#its also why i havent posted my old art even tho i said i would bc i cant look at it without it feeling wrong so uh yeah

[yridk]

art block sucks so much, bc like i have so many ideas and so many things i want to do and make but i cant bc there is something stopping me from translating those thoughts into actual art and when i actually try to draw smth it just looks wrong

[froggayzfartz]

Hai Starry✨ im glad your feelin better :3 oof tho i bet elementary schoolers would be passing around the illnesses lol. Yet another reason teachers r so strong. Dude ive got the weak immune system too i did eat grass and bark as a kid tho😆. I hope it passes you by!! And hell yeah doordash those gummies! I forget thats an option sometimes my towns too small so we dont have doordash lol

I dont mind. My day was just lame cause i had to drive my mom around cause her car broke down🙄 and it flared my eds 🙂‍↕️I had a swag sesh with my therapist tho lmaoo. Im just chillin today.

Hehe it does feel like a warm hug i feel like theres never been (or i havent seen many) shows hat have a majority of queer characters and dont have them experiencing hate like instead their all a happy gay family. so much of the cast is gay too! Like even the guy who plays izzy posted a bunch of peoples gay fanart of him😄. Theres so much funny behind the scenes stuff on youtube. So true tho the healing of found queer family🥲. And of course a wholesome banger of a gay show that it is gets canceled 😑. I thought they managed to wrap it up pretty nice tho. I so hope it inspires more shows like it!!! And dude your so right it feels like a really well written gay fic that youd only be able to find that kinda comfort in some queer persons fic that wants good rep. Wasnt twilight based of a mcr fic? Your so right tho the fanbased are totally bleeding over i think the writters listened to a lot of what the fans said after the first season and actually took notes! I love it fanfics have helped me a lot too:3

Emojis really are an art form honestly like how do i not use them✨ like DAMN that feels hella lucky it took me right to a foresty clover feild😄 i love the vibes of a lil ritual

And i love that mine looked like a candi charm bracelet to you🥹 Im always wearing the same five beaded bracelets. I’ll switch some out sometimes (i love to make beaded bracelets) the kind with letters and charms and all that.

✨💛🐥🐝✨🐯🍯☀️🧀⭐️🌼💛🏜️✨🍋🌼🐕🌻🌙💫💛✨

Feeling very yellow i guess i hope its charged🫡

Ooo the plant 🪴 secrets🤲! Ty🫶 mycelium is writen down for safe keepings. It sounds fun to go digging in dirt like genuinely i should hang out outside more. I might have seen that white stuff on wood before but i should look :3 so cute tho they need a way to talk to their plants besties in those pots. Maybe thats why mine were sad i dont think my mom knew the secrets lol. My indoor plants were in desperat need of fungus roots! I need to reget some plants 😄 i dont have much of any after moving a while ago.

Aw man yeah! I recall my life by the places i lived. They feel like lil time capsules. Or like different seasons of a show. Its cool to acknowledge that when you leave :””) (lol that guys got a long face) and oh my god joshs hair color!😆😆 im crying

Oh dude hell yeah the tiny tree frogs😖🐸🐸 i used to have so many tiny smooth green frogs at one of my old houses. We also had the biggol girthy brown toads 😆 i was obsessed with holding them

Lmaoo nooo sister daniel would freeze!! Why god🖐️😫🤚

Thank you for your snow prayers lol🫶🙂‍↕️💕

Sorry you said add and i had to make this real quick🙂‍↕️ and i had to give tyler a skull ☠️ scarf lol not like that picture wasnt trippy enough before😆

Id love to see your alien creatures that sounds bomb!!! 😄😄😄💕

And AAAH that pic!! I love his big chonky boots! His long hair is servinggg. It looks so soft like what the hell😆 i love him and dan making mullets super emo 🖤

I hope your doing good😄

Lovingly💕

Jude

Howdy, Jude! What's good? :)

(this is a modified version of the game "what doin'", in which you ask your friends "what doin'?" and it facilitates a conversation. I never know what to ask about in asks, so I'm playing what doin'. But I figure asking "what doin'?" would probably provide a boring answer like eating food, so I modified it to "what's good?" which pretty much opens up the floor for you to talk about what ever is good in your life right now :)). Sorry if this seems very autistic, I'm probably very autistic, and I decided to embrace it today.)

Omg hiiii Starry! (Idk if thats cool i love all your names lmk) :3

Im so glad u sent this im also very autistic so i have a hard time initiating conversation. 😆 As for whats good in my life right now hehe um🤔 my cat 🐈‍⬛ (as always). OH and dans mullet lmaoo. Got my lisence recently besides that just basking in the winter depression currently drawing and playing totk🙂. How about you?🥴 How are you doing whats good in your life right now? Id love to know🫶

[omegawolverine]

Plesse tell me about queerness in the get down!!

okay okay queerness in the get down let's fuckn goooo

disclaimer: I havent watched this show in full for like 5 months at least, probably gonna get something wrong and/or forget some more important bits. also this wasnt proof read I just word vomited

tws: period typical homophobia, abuse mention, f slur use, bury your gays trope, overdose mention, mention of a creepy possible age gap (the age gap hasnt been confirmed so that's why its possible), cops

going from least to most prominent queer characters, let's start with mylene cruz!

so, from the beginning of this show she has an established romantic relationship with ezekiel (although the status of their actual relationship changes frequently throughout the show) and though this was a relationship she was hesitant to pursue, it is clear that she does have romantic feelings for him and if not for them both having growing careers in very different music genres (zeke specifically working in a genre that she repeatedly labels as bad because she thinks they're ruining records + that it isnt real music because they're using someone elses piece and rapping over it, that's not really important here tho lol) they probably wouldve had a much healthier, smooth sailing romance. that being said theres a few things that happen in the show that, while not explicitly clear, or even really good coding at that—to the point where you wont catch if you really arent looking for it (and trust me, I always look for coding, hers was just so little that it flew over my head until I saw someone else mention it)—are still cool to think about!

so, for starters, I wanna mention the toy box performance, which was performed by mylene and regina, who are best friends. that's all cool and shit, and you dont really think much about it...until you hear about the fact that the show runners purposely colored a lot of the scenes in that performance with the bi colors. like. the writers after the show ended basically said "oh yeah there was plans to make her coding more explicit, but our shit got cancelled soooo" and then dropped the fact that she was gonna be bi (or at least implies bi) in the series, which puts a new twist on a few things.

now, besides the bi coloring in the background of the toy box performance (which was mostly on scenes with her and regina, which involved a lot of uh,, lowkey lewd dancing. with each other. in very revealing outfits. wooooo), there's her music! I dont tend to read too much into this one bc, like I said before, her coding is fucking light and the writers themselves said they didnt really get to do much with it, but I think some stuff with her music is interesting. specifically how her, yolanda and regina's song set me free blew up because dizzee, resident (lowkey enby coded) bicon, got their song played in a queer club. also that the song was majorly important to dizzee and started playing literally right as he kissed a boy for the first time and realized "oh shit I like boys that's bonkers". also that the song can be taken in a gay way since literally the entire thing is about becoming your true self, fully and unapologetically, which is what both dizzee and mylene's entire character arcs are about. dizzee (and a lot of other queer people, apparently), heard this song about being set free and it resonated with them so much that they got that shit most of its popularity.

speaking of dizzee and mylene, they parallel each other a lot in the way that their arcs are about them realizing who they are, coming into themselves and no longer just letting people treat them like shit in a sense (dizzee starting to tell people essentially that they can call him weird all they want, they can make fun of how he acts, what he likes, how he dresses, etc. but he likes how he is and quite literally saying "it's okay to be an alien" as he has consistently compared himself to one throughout the show vs mylene learning that if she wants to be a disco singer she needs to put her foot down, not let anyone, not even the love of her life, not even her abusive father, stop her from achieving her dreams, etc. and continuing to pursue her career with or without their support). one more little parallel that I think is interesting is during I think s2 towards the end of the show is when dizzee and thor are shown together having fun with each other, painting all over the building and each other and are basically just being happy and in love together and then they have these clips of them being interspersed with clips of mylene at a party where she is starting to realize that if she wants to get anywhere she needs to be her own main priority and that she needs to put her career and her dream, which is what makes her the happiest, above all else if she wants to succeed. idk I just think how the show made these two into a weird parallel, accidental or not, is neat. maybe not an explicitly queer parallel, but I think at least how her music and whatnot helped dizzee, the main queer character in this show, blossom, is important.

moving on we got shaolin fantastic also known as "oh no your internalized homophobia is showing-"

so, heres a quick list of...interesting shao facts:

Consistently referred to as fag/faggot (shaolin fanfaggot is my personal favorite); he gets really defensive about this despite nobody actually thinking he's queer, it's just people being assholes to be assholes, and he is the only character consistently referred to using a slur, especially a homophobic one, especially for a "straight" character. dizzee, a canonically queer character, is called a fag less than shaolin is even though dizzee actively goes to gay clubs, has a not so secret dude he "hangs out with" and wont let anyone properly meet, paints his nails, wears less than straight clothes even by the 70s standards and is just all around the definition of fucking queer (and I mean like in the weird way, not the gay way). in fact theres only like once I can remember him being called a fag and it had nothing to do with him actually being gay it was literally just like thrown out there the same way you would call someone a bitch.

Has only shown sexual interest in women, yet refuses to have deeper relationships with women in general (possibly because of trauma but who knows) but takes his relationships with his "brothers", specifically zeke, very seriously

Tells zeke and zeke ONLY his real name when zeke was planning to stop being his friend bc shao more or less got boo boo, a like 14 year old black kid, arrested for selling hard drugs; he was clearly scared and trying to do anything to keep zeke around, literally chasing him down the street and hounding him until he got zeke to stop and argue with him

Kept threatening to beat up zeke in the end but couldn't actually bring himself to do so, instead saying that zeke is "fucking lucky" before walking away

Let's zeke get away with things that nobody else can, in general just has a weird soft spot for ezekiel that he shows with nobody else

when shao found dizzee with thor in a vaguely compromising situation (like they were just shirtless covered in paint sleeping next to each other but shao had also seen everything they painted on the walls ((which some of it was sus)), it was clear they had painted on each others bodies and dizzee had been routinely disappearing with this guy for weeks now yet not producing nearly as much art, at least, as far as we audience members know) he didnt judge him but instead, waited for him to get cleaned up and then told him something along the lines of "theres a reason why im so secretive blah blah blah [not everyone needs to know everything about me]", which, in context, kinda implies that he might be a lil. a lil homiesexual. jus a lil.

whenever even the possibility of zeke leaving him comes up he absolutely loses it. he has literally cost ezekiel life changing opportunities because he thought zeke would just up and leave him for them. this could be abandonment issues bc he's a severely traumatized character, and that probably does contribute to it, but it also is just not a reaction he has to any of their other friends just randomly dipping in and out of his life soooooo

generally speaking, this mfer has got either bisexual with a big hard on for zeke coding or homosexual with terrible internalized homophobia and still a hard on for zeke coding. either fucking way, that nigga gay. he gay as hell. gay as fuck man. there wasn't really much to analyze here tbh bc the coding is just so fucking obvious if you look for it or you are/have been a gay person who's dealt with at least a little bit of internalized homophobia.

also, just a sidenote, idk how fucking old shao, but I'm praying hes like at max 19 bc I'm pretty sure zeke is a minor in this show and shao definetly is not so the whole him being heavily implied to have a crush on ezekiel thing is kinda. oof. not oof if zeke is like 17 but any younger than that? OOF.

edit: apparently the characters are only supposed to be a year apart in age but i had no clue about that before writing this post and since shaos age was never actually stated in the show i naturally assumed he was an adult since his actor Looks Like An Adult. this is definetly on me to a certain extent, but i also never saw anything about this when trying to find our their ages so 🤷‍♀️ maybe i just didnt look deep enough, sorry!

now moving on to the main event...marcus dizzee kipling :]

so, first things first, let's talk enby coding bc him being bisexual was already confirmed!

um, to start off, I just wanna say I dont think this enby coding was intentional or even really coding, it's just moreso me being a dizzee kin on main and knowing as a transmasc enby he has very transmasc enby vibes. for example:

cool, gender neutral nickname that everyone calls him

paints nails various different colors

the whole wardrobe is just a transmasc enby heaven...fishnet shirts, jean overalls, jackets and cuffed pants galore, the big colorful pins, etc

gender neutral hairstyle (when I had my fro it was very sexy and made it easy to transition between hyper masc and vaguely fem, which is pog)

comparing himself to/representing himself consistently with an alien character (though this is meant to represent his sexuality, it could also double as a gender thing too, not neccesarily bc of the whole nonbinary alien trope but bc an enby who likes aliens might heavily identify or compare themselves to whatever their idea of an alien is, whether that just be a genderless entity or a motherfucker with fly style and no need to be perceived as anything other Wacky As Hell)

moving on from there, let's talk about how his queerness is presented to us and how, while it may be a really good piece of representation, especially coming from netflix, it still lacks in A Lot of places.

so, let's start with good things!

i personally really like the get down's queer rep with dizzee bc it's (for the most part) nonsexualized and very very soft, about dizzee figuring himself out and realizing there is a place where he fits in, and about two teenagers in the 70s falling in love over their shared passion for street art. it also features an interracial couple where both boys challenge stereotypes both about queer men and men of color, which is epic poggers and very sexy. this piece of rep specifically is very important to me bc I am a queer black person and even tho interracial relationships are mostly normalized now, I've still had people give me shit for primarily dating white people in a town that is...primarily white lol

mm anyways, I can also appreciate how in the get down, dizzee being represented by rumi the alien is not a thing specifically related to gender (as it often is) and instead is about his sexuality and just in general weirdness and how it has led to him being alienated amongst his peers, poc or otherwise. him seeing himself as an alien is not about just his queerness, which is important, it is about him being a queer black man who talks different, acts different, dresses different and is "soft"—he isnt a walking black male stereotype and he wouldnt have been seen as masculine back in the 70s by any stretch of the imagination. this can be relatable to a wide spectrum of queer poc, from queer black men currently who still have to deal with this shit or to people like myself who are afab neurodivergent mixed race enbies that have always been signaled out as weird and alienated for it. dizzee is god rep bc while he has a small part in this show, his parts are very impactful, hard hitting and show queer poc of all ages that they arent alone and that it's okay to "weird", you just need to embrace it because somebody will love you for you, as thor did for dizzee.

that being said theres um. some minor problemas here,,,

namely:

dizzee and thors first kiss

the lack of development this pairing got

the way dizzee was confirmed bisexual off screen, he never said the words himself, just showed interest in both genders

the way dizzee and thor were never even confirmed boyfriends or just fwb so most of the fandom just calls them boyfriends bc Why Not

dizzee was implied fucking DEAD??? AT THE END OF THE SERIES?????? AND THOR WAS IMPLIED ARRESTED?????????????

now, these might have been things that wouldve been fine had the show been given it's full run but it wasnt which is why we are now left with probelms.

so, from the top, let's go over these: dizzee and thor's first (and only "on screen") kiss was one that was shown in a montage of other queer people making over and doing other vaguely romantic/sexual things, one of those things being a whole ass naked titty being mouthed at, but the actual kiss...was just not shown? like they really did just say "yes they kissed <3 you know this from the context clues of it being in a montage with kissing, hickey giving and titty sucking <3 but no we will not show it <3" LIKE HELLO? I SAW A NAKED BOOBIE BUT NOT TWO MEN KISS??? HUH????????

also, dizzee and thor were both fucking high as hell during this bit like this isnt a terrible thing but it's also like sometimes you do shit when you're high that you wouldnt do sober and they just never kissed again on screen so like?? like idk that's not that bad but it does kinda irk me since they deadass got no other on screen intimacy after that unless you including painting on eacher other or sleeping next to each other on a shitty mattress but not touching at all during it bc they were both at opposite ends of the mattress like half way off it

so yeah, that was trash. then we got lack of development, which kinda goes with the "dizzee being a bisexual but he never says it in canon" thing cause like...okay dizzee was already sort of a side character from the get go like he wasnt the mc by any means, but he became way more of a background character as things continued until we basically only saw him for performances or when he was with thor, yet they got no fucking development as a pairing other than "dizzee realize he gay, he like thor, he and thor spend time together and ig probably do some gay stuff but we dont really know bc we only ever see them do graffiti together now" like?? tf am I supposed to do with that shit. answer. quickly. and then theres dizzee not being confirmed bisexual, which is just a running problem with shows literally doing everything to say a character is bi except for having the character just...say they're bi? which would be so easy? like a good way dizzee and thor couldve had some development is by thor teaching dizzee things about the queer community that he didnt even know existed, thor couldve helped him understand what being bi meant and helped him label himself and whatnot but instead we got an off screen confirmation that the writers had bisexual in mind when writing him. which is garbagé.

the whole thor and dizzee never having a confirmed relationship status is also a development problem cause like literally nobody knows if they were just friends who made out, maybe fucked, who knows, or if they were dating bc dizzee does give a love confession but a love confession doesn't mean there is a relationship, especially since thor didn't say he was in love either (as far as I remember, I could be wrong, plus whether or not that really happened or was apart of dizzee literally overdosing during a performance is unclear so 🤪)

and now for the biggest issue...bury your gays trope.

during the season 2 finale, dizzee and thor are chased by cops after they are found doing graffiti, one of the cops is able to catch thor while the other chases dizzee into a train tunnel and there is a train seen headed straight for him before the show cuts to black on a train horn. the show writers claim that if they had gotten another season, dizzee wouldve been alive but since they didnt and since that's essentially super fan trivia knowledge, most people dont fucking know that and instead had to watch a black queer teenager chose death over being fucking arrested by a white cop. on top of that, thor didnt see any of that shit because he was caught and the cop started hauling him off while dizzee was still being chased so thor literally has no clue where his friend/possible boyfriend fucking is or that he's likely dead in a goddamn tunnel all alone, unless you count the fucking pig that chased him in there who wouldve died too. this shows rep was so fucking good as far as most shows go on not having major fucking problems, on not being toxic and over sexualized, etc, etc. and then they just. killed a black queer teenager for no fucking reason. like it was literally the last episode ever, it would add nothing to the plot, it would just devastate fans and devastate it fucking did. I dont cry easy but seeing a character I identified with, who I had hyperfixated on, die because he'd rather that than be arrested is terrible. it fucking sucked.

so yeah. that's my all too extensive thoughts/analysis on the get down's queerness. theres definitely stuff I missed, or misinterpreted, or looked too much into, etc, etc., but this was a fun thing to spend time writing sooo yeah!! thanks for the ask anon, sorry this was just a big rambley info dump, but hopefully you get some enjoyment out of it since it took like 3 hours at least 😭😭 feel free to ask clarifying questions lol

[dancinginmydressinthesun]

3 for the unusualish asks💞

Oh I will girl ( you should have NOT give me that number right after the bold type season finale)

I cannot rant about Taylor bc everythings good and I’m living for that so lets just go with my favourite show and how fucked up everything is, I am usually not someone who voices their opinion too much especially on here bc thats just not the type of person I am but anyway 

The Bold Type has been my favourite tv show and if you have never seen it I still recommend you do bc overall its still a damn good show dont get me wrong if it does not seem like that (there are several reasons to watch it and I want it to become more popular so pls do)

Well, I started watching it right at the beginning, June/July last year when the first episode aired and BOI it blew me away, like, i did not expect anything major BUT lemme just say it destroys every other show its just that good (I love the girls it focuses on individually and together, the boss is full perfection, the main ship (a bi girl of colour and a proud muslim lesbian) was breathtaking, the storylines were on point and emotional and it just idk maybe they set the bars too high)

So the second season started airing beginnign of june and you know, I WAS worried before that they could not keep up but I had SO MUCH faith (but it also seems like the writers were kind of replaced and man that shows) the first few episodes were fire alright which is even worse bc i had lost all my worries and knew I was gonna be fed the whole season but little did I know …

You know I really hate complaining too much about something about a tv show that is there to enjoy and make me happy so I’ll stop thinking about it after this post but I do get the frustration so much (but death threats and bashing the whole show is not helpful whoops I said it) 

Just a few short notes on things that anger me a little (I’m probably forgetting thigns but anyway):

1. Jane (she is one of the three main girls) I really like(d) Jane a lot and I feel like I can identify with her, we are very much alike in many ways and this especially showed in season 1. I dont “hate” her at all after this season, not even dislike her, but she they used her for almost all (?) the controversial topics as the one who makes rude and subtle offensive comments, which is not bad in itself bc she learned from it mostly all the time and apologizes but it was just too often and much for me. in the first season Jane seemed at least trying to be more understanding even when she could not really and she was relatable with her concerns and her feelings and this was not really the case for me this season. I felt like she did not own up enough for some mistakes and it did not give me this tbt feeling of happiness and goodness and wholesomeness I had after every damn episode last season????

2. Screen Time (Jacqueline/Alex/Adena) You could probably talk about everyone of them in detail now but I dont have the energy - let me just say Adena and Jacqueline are my favourite characters so maybe I am biased and I know that this whole post need to be edited probably after I rewatch the season bc I can easier give feedback when everything is fresh in my mind but you know, all we fans wanted was to have backstorys (and bc he didnt really get one either this probably applies to Oliver too) not even much, just maybe like the episode in season 1 when we got to learn more about Jacquelines family and her past in general (still crying), it was so well-written bc it was not just something thrown in there but integrated in the storyline, it had purpose, it was emotional, it gave insight into her character and I honestly saw her with different eyes after that (and loved her even more), now those 3 or 4 just are really pushed to the sides. You dont see Adena without Kat really or talking about her character without it being about her sexuality and Kat (oh hey a gay one complaining about that??  yes bc even tho I answer I am gay after someone asks me “how are you” theres more to a person and especially to someone as interesting as Adena. I love hearing non heteros talk about their love life and everything surrounding it but at least then let Adena talk about how her coming out was, what she finds interesting in other women, if she ever struggled with it (i know they tried to cover some things but naah idk i just expected more) or just talk about something else, let us see her going to the movies with friends, a childhood throwback when she was in art class, let her talk about what she likes about some types of art. AND HER WHOLE CULTURE? I am a white western woman and I never see muslim representation on tv and I feel like still havent? i forgot at some point?! there are so many non-white people watching it hoping to be represented and ofc you cannot please everyone but now it just feels like Adena is just a proud lesbian you know. And Alex? what who was that again?

3. the storylines - sooo first of all, I liked the storylines more than most people probably from what I have seen on the tag. I think some of them were hard to put in just one episode and try to talk about everything important and still have  show going on, which is why it did not work all the time  have less storylines but make them work would be better. I really did appreciate that they tried to have a lot of stuff covered and they tried to put different points in there but there were a lot of het relationship and other drama stuff to be shown so the storys were often pushed too hard to the sides. this I say having the gun episode in mind the most i felt really unsatisfied after it and I was really looking forward to it bc i think its important and brave for them to talk about it (anyway watch one day at a time, the episode on the same matter is pure gold) . idk its alright its not the same feeling its less spectacular but I’ll stop whining about that now.

4. KADENA - I’ll try to be objective here , i do get that you cannot have a happy relationship without anything going on for 10 episodes (ok you can I would love that but maybe its less wise when it comes to viewers idk?? i stan unpopular shows so who am I to know) BUT come on, not like this?? they started of as PERFECT alright and then it all went downhill, you know cheating and stuff idk, I am not happy with it, could be more original, could be less meh but whatever I was like “ ok I’lll roll with it maybe its gonna bring a new light in this, let them grow, let them learn” but man idk. it was all a mess and once they made up and everything was fine (after 3 epsiodes of pure stress for my weak heart) after 5 minutes there was something new? almost any interaction was either them arguing or making up. I liekd their conversations mostly I really did but I was tired of drama all the time, after this season I’ll just say it: If they want to continue it like that until the end of season 3 I’d rather have them not together anymore. its no fun, its stress for them and even more for me and it would not seem realistic when they make them endgame at the very last minute (which I assume they will bc they promote it like that) without using multiple episodes and time passing to really let them grow in the relationship, without that it would just feel like one day after the finale of season 3 they would have somethng else coming up to fuck them up again. I was really baffled with the finale bc I WAS NOT expecting that they really wouldnt resolve it at all let us suffer like this (I remember that Nikohl i think said that it would be like that but someone else also said recently that it really feels like a finale and that the fans would feel assured but excited for the next season but excuse me? tbt fans who are happy about that end are great. would love to meet one one day. but where they at?? suttard fans all 3 of you I am happy for you honestly. and for sutton. richard idc. i am bitter tho. 

I STILL HAVE SO MUCH HOPE FOR SEASON 3 (pls let the old writers come back, listen to the fans, there are not too many instead of trying to make it more appealing to the general public what about pleasing us again with friendship, gayness, depth and happiness?)

(& remember: I.love.this.show. i do. I would recommend it even when there would only be season 2. but it would not be my fave anymore. its like as if taylor would have the same albums with the same music, same career, same backstory BUT her not really caring about her fans. I would still love her as an artist so freaking much. but would I jump off building for her?? naah maybe if there were a balcony and a pool who knows 

Thanks for coming to my TED talk 

[banquetrecords]

(gold teeth and) a curse for this town

So it's time to put this in the public domain, now the rest of it is in the public domain. The Hippodrome is going to close. We don't know when. Realistically it looks like mid-2019, but worst case it might be as early as this year. Here's a piece about the context, why the venue is important, and what we can do from here. The Hippodrome is the venue which currently houses our weekly live-bands event New Slang, and a lot of our one-off gigs in Kingston. We started off, as just this week Kingston Museum has said, with a Frank Turner gig; plugging his guitar and vocal into the DJ mixer and had a dance afterwards. It was fun and we turned it into a regular event..

New Slang was born out of this gig in 2006. Since then it has brought so many acts to #Kingston. Share some of your memories with us? pic.twitter.com/WJNs153Wii

— Kingston Museum (@KingstonMuseum) June 28, 2017

New Slang quickly evolved into a weekly event bringing over 1000 bands, some of which are amongst the biggest in the country, to play Kingston. It also tries to support new music and upcoming bands, as well as - obviously - providing a service for the music community of Kingston and surrounding areas. It's so much more than a job to me. I've never missed a New Slang in over a decade of doing it. As much as New Slang has moved to McClusky's and back - twice! - The Hippodrome (previously known as The Works) has always felt like home. I'm emotionally involved in that place. Probably second only to Oscar. I've had some of the best nights of my life there. I've also witnessed some really dark and pretty stressful times there. I met the one via New Slang and now The Hippodrome is a big part of what pays my bills. But the drive behind New Slang is, and always has been, bringing some of our favourite bands to our town.

In truth The Hippodrome, like any venue, is always just one catastrophic event from shutting, but management, particularly in recent times have done loads to make it a safer space, concentrating on events and "product" rather than just lowest common denominator cheap drinks/loud music. Noise / ASB complaints, rules and regs and licensing constraints while reducing margins and forcing changing practices, have not stopped The Hippodrome from being a profitable venue and one which serves a vital role in our community. At present, there is only one large venue which can regularly accomodate the production levels necessary for grade A touring bands to come and play our town. It's not just that artists from Ed Sheeran to Vampire Weekend to Bring Me The Horizon have played there, it's that bands like Tall Ships, Songhoy Blues and Pete And The Pirates have too. At the time of typing, this week's number one artist played there last week. The previous week's number one artist played there the week before. Of course it's not all about chart toppers but i think it's important to show that The Hippodrome isn't just about bands you havent heard of for teenagers you want to avoid. It's a venue which puts on gigs for people of all ages, and that can range from 1500 kids queueing to see Shawn Mendes, to average-age-on-the-scanner-of-45 when The Charlatans played last month.

Tinie Tempah at the New Slang. I love this venue!! #TinieTempah pic.twitter.com/vsPagmXImZ

— Daniel Quesada (@daniel_quesada_) April 15, 2017

Yet the thing which has been on the horizon for quite some time is a step closer now. As the "Eden Quarter" part of Kingston town centre undergoes major redevelopment, the third of four pieces of the jigsaw has now been proposed and is asking local people for feedback. Part four is when they knock Banquet down but that's not being talked about yet. Parts one and two of the puzzle are The Old Post Office site and the Eden Walk redevelopment. Part three is Surrey House and its connecting buildings http://www.surreyhousekingston.co.uk/ There's a public consultation at Surrey House itself on Thursday 6th July before the Public Service Broadcasting gig. Feel free to go to that and feedback how important this gig venue is to you. It's basically the whole site of Surrey House, BO Concept, the NCP car park and the post office / newsagents, Cancer Research etc. and The Hippodrome. It's a big site, and you can see why the landowners want to redevelop it. I saw the plans, as you can too, and it's what you might expect. Two floors of retail with up to 12 storeys above for flats. The usual problems rear their heads. Do we need this much more retail and why is the council encouraging developers to prioritise this? Is it the right type of housing and architecture? How many affordable homes will there be? Can the infrastructure take it? Is it in keeping with the local area? etc etc. But obviously in this case particularly it comes more to where will we watch bands!? In the short term, the answer remains "The Hippodrome". Of course The Hippodrome is far from perfect. I don't think we've ever pretended it was. But it works. The same way that even tho Eden Walk has planning permission to rebuild, nearly all the shops there from Maplin to Sainsbury's remain in place, and Primark has even moved into the old BHS site temporarily. It makes sense for the landlord to keep tenants there until the first spade is in the ground. My limited experience tells me that there's no way that will be before the end of 2018. But obviously we know what we need to start planning ahead. Of course we have so much love for The Fighting Cocks, and the people who run it. But there's some gigs that just aren't practical to put in a 150-cap venue. There are other venues we use on an infrequent basis, like The Rose, All Saints and Kingston College that we're talking about using more. These venues are each brilliant in their own different ways. But I do and always will believe in the good of nightclubs and indie/alt club nights particularly. It would be a real shame if that was to stop, so we're exploring all options with the other bigger venues in the the town. There's also potential for something entirely new. An idea that no-one's even had yet. At least twice in recent years there's been serious talk about a proper built-for-purpose venue in Kingston. They've fallen down really because they weren't needed. And because it's a lot of money to invest in something with no guaranteed return. The real worry is that you won't know what you got till it's gone. The reason I got involved in local politics was the feeling that the council and local authorities neither know nor care about live music and night time entertainment in Kingston. I absolutely accept there's some negatives associated with people out late at night. Let's leave aside the very real financial / employment benefits of gigs and night time enterainment for a minute... there's so many more positives from having a functioning bigger gig venue and vibrant and diverse nightlife. Kingston University has not gone anywhere, and let's be honest the students' union facilities have always not needed to perform the role of nightclubs because Kingston town already did that pretty well.

My main theory which i've seen proved right again and again is that "our" arts and culture is not deemed as important as others'. Just last night I was involved in a committee which voted to spend £4m of council money to be matched by £4.5m of lottery fund money to move the Kings and Saxons exhibition from Kingston Museum to All Saints Church. Let me be clear, I'm not knocking the heritage of Kingston. It means a lot to many people, and there's reasons to be proud and to want to preserve it. I'm also a big fan of All Saints Church, not just as a beautiful building but as a place of worship and for what they do for the community. Yet while recognising these institutions, I find it intensely frustrating how little the council administration seems to care about live music venues. I guess one of the reasons is they've never had to. Because nearly all the gigs and concerts that happen in the borough happen despite the council, not because of it. No-one gave us The Hippodrome, or McClusky's. No-one gave Bacchus or The Peel when Gravity started bringing international bands to those venues. We've never received money from any public body to put on a gig, apart from Kingston Carnival. And even then we end up contributing extra from our own pockets to bring a better event to Kingston. Yes, the council does spend money - significant amounts - on the arts but i've seen over a decade of well intentioned people using budgets in inefficient ways. So there's three challenges. One to show council of the importance and size of the events going on right under their noses, and another to try and encourage a desire to preserve it. And then there's what me and Banquet need to do on a business/contract/logistics level to keep this going in Kingston. Obviously I'm personally involved in all three. The Liberal Democrat manifesto for council elections in 2018 will absolutely include a cost-efficient commitment to having a larger live venue in Kingston. This is one good way to get points one and two addressed.

Pretty stoked on ACT. Gonna be as good as anything we have. RT @banquetrecords: ACT-ing on The Peel's closure http://t.co/WuD1PsX4hl

— jon tolley (@JonTolleyTweets) April 30, 2014

As for point three, it's painful that The Peel closed and, for different reasons, that was followed by most of Kingston's youth clubs. It's saddening that closure of The Hippodrome is a step closer. We have to want spaces where younger people, including (but not only) under 18s, can watch live music in an organic environment. When The Peel did close we bought a PA on wheels, it gave us the potential to do shows at All Saints, at The Rose and at Kingston College. I'm positive that we can create and innovate out of this situation with The Hippodrome.. So right now, it's business as usual. There'll be a point when we need your help. It's not quite yet. There's no call to arms, and no protests required at this point. If you live in Kingston, or even if you don't, I would encourage you to contact your local councillor and explain to them the importance of live music venues in town. You can find your local councillor at https://moderngov.kingston.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0. I'm of course happy to talk more on this. get me on @JonTolleyTweets or at a show. Hippodrome, and live gigs in Kingston. I'm rooting for you