impaired right because the thing about living through who knows how many innovations and whatnot over the years but they really don’t make stuff the way they used to.

(Jaskier maybe sit through a semi-rant on the subject a time or two while processing whatnot for the witchers who have brought him yet another mangled bit of tech orth a fair bit of money and did he know they used to make them of sturdier stuff???)

Anyway.

Geralt is Geralt, all hm’s and hm’s and usually :( although there have been moments of >:( and an especially rare :| which is the closest to the teeny tiny smile Jaskier gets on a good day or when he says something that amuses Geralt enough to visibly show it. (An actual :) is something to be treasured for days afterward and gets Jaskier gentle ribbing from his co-workers because his relationship with the witchers and Geralt in particular is high entertainment for them, but yes.)

Lambert is a delightful asshole who came in all >:(((((((((( after Geralt mentioned there was a new face in the Geek Squad-esque group, one who got him a new phone in spite of the most recently mangled one being out of warranty and suchlike. Didn’t even ask why it smelled of swamp water and may or may not have had bits of swamp...gunk in its insides and anyway.

Jaskier clearly made an impression on Geralt and he’s like but why, though, and comes in intending to be That Customer - and indeed is through the entire ordeal.

Makes Jaskier go over the fine print in the warranty and whatnot when he brings in some horribly mangled bit of shiny tech - a tablet or some such that clearly cannot be saved and is just barely under warranty. A day later and he’d be out of luck, right?

And while it’s covered by the warranty it’s also just old enough the store doesn’t carry it anymore - been discontinued or whatever - which should be fine, right? Jaskier can set Lambert up with the newest model or other equivalent and everything should be fine, but no, no.

Lambert gets this glint in his eye and is like, oh, I’m not going to make things that easy for you, buddy, and goes off on this...whatever about how he liked the version he had - doesn’t want or need the added features on the new one even though they actually are pretty nice, just because he can.

And of course he came in on one of the days Jaskier’s usual supervisor is off and the one who’s had it out for Jaskier since day one is working. Positive Jaskier has done nothing to deserve being moved from overnight stocker to Geek Squad-esque team member and looking for the smallest reason to get him fired. (Or at least kicked back to overnight stocker and then fired for some other reason no one can call them on.)

This supervisor who is hovering, just waiting for Jaskier’s Retail Voice and whatnot to slip so they can pounce and Lambert might not know the details about it all, but it’s pretty damn obvious the supervisor doesn’t like Jaskier.

So he’s like, “Okay, but...” whenever Jaskier brings up a new avenue of convincing the asshole to just say he’ll take the new tablet and gtfo already, pls you asshole, pleasant smile on his face and gritting his teeth the whole time.

Just as the supervisor has had enough of watching Jaskier dealing with this stubborn customer and clearly failing to meet their needs, Lambert is like “Well, I really did like my old tablet, but I suppose this one you’ve been trying to sell me on for nearly half an hour will be adequate, probably,” like Jaskier’s got him at gunpoint or something.

Jaskier is like oh, excellent, sir, what a wonderful choice sir, you are totally my favorite customer sir!!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD while also being like >:(((((((((((((((((( to Lamert’s clear amusement and whatnot.

After the deal is done and the bastard’s on his way out, Jaskier is like !!! when he sees Lambert stop in front of the assole!supervisor sure he’s going to complain about Jaskier. To his surprise though, Lambert’s just, all “Oh, he was so helpful! Answered all my questions!” and so on and both Jaskier and the asshole!supervisor are taken aback because that was not what they were expecting?

And then Lambert’s like “I only want to deal with him when I come in here,” to which Jaskier is ah, okay because he gets Lambert’s game now, and the supervisor is just okay, well, I have no control over that unless you come in on days he’s working, but you can bet I’mm make sure it happens if you do, haha.

Which more or less seals Jaskier’s fate on that angle, and absolutely what Lambert intended, and anyway, asshole.

Later on, after they’ve had enough such encounters that Lambert isn’t suspicious of this oddly helpful person at the store where they buy most of their consumer electronics he’s like, >:DDDDDDDDDDDDDD when he comes in nd Jaskier’s like >:(((((((((((((((((((( if you really wanted to help me out here with the asshole!supervisor you’d buy an extended warranty or whatever and Lambert rolls his eyes and scoffs because those are scams and he’s not an idiot, and anyway, he knows Jaskier doesn’ really want to shank him out back behind the store with a rusty knife the way he threatened one time because Lambert is a delight, okay, an utter delight.

Jaskier side-eyes him so hard for that and is like, oh????? So then Lambert won’t mind meeting him out back on his break? Asking for a friend, you know, no other reason. Strangely, Lambert does not.

(Mostly because of that time Geralt fondly told the others about Jaskier shanking a monster out back by the store’s loading dock when Geralt was a little bit bleeding out and in a bad spot and anyway, yeah, no, thanks, Lambert wasn’t born yesterday okay.)

But you know who is an actual delight that Jaskier loves to see come into the store?

Aside from Geralt???

Eskel.

The man is sweet and polite and holds actual conversations (not a slight against Geralt by any means, it’s just. Sometimes it’s nice to talk to someone at work who isn’t a coworker or a horrible customer and so on) and otherwise doesn’t give Jaskier headaches.

(Though there was the one night after closing and rare time when the store would be clsoed the next day for a holiday or whatever so no night crew coming in. Jaskier was trying to get his car to start when Eskel showed up all bloody and half-dead and Jaskier was closest. Also his phone was broken and no way to contact Geralt or anyone else and how was Jaskier at first aid, asking for a friend and all.)

Anyway.

Jaskier’s favorite encounter with Eskel at work is when he calls Jaskier asking if he can help with a tech issue. Mangled laptop and files he wants to get off the harddrive you know, but ~sensitive file that have to do with the witchers and their work.

They all pretend Jaskier knows absolutely nothing about any of it, even though he’s patched all of them up at some point or they’ve saved his life from some monster or other and there really shouldn’t be any pretense about it all?

AND YET.

It’s one of those days where work is slow and the other Geek Squad-esque people are out on house calls and won’t be back for a few hours or called out sick or whatever.

And this, okay, this is something Jaskier convinced one of them to teach him or he taught himself through Google and YouTube and anyway, he can do the file transfer magic stuff for Eskel, no problem.

Tells him as such and to come by before anyone gets back from the calls so he can handle it himself without anyone looking on and all, so he does, right?

Jaskier lets Eskel in the back room with him while he works, and they have a nice little chat and catch up on what’s new in their lives and all that.

Jaskier is like oh, ew, gross because some of the files he salvages for Eskel are photo documentations of past hunts - for science!!1! - but also ooh, what was that hunt like???

(Accidentally clicks on some or some other reason for him seeing what the files are or just file names and anyway, shhhh, let me have this.)

Because curiosity and also songs and Geralt enjoys being difficult on purpose and Jaskier’s never sure how much Lambert tells him is complete bullshit, and anyway. Eskel’s the nice one. Usually.

Also, though, also.

There are so many photos of Geralt and Lambert, Vesemir and Ciri and certain sorceresses and suchlike, and it’s adorable and sweet and wholly expected?

BUT.

To Jaskier’s forever joy and delight there are at least two entire album’s worth of freaking goat pictures.

(Well, okay, goat and horse and whatever other animals these withcers have in their lives and so on.)

It’s adorable as hell and Jaskier makes these little squeaky noises of pure awww at the sight of them, okay, because Lil Bleater and whatever little terrors Eskel has known and clearly adores.

He’s like staring straight ahead and all everything’s fine and normal and whatnot while Jaskier is like omg and she’s so cute and omg Eskel, omg.)

Withcers may not be able to blush or whatever, but you can sure as hell bet he would have been blushing up a damned storm if he could and Jaskier also knows that and is just.

Charmed, okay, he is utterly charmed by this big soft dork and swears he won’t tell anyone even though the people who matter obviously know as well, and anyway, anyway, he gets this soft little smile for it and his heart is like oh, oh no, because Jaskier’s kind of gone on these idiot witchers okay.

(After the discovery of the goat pictures Eskel starts sending new ones to Jaskier who always gets that look people get when presented with adorable pictures of animals and this warm squishy feeling because oh, oh no, indeed and anyway, yes, because idk what pairings/ships i even want this to be anymore but just soft feelings all over the place even with Lambert, the bastard. XD)

[jaimehwatson]

I made another Snowpiercer playlist!

After posting my Wilford/Audrey playlist a while ago, I added some songs that didn’t quite make the cut to a different playlist, intending to put together another similar one. But rather than focusing on just one ship this time, I also ended up getting really interested in theorizing about what Wilford’s relationship with Melanie might have been like before the Freeze, and exploring the idea that maybe there was something going on there and some kind of love triangle with Audrey.

So here’s my new playlist, full of absolute jams that could apply to any combination of relationships involving Wilford, Audrey, and Melanie, and/or just general Snowpiercer vibes! Read on for more detail about the songs I selected, and as before, content warning for references to canon abuse & self-harm/suicide.

1. “The Tradition” by Halsey

Oh, the loneliеst girl in town Was bought for plenty a price Well, they dress her up in golden crowns His smile hides a lie

She smiles back, but it's a fact That her fear will eat her alive Well, she got the life that she wanted But now all she does is cry

Thanks @onetrainsnowpiercer​ for getting me into this excellent album! I thought it would be fitting to kick off the playlist with one that could suit the earlier days of Wilford’s relationship with Audrey, like my previous playlist was more focused on.

2. “cardigan” by Taylor Swift

'Cause I knew you Steppin' on the last train Marked me like a bloodstain, I

I knew you Tried to change the ending Peter losing Wendy, I

I knew you Leavin' like a father Running like water, I And when you are young, they assume you know nothing

Did you think I would make a Snowpiercer playlist without Taylor Swift on it? Not a chance. I picture this one being more from Melanie’s perspective, reflecting on possibly having had some kind of ill-fated romance with Wilford when she was young and naive.

3. “No Children” by The Mountain Goats

I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow I hope it bleeds all day long Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises We're pretty sure they're all wrong

I hope it stays dark forever I hope the worst isn't over And I hope you blink before I do And I hope I never get sober

The only reason this perennial favourite of mine wasn’t on the first playlist was that I had too many Mountain Goats songs already and wanted to keep things balanced. But this one got all the ones that didn’t make it to the first playlist plus some more I thought about later, so I’m kind of giving up on that balance by now. They just have a lot of great songs about terrible relationships, and I love them all so much.

4. “Gold Guns Girls” by Metric

I remember when we were gambling to win Everybody else said, "Better luck next time." I don't wanna bend like the bad girls bend I just wanna be your friend Is it ever gonna be enough?

This is another one that I can picture being about young Melanie, gradually growing more aware of everything that’s terribly wrong with Wilford and his approach to life, and of how little he cares to try to fix it.

5. “You’ve Haunted Me All My Life” by Death Cab for Cutie

And there's a flaw in my heart's design For I keep trying to make you mine

You've haunted me all my life You've haunted me all my life You are the mistress I can't make a wife And you've haunted me all my life

And this one I can see being Wilford thinking about either one of the women, and his unhealthy attachment to them and inability to keep them around for very long—maybe once he’s finally reunited with them both on some level in season 2, but still can’t fully persuade them both over to his side.

6. “Old College Try” by The Mountain Goats

From the cities to the swamplands From the highways to the hills Our love has never had a leg to stand on From the aspirins to the cross-tops to the Elavils

But I will walk down to the end with you If you will come all the way down with me

Another Mountain Goats classic. If you divorce it from its context of being from a concept album about a horrible marriage, I actually think this song is kind of sweet in the way it describes a couple still committing to try to make things work despite a whole host of problems. But never mind that now, because I’m putting it back in the new context of a whole collection of horrible romantic relationships!

7. “Risk” by Metric

So you're beaten up but you bounce back It’s all part of the pull And the story runs like a soundtrack We repeat 'til we're full Started slow, started late Started strong, then we lost faith Started slow, started to lose control The more we accelerate, the more we accelerate

Half of arranging any playlist I make is just trying to split up the Mountain Goats and Metric songs so that they aren’t always clumped together. Anyway, this one seems especially fitting to me in its imagery of a speeding vehicle of some kind (it’s a train, I’m always picturing a train) alongside its description of a relationship going badly.

8. “Big God” by Florence + The Machine

You know I still like you the most The best of the best and the worst of the worst Well, you can never know The places that I go I still like you the most You'll always be my favourite ghost

I think this one could be any one of the three of them contemplating their complex feelings about the past at some point around season 2.

9. “I Still Do” by The Cranberries

I don't want to leave you Even though I have to I don't want to love you Oh, I still do

There aren’t as many specifics that match the characters going on in the lyrics here, since it’s more of just a general break-up song, but I also really like the creepy way it sounds.

10. “Fault Lines” by The Mountain Goats

But none of the money we spend Seems to do us much good in the end I got a cracked engine block, both of us do

Yeah, the house and the jewels, the Italian racecar They don't make us feel better about who we are I got termites in the framework, so do you

This one feels really fitting for pre-Freeze Wilford, especially the engine imagery!

11. “I Don’t Care” by Fall Out Boy

Say my name and his in the same breath I dare you to say they taste the same Let the leaves fall off in the summer And let December glow in flames

Erase myself and let go Start it over again in Mexico These friends, they don't love you They just love the hotel suites

Another song that is simply a) an absolute jam, and b) generally fitting for my favourite obscenely rich asshole and his terrible relationships

12. “You asked for this” by Halsey

I want my cake on a silver platter I want a fistful in my hands I want a beautiful boy's despondent laughter I wanna ruin all my plans I want a fist around my throat I wanna cry so hard, I choke I want everything I asked for

This one I can picture as Audrey—or maybe Melanie too, but especially Audrey—beginning to regret getting involved with Wilford, but only once she’s in way too deep for leaving to be a safe or easy decision.

13. “my tears ricochet” by Taylor Swift

And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake? Cursing my name, wishing I stayed Look at how my tears ricochet

Much like several other Taylor Swift songs, I just know in my heart that it’s the type of music Wilford listens to in secret, while possibly drunk and definitely singing along very dramatically. This one he dedicates to Melanie once they’ve met up again in season 2.

14. “Speed the Collapse” by Metric

All the way from where we came Built a mansion in a day Distant lightning, thunder claps Watched our neighbor's house collapse Looked the other way

This one has a lot of good apocalyptic imagery that I can imagine scoring Wilford’s life in the last few years before the Freeze, as he makes his plans to save himself and let so many others die.

15. “Ox Baker Triumphant” by The Mountain Goats

I will thank my ride and crawl my way back inside To the guts of the building where my enemies Hide in the dark like roaches And I will signal the camera crew and everyone will do What he's been trained how to do Sweat dripping from my face as my moment approaches

Click your heels, count to three I bet you never expected me A little worse for wear Practically walking on air

I love this song a lot, and listening to it lately makes me imagine Wilford plotting his revenge while on his way to catch up with Snowpiercer before the end of season 1.

16. “Firewood” by Regina Spektor

The piano is not firewood yet But the cold does get cold So it soon might be that I'll take it apart, call up my friends And we'll warm up our hands by the fire

Don't look so shocked Don't judge so harsh You don't know You’re only spying Everyone knows it's going to hurt But at least we'll get hurt trying

This has to be one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s very beautiful, and I love the piano in it. I’ve always personally interpreted it to be at least partially about someone surviving a suicide attempt, and the overall imagery about burning a piano for warmth—and this bit about not judging someone for doing that—reads to me as more of a general statement about the difficult choices people struggling with mental illness and other similar issues have to make to survive. I listened to it recently and I could picture Audrey singing it in the nightcar. I think it suits her well.

17. “Cry for Judas” by The Mountain Goats

But I am just a broken machine And I do things that I don't really mean Long, black night Morning frost I'm still here But all is lost

I think the imagery of this song suits the show a lot in general, but I can also particularly imagine it being Wilford in a rare moment of self-awareness about how much damage he’s caused to the world and the people around him.

18. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” by David Bowie

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget Oh oh, oh, oh, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

I love Wilford a lot. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him ever. I hope he kills more people, and I hope he gets his train back, and I hope he wins. But if he does eventually die in the show, I hope he’s found in the bathtub with there being some ambiguity about whether he really killed himself or whether one of his victims turned the tables on him, and I hope the climax of this song swells as the camera pans over his dead body. That’s the only Wilford death I will accept, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

19. “Source Decay” by The Mountain Goats

I park in an alley And I read through the postcards you continue to send Where as indirectly as you can, you ask what I remember I like these torture devices from my old best friend Well, I'll tell you what I know, like I swore I always would I don't think it's gonna do you any good I remember the train headed south out of Bangkok Down toward the water

Okay, I promise this is the last Mountain Goats song on the playlist. It’s just—it’s perfect. It has a train in it. And on the podcast “I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats,” John Darnielle commented that there’s barely anywhere you can go south of Bangkok before you hit the water, it’s a train going nowhere, it’s so good. It’s also one of the songs I’ve previously ripped a line off for my fanfiction titles!

20. “Sellers of Flowers” by Regina Spektor

The sellers of flowers Buy up old roses They pull off dead petals Like old heads of lettuce And sell ’em as new ones For cheaper and fairer But they die by the morning So who is the winner? Not the roses Not the buyers Not the sellers Maybe winter

And Regina Spektor closes out the playlist again! This song is another one I picked more on imagery and vibes than anything else. But since it’s about a young child in a world that seems to be moving inexorably toward an all-consuming winter, if it suits any of the characters, maybe it’s an appearance of Alex here at the end!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the playlist!

[thedramaclubs]

Dance with you

This is my favorite part in this story and in the musical

Summery: After the whole musical scene, people are panicking, Virgil and Roman properly meet, and Logan is scared about what will happen with him and Patton (and then the best song in the whole musical will happen)

Ships: Logicality, Prinxiety, demus/dukeceit

When they’re singing

Patton-blue

Logan-black

Both-pink

The parents and students came running out of the gym and Mrs Greene and Virgil were questioning everything that just happens

“Who was responsible for that!? Was it you?!” “ME! No I have no idea what just happened in there!” “Strangers burst in hurling insults at the parents, and you do nothing?! What kind of school are you running here Mr Hawkins?” “Uggghh.” Virgil then saw Roman and his friends coming out of the gym.

“Um excuse me Roman, may I speak to you?” “Sure, what?” Virgil took a breath “Um I’m Virgil, Virgil Hawkins I’m the principal and I just... What are you doing here?!” “We have come to this community to show that gay people, like myself, are made of the same flesh and blood as they are. And we’re not........that” Remus started scaring some of the parents

“I’ll tell you another thing........I’m Jewish tooL Remus than sang a note and a parent and her child ran

“Ah yes, my brother”

“You see Roman this is not a good way to do it I almost had the parents reinstate prom then you disrupted everything” “Well that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.” Roman then started walking away then Virgil blurted out “Uh I’m a fan!” Roman turned around in shock

“What your a fan?”

“Yes I am”

“Well What kind of fan? Big fan? Small fan? Scary....stabby fan?”

Virgil chuckled “You could say I’m a BIG fan.”

“Well that’s surprising.” “Is it?” “Your not my usual demographic” “You men very tall, very skinny, and very very pale to wear I look like a ghost?” “I was gonna say straight. Are.... you straight sorry for me asking” Virgil then started to get really anxious and nervous to what he was about to tell Roman

“Well actually um, can we keep this between us?” “Of course.” He took a deep breath “I’m.............................gay. I know it may be shocking to hear from a principal who works at a school we’re the students and faculty are Homophobic but this is who I am.” Roman suddenly felt so bad for him “But I’m not important right now. Right now it’s about Patton getting his prom. But I do have a friend who is straight and likes Broadway so in the end, straight people like Broadway too.”

“Oh my god I’m so sorry and also I’ve heard about that last part I always thought it was a fairy tale” Virgil then remembered what they were talking about “Anyway, it’s true and I’ve been a fan since I saw you in your very first show”

“You saw “Swallow the moon?””

“Sure did and I have the album. I’ve listened to it 100 times. And that song you sing at the top of act 2 “The Lady’s Improving” I get chills every time I hear it”

“That song made me a star”

“It made me a fan”

At that moment Joan and Thomas came running in “Roman come quick your brother is trying to tip over the bus” as Roman started to quickly walk away.

“Um Mr Allen this is a delicate situation so I kindly ask you and your friends to back off for a few days”

“Back off? No no no backing off is exactly what we’re not trying to do. Ahh I see what your doing, yor trying to disarm me with flattery. Well that won’t work Virgil flattery makes me stronger. Fuels my ego.”

He than ran off to stop his brother and now we see Janus and Patton leaving the gym

“STOP TAKING MY PICTURE PLEASE!”

“I need a poster for the rally”

Virgil ran in to save him “Ok. Thank you thank you”

“Who are these people?” “Actors. Famous Broadway actors they came to help you.” “They’re not helping me this is a nightmare.” “Oh this isn’t a nightmare p, you can wake up from a nightmare. Anyways I have to go stop the riot in the parking lot” Virgil quickly ran out and Logan ran in to his locker.

“Oh my god”

“I know”

“It’s like everyone’s gone insane. This is too much I’m freaking out”

“Don’t freak out. We have a plan. We’re gonna get dressed up, go to prom and be together in public. Not hiding anymore”

“That sounded like a great plan” “It could still happen” “I don’t know my mothers going ballistic. I have to go I told her I was coming for my books” Logan started walking away and Patton stoped him

“This isn’t my fault..............you know that right?”

🎶I don’t want to start a riot, I don’t want to blaze a trail, I don’t want to be a symbol or cautionary tale. I don’t want to be a sacpe goat, for people to oppose. What I want is simple as far as wanting goes🎶

🎶I just wanna dance with you let, the whole world melt away and dance with you. Who cares what other people say and when we’re threw no one can convince us we were wrong. All it takes is you and me, and a song🎶

Logan looked back at his boyfriend, smiled, and started to walk back to him

🎶I don’t need a big production, streamers hanging in the air, I don’t need to spend the night with confetti in my hair. I don’t need a room of people that I don’t really know🎶

🎶I just want to hold you🎶

🎶And never let you go🎶

The two men then held hands

🎶I just wanna dance with you, let the whole world melt away and dance with you. Who cares what other people say and when we’re threw🎶

🎶No one can con convince us we were wrong🎶

🎶All it takes is you and me and a song🎶

Mrs Greene came bursting in and the two of them let go of each other

“Logan what are you doing?” “NOTHING” “Get in the car.” He looked back real quick than left

🎶Two people swaying slowly nothing more and nothing less. Why anybody fears that is anybody’s guess🎶

🎶I just wanna dance with you, let the whole world melt away and dance with you. Who cares what other people say and when we’re threw no on can convince us we were wrong🎶

🎶All it takes is you and meeeeeee, AND A SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNG🎶

People to tag/ @artissijules @patt-off @frogsandcookies @icantthinkofacreativeurl

This is the best part in the story

[michaeloneillwords-music]

Oasis: Knobworth. Cocaine, Caricature and ‘The Culture Industry’s’ wet dream.

This week sees the release of the documentary film ‘Oasis Knobworth 1996’ which marks 25 years since the Manchester rock band played to over a quarter of a million disciples in a field in Hertfordshire across two nights. Obviously brand Oasis couldn’t miss the opportunity to celebrate its own greatness, in what is now being understood and accepted as some sort of era defining moment in pop cultural history. As a native of Manchester, who whether he likes it or not is psychically entrenched in the cities musical and cultural legacy and who was 15 years old when this event took place, I equally cannot miss the opportunity to challenge this retro fetish overstatement and present my own subjective understanding and experience of watching these caricatures of sex, drugs and rock roll as they rose to prominence. Let's face it ‘the culture industry’ has always needed fodder to sell to a teenage audience who in coming of age are flirting with the mask of social identity which is heavily informed by pop culture, and from late 1995 onwards Oasis, led by the brothers Gallagher were that fodder. The juggernaut of utter nonsense that they were peddling really began with the release of their sophomore effort (What’s the story) Morning Glory on the 2nd of October 1995, which to this day has gone on to sell in excess of 22 million copies worldwide, figures that depressingly highlight the state we are in as a species. Upon hearing the album as a 14 year engrossed in pop music culture I immediately disliked it. Gone were the walls of thick guitars, punkish irreverence and embellishments of baggy Northern Psychedelia that marked the best moments of their debut album, instead the listener was subjected to an overly clean, acoustic, commercial sounding record that was lyrically lazy, pedestrian and trite, to me it was and always will be an artistic car crash. It sounded immediately like a band uninterested in challenging itself or its audience, who instead were solely concerned with mass appeal, shifting units and making money. Whilst it should always be noted that the Gallagher brothers made no attempt to hide their aspirations for commercial success, material wealth and brand ubiquity, I simply find such sole motivations a turn off, that, more often than not result in utter dross, the kind that defines Oasis’ discography. Indeed, any ascent to the summit of pop culture will rarely be the sole result of an absolute desire for honest and uncompromising artistic expression, to just ‘make something’ regardless of economic reward or consideration for the consequences of what that expression communicates, represents or signifies. Indeed, such an approach will often come into direct conflict with the bottom line of the music industry, which is solely concerned with profit, monopolistic market control, the dissemination of ideology and projection of archetypes. And so it is that far from the ‘deviant bad boys of pop’ peddled by the culture industry press from 1995 onward, Oasis were actually a very obedient market vehicle for profit, who promoted nihilistic hedonism, idolatry, narcissism, misplaced masculinity, benign sexism, cocaine, lager and a depressing caricature of working class identity, and last but not least a brand of Beatles infused substance devoid pub rock. The ‘culture industry’ had been peddling this sort of shit from the mid 60’s in pop music and long before in general pop culture and as a result dear reader it was obviously very marketable once again to the mid-nineties teenage generation and to many subsequent generations for that matter. The game doesn't change. Oasis were and remain a wet dream of ‘the culture industry’, all too happy to short change a generation of youth culture with their destructive notions of cool, short sighted egocentric one dimensional outlook, and celebration of pack animal conformity under a banner of ‘rock and roll’ which signals ‘defiance’ ‘deviance’ and ‘hope’ but when unpacked and interrogated actually reveals a concession and obedience to the drudgery, depression and anomie of a top down controlled market culture by both the band and its disciples. They were without doubt a grey cloud of hard materialist understanding and sense pleasure that would leave Saint Francis of Assisi empty inside and reaching for a razor blade. I think it was the idolatry, narcissism and the reductionist mask of masculinity (that were all no doubt in the air at Knobworth, I couldn’t actually say as I wasn’t there, I had seen them on 26/11/1995 at the Manchester Nynex, and although I certainly do have deep seated masochistic tendencies everybody has a limit, and once was enough) that the band and its followers displayed that really didn’t sit well with me when the cultural juggernaut of Oasis and Britpop took off. These traits were for the most part distilled, embodied, displayed and performed by the band's frontman Liam Gallagher, a man whose answer to all of life’s existential conundrums is a pint of Carling. To me, Liam always carried a look of someone who had been asked a question they didn’t understand and was just trying to front it out with a gormless stare in an attempt to display some presence of depth and mystique to his onlooking disciples and celebrity obsessed media. When he did speak his articulations rarely got beyond how he was ‘mad for it’, how he was the ‘best frontman’ in the ‘best band’ and when his adopted mask of self-confidence was ever threatened would often bark ‘fook off’ in deflection and defence. Gallagher became the ‘Archetype’ that the modern-day British working class (and wannabe working class) alpha male identity is built on. Replete with feather cut, stone island jacket, adidas originals and cheap cocaine, ready to perform the identity prison they have adopted until the cows come home. I occasionally ponder as to whether the clinging too and performance of such a symbolically material identity merely masks an innate fear, and serves to deny the unpacking and unmasking of the ‘authentic self’, and how that process would more than likely contradict the projected ‘tower of strength’ that is indefinitely projected and protected by this deflective mask. I mean I thought we were an expression of consciousness with the innate capacity for creativity, who are looking to integrate the inner self into the ‘persona’ so as to not be imprisoned and tormented by the demands of the social mask, the gulf between the two and its insistence for the inauthentic? Who knows, and ultimately who really cares in this day and age. In terms of the idolatry, the fans deification of Liam and his brother Noel, alongside their deification of John Lennon, the two Paul McCartney's, Bozo and Poor Weller also really pissed me off when I was 15 and still doesn’t sit right with me today. It's the rock n roll hierarchy-musical establishment-gotta pay your dues-know the classics-they’re a fucking genius claptrap that really gets me goat. I mean fuck off, they've just made a record aided and abetted by an industry who want to flog them to death for moolah, and i’m expected to sit here and believe they're some sort of god like genius that captured the feelings of a mass populace, nah mate, it was capital backed exceptional marketing and mass gullibility. Limmy would capture working class culture in a 20 second video clip shot on his phone for nothing entitled “She’s turned the weans against us” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5VaPQflLq0&ab_channel=Limmy) in a far more profound and meaningful way 15 years after Knobworth. Furthermore, music solely informed and inspired by music and music history makes me want piss on my own face. That whole disciple of rock n roll dogmatic cultish crap, we want to be like our hero's motivation is so very depressing. I mean you’re having a unique subjective sensory experience, migrating through your own orbit of experience, and then when you engage with your creative faculties as a singular human being you adopt wholesale the principles and goals of those who’ve gone before you, or equally when simply embodying your identity it’s one built on the fetishization of a vapid celebrity archetype? Really? Really though? You’re not gonna take the opportunity to figure yourself out and project the uniqueness of your experience, reject or accept the external organising principles or merely just ‘mix the fucker up’? Hey who am I to pose such questions I guess, and in the immortal words of Oasis “You have to be yourself, you can’t be no one else”. Ha. I do think that line should now be updated to “you have to be a caricature of yourself because you cannot be anything else” though. Ooooh. Anyway, I shouldn’t really be blaming the current mask of one dimensional male social identity or celebrity deification on Oasis, they’re merely a cog in a machine that reproduces this reproduction over and over. However, that doesn’t detract from the fact that they are Manchester's greatest cultural own goal (shame really cause after the opening 5 or 10 minutes I was thinking we've got a team here), who made and continue to make to this day nonsensical grey groove-less drudgery a viable commodity with posthumous releases and as solo artists. Now that may be easy for me to say, as I was without doubt somewhat spoiled by exposure to the cities compelling history of DIY music from a young age, from the shadowy existential concrete corridors of Joy Division to the sharp witted marriage of high/low brow culture and realism/surrealism presented by The Fall, all the way through to the theological and philosophical street politics of The Stone Roses. Come 1995/96 I maybe expected more, but therein was a lesson for me, never expect, and indeed, always take the art and never the artist, and never ever deify. Musically Oasis were breathtakingly boring, real stodgy laboured stuff, and lyrically, to be brutally honest they were cringeworthy and embarrassing. However, to give them their due they did have conviction, but I’m sure that fellow Northerner Harold Shipman also had conviction in his creative output, but ultimately that doesn’t mean it was any good now does it? To me Oasis sounded like they were sent from the back of a battered cement mixer, or the lounge of the Robin Hood, or from the bottom of an overflowing ashtray on a coffee table in a council flat where shit cocaine is being relentlessly sniffed and Sky Sports News plays indefinitely. Symbolically they may be best defined as a scrunched up and discarded losing betting slip on the floor of a bookmaker’s that is heavy with the air of momentary hope, desperation, and inevitable loss. No thanks. P.S Look, all subjective criticism aside, Oasis spoke to millions and for that I congratulate them, they just never really spoke to me. Initially Liam and Noel were a breath of fresh air with their straight up lads with guitars attitude, riding their obvious desire with endlessly projected self- belief. However, to me there was just nothing after that initial Jab of intent present on Definitely Maybe and in interviews circa 94/95, there was no hook, combination or knock-out punch. Couple that with a general lack of grace, rhythm and finesse in the ring and to me as a spectacle it became boring very quickly, and as the rounds wore on that predictable Jab looked tired and stale, and the self-belief turned to coke fuelled narcissism. The ‘flock identity’ that materialised in the slipstream of their ascent and especially the attitude mimicry that was present then and remains today in the ‘Oasis Fan’ to be truthful is touch tragic. Furthermore, I've always held a deep-seated scepticism of the dynamics and motivations of 'the crowd' at the point of critical mass, especially when corporate power is deeply involved and invested in the relationship between the art and the audience. D'you know what I mean?

[r3b3lgrrrrrrrl]

A LunaTic and Her Gunn (Part 117 2xs2) "Internet Thangs"

Colson and Luna pull up to The Chateau Marmont. Colson steps out first, handing his keys to the valet. As another man approaches Luna's door he puts his hand up to stop him. Walking around, he'd rather open His Girl's door himself. Slipping out of the SUV, the somewhat notorious couple manages to walk inside, hand in hand without being bothered.

"Why are we here?" A slightly drunk and totally confused Luna asks.

"They usually film in NY, out here they book where we want. Ash or Jackie must've chose The Chateau... I'm not sure who booked this one." He shrugs out his answers as he leads her to room 29.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Inside the room looks nothing like the hotel Luna's used to. Everything is draped in black sheets. It actually makes the tragic landmark a bit more gloomier, which Luna didn't think was possible.

"Hey, Colson! How are you?" Sean the host greets him. "This must be Luna, it's such a pleasure." He grins as he stretches his arm out.

"Thank you for having us." Luna accepts his hand warmly, still not knowing what the fuck Colson has gotten her into; all she knows is that there's supposed to be wings and she's starving.

"We're all set up. Make yourselves comfortable and we'll start in 10... Sound good?" Sean confirms to Colson's nod and Luna's look of uncertainty; this is Colson's third time, Luna's never have I ever.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Welcome to Hot Ones, Everybody!" Sean greets the camera. "We've got a special couple's edition here today with some self proclaimed Bad Things. I'm talking with Machine Gun Kelly and if you don't mind my saying so, his STUNNING girlfriend THAT Brooklyn Bitch. They're both ruling the charts with their hit single Bad Things along with other collaborations like I Think I'm Okay and Nightmare." Sean now turns to them directly. "Guys, I've gotta admit, I've seen the music video, caught your performances on SNL, Ellen and GMA... Not a stalker but I might've also peeped a couple hot Insta pics and stories of you two... I have to say, they do not do justice to the amount of tattoos and bad assery, I don't know if that's a word but I'm making it one... That comes along with the two of you in person. Just looking at the you, I wanna peirce my nose, buy a fender and find a hardcore chick to rule The World with!" He laughs nervously as Luna gives him an weird look; in her drunken mind, he's an odd, little man.

"Do it! Live the dream, my Dude!" Colson encourages him with a chuckle.

"Don't tempt me, I just might." Sean wishes. "Okay, so lemme give Brooklyn a little insight... We've got ten wings. Ten types of hot sauce raising in intensity with each wing... And one question to go with each wing and sauce." The host explains.

"Wait, what?" There's that magic sentence again as Luna hears how each wing is contingent upon a question. "You told me hot wings... You didn't say anything about questions." Luna raises her eyebrows at Colson.

"Ten wings. Ten questions. Come on, we got this, Kitten." Colson sinks a firm kiss onto Luna's cheek.

"Not the way you eat fucking wings." Luna lowly snarks for only Colson to hear with an obviously unamused tone; she doesn't like to be blindsided.

"Okay, Round One... One wing, one hot sauce, one question. Beware they get hotter as we go. Don't worry though, we've got your water and your milk that you can refill at anytime." Sean begins to start them off.

"Hold on... Wait. What? What is milk and water? Are you... Are you children?" Luna slightly stutters in disgust. "If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna enjoy it. Fuck this ballsack shit, lemme get a beer. Please." Luna asserts while finding herself asking the same stupid fucking question AGAIN as she tries to reel herself in.

"Fucking MILK??? Who the FUUUUUCK... Ugh... Shut up, Loons. Get your beer, eat your chicken, let Colson answer whatever questions and roll on." She tries to calm down and mentally prepare herself for who knows what besides chicken and beer. "They are REALLY trying to ruin two of my favorite things though." Luna can't help but still complain to herself, thinking of how much she HATES interviews.

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

Colson can't help but laugh at her. He knew today was gonna take a lot of patience and persuading, considering Luna's great love for interviews and all things The Internet. He's surprised she's held up this well so far. "SHIT!! I hope either Ash or Jackie screened these FUCKING questions." Colson's heart suddenly begins to panic.

"Heineken, please." The sound of Luna's voice breaks Colson's thoughts as he focuses on the secretive smile on her face.

"Alright, Penny Lane." He teases her as he squeezes her thigh and tries to drop a kiss on her lips.

"Unh Unh... Luna Smith, motherfucker." She declares with a slur as she ducks just out of his reach; reminding him of the first time he tried to kiss her.

Giving him a playful eye, she let's him pull her into his lap. Luna runs her fingertips along Colson's jawline as he dips his tongue inside of her willing mouth, lightly dancing together until he breaks away to only hold her by the lips; hands firm upon her ass as always. There's a sweet, sensualness to them as love and other emotions rush between their beings by just their kiss on the lips. Colson wraps his arms around Luna, both sighing upon his release as they rest forehead to forehead. Intimate words are exchanged between the two of them until Sean interrupts them after grabbing Luna a few beers. EVERYTHING being caught by the cameras. Slightly intoxicated, Luna doesn't even think to be aware of them like a fucking dumbass.

"Alright... Round One... Now complete with water, milk and beer." Sean rubs his hands together with a chuckle.

"Thank you." Luna lifts her beer graciously to his smiling nod.

"Starting us off, we've got Hot One's classic sauce. It's our garlic fresno edition so critique away." He suggests as they all bite into a leg.

Colson takes one bite. Luna's eating the fuck out of her chicken wing as always. Then dude starts asking questions and ruins everything.

"You two are getting married in like two weeks so I'm assuming you live together... How do you guys typically start your day off?" He is easily the most awkward interviewer Luna has ever encountered.

"We do." Colson answers after he swallows his bite; looking over at Luna whose still munching away, her chicken filled nod agrees with him for the moment. "We usually start the day by fucking and getting stoned. One or the other or both together. It don't matter which order as long as their together. Back to back. Fucking and stoning. Stoning and fucking." Colson clarifies himself as Luna almost snorts her beer and Sean tries to compose himself.

"I fucking love him." Luna's soul shines for Colson.

"Round Two... This is a shawarma sauce by Dawson's. Little spicier but not much." The host leads.

Colson takes one bite as expected. Luna's chilling. Eating fucking chicken. She can't talk if she has a mouth full of chicken.

"You've got this new album out, Hotel Diablo... What would you say is the most personal song on it?" Sean asks as he takes a sip of his milk.

"Glass House." Colson answers lowly; Luna hands him her beer, only slightly happy her mouth is preoccupied by delicious meat.

"Next we got Goat Rider by Angry Goat Company... " Sean begins to describe the next sauce.

"They should call Em that... " Luna says lowly as she looks up at Colson and tries to contain herself; his smirk only encourages her. "Because he's the angriest little GOAT of them all." She says in a tiny, childlike voice; it's Colson's fault she couldn't help herself as she dips her face into his chest to hide her giggles; he's just as bad as he covers her head and his own laughter with his arm crooked around her.

"God Damn, I fucking love her." Colson's heart glows with amusement from his Kitten's sense of humor.

"Hey... Hey... Hey... No secret conversations. Hot wings and questions." The host tries to redirect them.

"Alright, super chicken man." Luna announces as she comes out of her hiding spot. "What's next?" She asks as she grabs her third wing and chomps into it.

"Are you guys REALLY getting married at ESTFest?" He asks as Colson almost chokes on his chicken.

"Need some milk?" Luna asks sarcastically with a full mouth.

"Fuck you." Colson coughs out as he sips the milk. Luna almost chokes on her own chicken as she laughs at him. "See, that's what you get. Asshole." He calls her out after handing her, her beer and making sure she'll live.

"So ESTFest... ?" Sean goes on to remind them.

"Yeah... " Colson nods after he collects himself also. "During ModSun's set."

"What?" Luna asks Sean directly when he won't stop looking at her for an answer. "You see the ring." Luna wiggles her sparkling left finger in the air. "ACTUALLY... I got two." She grins like a spoiled little girl as she extends her right hand out. "THIS one is my favorite... " Luna declares as she admires it herself before she leans back against Colson, staring up at him with THAT One Look as she plays with one of her most prized possession.

"Is that a guitar string?" Sean asks with pure wonder.

"Is that the fourth question?" Luna asks with a teasing charm as she holds her hands together towards her chest, just underneath her chin.

"I like that you play hard ball." Sean chuckles nervously as he wags his finger at her, not wanting to let this question go. "I'll trade it in for Round Four's question as long as it's a two part answer." He bargains.

"Mmmm... Nope. Two questions. Two answers. Two chickens." Luna's unwilling to budge.

"Fine... Is it a guitar string?" He asks again with a tinge of disappointment but still wanting to know.

"Yes." Luna nods her head proudly as she answers and presents her hand back towards him again so he can fully study the work of love.

"Wow. That's really neat the way the wire is twisted around to reinforce itself." He observes in admiration. "Where did it come from? EXACTLY." He reframes the question.

"We were On Tour in Pittsburgh and Colson sporadically proposed to me in his dressing room after The Show. He made it with one of the strings off the guitar he'd used that night within like 20mins." Luna sweetly admits as she thinks back to those private moments.

"I just wanna say, for the record, One... The guitar that string came off of goes everywhere with me now. Has ever since... Actually I don't think I've used another electric since that night." Colson looks over at Luna, who shakes her head to agree with him that he hasn't. "And Two... I had that rock for a few weeks but my dumbass left it behind when we hit The Road." Colson points out.

"Annnnnnnnd I love them both." Luna coos as she pecks Colson on the side of the mouth. "Now can I see why this goat is so angry?" She asks as she shoots him a grin and grabs her chicken leg.

"Alright, where are we at?" The host struggles to regain control of his show.

"We're at you owe me another hot wing because we gave you two answers." Luna reminds him of their deal as she splashes the sauce from the next bottle in line onto her fifth tiny drumstick. "You want any?" She asks Colson as she reaches over.

"Ahhh... Just a bit." He groans.

"You know Imma tell Slim all about this later tonight, right?" She chortles at him lightly. 

"I fucking hate you." Colson chuckles at a munching ass Luna while he reaches for her beer.

"So... Round Six?" Sean asks as he weakly throws his hands up to their nods. "We've got Scorpion from the Heartbeat Hot Sauce Co. Now we're climbing up the ladder guys but Brooklyn, you've eaten all of each of your wings. The only other person to do this is Shia Labeouf. Think you can you keep up?" He asks her as if it's a test.

"This motherfucker is DUMB." Colson snickers to himself at the idea of anyone challenging Luna.

"Hold up, I have some questions. First off... What do you mean only one other person has eaten all their wings? What the fuck do they do with 'em?" She asks, feeling kinda offended by the lack of chicken respect on this Internet Thang that Colson has her involved in.

"Most guests usually take a small bite of each wing." He explains to Luna's look of horror.

"Why did you ask me if I can keep up? Did you run out of chicken and beer?" She genuinely asks around the sexist insult to his head shake.

"She's such a fucking bitch." Colson thinks in amusement as he watches Luna. She is his favorite person in The World, especially when it comes to her level of IDGAF.

"Okay then, let's eat and answer questions." Sean simply requests as he takes a healthy bite. "What's the craziest thing you two have done together?" He asks once he's swallowed.

Colson takes a drink from the beer he's now sharing with Luna, mentally refusing to sip anything else after she made fun of him. His insides are dying. Luna's having the time of her life like she's the Abba Queen of hot wings as she wipes her mouth after fucking up her latest victim. Both of them are on totally different waves lengths but when their eyes meet for the question anything drops away and everything makes sense.

"The craziest thing I've ever done with Luna is fall in love with her almost 10yrs ago simply by her presence and smile." Colson grins as he looks down for a moment. "I think I might've even described it once as a cosmic boner." Colson lightly laughs to himself as he looks up into Luna's welling eyes and they lightly giggle together at the reality of their love; she covers her mouth to slightly to muffle her happy whimpers.

"Yeeaaah... We've done some crazy shit but none of our foolish antics compare to the risk that we're taking by starting a life together." Luna answers sincerely as her breath catches and her eyes never leave Colson's.

"More wings for Round Seven?" The host interrupts their intimacy again.

"Round Seven." The couple agrees before nodding studiously at each other and focusing on their wings.

"Round Seven we have Bourbon Habenero Ghost from Hellfire Detroit. Let's give it a go." He suggests as they each take a bite. "Best song on Hotel Diablo?" Sean hits them with a rapid fire question.

"AHHHHH... Fuck!! THAT'S hot!! Ahhhh... Ahhh... Bad Things!"  Colson shouts out his answer as he stands up and begins waving his bandana around.

Sean heads directly for the milk after one full bite, chew and swallow. Luna eats the whole wing. Then finishes her beer.

"Aww... Bunny." Luna coos with a smile as she lightly giggles and sucks her teeth. "Don't listen to him, he's hot sauce dumb right now. Col, get some milk... " She advises as she hands him the glass. "Hotel Diablo is bigger than just ONE great song." Luna air quotes. "It's a whole concept from beginning to end. I won't say which song I think is the best but I think when a song that is not only number on the Alternative charts but also number two in POP with a major lyric that stands alone about hurting oneself... " Luna's voice begins to quiver. "Than that means to me that millions of people are responding to and resonating with a certain kind of painful feeling... " Luna starts to become visibly emotional as she continues to speak. "And I think it's important to pay attention to that point because it's incredibly concerning that so many individuals in our society obviously relate in some kind of vulnerable way to the words of this song but we don't talk about ANY it. It's time to change our question. It's not what is the best song. It should be WHY is this the best song." Luna has tears rolling down her cheeks as she looks down in her lap to let them drop silently, leaving both men speechless.

"Holy fuck... I never thought of it that way." Colson stares at her while holding the empty glass of milk before making his way over to comfort her.

"Are you guys ready for Round Eight?" Sean gently asks as he sits back down with them after Luna's had a chance to pull herself together.

"Yeah, Man. We got this." Colson answers as he squeezes Luna's thigh.

"Okay... Round Eight... We got Beyond Insanity by Da Bomb and a direct question for Brooklyn. We ready? Bite!" Sean declares skipping his own wing to ask Luna the question mid chew. "Why won't you proclaim your birth name publicly?"

"What the FUCK was that?" Colson's bewildered by the question presented to Luna as he holds tight of her thigh and drops his wing as she speaks. "Just know I'm here, Kitten." Is all he can think as he stares daggers into Sean and Luna cooly rips the host a new asshole. 

"Do you know my birth name?" Luna asks as she slows down her chewing and stares through the stupid host. "Because I don't. It's not Luna Smith if that what you're suggesting. That's my legal name. Not my birth name. You should really do your research before you ask your guests personal questions... Or at least have them worded correctly." Luna advises icily as she finishes her wing. "We ready for Round Nine?" Luna asks loudly with an annoyed tone as she drops the chicken bone onto her full plate.

"Yeah. Let's do it." Sean continues uncomfortably. "This is called Chipotle Express and it's by PuckerButt Pepper Co... We may be rising in heat but we're gonna take it down a smidge in the questions... I know you've collaborated a few times but do you guys think you'll ever do anything like a full album or project together?" Sean asks as he bites into his wing.

For the first time Luna doesn't use her love of food as an excuse not speak. "That's probably the best question you've asked yet." She compliments Sean finally as she looks over at Colson's own turning wheels before choosing to explain. "Because it's the first one that I don't have an answer to because I never heard the question."

"I think what she's trying to say is as natural of a next move that you may think making an entire album together may be... It never occurred to either of us until the moment you presented the question... " Colson turns his head to stare at Luna with a loving smile; both knowing that they're sharing almost the same thought. "And now I can't stop thinking of all the other thousands of things we could create together. So thank you." Colson and Luna turn away from each other for a moment to look at Sean with gratitude.

"Do you guys believe in soulmates?" He asks his final question while caught up in the loving feelings between the couple.

"Yes."

"No."

Colson and Luna answer at the same time but with different responses. Different ideals. Different expectations. 

"What do you mean no?" He asks her with furrowed eyebrows.

"I don't. I believe in true love but I don't believe that we're only destined to love one person. I think different people are supposed to come into our lives at different points for different reasons for different amounts of time. If that wasn't my truth than I would've never been able to fall in love with you after Justin." Luna explains her logic to him as if they're the only two in the hotel room.

Colson's silent for a moment. Totally hating Sean and his hot wings. ESPECIALLY hating his stupid fucking questions. Deeply contemplating what Luna just said.

"But you do, MGK?" Sean asks him directly, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yeah. I believe I found my soulmate... And if not, I'll have her as my wife." He smiles coyly, never taking his eyes off of Luna as she watches him with adoration.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"What were your other questions?" Luna inquisitively asks Sean after they wrap up taping.

"Oh! Uh... What do you think married life will look like for you guys and do you think you'll ever have kids?" He responds, slightly caught off guard.

"Life won't change." Luna smiles. "We're gonna keep on creating, traveling and being kind to The World as for... "

"You ready, Kitten?" Colson interrupts them as he slips his arm around Luna's waist. "Thanks again, Man." He acknowledges Sean before leading Luna away.

"We already have one... But maybe another one day." Luna answers his second question over her shoulder with a twinkle in her eye.

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

"Where are we going now?" Luna giggles into Colson's ear as he carries her piggyback style up a slight hill.

"You've shown me a lot of cool things, now it's my turn." He answers her as he gently sets her down in the evening glow of the dipping sun. "Here, lemme get that blanket." He asks of her as he takes the schoolbag from off of Luna's back. Stretching it out, he reaches for her once he sits down. "Lay with me, please?" He requests.

"Where are we?" Luna asks as she curls up next to his body.

"Just wait." Colson gently instructs as he lights a blunt.

On a quiet hill somewhere in LA, Colson and Luna snuggle up together in the warm summer's air as the sun falls off the edge of The Earth. The night's sky slowly creeping around them. Luna's breath catches in her chest as she takes in Colson's surprise. It's a WHOLE sky filled with stars.

"I knew you'd appreciate this." He smiles to himself as he kisses the top of her head.

"It's so beautiful... How did you ever find this?" She asks in amazement.

"Mod showed me one night when we were tripping. It's the ONLY place you can see the stars out here." Colson breathes in deeply as he pulls her closer.

They lay together pointing out what they think are different constellations. Debating what's a satellite and what's a star. Luna drawing out Orion's Belt as Colson shows her where he believes to be The Big and Little Dipper are.

"So you really don't believe in soulmates?" Colson asks Luna again under the cosmic sky.

"No. Not one. I believe we're destined to love who we love... And I love you, Bunny. What's the difference?" She asks him.

"I don't know... I guess I find the whole idea of belonging to one person to be comforting and romantic. It's like having a predestined home." The idealistic yet hurt little boy inside of him answers.

"Oh, Bunny... " Luna purrs as she snuggles closer to him. "I am your home. Forever. Married, not married. Soulmates, not soulmates. I know a lot of shit but there's not much I'm sure of." Luna admits. "I am sure that I've loved since I saw you but that I wasn't meant to truly meet you until I did." She places his hand in the middle of her breasts so he can feel her beating heart. "We are who we are for a reason and right now... Our reason is the only thing that makes sense or matters to me."

Colson grabs her chest with a firm lightness. Holding their feelings tightly inside of his large palm. After a moment he gently rolls his body so that he looms over top of Luna. Staring down at her, he brushes the random stands of hair from her face. Leaning on his forearms, he dips down to kiss her passionately. She runs her fingers along the sides of his face into the back of his hair as she pulls him closer and kisses him firmly.

Their touches are sweet and soft under the star filled sky. They slowly undress each other as their kisses linger on their bare skin. Colson and Luna stare into each other's souls as he fully enters her. Making them both shake from their pure feelings and emotions.

It's not often that Colson and Luna make love. They usually fuck the shit out of each other. Tonight they're not animals. They're intimate lovers, both taking their time. Dropping heartfelt I love yous into each other's ears as they softly pant and moan. Soulmates or not, Luna and Colson are in this shit called Life together. Forever.

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

2Xs2

To be continued...

[azpartygirlz]

Thursday, September 30th

SHANNON & THE CLAMS

at Club Congress (info/tix)

“I am terrified of spiders,” says Shannon Shaw. “My mom always told me that they’re drawn to me. Like, they would drop down and dangle in my face as a baby, or they’d get in my bed.” 

But the powerhouse singer-bassist of retro-rock band Shannon & The Clams had bigger fears when she went to an astrologer two years ago. Shaw was at an emotional tipping point — willing to try anything — because everything she loved was falling apart. 

“It felt like the end of an era,” Shaw says, which began to unravel in 2016 with the tragic Ghost Ship warehouse fire in the Clams’ DIY community in Oakland. In 2018, the California wildfires in Napa almost caused her parents to evacuate their homes. In 2019, a lurking intruder drove Shaw out of the beloved apartment she’d lived in for 14 years. And then, right as her band was getting invited on big tours with bands like Greta Van Fleet and The Black Keys, her father was diagnosed with cancer. “The idea of leaving my family was agonizing — it was torture,” Shaw says. 

The astrologer told her to summon Durga when she felt powerless, a Hindu goddess who holds a weapon in each of her eight arms. Shaw saw the connection. “The symbolism of the spider made a full turn in an interesting way,” she says. “I was getting protection from the thing I feared the most.” Plus, she says with a laugh, “Spiders destroy the bullshit bugs. Like mosquitoes. Who needs ‘em?” 

Year Of The Spider, the band’s sixth studio album, rages against death and disease with the power of a thousand angry Ronettes. Songs like “All Of My Cryin',” “Mary, Don’t Go,” and “Year Of The Spider,” pulse with girl-group elegance and punk ferocity. On a Clams record, you always get both. 

That harsh/soft balance often comes down to Clams keyboardist Will Sprott. "Different keyboards lend themselves to different tones," Sprott says, "a Rhodes [piano] is more soft and bell-like, whereas a Wurlitzer has these chunky, abrasive bites. So when I'm deciding which instrument to play on a song, I'm thinking, what does the song make you feel? What do you want it to communicate? It's like, do you want this organ to scream at you or soothe you?" 

On the album opener, it was a little bit of both. “Do I Wanna Stay" is a slow tango between Shaw's voice and Sprott's piano that builds to a break point when Shaw rasps, “I dream at night…” sounding like someone whittled Brenda Lee into a shiv. 

"We went line by line with a fine-toothed comb to make sure the instrumentation matched each scene, almost like a movie," Sprott says, adding, "That's one thing about having Dan [Auerbach] as your producer — he is really good at seeing an overall vision of the sound — knowing when and where to add or remove certain layers." 

Drummer Nate Mahan agreed, saying "Stay" was a true collaboration. "Shannon had a very unique idea about the tempo of that song that we had to work out with Dan … The timing took us quite a while to get right, but I'm really proud of how it came out." 

When Mahan moved to Oakland in 2007, he was a fan of the band before he joined. "I was in a lot of improvisational and noise bands in a city that has every micro-genre you can imagine floating around … Shannon and the Clams stuck out to me because they had great songs with great singers, which I thought that really lacking in Oakland at the time." 

Mahan's intuitive approach shines through on songs with dense imagery like, "Mary Don't Go" — one of Shaw and Auerbach's favorites. "I wanted to leave space for the words and pull back [on the drums]," Mahan says. "When you slow the pace, the words can feel more powerful." 

On “Godstone," which tells the story of a surreal underwater encounter Shaw had in Hawaii, Mahan ditched the drums completely and played a halting, horn-like piano line while Sprott added the eerie arpeggiated synths. 

The other source of the Clams' signature sound comes from the decade-long creative partnership between Shaw and Clams’ guitarist Cody Blanchard. In “I Need You Bad,” their voices lock into bewitching minor chords. “It’s like a zipper when we sing together,” Shaw said, “I think we have a blood harmony, though we’re not related.” Bands that do have blood harmonies — the Everly Brothers, the BeeGees — are major musical touchstones for them. But unlike those groups, Shaw, Blanchard are close friends. They live 15 minutes away from each other and when both are in town, will rehearse in the goat shed turned recording studio that Blanchard built in his yard.

Blanchard mixed Spider at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Studios the same week tornadoes devastated parts of Nashville right before the COVID-19 shutdowns in early 2020. He also wrote and sings lead on roughly half the songs on Spider. His songs, like “Flowers Will Return” and “In The Hills, In The Pines,” have swelling pop arrangements and a mysteriously sparse falsetto, reminiscent of bands like The Hollies and The Association. 

As a songwriter, Blanchard said he can get neurotic, so he tried Dolly Parton’s trick: writing songs from another person’s point of view. It worked, yielding some of Spider’s darkest songs: the howling “Crawl,” which has a roiling hard-rock guitar (“that was really fun — just a classic, rippin’ ‘70s guitar solo”) and the album's first single, “Midnight Wine," a thundering baroque-pop number that was inspired by friends and people in the Oakland arts community who died of drug overdoses over the last few years.

“I was thinking specifically of the feeling of alienation,” said Blanchard. “Where it feels like nothing in society works for you. The only thing that makes sense is to get fucked up to the point where you don’t care if you die or not because life is too difficult and bleak.” 

Spider ends with the slinky Motown-esque, “Vanishing.”Shaw dons her spiritual spider armor once more, singing directly and poignantly to her father (who is doing well, she said.) At first, Shaw wondered if the lyrics were too personal to put on the record. 

“It’s very emotional, very tender,” she said. “I also had these ideas that made no sense, like having the weird call-and-response, but we made it work so it was one of those songs that gave me the chance to grow.”

[aion-rsa]

Streaming on Plex: Best Movies and TV Shows You Can Watch for FREE in September

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This article is sponsored by Plex. You can download the Free Plex App now by clicking here!

There’s an overwhelming amount of new movies and TV shows hitting streaming services this fall. If you’re starving for new content, it’s set to be a fantastic time, but if your wallet is starving for funds, it can be pretty stressful. With studios and content providers spreading their libraries out across so many different streaming services, keeping up with all of your favorites can get expensive. Thankfully, Plex TV is here to keep you entertained without breaking the bank.

Plex is a globally available one-stop-shop streaming media service offering thousands of free movies and TV shows and hundreds of free-to-stream live TV channels, from the biggest names in entertainment, including Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Lionsgate, Legendary, AMC, A+E, Crackle, and Reuters. Plex is the only streaming service that lets users manage their personal media alongside a continuously growing library of free third-party entertainment spanning all genres, interests, and mediums including podcasts, music, and more. With a highly customizable interface and smart recommendations based on the media you enjoy, Plex brings its users the best media experience on the planet from any device, anywhere.

Plex releases brand new and beloved titles to its platform monthly and we’ll be here to help you identify the cream of the crop. View Plex TV now for the best free entertainment streaming and check back each month for Den of Geek Critics’ picks!

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DEN OF GEEK CRITICS’ PICKS

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

They’re the world’s most fearsome fightin’ team. They’re heroes in a half-shell and they’re green. I mean, what more do we need to say? 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is no Citizen Kane, but comic book movie fans flock to it like the four titular turtles to pizza. The film knows exactly what it is, providing cheesy one-liners, silly action, and unpretentious fun. Throwing in Will Arnett as a sidekick for April O’Neil was an inspired choice that paid dividends in laughs and whoever tapped Tony Shaloub to voice Splinter should get a pay raise. Produced by Nickelodeon Pictures, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wasn’t only the highest grossing film in the series, but also the highest grossing Nickelodeon film of all-time. This reboot of the classic ninja team helped spawn further films, new TV series, and a renewed interest in one of the most beloved comic book properties ever. Cowabunga, dude!

Noah

This isn’t your Sunday School’s Noah. Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of the story of the biblical figure Noah is an awe-inspiring epic that takes the bones of the famous story and infuses themes about environmentalism, self-doubt, and yes, faith. Pulling liberally from texts like the Book of Enoch, the film has far more action than just leading animals onto a boat and a storm. Shot by Matthew Libatique, the movie looks absolutely gorgeous and at times can be genuinely breath-taking, but it’s not just about the visuals. Russell Crowe stuns in the title role, but the entire ensemble is great, including a post-Potter Emma Watson and a ferocious Ray Winstone. No one expected Noah to be more akin to a thought-provoking art house film than a straight-forward epic, but that’s the sort of genius you get from Aronofsky, one of the most exciting and inventive filmmakers working today. 

Shine a Light

Even if we hadn’t just lost the immortal, suave Charlie Watts, the heartbeat of rock and roll’s longest institution, The Rolling Stones, we’d still be recommending Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light. Capturing the legendary band during their A Bigger Bang Tour in 2006, Scorsese spends a lot of the time rightfully focusing on Watts. With the camera fixated on Watts, you witness his unflappability; the way that he can make such raucous playing look so effortless. You also catch the man’s unique, jazz-influenced technique, like how he rarely hits the center of his snare, or how he changes his grip whenever he hits a cymbal. Even in their old age, the Stones are still one of the tightest, most electrifying live acts, and Shine a Light puts you right on stage with them as they barrel through one of the deepest catalogs in recorded music. It’s simply a masterful concert film.

The Virgin Suicides

Sofia Coppola likely has to deal with accusations about nepotism to this day, but anyone who saw her directorial debut The Virgin Suicides knows that Francis’ daughter would have made it as a filmmaker even without her famous last name. This haunting adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name taps into the melancholy of childhood, the dreamlike haze of memory, and the mystery that lurks inside suburban homes. Coppola expertly captures the pull that an ethereal group of sisters have on the imaginative group of boys that pine for them in a way that is relatable for anyone that had an unrequited crush in high school. As a coming-of-age movie, it is one of a kind. As an exploration of trauma and grief, it is crushingly effective. The original score by the band Air only adds to its hypnagogic vibe. 

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

Punk rock music and Roger Corman pictures are some of the core tenants that Den of Geek was founded on, so of course we’re going to recommend 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, which features possibly the coolest band of all-time, The Ramones. Let our resident punk rock movie expert Jim Knipfel break it down for you:

“After producing so many dozens of teen rebellion films over the years, Corman finally hit the pinnacle, the ultimate teen rebellion picture, with the cartoon antics ratcheted up more than a few notches. There are so many bad jokes flying around, so many visual gags and film references packed into every scene, so many overwrought teen film clichés pushed way past absurd, it’s a film that demands multiple viewings. Even if “Riff Randall, rock ’n’ roller” (P.J. Soles) doesn’t look much like any punk chick I ever knew, I’m perfectly willing to accept it. And in historical terms, it really was this film more than the 4 albums they had out at the time that spread the word about The Ramones to mainstream America, and that’s worth something. Old as I am I still get a thrill every time the students and the Ramones blow up Vince Lombardi High, and anyone who doesn’t must be wrong in the head somehow.”

New on Plex in September:  

1000 Times Good Night 

13 

13 Assassins 

The Accidental Husband 

All Good Things 

Assassination of a High School President 

Awake 

Bent 

Bordertown 

Brain Dead 

Cold Mountain  

The Descent 

The Descent Part 2  

Even Money 

Fear City 

First Snow 

Freedom Writers  

Gray Matters  

The Jesus Rolls 

Johnny Was  

Keys to Tulsa  

The Legend of Bagger Vance  

Mad Money 

Marrowbone 

Murder on the Orient Express 

The Ninth Gate 

Nothing but the Truth  

Ordinary People 

Rememory  

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School  

Sanctuary  

Shine a Light  

Soul Survivors  

Taboo  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  

The TV Set  

The Virgin Suicides  

What Doesn’t Kill You  

Winter Passing  

World Trade Center  

Catch before it leaves in September: 

31 

Absolution  

Accident Man  

Aeon Flux 

After.Life 

Angel of Death 

Answer Man 

The Bang Bang Club 

Battle Royale 

Blood and Bone 

The Broken 

Cashmere Mafia  

Child 44 

Cleaner 

Cold Comes the Night 

Coming Soon 

The Connection 

Conspiracy  

The Cookout  

Critical Condition  

Dark Crimes  

The Death and Life of Bobby Z 

Death Proof 

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star 

Downhill Racer 

Dragged Across Concrete  

The Dresser  

The Duel 

Dummy 

Flight of Fury 

Flirting with Disaster  

The Foreigner  

Goat  

Gutshot Straight  

Halloween III: Season of the Witch  

The Hard Corps  

Hesher  

High Right 

Honeymoon  

The Hunt 

I Saw the Devil 

In the Mix 

Jason and the Argonauts 

Jeff, Who Lives at Home 

Jiri Dreams of Sushi  

Joe 

Journey to the West  

Kill ‘Em All 

A Kind of Murder 

The Kite Runner 

Lake Placid 2 

Lake Placid 3 

Last Resort 

The Lazarus Project 

Misconduct 

Mr. Church 

Mutant Chronicles 

Mythica: The Godslayer 

Mythica: The Iron Clown  

Never Back Down: No Surrender 

News Radio  

Noah 

Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior  

Ong Bak: The Beginning  

The Order 

Out for a Kill 

The Outcasts  

Phantoms 

Pistol Whipped 

The Protector 

Pulse (2001) 

Reprisal  

Return to the Blue Lagoon 

The River Murders  

The Romantics 

Second in Command 

Shadow Man 

Shattered  

The Shepherd 

Southside with You 

Space Station 76 

Square Pegs 

Standoff 

Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation  

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder 

Steel Dawn 

Substitute  

The Super  

SWAT: Under Siege 

The Terminal  

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada  

Touchy Feely  

Trollhunter 

UFO 

Universal Solider: Day of Reckoning  

Vamps  

Vicky Cristina Barcelona  

Walking Tall: Lone Justice 

Warlock 

What Planet are You From?  

World’s Fastest Indian 

World’s Greatest Dad  

The Yellow Handkerchief  

Still streaming on Plex: 

2:22 

2 Days in New York 

21 Jump Street  

22 Bullets  

24 Hours to Live  

3rd Rock from the Sun 

6 Bullets  

99 Homes 

A Little Bit of Heaven 

A Walk in the Woods 

The Air I Breathe  

Alan Partridge 

ALF  

Alone in the Dark 

Amelie 

American Pastoral  

And Soon the Darkness 

Andromeda  

Are You Here 

Arthur and the Invisibles  

Awake 

Battle in Seattle 

Bernie 

Better Watch Out 

Black Death  

Blade of the Immortal 

Blitz 

The Brass Teapot 

Bronson 

The Brothers Bloom 

The Burning Plain 

But I’m a Cheerleader 

Cake  

Candy  

Catch .44 

Cell  

The Choice 

Clerks II 

Coherence  

The Collector  

Colonia  

Congo  

Cooties 

The Core 

The Cotton Club 

Crossing Lines  

Croupier  

Cube  

Cube 2 

Cube Zero 

Cyrano de Bergerac  

Death and the Maiden 

The Deep Blue Sea 

Deep Red 

Derailed 

Detachment 

The Devil’s Rejects  

Diary of the Dead 

District B13 

DOA: Dead or Alive 

Dr. T and the Women  

Eden Lake 

The Edge of Love  

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