#its wild to think my art pops up sometimes

[angelpuns]

Well well well

look at who’s comic is up there

:)

WHAOOHHHH oh man I need to finish that comic- BUT WOAHHHH RARE SIGHTING

[deathblacksmoke]

call me when you get the chance

pairing: noah sebastian x nick ruffilo x fem reader

cw: polyamorous relationship, long distance yearning, it’s pretty fluffy my friends

taglist: @concretenoah / @ladyveronikawrites / @lma1986 / @monotoniscreaming / @xxrainstorm / @agravemisstake

let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future fics!

author’s note: thank you lady v once again for the beta; i added some pitt back in just for you. and thank you @darksigns-exe for the poly boyfriends brainworms. no smut in here - wild change of pace. and i’ll probably be writing more little bits of these sweet babes at some point 🤍 i got euclid on the brain so title from that, obvi. enjoy!

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

Nick sends a postcard from every city.

Missing you from Atlanta! Love, Nicholas.

It makes you feel warm and loved, every time you open your mailbox to another card from another city, with your partner’s pretty writing on the back.

You imagine him standing in the store for ages, sifting through the cards, trying to pick the perfect one for your gallery wall. You imagine Noah picking one out as a joke, and Nick scoffing, putting it back irritated.

No, man, she’s particular about her wall. Remember?

It makes your chest swell. You long to be there, to play mediator like you do when they’re both home with you. They need it sometimes, and you’re sure Jolly could use the break every now and again.

Noah sends memes. They’re ones you would never see otherwise because you won’t step foot on Twitter, but they make you smile and remind you of him, his stupid sense of humor, and the way his face lights up when he laughs. You close your eyes and imagine it, his eyes scrunching closed with his laugh, and your chest tightens.

They always send a selfie when they get off stage, and another before bed, sometimes a FaceTime if you’re still up. They don’t show you their intertwined hands. They know it makes you jealous and weepy, but you’re so grateful that they have each other. You imagine them kissing when the call ends and you cry anyway.

***

When you couldn’t make it to the show you had all planned for, you thought that was it. Work gets in the way again, sends you out of town, but you’ll see them when they come home to you and all will be okay.

The show looks incredible. You brave social media just this once to see clips of your boys, weep in bed in your hotel room. You stay up late to see them before you sleep—they tell you they wish you were there, they miss you, they love you. You catch a glimpse of a love bite on Nick’s chest and wish it could have come from you. You fantasize about quitting your job. You get closer every day.

The postcard comes two days later, a pop-art rendition of the Pittsburgh skyline, Nick’s little note scrawled across the back. It feels silly to have but you knew he wouldn’t dare to break the tradition he’s created.

Wish you were here! Love always, your Nicholas.

You don’t know how much longer you can go without them, holding back tears as you put the card in its frame, giving it its place on the wall.

You feel helpless and hopeless until you get an email, the airline notifications you had set up on cost changes doing you a solid, for once. Flight to LAX, suspiciously affordable, landing at 2 PM on the 8th of October.

It’s not a question. You don’t think twice. You have the PTO, and your boss can’t possibly deny you again. And if they do, fuck it, you’ll really dig your heels in about them needing another girl working on the tour. You’ll get Lana on your side this time around. They can’t say no to you both.

You book the ticket, arrange a guest list spot with Matt and buzz with excitement in preparation for your surprise.

***

You never tire of watching them perform.

The way Noah owns the stage, running from stage left to stage right, commanding the crowd to chant and jump with him. Nicholas, his long hair swaying with each rock of his neck to the beat of the song. His slender fingers grip the neck of his bass as he bounces his leg, growling backing vocals going straight through you. You wish you could be at every show. You swell with pride and know you couldn’t have picked two better boys to share your life.

You head to the green room when they come back out to say their thank yous and goodbyes. You hate to miss the photo slides but you helped pick most of the photos, anyway. Lots from your private collection and you think maybe you owe some of these people a “you’re welcome.”

Sitting on the old, worn leather couch, you start to panic. You’ve never surprised them before. Noah hates surprises, but you hope at least you’re a good one.

Folio comes through the door first, followed by Jolly, and the door swings back closed. Shocked at first when they see you, Folio’s face breaks out into a huge grin before turning on his heels.

“Yo, Noah, you’re gonna wanna see this—” he yells as he swings the door back open, to reveal Nick, sweaty and looking exhausted, but when his eyes land on you—

“Holy shit,” he whispers.

You can barely make it out above the roar of noise in the hallway. You don’t know where Noah is, but Nick looks as gorgeous as you’ve ever seen him. You need to take a deep breath but find your throat stopping you as your vision starts to blur. The look on his face as he crosses the room to you melts your anxiety in an instant. You haven’t seen him in so long. And he’s here. He’s right here with you.

When he reaches you, he sinks to his knees at your feet. His fingers digging into your thigh, eyes glazed over as he looks up at you, you lean down to meet him halfway.

The feeling of his lips on yours makes you feel dizzy. The feel of the wetness on his cheeks when you cup his face makes you want to sob, but you don’t, you lick into his mouth and bask in the sound of his gasp.

“Where the fuck were you,” he speaks into your mouth when he pulls away from you.

His fingers are gripping your thigh painfully. You know you’ll bruise, you wince, but it’s Nick and you don’t care. You’ll press your fingers there when you get home and you’ll think of him and—

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was flirting with the pretty bartender. I think you’d like her, Nicky, do you think Noah will go for a fourth?”

He’s leaning in for another kiss when you hear the green room door slam back open, thundering steps getting closer and closer until Nick is jostled forward, Noah’s head resting on his shoulder, eyes focused on you.

“You were a very naughty girl, keeping this secret from us,” Noah says, his head angling to press kisses and nip at Nick’s neck. Nick grins and you watch as the hand that was digging into your thigh takes Noah’s hand and laces their fingers.

When you’re far away, it makes you jealous. When you’re right here, when you have them both in front of you, that’s the furthest thing from your mind.

When you kiss Noah and he smiles into it, when the hand not laced with Nick’s threads through your hair, when Nick nips at your neck while Noah kisses you, you’ve never felt more at home.

Because they are your home.

“Nicky let me pick your postcard this time,” Noah tells you when he pulls away.

“You’ll hate it,” Nick says, but he’s grinning as he stands up to rummage through his backpack.

When he returns to you and holds it out, it’s a silly little card, but both their names are signed this time.

Loving you from LA. Love, your Nicholas and Noah.

Noah’s grinning as wide as you’ve ever seen. It’s your favorite of the bunch.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/19/2024

no silly little witticism here this week! just heartfelt thanks for helping me pay my rent this month :)

listening

absolutely wild pick from last week's spotify weekly recommenced, Things Will Fall Apart by Louis Cole feat the Metropole Orkest and conductor Jules Buckley. it's been on loop all week for me and im a little sad it won't pop up in my spotify wrapped

when you make a dance pop song with a full orchestra backing, it has a really interesting effect somewhere between Golden Age of Hollywood swashbuckling film score and marching band?

Yes, understood Things will fall apart just likе they should This little shred was good Don't think it through Things will fall apart, they always do At least, something's always true

the syllables are so choppy they don’t even register to me as English at first, i was fully willing to believe this was German for the first couple lines. like @dying-suffering-french-stalkers, i have a deep fondness for works about putting an era to bed. or works focused on the sunsets of things, or one of the last living practitioners of an art. putting the chairs up on the table, sweeping the floors, and turning the lights out and locking the door behind you. this song has that sort of quiet post-wake-party remembrance.

however once you think the song has ended but it keeps going, you can turn it off. you don’t really need that extra minute and a half of strings and light vocalizations.

Lately, Louis Cole has been doing live shows with the Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest and conductor Jules Buckley. Cole recorded nothing with the ensemble. In a press release, he says, “Sometimes, when I’m mixing my own solo stuff, I’ll feel like a song needs a little magical dust. But mixing an entire orchestra and your own rhythm section, there’s so much human energy! You don’t have to add any magic. It was there the whole time.”

i don’t hear many pop songs this millennium with a full orchestral backing. perhaps i need to look harder. unfortunately spotify took this extreme interest in this song as a newfound extreme interest in electroswing, which is really not what this song is. i hope this artist does more albums like this so they can wear grooves in my brain

-

reading

very hard to focus on anything book length this week. some depressing local news (my local paper's links do Not want to preview nicely here, which is annoying:

At a city council meeting in October, district Vice President Dan Joyce told council members that the management district was not attempting to "criminalize homelessness." The city’s civility ordinance bans people from sitting, lying down or placing personal items or bedding on sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

cool piece from our pals at 404 Media. i am So fascinated by crime infrastructure

Based on interviews with malware developers, hackers who use the stolen credentials, and a review of manuals that tell new recruits how to spread the malware, 404 Media has mapped out this industry. Its end result is that a download of an innocent-looking piece of software by a single person can lead to a data breach at a multibillion-dollar company, putting Google and other tech giants in an ever-escalating cat-and-mouse game with the malware developers to keep people and companies safe.

(via longreads) my interest in how and why systems fail extends to invasive species management. plus i used to live in florida just above the everglades and these fuckers (the snakes) were everywhere

[I]magine thousands upon thousands of pythons, their slow digestion transforming each corpse into python muscle and fat. Unaided, Florida’s native wildlife doesn’t stand a chance. “That’s what I think about with every python I catch,” Kalil says. “What it ate to get this big, and the lives I’m saving by removing it.” Biologists are taking a multipronged approach to the issue. They have experimented with enlisting dogs to sniff out both pythons and nests—a technique that has proved difficult in such hot weather and inhospitable landscapes. Ongoing projects use telemetry to track pythons to find “associate snakes.” Researchers use drones, go out in airboats, or even take to helicopters to locate their subjects in the interiors of the Everglades. Always, agencies and individuals are looking for the next best methods. “But for now, the python contractor program is the most successful management effort in the history of the issue,” Kirkland says. “We’re capturing more and more—something that is indicative of the python population out there and indicative of us getting better at what we do.”

-

watching

continuing noirvember, watched hitchcock's Notorious to see if i still dislike hitchcock. the answer is yes. there are bond girls and there are hitchcock girls, and not that bond girls are paragons of female agency in film, but hitchcock girls are mostly fluttering little pathetic things. a scrap of agency they showed in the beginning of the film becomes a running joke and something their noses are rubbed in for the rest of the film. not for me!

patrick mcgoohan is leading me into some real dad-ass movies. Ice Station Zebra (1968, dir. Sturges) is a real you're stuck at home sick with your dad and it's on TV for the whole afternoon kind of movie. they truly do not make two and a half cold war submarine espionage films in super panavision with an overture, intermission, and interact music any more. i get why howard hughes was really obsessed with this one. it is a suspense film, but full of people competently going about their business, which i find oddly comforting.

unfortunately i do not feel this really needed to be two and a half hours long. the loving closeups of sub interiors and instrumentation really did keep me amused, though. despite how cluttered every shot is with actors, there is tremendous clarity of purpose and motion with the camera movement. just a really technically brilliant film.

how similar the russian and american control rooms and instrumentation were made me chortle. ties nicely into a little diatribe mcgoohan goes on much later in the film, "The Russians put our camera made by our German scientists and your film made by your German scientists into their satellite made by their German scientists." funny and darkly true! every allied nation had some sort of Operation Paperclip going on! mcgoohan is the focus of every scene he's in, as a spy who is really hanging on by the last remaining shreds of his fingernails.

i had a good time with it, but one of many cold war suspense films im glad exist in the world but don't necessarily need to see again. it might join Escape from New York as a film i put on when im very sick though.

-

playing

this pc needs some sort of replacement something, bc it has a really persistent overheating problem. it only tolerates powerwasher simulator on the lowest possible settings and genshin impact on basically mobile settings. it does not even want to run new vegas. i popped my head out of goodsprings to look out over the desert at the Strip and it said no thank you! too many polygons! naptime!

speaking of genshin, major update this week and new character i will be pulling for. she has a sister who died in the last patch, which i do Not care for as someone with a beloved little sister, but her moveset and skills are unique so far in the game. i feel like her skills are little too complicated for me to fully take advantage of with my "hit enemy very hard until he is dead" playstyle but she has a limited flight ability that will genuinely be very useful for exploration.

if i do not get her when i hit pity on the banner i won't bother pulling another nine times or whatever, bc the next patch has a character i really desperately want and i am saving for her

-

making

the local crew is all getting art this year, bc i already have bristol board and a selection of small frames and zero budget. people who have pets are So easy to get gifts for bc u can simply get them stuff for their pet or that looks like their pet. way less gray cat than black cat merch in the world tho

aiming to send out international holiday cards by the end of the week, and canadian cards by american thanksgiving. the rest of you they'll get there when they get there ok

[ashirisu]

hey, everyone!

My name is Ley (pronounced like "Lee," she/they) and I'm a fiction writer/editor based in the PNW. I haven't done a proper writeblr intro in a while, so I figure the new year is a great time to reintroduce myself to the community!

— about me

An important thing to understand about me and the way I talk about writing is that this stuff is literally my entire life. Even outside of work, I don't think I have a single interest or hobby that doesn't relate back to storytelling in some capacity. I'm an avid media consumer and critic, and will hyperanalyze just about anything that catches my fancy for more than a minute.

I love science fiction and fantasy, and my goal as a writer is to take all the genres I loved growing up and create stories that are a little more diverse, inclusive, and queer.

— about the blog

I came to writeblr mostly to share my work, but also to find an active community where I can get excited with other writers and talk shop. Marketing is obviously a really important part of the publishing industry, but I get tired of having to filter every thought I have about my work and experiences through the lens of aesthetic micro-trends just to put it out in the world. Sometimes I just want to pop off about scenes I'm proud of, you know?

Above all else, I really just want to connect with more writers like myself, ones who got their start in fandom spaces and are working to take their writing from a hobby into a career. I see you, I am you, I love you, let's be friends!

You’ll definitely see me posting and reblogging a lot of stuff that isn’t necessarily related to writing, so be ready for that. My art exists in the context of my personality and the world as a whole, and I simply do not have it in me to maintain a whole separate blog for silly nonsense and memes. Just consider it a way to get to know the writer as well as the writing!

— about my writing

I write a lot, though most of it is disconnected nonsense. Flash fiction and short stories are where I really thrive as a writer. I don't tend to commit to long-form projects, but I have a few projects that I'll occasionally share details about!

I like to describe my style as "earnest and character-forward," which is a fancy way of saying that I like driven protagonists who think too much and are emotional to the point of it being a character flaw.

My goal is to share more of my original writing moving forward, so hopefully you'll get to see all of this for yourself. If I'm totally honest, though, you'll probably see more of me discussing my work than actually writing it.

— about my projects

Here are the things you'll most likely see me posting about:

Agnomen: A sci-fi retelling of Hamlet and Coriolanus, currently in its very preliminary stages. It is literally my Roman Empire, except it's set on a moon of a planet that I'm calling Jupiter as a placeholder (but please note that it isn't actually Jupiter, as Jupiter is a gas giant and therefore a scientifically impossible setting for large sections of the plot).

Alter Ego: A superhero fic in which not-so-mild-mannered reporter Drew Derrick fights for mutant rights and can't seem to get his act together when it comes to keeping the complicated parts of his life separate.

Untitled Fantasy Project: The very first project I ever wrote, and the piece I return to every so often when writing is feeling more like a slog than a fun hobby. I set a lot of one-offs in this world and follow a few key characters around without them having a real plot.

D&D: I write a lot about Baz, my Wild Magic Barbarian. He's a regency noble with a lot of problems, and I care about him very much. I also have various other settings and characters, but he's my most active PC at the moment and therefore gets the most attention.

Short Stories: Sometimes I write these, and sometimes I like them enough to share!

— tag directory

ley rambles: my (often wordy) opinions about things

ley writes: not necessarily my writing, but talking about my writing

my writing: stories, blurbs, and other content I've written

not my writing: reblogs and creative writing that I liked, shared, and sometimes commented on

[pastel-rights]

In your opinion what would your friends arts taste like?

Oh? Hmmm, let me think about it~

Let's see...

Rina's art tastes like a strawberry lollipop tbh, always a sweet treat to see it on my feed <3

Lupi's art kind of tastes like cherry garcia ice cream, which is unironically my favorite ice cream flavor. It's nice, it's special, it's classic and classy. It's so smooth and chill and it's got fun pops of flavor/color.

Pins' art tastes like a hi chew candy, comes in many different flavors, each piece its own unique flavor, yet it always comes out soooo good no matter that it is she does. how does she do it.

Fifi's art... uhh... kind of gives off the vibes of frozen koolaid. but like specifically the grape flavor. couldn't tell you why, grape koolaid is just better frozen.

Beth's art tastes like a fresh banana bread muffin. I do make the rules, and this is my answer. I fucking love banana bread muffins.

Klai's art is giving... fresh fruit vibes. It's always nice and refreshing to see, comes in batches, can be sweet, can be sour, or my favorite third fruit option, "girl what IS this" (doesn't know what she's looking at fr fr)

Mario's art kind of gives those granny strawberry candies that only manifests with grandmothers???? I need more but I have NO clue where to find it /j

my wife. my beloved. my dearest. she doesn't draw a lot (she does edits though??? do that count???) but it gives watermelon vibes. I don't know why, but it's just really sweet and refreshing to see her art every once in a while and sometimes I go back and I just look at it and it's always nice no matter when I go look at it. kind of like watermelon.

Yuu's art is giving red velvet vibes. If I consume too much of it in one day, I will die of sugar overdose /j it's also just always so nicely put together, the colors and lineart compliment one another so well and it's just oughhhh ahhhh how DARE you. /j

Joe's art reminds me of chocolate lava cake, it's so rich and sweet, can't consume it too fast, I will burn myself, and the color schemes joe uses just reminds me of a chocolate lava cake?? especially when the chocolate is red inside... hehe...

Emma and Al's art both kind of give those ICEE slushies machines. They're always there at the most wild and opportune moments, kind of cold and chilly and nice to see on a day when things are just a little too plain. Fun pops of excitement.

Sleepy's art ALSO gives those strawberry candies, but more so, there's just something so nice and nostalgic about their art whenever I come across it.

Clown's art feels like those mixed bags of themed gummies... like scooby doo gummies... mixed bags of contents, sweet, always wondering what I'm gonna get this time!! always a nice surprise.

Navi's art is also kind of giving red velvet cake for the same reasons as Yuu's art was.

uhhh i'm pretty sure i'm missing people so y'know if you don't see yourself on this list... heyyyyy hit me up /j

[flamingplay]

Everything Everything's Mountainhead: a Track-by-Track commentary from AppleMusic

Everything Everything lead vocalist Jonathan Higgs thinks that the thread running all the way through the Manchester quartet’s catalogue is the urge to encapsulate the effect on humanity of living in this time. “That’s really what all our albums are about,” Higgs tells Apple Music. “It’s a varying degree of looking inward and outward, observing how it feels to be alive in this place in this time. This one is very much looking outward for the most part.” “This one” is Mountainhead, Everything Everything’s seventh record and another astounding leap forward from one of the UK’s most inventive bands. It mixes pulsing synths and gleaming guitar licks, euphoric electro grooves and art-rock dynamism—music where the strange and the soothing seamlessly overlap.

The album pairs a dystopian concept about a society which has built a huge mountain and its people live in the shadowed pit it has created at the bottom (a “Mountainhead” is someone who believes the mountain must continue to grow taller no matter the cost) with some of their most rhapsodic pop hooks yet. It’s all been created with the confidence that there is an audience for this sound. “It always feels like we’ve got a lot of goodwill from the last thing we did, so a lot of people are waiting for the next thing we do,” says Higgs. “I think people really liked the last record [2022’s Raw Data Feel] and this one’s better.” This is the sound of Everything Everything on the crest of a wave, confidently hitting new peaks seven albums into their career. Allow Higgs to guide you on a journey to the top of Mountainhead, track by track.

“Wild Guess”

“This was a little demo we made on tour with Foals back in 2017 or something. I put a vocal on it but it was all sung an octave up from what you hear, which was ridiculous. We happened to rediscover it and were like, ‘Remember how ridiculous this song was? Maybe it’s fine to do it now.’ There was just something about the confidence of that big fat solo beginning the record, no vocal for ages and it’s not very nicely played. It’s the same recording Alex [Robertshaw, guitarist and keyboardist] did backstage into his laptop all those years ago. It just felt like this was a good way to start a record, basically, like, ‘Fuck you. Here’s your big fat solo that sounds awful and you’re going to have to wait for your vocal.’”

“The End of the Contender”

“This is vaguely about Ronnie Pickering [ex-boxer who went viral in 2015 for a road rage incident] and people of his ilk, but it’s also about the creep of capitalism and how it’s seeping into everything. I’ve tried to put a reference to money or electricity on every song, so he talks a lot about it in that song—whoever ‘he’ is. Obviously, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins’ is quite a cheeky thing to sing in the chorus, but I don’t think I’m going to get sued for it.”

“Cold Reactor”

“This is setting out the stall of the record. It really hinges on the human element of it and the desperation of it. The ‘I haven’t left the house’ line, somebody being quite isolated and communicating through screens and emojis, felt very relatable. There’s a sad longing for connection that you can’t quite get to that runs through it and because it has this rushing feeling of everything coming to a point, it really emphasises the desperation of it. It was a question of getting the right sort of heartbreaking-versus-hopeful tone and trying to get across a lot of exposition in the verses in quite a short time. It feels like a film script in terms of its simplicity.”

“Buddy, Come Over”

“This is about cancel culture a little bit, it’s got this dark-side- and underworld-type feeling to it. There’s a line, ‘Make me a website so I can completely ruin my life’ and that made the guys laugh quite a lot. Sometimes when that happens, we’re just like, ‘Yeah, let’s go down this path.’ It fell together quite easily, it was more like a really fun one to play live, like, ‘What can we play that feels good in the moment rather than trying to get all these tracks on the go.’”

“R U Happy?”

“This is about the effect of isolation, living in cities, living now and asking the question, ‘Are you happy? Does all this stuff make you happy?’ in the simplest way I could, which is to literally say, ‘Are you happy?’ over and over again. There’s definitely a through line of being an animal and the ‘dance in a skeleton way’ line was me saying if there’s a skeleton there, you’re dead but if there’s a skeleton there, you’re alive as well, talking about being alive and trying not to be sad all the time.”

“The Mad Stone”

“This is more about the religious element to the idea [of the album]. It’s more like a spiritual song in its presentation and its content. It sounds like an argument between two or three people who really believe in this idea of the mountain and people who are very doubtful about it. The thing on top of the mountain [in the chorus] is this big mirror that reflects you over and over again into infinity—that’s the more magical element of what might be at the top of the mountain. I was trying to come up with a metaphor for an idea of something that would be an actual goal that someone might want to get to, but it’s also really obviously selfish and self-aggrandising. It took an afternoon of singing it to get the chorus right, getting it so it just didn’t sound silly—being understood and not sound like I’m mumbling.”

“TV Dog”

“This was a demo that Alex had made that he called ‘Coney Island’ and we all thought it sounded like a New York string quartet. Coupled with that title, it opened up a few little avenues on the record, some strings that appear on other songs. I had about twice as many lyrics and we were like, ‘Is this song going to develop into a bigger thing? Are we going to bring the drums in?’ and then we were like, ‘The most poignant thing you can do is just hear it for a minute and a half, a couple of good lines and then it’s gone.’ Alex went down to a cathedral and recorded loads of ambience in there and put that all over the track in the background, so you get this sense of it being in a huge space.”

“Canary”

“If some of the other songs feel like you’re on the mountain, this one’s very much in the pit, it’s being in the dark. It’s the canary in a coal mine, a warning song that just so happens to fit very well with the larger concept. It’s the darkest underbelly of the album and the imagery is the most fucked up. It feels like a warning about something bad that’s coming, which tends to be where I often find myself as a character in my songs—as a warning character. This was a big production number for Alex, I think he wanted it to be a bit Björk or something.”

“Don’t Ask Me to Beg”

“I started with layering up vocals, I was trying to make a kind of choir thing. I was listening to Massive Attack, even though they don’t really use choirs. We tried different rhythmic schemes for ages to try and get it sounding less white-boy funk and cool. It took us ages working on the drums, actually, and then trying to re-record all of those cluster vocals. I think we just gave up in the end and used the demo ones, so no one knows how to sing those parts. If we have to do it live, we’re going to struggle!”

“Enter the Mirror”

“This is about a friend of mine who was struggling and I wasn’t sure if he was going to make it through. It’s a song about singing to him as if he was gone and remembering our childhood. I haven’t really worked out what it means yet. I think I wanted to say that we’re both the same deep down, even though there’s two of us. But there’s also the mirror on top of the mountain, which might be like you find yourself if you go into it. I don’t know, I’m still a bit too close to that song to even fully say.”

“Your Money, My Summer”

“This was another demo from around the same time as ‘Wild Guess’, something that we thought was just a bit too silly to do something with back then and now, I guess we didn’t. In the past, we would have had a litany of reasons why we wouldn’t do that and now it was like, ‘This is good.’ It’s definitely the most relaxed track of ours you’ll ever find. You won’t find us playing like that anywhere else, a sort of Chili Peppers rhythm section. We would usually run a mile from that stuff but we were just like, ‘Why are we running?’ It’s an example of us being relaxed with each other.”

“Dagger’s Edge”

“This was an older demo. It always had that feeling of being a song of two halves. I think I wrote the second half and Alex wrote the first. We’d binned it because we thought it was too silly. It does sound pretty light-hearted in the first bit, but then the tone changes. I’m taking the piss out of somebody and saying a lot of ridiculous things and then suddenly just turn into this really desperate old wise man on a mountain. No other band could do that and I really believe that that’s very much our thing—a song that sounds like Dr. Dre and I’m taking the piss out of a guy, calling him those ridiculous names, and then suddenly, a harpsichord comes in and it’s turned into a really existential thing about everyone turning into bacon.”

“City Song”

“This is another one that’s got that New York strings thing going on. I wrote the demo and it was much more hip-hoppy. It’s got a hip-hop speed, but, stylistically, that’s been shed. I was trying to do like a David Byrne-style lyric, the sadness of mundanity or trying to make mundane things special. I think there was also some elements of the Mark Fisher book Capitalist Realism, where he was talking about how impersonal it can be to work for a big company where no one really knows each other. I wanted to get across that feeling of isolation, but also no one really knowing who you are and no one knowing each other, living under the lights of the city and it all being very anonymous.”

“The Witness”

“I’ve barely listened back to this because it makes me quite emotional. It was about witnessing somebody go through a weird transition, thinking that it might be a kind of religious experience. It was written on guitars but Alex swapped out the guitars for synths because it sounded like a Radiohead-type song, two guitars picking and a sad guy with a falsetto. It was just like, ‘People would like it but this is really music from 25 years ago that we could do standing on our heads.’ It’s what we were trained to do, we’re good at it, but it wasn’t pushing us in any direction. So we swapped out the guitars for synths and we made a few other weird changes.

[neonfretra]

pointing gun at ceiling. hey do yall want to hear something funny ^_^

im not sayin i make sweet love to generative ai in the arts but i think the way people get about it is kinda. nothin. as an artist. as an artist who does not use it and does not enjoy it.

soulless art, not really art you did yourself... babes i dont think you woulda loved digital art when it was new. nor like. any sorta technology HAHAHA

hope its not too much a reach to ask whats the read on all sortsa different mediums . is photography devaluating our photorealism? is abstract art the death of representative art? is pop music shallow and meaningless compared to the classical greats? did you REALLY make art if you arent goin directly pen to paper with it? is ANY diversion from our "established" art the enemy????? (if you answered yes to any of these. hey! maybe we should unpack these anywhere BUT my account. on our own time)

you think im crazy, i tell you ive seen people with the take that using the fill bucket is cheating. hello

tell me you think we need stricter copyright laws i ask whats the take on music sampling. im not sayin you dont care about artists, im just sayin itd be real easy to swing you to side with the massive corporations that suppress individual or independent voices . im just sayin yall realize that goin down that thought means my account that is based entirely off fanart should NOT exist in a world like this . im just sayin are we familiar with the history of hip hop and how its built OFF takin different parts of existing songs and reshaping it into something new. really interesting stuff actually !

but what can you say about art without devaluing all other sortsa art??? am i making REAL art?????? the answer is that at the end of the day its all anime if you ask the right people LMAOOO

computers had a part in art for forever... midi files and animation curves and procedural generation... ai, computer generation, autofill on steroids, whatever we callin it this time, the fact that its in the arts isnt really the problem as much as its just an exacerbation on the existin issues within the art industry and the devaluation of the arts in the public eye .

or we could just take the easy way through and say we gotta copyright ai art to oblivion yeah alrigh

if yallre reading this far. i really dont rock with ai art. its unappealing to me, i dont like the trends within it or the attitudes around it or the complete lack of accountability or responsibility in our next hot thing in technology . i just think the way people go around hating it is. look.

sometimes i wonder how hard itd be to get someone to swing hard conservative. not because i think its got anythin worth believin but because theres some very unexamined very deep seated beliefs goin around. DIDNT THINK ID SEE "ITS US VS THEM" IN THE WILD ALL IM SAYIN

to clarify for people who dont recognize this phrase (us versus them mentality for further reading), its real easy to get people riled up about a group when you draw the line and say these people are DIFFERENT and NOT LIKE US. then start gettin into that swing of "if they arent us then treatin them poorly is acceptable"

if yall ever see this kinda thinkin in the world! consider slowin down to ask yourself who benefits from the us vs them thinkin and who doesnt . and why anyone tryin to sell you on it

[goodbysunball]

Illegal life forever

Sleep's hard to come by these days, but important new music is not. Really excited about all of these albums, though I think a lot more people would be into the J.R.C.G. and Weak Signal records if they heard 'em. Feels wild to be alive in a time where this much new music hits a nerve.

J.R.C.G., Grim Iconic (Sadistic Mantra) LP (Sub Pop) Second album post-Dreamdecay from Justin R. Cruz Gallego, and it's a monster step forward from Ajo Sunshine. While sonically the two albums are drowning in layers of tom-forward drumming, buzzing synths, and effects-garbled vocals, Grim Iconic (Sadistic Mantra) puts all the pieces into a coherent whole. For whatever coherence is present, this is still a deeply adventurous, genreless, psych-damaged, electronics-rich album with enough twists and left turns to hogtie any attempts to pigeonhole it. My favorite songs, "Drummy" and "World i," are lush, heavy meditations on a single theme, driven forward by Gallego's nimble drum patterns and padded with enough synths to glide smoother than a limousine, even where blasts of white noise and black metal vocals come in. Then there's "Liv," in which Happy Songs For Happy People-era Mogwai splits open to reveal a warped vision of '00s dance-punk, or "Junk Corrido," where what sounds like a Goblin track falls off a cliff into eerie ambience, complete with thin, shallow woodwind exhalations. The album can feel just as impenetrable as it is approachable, but all the pieces fit, even where they normally wouldn't, a credit to the production of Gallego and Seth Manchester. Whether you're interested in pulling the million audio-instrumental threads stuffed into Grim Iconic (Sadistic Mantra) or you, like me, just want to listen to "Party People (Heaven)" at maximum volume and never leave its luscious confines, it's one of the year's must-hear records, and one that's scarcely left my listening rotation for months.

Jim Marlowe, Mirror Green Rotor in Profile CS (Medium Sound) From way back in January, a second solo cassette release from Louisville's most active musician, he of Sapat, Equipment Pointed Ankh, Tropical Trash, and now a member of Ryan Davis' Roadhouse Band. Where Time Out on the Miracle Index (Haha Tapes, 2022) veered more toward drone and ambient, Mirror Green Rotor in Profile triangulates on the surface somewhere between Vince Guaraldi, ZNR when they let their guard down, and the oft-orchestra'd crescendos of 00's indie. The latter is woven into a decidedly psychedelic tapestry, stripped of its sometimes embarrassing vocals and melodrama, revealing the many moving parts and layers intertwined and churning beneath. Hooks seem to fall right out of Marlowe's brain and hands, augmented by tumbling drums and hammered piano and a litany of other instruments I'm doomed to misidentify. The tracks that jump out on early listens, like "Imaginate Me" and "64 Deluxe: Plank Ring," are inventive and cartoonish like the cover art, both music and art reminiscent of animation for children from the '60s and '70s. The more pensive moments ("Bud Morton's All Gone," "Pink Rotor Mist") feel no less bright and vivid, the rich, warm percussion-heavy sound stringing together the short vignettes. The noted lack of cynicism, dropped in favor of a bright, punchy sound, shows where Marlowe contributes to Equipment Pointed Ankh, and anyone who liked either or both of their albums last year ought to be right at home on MIrror Green Rotor in Profile. The rest'll find something to hang their hat on across the albums 30 minutes, as these quick, unassumingly busy tracks reward both cursory and repeat listens. My favorite cassette of the year so far.

Mordecai, Seeds From the Furthest Vine LP (Petty Bunco) Sixth LP from America's finest purveyors of lo-fi scuzzy jangly rock, and if you thought they'd clean up with age, breathe a sigh of relief. The band has regrouped to deliver their best and most enjoyable LP yet, even with its members now spread out worldwide, far from their Montana roots. Seeds From the Furthest Vine eschews any crisp production techniques, arriving instead chock full of vocals that sound as if they were recorded through an oscillating fan, cardboard box drums, and guitar solos that wriggle violently like eels out of the players' grasp. While sonic similarities to their forebears can be spotted - Rep/Shepard/Jay, early Pavement, and a splash of the Galbraith/Russell corner of the NZ underground - there simply aren't many groups left that sound like Mordecai, let alone deliver on the promise of that suite of influences. Peep how the soft jangle of "Oval Door" collides with the sharp, clattering noise of "Meat on a Stick," or how the piercing woodwind of "Seeds From the Furthest Vine Pt. II" presages the Fall-indebted blare of "Never Get Ahead." Then there's the audacious seven minutes of garbage heap clang and manic vocals on "Down In an Alley," delivered over a warm harmonium and serving as the speaker-crackling comedown on a rather brilliant album. While it can sound like the group records spontaneously, using whatever means at hand when the situation demands it, the fact that the whole record flows effortlessly belies a logic behind the album's construction. The fragments of lyrics I can make out indicate a thoughtful, poignant core, roughed up and resilient, though more often they're buried and indecipherable ("When You Know Them As"). Vocals are an instrument, too, so whether you're comfortable with that fact or not, Seeds From the Furthest Vine's a winner, capable of floating on the fringes of your consciousness as much as it is enveloping it like a rough wool blanket.

Negative Gears, Moraliser LP (Static Shock) Second record from Sydney's Negative Gears, arriving after five long years, and it couldn't be more suited to the moment. The band sits within the dark grooves laid down by Crisis, Siekiera (both mentioned by the label) or Juju, fleshing that framework out with multiple guitars, keyboards and vocals dripping with contempt. They frame the moment through a psychological lens, lending fresh eyes to all the seemingly unsolvable problems everyone acknowledges: crushing workloads, social media-begotten loneliness, and keeping up appearances that everything's fine through it all. While their sound is certainly of a contemporary Australian lineage (equal parts Total Control, Constant Mongrel and Low Life), they keep it fresh and stand out on their own by bringing wild energy to the topics at hand, eyes bulging through the swelling, driving noise on "Room With a Mirror" and "Lifestyle Damages." Moraliser's catchy as hell in spite of its lyrical evisceration of society, late-stage capitalism and themselves, which they cover right off with "Negative Gear." Despite the dour topics tackled, there's an undeniable itchiness and movement about these songs; you could probably dance to "Ants" or "Connect," and I imagine they'll be crowd favorites in no time, tightly wound construction leading to anthemic release. Even though the music might lend itself to movement, there are long, moody tails at the end of each side to drive home the real state of things, conjuring visions of empty city streets, drizzle, wet trash rolling around, the unavoidable mess humans leave when they're gone. The earth will be fine even if we won't, and it's hard not to have some optimism about younger generations' action and impact, but on days when it feels like all's lost, Moraliser is the album to lean on.

Vampire, What Seems Forever Can Be Broken LP (Televised Suicide) It's been a bumper crop year for bands on the Amebix-Rudimentary Peni sound axis, and amongst the bunch that I've heard, Vampire's What Seems Forever Can Be Broken stands tall as my favorite. Any fan of Death Church is gonna find a lot to like here: tom drums pound, the bass threads vicious lines around each hit, and the guitar’s a distorted buzz saw. Where Vampire really distinguish themselves is their vocals, placed right up front and enunciated clearly despite the rage and bile bubbling underneath. Sounds like each of the three members takes turns, but the feral gnashing and their more melodic foil are the two vocalists that make the most appearances. The best vocal performance has to be the opening verse on "Endless Chain," where it sounds like the one vocalist is chewing off and spitting out each syllable, blood dripping from the corners of their mouth. "The Letter" is another standout, a disarming takedown of shamers and abusers set to an absolutely bulldozing riff. The band keeps things trim, with most songs snuffed out after two minutes, and that extends to the lyrics, too: “We’re looking for a future/there’s nothing to hold” hits the nail. There's a respect for their anarcho forebears, but Vampire veers slightly more toward hardcore, except with audio so crisp you can feel the sweat and spit coming out of the speakers. The production allows tracks like "Human Market Capital" to hit that much harder, all tightly wound tension and release squeezed inside 90 seconds. Gotten a ton of mileage out of What Seems Forever Can Be Broken, as much of an adrenaline boost and it is an unfortunate reflection of our current moment. Apropos now, and probably forever.

Weak Signal, Fine LP (12XU) If there is one band you should hear this year, it's Weak Signal, the quietly prolific trio from NYC. Fine already feels like a future classic, the kind of record that I listen to multiple times a day and still find more time to listen to again. The trio is brutally efficient: drums hammer rudimentary patterns, locked down by the bass, and the guitar chugs along with crunchy, muted notes and chords until a solo breaks free. The band's lyrics and Bones' straight, baritone delivery cut to the quick with the bite of Denis Johnson, unpretentious sentiments that are washed and tumbled from half-a-lifetime of experience, as cynical and biting as they are heartbreaking in their economy. They can cut both ways at once, like "I only love my friends/that's why I leave them be" from "Baby," or the chorus to "Wannabe," where Bones manages to sound both at peace and deflated. They even reach for a bit of unapologetic hedonism on "Rich Junkie" and all without a whiff of condescension, a fleeting thought given space and squashed in the span of two minutes. The lyrical efforts would all be for naught if the music wasn't up to snuff, but the band has doubled down on their streamlined grunge sound, excess grime wiped clean and even given a bit of polish with acoustic guitar and mellotron accents. There are blasts of noise that open up each side of the record, rock star moves from a group that deserves to make 'em, but they're tamped down in favor of choruses and guitar lines that both stick in your craw. The combination of the music and lyrics connects in such a primal, satisfactory way that it's almost beyond words, but when the solo on "Disappearing" hits, or "A Little Hum" leaves you with a lump in your throat, you just know this is it. Feels like a big moment for a band that deserves a bit of recognition - a fact wryly acknowledged by Bones a few times on the album - and here's hoping Fine is the album that does it.

[frodo-with-glasses]

✨ Happy Birthday Frodo-with-Glasses! ✨

He’s gonna kill him.

One year ago today, on December 7th, 2021, I posted the Frodo-With-Glasses timeline as the official first post of this blog. The blog turns one today! Were it a baby, it would probably be toddling around on its little feet by now, and it would no longer conveniently stay in the same spot you left it.

Y’know how youtubers do that thing where they say “thank you guys so much, I never thought we’d get here”, and all that sentimental nonsense and nobody buys it?? Well, that, but sincerely. When I started out this blog, I expected very, very little to come out of it. I was just re-reading LotR for myself, and live-blogging my reactions and doodles for fun. I never expected my audience to be anything more than just my friends, and maybe a dozen random strangers who found me through them.

Well, one year, 950 posts, a few viral hits, and over 800 followers later, here we are! I don’t think I can overstate how wild it is that this blog grew so quickly in the span of just a year. It’s a marvelous testament to the power of Lord of the Rings—and the love it’s created in this fanbase—that some random moron from Nowheresville, USA can just pop on the internet and start talking about LotR and people will flock to it.

Lord of the Rings has given me hope and courage in what would otherwise be a difficult part of my life. It’s given me the much-needed nudge to venture outside my comfort zone with my art, and because of that, I’ve acquired new skills and improved in leaps and bounds since this time last year. I’ve made new friends, tried new things, and learned so much about art and this book and myself thanks to this blog, and people like you.

Thank you. I mean that sincerely. Though I know more than half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve, you guys are what made this blog what it is. Would I still be posting doodles if you weren’t around? Absolutely! But it’s more fun with you here. So, thank you. ^-^

So what happens next? Well, I still have about half of Return of the King left to go, and a few epilogue-ish comics that I want to draw. After that, I plan to go back through LotR again, reblogging old art that still holds up, redrawing old art that doesn’t, and even drawing new things for parts I neglected (like the Mines of Moria)! I’m hoping to get a shop set up sometime next year so that those of you who wish to own some of my art can do so. And when those projects are completed to my satisfaction, you can expect to see the patented Lady Glasses treatment given to a read-through of The Hobbit, called Bilbo-With-Glasses!

Until then, here’s to you, and here’s to one year of Frodo-With-Glasses, and hopefully many more!

[abookishidentity]

A realization

Sometimes you realize: "Huh, people are into this specific thing but in a totally different way than you are."

Weird admission but whatever: I spent quite some time just looking and scrolling through many many sfw tickle blogs run by people over 18.

Here is where I learned a few things:

1.) I had no idea the terms "lee" "ler" and "switch" existed. It's a wonder that I didn't know the terms before as I have been into tickling for as long as I can remember. I am not any of them. And that's ok. I have no desire to touch people or for people to touch me.

2.) People do a lot of pining for people to tickle them or to tickle others. That's not me either and that's perfectly fine.

3. Tickle headcannons are a thing. I would have never thought about it that way. Sometimes I have thought "Oh this character is ticklish. How fun"

4. There are some very niche tickle blogs out there. That's all I'm going to say about that.

5.) I see a lot of similar fandoms pop up in art and fan fiction. Here are the ones I remember the most.

a. Marvel - mostly spider-man which I get. A lot of material sprung out from the Across the Spider Verse movie. Good stuff.

b. My Hero Academia - I have only seen a season and a half of the show. So I don't know all the characters. I honestly think this is the fandom with the most tickle content in it that I have seen aside from Spider-Man.

c. Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss.

d. Five Night's at Freddy's -Seen a lot of the Moon and Sun and Eclipse characters. As far as I know I haven't seen the other characters as much.

e. The Amazing Digital Circus- The Rabbit thing seems to get it the most.

f. South Park- This surprised me.

g. Welcome Home- I had to look this one up as I had no idea what it was.

h. Sander Side's - I had no idea people were still into this.

i. Genshin Impact - up until recently I didn't know this game had a story.

j. Super Mario Bros - Another unexpected one but man the art is so good.

k. Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild

l. Lego Ninjago- I do admit that I did think about watching this.

m. Team Fortress 2

n. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- I have only watched 2 seasons of the 2012 series but I get it. They are brothers and they love each other. Its sweet. Seen enough art to make me think I should watch Rise.

o. Avatar: The Last Airbender - Zuko seems to be the target from what I have seen. He does need fun in his life.

Man, there is some cool ass art out there.

[sundial-girl]

Hi! Would you like to explain how my portrayal of vsynths contrasts with Heron? I personally can’t figure out what makes it so interesting, since when I make Heron interact with other vsynths I rarely have a good idea of how they’ll work in mind, and just wing it.

hihi! i'd been meaning to get to this, so sure thing! for now i'll only focus on a few main ones that came to mind (i don't have a lot of brainpower atm 😔✌️) but i hope this is alright

mild disclaimer that some of this is based off information in older posts so i am aware that those prior details contained in them may no longer be canon. also again this just how i thought of/interpreted certain things, i'm obv not the og creator (you) so ultimately feel free to take this w/ a grain of salt since this might've not been the og intention.

also this is all under this cut here b/c it ended up being rly fckin long, sorry in advance if my explanations aren't very good 😭

so lets start w/ fukase; some of his character traits in your portrayal of him do seem to line up with some popular interpretations of him: silly guy/wisecracker who makes a lot of jokes, sometimes at the expense of others. also a he's a bit overdramatic ahdksjg. despite his sorta skewed goals, though, and behind that sassy attitude, he does really seem to care about people important to him. they're both very expressive characters (well in general everyone is depicted as very expressive in your art but thats an aside) but i think the way that is conveyed makes for an interesting contrast. fukase seems to show a lot more of his personality through his speech, while heron's personality is shown more through some of his actions. that's not to say heron is completely silent, but he does seem to save his words for more important occasions (or if he just really really feels like speaking his mind); whether that's because he's still a bit shy and/or just a quiet person in general, i'm not sure, but a lot more things with him seem to be conveyed through thoughts or external third-person commentary rather than him outright saying it. its definitely the opposite of fukase, who seems way more chatty and social. visually too there's a pretty neat contrast between them: aside from the height difference that sets them apart, both have limited color palettes that combine some neutral colors (fukase's off-white, black, and brown, heron's greys, muted teal, and tans) with a brighter color to pop out (fukase's bright red, heron's aqua seen on his collar + headphones).

flower and heron's relationship has previously been described as somewhat sibling-like, and it does definitely come off that way: there might be disagreements and rivalry but there's some calm nice/silly moments and genuine care & concern. they share a lot of similarities, but one could note how their relationship parallels that of heron & makarov's - flower occasionally takes on the more cheery and bubbly role in comparison to heron sometimes being the more serious and quiet one, which is seen reversed with the brothers. in spite of quarreling over small, petty little things sometimes, heron and flower seem to make up much easier and not hold any long-lasting resentment towards each other. i ofc know the heron & makarov situation is more complicated and it would make sense for it to be more strained given all that's happened, even in spite of heron forgiving his brother. but i do also wonder if it's been difficult for flower to try and calm heron down on certain occasions, seeing how he's also prone to spirals of his own thoughts that are hard to pull him out of, in a way very similar to his own brother. something sorta ironic there maybe

piko's interesting, pretty much the wild card here. his characterization does seem to vary quite a bit: he can be very playful and cutesy but also kind of a downer, as well as an angry little guy and a bit more ominous/spooky at times. there was a noteworthy point mentioned in this post though regarding how piko sees heron: heron reminds him of his younger self and wants to spare him of the pain that comes with getting your naive dreams of fame and popularity crushed. they're both very similar to each other, from the moodiness to being drawn—sometimes together—in a lot of pieces w/ similar subject matter (both have a fair share of lighthearted doodles as well as darker ones, more so in specific comparison with other characters), and taking the previously mentioned piko thoughts on heron, makes things a little bit sadder... maybe piko's current passive-aggressive and somewhat angry attitude is a mask he's developed over the years to protect himself from getting hurt more, though you can get to his nicer side if he trusts you enough. heron sometimes seems like a slight, cruel opposite of this: being nice and trusting others a bit too easily, but then breaking down emotionally in realizing his choices and impulsive actions, which might scare some people away. i want them to be happy kajhskj but i do wonder if, in spite of how much heron might look up to him, piko really feels the same way. i'm sure he does care about him, but... feelings is complicated. also i wasn't gonna touch on too much of this since i'm aware its not canon, but there's also the whole tall piko thing and how that version of piko specifically interacts with heron. that relationship in particular seems to represent an idealization: some sort of true happiness that'll come once there's an acceptance of the self, and a real willingness to accept help and be vulnerable to allow oneself to be healed... but again that's not canon and might not ever happen so, rip

and of course... there's len. i touched upon this in that original headcanon post but i did still wanna bring it up a little here. something i thought was interesting in looking back at a lot of your art was that most times, len is depicted in group settings; he's rarely seen alone and almost always interacting with someone else in some way. and generally he seems quite concerned, even more so in his interactions w/ heron. aside from the obvious fear of getting mauled to death probably lmao, he also seems to genuinely care about heron and worries about him. i think its worth noting that len is the first person heron sees after "waking up" here, and how he's the only one actually putting a hand on heron there in second-to-last panel. but again, even if len does have good intentions it is clear heron doesn't seem to be on the best terms with him. this piece has always been particularly intriguing to me, pairing what we see happening with the title. makes me think heron's blaming len for what happened to him, that it's len's fault somehow he ended up like this. a big thing also that's part of the len getting mauled thing is... len getting dismembered and eaten. i'm not gonna say too too much b/c i'm sure nobody wants to hear my cannibalism rambling but symbolically... "you are what you eat" yk? as mentioned with piko, heron seems to look up to a lot of the well-known vsynths and wants to achieve a status like them. and ofc len's arguably one of the most popular vocaloids with lot of fame and recognition. heron's design itself is said to take some inspo from len's outfit, and in general (like i mentioned in the original hc post), just wanting to be so much like someone, wanting what they have but not getting it, that might understandably drive someone to rage, and the mauling/dismembering/eating is the violent culmination of those feelings of envy. one last bonus point in terms of visuals too: yellow is the complimentary color to blue (ok ik heron's blues lean more towards blue-grey or aqua but shhhh), the literal opposite of it on the color wheel.

overall i feel heron honestly fits right in with the memesquad; everyone's personalities sort of compliment and mesh well with each other, which creates a fun dynamic that's really sweet to see. i think its really cool how you managed to make him fit in so well and how a lot of his interactions with the others make a lot of sense and are interesting to see, in happy moments as well as more serious/sad ones. sometimes i do really forget he's not a vsynth [yet?] so its surreal. ur doing a really good job tho, keep heronposting we love to see it

[rwqv]

whoops i accidentally unfollowed when i was trying 2 send u another ask ... am not a fake fan pls

no bro i totally get what u mean like the culling games absolutely threw me off... like season one was all happy n dandy and yuji was figuring out his powers yes!!!! and then ooo a flashback to gojos past thats super slice of life-y how cool! and omggg shibuya incident this is where soo much action is happening and kenjaku might win!!! and then kenjaku is setting up a killing game with a points system ? like where r we going with this

like yes action wow but like at the same time i just want the story to progress... like its all battle battle battle battle with soo many characters like give me sum story ...

i think the zenins getting destroyed was cool asf and i cannot lie naoya is kinda hot SORREY ..... like hes a terrible awful person and hes ugly when his mouth is open but like he looks hot when his mouths closed i cant help it..

remi is only in like 10 panels at max LOL so u shouldn't have any trouble.... but she'll be the one to defeat sukuna trust me

NO LIKE LITERALYL RENDERING IS SOOOSO BORINGGGG .... honk shooo snooze fest ... like the idea of it is so cool and when i actually do render like it makes me feel so happy that it looks so much better compared to the sketch ... but at the same time like i just get so bored nd unhappy after a little ... BUT THANK UUU .... im ngl i lay a bunch of random colors down n pray for the best .. i took a couple advanced art classes in my days that taught me like the slightest bit of color theory but really angel ganev on yt is my goat like i literally have learned sm from him just from his youtube shorts LOLLLL hes the best ...

but like yeah .. i alwayz render over the sketch which sometimes looks cool and it looks cool on all my inspo but oh my goodness it takes so so long to do ... lowk i might go back to lineart even tho i HATE lineart

YES NOBAMAKI NATION!!! SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fakest fan ever!!!! ggggrrr

yuji learning his power was so wholesome and even the kyoto exchange was good and gojo lore was also great and i liked the shibuya incident although i just wanted mahito to die. but whats the poitn of the culling game bro its not jeopardy... also i keep thinking whenebr they say noritoshi kamo as kenjaku i keep thinking its the third year or whatever

i think the complexity of jjk comes from the deep level of thought gege put into it. i was watching some explinations on tiktok and i felt like gege definitely has the brain to do stuff its just why did you do the culling games make more story pls

thats just personal feeling though i love seeing all the fight scenes and stuff but it feels kinda baseless like yeah all these randos popping out of nowhere for like 0 reason at all definitely have a meaning. all these good character ideas too

i do understand that everyone was saying jjk was dragging on for too long but 5 chapters is not enough to finish everything off either!!! what about the merger? what about like other people? are we ever gonna get a reason why sukuna goes on a killing rampage?? is he evil to just be evil?? i mean i get the fact that everyone hated him and he was based off of someone who was despised at birth for his extra limbs but... just blood lust?!

if gege did a spinoff series where everything was slice of life and fun id watch it... lobotomy kaisen is carrying me rn

LIKE MAKI YES GOO i support also WHAT... that man would want you in shackles bro he does not think of women kindly... naoya is a wild crush

esp with that popularity poll and HE COMES OUT NUMBER 5. NUMBER 5 OUT OF EVERYONE. HOOWWWW. over sukuna my bbg... and mechamaru...

I GET IT WITH GETTING BORED like okay heres another color that no one else will notice but ill spend 10 minutes undoing and redoing because it doesnt look right!!! i will be sure to chec angel ganev out!!!

i hate lineart tbh i just use my sketch as my lineart and call it good because if i line it it looks like i traced my own art bro its crazy but ur rendering over ur sketch looks so goated ngl but u do whats best for u because art is about being happy and cool!!!! and expression (even if its sugar baby gojo)

NOBAMAKI WAS SO CUTE IN THE SHOW IT MADE ME SO HAPPY they are so cute together i fw them heavy

i miss happy jjk

[dustdeepsea]

Tagged by @littleplasticrat (thank you!) -- this made me think about the fan work that's stayed with me throughout the years. Some of the stuff I tried to unearth is simply lost to the internet wilds and time, but here are the ones I managed to find.

Final Fantasy 8 stories by Bishounenink (Tenshi and llamajoy) Squall/Seifer; Squall/Zell; Seifer/Fuujin

"I walk in possibility, along the edge of coming night as if along a polished steel-fine blade. I hear you speak my name in the hushed resounding whisper of a thousand beating wings, and my world darkens around you-- stronger still than pain, or fear."

I mean, literally all of them, printed off in computer lab classes and read during lunch break. I also learnt what a sestina was from Sorceress Dreams and after that, I was insufferable in literature class for the rest of the year.

Go Not Gently by Guardian1 (Tami) Final Fantasy 9

"For my birthday, when I was ten, Papa gave me hair ribbons and chocolate and a new set of spanners and the chance to pilot an airship without Erin at the co-pilot's wheel. For Vivi's birthday, when he was twelve, he got a houseful of dead children and left us a very gentle little note and went off and Stopped."

This story. My god. It altered me in fundamental ways. There are lines from this story that sometimes still pop into my head while writing. I named an entire work based off a chapter title from it.

This is also the first time I drew fanart for fic! I didn't realise how huge it was at the time but last year I discovered it has its own TV Tropes page. 

P/s: The artwork of Eiko on TV Tropes was actually drawn by teenage me :) I've lost the original file and closed the DeviantArt account, but it's very nostalgic to see it still floating on the internet.

The Least of All Possible Mistakes by @rageprufrock BBC's Sherlock Mycroft/Lestrade

"The first time George meets Mycroft Holmes, she tases him."

The pairing might sound crazy, but this is actually the best written slowburn love story I've ever read.

I read it when I was on the cusp of my first adult relationship (where you seriously discuss the mundane things like bills, rent and moving to be with each other) and it felt completely different from anything that I'd read before that. It's also a heartfelt love letter to London, a city I was enamoured of for a long time.

Give it a shot. I re-read every couple of years and have a big, old cathartic cry.

Exile's Rose by prodigy Fallen London Reader/Once-Dashing Smuggler

"The man was distractible. Attracted to you, certainly, you were confident of that--though it factored less into his negotiations than you would have liked. And attractive, too. But also just distractible. Even as you presented another promising offer for his grave-gold like a debutante at a ball, he had his chin in his hand and was looking off to the side, out of the window of his London parlour.

And he had the most damnable green eyes. These were your very first impressions of him. When you were strangers."

Fallen London is an entire game world crafted with only a few pictures and mostly words. I fell for the Smuggler based on just a few lines of text. To this day, I wonder how myrrh-scented roses would look and smell like. 

This is an interactive fiction game. There is no win condition, only a gently unfolding mystery and recollection of a romance.

Bonus round; just trust me on this

howling dogs by Porpentine Charity Heartscape

"Every day you think of ways this photo could have been improved: better lighting, better surroundings, closer to see the subtleties in her expression, further back to see her form and better imagine embracing her…"

This isn't a fanfic and I hope they won't be annoyed with me if they see this, but I'm adding it to the list because it's a work of art, offered up for free. I love interactive fiction and you should definitely play/read it.

This story has been living rent free in my head for years. It lives in the marrow of my bones. The ending still gives me shivers each time I replay it. One day, perhaps, I'll write as economically and elegantly as Porpentine.

Occasionally, I'll remember I've read masterpieces written by fanfic authors that I will forever carry with me and that have shaped me into the writer I am today.

Not enough love is given to fanfic writers.

We do it all for free, and we get to touch so many hearts and make someone's day better with words.

So when people complain when we ask for engagement and feedback, try to remember that the written word carries a power that is seldom matched.

Ask yourself why you're reading fanfiction in the first place.

To feel.

To love a character through the words of someone else who is able to bring them to life in a way that allows them to take root in your heart and feel an immense sense of gratification and passion.

They live through you because someone out there decided to sit down, click their pen and put into words how much that character means to them.

And they will mean so much more to you because of that.

And that is fucking powerful and priceless.

[independentartistbuzz]

7 FROM THE WOMEN: SHELLY RUDOLPH

We are delighted to welcome Shelly Rudolph, Portland Oregon based singer-songwriter who recently released her new single "I Love LOVE", featuring Charlie Hunter.

This song is a standout example of how the intricacy of jazz, the sophistication of soul, the infectious groove of funk, and the emotive depth of blues can be transformed into a mesmerizing, seductive package.

With a music career of more than twenty years, Shelly has masterfully blended jazz, soul, blues, R&B, reggae, and pop to create a unique and captivating sound. Based in Portland, Oregon, she has become a local favorite, known for her soulful vocals and dynamic performances.

Her latest album, “The Way We Love,” showcases a bold departure from traditional jazz, featuring a drum-less, chamber jazz style in collaboration with cellist David Darling. Shelly has graced the stage alongside notable artists like Tom Grant and Phil Baker of Pink Martini, earning praise for her genre-blending music and poetic lyrics.

Internationally, her music can be heard on platforms such as Spotify and Pandora, as well as jazz radio stations across Europe, Japan, Indonesia, and the Middle East. On the local front, Shelly is deeply involved in community projects and has been recognized with awards like the RACC Professional Development Grant and a selection for Mayor Adams’ Listen Local program.

We connected with Shelly for an Exclusive 7 From The Women Interview:

What Have You Been Working To Promote Lately?

My newest release is called "I Love LOVE" featuring Charlie Hunter. I think of it as my sassy, soulful anthem of Universal Love.

The words may be sweet and powerful, but the message is an urgent call to celebrate and share love - in any and every flavor - all ways, always.

Please tell us about your favorite song written, recorded or produced by another woman and why it’s meaningful to you.

I don't have a favourite song, but everything that Afro-Peruvian singer songwriter icon Susanna Baca is filled with meaning for me.

She epitomizes and embodies the soulful, spiritual, sensual, truthful, universal power of womanhood to me. She is magic.

What does it mean to you to be a woman making music/in the music business today and do you feel a responsibility to other women to create messages and themes in your music? 

As the world becomes increasingly untethered and chaotic and as the old guard male archetype fights to keep its power, and squash women's rights, I feel compelled to create and lift up my voice authentically and powerfully.  I

wrote a song called "Wild Bird" which yet to be officially released but here a live performance with the wonderful A-WOL Dance Collective: 

"Wild Bird" seeks to express the richly nuanced, multi-faceted mystery and glory of being female. 

As a tender-hearted poet and a soft-spoken lady, I sometimes feel that my way of being, my art, is too gentle to "make a difference" but then my inner-knowing reminds me: dismissing my true voice as not being "enough" is to judge myself through a traditional masculine lens of black and white might. 

So I continue to whisper and roar, giggle and guide, wildbird-soar and LOVE with all of my might. 

What female artists have inspired you and influenced you?

My first (musical) loves were Billie Holiday, Aretha and Nina Simone.

Then I discovered Ms Baca. More recently I’ve become a huge fan of Lianne LeHavas. 

What was the most challenging thing you have had to face as a female artist?

It had definitely been a challenge for me to take up space and stand in my own authority as an original artist in this male-dominated world.

I find myself automatically deferring to musicians who have more official education and training… feeling that they know better, know how to do it “correctly.” Which is so absurd as these are my songs and I’m the only one who knows what I hear and how they go. I’ve made great strides in standing by my vision - while still being open to suggestions and collaboration- but I still have to remind myself to stay vigilant and true to my inspiration. 

If you could collaborate with any other female artists, who would you choose?

Susana Baca! I would love to record Wild Bird with her, in Spanish and English. 

What do you hope to share with other women in the industry with your music?

I’d love to share and inspire authenticity and the great joy of being female - in all of it’s mysterious deep glory. 

Finally – Where can we find you online?

Connect with Shelly Rudolph:

Website // Instagram // Spotify // YouTube

[enn0s]

Hey theree,

a wild one has appeared again D. 🦝__ 💨

Life slows down for no one sadly but sometimes a busy life is a good distraction. Hopefully it’s not bringing you any unnecessary stress. Ahhhh that’s always nice to hear. I actually was going through your art tag a couple weeks back and realized you were one of my favorite artist when I was using the app more. Glad to still know your phalanges and artistic drive is going strong. I draw but I wouldn’t consider myself an “artist” artist. I’ve been having art block on and off for years, but I will admit I have been picking up the pencil and paper here and there, but I’m not satisfied still with how often I do it.

Do you have any goals when it comes to your creative path? Like maybe one day make it a career or is it just a hobby for right now?

Ooooh~ yes, especially! On the No Mercy EP. I have to say all those songs are favorites. But First sensibility, also got a good amount of favorites 1004 definitely, Check On and Shady lady lady lady~. I looove their rnb vibe too and I don’t like a lot of K-pop music with rnb influence. It’s just the ear feel isn’t always the same lol idk maybe it just me.

Omg…speaking of I officially have a group an actually like to the point I’m watching their videos and actually being invested. I haven’t been like this since B.A.P really honestly haaa. I will say I’m felling cringe about it…but I know I shouldn’t :,^]. But euuuu liking someone to this extent? Brother euuuu. But it is what it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

They’re called EVNNE and I’m going to see them in August. If you’ve heard of them do you have members you like or songs? I wonder if we’d like the same peeps, if one of them starts with a H…we may scrapp 👊��

Nahh I’m playinng around lol they deserve all the love and just shows you have good taste to me.

Ahhhh that sounds like fun. I enjoyed the BYG concert, but I feel like the fans weren’t that hype for me but still! Great vibes all the way. Well lol I’m going to another one so thank you for wishing it into existence 🙇‍♀️

And don’t worry about pronouns I’m not a stickler about it but quite nice of you to ask. But to the MBLAQ throwbacks. OH YEEEAH OH YEEEAH OH YEEEAH YEAH YEAH! Vibe and continue getting that dopamine.

Until next time… D. RACC OUT! 🚪🦝 _💨💨

P.S.

I always enjoy these convos as well, especially, it’s kind of not related, when I find people who watch or watched early 2000s - 2010s anime’s. The Nostalgia is always nice. And to share it with someone? Double win.

Reminds me when I wore my Powerline Concert Tee from The Goofy Movie. And the store clerk started singing Eye to Eye. But lol fr this time, I wish you well until the next we speak again.

Oh! And also if you had to choose an animal what would you identify with?

Toodles and 🍜✨~

hello friend i was just thinking about you the other day! hoping you were doing well on your side of the world lol.

thats an incredible compliment for me to hear about my older art, i appreciate you so much 🤧 in my mind, if u try to make art then you're an artist lol im proud of you for picking up the pencil again! its hard to start up again after a long time, your hand doesnt move quite the way it used to and you gotta get used to your speed and your style again like meeting an old friend after a long long time...awkward at first but then you fall right back into it and its different but still good. i definitely had a dip in creative drive for a solid...5 years? idk it comes and goes and i've learned to just let it. no shame in a rest period!

I actually went to school originally to pursue art and design but i discovered very early on that i dont respond well to being told what to create so an art-focused job was just never gonna be something i was going to succeed in without burning out completely.

These days i just have my tiny 10 dollar sketchbook and i've been pulling out the colored pencils and crayons and glue and scrap paper and just. having fun... and it's really kickstarted that urge to create bigger, more polished pieces again. i think my goal is just to keep that love close to me and not lose it again in the hustle and bustle of being alive.

i gave evnne a listen and i like the sound of the ride or die EP! even the b-sides are solid, theyve got great voices, they got a little sauce right out the gate and i see a lot of potential for them! im a long haul kind of person for bands so ill keep checking in on them for sure, they got good things comin for them. They look soooo young to me lmao i just wanna get those kids some sandwiches and a nap 🥲 you can tell theyre working their asses off.

I wonder if you had to make a list, what your top 10 songs (doesnt have to be kpop) would be~ im always looking for new music and i love hearing the songs people love and why they hit the way they do.

Bro powerline tho!!!! what a fucking legend!!! a goofy movie and shrek are unironically masterclasses of cinema to me lol, i had goofy movie on VHS and id play that thing to death, its just so good and eye to eye is a banger. Taste.

Wishing you peaceful nights and delicious foods till the next time we talk friend!

[televinita]

Reading Triage (??)

I'm in a whirly-twirly-IDK-what-to-read mood and am throwing out TBR plans practically on the daily, so what if I simply made an enormous post full of titles that caught my eye in the last week and which I may or may not read soon.

1. Lock Every Door and/or The House Across the Lake - Riley Sager: I loved Home Before Dark (my thoughts are still percolating; I haven't forgotten your note, @kateschechterxthorwasmyfirstotp!), and I think that one will stay my fave, but these two look almost as appealing.

2. A Paris Apartment - Michelle Gable: because I keep thinking that Lucy Foley's mystery-thriller with almost the same title is based on that iconic real-life news story about the apartment that was left untouched since WWII full of beautiful art and heirlooms, and it's not, but this one is.

(it's not the only one either, but it's the one that got to me first and/or looks best. whether it actually is the best...hm, don't love this MC having a cheating husband whom she retaliates against by also cheating. why can she not be 34 and single instead)

3. The Paris Apartment - Kelly Bowen: this one is also about that! it looks like it is probably better but also. I am just So Tired of dual-timeline WWII novels in Europe.

4. The Apartment - S.L. Grey: I don't know a damn thing about this one or the author. It popped up when I searched Foley's book in the library catalog, because this apartment is also in Paris, but this one appears to be a horror/thriller and I immediately said "hell yeah place request." (update: I peeked at Goodreads. Ratings appear Bad. So...we'll see.)

5. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt: idk what randomly put this book back into my brain, but it's one I remember seeing everywhere in used books for a while, and might even actually remember seeing in the 90s/early 2000s due to its iconic cover. I always dismissed it because "eh, adult book," but today I realized, oh yeah, I like adult books now sometimes, so I read the synopsis and it sounded pretty intriguing actually, and then I learned for the very first time it's actually nonfiction and not a novel?? So...maybe. Seems a good October read.

6?. The Work of Art - Mimi Matthews: I started the ebook assuming I could get the paperback from the library the next day, since it was checked in and reading on a screen sucks, but IT WASN'T ON THE SHELF WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. I placed a request to make them find it, and yet its status remains unchanged since 9/24, which I can only conclude means they have well and truly misplaced their only physical copy. >:( So fingers crossed they find it, because I simply will not make further progress on a computer screen with a book of this length.

7. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett: I keep forgetting about this and then being randomly reminded about it in BookTube videos. I tend to like this style of book (very A Natural History of Dragons), and it's one of the few ways a book with a faerie element can appeal to me.

8. The Echo of Old Books - Barbara Davis: Beautiful cover, antiquarian bookseller, sold.

All right, I think that's everything I've just collected or am in the process of calling in from the library...

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

24-HOURS-LATER UPDATE: would you believe that only books #2-4 are available to me right now? "Parisian apartments or NOTHING for you, Televinita," says the library, as all the other books are checked out right now (or lost), except #5, whose dense text and snoreful writing style immediately put me to sleep so that's gonna be a no. And I've already read the last book (about Tara) from yesterday's library triage post. I guess I still have Good As Gold... and the hundreds of unread books I own?? nah

48-HOURS-LATER UPDATE: that said... Lock Every Door is now on its way in, as are two books I put on hold ages ago and also two books I just found out about and immediately decided to read.