#listen I just create monster playlists of whatever mood I’m in

[independent-fics]

Whoop I was tagged by @werewolfsmile and @ghostlyarchaeologist to hit shuffle on my music and list the first ten songs! Thank you!

Spotless (ft. The Lumineers) - Zach Bryan

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Stevie Wonder

Carolina - Taylor Swift

Homesick - Noah Kahn

Valerie (Live, BBC Radio) - Amy Winehouse

Hey Driver (ft. The War and Treaty) - Zach Bryan

How Did It End? - Taylor Swift

7 Years - Lukas Graham

It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me - Billy Joel

Roslyn - St. Vincent and Bon Iver

And tagging as many people as I can!

@cardsagainstthelibrarians @nival-kenival @aardvaark @brierburrbrito @speedycollectorbluebird @123ohwell @hopecomesbacktolife and anyone else who wants to join!

[rebellionbeach]

Thanks for the tag @rockanrolljunkie , very interesting questions!

1. What is the first song you remember hearing?

I don’t have any cool stories but it’s probably one of the numerous children DVDs I’ve watched for like developmental learning my parents used to show me when I was younger.  Disney Learning Adventures or something like that.  

2. What is the first band you got into?

Rick Springfield and I know he isn’t really a band but he was the first artist I really latched onto aside from my mother’s influence.  However, I suppose it was partially her fault since I first saw him live after Night Ranger had opened up for him I think in the summer of 2015.  I didn’t want to stay anymore but then once we were leaving I remember hearing Jessie’s Girl and for the rest of the night I couldn’t stop singing that verse and well, the rest is history.

3. Do you collect music on any physical format?

Haha, yes, I often make many bad financial decisions due to this.  Well, my mother is also a very big collector and lately I’ve been collecting many used CDs that I’m able to find and vinyls from Mercari.  I like both CDs and vinyl but I got to admit vinyl is slightly cooler just because seeing that large disc spinning and hearing that slightly tinged sound knowing that somebody maybe half a century ago was listening to this same disc never fails to shake me.

4. What is your favourite piece of music-related memorabilia/merchandise?

I’ve accumulated a large amount of Burrn magazines from the 80s and 90s but my favorites have got to be the 1985 Ritchie Blackmore one:

I also have a large Nelson poster across my bed which is a great conversation piece:

5. What is your favourite concert you've been to?

I really enjoyed the Rick Springfield concert I went to in the summer of 2019 at a fair.  It was actually accompanied by an orchestra and I remember time going by so fast.  Something funny though is that there was a pretty large seating area and everyone was standing except my small section which for some reason refused to stand.  When I tried to get up I felt the glare of somebody behind me but besides that it was a great concert!

6. If you could see one artist (or band) who is no longer alive in concert, who would it be?

Damn, that’s really hard.  Technically DP and Rainbow are still playing today but I’d absolutely love to see Mark 4 of Rainbow live, I’d do almost anything to go to that Monsters of Rock show in 1980.  Just to see Cozy play with Ritchie, Graham, Don, and Roger, that would be something truly magical.

7. Have you met any musicians?

Mostly through my mom but I’ve met Night Ranger and I remember once even at an airport which was pretty surprising.  I’ve also met Firehouse which is another one of my mother’s favorite bands but they’re all really talented and humble people.  I’ve also met Rick Springfield which was...very nerve-racking for me.  I remember looking forward to that all of 8th grade...ha good times.  My mom actually was on the same plane as Chris Impellitterri but didn’t want to go up to him because she didn’t know him too well.  She also met the Queensryche guys and Daryl Hall so if anything you know, my mom has been places.

8. What is your go-to song/album when feeling sad?

I like listening to happy music when I’m sad actually but often times I find myself listening to After the Rain by Nelson.  This past year when I was in a bad mood or whatever I would put on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea which, I know, is a interesting choice to say the least, it’s really good at either releasing the tension or creating more.

9. What is your go-to song/album when feeling happy?

I mean, Down to Earth and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow come to mind.  I also have been listening to a lot of Come Taste the Band and Private Eyes by Tommy Bolin as well as Because They Can by Nelson.

10. What is one music-related documentary you love?

I’ve watched lots of DP and Rainbow documentaries but I really adore the one aired on BBC and was part of the Rock Family Trees series.  It has lots of great interviews with Jon Lord and David as well as some Cozy segments talking about the Rainbow period.  I cited it a lot while writing my research paper too.

11. What is one concert DVD that you love?

I’m not sure about concert DVDs per-say however my favorite filmed concert would have to be either Deep Purple at California Jam 1974 or Operation Live Crime with the concerts in Madison Wisconsin.  The former because it’s an iconic moment in all of rock and roll history and David and Glenn just kill it and the latter because the band just sounds phenomenal and I wanna know if anybody here in Madison, Wisconsin believes in love?

Well I don’t....

12. Do you prefer listening to playlists or full albums?

Before I listened to playlists but lately I haven’t touched them.  I usually listen to albums, they’re kind of already like playlists except created by the artist lol.  If I don’t like certain parts or are in a hurry then I don’t mind skipping.

13. Do you tend to listen to albums in order or on shuffle?

In order, shuffling can be fun though like one time I shuffled Machine Head to pick my future wedding song and Space Truckin’ came on so I guess that’s going to happen.

14. What is your favourite deep cut song by your favourite artist?

I have several favorite artists but starting with Deep Purple, songs such as Blind, Chasing Shadows, The Gypsy, Love Child, Mad Dog, and all of Who Do We Think We Are besides Woman From Tokyo come to mind.  Then for Rainbow I think Self Portrait, Makin’ Love, and Midtown Tunnel Vision are just phenomenal.  For Nelson I really enjoy Nobody Wins In the End which is the final song on their second album and Written In Rock by Rick Springfield is probably my favorite song from his.

15. What is your favorite CD/vinyl/cassette that you own in terms of packaging?

I really enjoy the No Bad Habits vinyl that I own from Graham Bonnet just because I think the cover is gorgeous and the blue suede suit just fits him perfectly.  It always sits in front of my vinyls lol.

I’d like to tag @whodoesntlikewho , @houseofaffuso , @ritchieblackless ,  @high-way-star , @inthemidnightmeme , and @vibesfromepicforest​ and anyone else who wants to do it!

[dumbfilmschoolkid]

Interview tag!

rules: answer the questions and tag 20 blogs you are contractually obligated to know better!

I was tagged by @deardiary17 ! Thank you so much for this, I llloooved all your DW answers especially!

- nickname: i guess some of my friends (regrettably) call me by my last name, Kapsala

- pronouns: she/her

- star sign: Pisces

- height: 165 cm (5′4 ft)

- time currently: 12:42 am

- when is your birthday: February

- favorite bands/groups: Imagine Dragons, Siames, Fall Out Boy

- favorite solo artists: i really just listen to whatever i like, there is no consistent solo artist in my playlists but i guess i still love Lady Gaga especially? even though i don’t really listen to her new songs.

- song stuck in your head: Fire Meet Gasoline by Sia to be normal (remembered it recently bc Pedro Pascal is in the music video) but the truth is it’s Finest Girl by Lonely Island...

- last movie watched: Palm Springs

- last show you binged: just rewatched The Mandalorian and Doctor Who season 2 with @fancyrosegarden and @gucci-luke

- when you created your blog: 2012-13

- last thing you googled: “cm to feet” (yeah)

- other blogs: not really, but i once ran a “the mentalist confessions” blog that i probably have no access to now.

- why you chose your url: after pretty much every fandom i loved let me down and i stopped fandom posting for the longest time, i thought i had to move on and so bc i’m in film studies and dumb, this came forth (was i-am-the-bad-wolf-of-tattooine before this but i felt i needed a generic url)

- do you get asks: nooo i’ve been so long here but i never make any interaction (until recently when i decided this is ridiculous bc i actually like the people i follow)

- how many people are you following: 1869 (THIS IS SO FUNNY bc i used to take some pride in having more followers than people i follow - this was in 2015 - but after i was gone for a couple of years, i started MASS FOLLOWING people from any new thing i watched or played and this happened. the majority of the old ones are inactive but i just... can’t bring myself to unfollow them bc what if any of them decide to come back... just like i did! and maybe i’ll remember them? anyway.)

- how many followers do you have: 862 (i know like 94% of them are innactive)

- average hours of sleep: 8 and i take pride in fixing my sleep schedule now that i’m going to work

- lucky number: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- instruments: nope

- what I'm currently wearing: grey pjs

- dream job: screenwriter (working on it)

- dream trip: the US, the major cities and maybe filming locations? Oahu island in Hawaii bc of Lost and yeah, probably Bad Wolf Bay (Dunraven Bay) in Wales. I’ve already been to Rose’s house in London so i’m already content

- favorite food: it’s always changing but I’ll say spaghetti bolognese rn or, you know, BREAD

- favorite song: Monster by Image Dragons

- top three fictional universes you'd like to live in: Doctor Who, Star Wars but like, the Mandalorian preferably, in Detroit Become Human, Star Trek Discovery’s and in His Dark Materials just so i could have a daemon

I talk so much but oversharing is something i’m very good at. Thanks again for tagging me, @deardiary17 ! I love every singe thing from your blog that shows up in my dash every time!

Tagging (i don’t think i have 20 people to tag) @fancyrosegarden @gucci-luke @burningblake @goldflyingrush @runbymachinesandclones @writerman @livetogether--diealone @o-shoot-a-cat @muuln @gin-n-sardonic @stonemasons @insanebioticn7 @sunflower-vol1 @nick-uru

deep down i know i’m not bothering anyone by tagging them, but i’ll always feel like i am. do it if you’re in the mood!

[whnvr]

Brain Drain

Ah yes, hello. It is once again time to drain these brains of mine. A couple of more thoughts on this ‘Morning Pages’ process. Firstly, I’ve decided to take the Artist’s Way wording to heart and think of this as a non-negotiable exercise and, at least for the time being, I am going to do the full 1500 words as a block before I move onto anything else in my day. I’m still going to take the approach of retroactively editing them before I sleep in order to be more formatted, but the main body of text will be done first as, based on yesterday, I think this will focus me far more than spreading the writing out. Secondly, the more I think about it the more experimental I realise this entire process is for me. It’s probably best thought of as a heavily modified and specified version of the ‘Artist’s Way’ approach, as one of the stipulations offered up by Julia Cameron is that these are to be for your eyes and your eyes alone - even then going so far as to suggest that these should be sealed away in an envelope so that even the practitioner does not read them. So in that sense I am both taking a more documentative, methodical approach to the process and I am altering the formula by hosting these in a public forum. I understand that privacy helps to remove any filtering one may do but I also believe that the potential for these to be read comes with its own benefits. To that end this feels like an experiment of being creatively candid in public which is simulatenously exciting and daunting given that it runs so counter to the common approach of creating behind closed doors. I’d love to explore these ideas further as this journal progresses and see how my relationship with creativity changes due to these factors. So, I guess I’ll start by taking the measure of my day, as I am very much enjoying the ‘touching base’ element of these Morning Pages. I definitely feel a lot more blocked than I did yesterday, and it seems as though there’s somewhat of a hump to get over when I do these within the first 500 words or so before I get into a state of flow with it - this was true of yesterday also. Maybe that is one of the possible benefits of this exercise, that 'ramping-up-to-flow’ stage is one I likely experience whenever I sit down to create and the Brain Drain may be a way of me overcoming that before I come to do any of the actual creative work of my day. It seems as though forcing myself to do all 1500 words yesterday put me into the same sort of flow-state I gain from working on a really successful piece of music, and then today I am once again reset back into that familiar place of being 'blocked’, which even now I am slowly working through and unpicking purely by writing these words. Looking back on previous creative work this would seem to make an awful lot of sense. How much more demotivating it is to have to wake up and untease the same blocked feeling each morning on projects that I care deeply about and am heavily invested in than it is to instead get that part of the process out of the way on an off the cuff exercise like Brain Drain each morning. Maybe attempting to ease such a block through the work we care about is where all feelings of 'I’ve lost it’ and 'this project is hard now. Therefore how much better it must be to work through those blocks in a format that we’re not quite so invested in. Even right now there is a part of me that is very much resisting this process. It is an anxiety that masks itself as restlessness and tells me to 'go and watch a film, Aaron. Why put yourself through something so hard?’. As it is the creative enemy I have decided to call this my personal Antagonizer. Other thoughts of the Antagonizer, or the 'me’ that feels uncomfortable and uncreative: - 'Go and make a milkshake Aaron. Don’t do this. It’s 30 degrees outside today. You really need to just cool down.’ - 'Get up and walk around. You really need to release some of this tension that you’re feeling.’ - 'Go and talk to a family member. Telling them about what you want to write would be much easier than simply writing it’. That’s right Antagonizer, I WILL use your criticism in order to help me hit this wordcount. Checkmate. Yesterday has taught me that past this feeling is where enjoyment and flow lie if I can only push through it. I imagine some days will be significantly harder than others, and I imagine that I will even have days where 1500 words won’t begin to scratch the surface of this block, but I would so much rather try to push through this block writing whatever comes to mind over-and-above pushing through this block attempting to create whatever passes for a masterpiece in my world. On to next steps then. I would like to select a new artist to listen to today as I get on with other work. This would also be a good opportunity to show off a little of how I organise my inspiration, despite how embarrassingly over-elaborate it is.

On Spotify I keep a folder of artists who I’m either interest in, inspired by, are important pieces of musical history, examples of current artists who are doing what they do incredibly successfully, or artists that I feel would be generally useful to experience. For each artist, I will create a playlist, and in each playlist, I will save that artist’s entire discography chronologically. I will then slowly work my way through each of the artist’s discographies, deleting what I’ve listened to and categorising songs that jump out to me either in terms of whether I love, like, or dislike them, the emotional qualities that I want to emulate in my own music, or the technical qualities that stand out as exemplary within each song. This allows me to simultaneously build a picture of what my musical tastes are, keep an accurate record of my listening history, and create song palettes for different emotional qualities that I wish to put into my own work.

(Above: the technical qualities of music that I have categorised. This forms up a reference library that I can use to further refine these qualities when I’m working on my own music)Here are the criteria I use to define each of these categories. Idea: the concept behind a piece. Narrative: the story told. Lyrics: how ideas are expressed through words. Mood: the emotionality of a piece. Expression: how ideas are framed and delivered through the articulation of the music. Musicality: the use of harmony, rhythm, and theory to communicate those ideas. Rhythm: the measure, speed, flow, and cadence of a piece. Timbre: the overall texture, tone, and sonic palette of a piece. Structure: the flow of a piece over time. Mix: how the timbre has been arranged as an ensemble. Master: how the piece has been polished. Delivery: the title, artwork, context, presentation, and moving image that contain the piece.

(Above: the emotional qualities of music that I have categorised as a reference library for how artists that I look up to achieve specific emotional qualities in their work). These are decidedly more abstract and are generally more subject to the songs themselves that are being added. For reference, here’s the current list of artists who’s work I want to study, all at various stages of listened to, completed, or not listened to at all: - Labelle - Car Seat Headrest - Snail Mail - Japanese Breakfast - Let’s Eat Grandma - Soccer Mommy - LCD Soundsystem - Big Thief - Have a Nice Life - Beebadoobee - Animanaguchi - 100gecs - Courtney Barnett - Chromonicci - Owsey - Dark Cat - Valentine - SOPHIE - Kamasi Washington - Prince - Aurora - Massive Attack - Haywyre - Maths Time Joy - Counting Crows - Jack Strauber - Blossom Calderone - Goldfrapp - Janelle Monae - Meteorologist - Easyfun - Saint Lewis - Julian Gray - Jade Cicada - Blake Skowron - 92Elm - Maxime - Stereo Cube - Chuck Sutton - Gemi - Queen - Laxcity - Duumu - Oh Wonder - Galamatias - Umru - Underscores - Brockhampton - Fleece - i Monster - Deaton Chris Anthony - Amy Winehouse - The Beatles - Sumthin Sumthin - Radiohead - Flume - Knapsack - Dodie Here are the artists who’s discographies I have completed via this approach: - Sidney Gish - M.I.A - In Love With a Ghost - Bowie - Pink Floyd - Baird - Rudimental - Iglooghost - Madeon - Porter Robinson - 100gecs I use a similar system alongside this over on Pinterest for visual work in order to better inform my visual style and aesthetic sensibilities. Here is how I define my visual observation: Interior & Exterior, the space of dwelling.

Colour, of which idiosyncrasy and primary colours are a main focus.

Tone, subtler than colour. An intangible quality communicated by shifting hues and gradiated layers.

Mood, the way an image feels.

Looks, clothes, & apparel: personal artistic image and identity.

Desolation, a quality not currently present in my own work, but one that I often observe and love within other work, as well as in storytelling and other environments.

Layout, the way things are arranged in relation to one another within a space.

Idea, the concept behind a thing.

Texture, the tactile quality of visual elements.

Form, the shape and bounds of a thing.

Presentation, the context a thing is placed within.

Render, the quality imparted by computer generated imagery.

Type, how words are displayed.

Pattern, the use of repetition.

As you can see, how I define sound and visual art share a fairly common language between them. Anyway, I divert. I’m going to select SOPHIE as the next discography to tear through and I am also going to continue working through the UE4 Beginner learning path, though before either of these I have some university paperwork/admin stuff to finish so I’d best crack on with that. Toodles!

[hey-have-you-heard]

Hey have you heard these 50 songs from 2019

I really enjoyed this last year so going to give it another go for ‘19. I put quite a lot of thought into what actually a ‘song of the year’ for me when I was first constructing and then heavily editing the playlist that came to be my Top 50 of 2019. I think the most important thing is that above all it’s a track that I’m glad exists, sometimes this is because of the songwriting or composition, sometimes the performance, sometimes the lyrical importance and sometimes just because it sparks joy.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6bFJOjL8b8Zc2s5r1oJbsk?si=UJdqSXOTR3SQ8D3IwcmV2g

Explanations for each tracks inclusion below the fold…

100 gecs - 800db cloud 100 gecs channel a mix of Crystal Castles and Sleigh Bells with a Death Grips level appreciation for noise. It’s an absolute rush and that outro is just absurd.

Natalie Evans - Always Be Natalie Evans soft melody and sing song vocals are sublimely sweet on this heartfelt track of lost love, longing and nostalgia.

Petrol Girls - Big Mouth “If you fight back or disagree you’re the one with the fucking problem” this hits home, hard. Big Mouth is a rallying cry to speak out against oppression and discrimination, to raise you’re voice and be heard, not to be controlled.

Charli XCX ft. Lizzo - Blame it on your Love Charli has a midas touch when it comes to pop, combine that with Lizzo who has just about been the most fun thing in music this year and you’ve got a 10/10 banger.

Poppy - BLOODMONEY Poppy’s music just keeps going further down the rabbit hole. Originally playing with blending elements of nu-metal with bubblegum pop, she now seems to have transcended genre altogether to create whatever BLOODMONEY is, it’s absolutely ridiculous and I love it.

Body Hound - Bloom Get on that GROOVE! So proggy it hurts, this track from Body Hound is a technical wonderland of metamorphosing rhythms, gargantuan riffs, and just the tastiest of chord progressions.

Can the Sub_Bass speak - Algiers Word of warning, this is not an easy listen. A freefall tumble through genre and tone accompanies a stream of consciousness monologue full of racism, prejudice and political and artistic critique.

Elohim - Buckets Buckets is an onslaught of trap influences, emotional outbursts and aggressive distortion. I’m a big fan of this sound.

VUKOVI - C.L.A.U.D.I.A I know very little about VUKOVI as a band, but that riff is absolutely massive and this track has been a constant throughout my year on that basis alone.

Show Me The Body - Camp Orchestra Apparently more hardcore bands should use Banjos, because this is a damn good sound. Slowly building from a single bass line this track builds into a powerful demolishing force.

clipping. - Club Down Having thoroughly proven themselves able to do afro-futurist scifi on the Hugo nominated Splendor and Misery, clipping. now turn their considerable talents to horror core and unsurprisingly nail it. Daveed’s flows are tight as ever as he brings to life a decaying city backed by tortured screams.

Dream Nails - Corporate Realness YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB. WORK IS NOT YOUR LIFE. YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU MUST DO IN ORDER TO SURVIVE. Dream Nails are great and exactly what we need right now.

ControlTop - Covert Contracts This track positively bristles with an anxious energy. A fitting sound for the subject of the information overload we find ourselves locked into everyday.

Cherry Glazerr - Daddi There’s an icy coolness to ‘Daddi’, a disconnected sarcasm that falls away to reveal the anger and torment in the chorus, it’s a masterful bit of emotional storytelling through musical tone.

The Physics House Band - Death Sequence I Listening to Physics House latest release, the Death Sequence EP feels like a physical journey. This opener is a perfect example of this, as you’re plunged straight into a heady and disorienting mix of rhythms and counter-melody’s, the Sax guiding you through the turbulence until you land in a placid midsection, before that bass riff drags you forward through rhythmic breakdowns into an absolutely absurd brain melting saxophony and then it just keeps on going from there…

Witching Waves - Disintegration I saw WW back in the early summer, they were a bassist down so it was just a guitar and drums duo. They started with this track and it was one of the most pure punk things I’ve experienced, drummer/vocalist Emma Wigham bashing the absolute shit out of her kit . A great no-nonsense lo-fi banger.

Lingua Ignota - DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR Another, not particularly easy listen here. DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR is a dark and angry brooding track, building in intensity to release the primal rage, fear and horror of the abused. Its deeply chilling and instantly arresting. This track and the entire CALIGULA album stands as an absolute must listen.

Carly Rae Jepsen ft. Electric Guest - Feels Right I love the instrumentation on this one, those chunky piano chords and screaming guitar lift the track out and make it the highlight of an already great album to me.

Orla Gartland - Figure it out Dialing back the intensity slightly, Orla chronicles the frustrations of having to deal with someone in your life who you’re done with. The choruses burst forth in beautifully fuzzy explosions of noise. That vocal flair at the start of the final chorus is chef kiss.

Battles - Fort Greene Park Battles are at their best when they keep things simple. This is evident on 2019′s Juicy B Crypts which features some incredibly cluttered moments, but this just makes Fort Greene Park stand out all the more. A delightfully spacious piece of math rock, from some of the best in the business.

Dogleg - Fox Boy howdy, do I love me some midwest emo. Catharsis in musical form, it just makes me want to mosh my troubles away like I’m 16 again.

Tørsö - Grab A Shovel Tørsö go hard, I can appreciate that. An absolutely brutal track about the destructive power of depression and self-loathing.

“Pijn & Conjurer playing Curse These Metal Hands” - High Spirits “We were like, are we Pijn and Conjurer, or are we Curse These Metal Hands? I think we’ve settled with ‘we are Pijn and Conjurer playing Curse These Metal Hands’ …whatever that means!“ what it means is one of the most joyously triumphant pieces of metal music I’ve ever heard. Some of the guitar lines in this absolutely soar.

Lizzo - Juice Lizzo has won 2019, her message of self love, acceptance and body positivity has won her both critical and cultural acclaim and permeates her music in a way that makes it impossible to not love.

COLOSSAL SQUID, AK Patterson - Kick Punch Colossal Squid is the name given to Three Trapped Tigers drummer, Adam Betts’ experimental project. After a solo album of percussive wizardry Betts has now teamed with vocalist AK Patterson to give us something else entirely.

Evan Greer - Liberty Is A Statue Evan Greer uses the a folk punk sound to deliver an essay on the damaging influences of cis-normativity and social inequality. Of course I like this one.

Taylor Swift - Lover I wasn’t on board with this song for a fair while, but then I kept listening to it and kept coming back to it because of a roughly 50 second section which ties the track and the whole album together. Yeah, this is on here purely for the bridge, which is just beautiful.

Dodie - Monster Monster is an incredibly well written and delivered study on how perception changes with resentment and it makes me cry.

The Y Axes - Moon Moon is a delightfully dreamy piece of pop that glitters with infectious melodies, it’s lyrics a blissful embracing of cosmic nihilism, need I say more?

Ezra Furman - My Teeth Hurt My teeth hurt is a song about tooth ache, about that pain you carry with you everywhere and can’t get rid of, that ruins your days and and is one hell of a mood. Yeah it’s about gender dysphoria.

Nervus - No Nations Speaking of things being a mood, this track hits the nail squarely on the head.

Cultdreams - Not My Generation "Everyone ignores me Unless I’m on a stage talking Because they put me on a pedestal And pretend I’m just performing“ Lucinda Livingstone calls out the misogyny in our culture with a singular ferocity.

Lil Nas X - Old Town Road If there’s one song that’s dominated 2019 this is it right here. Who ever had the idea of putting that NIN Ghosts sample to a trap beat and cowboying over the top of it is an absolute genius.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Planet B It’s impossible to predict where King Gizzard’s sonic influences are going to take them next I doubt even they know half the time. Whatever they turn their hand to though they do it as if they mastered the sound decades ago Planet B is an all out thrash track with a strong environmental message.

Kesha - Rich, White, Straight Men Okay, I’m about to compare Kesha to John Lennon here but HEAR ME OUT… As ‘Imagine’ asked us to consider a world without conflict or capitalism, Kesha now posits that we should tear up our conceptions of our society based on its formation by a privileged group and imagine what kind of utopia could be built if we gave the underprivileged and minority groups a say.

Allie X - Rings A Bell The chorus here sounds like it could have been off Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, and I’m all about that sound. Combined with Allie X’s dreamlike vocals make this a certified bop.

Poly-Math - Sensors in Everything Sensors in Everything is a beast of a track spanning over 14 minutes of absurdly dense prog. Having recently enlisted keyboardist Josh Gesner. Polymath make use of the new sounds and textures available to them, at times imitating a sort of Hammond sound not unlike John Lord to the chaotic maelstrom of noise.

Calva Louise - Sleeper Big hooks on this one. Sleeper has a confident swagger to it’s sound which stands apart for the bands previous work. It’s an absolutely huge track.

Slipknot - Solway Firth Slipknot didn’t disappoint after the tease of 2018′s “All Out Life”, following up with an album which blended old and new aspects of their sound to create one of their best to date. Solway Firth is a perfect example of this matching the punishing heaviness of Iowa with the melody driven sound of All Hope Is Gone.

Clt Drp - Speak To My Seeing Clt Drp perform live was one of my highlights of the year. The filthy guitar tones, powerhouse vocals tight as heck drumming and the _grooves. _Absolutely like nothing else I’ve seen. Just an incredible band that deserve so much more recognition.

Black Country, New Road - Sunglasses Black Country, New Road released two tracks this year and now I just want more. Dense wordy lyricism plays off against ever evolving instrumentation to present a raw cut of emotional storytelling.

Her Name Is Calla - Swan Her Name Is Calla are a band that have always been on the edge of my radar, my Dad is very fond of them and saw them live a couple of years ago, but never went back to relisten to any of their stuff, then they started an album with this. I was sold instantly.

black midi - Talking Heads Talking Heads (the band) are an obvious inspiration on this track. Both David Byrne’s vocal style and the Talking Heads penchant for sharp angular melodies are on show here. But given an extra ounce of chaos through Black Midi’s delivery.

Amanda Palmer - The Ride The ride is ten minutes of bundling up all your fears and anxieties of where we are and where we’re going and just, accepting them as part of the ride. Written off the back of a prompt from Amanda asking her fans what they were afraid of right now.

Kim Petras - There Will Be Blood Okay, let’s have some out of season spookiness. Love the squelchy synths on this, there’s a huge amount of energy on this track and with it’s commitment to the horror conceit it makes for a super fun bop.

Kate Nash - Trash Kate Nash’s sound is like bathing pure nostalgia,here she spins the toxic-relationship narrative central to her work to deliver a bigger story about humanity’s, quite literally toxic relationship to our planet.

American Football & Hayley Williams - Uncomfortably Numb The other side of the “midwest emo” coin. A melancholic song built on a soft bed of arpeggiated chords and clean harmonics, Uncomfortably Numb is a heartbreaking track of losing everything and of cycles persisting thorugh generations. Employing the clever metatextual trick of referencing Pink Floyd’s comfortably Numb to mirror the generational similarities.

Glenn Branca - Velvet and Pearls Disclaimer, Glenn Branca was a musical hero of mine, his approach to music and composition being solely responsible for influence a vast number of my favourite bands. Released posthumously, Velvet and Pearls is taken from a live performance by Branca’s ensemble and perfectly captures the sense of sonic disorientation, conjuring aural illusions through an assault of intricately crafted noise. It’s an exhilarating piece that should be played as loud as humanly possible.

Brutus - War The raw emotional strength of Stefanie Manneart’s vocals instantly made me pay attention when I first heard this track. Then the song exploded into a barrage of riffs and breakneck drumming.

Valiant Vermin - Warm Coke Another slice of throwback pop, Valiant Vermin proved with “Online Lover” how much of an ear she has for pop and has proven it once again with Warm Coke. Is a real good bop.

———

Welp there it is, 50(+1) songs, I had to limit myself to one track per artist in the main 50 because according to Spotify I listened to [checks notes] 1082 new artists this year. There are a small handful of tracks I wanted to highlight from the same artists though as they offer something quite different to the tracks in the playlists, so here they are quickly with 3 word descriptions.

Petrol Girls - Skye (dead dog, sad) Amanda Palmer - Voicemail for Jill (Talk about abortion) Ezra Furman - I Wanna be Your Girlfriend (Trans Torch Song) Battles ft Jon Anderson & Prairie WWWW - Sugar Foot (Batshit Prog Insanity) Poppy - Choke (Dark Minimalist Pop) Show Me The Body - Forks and Knives (Anxious nightmare punk) Lingua Ignota - CALIGULA (the whole album.)

———

Closing Statement

Cultdreams - Statement

There has been a shadow over the entertainment industry the latter half of this decade. Whether film, music, TV or video games, the late 2010′s are filled with stories of people coming forward to bravely tell their stories about being abused and manipulated by men in positions of power. The #metoo movement as it’s come to be known has been a powerful force in giving marginalised people a voice and the ability to call out oppressors and in starting the groundwork to root out the misogyny in the seats of power, but this is a battle far from won.

While there are thousands of stories out there I want to focus on one in particular.

In 2016 a number of women spoke out about various forms of abuse by a well-known musician in the punk scene. It’s now over three years later and this group of women are in the midst of a long fought claim of defamation from this musician. If this case goes through it sets a precedent for silencing marginalised voices in the industry. They have been fighting for so long and with no legal aid available for the case they have had to finance their defense from their own pockets.

This is where Solidarity Not Silence comes in. Solidarity not silence is a crowdfunding effort to help take the case to trial without the women bankrupting themselves entirely so that they don’t have to give in to this mans demands.  You can read more about Solidarity not Silence and make a donation (if you feel so inclined) here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/solidaritynotsilence/

You can also follow them on twitter here https://twitter.com/solnotsilence

[marlettwrites]

11/11/11 Tag Game

Rules: answer eleven (11) questions, tag eleven (11) people, and ask eleven (11) questions.

Thanks to @practising-writer for the tag!

1. Do you imagine what your WIP would look like as a movie?

I see it more as an animated show in my head. It’s really hard for me to picture the characters as like... real people? If that makes sense? I view and treat them as people when I’m writing and creating them, but I can’t picture my characters with actual human faces, you know? My brain doesn’t go into that level of detail. Lol.

2. What character archetype do you like most?

I’d have to say the morally grey antagonist. Love me some inner conflict about doing the ‘right thing’.

3. How do you feel when you know that you have to write a scene where your protag suffers?

Kinda sad, and kinda proud because I know he’ll survive and then use it to grow stronger as a person. Sometimes. Spoilers. Shhh.

4. What’s your favorite genre to read and write?

Ooof, I gotta say fantasy? I love writing fantasy. And I love reading urban fantasy specifically. Sci-fi is also great to read.

5. Who is your favorite character of all time? (Can be a book, TV show, movie, video game, any medium really)

Urrghhh don’t make me pick!

I’m going to seem really self-centered with this, but I have to say Jude is my favorite character. I came up with him about 5 years ago and I love the guy to death.

6. What do you do to set yourself in a writing mood?

I close out every tab on my computer that isn’t Google Docs or Spotify, put on the playlist of the POV character I’m working with, and then I force myself to stare at the page until I can put the words down.

Sometimes I look away from the screen and stare off into space. I always have to imagine the scene in my head before I write it, and I can’t do that if I’m looking at where the scene is supposed to go.

7. What lessons, if any, do you want readers to learn from your WIP?

Oof, rolling out the toughies, eh?

In all seriousness, I want readers to come away with a better understanding of LGBTQ+ people and the struggles we face. For my LGBTQ+ readers with parents or friends who are homo/transphobic, I want them to come away knowing that there is nothing wrong with them. I want them to be able to feel safe and secure in their identities.

If said homophobic parents/friends somehow make it through my gay as hell series, I want them to be able to open their eyes to how painful it is to be raised in an environment where your sexuality is treated like a disease. Maybe they’ll learn to be more open minded. Maybe they’ll find my social media and curse at me. I look forward to it either way.

This is getting long, but there are some other things, so I’ll just uh...

-People with disabilities have feelings and talents of their own, so y’know... treat them like actual people. The golden rule is key, my dudes.

-Women don’t have to be physically strong in order to be strong people.

-Sometimes people have medical issues that prevent them from losing weight, no matter how much they exercise or what foods they eat. Some people just have a softer body type. They are still beautiful and still valid. Be kind.

-Obligatory don’t judge a book by its cover lesson.

8. Which mythology do you like?

Egyptian always. Hindu mythology is also super interesting.

9. If you met one of your OCs in real life for the first time, what would you do? (Pick any specific OC you like)

I pick Hathor. Art buddies for life!

I’d show her my paintings and ask her to teach me how to sculpt. I’d show her the pottery wheel I got for Christmas a few years ago and maybe we’d figure out how to work it together. 

10. Favorite time of the day to write?

Midnight to like 3AM. It’s so quiet and there are no distractions.

11. What is your favorite story of all time? (Again, can be a book, TV show, movie, video game, etc.)

I really love the Ash Mistry book series (it’s like Percy Jackson, but with Hindu mythology and the monsters bleed. Oh my gods do they bleed). So I’d have to say that one is my favorite. 

I actually came away from the series feeling so much more appreciative of my family and my life, and honestly, it was the first time I’ve ever felt anything like that after reading a book.

So yeah. 15/10, would absolutely recommend.

Tagging: @ephemeralseraph, @lemon-i-scream, @quilloftheclouds, @queenie-dragon, @whywritewhenyoucansleep, @plutocoeurwrites, @somuchtowrite, @pens-swords-stuff

My Questions for y’all!

1. What book has most inspired you to write? (could also be a tv show, podcast, song, whatever!)

2. What do you like to listen to while you write?

3. Favorite genre to read and/or write?

4. What are five aesthetic things for your WIP? (sounds, smells, feelings, colors, whatever floats your boat)

5. How did you come up with the idea for your WIP?

6. What initially inspired the creation of your MC(s)?

7. Do any of your characters have pets? If so, what are they?

8. Are there any tropes that you absolutely despise?

9. What are the main themes of your WIP?

10. What motivates your antagonist (or if it’s man vs nature, how did your protag get stuck in their sticky sitch)?

11. If your MC were to buy ice cream, what flavor would they get? (I had to finish it off with a fun one)

[illustratedtapes]

Welcome to Illustrated Tape’s favourite releases of 2018 that sounded and looked good, chosen by this year’s contributors. We’ve put together a playlist featuring one track from each of the releases featured so you can check out the sounds we were digging this year. Happy listening! 

➔ spoti.fi/2LCgrQp Listening in order recommended

Delta Sleep - Ghost City Big Scary Monsters, 10 August  Artwork: Owen Findley at Or8 Design Selected by Megan Reddi // IT014

This is my favourite music/artwork combo of 2018! The whole album is just amazing - it is beautifully arranged and has this lovely dreamy quality to it, with repeated musical motifs woven throughout to really pull the whole album together. Not only is Ghost City musically fantastic, but the artwork is beautiful and so fitting for the album. It is designed and screen printed by Owen Findley and the warm colours, imagery and textures are just spot on.

Definitely my favourite release of 2018. It is my go-to driving album and I will be blasting it while we’re driving around this Christmas!

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 014: Nautical Dusk by Megan Reddi

Okay Kaya - Both Heavy Body, 1 June  Artwork/design: Kaya Wilkins, Aaron Maine, Phillip Wong

Selected by Hannah Buckman // IT016

Okay Kaya’s Both as an album that came out this year which I enjoyed, and which I feel has a strong visual component to it. To me the album feels sickly (in a good way), gloomy but still pop. I think the mood is conveyed really well through the Adinah Dancyger directed music vids and the album art. 

I liked finding out more about Kaya’s thinking behind the project, like how the twin in the videos is like a physical manifestation of trauma... it’s something that once I read I couldn’t stop thinking about. The idea of something traumatic inducing this birth of a second self, a kind of split off part that is still attached in some way to the whole, but there being a kind of safety in acknowledging what might be a darker part of yourself, from a distance. Also the album art kind of conveys the idea of duality and how that relates to race/sexuality, but I didn’t feel like that was really explored as much. I think I like this album ‘cos it kind of ties in with things (mentioned above) I’m currently interested in, but maybe it feels a bit surface-y at times.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 016: Protect Your Extremities by Hannah Buckman

Quavo - Quavo Huncho Capitol / Mowtown / Quality Control, 12 October  Artwork: Mihailo Andic 

Selected by Conner Perry // IT020

I think my favourite music/design combo of this year has to be Quavo’s Quavo Huncho. Not only is it full of bangers, the cover by Mihailo Andic is just brilliant. It really sets itself apart from the Migo’s visuals and changes the way you listen to the record. Definitely check out the rest of his work, especially the stuff for Lil’ Yachty. 

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 020: Nice one bruva by Conner Perry

Parquet Courts - Wide Awake! Rough Trade, 18 May  Artwork: A. Savage

Selected by Holly St Clair // IT021

I was really late to the Parquet Courts party, but actually both of my initial encounters with their two recent releases have been solid arguments for the importance of decent album artwork. For both Wide Awake! and Human Performance I ran into - literally - the artwork before the music. Twice, two years apart, whilst wandering around London I turned a corner and came face to face with Adam Savage’s superb cover work. He smacked me in the face with poppy colours and amorphous dancing forms and I loved every moment. Add in an anarchic use of type and you’ve got me shouting, “Oh shit! A new Parquet Courts album!” to no one in particular outside an old meat market in Shoreditch.

A. Savage is both front man and painter and that adds a special flavour to the whole affair. Album marketing can be a laboured, commercially driven affair, there’s something authentic - a little DIY flavour - about this relationship between artwork and music. It’s a nice parallel to the musical throwbacks typical of the bands style. Wide Awake! dropped earlier this year and it’s fab. (Although, I love the artwork so much even if it was god awful I’d still buy the record and hang it on my wall.)

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 021: To: You, Love: Me by Holly St Clair

D.A.L.I - When Haro Met Sally Burning Witches, 23 May  Artwork: Luke Insect

Selected by Thomas Hedger // IT017

According to my recently played, I’ve been stuck on a pre-'90s loop. I've crept slowly into 2018's releases picking out albums like books - by their covers - and it really paid off! I don’t often delve into electronic but I love this album, it’s a perfect blend of hopping on your bike and hitting the tracks, nailing the look of how the album feels in all its haze. A solid sunny day good time.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 017: Sink by Thomas Hedger

Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar Ninja Tune, 9 March  Artwork: Tom Hingston

Selected by Katie Chandler // IT003

This cover was immediately striking and memorable to me. Upon listening to the album, I found that the artwork resonated with this feeling of odd, unrestricted expression. It's a little unsettling, ultimately bold and intriguing. Much like the music, it feels hot and cool all at once, like a burst of energy that leaves you in a sweat. It's the exhilarating soundtrack to your runner's high, and you're not really sure why you're running or what you're running from.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 003: Porch Light by Katie Chandler

Gesu no Kiwami Otome (ゲスの極み乙女。) - Suki Nara Towanai (好きなら問わない) Taco Records, 29 August  Selected by Greg Stasiw // IT009

Although it’s not the ambient and electronic fare I usually enjoy, Suki Nara Towanai (好きなら問わない) by Gesu no Kiwami Otome. (ゲスの極み乙女。) is a hoot. The artwork features a stylized neon pachinko machine. Or maybe it’s a console in a rad indie pop spaceship, which would also make sense for this funky fresh group! It feels somehow familiar, somehow alien, and altogether really, really cool.

The neon suggests something retro, and there are some retro leanings in their funkier tracks, but it's definitely neon as seen in 2018. Modern pop (and J-Pop) tropes emerge, but infectious basslines, tight drumming, and smart keys make this album something special. Some math rock even surfaces at times, and the remix included proves that this group goes for whatever feels fresh. One look at the artwork reminds me that this is one of the funnest albums I've listened to in a while. “Funnest” is definitely a word when you’re talking about this band!

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 009: Atmospheres by Greg Stasiw

Aphex Twin - Collapse EP Warp, 14 September Artwork: Weirdcore

Selected by Alex Vissaridis // IT002

2018 was a great year if you grew up listening to the music I was into. Some of my all-time favourite artists released new stuff this year, and they didn’t disappoint. The artwork was pretty excellent too, but nothing grabbed my attention like the world created around Aphex Twin’s Collapse EP. Album art doesn’t seem to mean as much as it once did, so it’s always exciting when it appears outside of the little square on your screen in unexpected ways. 

This year, Aphex Twin logos appeared all over the world, from Elephant & Castle tube station to the side of a record store in Tokyo, designed in a way that made it look like the logo was collapsing into the environment around it. I’m a sucker for stuff like this; random cryptic messages that send internet detectives into a frenzy. It was eventually announced as marketing for the Collapse EP, but they kept the ‘collapsing logo’ visual going on the EP artwork, in the music video for the track ‘T69 collapse’, and even through to projection-mapped videos around London (again announced in typical smoke-and-mirrors fashion) and a collaboration with Crack magazine. Way more than just a collection of pixels.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 002: Tape Fuzz by Alex Vissaridis

Flohio - Wild Yout EP Alpha, 2 November Selected by Rachel Maughan // IT012

I got into Flohio after I saw her on COLORS in January with 'Band'. She's fucking explosive on that track, you can feel her spitting straight into your chest. She's been savvy with her producers and killed her work with God Colony - 'SE16' was my most played track of the year. Her 2018 EP, Wild Yout is a cocktail of perfection. 

Mashing up genres it's a high energy listen with punchy, grimey hip-hop that is uniquely South London. The artwork is beautiful simplicity - her achingly slick androgynous aesthetic, the clean photographic composition, with a flowing chain to bring it tightly back to SE. Gorgeous.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 012: High Rise by Rachel Maughan

Sudan Archives - Sink EP Stones Throw, 25 May Photography: Jack McKain Design: Jeff Jank

Selected By Tom J Newell // IT004

Sink submerges the listener in flowing loops and beats, with splashes of violin and vocals floating above the sunken monolith, which stands tall on the deep blue cover art. The composition is reminiscent of two of Jank’s other iconic Stones Throw sleeves, Donuts and Madvillainy and continues his striking yet varied art direction for the label.

Check out the ‘Nont For Sale’ video from the EP too, which adds powerful choreography and styling to create another successful visual accompaniment to the music. Much love to Sudan Archives and hats off to Jeff Jank. I painted a tribute to the cover art on a 12x12” piece of wood.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 004: FEAR. by Tom J Newell

Drinks - Hippo Lite Drag City, 20 April Selected by Molly Fairhurst // IT015

Hazy, dazed, an album I hold dearly to 2018 (and many strangely lit walks in a then new, unknown city).

A collaboration between Cate Le Bon and White Fence’s Tim Presley, the pair took an (isolated) retreat to St Hippolyte-Du-Fort in the south of France to record, frankly, crudely, seemingly, whatever the fuck they wanted to. Hippo Lite is born, a joyful, playful, sometimes quiet, sometimes screaming object.

What senses like an eavesdrop through closed doors rightly has a cover that can’t be quite understood- a narrow column of, at the glance of the reader, ‘nonsense’ notes, which flank photos of Le Bon and Presley. Both are snapshots of an absurd holiday we have been invited along to, so long as we sit across the table. A tender and private piece.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 015: The Wilder Woman by Molly Fairhurst

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - King of Cowards Rocket, 28 September Artwork: Sophy Hollington

Selected by Drew Milward // IT010

First off, this album is wall to wall, solid gold bangers. Kind of like the lovechild of The Fall and Black Sabbath, who has been cautioned by the police for possession of a massive bag of skunk, a bong in the shape of a skull and a copy of ‘The Holy Mountain’ on DVD. 

Aside from the fact it’s a full on riff-o-rama, the artwork by Sophy Hollington is absolutely incredible. It summons up the sound of the band, via folk horror infused wildness. It really captures the sonic landscape of the album, yet completely avoids any of the cliched imagery that could so easily have taken its place. It really is the whole package.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 010: BE GONE, YOU CREATIVE GREMLINS! by Drew Milward

Djrum - Portrait With Firewood R&S, 17 August Artwork: Michael Mitsas

Selected by Sam Ailey // IT001

Portrait With Firewood is one of those rare gems within the electronic genre - a true ‘album’. With holistic production, emotional range, and a captivating narrative, this really is a stunning listening experience from start to finish. Felix Manuel combines electronic and acoustic sounds seamlessly on this intimate record, with exceptional attention to detail in his sampling and tender piano sections played by Felix himself.

Michael Mistas’s cover art is a real departure from the typical design aesthetic of electronic albums and caught my attention straight away. I love its composition and rough, imperfect execution. To me these feels reflective of the range and depth of emotional states explored across the album, and the feeling that some things are easier to express through your craft than with words. Plus I’m a sucker for pink things.

➔ Listen to Illustrated Tapes 001: Quiet by Sam Ailey

[andyfire122]

11/11/11 tag game

I was tagged by @dreamstormdragon so I’m up for it.

Rules: Answer 11 Questions, Ask Eleven Questions, Tag Eleven People! 

1. Have you ever based a story on a dream you’ve had?

I have only really drempt of one character before but most of the time my dreams just leave me excited to write. They end up being exciting, like an adventure you want to know more of. While I can’t really remember the fine details it just makes me want to write something similar.

2. What do you do, when you hit a wall with a story?

I try my best to do one of my other stories. It’s why I have so many but if it’s really starting to get a struggle I just play my video games. Still writing one shot does seem to help in regards to stuff. It helps me get a pace and then maybe I find out what I need to get past the wall.

3. What kind of characters do you like to write best?

I like those that actually surprise me. Like I should know what they are gonna do but they just do something different. Let it be my character or someone else's I just like it when they decide to do something that wasn’t expected.

4. What do you read, to get inspired?

Mostly the works of my friends but if it’s something that’s engaging I tend to look. I look at all sorts of diffrent ways at presenting a story. I love all sorts of styles. It’s how I eventually got my own.

5. Do you listen to songs/any sounds while writing or do you need utter silence?

I do listen to music when writing or I just use a youtube playlist. Music does help more but I just need something in the background.

6. What is your favorite author?

I like anything that is engaging but the one that’s my favorite is Ann McCaffery.

7. There’s a zombie apocalypse and the CDC issues that the only way to kill the zombies, is to hit them with your least favorite book. What book, do you use to kill some zombies?

Well, It looks like I’m beating zombies with some Lord of the rings. I honstly liked the movie better. I just couldn’t get into the book.

8. What do you think is going to be the next big “monster trend” in modern day literature? We’ve had Vampires, werewolves and zombies, what do you think is next?

Bring more Demons, and Angels. No wait, Dragons. Everything goes great with more dragons.

9. Which wip of yours is the favorite child? If you only have one WIP, which character is the favorite child?

Well since Angel Origins is my venture into my first book I say that’s my favoite. I had it’s modern tale in mind but the origin has been in my head for a long time. Plus exploring Srah’s past has been a treat. I do love her, despite how I made her.

10. What kind of things do you like to use to get in the writing mood?

I sit and listen to whatever music is recomended. I used to listen to mussic all the time and just day dream. I tend to picture the scene really good that way. Or it could be from just a simple conversation about characters with people. Take a topic and roll with it.

11. Outline or no outline?

I honestly tried at one point but I could never focus enough to do it. Sure I have a few notes but most of the time what goes on just stays in my head.

Now for my questions

1. What helps you with character design or if you can’t draw what helps you picture your character

2. Any insperations

3. If you can talk with anyone or anything you created who would it be and what would you say to them?

4. Any fun projects that stick out?

5. Any genra you like to write?

6. Who do you consider is the best character you made?

7. You have to be on a quest with someone from your favoite book/comic, who would it be?

8. Favorite book?

9. Do you take notes or outline plot points?

10. Any troubles making an oc?

11. Current Wips that your loving?

now to tag my crew. (the writing on your comics is good so I’m tagging you guys too.) uh...I don’t have 11?!

@unluckiest-black-cat

@aretmaw

@quoth143

@connorwing

@theblueskyphoenix

@xwolf-26

@the-valiant-valkyrie

@rinni-rayne-fire

[tigerlilynoh]

My Approach to Writing

Every since getting ~350,000 words into Job & Family (my longest Supernatural fanfic), I’ve had a few conversations with people about my techniques and tips for writing.  I recently told another person that I’d share this info with them, but I decided to just post it publicly, on the off chance it’s helpful for anyone else.  

I’m by no means an expert and I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff, but this is my general approach and I credit its methodology with why I haven’t yet had writer’s block.

Non-Linear Writing

I don’t write linearly.  Instead I try to work as much of the story as I can at the same time.  I will try to write content for multiple chapters at once dividing my time 80% to the upcoming chapter and 20% to later content (usually the 2-3 chapters after the upcoming one and/or major events much later in the plot). I do this for three reasons:

It’s easier to avoid writing myself into corners by seeing the logical fallout of a chapter while I’m working on it.

If the upcoming chapter is particularly angsty/violent/etc and I need a mental break, then I can switch away from it yet still be productive.

It helps reduce the workload toward the end of the story. I’d been writing the last four chapters of J&F for over six months by the time those chapters were posted. The fact that they were already significantly written made it less overwhelming to end the story.

On another level of non-linear writing, I will often work on scenes until they are ~90% done, then rearrange their order to form a chapter or multiple chapters. I never write a chapter from front to back.

Also, by jumping around in your writing it turns the writing process into more of a game.  You have points A, C, & E with certain restrictions based on the characters’ natures, themes, etc.  Then all you have to do is solve for points B & D.  I know, easier said than done, but a little structure can make things easier than freeform creativity.

Outlining & Organizing

I outline/organize like a crazy person. Outlines are fucking magic because they make complex stories simple for you to understand and show you all the places where you can tinker. Some of the types of outlines/organizational tools I’ve used are:

Overall plot outline - I definitely recommend this because it’s your roadmap

Fight/smut outlines - if you hate or are scared of writing fights or sex scenes, try outlining the action, then filling it in with the texture.  It makes the process more manageable.

Character arc outlines - against the overall plot outline, mark the major points in a character’s personal struggle/growth. I had one of these for Sam, Dean, Ruby and others in J&F, which helped me make sure a character didn’t languish in their development.

Character prevalence outline - against the overall plot outline, mark which characters are actually in the scenes and to what extent (major, minor, only referenced). I like to assign colors to each character so it’s easy to spot if Bobby is missing for like ten chapters for no good reason.

Scene type outline - against the overall plot outline, mark what types of scenes you’re including. My go to categories are: Fights, Sex, Fluff, Background exposition (backward looking), Tactical planning (forward looking), Internal angst, & Interpersonal.  Again I organize by color for quick reference. By tracking these you’ll see if you’ve maybe gotten super angsty and your readers or characters might need an emotional break, etc.

Distinguishing characteristics table - if you have a lot of characters to keep track of, create a table for their characteristics. Include things like: Strengths, weaknesses, fighting style, fighting weight class, sexual orientation, habits, speech patterns, thing they’ll refuse to do, etc. This’ll help you maybe characters who are otherwise very similar unique.

Knowledge In/Out table - for really complicated plot points I’ll make a table that organizes per scene/chapter all the requisite knowledge the characters must have going into the scene and all the new knowledge (that is necessary for a future plot point) that the character must gain. This is helpful for organizing your foreshadowing.

Timeline vs Outline - if you’re presenting content in a non-chronological fashion, I can’t stress enough the importance of having a timeline of events as distinct from your plot outline.

My basic routine for writing content

Write some basic dialogue - This creates a skeleton for the scene and it reminds you what the hell is happening if you’re bouncing around.

Insert minimal descriptions of actions like “he said”

Write some short paragraphs giving insight into the characters’ thoughts, feelings, motivations.

Add major physical events like the basic structure of a fight, sex scene, or if you really need for character A to end up holding object B.

Add more actions that bridge the gap between dialogue and/or major events.

Write more dialogue that addresses the details of the actions you’ve just created.

Add physical description/setting (I expect most people do this earlier).

Read through what you’ve got so far asking yourself questions like: 

Are the characters acting in character? 

Are the characters acting rationally? 

Are the characters acting in a way that reflects the emotional trauma that they’re going through? 

Am I writing myself into a corner? 

Do I know how I could resolve the conflict that exists in this part of the story?

Do all of the scenes serve a purpose?

Before you start finalizing a scene, ask yourself if you’ve made the content unrealistic in your attempt to make the story easier on yourself. I can’t tell you how many times I rewrote large pieces of story because I was nearly done with a section and thought “But in real life people aren’t this lucky.”

Reread your work in whatever order you want while asking the who, what, where, why, how. And add bits as needed to answer those questions.

Skim the text looking for *** (see below for tip) that need replacing and areas that need segues.

Read through from beginning to end looking for continuity problems and subjects that need more elaboration.

Proofread/final pass.

General Tips

If you’re in the middle of writing and you can’t think of the next sentence, witty retort, paragraph, or how to end the section, just type *** and keep moving. Don’t let yourself get bogged down. That’s a sure fire way to get frustrated and discouraged. Later on you can tackle it with fresh eyes.

You can use coincidences to get your characters into trouble, but try like hell to avoid using coincidences to get them out of trouble. Laziness is only forgivable a few times, so use it wisely.

Know where you’re going, but stay flexible on how you get there. For example, as you write your story you’ll become more and more familiar with your characters and after awhile you might realize that something you’d been planning doesn’t make sense for them anymore. Don’t panic and don’t let your character just waltz into an OOC moment. Take a little time to figure out how to sufficiently motivate your character back on track towards your goal.

Pick themes/philosophical questions and remind yourself of them throughout the writing process. A few major themes for J&F were: What does it mean to be good? How do you balance responsibilities? Learning to accept oneself.

Make music playlists for specific characters, pairings, settings, events (like fight scenes). That way you have a quick way to get yourself back into a particular mood/mindset. I had ~20 playlists that I listened to while writing J&F in order to make it easier to write so many different characters and scenarios.

Draw from your experience. Even if you haven’t fought monsters, you’ve probably experienced many of the feelings/emotions that the character is feeling (fear, helplessness, determination, uncertainty, etc)

Rules and systems exist to make things easier, but you don’t always need to follow them. Sometimes you just need to throw balance out the window and hit the readers with an unrelenting string of angst.  

Lastly, sometimes fuck ups happen. I miss steps or overlook things all the time. But the nice thing is that your readers probably aren’t going to notice. Just roll with the punches and keep at it.

Hope this is helpful. Feel free to message me if you want to talk about writing, supernatural, or pretty much anything.

[braith-eisen-isms]

Get-to-know the Writer

Thanks to @zsweber-studios for tagging me in this! It looks like a lot of fun!

Rules: tag 5 or more other writers. If you aren’t tagged, feel free to use these questions anyway and consider yourself tagged!

1. Short stories, novels, or poems? I’ve been told I write some fairly decent poetry, but I personally really don’t enjoy doing it. 

Novels are my main focus, but mine tend to get a little too big to write easilly, so I’m trying to branch out and write two novella’s this year. On top of study, this and everything else in my life. So no pressure.

It’s going good though, I have two solid ideas and one is almost a third of the way to being complete. And if I just get one finished this year I’ll still be happy!

2. What genre do you prefer reading? Fantasy definitely. My favorite books at the moment are definitely The Red Knight by Miles Cameron (if you love Knights fighting monsters this is the book for you, Cameron really knows his armour), and Promise of Blood by Brian Mcellan, the French revolution with magic and the book that really inspired me to start writing my own gunpowder fantasy novel! (I had already started when I first read it, but it really inspired me to keep going!)

3. What genre do you prefer writing? All kinds of fantasy. I love mixing up and messing with the genre though, I don’t generally write your ‘typical’ high or low fantasy. My big novel project is to create a Fantasy Epic inspired by the Thirty Years War (In essence it’d be like Game of Thrones/ASOIAF with gunpowder.I’m also very fond of Science Fiction, but I haven’t done too much on that front in years... Might have to change that.

4. Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person? Both! I love to plan out how a world works, to make it feel lived in and real. And if I can’t write the main story for a lack of inspiration or whatever then I might just do some world building or planning.

But I only give myself a skeleton plan, the rest of the time I go where the muse takes me!

5. What music do you listen to while writing?

I love Metal and Rock. I always have and I always will. But when I write I actually listen to classical music and movie soundtracks for the most part. I listened to more metal back when I wrote Sci Fi, but Classical and soundtracks really put me in the mood for fantasy.

And yes, the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack features quite heavily in my writing playlists.

6. Fave books/movies? For movies I have a handful of true favorites. Naturally all three Lord of the Rings movies sit pretty high on this list (and how could they not!) As does the original Star Wars trilogy. Other than that I love Kingdom of Heaven (historical innacuracies aside), and Zulu (not least because of the major lack of historical innacuracies. Also despite being such an awesome movie you probably couldn’t make anything like it today unfortunately). And special mentions to Dunkirk and The Darkest Hour, two absolutely beautiful movies depicting the darkest days of the Second World War.

As for books, I’ve pretty much mentioned my favorites already (The Red Knight and Promise of Blood, and their respective series), but another honourable mention needs to go to the Skulduggery Pleasant Books!

Also a recent discovery is the Apocalypse: Diary of a Survivor series by Matt J Pike, he’s a local author and it’s set in the city I live in! (I think I died though, a comet didn’t land on my house but a tidal wave hits my suburb :/ if only I lived a couple of streets down I was on the very edge of this apocalpyse!)

7. Any current WIPs? With TRRA done I’ve kind of put a stop to writing fics on here for the time being as I have two Novella’s on the workbench and a novel. If that sounds insane, that’s probably because it is.

8. If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

Now I have a reputation for loving history and being a bit of a re-enactor, that would definitely have to go into my style.

If it was a kids cartoon I’d be the guy wearing the ‘knight helmet’ in the background, but otherwise wears normal clothes all the time. The helmet never comes off.

If it was a more serious cartoon I’d like to have a sword or even my chainmail become a part of my character. The mail is really heavy but I’d wear it more often if I had more undertunics, and practiced fighting more...

Other than that, boots and cargo pants/shorts would probably be my outfit on the side.

Or full medieval garb. Depending on when/ where it’s set.

9. Create a character description for yourself: Now this is a tough one... Here goes.

He was tall and solidly built, with a short crop of fiery hair and a ruddy face. With long arms and more often than not a slouched stance. While a jolly smile always seemed to be on his lips. In fact, despite his relative youth he had something like the air of a jolly uncle about him.

10. Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing? In High School I wrote a Sci Fi novel, by the time I was in Year 10, my entire Year 8 class featured in the novel in some way or another, largely at their own insistance.

I wound up killing a lot of them off, because it’s hard to track that many named characters. No one cared.

More recently I don’t tend to incorporate people into my characters too much. Sometimes I’ll put bits and pieces, but it’s more likely to be mannerisms than anything else for the most part.

I put myself in there a lot though. Or bits of me.

My first novella has pretty much a self insert. Aside from the fact he was crippled in a hunting accident.

11. Are you kill-happy with characters? Not without a reason. I’ve been told in my big novel I need to kill more of the characters off, but I’ve planned out a whole series so I can’t kill them all off yet.

12. Dream job? Definitely being an author. I’d settle for part time writing part time teaching quite happily though.

13. Coffee or tea while writing? Hot chocolate. I’ve never really liked tea or coffee. Except the local brand of iced coffee because that stuff is amazing.

14. Slow or fast writer? Sometimes I’m as slow as a snail. Others... Well my novella more than doubled in size over the past fortnight and I haven’t written anything in the past four days.

15. Where/who/what do you find inspiration from? Where don’t I find inspiration?

The real world, particularly real world history is a HUGE inspiration for me. I love incorporating the weird and wacky bits of history into my stories.

Also everything I’ve ever read has probably influenced me on some level. My favorite authors in particular have done a tonne.

And some of my favorite RPers as well, because they’re basically just unpaid authors, sadly (looking at you @miss-pyrrha-nikos-isms)

16. If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be? I will 100% be either a storytelling knight or the most absent minded wizard you have ever seen.

Either way I’ll be the jolly, big guy in the group. Who probably dies at the end for dramatic effect. :/

Although Hagrid didn’t die in Harry Potter so it’s not too set in stone.

17. Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche? Yet another tough one

My most favorite cliche would probably have to be the heroic last stand. I love them, I love writing them. Even if I feel dead inside if my favorite character dies in the stand. There’s something so powerful about it.

Least favorite is easilly forced romance. If there isn’t any chemistry between two characters and you throw them together because they’re your two leading characters... Also can we agree to write more wholesome relationships rather than driving a relationship through the mud to create more drama for the characters. Unless it’s a romance book because that’s their thing (to my knowledge, I’ve never read one... Unless 1984 counts... Most romantic line ever said in a book: The first time I saw you, I wanted to bash your head in with a brick.)

18. Fave places to write: At my desk. Usually around 11pm for some reason.

19. Fave scenes to write? Whatever the muse decides. Although I love battle scenes. I need to be at my A game to write them though.

20. Most productive time of day for writing? 11pm.

21. Reason for writing: I am, and always have been (since I could talk) a storyteller. It’s not that I choose to write, it’s that I have to.

Now I think aside from @hothead-carr-hayes Zack has tagged all my main writing friends on here. But if I’m forgetting you (sorry!) feel free to tag yourself!

[driftingglass]

Weird 92 Question Thing. Not Important. Just Random.

Been tagged by a lot of random people and I’m taking a brief break from writing and totally being smart about not going to sleep yet with my 5:00 AM schedule starting tomorrow...

Anyway.

THE LAST:

1. Drink: Green tea.

2. Phone call: My therapist.

3. Text: A person who honestly shouldn’t be texting me.

4. Song you listened to: Too many songs to list here. I’ve created a playlist for NaNoWriMo that’s almost one hundred songs in length, so... that monster track. Instrumental, EDM, J-pop (usually theme songs from anime shows), classical, random remixes, film/game/television show tracks...

5. Time you cried: Today. Whoops.

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: Yes.

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Um. Somewhat.

8. Been cheated on: Yep.

9. Lost someone special: Everyone has.

10. Been depressed: Hasn’t everyone at some point...? Some worse than others, of course, but this is a pretty standard question.

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Never.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: Navy blue, indigo, teal, burgundy, silver, coral. (Changes frequently).

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: I’ve made friendships this past year that have changed my life. Very humbled and kind of flabbergasted about it. Blows my mind.

16. Fallen out of love: Yes. 

17. Laughed until you cried: Not that I can remember, no.

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Sure.

19. Met somebody who changed you: Yes.

20. Found out who your friends are: Um?

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Haha, well, they’re not that list anymore, exactly.

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: I dunno, some of them?

23. Do you have any pets: My siblings have a dog and two cats. I have none. But I like those pets when I see them, most of the time.

24. Do you want to change your name: Nah.

25: What did you do for your last birthday: Maybe something mildly interesting? Can’t remember.

26. What time did you wake up: 5:00 AM.

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Talking to a friend on the phone, polishing up writing, then trying to sleep unsuccessfully.

28. Name something you cant wait for: I’m going to my first concert ever on the 25th and I could not be more excited and amazed. I honestly can’t even wrap my head around it still...

29. When was the last time you saw your mom: Huh...

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: Not sure if I’m in the mood to answer this rather loaded question. You take what you have, you learn from what happens, and you progress further into life with a mindset that’s open to changing, growing and developing from these occurrences. That’s how I’ll answer this, I guess.

31: What are you listening to right now: My NaNoWriMo playlist. But this song, specifically.

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Nah.

33. Some thing that is getting on your nerves: Selfish assholes hurting the few people who I hold close and dear. Fuck ‘em.

34: Most visited website: YouTube, HubSpot, Tumblr, AO3...

35. mole/s: *Blinks*

36: mark/s: I have a small birthmark on the bridge of my nose, scars and callouses, bare/raw spots of skin on my knuckles and thumbs, and freckles.

37: Childhood dream: Novelist, movie critic, traveling journalist, paleontologist, marine biologist, architect, graphic designer, painter, artist, screenwriter, editor, film director, cinematographer...

38: Hair color: Auburn. Reddish-brown. Whatever.

39: long or short hair: Long.

40: Do u have a crush on anyone: Nope. It happens once in a blue moon. Like, the bluest fucking moon.

41: What do you like about yourself?: Hahahaha--

42. Piercings: Nope. Not even ear piercings.

43. Blood type: I don’t remember, but this is probably something I should know...

44. Nickname: Squeakums, Dani, Buttons, Tay, Scottish Goblin (by me, :P) and Freckles.

45. Relationship status: Single! 

46. Zodiac: Uh... Gemini Sun, Leo Moon?

47. Pronouns: She | Her.

48: Favorite tv shows: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Hunter x Hunter, Westworld, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood...

50. Right or left hand: I have both, thanks.

51. Surgery: Hm. Ask me another time.

52. Hair dyed in a different color: Nah. You went from asking about surgery to hair color? 

53: Sport: Tennis, crossfit, distance running, and yoga.

55. Vacation: Last amazing “vacation” was when I left the country to go to Europe. Was a worthwhile experience I’ll never forget. I want to go back.

56: Pair of trainers: Nike, yo. Wear them pretty much every day.

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Nothing. Sometimes I forget. Ugh.

58. Drinking: Water.

59. I’m about to: Finish editing and hopefully sleep.

61: Waiting for: ...

62: Want: So. Many. Things. Wish I could actually summarize everything coherently onto one post, but... that would take way too long. 

63. Get married: Nah. I’m content.

64. Career: Too many dream careers to count, but I’m very lucky at the moment. Copywriting and content writing is the main thing at the moment.

WHICH IS BETTER:

65. Hugs or kisses: Neither? If you hug me, man, we must be inseparable friends who’ve known each other for at least two years. And if you’re kissing me, I would hope that we’re dating. If not, get the hell away, ya weirdo. I have no preference for either. I tolerate hugs from my best friends only, pretty much.

66. Lips or eyes: Eyes. Definitely. Probably the most intimate and naturally beautiful aspect of any human, in my opinion. 

67. Shorter or taller: Taller. 

68. Older or younger: Same age or a couple years older.

70. nice arms or nice stomach: I’m shallow, I guess, and too picky for my own good... athleticism is nice. But, no one should care unless it’s a health hazard. 

71: sensitive or loud: Both and neither?

72. Hook up or relationship: Relationship or nothing at all. Honestly doesn’t cross my mind unless I form some kind of attachment and general platonic understanding/relationship with the person first. Hookups have never been of interest, and never will be.

73. troublemaker or hesitant: Oh I’m such a rebel. *Turns up the volume on TV to just over twelve notches.* See? I’m being a rowdy neighbor. (... I’m turbulent as fuck, okay?)

HAVE YOU EVER:

74: Kissed a stranger: Nope. Strangers have tried to kiss me, though. Was not pleasant.

75. Lost glasses / contact lens: Nope.

76. Turned someone down: Not that I know of.

78. Sex on the first date: No.

79. Had your heart broken: Absolutely.

80. Broken someone’s heart: Yes.

81. Been arrested: Nope.

82. Cried when someone died: One time.

83. fallen for a friend: I’ve only fallen for my friends. Both relationships I’ve had started as friendships. This makes it better and so much worse at the same time.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. yourself: If I said yes, I’d be lying. It’s a process.

85. Miracles: No.

86. Love at first sight: Nope. 

87. Santa Claus: No.

OTHER:

90. current best friend name: Not gonna disclose that here.

91. Eye color: Brown.

92. favorite movie: My current favorite movies (off the top of my head) are Your Name, Whiplash and Baby Driver. This is always an almost-impossible question.

[serendipitousoracle]

Mixtape n wardrobe for like... ALL the ocs?

[♡ OC ask meme ♡]

i will give you six (6) ocs.

Egeire Mahariel:

mixtape: 5 songs that describe your OC(s) or songs they themselves would like

1. “Love Love Love” - Of Monsters And Men (basically The song for Egeire/Zevran tbh. love and reluctance and duty and fear and pining, which eventually breaks down as despite it all they keep getting in deeper and deeper until Egeire finally goes fuck this and for once decides not to sacrifice everything he wants to hold onto)

2. “Rather Be” - Clean Bandit (happy fluffy love song for Eg’s sweet, loyal attachment to various love interests. he is devoted and adoring and when he is with the one he loves he would never want to be anywhere else)

3. “Wolves Without Teeth” - Of Monsters And Men (wqieujb?? devotion and consumption and non-physical wounds idk how to explain)

4. idk. something emo? and then instead insert “Not Gonna Die” - Skillet bc it’s really the message Egeire should be taking home

5. and then as throwback to something he’d like maybe smth Gorillaz or Disturbed just for “smth that would probably be on Egeire’s music playlists somewhere“

wardrobe:what’s your OC’s style like?                                  

In DA-centric universes Egeire ends up becoming fairly all-or-nothing re: clothing. at the end of the Blight, into Warden-Commanderdom, and to some extent post-Wardenhood, he is either in full armor and weaponry (with some extra flash and ideally some small piece of elfiness in the Awakening period), or when he is completely alone and not paranoid and with people he trusts in a space he feels safe in, he is wearing like comfortable loose-fitting pants and that’s about it.

In more modern AUs Egeire wears more like… practical clothes, probably? flannel and open button-ups over tank tops with sturdy pants and tough boots, whatever clothes have been Gifted to him over the years, annnnnd at-home muscly shirtlessness with loose sweatpants

Also he looks so great in lace

Under Cut: Egeria Surana, Flytter the Junior Historian, Cyrron Mirevas, Soveliss Liadon, Grey Surana

Egeria Surana

mixtape: 5 songs that describe your OC(s) or songs they themselves would like

1. “Arms” - Christina Perri (still p much the First and Most Egeria/Alistair song. being Wardens is one rough thing and then the elven mage and the bastard prince is harder still. it works out in the end, but….)

2. “Retrograde” - James Blake (ouch that isolation and your friends are gone, and your friends won’t come, so show me where you fit. i’ll wait, so show me why you’re strong– i’ll wait, we’re alone now)

3. “You May Be Right” - Billy Joel (whoops it’s The DenRia Song)

4. “Beth’s Theme” (Broadchurch OST) - Ólafur Arnalds(Ria’s canon is just so like…. sad. unintentionally sad. quietly, wordlessly sad.)

5. “Stolen Dance” - Milky Chance / “Budapest” - Georga Ezra / “Break Stuff” - Limp Bizkit (just kind of misc songs for Ria Chilling Around The House)

wardrobe:what’s your OC’s style like?

DA: a mix of aesthetic robes and practical ones, some with long flowing pieces and embroidered flowers that gradually transition to black dust, wearing her mage blood and magic specialties quite literally on her sleeve, some that are more armor than robe (bc spellsword/arcane warrior) but with elements of robes nonetheless. Dresses more lightly in private for ease of movement, with fur shawls and fine shoes and all. may be talked into some sort of short top + long skirt look by her fawning husband. in private.

Modern: light blouses and either loose-ish pants or long skirts, fond of flower motifs, plenty of like cardigans and soft jackets and things that generally perfect that sweet and trustworthy and caring outward demeanor she wields like empathy made tangible and precise. also has regular graphic tees and jeans for gardening.

Flytter

mixtape: 5 songs that describe your OC(s) or songs they themselves would like

1. “Little Talks” - Of Monsters And Men (grief is what drives Flytter from home to wrap themself up entirely in their work… for better or worse, despite the best wishes of those who cared about them)

2. “Non-Stop”, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”, … - Hamilton the Musical (um excuse me if somebody made a musical about Egeire Mahariel/WAWsquad/The Fifth Blight Hero you fucking know Flytter would be all over that)

3. “Radioactive” - Imagine Dragons (radioactivity… lingering Blight corruption… same difference, right?)

4. “Heavy In Your Arms” - Florence + the Machine (not entirely happy with this pick but struggling to find something for just– that kind of background gnawing of the slow, slow, painful death seeping into their being, the constant pain and the losing fight to the ebb of the corruption and their inability to keep it effectively treated or soothed or just. nesdfds.)

5. “Beyond the Veil” - Lindsey Stirling (trippy instrumentals for recording things and remembering dreams? sure why not. clear Veil joke? woo!)

wardrobe:what’s your OC’s style like?

.DA: robes, again. robes with a focus on complete head-to-toe coverage and not irritating rough patches of skin or what not too much. Something comfortable enough to sleep in. Not really much variety once they lock themself away in Kinloch Hold rebuilt.

Modern: light shirts tied up and semi-professional vests and the ability to quickly create a skirt in any situation when they need to really move in a hurry

Cyrron Mirevas

mixtape: 5 songs that describe your OC(s) or songs they themselves would like

1. “Enemies” - Shinedown (i didn’t even have to think about this one everyone hates Cyrron except like…. you jay. only you. everyone else goes ‘ew’ or ‘why are his eyes sockets not full of sharp/sharp-ish utensils’ when i bring him up. only you cheer when he shows up or hand him over to tentacle monsters but)

2. “Simple Man” - Lynyrd Skynyrd (and the complete flipside– a simple kind of man, not rushing, revering the gods, settling down with a bondmate and having children… it was the life Cyrron intended to live, not exactly a soft or warm or gentle man by any means, but a simple man. Then he lost everything, and survived Vir Banal’ras, and we have present day Cyrron.)

3. “The Dalish Elves Encampment” - Dragon Age: Origins OST, or something (this is basically a placeholder to state: what do you think super traditional Dalish elf music sounds like? for Ferelden Dalish if you want to get specific maybe. Basically, whatever Traditional Dalish Music is, that is all Cyrron himself cares to listen to. That’s it. He hoards it. maybe even plays an instrument. the world will never know.)

4. i swear to god i’m not putting “Closer” on this list SO HOW ABOUT THAT BODIES SONG HUH IT’S SUPER MURDERY N STUFF

5. “Indestructible” - Disturbed (fitting, since it was on Egeire’s list, and he definitely got that from somewhere. really, Cyrron is indestructible to a point that even upsets himself until all the venom he sank into others finally comes back to flood his veins)

wardrobe:what’s your OC’s style like?

DA: Armor. Sturdy Dalish armor, long updated and cycled through with parts, blades on hand at all times, each meticulously well-kept and menacingly. The only time he’s not in armor is if he’s for some reason in disguise to get closer to someone to kill them.

Modern: ranges from business semi-casual to business ultra-formal and nowhere below that range, at least not for wearing out in the daylight. Cyrron mostly has his crisp dress shirts and pressed black slacks and all that easy “I am wealthy and important and you don’t need to know what I do for a living” class, even despite the clear vallaslin, but he also has a variety of tougher garb and more lowkey clothing for when his real line of work comes calling in the night for a slit throat or a poisoned drink.

Soveliss Liadon

mixtape: 5 songs that describe your OC or songs they themselves would like

1. “Addicted to Love” - Florence + the Machine (possibly the earliest defining song for my vague thoughts of ‘Soveliss and his feylock patron’. Soveliss insists he knows what he’s doing! He just has to keep his wits around him! … gods, though, he is so lonely.)

2. “Carousel” - Melanie Martinez (have I mentioned Sov is really super doomed? And it’s all fun and games/‘Til somebody falls in love/But you’ve already bought a ticket/And there’s no turning back now)

3. “Believer” - Imagine Dragons, & “Whispers in the Dark” - Skillet (the main brain-chewing songs for fiendlock!au Soveliss)

4. “Dust Bowl Dance” and “Broken Crown” - Mumford & Sons (hypothetical #mood for potential Angry parts of potential Soveliss character/story arc “You haven’t met me, I am the only son.”)

5. “A Martyr for My Love for You” - The White Stripes (i’m just saying if anybody else dies before we finish this adventure Sov is gonna start getting real antsy about forming attachments to normal, mortal people)

Bonus 6. Welp. (a ghost monk floats through Soveliss’ room as Sov puts up a bard band poster up in his room in the monastery like “soooooovelllllissssss whaaaat isssss thissss” and teenage Sov is just Instantly Teenage Annoyed “MUSIC, JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, IS CHANGING, DAD” (all the monks in the monastery are Dad sov has like 2 dozen dads it’s a time))

BONUS 2 EDIT EDITION: i forgot “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” - Florence + the Machine was also a Sov inspiration song whoops

wardrobe:what’s your OC’s style like?

D&D: Soveliss at the moment generally has his greyscale Acolyte of Kelemvor robes/garb, some dark leather armor, maybe some shiny beads or baubles, and his gorgeous blond hair (it is probably literally enchanted t b h), buuuut he has no real exposure to like….. choice of clothing let alone fashion. idk we’ll see if aub ever gets us somewhere cool where I can get him a truly art-worthy outfit or if he dies first i guess.

Modern: ????????????

Grey Surana

mixtape: 5 songs that describe your OC(s) or songs they themselves would like

1. “Stray Italian Greyhound” - Vienna Teng (whoops first song is a Grey/Tamaris song. but: Grey is every bit the tongue-tied hopeless romantic that Egeire is, except he somehow works himself up about it even harder bc in a way Grey can be summed up as Eg But Extra (i love this song tho))

2. “I of the Storm” - Of Monsters And Men (wh o o ps it’s another Grey/Tam song. but it is also a good sort of song for Grey’s general insecurities, still carried over if reflected differently from Egeire’s. not measuring up. not being loved. feeling trapped. are you really gonna love me when i’m gone? are you really gonna need me when i’m gone? i fear you won’t; i fear you don’t)

3. “In My Sleep” - Mystery Skulls (can’t find a good video but you can’t do this like i do/i fucking wrote this in my sleep is just. 1. it mostly inspired an au. 2. take Egeire’s mild peacock tendencies and turn them up to fucking 11 and you might start to approach Grey levels of pride and showboating. tempted to put “Magic” on this list but just. it’s so great. just go look it up.)

4. “Through Glass” - Stone Sour (something quieter. bringing back that feeling of isolation from Ria, but a bit more self-imposed– putting up walls of glass to keep a distance from everything and ending up sitting alone inside his own head, which really could account for a lot of his doubts. a negative feedback loop of sorts. but he is so used to it.)

5. “Work Song” - Hozier / “Iris” - Goo Goo Dolls / “Rather Be” - Clean Bandit (just some more love songs for the hopeless romantic bc I’m p sure I’ve spent like 8 hours on this ask and I’m dead now)

wardrobe:what’s your OC’s style like?

DA: so fashionable. whether he’s the Circle Ambassador or the Warden-Commander, Grey is dedicated to keeping up with trends and edging out ahead of them where he can. It’s a careful balance to keep, neither being so compliant as to be invisible or stepping so far out of line that he’s branded “outsider“ again, but he loves it. Grey is all about politics, wealth, luxury, prestige– whatever the Circle and the Chantry wanted to deny him, he will take, one way or another.

Modern: so fashionable. if it’s In he is at least looking into getting his hands on it, if he doesn’t already have it. as the Circle is traded out for more like…. slicksharp white collar big business laddering-climbing type ambition, so too are robes traded for suits, and so some manner of dress shirt + jacket/blazer/etc + slacks/dress pants/etc becomes his norm. Whether he’s climbing or charming or sleeping his way to the top, he enjoys surrounding himself with luxury and learning how to take advantage of it.Is still a sweetheart who looks nice in lace though.

[entergamingxp]

Song of Horror is a quietly inventive homage to survival horror’s glory days • Eurogamer.net

What does safety sound like in a game? We spend a lot of time as players thrilling over compositions and effects that get the adrenaline flowing – spectral piano, frantic violins, ambient mitherings that might, if you’re very lucky, just be a broken aircon – but what about the compositions and effects that soothe and reassure? The Resident Evil series is full of them: bundle together every last Save Room melody and you’ve got a half-decent yoga playlist, though I’d probably chuck in some Okami or whatever to lift the mood. Gears of War has that satisfied guitar purr when you’ve winkled out every last Locust. The Sunless games have their port themes, wafted to you from off-screen like smoke on the breeze – music indeed to the captain coasting home on their last few lumps of coal.

And what of Song of Horror, Protocol’s absorbing homage to the Silent Hills and Alone in the Darks of yesteryear? In Song of Horror, safety is a soft tap, right on the edge of hearing, like somebody very carefully setting down a glass. All being well, you’ll hear it after a few seconds when you put your ear to a door. The tap, which surely represents a lot of calculation on the part of the audio designer, is a vital cue in a game where silence has many textures. Sometimes, silence sounds like silence. And sometimes, it sounds… bonier. Squelchier. As though you had your ear pressed against a misbehaving stomach. In which case, opening that door is… unwise. Better to switch to your map screen, work out another route, and hope like hell that when next you put your ear to a door, the tap is all you can hear.

Now three of five episodes in, Song of Horror is a third-person, combat-free spookfest with automatic camera perspectives and a refreshing taste for the procedural. Players rove dark, abandoned buildings solving puzzles while evading various ambient threats known collectively as the Presence. Snooping at doors is crucial because said threats – which kill off characters forever, should you fail the associated QTEs – are ever-changing, assuming different forms at different times in different places, based on a mixture of loose scripting and monitoring of player behaviour. You’re hurrying down some stairs, brandishing a candlestick like the shotgun you sorely wish you had, when oily black handprints blossom all over the walls. You’re inspecting a desk when something bandaged and breathy pops up on the other side of it, snuffling for your blood.

Who exactly you’re playing is one of the more important variables, though not, I think, as decisive as it should be. There are four character stats, Serenity, Strength, Speed and Stealth, which lightly skew the odds ahead – the first two determine how difficult it is beat those QTEs, while Stealth appears to set the basic probability of an encounter triggering in any given room. More substantially, choice of character alters the mood of the space you’re in, as each character describes each interactive object a different way – a quietly surprising flourish that hasn’t been developed to the full. Last year I wrote about how it feels to return to Resident Evil 2’s police station in different games, the phantom-limb disquiet of finding familiar objects altered or removed, old rooms expanded or sewn shut. Song of Horror is also about the relentless return of a space, a space that both has a mind of its own and is gently (re)characterised by the poor souls doomed to roam it.

Each episode stars a different building and gives you three or four characters to play with, some (providing they survive) carried over between episodes. Lose a character and you must try again with the next, retracing their steps to gather up the items they were carrying and the bloody, bitten-off threads of whatever riddle they were unravelling. The first is set in the gloomy mansion home of a novelist, Sebastian Husher, whose disappearance owes something to the music box you can hear, warbling away behind the skirting boards. You might begin here as Sophie van Denend, an art dealer searching for her ex-husband. Sophie comes armed with scented candles, useful for creating a calm atmosphere that minimises the chances of an icky manifestation. She can also name and date the house’s ominous paintings, some of which play a role in puzzles.

The robust and heavy-drinking Alexander Laskin, meanwhile, is one of the Husher family’s housekeepers. He lacks Sophie’s book smarts, but he understands each painting’s history within the house, remembering where they used to hang and how it felt to work around them. Security technician Alina Ramos is a stranger to both the Hushers and fine art, but she does know how to deactivate a door alarm, and has plenty to say about the house’s former occupants based on her own family background.

In changing characters the character of the building changes, which makes killing people off essential to appreciation of Song of Horror, as morbid as that may seem. Sadly, the script isn’t that hot, and the voice-acting is B-movie to the hilt (there’s an English character who sounds like he’s doing a drunken impression of Eddie Izzard’s drunken impression of James Mason), but the game gets enough out of its relatively unusual ensemble premise to keep you guessing. You only need to keep one particular character alive between episodes to progress the story – a run-of-the-mill Lovecraftian race to determine the origins of a cursed artefact – so feel free to let the odd person go for the sake of variety. Characters don’t quite vanish when the Presence snaffles them, mind you. There’s never a body, but the victim may linger on in other ways.

Song of Horror’s obvious strength is its architecture and interior design, which spurns the genre’s beloved impossible geometry in favour of good old-fashioned sense-of-place. The Husher estate is smaller, but every bit as intricate as Resident Evil’s legendary Umbrella mansion, and rather less silly of structure. It’s divided between the housekeepers’ quarters, a winding basement, a small library, an office, bedrooms, creepy playrooms – there’s a dollshouse that uncannily resembles the one you’re in – and a mouldering attic. Episode 2 takes you to an antique shop with an eerie fairground attraction in the lobby, backing out onto apartments where the owner and his daughter live. The quality of the interior design is heightened by solid camera composition: think views from a ceiling corner, as though your fly on the wall were the Babadook, and head-on tracking shots that deny you a clear look at what awaits you down the hall. A little disappointingly, the university in episode 3 consists of three, separately loading departments rather than a persistent space, but it does contain one terrific puzzle that troubles the border between image and reality.

The puzzles are gentle, quite varied, and mostly intuitive: good and bad, they exist to keep you shuttling back and forth between the far corners of the layout, in the face of the Presence’s efforts to box you in or scare you off. Many are just about combining objects (which can be rotated in the pause screen to reveal clues) in mildly eccentric ways. Some are numbers-based, others see you matching telltale details in documents to things like library signs. There’s perhaps one puzzle that is just plain annoying, a meandering riddle left for you by a smug professor (as with dialogue lines like “not another fetchquest?!” having characters call a puzzle irritating in the game does not actually lessen the irritation). The puzzles are best when they symbolise some element of the story being played out, and when they work with or against the structure that contain them. The dollhouse, inevitably, is more than it seems.

Song of Horror’s greatest weakness is, alas, probably the Presence itself. It’s oppressive indeed when out of view, because you’re always wondering when it will show up. You learn to time its appearances, and there’s nothing like the dread when you’re close to completing an episode but overdue a reckoning. The Presence’s actual manifestations aren’t that startling, however – think skellingtons and tentacles – and the problem with this being a procedural affair is that you quickly start to think of the scares as mechanical moving parts. The QTEs are as divisive as QTEs tend to be. I’d rather not spoil either the specific dangers or how you escape from them, but suffice to say you can expect button-bashing and rhythm-matching. The latter bits led to the game being all but unplayable over the winter, thanks to a performance bug that made it impossible to keep time; thankfully, this seems to have been fixed.

Song of Horror’s spooks aren’t quite worthy of the build-up, then, but isn’t that true of every monster, once it has shambled into the spotlight? The quality of the game’s location design, together with the not-quite-realised potential of its ensemble premise, make it something more than a Greatest Hits. It’s like a collection of planetary fragments that has mustered enough gravity to form a brand new planet. I’m looking forward to episode 4, out at the end of the month, which takes place in a ruined medieval abbey. Who knows what lurks behind those ancient doors? Better listen extra-carefully for the tap. Mind you, fostering a sense of security is one of the more devious tools in the horror designer’s arsenal. Perhaps where this game’s safer flavours of silence are concerned, the other shoe is still waiting to drop.

Song of Horror is out now on PC, and coming to PS4 and Xbox One this year.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/song-of-horror-is-a-quietly-inventive-homage-to-survival-horrors-glory-days-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=song-of-horror-is-a-quietly-inventive-homage-to-survival-horrors-glory-days-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[djzena]

Alice Cooper's Prime 10 Halloween Songs To Die For Video

Every Halloween, darkish, vacation-themed background music emanates from the windows of countless households making an attempt to scare the daylights out of all the little children. Whereas many Zombie tracks would match on this list, we think Dwelling Dead Lady” is the quintessential Zombie Halloween music. The truth is, whatever really occurs in the song Marquee Moon” might as nicely be taking place on Halloween. Beneath now we have listed our Halloween Prime 5 charts that should provide you with inspiration and enjoyment whatever your plans! It nonetheless sounds creepy and strange now; one of the all-time iconic theme tunes - and it received the last word seal of approval from somebody who is aware of about these things, when Mike Oldfield combined it in with Tubular Bells , creating the final word Halloween mashup. Nursery Rhymes and Songs to Help Counting (PDF) - Learn these nursery rhymes to learn counting from 1 to 10. I have rewritten them a bit on the Halloween Music Lyrics web page to make them extra clear in trendy English. Just the band's title is sufficient to give some individuals a fright, and those with faint-of-heart music taste would certainly discover Jekyll and Hyde” as scary as, say, The Exorcist. The thought of zombies proved too much for my young, fragile thoughts on the time but now it's completely different. It's the single observe that's most related to Halloween shenanigans and general good occasions. If you like listening to Halloween Radio Stations and wanna support us retaining the Halloween Mood alive, you possibly can help by visiting our sponsors. If you're planning to throw a Halloween party for women solely, the track Flesh With out Blood” will enhance your girls' moods. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Sarah was a mandolin virtuoso at a young age, and began performing with skilled musicians on the tender age of 12. Her stark mandolin and banjo ballads function a bluegrass flair that provides lots of Sarah's songs a Southern Gothic quality. And madness is pretty scary to me. Editor's be aware: This tune was really written throughout Floyd's post-Syd era. Certain, it's the most well-liked Halloween song on YouTube by a substantial issue, but it surely's hardly the only music to get the Halloween bump. A basic animated double-function, one part of this film notably tells the story of the Headless Horseman—an ideal choose for a darkish Halloween night time. Due to that, they associate nursery rhymes with not solely funny rhymes however colourful pictures or imaginative hand movements so toddlers and preschoolers enhance their language skills and their confidence as they act out nursery rhymes. Ask anybody to name a Halloween song, and I'm willing to guess that after Monster mash, Thriller is the second most frequent choice. Was going to pop in ‘Lullaby' but thought it was an excessive amount of of an obvious alternative. Go to The Learning Station online where you may listen to track samples from our whole assortment of award-winning CD's! In true punk rock type, this music talks about conformity, however whereas also containing imagery of Halloween. The scary halloween music is a necessity to the Halloween occasion or other related actions. L.K. Alchin from Nursery Rhymes, Lyrics, and Origins discusses some of the violent and controversial origins. As a result of HIYA it's SJP with superior cleavage and it is spooky as hell from the film Hocus Pocus. And current nonsense rhymes that have been part of this oral custom may very well be used or tailored to make references to current events. The author might attempt to explain their rhymes — often enough, with a parody origin. Choose songs which might be enjoyable for you and are certain to be a success with the company at your subsequent Halloween party! Only a yr or so in the past I was in search of a nursery rhyme guide for her and I purchased a couple of however haven't been thrilled with them. Even if this hadn't been used on the soundtrack to one of many scariest horror motion pictures ever made, it could have been downright sinister on its own. This superior floating ghost found on Dump a Day would make an amazing ornament for a Halloween Get together and it is very easy to make. That is so neat that your son has experienced the magic and mystery of music by means of this little song. This dance basic was been given a monster makeover and remains a agency favourite with many membership-goers. High off your spooky mise en scène with our forty-track set, under, and be sure to subscribe to the Marie Claire Spotify profile for all one of the best playlists. Right here we provide you a list of Prime 5 Halloween songs and the songs for children which make you this day more memorable and Joyful. There's an adult-only party and costume contest scheduled for each Halloween on the Excessive Seas cruise. Counting rhymes similar to One, Two, Buckle My Shoe ” and One Potato, Two Potato” are nursery rhymes that teach numbers and counting to very young children. I think they'll undoubtedly be persevering with this this yr - the Halloween and costume parties had been a huge hit on our cruise, it might be sad in the event that they stopped them.

The 10 scary halloween songs here offered are picked from the Billboard's high halloween songs. Who is aware of the place he was when this befell, but you can't hearken to this track without getting creeped out just a little bit. Somewhere between the swagger of Labyrinth's Goblin King and the ravenous appetite of Bowie's vampiric character in The Starvation, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” is the perfect mixture of gore, glam, and Eighties glitz. From somebody like Alice Cooper, lyrics like Hope you bought your issues together / Hope you might be quite ready to die” may've sounded significantly ghoulish, though in Fogerty's Bayou-via-Bay Area drawl, it comes off extra like an uncle whose calls you should really let go to voicemail. Jack Skellington and firm sings concerning the joys of Halloween in Tim Burton's epic Disney movie. The Addams Family is a classic Halloween movie and the characters make for nice costume inspiration. Read Extra with some fashionable-yet-spooky tunes then Halloween Hipster is your best guess. Right this moment, the ' holiday ' is widely known by kids and adults dressing up in costumes and attending events, the place a number of nice Halloween songs are played, and traditionally numerous games are performed. The hippie vibes of Donovan's psychedelic rock may not appear scary but the music's appeared in every part from Halloween III to American Horror Story. Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies - Ask a mother or father to learn certainly one of these nursery rhymes or lullabies before bed time.