#its probably not going to be the best video essay of all time but for my first go its pretty damn good.

[grahamkennedy]

Its taken me two hours to record 30 minutes of audio and I'm not even half way done. I think my delivery is pretty good throughout but there are certain parts I love more than others, the more depressing it is the more impassioned I seem to be.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

I was a skeptic about Criterion releasing any post-Showa Godzilla movies on disc, but lo and behold, they're teeing up Godzilla vs. Biollante, my favorite movie of all time, for 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray (or just plain Blu-ray) on March 18. The description:

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

New 4K digital restoration, with 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

New audio commentary featuring film historian Samm Deighan, host of the podcast Eros + Massacreand coeditor of the book Revolution in 35mm

Making-of program from 1993 featuring director Kazuki Omori and special-effects director Koichi Kawakita, among others

Short documentary from 1993 about the Biollante and Super X2 vehicle concepts

Deleted special effects

TV spots and trailers

New English subtitle translation

PLUS: An essay by science-fiction and horror film expert Jim Cirronella

Yes, this means they're skipping over The Return of Godzilla and not waiting until all the Heisei films are in their hands to unload them as another box set. I was surprised at first, but it makes sense. Biollante is the only Heisei movie Toho has released on 4K in Japan so far (with The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II joining it in June), and arguably the best-regarded. Toho's always going to prioritize the domestic market first, so this is Criterion's best shot at a new release during Godzilla's current swell of popularity.

I have mixed feelings, as is usual when any new English kaiju/tokusatsu home release is announced. I'm glad the movie is back in physical circulation; it's again become legendary as the most difficult Godzilla movie to find on home video for a reasonable price. Only one library in my county owns it, and that number is about to spike. It'll be a major visual upgrade to boot. The non-G54 movies in the Criterion Showa box set didn't have audio commentaries, so I'm glad they sprung for one this time. I'm not familiar with Samm Deighan's work, but I think she's the first woman to record an English commentary for a Godzilla movie.

But...

I saw the Criterion presentation of Godzilla vs. Biollante at the Dryden Theater in October, and the subtitles were... simply not proofread, or at least not proofread by anyone who should have a job in the field. "More typos than a Mill Creek Ultraman Blu-ray" was how I described it at the time. I believe Criterion is using a number of vintage (we're talking probably-shown-in-Hawaii) subtitle scripts for the Toho tokusatsu films they're made available on streaming but not on disc, and I dearly hope they show more care with the Biollante 4K.

There's also no English dub.

This suggests that Toho is now doing its best to bury all the pre-Reiwa Godzilla dubs, even the ones they commissioned themselves. I doubt Criterion will bother to include the film's English visuals either. So... the version of Biollante I rented from Blockbuster some 20 years ago, the version I grew up with, will just be completely erased from the latest-and-greatest (and last?) edition. Depressing stuff. The current incarnation of Toho might be embarrassed by those old dubs, but as an indignant woman in the Diet Building once exclaimed, the truth is the truth! And Biollante's one of the films I prefer to watch dubbed (for one, nobody can argue that the English the actors spoke on set was better than that recorded by the Hong Kong Players).

Lesser concerns: I'll have to double-check, but I think the making-of program and the short documentary were on the old Echo Bridge discs too. The trailers would be new, but, well, they're trailers. So potentially nothing fresh in the featurette department, certainly not a retrospective with surviving cast and crew. (Somebody get one of those done before we lose even more of them!) And I do feel bad for Ed Godziszewski, whose commentary for Echo Bridge was effectively pocket-vetoed by Toho and is now truly never going to see the light of day.

Bleh.

[hellsingmongrel]

So a while back, in the Trigun fandom circle, I saw someone make a comparison between Vash and the Rabbit Prince from Watership Down, El-Ahrairah, and what the rabbit God in that story tells him.  "All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first...they must catch you." And damn if that isn't such a good comparison on the surface level. But then, I watched a video essay on youtube talking about WD, and holy shit, the comparison came back in the middle of it and effected my entire mood while watching it, and the more I thought about it, the more it fit! And man, it's hard not to feel emotional about WD in general, but it's actually made it so hard for me not to cry while I'm supposed to be working!

So here's the thing; in the movie (and I'm basing this entire thing off of the movie, 'cause there's a change from the book, apparently, that ties directly into this) one of the main rabbits, named Hazel, has character traits that make him a good Rabbit Chief, and also show that he lives up to the lessons of their rabbit messiah figure; he's brave and willing to put himself in the way of danger to keep his warren safe from danger, he's supportive and kind and smart, and multiple times almost dies because he goes out of his way to help others, at the expensive of his own health and safety. And then, years later, when they've reestablished their warren on the hill, he leads them for many years to come, until he's an old, tired rabbit looking out over his family.

And then the Black Rabbit, their angel of death, comes to him and offers him a place in his Owsla, his group of strong, brave rabbits who protect rabbit souls and help them go on into the afterlife. In WD, death isn't seen as an evil, scary being the way a lot of modern media portrays its many personifications, he's doing the work of Frith, and making sure the rabbits can get to bunny heaven when their time comes. He's sad and sometimes scary, yes, but he comes for everyone, he doesn't show favorites, he's kind.

So when Hazel hesitates to join him despite being as old as he is because he's worried about what will happen to his warren after he's gone, the Black Rabbit reassures him that they're safe and he doesn't have to worry, so Hazel lays down and goes to sleep and passes away, happy to know that his family is safe.

The portrayal of death in WD has always been something that hits me right in the heart, ever since I saw it as a kid, specifically because of the way it's seen as something that is just the way of nature, something that comes for everyone and may be scary to us, yes, but it isn't evil, and it doesn't have to be scary. So already when the video review started talking about that part of the story, I was starting to get in my feels. I love it so much but it makes me cry so hard.

And then the comparison to Vash that WD now has in my head (thank you to whomever it was in the fandom who did that, because it's SO GOOD) really hit home for that scene, and I literally couldn't stop my crying.

I like to think that after everything was said and done, after the events of his fight with Knives in Octovern and the humans from Earth helped the population of No Man's Land rebuild and thrive on their new home planet, Vash's life was able to settle down for a while. Probably not at first, he probably did still have a bit of running to do, but once things began to stabilize and calm down, I want to believe that he was finally able to settle down somewhere and get to watch the humans around him get to do their best and stop fighting, taking care of his sisters and watching new Independents be born, and he was able to spend the last few years of his life after he'd used up all of his power just being as happy as he could be, even with the traumas he experienced and the effects they would cause him for the rest of his life.

I've always thought the kindest, sweetest end to his story is to get to be like Hazel, growing old and watching the people he loves from a distance before finally laying down and passing away peacefully, content with the knowledge that all of his suffering and sacrifice had meant something, and things were finally better. The manga has little narration segments that hint that it's a story that's being told a la "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," it's a legend that's been passed down for generations, about the Independent gunman who helped the first generations of No Man's Land survive and saved them when they were at their worst point, protecting them from his brother and helping them learn to be better to the Plants who they share a symbiotic relationship with so that they could live in harmony before finally disappearing from the history books somewhere along the way, at which point he probably passed away where no one would know (or at least no one who would want to write about it in a history book. Hopefully, if anyone did know, it was people who loved him and knew he wouldn't want anyone to make a big deal about it, and to just let him go quietly into the night.)

I even got the feeling at the end of the manga that he wasn't far from that end. Something about it always has a sort of melancholy to it for me. He's used up all of his power, if he uses any more, it will mean his Last Run, and his body is no longer able to survive a lot of the hardships he'd put it through in the years before. When you see him running off into the distance, chased by the Reporter Girls and the bounty hunters, I feel like he's running off into his twilight years, the end of his life, however long it lasts, but definitely his final chapters. But I don't feel like it has to be a bad thing. Sad for us, because we always want to think of our heroes as immortal things that can't be brought down by a silly thing like death, but not sad for him. He knows it's coming, it's clear from the narrative that he's wanted it for a long time already by that time, but he's also happy that he finally gets to watch humanity go back to normal, that he gets to get back to the same old, same old, and things are looking up. The song of humanity continued to sing. He'll get to listen to it for just a few more years before he finally gets to go to his final rest, and he'll be content to meet it when it comes.

And I've always had this favorite pet headcanon of mine, that he got to go on his own terms - maybe he didn't have a way to choose when it happened, but he could tell it was coming, and so he went, walking across the desert for one final trip just like old times, until he got to the December orphanage and Wolfwood's grave, so that he could lay down beside it when it was finally his time, drifting away next to the man who'd meant so much to him when he'd been alive and where the sounds of children playing, finally safe, would make their resting places a happy place. Not unlike Hazel laying under the tree on the hill, watching the rabbits of the warren frolic in the meadow, happy and safe, and choosing he was ready to go.

And then I was hit upside the feels by my own brain, because I realized the comparison between Hazel and El-ahrairah and my headcanon for Vash's final days was even deeper.

In the manga, we know Wolfwood is still there, watching over everyone after he dies. We see him twice - once when Vash is near death and seeing the spirits of everyone who went before him, and when Livio saves Vash from Chronica at the end of the fight, praising him for a job well done and giving him his blessing, and disappearing before Livio has a chance to turn around and see him when he says it. But we see him. The audience sees him sitting there, happy and proud of his brother, watching out for everyone. And if you read Multiple Bullets, there's literally a chapter where he tries to help the girls find Vash again after Octovern. Sure, the chapters not written by Nightow in MB are viewed as elevated fanfiction by most, and you can take it that way, but they are written and published in an official book, so I've always felt like it's not unheard of, if you want to see one or some or all of those chapters as canon, as well. Some of them I don't, but there are some that I definitely do, and at the very least, that one lets me believe that even after the fight in Octovern, Wolfwood doesn't pass on, he stays so he can be there with the people he cares about and watch over them from the other side.

Which means that I definitely subscribe to the thought that he's there for Vash when his time comes, waiting for him so that he can welcome him into the afterlife and so he's not alone at the end. It's literally the strongest post-Trimax headcanon I have, this shit has a stranglehold on me.

And when you think about how that relates to Hazel at the end of Watership Down, it just makes me cry like a massive fucking baby. Because in this story, Wolfwood is the Black Rabbit. He's there to welcome him home, to bring him to join all of the people who'd gone before Vash, everyone who loved him and he loved in return, who all waited for him and watched over him from the other side.

So here I am, 4 am and trying to keep my emotions in check while I Work From Home for a 24/7 call center job, absolutely fucking wrecked and blubbering like an idiot! Oh God damn if that doesn't just fuck me right up. My heart hurts so much but it's such a good hurt and AHHHH oh God, the pain but it's so sweet! ;A; Why does it have to work so well???

[thebroccolination]

The J&A group NEWS is one of the most lore-packed music groups I’ve ever followed and I wish I had the energy to make an entire video essay about them. They started with nine members in 2003 and immediately lost a member before they formally debuted. He later became the fucking front man of ONE OK ROCK (yes, Taka, formerly known as Mori while he was with NEWS for those precious six minutes). Then they lost two more members shortly afterward when one got busted for underage drinking and kicking a cop car, and the other one for underage smoking. Then the group was suspended because what the fuck y’all get it together. A few years later, after their comeback as six, the two most popular members quit at the same time essentially because they’d never actually wanted to be there in the first place. One of the two had actually been debuted in TWO GROUPS because J&A was quirky like that, and because he’d always had an obvious preference for the other one, no one was too upset with him. That left the remaining FOUR in a bizarre limbo because while two of them could sing, the other two were basically The Other Two (don’t get mad I was half-seriously parasocially in love with one of them so I can say it) and a ton of the higher-ups at J&A thought of them as “a strawberry shortcake without the strawberries”—A THING ONE OF THEM OVERHEARD SOMEONE SAY ABOUT THEM. So they pulled off a comeback as four, which was actually sort of perfect because NEWS has four letters, so it introduced a fun new design scheme. Three kept their original member colors, but the oldest took over the Leader position and changed from orange to purple, which was sweet in its own way because he didn’t want to take away red, the color of their original Leader (the popular one who basically left to focus on a solo career and acting). The four of them go strong for several years, putting out some of the best music in J&A, and putting on some of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, and the general reception is, “They were good before but this configuration fits better—and they all want to be here!” There’s also some fun stuff in there, like how one of The Other Two feels the sting of being half of The Other Two so he runs with the smart thing he has going for him and writes a novel, and a LOT of people are like, “Hey, it kind of seems like the douchebag character in your book resembles your former Leader,” and he’s like, “nOOOOOO definitely a coincidence ha ha ha.” (Yes he’s the one I was sort-of committed to spiritually but it wasn’t a big deal I’m over it ha ha ha.) THEN, the wildest shit ever happens: in spite of their very serious pact as four to stay together and spare each other the continued trauma of shedding members, their best vocalist decides, “I’m bored I’m gonna go,” and skips off without remorse. He’s probably a controversial figure in some circles but the way I see it, if you followed NEWS for more than ten minutes you knew this dude had no loyalties stronger than his loyalty to himself and expecting anything else from him was a fool’s errand. Basically, he was always gonna dip, it was just a matter of when. He also wrote a gossipy tell-all book that made casualties of the former members in such a bitchy fashion he’s honestly iconic for airing his pettiness after years of pretending he forgave them for the group’s image. Like remember the member who left because he was in two groups and I said no one really held it against him? Our gossiping queen basically called him a coward and said he never would’ve left if the Leader hadn’t left first, and we were all like, “I mean, yeah, we figured he left because the timing was convenient, but ooooooh.” And then I stopped following them because my favorite duo Tackey & Tsubasa disbanded and my heart wasn’t in following J&A groups anymore, but NEWS is still making music in 2024 and I’m genuinely really happy for the three left because they’ve gotta be tired but at least they have each other. /closing credits

[dustedmagazine]

Ian Mathers’ 2024: A milestone, a millstone, a molehill

Los Campesinos by Martyna Bannister

At this point, my fondest wish for these year-end essays is that some day I’ll get to write one that starts by noting we just had a year where it didn’t feel like everything got worse. But 2024 is not that year, and 2025 already isn’t looking good either (up here in Canada we’re looking down the barrel of an election likely to give us our worst Prime Minister in some time, and that is a low bar to limbo under). And yet we keep making art in the face (sometimes directly, defiantly in the face) of all that. Even recent confirmation that Spotify is worse for music than you might have thought simply will not stop the human impulses to create and connect.

And just as with every other year, the variety of ways those impulses were expressed, even just in the medium of music, are wonderfully manifold. If my own listening had a theme it was the unexpected but welcome return. My album of the year was undeniably Los Campesinos! All Hell, where the band I’ve seen play live the most came back after 8 years with what I am increasingly comfortable calling their best album, full stop. I am probably on record somewhere admitting that I don’t tend to like the results when bands follow a record with an EP of stripped down versions of those songs, but LC!’s More Hell (originally bonus tracks, but definitely good enough to stand on its own) feels like the first time in a while I get their appeal. And if you’d told me at the end of 2023 that not only would there be a new LC! album by the end of 2024 but that Underworld of all people would suddenly have a record out (their first since 2016 if you only count ones that could fit on a single CD), I literally wouldn’t have believed my luck, even before hearing the vivid, joyous humanity bursting from Strawberry Hotel.

Meanwhile, although Godspeed You! Black Emperor has been more active than either of those acts, when I saw them live in February I had no idea before year’s end they’d release a record they’d apparently already finished (or that I’d see them again the night of the US election, an experience that is going to stick with me for a while). Admittedly I don’t necessarily make a practice of scanning upcoming releases to see what’s in store. But still I probably would have bet at least $20 at the beginning of the year that none of those bands would put out anything, let alone that they’d be three of the records I played and loved the most. And while they were less unexpected by me, other returning acts like Cassandra Jenkins, Xiu Xiu, and Midwife all set new best-LP benchmarks for me this year.

That’s not to say that 2024 was without new thrills. Sometimes it was from established acts, like finally checking out Chelsea Wolfe after meaning to for years and absolutely loving She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (I know the earlier records are different, but this still means I need to get into them I think) or truly locking in with Water Damage for the first time. And sometimes it was totally new to me like Dis Fig (although I already loved the Body), Whitelands, or Doechii. And then there’s Alan Sparhawk’s White Roses, My God, which somehow felt like it falls into both categories, and is a record I’ll be coming to grips with for a while.

Last year I talked about a change in my personal year-end methodology, and this year it feels right to continue in a similar vein. Cutting down to 20 records left plenty of wonderful ones out, but ultimately, I went for the ones that I kept returning to, the ones I’d push back listening to other albums I wanted to get to in order to spend more time with. And there’s again a further 20 songs, representing ones that didn’t show up on an album, or where I didn’t love the rest of the record as much, or just from albums that didn’t quite make it in. In alphabetical order, with links to my reviews where they exist for the albums and links to videos for the songs. We got through another one; here’s to finding as much good in 2025 and to all of us being back here again with lists of art we loved at the end of it.

20 LPS

Alan Sparhawk — White Roses, My God (Sub Pop)

The Body & Dis Fig — Orchards of a Futile Heaven (Thrill Jockey)

Cassandra Jenkins — My Light, My Destroyer (Dead Oceans)

Charli XCX — brat (Atlantic)

Chelsea Wolfe — She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (Loma Vista)

claire rousay — sentiment (Thrill Jockey)

Clinic Stars — Only Hinting (Kranky)

Doechii — Alligator Bites Never Heal (TDE/Capitol)

Glass Animals — I Love You So F***ing Much (Polydor)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor — “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD” (Constellation)

Hypnodrone Ensemble — The Problem Is in the Sender — Do Not Tamper With the Receiver (WV Sorcerer Productions)

Jessica Moss — For UNRWA (self-released)

Locrian — End Terrain (Profound Lore)

Los Campesinos! — All Hell (Heart Swells)

Midwife — No Depression in Heaven (The Flenser)

Underworld — Strawberry Hotel (Smith Hyde Productions/Virgin)

Vince Staples — Dark Times (Def Jam)

Water Damage — In E (12XU)

Whitelands — Night-bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day (Sonic Cathedral)

Xiu Xiu — 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (Polyvinyl)

20 MORE SONGS

Allie X — “Off With Her Tits”

BABYMETAL/Electric Callboy - “Ratatata”

Bruno Berle ft. Batata Boy — “Dizer Adeus”

Caroline Polachek — “True Love Waits”

Chappell Roan — “Good Luck, Babe!”

Charli XCX ft. Lorde — “Girl, so confusing”

The Cure — “Alone”

Gracie Abrams — “I Love You, I’m Sorry”

High Vis — “Mob DLA”

Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”

Kenya Grace — “Strangers”

King Woman — "Bury"

Magdalena Bay — “Death & Romance”

Olivia Rodrigo — “obsessed”

Sevdaliza ft. Pabllo Vittar and Yseult — “Alibi”

Shaboozey — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”

Thursday — “Application for Release From the Dream”

Tommy Richman — “Million Dollar Baby”

Venjent — “We Need Jungle [I’m afraid]”

The Weeknd — “Dancing in the Flames”

[melleonis]

it’s 2015 and i am

sitting on my mattress on the floor in the spare bedroom of the chicago condo my friend’s parents bought for them with oil company money. both of us have undiagnosed and unmedicated adhd. neither of us clean. the wide, shallow bathroom sink grows a yellow-black film of residue and shaved hair.

i am trying to come to terms with being dead. the year prior was a cascade of horror, a chain of a hundred different sudden sickenings in the gut, and as far as the world and most people in it are concerned, i no longer exist - which would have been more than fine with me, except that time continues to pass.

until recently, porpentine had been writing a column for rock paper shotgun called live free play hard, reviewing free indie games. itch.io is in its infancy, but unity is ten years old now and really starting to come into its own, and this is the heyday of the so-called walking simulator - Dear Esther in 2012 to Firewatch in 2016. i never played most of the big names, the ones that attracted all that sneering gamergate hatred (Gone Home excepted) - after all, they cost money, and in 2015, i didn’t have any of that. so every porpentine article was a damp, fertile patch of sometimes-delicious always-free mushrooms. i play a LOT of itch.io games that year, and i’ve been missing them lately, so i wanted to talk about them here.

live free play hard is a decade old, at this point. links are dead. games don’t quite run the same on modern computers. twine games which once had music are now silent. these are some of the survivors.

their angelical understanding by porpentine, herself. ***STROBE WARNING*** and also for a text-based game this is an intense PTSD simulator. i considered linking others of her games here: neon haze (link appears to be broken), CYBERQUEEN (about which i’ve already said a lot) or howling dogs (which is arguably still her best), but i went with t.a.u. because, well, in 2015 a PTSD simulator was what i needed.

CHYRZA by kitty horrorshow kh has probably Made It as an indie artist more than anyone else on this list? my metric for this is that there are two whole jacob geller video essays about her games. CHYRZA is pure tone: jittery unity platforming up desert monuments collecting audiologs. trust me, it’s really effective.

Bernband by Tom van den Boogaart this one still runs, but there’s a bit of slowdown in some areas. this is pure exploration through a very pixelly alien city: nightclubs, power stations, overpasses, late-night noodle bars. an empty chapel. a trumpet recital. the empty corridors and stairwells between everything. it’s stuck with me for all these years.

SABBAT by oh no problems this is the least subtle it is possible for a text game to be. it starts with animal sacrifice and gets really fucking explicit from there. as someone who had at the time cut a picture of baphomet out of the liner notes from a random black metal cd found in a des moine record store and taped it to my bedroom doorpost like a mezuzah, all i really wanted from SABBAT was the ability to have snakes for dicks, and buddy, it delivers. i remember there used to be a sort of sludgey doom metal soundtrack, but it doesn’t seem to exist anymore, and the credits link to a nonexistent soundcloud. so it goes.

HEARTWOOD by Kerry Turner hahaha man i’d completely forgotten about this game until i went back through the archives but fuck, it rules. it’s so simple. it’s pure sensation. i loved it then and i love it now.

Off-Peak by Cosmo D i think Cosmo D is still going strong these days! actually, i’m pretty sure i have unplayed games by them in my steam library, i should fix that. Off-Peak is a jazz exploration of the world’s most colorful train station. people are playing bespoke 2015 eurogames. a vendor is selling a bunch of sheet music that musicians have had to pawn, what with the way the economy is going. you understand. triplets stalk you. a man strokes a cow, menacingly. i would say it’s peak itch.io, but in point of fact it is, of course, off-peak itch.io.

anyway i lived, eventually, and went on to make art of my own, but it’s my belief - it’s my hope - that all my writing carries the spores these games and games like them put in me when i was dead and decaying and fertile ground for such things. i hope you play some of them. i hope you enjoy them. thanks for reading <3

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

Having a #1 Song doesn't mean SHIT anymore! It doesn't mean the song is a hit.

Let's be so serious rn. Nobody knows any of her damn fault track that keep charting. I asked my mom to name one song of hers and she could name "Shake it off."

Smooth Criminal went #7 in the US.

Remember the Time went #3 in the US.

Heal the World went #27 in the US.

They don't care about us #30 in the US. But it still went viral on tiktok. A song that is almost 30 years old!!

Thriller the song also never went to number one, but ask people to name one Halloween song they gonna name that song.

And what is more impressive, having 1M EAS the first day or still selling 1M EAS 15 years after your passed and more than 20 years after you dropped an album. Longevity is quality. 1M first day sales she's gonna sell that much for years. Hell, she be lucky if she even sold 50k in a year in 30 years.

5 music videos of his that are made in the 80's and 90's are about to have 1 billion views this year.

Billie Jean still gets 1M daily streams on Spotify.

I'm sorry if you aren't an Mjfan and I bring him up but he's the best example I can give you also because Swifties keep comparing her to him.

If people don't like the song they won't keep listening to it. And if Taylors song just stay in her fanbase and they just massstream her shit. Nobody is gonna know this song in 20 years.

Because what is the last hit Taylor Swift had that was known to the general public? Anti Hero maybe? Cruel Summer?

And something that is also funny is that, Remember when her drunk self got on stage and snatched the grammy from Celine Dion and didn't even look at her.

And people were pissed and her team was quick on working getting a picture with her to mend the damage.

Celine Dion has 5 Grammys and Taylor Swift has 14.

But they knew that Celine Dion got more respect from the GP then Taylor will ever have. And that is something you cannot buy. And they know if someone wins out of pure talent or just because of favourism. And let's be real. Most people know these award shows are rigged and they don't care about it.

Like when RollingStone came out with that fuck ass best singers list that put Taylor at #102 and excluded Celine Dion. People were mad that Celine was included but Taylor was.

Or just recently they also called her the better Adele. Nobody from the GP was like oh yeah that is true.

I mean they can try to name her the Queen of Pop in one of the award shows alà Michael Jackson style, but it's not gonna work with her. When he got that name people actually agreed and they still do. Outside Taylors cult nobody will agree with that.

Taylor's Team is aggressive with the Marketing and pushing these numbers onto us because they know outside of it she has nothing to offer. Her talent isn't marketable. Her singing and dancing isn't that impressive. The most marketable things about her career are her wealth and business success. Have they ever talked about her performance while she is on tour. What is so impressive what she does on stage? No they just keep talking about the money she makes.

No I completely get why MJ is a relevant comparison here. Swifties do keep comparing TS to him and for that alone they need to collectively get their asses beat. But you used good examples and I just want to applaud you for that

& you’re right, I can’t name a single vault track. Every time I’m exposed to her its against my will through my recommended (and its usually so out of place too because i watch really weird video essays).

Charts truly don’t reflect cultural impact because Drunk in Love by Beyoncé never went #1 and neither did Toxic by Britney Spears but both are super well known. Anti Hero is probably the last single to go #1 but I genuinely felt harassed by that song 😭 its sooooooooo bad

Yes! The vocal trinity—Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston—have done SO MUCH for music and all have less than half of Taylor Swift’s amount of Grammys. Celine and Mariah each have 5 and Whitney has 6.

I didn’t watch the Grammys this year (forgot to) but I heard about the Celine Dion incident I was SHOCKED because the audacity of this woman! Her entitlement shows in everything she does and she’s really starting to believe her commercial success makes her a better artist.

THE ROLLING STONE LIST WAS BULLSHIT. THEY DIDN’T INCLUDE JENNIFER HUDSON EITHER! Their definition of a “singer” was soooooooo bullshit too like that magazine’s merit has gone down so much in the past 20 years it should be regarded with way less status and credibility. And who tf called TS better than ADELE?

You’re right, her moniker will be chosen by the general public (probably from a viral tweet/tiktok/etc).

And she needs aggressive marketing because she really is a below average musician in all respects! She has her songwriting but she should’ve just been a hit songwriter (like Estelle Dean) not a singer. What makes her marketable is very “ordinary” image—which makes her relatable to “every girl, like me and you” 🙄 her soft voice really creates an intimate atmosphere especially with her vulnerable (but superficial) lyrics. She has to be friends with her fans for her success to work. Because there is no way you can justify her being regarded as a “god” the way people do with Beyoncé and MJ otherwise.

🎯 with the Eras Tour coverage. No one ever references or cites a particular jaw dropping vocal performance or dance number. It’s always the amount of wealth she’s generating.

[wildpeachfarm]

See the thing is with streaming its going to die regardless, yes companies handing out less contracts is killing it further but its already dying at a fast rate? I'm not a stream hater either btw I really enjoy them but like. For example. 2020, 2021? When school was remote and I only ever worked mornings because of covid hours? I was clocked into that Philza 8hr stream DAILY. I was scheduling my classes around those streams so I could do homework while listening/watching. Went as far as to use my monthly speaking privilge to ask Phil what date British Daylight Savings began so I could keep my schedule clear. The second everything was no longer remote, and store hours went back to normal, I maybe caught 2, 3, maybe 4 streams in that year before I decided enough was enough about QSMP and I LOVE hardcore content.

From a company standpoint I can see why YT may not be interested in handing out streamer contracts anymore. Like Dreamie and a few others they're recognizing the Covid Number Boom is over- but unlike Dreamie, because theyre a corporation, they can't just "stick it out" and "recelebrate milestones". They have a "bottom line" to protect and they're not getting that same sweet sweet ad revenue from streams because of decreased viewer counts. Esp bc people don't just go back and watch vods unless there's a REAAAALLY good reason to. So no ad viewership there either. They're going to go back to relying on videos (and unfortunately probably shorts as well, I hate the tiktok-ification of every socmed site) to keep their ad revenue up, especially with the battle of ad blockers. I see more ad and monitization deals being handed out.

With streams (bc vod watching is lowkey practically nonexistant) not being in high demand bc of time constraints (happening while busy, timezones issues) the demands for videos will be higher as videos are ALWAYS readily available. Someone uploads at midnight your timezone? I mean it'll be there when you wake up, you won't have "missed" anything like you would have a livestream. Get a video schedule set out and you're GOLDEN- the first thing I do when I get home from work is check if a handful of youtubers have uploaded to put on to watch. If not, I rewatch some of my fav vids.

Also psychologically I actually think this is for the better of all CCs as a whole. Streaming, esp for some of the hourly requirements some of these ppl either HAVE to hit to get paid or WILLINGLY put themselves through (Tubbo) you have to wear your persona the ENTIRE time. You have to make sure you don't slip up that ENTIRE time. You have to be entertaining the ENTIRE time. You have to filter yourself because it's all live. To me this just sounds like what I do on a daily basis masking my audHD and that shit is so tiring and it's why I could NEVER be a streamer. If you're recording videos you can control what goes out. You don't have to wear whatever persona you decide to put on for 8hrs for a stream, you can record 3 hours of footage and then be done for the day, and that can either be one video or multiple depending on a lot of factors. Accidentally say your mom's name? Cut the clip. Bit isn't funny? Cut the clip. They will still have to actively filter themselves yes but for a much less amount of time. In the end CCs will have a lot more mind power that they're not using up to take care of themselves. I genuinely think it's psychologically better for them all.

It's unfortunate that the streaming industry is going to collapse this way. But also seeing how the communities heavily affected by streaming are more drama filled than communities w/o streaming, I'm lowkey hoping it's for the best. Pulling the plug like this imo is a mercy kill.

And now I'm gonna wash my mouth out for all that corporate speak I just used. Sorry for the manifesto. And if someone wants to put this manifesto on reddit idc just crop/block any usernames IG

I appreciate the essay-andy-ing these are interesting thoughts! I don't think the streaming scene will collapse entirely but I do think that it will become more advantageous to be a youtuber because people have found that to be the most consistent for many years as a CC rather than streams which require a lot of additional things (like you mentioned)

And I feel like we are seeing quite a few people say they're going to prioritize youtube more in the future which seems to be the beginning of that transition

I am curious if twitch will ever try to keep certain big-viewer streamers on the platform with 'kick-style' ($$$$) contracts.

[quibbs126]

I again say, my poor iPad. Though right now, it's not because of the excessive photos (well I mean, I have been saving a lot, but today the majority are references), but rather because of all my drawing

I said earlier I was curious about what some of the Cybertronians would look like as protoforms, in a similar vein to the Terrans, and so I eventually decided to just do that. It's just gonna be the TF One quartet right now

It's going pretty slow, all things considered, mostly because I need to actually try and come up with these designs. Which means I have to spend more time on my iPad drawing them, draining its battery. And on top of that, I've needed to have video essays on while I draw (even though tbh I'm not paying much attention to them), draining it further

I'm leaving it to charge right now, typing this out on my computer because honestly I don't really know what else to do right now to leave the poor thing alone

Anyways, I actually started to make this post because I wanted to complain about my progress, and potentially ask for help on one thing, but given how far down this is, I'm probably not getting that help. Oh well

So far I've gotten Elita and Megatron done, and honestly I think the former looks a lot better than the latter, mostly since I didn't know how to deal with his side piece things. But that's for whenever I show you the final thing. But just note he looks a little wonky

Anyways, I'm now trying to do Optimus, and I really don't know what to do for him. I use the Terrans and whatever photos I can find of their protoforms as reference, but in some areas it's really not helpful

Like, one of the main things about the protoform designs is being sleek and curved, which is kind of why this is a struggle (it's what caused issues with Megs given how angular his helm is)

But back to Optimus (I really need to learn how to organize my thoughts more coherently), one of the things I'm struggling with is his side vents. Because unfortunately, none of the Terrans have those (they've pretty much all got sleek bottoms of their helms, with the exception of Jawkbreaker but his isn't wide enough), which means I have no frame of reference for how to translate it here. But I can't keep it as is, it's too blocky

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to deal with this issue? I don't really have anyone proper to ask, since the only Discord servers I have are for Cookie Run, and I don't think I should bring up Transformers art struggles on there, doesn't fit the topic. So you know, ask on tumblr

Best solution I have is to base more of his design on Twitch? Since she's got some side circle things going on. Sorry, I don't know how to word any of this

Gonna be real, I don't think any of these designs are gonna turn out great outside of maybe Elita. Maybe someone more talented than me could make better designs, but you know. If you want to see something, you gotta do it yourself

I don't know if there's anything else I wanted to add, so uh, guess I'm ending here

[oshidorifuufu]

awww nozomi looks cute!!

whats the movie about? i love it when people relate me to characters soo

-🎀🖌️anon

the movie is actually a spin off of the anime hibike euphonium (which is absolutely amazing you shouldwathcutpelasewatxhit), nozomi and mizore, the main chars in the movie where introduced in s2 of the anime, altho they never got their characters completely fleshed out so liz and the blue bird is supposed to fill that.

you dont need to watch the anime first though! i was actually introduced to the anime because someone suggested the movie to me, and i had watched that first. some things like the main characters of the anime being there lack context watching it w/o seeing the anime but overral you dont need to see the anime (BUT YOUSHOULD!!!!!!)

the movie is about nozomi (a flutist) and mizore’s (an oboist) unhealthy attachment, specifically mizore to nozomi. the movie is supposed to be mizore trying to stand on her own two feet away from nozomi as she’s preparing to go to college, and using the metaphor of a childrens storybook “liz and the blue bird” and applying it to her and nozomi to figure that out

the movie is absolutely amazing !!!!! the little details and music is absolutely IMPECCABLE, there are many video essays on yt abt just the music alone, ive listened to the ost multiple times over and its amazing and crazy creative. the movie has so many small details that you notice everytime you watch it again and it all adds up into a wonderfully amazing story that probably changed me in some way lolol

its also the reason i even learnt what an oboe was and became obsessed w it, therefore starting oboe lessons and now i’m 2 years down the line. the 3rd movement in the original 4 movement composition for the movie is like, what convinced me i was going to learn that dang thing no matter what,, ITS SO BEAUTIFUL

its best to listen to it when itcomes up in the movie i think so dont search it up but once you’ve finished the movie definitely go listen to the whole thing bcs they only really show a cut down ver of the 3rd movement (the other movements are there but they arent focused on like the 3rd movement is, which makes sense bcs the 3rd movement lore wise is the most important)

also again i cannot stress enough if you like school bands n wind instruments n drama anime, marching band, classical music anything like that, WATCH HIBIKE EUPHONIUM!!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

sorry for the rant ♡

oh yeah also i related u to nozomi because she also quit flute in middle school ^^

[vidreview]

some thoughts on Action Button Reviews

[originally posted december 22nd 2023]

ANONYMOUS ASK: Not a recommendation because I know you've already seen it, but I remember you (this being like a year ago) calling Tim Rogers' action button reviews boku no natsuyasami something along the lines of "a triumphant demonstration of what's possible in the video essay medium". I was wondering if you could elaborate, provided it hasn't been too long. I recognise I'm blasting you from the past here lol. It was one of the few hours-long video essays that I didn't mind sitting through, though I'm still not sure it quite justifies its length. Tim's delivery helps significantly there, in a way that reminds me of Caleb Gamman's casual/improvised-feeling but thoroughly scripted shtick.

oh i still think Tim Rogers is hands down the best in the biz. i've watched the Action Button reviews multiple times, i've got a davinci resolve project with all his videos in, studied them under a microscope and taken lots of notes. i think his work absolutely does justify the length, because rather than trying to say Everything There Is To Say about a game, he instead focuses on digging into the game's relationship with his own hyperspecific subjectivity. i don't know how else to describe the Action Button reviews except as literary media criticism, using incredibly in-depth analysis as a jumping off point for discussing how these games shape us and the culture, the role they occupy at various stages of our life, and how who we are at any given moment is just as important to our opinion of a game as the game itself. sooner or later i want to do a full-on VIDREV on his stuff, probably in video essay form, but consider this a first draft overview of why i find his work so special.

there's little things. despite the length of his videos, he never fails to get to The Point (his term for the thesis statement) within five minutes of starting the essay proper. he is a talented and quick-witted tour guide, funny and clever and philosophically ponderous all at once. his work is clearly designed to reward multiple viewings, yet never fails to feel complete on a first watch. he writes with a precision of language that'll knock your socks off if you let it, especially if you're willing to go with him on his seemingly non sequitur tangents. but it goes a lot deeper than that.

i just don't think anyone else is putting nearly as much time, effort, and thought into the moment to moment particulate matter of his video essays than Tim Rogers. there are a ton of little mistakes that quite a few essayists make as a result of only doing one or two complete editing passes, or otherwise not sitting down and watching their video start to finish at multiple points in post-production. things like bad audio mixing, cut-off breaths and sounds that ought to be removed, stray frames from footage creating accidental jump cuts, flubbed line deliveries, misaligned overlay elements, sloppy compositing, the list goes on. it's no great sin to make these mistakes, mind-- no one's being commissioned, most essayists aren't professional editors, there's no quality control or review board or institutional best practices. it's the difference between giving the kitchen a quick once over with a rag and getting on your hands and knees to scrub every stain with a toothbrush. most people don't have the time it takes to do the latter, aren't getting paid enough, and the returns on putting the effort in are impossible to measure and therefore, practically speaking, nonexistent.

but as someone who tries to put that kind of work in (not always successfully), i can always tell when another essayist has done the same. longform video essays in aggregate tend to be messy, under-structured, rambling; they often arise out of an essayist's desire to say everything they could possibly say on a subject. not only is this an impossible task, it makes for a pretty dull viewing experience to boot. what i find so impressive about Tim Rogers' work is that despite their length, his videos are relentlessly structured. the attention to fine details in the moment-to-moment edit across the whole runtime is astonishing; that the script itself is so internally integrated never fails to make me furious (with professional envy). he always has a lot to say, not all of which is strictly speaking essential to the analysis, but nothing ever feels so indulgent that it drags the rest of the essay down in my estimation. he often repeats information, but he does so very strategically and in a way that's meant to help the viewer follow a thread from start to finish. i also think his presentation style goes a long way towards hiding how much effort he puts in, how relentlessly curated these things actually are in spite of their length. he's talked extensively about how much he cuts from these videos (most prominently is story 5 from the Cyberpunk 2077 review, which went from over an hour in length at first draft to, eventually, just over a minute), how he watches them back over and over and constantly makes fine adjustments. that work won't be apparent to everyone watching, but it's exceedingly apparent to me.

and then there's the cherry on top of it all, which is the fact that the Action Button reviews are constructed as being part of "seasons" that have a planned thematic throughline. taken as a whole, season 1 is a completely unique work of literary metacritical nonfiction, a series of six reviews (Final Fantasy VII Remake -> The Last of Us -> DOOM -> Pac-Man -> Tokimeki Memorial -> Cyberpunk 2077) that use specific games to talk about trends in game design, trends in gamer culture, the history of games development, all through an astonishingly earnest and open autobiographical document of Tim Rogers' own professional and personal life, which is given particular weight by his astonishing capacity for near perfect recall from early childhood. they are the clear result of a life spent thinking about and writing about and talking about games in between all the rest of his life, neither of which was ever truly separate. i know i'm throwing around a lot of superlatives here, but i really do adore these essays. i think a lot of folks doing longform games reviews try to achieve a sort of technical objectivity, limiting the scope of their analysis to strictly what's in the game (and often only that which involves numbers, leaving any narrative or thematic components to a brief aside at the very end). the Action Button method should fall into that category, and yet Rogers himself uses its technical objectivity as an anchor around which flows an endless and unquantifiable ocean of subjectivity, where game mechanics and thematic elements mix forever. each subsequent review drops a new anchor, and thus begins to compose a map whose purpose is as much a matter of self-reflection as it is pure education or analysis.

but i really do think it's with the first (and so far only) episode of season 2, his review of Boku no Natsuyasumi, that you can really see the cunning of what he's been up to all along. i often find myself thinking about his reflections on returning to Kansas ("it took me back to a place i had never never been"), on why people rewatch movies and replay games ("our memory only records the cold parts"), on the futility of trying to recapture the past ("places don't remember us"), on the screaming terror of our own looming mortality ("meanwhile our shattering animals"). i just know those quotes off the top of my head, man, that's how deep in it i am. the Boku no Natsuyasumi review is a masterpiece, and the ways it breaks from the style and approach of season 1's reviews only strengthens the choices he made in season 1, because suddenly we realize that they were choices. that's the artfulness of this series, in my opinion: it starts as, seemingly, a relatively bog-standard "i'm going to review some video games and make some jokes and tell some stories along the way" type joint, but slowly reveals to you essay by essay just how little of this project was automatic, unconsidered, arbitrary, and that its aims were never so miniscule as "tell you why a video game is good". there are themes running throughout the entire series, repeated phrases and ideas, theories of mind and play that build in the subtext, accruing like memories, subtly building mass until you look back and realize that what seemed like a random selection of topics was, in truth, premeditated with a conspiracist's attention to detail.

and yet despite all this high-minded gobbledygook, these videos are relentlessly watchable and entertaining. i don't always agree with his takes (i was particularly frustrated that his exploration of "every cyberpunk game" omitted the flood of relevant titles that came the indie sphere over the last decade, like Cloudpunk and Read Only Memories), but they're not the kinds of disagreements that would make me sour on his work overall, and anyway the experience is so much more valuable than something as rote and immaterial as an opinion. there's so much more i could say (and inevitably will say, someday), but there you go, that's a rough gloss on what i like about the Action Button reviews.

[turian]

beloved gamer mutual & comrade @rhubarbspring tagged me to do a video game about me ( tysm for tagging !! truly loved reading all ur game thoughts. <3 ) explanations behind my choices under the cut.

(also, i had to cheat a little bit in the "you love, everyone hates" category, because i don't think people on tumblr hate da2, but one of my best friends despises it because of reused assets and combat designed more for consoles than pcs. and i can't remember any other controversial beloved games right now. the best i can do is games i love that i'm not sure anyone remembers? imagine ubisoft ballet? which, like. do people hate that. i don't think so).

tagging @cowsquirrel @malcriada @sakraya @ansburg @anoramactir + literally anyone i might have missed who wants to do this

favourite game of all time: so, look, i hate her as much as i love her. i always go back to new vegas even though i have a lot of criticisms of it - i had a realization recently after the release of the fallout show that while maybe i was projecting intergenerational trauma onto the game and using it to process some things, there is a lot in the game that is extremely imperialistic, even as it dabbles in anti imperialism. i can't get into all that here - better essays than i'm capable of have already been written on new vegas - but i also have to admit that new vegas taught me to see game writing differently, and helped me a great deal in improving my own writing. it's also just really entertaining playing later games by obsidian and picking out the new vegas elements. i think that new vegas gets praised too readily for being progressive when in reality it's only the most progressive game in the fallout franchise, and i think every time i return to it i'm noticing one more thing that'll kind of be making my eye twitch. but, yeah, i think it would also be dishonest to not include it here, regardless of my mixed feelings, because i keep going back, and because there are so many angles to it, and because i keep catching myself comparing other games to it.

i think a lot about like........... how so many themes i can relate to exist within the narrative of new vegas, but that doesn't feel entirely intentional. like, benny is so real to me because ! he was forced to assimilate into this culture that was not his to survive. and ulysses as well. and like!!!! yeah idk. going insane. i feel very similarly about dragon age elves tbh i'm like okay i feel seen but also this game is racist! kms :') will be projecting hard and taking so much psychic damage

many such cases tho </3 baldur's gate 3 and their treatment of the gur is always going to be a mix of relatable and uncomfortable to me

favourite series: soulsborne! i like how bleak it is, love the theme of death and rebirth, love how thankless the games can be, and i also love how the combat reminds me of muay thai. had a coach explain something to me using dark souls combat as an example once. i didn't really get these games at first, until i saw my best friend playing - she is ridiculously good at them - and then i sort of realized that they're just combat puzzles, and that like... they're kind of about honing patience, i guess? and after that they really became my favourite.

best soundtrack: honorary mentions: mass effect and dark souls both have some individual tracks i revisit on the daily, and skyrim's secunda is beautiful. but hollow knight doesn't miss, and i love how every track matches its environment.

favourite protagonist: i grew up in a really dysfunctional somewhat criminal family so like... lol. i feel seen when i look at arthur morgan <3 him and charles are both close to my heart. john can stay too ig

favourite villain: SO okay, maybe this is cheating a little, but. the reapers from mass effect. went into that game with zero spoilers, and finding out that they were in fact cosmic horror games was so <3

this would probably have gone to new vegas except benny (and also ulysses + i think he's more narrative foil than antagonist, as is benny) literally did nothing wrong in my eyes and after that point it's like... who is the main antagonist? the ncr and legion both? like yeah they're interesting but...

best story: i haven't actually finished pathologic on my own yet. kind of obsessed, though. just feels responsible to put it here. honorary mentions to new vegas, some fromsoft titles, twd, imagine ubisoft ballet........ (i love her and i miss her).

i feel like a lot of story games i've played actually have garbage stories with good characters, which is why they're not here. baldur's gate 3 and ME, for example. or like... ME has a great story at first but they fuck up the ending so badly that a popular theory i've heard passed around essentially boils down to "it was all a dream!"

have not played but want to: i was actually supposed to apply for a job with the team that made these games !! i didn't because it would have required relocation to the US, but. idk i feel like they keep showing up, always highly recommended, and i think i own one? so yeah, i should really get around to that.

you love, everyone hates: again, i cheated on this one. i don't think people on here hate dragon age 2.

you hate, everyone loves: skyrim, detroit: become human, stardew valley (because it's a weird little cottagecore colonialism game but also because i don't really vibe with the art style and i get stressed as fuck in it because nothing is happening... it is simply not for me), and fallout 3 and 4 (because they're masquerading as games with choices but they fully aren't, they suffer from bethesda writing, and they are super unapologetically racist and imperialist). i mean like... not mad at any of my friends who like these games i just cannot play them. i don't really think any of the games on my list are unimpeachable, tbf.

favourite art style: disco elysium !! it's so <3 like, i also love it for other reasons!! but every time i play it i end up wanting to draw.

favourite ending: new vegas has four endings. i feel differently about them all, but the independent ending is very much shaped by the infrastructure the player assembles during a playthrough, and while it is maybe imperfect and very open ended in some ways i like how it doesn't really reassure the player. also, i really like certain elden ring endings and the dark souls 1 ending. and pathologic.

favourite boss fight: hollow knight has a lot i've really enjoyed (particularly hornet's). for elden ring, malenia is the fave, tho <3 when i defeat her i tend to feel really disappointed. like, get up. let's go again. parrying her is extremely satisfying.

childhood game: we like... found out we had some cousins which is wild because this has been a tiny family since Certain Incidents A Long Time Ago and they also had nintendo ds access and they were not into this game. and like... look, i'm not saying it's great, but it had dark souls ish combat? like, you could lock on? you could roll? and i ended up replaying it as an adult and being like. huh. not that bad.

+ imagine ubisoft ballet ily

relaxing games: distance, injustice 2 (i main red hood & black canary but i like playing robin too. it's super imbalanced and they still haven't nerfed starfire !! and it's incredibly funny like good for her), dark souls 1, and elden ring.

stressful games: again stardew valley because i would play with friends and it was like oh god i need to leave. i do not know what to do, i am useless, i am understimulated

+ red dead online is not a good game to play without substantial backup . so glad i had horse insurance because if i hadn't my only friend in that world would be dead. that said, i did like to hunt in that game + play the fps levels with groups

games you always come back to: new vegas but maybe she'll release me someday. idk. also unfortunately i didn't include it earlier but i keep going back to the sims 4 and baldur's gate 3. and fromsoft titles because i sometimes just crave that combat.

guilty pleasure: new vegas again!!! i guess i kind of talked about my extremely complicated feelings when i first spoke about it, but yeah. there's just so much to unpack and i'm never going to forgive it for a lot of things. the horrors and the joys are both numerous but the joys will never not be tainted by the horrors

tons of hours played: elden ring + bg3 + new vegas + mass effect. i don't have the hours of new vegas and mass effect available tho as they are confined to a now dead xbox 360

[stupendousfoxthing]

Stop writing essays trying to fake concern over Jk and his wellbeing while filming the show because you know damn well you wouldn’t have been singing this same song if Jk filmed a travel show with any other member who isn’t Jimin. You are a Jk biased taekooker so aren’t you supposed to know your own bias more than anyone else? Did you close your ears during the very last OT4 Live where Jk himself mentioned that he was done with his schedules but still wanted to shoot stuff? Can you remind me who out of everyone seated there asked him to stop and take a rest else he was going to hurt his body? Now you are trying to act like that same person who is the same person Jk has mentioned for years that he found the most comfort is, didn’t care that Jk was overworked still made him shoot a travel show that he didn’t want to shoot?

Let’s be serious here for a minute since you seem to have this belief that you are the most logical person alive. Do you think that if Jk has other things scheduled during the weekend after his GMA performance the company would have cancelled those things to film a show? Isn’t it obvious that they filmed the show then because he probably didn’t have any other schedules on those few days? Would you have been singing this same song if the person involved was taehyung? You say things like this but if someone brings up the fact that Tae literally pulled Jk out of his comfortable chair and made Jk cook for him on ITS, you would write essays about how people are dumb to think Jk is a child who can be forced to do things he didn’t want to do but here you are implying that Jk has no autonomy even though this man has literally renewed his contract 2 more times since he debuted and I am here wondering why he didn’t revise the terms and and request for the “fanservice with Jimin” clause to be taken out else he takes a walk. You sound ridiculous as hell writing essays that are aimed at painting Jk a spineless puppet to the company.

You posted this video in your rant and as you can see, immediately Jimin noticed that something was wrong with Jk, he didn’t stop asking what the issue was till he was convinced that Jk was ok so even if you don’t have faith in the company, best believe that Jimin would be the very last person to let Jk do anything that is detrimental to his health and if these video isn’t enough to convince you, then maybe Jk’s own words would.

https://x.com/waitingforkook/status/1274373969542615041?s=46

“One of the most insidious things this fandom has done is paint genuine and valid concern as anti-behavior.”

“Valid concern” my ass. This is no valid concern because this “valid concern” only matters when it comes to Jungkook’s interactions with a certain member. If you had valid concern for Jungkook then you would have screamed bloody murder when Taehyung “forced” him to cook for him on ITS when Jk “clearly” didn’t want to. If you had valid concern for him you would have been mad about the fact that after all this “tiredness” and “sickness” Taehyung instead encouraged him to push himself and shoot more when he said his schedules were done yet he wanted to shoot more. If you felt any valid concern for him, you would have been grateful to the one person who told him to stop and take a rest when he wanted to push more, you would have been grateful to the one person Jk has mentioned several times that he found comfort in, you would have been grateful to the one person who didn’t stop to make a commentary at the camera but instead ran straight to Jk who had collapsed and was receiving medical care in Burn the stage, if you had valid love and concern for Jk, you would have known your place as a fan and respected his choices instead of trying to fake concern while cherry picking moments to be fake concerned about, because if you saw Jk gallivanting around concerts, or musicals or premieres with Teahyung even while being sick, you and I know that you wouldn’t have been writing this fake ass essays about concern. And stop lying to yourself that you care about Jk. You don’t because no one who really cares about him would have any negative thing to say about a show where he looks happy as hell and literally shouts out “ I am free”.

You sound ridiculous as hell making all these essays when this is literally Jk through out the show.

https://x.com/jeonmygoogie/status/1815372263937470864?s=46

You would have a much easier time and much more peace of mind if you just accepted that Jk did something he wanted to do with one of his closest friends. That doesn’t take anything away from your ship because right now you just sound like a butt hurt shipper who lacks every single ounce of objectivity and only sees what they want to see. But i guess it is kinda hard for you to do that because every piece of the trailer that you see, debunks some of the things you really want to believe about him and his friendship with Jimin because some of you are just too dense to understand that Jk’s friendship with Jimin and what he does or doesn’t do with Jimin has absolutely nothing to do with his relationship with Taehyung. Even if you sincerely believe in your ship, understand that Jk can still have other people in his life that he does things with. He can have other people in his life whom he loves, whom he hugs, whom he cuddles, whom he goes on private and public trips with and that doesn’t affect his relationship with Taehyung in anyway so for the love of God, stop trying to make the travel show a bad thing. It is actually a good thing that in the middle of work, he could just take sometime to do some fun things and unwind with a dear friend of his and stop saying they pulled him out from his promos. You know you don’t believe that unless you are stupid enough to think that BH would cancel other promos that had been booked and scheduled to film a show. They didn’t pull him out of anything. He had sometime inbetween his albums and music schedules and that is the time that was used and you know that!

You are so stupid it's unbelievable. The fact that you tried to make my concerns for Jungkook about a ship and other members really showed your whole ass here. You proved my "essays" right and I don't think you're smart enough to realize that.

Once again I don't know who you're talking to because none of the things you just projected onto me apply. It's wild how you guys repeatedly word vomit in my inbox trying to argue with things I don't believe and never said. Starting with trying to say my concern for Jungkook is fake (it isn't) and thinking my beef is with Jimin when it was the company that set up the shoots for the show. You are just wrong about literally everything. All the time.

[thumperdaetime]

A Gentle Reminder:

if you feel like you're spinning your wheels, and stuck doom scrolling this week -due to the current political landscape. I highly recommend logging off for a bit and seeing if you have the stomach to call a loved one who has political veiws that clash with your own.

social media and news coverage is fantastic for getting info out to people who want to listen, but it is an ineffective tool for actually communicating with people you disagree with.

I'm not a people-scientist but every time i see "yelling at each other online doesn't actually help" and have the energy to look into What does actually help, experts always say that it's empathetic, long term relationships between people that disagree.

so if you have a bunch of nervous political energy and no clearly helpful place to put it right now:

go call your grandmother. talk about the weather, and the way you miss her cooking. give her a real living person to picture The next time a newscaster talks about the radical-left-mob. if you talk to her regularly consider asking what she thinks about the recent political thing. you're not there to debate or prove her wrong or even change her mind. just listen to someone you love confess their fears, and then share your own fears. you are probably actually on the same side when you get down to it. you both want a safe place to live and the people you love to be happy, (most people do) its just you dont agree about how to go about that.

text your little cousin a random meme, when they send back a thing about how voting is a scam, let it go. share a vine to find out if they know the deep lore. make plans to meet up and play whatever video game they're obsessed with right now. and if the vibe is right and its not going to become an argument, try talking a bit about why the whole not voting movement scares you. don't talk down to them, talk like your two friends who respect each other's opinion (Thats The whole goal actually) ask them why they think its a good strategy, collaborate on other activist things you can do together. included them in your politics instead of dismissing their points.

and its not easy, as wild as it is to think about having a deep but pleasant conversation with your worst Uncle. the fact remains that Your Problematic & Uncle is much more likely to speak up for gay rights. if you can get to a place where you enjoy each others company, and you feel safe talking to him about your struggles as a queer person. and to be fair, you are more likely to take into account the effects of a gun ban on the local wildlife balance, if you sit through your Problematic Uncle complaining about how local restrictions made deer season hard to do last year, and now the tic population is up and the food banks are empty.

divide and conquer is a long standing tactical strategy. and we have seen that fascist in particular like to divide people into a hierarchy of ""real people""" and an ""inhuman enemy"" . when we let their rhetoric turn our peers and neighbors into an inhuman enemy, we can loose sight of what we should actually be fighting for and against.

and if you spend all your time yelling at Doug Nobody who was taking an angry shit when you were typing out that essay, you take energy away from the real fight (the systems and actual active oppressors). the best way to stop that tactic is by standing together with people outside of the box you've been assigned (as much as ethically possible). and refusing to let the system make you perpetuate usless infighting.

When we let the political fandom (yes i mean the media made around politics and not actual political action) act as a wedge between us and people who could have been in our lives, we end up with weaker support groups and less per review for political ideas. it is easy to believe Q-anon if the only people you talk to believe in Q-anon. the same way it is easy to believe that Taylor Swift is a lesbian if everyone you talk to believes Taylor Swift is a lesbian. sometimes we need a person to stop and say "wait, can you run that idea by me again? it doesn't fit my perception of reality"

and Yes. it is probably unlikely at this point to convince someone who has voted one way their whole life to change their political views before November. but that doesn't mean we dont reach-out ever. there will still be politics in September and October, you will still need a diverse support group, and people you trust to bounce political ideas off of. and if you are as worried as i am about this upcoming election, it is very possible that having a community of people who are okay with working together despite political differences will be very helpful in the coming years. (and holding a meaningful, satisfying conversation with someone you disagree with on a fundamental issue is a huge skill to have if you want to take part in alot of activism, community building, or family gatherings)

a quick list of things Op is NOT Saying in this post:

it is your duty and responsibility to do this thing and you're a bad person for not doing it.

this is really easy and everyone should be able (and willing) to take on the emotional energy needed to do this for everyone they know who doesn't agree with them.

watching news or being on social media doesn't help anything.

this is the best way to help and there are no other things you should be doing with your time/energy.

the conversations will be pleasant and/or will always have a positive outcome.

any beliefs i listed together are some how morally equivalent.

you should compromise your beliefs for the sake of getting along with others.

the best answer is most likely centrist because both sides are extremists.

voting this one time will fix all of the things and you're evil if you are conflicted about it.

voting is the best way for a single individual to enact change in their country.

i love the president, and the candidates, and the voting system, and the two parties, and the electoral college, and the bombs, and the genocide and all the death and corruption and violence its all holding up and being held up by.

we should listen to "both sides" to get a fair and balanced picture of the issue

we should let nazis, and bigots, and fascist talk openly about their ideas openly as if its not hate speech calling for violence against marginalized people.

you Have to go reconnect with your abusers and toxic relationships from your past in the hopes you can convince them to vote correctly.

the current political thing that made me make this post is The Most Important Thing!!! that has ever happened in the whole world over all of written history, and we should all be talking about it for forever, otherwise you're helping the inhuman enemy!!!

things are already fucked so theirs no point in trying to get enough votes.

things will be fine and ok if nothing changes and we just keep on this projected path forward.

i know so much and am so smart and I've solved political discourse and if only everyone listened to me we would have world peace already.

Taylor Swift is a wlw

things I am saying. now. here. at the end of the post:

be kind. go look at the sky. i love you <3

[notchainedtotrauma]

I love to dissect and try to go the core of a song and/or its visuals, which it what I called music video/song analysis. This public essay focuses on both the song Cobra and the visuals to it by Megan Thee Stallion (I think for extremely obvious reasons). Since this essay is public, if you happen to love it, consider tipping me: Pp ccd4t@virginia.edu and k0fi.

Kia Labeija

Janelle Monáe in Knives Out: Glass Onion directed by Rian Johnson

The work of art and the screenshot above best visually sum up the music video and song analysis. Here are some excerpts to whet your appetite:

Within the career of the devouring black, the mouth usually functions as a barely distinguishable well, an opening into the void. But Megan Thee Stallion is gnawing her way through what can be registered as void, curtain, backstage, womb. And while her sedimented statement may mirror rebirth, it hems itself to the shedding womb, to the repetitive and excruciating process of severing the body from what is no longer of service. Both the frittering of the uterus and the slip off of the snakeskin testify to the fleshiness and viscerality of cleansing. Birthing may induce skin shedding; this animates Megan's crawling through the sticky wetness of the cobra with the clarity of a painless birth. And when she stands out from the mouth of the snake, glistening with symbolized amniotic fluid, wonder briefly lattices her face.

and

The rapper has given the scene the heightened severing of the melodrama, the constant threat of the tear that never comes but is nonetheless always there. She's drowning into the endlessness of her wounding, and, instead of air, finds herself floating in a multiplicity of liquids from blood to wine, her blood being wine. Like all Black divas, her suicide, the ending of her hurriedly sinking spirit would be understood as tragically beautiful; the snakeskin suffocates the rawness of the distress. What does it mean to be ripped apart and yet to know that "Shit/ I'll probably bleed out some Pinot/ When they find me I'm in Valentino" ? Once again, Megan points at the inability for her emotional fall to be taken as is it is.

and

Megan Thee Stallion functions here as zoo animal, bearing a series of meanings that have been engraved into Black womanhood at large. Besides those familiar codings, Megan's rap name, which, from her was signaling confidence and groundedness, was used to other her. Men (and women) look upon her body as unspeakably sexual, while at the same time excessive and therefore threatening in worse ways than even other Black women. Megan Thee Stallion represents for many an unbounded sexuality gushing out from a towering body. Which unravels the narrative around Traumatize and the inability to locate vulnerability in a Black woman rapper whose fleshiness is always in the way.

and

Snake shedding sparks anxiety and agression onto the snake whose skin is shedding. Megan transmogrifies those characteristics into the hurtling of her own deeply held anxiety and finally unmuted anger, an anger sodden with sadness and gashes. And as she raps, the shedding process appears to be incomplete and suffocating; while able to strip her face and part of her forearm, Megan still mostly retains her decaying skin. Simultaneously, in the depth of her throat, beyond the fangs and the hissing, is a fully renewed Megan, her throaway skin suffocating the spectators to which she speaks back, interrupting their remaking of her.

[autisticempathydaemon]

hello everynyan :3 /ref

4 the redacted match-ups ! not sure if you're still doing these or not bc i'll be damned i'd give up after the first 3 🙌🙌🙌 power 2 ya ! (if you ARE, in fact, not doing these anymore pls ignore this. this never happened. kay.)

What song are you fixated on at the moment? What lyric or verse, and why?

this was the hardest question bc i LOVEEMUSIC so bad i can never really pick ONE fav bc it changes every 2 seconds but !!! gun to my head as of rn i'd say -- "but not kiss" - faye webster

'i want to see you in my dreams,

but then forget.

we're meant to be,

but not yet.

you're all that i have,

but can't get.'

i chose this song primarily because of the aesthetics & instrumental,, + the feels - i love how the piano carries and portrays every feeling (dread? maybe?) alongside the vocalist ugh sick to my stomach /pos

as for the verses i've chosen i just. really like the way she sings them HA i guess depending on my current mood i might relate to the lyrics for .5 seconds due to a past relationship of mine that had me fuckedd anyway.

Do you love gargantuan Youtube video essays, and if so, which is your favorite and why?

i WISH i could enjoy these as much as others but i have the attention spam of a fucking goldfish i need to be stimulated 24/7. i cannot stare at the same face and occasional photo/clip for over 10 mins.

i might watch more of em if they had like a satisfying slime video in the corner or smth. i find i only watch ones that have a topic/interest of mine that i am actively curious about/into????if that makes sense??

for instance, the only one that comes to mind rn is "in defense of chat noir" by toon ruins UGH ITS SO GOOD i used to be a huge fan of miraculous so that defffinitely takes part in why i rewatch it every few months.

What is your go-to way to fall asleep?

on my stomach. arms under pillows. one leg up. yo i bought these headphones made specifically for sleeping while listening to relaxing noises or smth & i kid you not i use them shits to listen to asmr/rp audios. sometimes it puts me to sleep other times i'm up all night tryna figure out what position the listener and 'character' are in. anyway!!!

If you had to change your name, what would it be, and why? (In tandem, if you have changed your name, why did you pick that one?)

first thing that comes 2 mindd for whatever reason is 'may' ?? possibly bc i really like my birth name already and 'may' is somewhat close to it already? also because i'd love writing it over and over in my handwriting . probably just an excuse to write the letter 'y' actually.

What is your favorite of Redacted’s audios, and why?

fav character changes ALLL THE TIMEE for no reason my fav is all of them rlly i just wanna love and be loved BUT when i reaaaally think about it ?? hudson. even though he's like. an easter egg. i cant have anything. wanna "D D D D DDDJJJ ANXIETY" into his pants. what. who said that. just got hacked wtff

What Redacted boy holds no appeal to you, and why? Like, not the one you hate but the one who you don’t get the hype for. (I won’t judge, I promise.)

a know a LOTT of ppl love david but i am sorry i just cannot. angel better than me idk how they do it. srry. my momma raised a bitch. i've never ever gotten to finishing any of his videos so maybe im the problem but from the get-go THIS BITCH IS SCARY BRO he's so damn intimidating . the fact that his voice is rlly deep doesn't help either :C ..& don't even get me started on early david.

Which Redacted boy are you platonically attracted to? Like- forget dating, which dude do you want to be your best friend?

this is such a good question rlly makin me think . hmm . OK I FEEL LIKE A BASIC BlTCH BC PPL HAVE BEEN SAYIN THIS ALREADY BUT . hux. we like this 🤞 . as for why?? i feel like i need and would . honestly really appreciate more,, warmth and positivity in my life - and i def get that sorta 'aura' from him. & i know damn well he'd give the best hugs. and we could go to the gym together. it'd be so fun. so precious.

Do you have a go-to thing you ramble about when you’re tired, and if so, what is it? (For example, my boyfriend knows I’m ready to sleep when I start talking about space.)

ok first of all #relationshipgoals that is so sweet awe :((

i wouldn't say i really 'ramble' per say -- i just talk. to myself. like a normal person. mhm. i struggle with sleep in general, so i'm usually up till like 5am. typically endlessly scrolling through my phone, or talking to the abyss about something personal that's been on my mind for a while. if it's really bad, i cry in my voice memos. if i just need to - refresh? get smth off my mind so i can sleep? i write songs.

...and then i record them on my $15 wireless headphones. onto that very same voice memos app.

Tell me your go-to gas station and drink combo.

if im being honest,, depends on my mood . but god could i fuck up some strawberry milk and mini oreos right about now. . mind you i've had strawberry milk like once but it changed my life u dont understand

Tell me about your favorite playlist at the moment.

i mean i don't listen to it 24/7 but man i outdid myself w this one. it's called "insanity" and every single song matches the vibe of . just straight up 'otherworldly' ?? if u catching what im throwin?? all songs r pretty 'out-there' - in terms of the vibes - at least i like to think so. for reference it has songs like "goth - sidewalks and skeletons" and "eternal youth - růde" . IDK i guess it makes me happy when songs from a playlist actually match up with one other

What’s your guilty pleasure media, and why?

i listen to this japanese-kawaii-metal-based group called BABYMETAL and i loveee them soso much. a few "metal enthusiasts" go out and call their work 'not real metal' , which is why i guess you can technically call their music a pleasure media -- as well as the fact that whenever i put on one of their songs mfs r like ... what is this - cause its three young japanese girls talking abt bubblegum with the the most insane guitar riff in the back. their newer stuff is incredible. womanhood at it's finest. give them a shot plspls /nf

ALL DONE !! ty 4 reading & have a lovely day/night, wherever you may be <3

Oh, this one is perfect and required, like, no thought. Vibes-wise? Given your energy? It’s just gotta be Guy.

Building on that, I love that you write songs and he writes screenplays(?). I think it’s so cute to pair writers together so that you might inspire one another and be each other's biggest fans. I also like Guy for you because he strikes me as one of those people who calls themselves “polyjamorous”, listening to basically anything and everything. He loves all your songs and all your playlists, vibing along to all of it even if there’s no words or words in another language. He doesn’t care: he’s with you, so he’s having a good time.

I would predict a fun, artistic life for the two of you like parallel-playing co-writing sessions with the two of you having individual headphones on, making funny faces at one another when you catch the other staring. You take turns showing each what you’ve created and hyping each other up, offering critique. When the writer's clock keeps y’all up till 3 AM, he’s got leftover pizza and any snacks you could possibly want. (He strikes me as the sort of guy who always has junk food caches.)

Song:

It was just two lovers/ Sittin' in the car, listening to Blonde/ Fallin' for each other/ Pink and orange skies, feelin' super childish/ No Donald Glover/ Missed call from my mother/ Like, "Where you at tonight?" Got no alibi/ I was all alone with the love of my life

Given your passion for music, I tried to pick a love song for y’all that was emotionally evocative to the mind and the ear. I chose this one because I thought the piano instrumental and how it evokes that mental imagery of sitting with someone during the golden hour might resonate with you. I also like it for y’all because this song got really popular on tiktok, and Guy would probably know it from there.

Runner-ups:

Obviously, we have to have Hudson as a runner-up. As a DJ, he’d be so loving and so supportive of your craft, hyping you up on air all the time and playing your work whenever he can. He’d also make you really bomb-ass playlists. A less obvious runner-up would be Anton, but I really like this one. You’d be more of an opposites attract sort of pair, but I think it’d be cute, and listening to music would remind Anton of you while he’s away~

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌