#look. look. i have no particular great love for canada in general

[silverandebony]

i'm sorry. TAGGING SASKATCHEWAN CANADA AS KANSAS SOUTHERN GOTHIC AND APPALACHIA????

TAGGING SASKATCHEWAN CANADA AS KANSAS SOUTHERN GOTHIC AND APPALACHIA*

*i misremembered and the one tagged with appalachia&appalachian gothic isn't Explicitly saskatchewan (all of the pictures with location captions are apparently from saskatchewan so i'd be inclined to guess it probably is too, but there's no way to know for sure). so who knows!! i don't know what appalachia looks like! maybe it IS appalachia! in which case why is it also tagged saskatchewan

[Image ids: three cropped screenshots of 'regional gothic' style tumblr picture posts and their tags. The first picture is a truck at an empty intersection with a hazy yellow sky; the second is part of a building mural depicting a nature scene with canada geese captioned 'rural saskatchewan'; the third is of the edge of a town on a foggy day, with old, short buildings fading into the mist, captioned 'uranium city, sk'. Tags common across all three posts are: ethel cain, southern gothic, regional gothic, rural gothic, midwestern gothic, kansas, and midwest. Two of them are tagged with 'gibson girl'. Additionally, the truck picture is tagged with appalachia, appalachian gothic, twin peaks, and hayden anhedonia; the mural picture is tagged with small town usa, small town, small town america, small town canada, great plains, prairies, prairie, and prairiecore; and the foggy town is tagged with 'ghost town, liminal, liminal spaces, and foggy day.

End id.]

I also went back to the blog to see if those posts were still there so I could take better screenshots (they weren't; hooray reporting things for spam) but upon further scrolling I realized that every tagged post. Every. Single. Post. With Tags. all of them. Are tagged with southern gothic and kansas and saskatchewan. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME. WHY ARE YOU USING ALL OF THEM THESE ARE NOT THE SAME

*coughs* anyway. Among all of these, in all their spammy mistagged glory, there is one I would like to give a special shout out to, for in my opinion being the most wildly tagged:

[Image id: another screenshot of a tumblr picture post. This one is a picture of a small motel with a rundown fence in the foreground. A colour filter has been used to make the picture look washed out and fit the regional gothic vibes. This picture has been tagged with: gibson girl, americana, appalachian gothic, midwest gothic, preacher's daughter, regional gothic, rural gothic, southern gothic, hayden anhedonia, ethel cain, nebraska, kansas, motelcore, appalachia, southern aesthetic, saskatchewan, alberta.

end id.]

Take a moment to appreciate it. Bask in its questionable glory. Allow yourself the time to question why?

I think it's the 'alberta' tag that really makes it for me here. The 'nebraska' as well. The latter I assume is from the title of one of Ethel Cain's songs, which would explain... to some degree... how it got there. Why 'alberta' though? Why this picture, out of all of them? Is it actually from Alberta? (It could be; I've seen similar looking things) If it's from Alberta, why is it also tagged 'saskatchewan'? 'kansas'? 'appalachia'? 'southern gothic'? Do not each of these preclude all others? If it's Saskatchewan or Albertan, why is it tagged 'americana'?? Is it for views??? If you want it seen, it's already got the tags! Regional and rural gothic are fine! They'll probably get you a lot more views than tagging something with a Canadian province ever will! I just. I don't understand. why. why have you done this. please stop. i'm begging skfjjsjfjj

in conclusion: tumblr has tagging etiquette and i am begging the young aesthetic bloggers to take a moment to learn it. it will save you so much being reported for spam and having your posts and or possibly your entire blog taken down because of it. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a blog to go report specifically because of this

[srbachchan]

DAY 5624

Jalsa, Mumbai              July 11/12,  2023               Tue/wed 4:09 AM     

🪔 .. July 12 .. birthday greetings to Ef Vijay Joglekar from Dombivali .. Ef M. Zaheer Sattar from Malawi 🇲🇼 .. Ef Dr. Pravin P Patel from Toronto Canada 🇨🇦 .. love and prayers for wellbeing from the Ef Family .. 🙏🏻🚩

‘ Sympathy ...you can get it from anybody ...but 'jealousy'...Boss u have to earn it.” ~

great words gifted from Ef Barun .. and how apt they are .. earn it boss, earn it .. jealousy you must earn .. and each day we are earning .. 

music is the food of late night creations .. impromptu, irrelevant but so apt .. much like the genius of many that never realised what they were designing .. and there are examples of such in the annals of music history .. a great composer I know designed a symphony on paper .. never played what he had written .. never heard it .. but it was sent to a philharmonic orchestra overseas .. to London .. and on the day of its recital, in an event he was invited and he heard the symphony being played for the first time .. 

he wept like a child, to the brilliance of his own creation .. never heard before , never ever played it .. yet ..

Brilliance ...

this brilliance infests itself into us at times and the immediate or instinctive music that gushes out is the result of just being together to appreciate each others cooperative effort .. and at times the comedic impact of the creation ..

.... and it plays for me as I write  .. so much hilarity and laughter .. only to be shared by them that accompany me .. NEVER to go out .. never .. for they will never understand the reason and the cause and the immediate, informal, on the spot creation without knowing what is going to come out .. and then the surprise of its making .. the collective effort and the immense reference to situations .. 

वो ढोलक का ठेका जब बजता है तो बता नहीं सकते हम की क्या होता है  , बस सब माल निकल आता है  

the tall of the dholak is the inspiration behind the music that emanates willfully and in the unown  ....

it now approaches almost 5 am .. and the desire to carry on is supreme .. I have yet to sleep, but who the hell cares .. Ef is more important  .. so ..

there is envy .. and jealousy .. to not have what they have .. they lead a pleasured life .. and my life suffers .. the alternatives have ever been the reason .. they can do, I can’t .. so I need to be in an alternative .. 

and music brings that alternative from them  .. they shall give me the strength of belief with guidance and quality .. and that is what I do not have .. so I shall soon find one and perhaps then .. the envy shall be crushed by the learning of the alternative shall survive and breed ..

Breed .. 

for we want the need to be through generations .. generations that shall look back to my LIFE .. and the envy of the household shall abate .. and the theka shall stop appropriately ..

 LIFE .. shall survive .. that particular LIFE shall .. survive .. and to hell with all the other baggage .. its weight is getting too heavy to carry .. 

time to bring the new instruments down to the recordings of LIFE .. and to learn lessons on fresh instruments .. to play .. 

Play baby play .. for they shall bring the joy of playing that instrument, live

Amitabh Bachchan

[sightoru]

hey scout!

not sure if I'm remembering this correctly, but you moved to another state somewhat recently right? I was wondering what that process was like and how you did it. I'm in a red state and really want to go to a blue one. But I'm just unsure of how to even go about it since I don't have a remote job. Any tips would be appreciated, thank you!!!

You are remembering correctly! I moved in with az (@/haruchiyos) in June of 2023. HOWEVER, I moved from a blue state in New England to a Red state in the midwest.... so the opposite direction. Tho I will say I live in a very blue area, which was kinda blinding this election season since I was like 'wow yeah its so liberal here' I forgot about the rest of the state briefly.

However, I will tell you in the 26 years of my life I have lived in 4 different states, and moved cross country 4 times :') most of these moves were not planned. when I moved to my current state it was like 3 days notice and when I moved I thought I was coming back lol (ill put those details in the tags). ANYWAYS, you'll have the benefit of... planning lmao. I'd start with looking at jobs first, and community is important. if you know someone in a blue state that lives in a city you like, I'd recommend making a visit. it would also be easier if you have a place to stay for a bit, and someone who can look at places to live for you.

the benefit of working at a major company also comes to play here, especially if you can transfer stores/offices/ etc and look for jobs. you might also have the benefit of a degree, which could make finding/switching jobs a bit easier (when I moved, I only had az. no degree, no license. it took a month for me to find a job, but I also hadn't worked in 3 years which added to the struggle. I worked for the last year at a grocery store chain, then briefly as a barista, before moving into a healthcare role which is nice and im finally in a type of job where I feel like im not at a deadend lol). Remote jobs can definitely help, but tbh remote jobs are so hard to get and very oversaturated. everyone wants one, making it harder to get one. (one of my friends WFH, and their rec is to apply directly on job sites for it instead of ziprecruiter/indeed/etc, since a lot of them are scams)

Look into subreddits for your city of choice, find what people like about it. ask questions!! ask about cost of living, safer parts of town, what's hiring. my city's subreddit has so many posts like that. if you have the stomach for it, look into working for the government offices/ city offices/ state offices in that city. the benefits you'll get are great and they tend to start much higher than minimum wage.

for friends, try Bumble friends ! look on Facebook for meet up groups. community is so important, now more than ever (which is why I recommended moving to a city where you know someone).

for states, California and New York are what come to mind for very blue states. Northern California is gorgeous and I loved living in New York. NY is where I'd consider home and I still get very homesick thinking about it sometimes. I think Vermont in particular was one of the most gorgeous states ive ever visited and the people were very friendly!!!! like unnervingly friendly idk maybe it was the proximity to Canada lol. Ive been talking to my partner lightly about moving out of this state once they finish college in a year and a half, and I mentioned moving back to New England area in general.

anyways, this feels all over the place!! I hope this helps and as always, im here if anyone has any questions!!!

[macaroni-rascal]

Part 3: La Danse, also known as The Death of Me

Idk if there's much point to going through each individual free because the issues in ice dance are above all systemic and we've already discussed them at length. That said, I think LaLa are the closest to a full package team, but even at their best, they're still at 90% of where they need to be to truly break through. They rebounded massively in the free but I think the injury early on in the season knocked their whole periodization schedule out of whack. I still prefer their overall material to anything else we saw here, but I can acknowledge that Zak in particular was off. Still, I want to be taken on an emotional journey by a program and they gave me that in spades.

Nicollage at least won the puffiest shirt competition among the Canadian men. I love them but he was so clearly struggling to keep up with her, and she was quite literally pushing him at times the way the female partner is sometimes dragged by the male one, just in reverse. I wish they'd just come up with a concept where they simply allow her to be the dominant partner. The traditional lead/follow dynamic is generally useful for social dancing with strangers but it's conveniently grounded in sexism, and what's the point of it in choreographed, practiced programs? V/M were great at letting Tessa lead once in a while (just look at their Finnstep), and that played a part in why they were so successful. The switchup in the jr pattern is a step in the right direction and it's time for the seniors to be a bit more vers as well. This FD for them feels like an afterthought, like their coaches don't know what to give them, the concept is tired and outdated, and so are the costumes. All of their FDs are starting to blend into one another. They're very smooth together and very connected, I just wish they were doing steamier material, seen as how they're the only couple in ice dance that looks like they're hot for each other. He's sooo shaky and you could see the fatigue get the better of him in the second half. With the placements from Worlds staying the same, I don't know if there's enough in it for them anymore. They need a fresh approach to the free, the RDs they've generally been great with. Her abs are +5, as always.

The Rocky I won't even dignify with an analysis because none really went into creating it, all I'll say is that Lewis is fabulous and he deserves the world, just not at this cost.

My feelings and affections about the Wuthering Heights haven't changed, I'll just admit that they've improved it since Skate Canada. It has some fantastic lifts but other than that I think it would've been way more suitable for a younger team. They just don't have the performative mettle to pitch it correctly tonally. The opening is very 80s ice dance and Paul's mullet doesn't help. It doesn't come together in terms of vocabulary of movement, it feels like they threw in each and every idea they had, so it flip-flops from retro to contemporary and back again throughout. I still despise the pink satin shirt, they need to rethink it if they want to capture the inherent inequality between the characters. They also looked shaky and tired in the second half, the flights must've been grueling. Their spin was the worst one here. Musically it has potential, though, I'd just bring in a fresh set of eyes to streamline and unify the choreographic choices. The hydroblade is cool, I just wish they weren't such awkward actors. Idk, there's something very Millennially twee about them, like they're a decade or so behind the curve.

G/F's free was my favorite here, despite it being in certain ways the most generic and predictable of the bunch. What I find appealing is the sincerity of their approach to the sport and they seem aware of their limitations and are working to correct them, unlike some other teams (ahem). For example, Charlene's posture isn't natural, but she's trying. The costuming is understated and classy, which is why I don't understand how they ended up with that goofy RD. I really like the music cut, you can't tell it's from four different movies. They're the best skaters, but their glaring lack of It factor kills them. The combo lift is based, and so are the spin positions. They're so tender and fold into each other effortlessly. They were the only team that maintained its energy throughout. I would've had them further ahead of P2, but I'll take it after the international embarrassment that was the NHK judging.

I have to say, whoever dug up that video of Evan doing the same opening pose with Emily ~15 years ago is a hero, because that tidbit epitomizes the thing that bothers me most about this program, which is that this whole concept is something a 19-year-old would think is cool. You know, when they first leave for university and they're listening to Pink Floyd for the first time, experimenting with drugs, discovering all these artists, but then they start reading about Dali being a N*zi and his internalized homophobia and the shit he pulled in his life and the whole disillusionment stage kicks in? That's where this program falls apart for me - at the lack of thought and depth. Their only saving grace is that their upper bodies move more smoothly than the other teams', but that's reversely proportional to their skating ability. Their patterns across the ice are choppy and sloppy, and their speed and glide are far inferior to their competitors. But what puts me off the most is that this is such a cynical approach to ice dance, and that's my issue with the Rocky as well - these teams aren't here to create something of value in the world, they're here for the accolades, the medals and the money, there's no deeper pursuit to any of it, and it seems like they'd rather die than give you a window into their souls. Maybe there's nothing there, we can't know. But at the end of the day, the rules are structured to prop up a team like this, so it's a "don't hate the player, hate the game" situation. Ultimately no other team has stepped up to claim the top spot a la P/C in 2015, so of course it'll go to the longest-tenured team. I just wish I could watch a competition and not yell "look how they've massacred my sport!" at the end of it. There's no emotion to this or the Rocky, it's all tricks and gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, thoughts and prayers. It feels like forever ago when the likes of V/M, P/C and H/D were duking it out, but it was a mere 5 years ago. How we got from there to here just isn't mathing. They feel fully comfortable putting just anything out there and then shamelessly relying on politics to get them where they want to go, which a slap in the face for the fans. Count me the fuck out.

LaLa were so amazing in the free, I love them so much. Agreed on all things, they easily had the best pair of programs at the GPF, that free dance makes me cry. I hope Zak can take some time between now and Nationals to rest, he did seem a little off. They always have a stellar Nats though, so I'm less worried about them.

You nailed it with the Canadanes. Imagine her with a technically proficient partner. Or, imagine if Nik didn't have knee issues. Le sigh. I don't get this free dance for them, I've watched it 3-4 times now and I cannot tell you a single moment from it. It's all-in-all quite forgettable, and that's a shame.

I don't even know what or who 'Rocky' is, so I'd be lost if you mentioned it anyway.

I agree with all parts of what you said about Gilles and Poirier but I am just going to rant about their spin for a moment: WHY oh WHY does Piper curl in on that first position? She is a skater known for her lack of posture, and instead of having her put her arm up and out to lengthen and open up her shoulders, they have her look like she's holding a giant beach ball. It infuriates me to NO end. Carol Lane, text me, we can fix this.

I won't lie, I just skipped the Italians and Chock and Bates. The former is too boring for words and the latter is too frustrating for words. You are correct on all things though, and I agree with all you said.

Nationalses here we come!

[127-spring]

since we're at most only two weeks away from having the official line-up for nct's japan unit, i figured i'd share my thoughts on the potential members now before the final lastart episodes air.

sion - he's already confirmed for debut which i'm happy about because he strikes me as very talented, and his (on camera) personality is charming. he's also very much bringing team leader vibes, which would be great except idk how to feel about the japan unit having a korean leader.

yushi - also confirmed for debut, which i'm happy about too! he's a fantastic dancer, and his voice strikes me as different in a pleasing way, but i also agree with some of the critiques he's received about how to improve his vocals. also, i love that he was so happy to meet xiumin that he cried.

jungmin - my favourite of the trainees, he's got wonderful vocals, kills the high notes every time, and i feel like he has really good stage presence. i'm confident he'll make the final line-up.

riku - he really does feel quite blatantly earmarked by sm as the unit's main rapper, but he has the skills to back it up and he always grabs my attention when he performs. i think he's a good fit for nct's general style.

minjae - i really do feel like they're too harsh on him for his dancing when overall he does a good job, and especially considering his vocal skills are so strong. unfortunately i don't think he'll make the line-up, but i am rooting for him.

ryu - i know he'd only been a trainee for two weeks when the show started filming so logically he could probably benefit from more time... but he's also very talented already and has so much potential for further growth. i don't think he has good chances of making it into the group, but i'd like it if he did.

anderson - he's a nice kid (so far as we see on camera, at least) and he's got great enthusiasm for performing. but something about him just doesn't really strike me as ready for debut? i can't explain it. regardless of my opinions, i do think he has good odds of debuting anyway. (and admittedly yeah, it would be pretty fun if the nct canada line doubled.)

kassho - i agree with one of the comments made in his last mission evaluation, he works hard at his role but he doesn't stand out much... tbh i don't tend to remember him, and i feel like he'd benefit from more training.

haruta - like kassho, he doesn't stand out a whole lot, but i do think he's stronger, performance-wise, and he can be striking sometimes. there's still room for a lot of growth in terms of developing an individual performance style, and grabbing more attention during his parts, but he has good potential.

daeyoung - he's definitely got strong vocal skills, and i'm impressed by his ability to keep up with the others given his short training period and having been dropped into the show halfway through. i do suspect sm wanted him to debut from the beginning, hence the big attention on him as soon as he arrived, and he'll probably make the line-up.

heitetsu - look, i agree with a lot of the critiques he's getting, but at this point it's ridiculous, the way he ranks at the bottom every single mission. he's not that bad.

sakuya & ryo - they're both very talented and their 'chewing gum' performance was freaking adorable, but neither of these kiddos should even be thinking about debuting yet. let them live!! unfortunately, sakuya in particular seems likely to make the final line-up...

[tetrafelino]

Honestly, just look at the quality. You simply couldn't get this kind of exposure in early photography. This looks totally digital - there's even a background blur.

It would also help to know that there is only one confirmed picture of Vincent van Gogh:

This is him, aged 19. As per the van Gogh museum article linked above, there was one other picture which was thought to be Vincent at 13, but was later identified as a 15-year-old Theo van Gogh. And you may have seen the following picture identified as Vincent van Gogh in 1886:

However, that's impossible. The address of this photo parlour is Canadian, and the photo itself was discovered in Massachusetts, USA, in the 1990's. Van Gogh never stepped foot in Canada, and there's no reason to believe he ever left Europe at all. The guy in this picture just really looks like him.

What's very interesting to note here is that, much like (what we are calling) AI nowadays, photography was still relatively new technology in the late 1800's - and Vincent van Gogh himself expressed diverse opinions on it.

In this 1882 letter to Theo, he equates a photographic quality to "something mechanical" (eleventh paragraph), and in 1884, in reference to reproducing art via photography, he laments that "the photographer only produces prints that reflect none, or at least far too little of the original chiaroscuro, moreover retouches a great deal and badly, and even so still often leaves things dark that are light in the painting and vice versa."

In 1885, he writes, "there’s a chance of getting work, that is to see about being employed by the photographers, which I wouldn’t want in the long run, but would do if needs must. The photographers seem to have plenty to do here. One also sees painted portraits in their shops, which they apparently work up on a background obtained by photography, which obviously has a weak, feeble effect to anyone who knows what painting is."

October 8th, 1888: "That’s to say, I’m doing a portrait of our mother for myself. I can’t look at the colourless photograph, and I’m trying to do one with harmonious colour, as I see her in my memory."

October 10th, 1888: "I’m working on a portrait of our mother because the black photograph was making me too impatient. Ah, what portraits we could make from life with photography and painting! I always have hopes that a great revolution still awaits us in portraiture. I’m writing home to have our father’s portrait too. Myself, I don’t want black photographs, and yet I still want to have a portrait."

In a letter to his sister Willemien, 1889: "I myself still find photographs frightful and don’t like to have any, especially not of people whom I know and love. These portraits, first, are faded more quickly than we ourselves, while the painted portrait remains for many generations. Besides, a painted portrait is a thing of feeling made with love or respect for the being represented. What remains to us of the old Dutchmen? The portraits."

[The translation team for these letters is credited on the website. All emphasis mine.]

Vincent was known to dislike photography as a substitute for portraiture and avidly avoided having his own photo taken. From the letters, it's clear that he was disappointed at the perceived quality and the lack of colour of the photographs of the time - anyone who's ever seen a van Gogh can easily imagine how frustrating the latter, in particular, must have been.

What's interesting to note is that his opinion on using photography and painting, in conjunction, shifted over the years. While in 1885 he derides the painted-over pictures of Antwerp photographers, in the excerpts from October 1888, the prospect of utilizing both photography and painting is exciting and possibly revolutionary to him - despite still regarding the "black photos" themselves as lifeless and worthy of contempt.

Perhaps those Belgian photographers really were subpar painters; perhaps he just needed some time to think it over.

Colorized photo of Vincent van Gogh at his home in Arles in 1869 ~ photo by Robert Capa

[cloudyskies-starryheavens]

The Quest Begins

by Erin Hunter

Basic Info

Book 1 of Seekers Year published: 2008 Page Length: 293 Genre: Fantasy Goodreads Link

Personal Info

Dates Read: 7/27/24-7/29/24 Read or Listened to?: Listened to How many times have I read this book before?: 1

Plot Summary (Spoiler Free)

Three bears, three stories. One black, one brown and one polar, each cub finds themselves on their own journey after being separated from their families. This quest will ultimately bring them together so they can fulfill their true destinies.

Full spoiler review under the cut!

Overall Look

Why I Chose to Read This Book: Well, I've read this book--and a few of its sequels--some years ago, and I remember quite enjoying them. Like many series I've started in the past, I simply began reading this series, and dropped it for no particular reason. I'd like to rectify this, and finish the story once and for all. Otherwise, I am a sucker for animal stories. I'm not the biggest fan of bears, but from what I can remember, the Warriors series by the Erin Hunter team was a little to overwhelming for little ten-year-old me. And Seekers only had around eight books or so out at the time, and I thought it would be an easier portal into the Erin Hunter books. Years later, I still remember it fondly, and chose to revisit it.

Overall Impression: I quite liked this book! It's one of those books that is broken up into the perspectives of each main character. The three bears really don't meet in this book (aside from Lusa finally finding Toklo at the very end). Each cub goes on his or her own journey, and the three perspectives change every three chapters. We start with Kallik the polar bear, go to Lusa the black bear, and finish with Toklo the grizzly bear, until we start over again and the cycle repeats. I have to say that I liked Kallik's story the least, but I was absolutely captivated by Lusa's adorable, loveable character. The story left me excited for more, and eager to see more of these characters!

Plot Notes:

Character Notes: Kallik: - Bio: Kallik is a polar bear living with her mother and brother in the frozen Hudson Bay. When Kallik's mother is suddenly killed by an orca, she is separated from her brother and forced to survive on her own. - How I Feel About Her: I'll be blunt, Kallik falls a little flat for me. I couldn't really get a sense of her personality, especially in this book. She's generally kind, and she's very driven to find her brother, but other than that, there isn't much more to her. I'll give her some grace since, for the entirety of the story, she is absolutely fighting for survival and almost utterly isolated, but I still wish we could have gotten a little more.

Lusa: - Bio: Lusa is a black bear living in the Vancouver Zoo in what is known as "The Bear Bowl". She lives with her mother, father, and a few other black bears in the exhibit with her. Intrigued by the idea of The Wild, Lusa escapes from the zoo after promising a mysterious grizzly bear that she would find her son. - How I Feel About Her: I love Lusa, she's hands down my favorite character. She's sweet, smart, compassionate, a little naive, and just all around a great character.

Toklo: - Bio: Toklo is a grizzly bear traveling the forests of southwestern Canada with his mother and sickly brother. After his brother dies, Toklo's mother disowns him, and abandons him to survive by himself. Haunted by his mother and brother, Toklo makes his way through the wilderness, where he discovers a strange, magical, slightly annoying, orphaned brown bear cub. - How I Feel About Him: I'm a little conflicted on Toklo. On one hand, I love how he's a little morally gray. He resents his sick and disabled brother for all the attention his mother gives him. And it's totally believable and heartbreaking to see this child character take out his frustrations about his mentally ill mother's neglect on his younger brother. His character fascinates me, and, even though I've read this book before, I was utterly not expecting to find something like him in this story. Yet, Toklo's signature bristly-ness can make him genuinely hard to actually like. He lashes out at other bears and is continuously rude to his only friend, Ujurak. I'm sure he'll get more development as the series goes on, but sometimes his ableist thoughts and fractious nature just irks me. But I love it?

Ujurak: - Bio: Ujurak is a shapeshifter who prefers to live as a bear. He is able to transform into any animal (even human) and learn more about them. He is on an important, mystical journey to a mysterious place of legend, and convinces Toklo to come along with him. - How I Feel About Him: Ujurak is a very intriguing character. Shrouded in mystery, Ujurak doesn't join the story until the last third, which surprised me. He's a sweet bear cub, and a great companion for Toklo, even if he does end up receiving the brunt of Toklo's verbal abuse. I actually forgot that he was a shapeshifter until it happened. I vaguely remembered his character, but what I remembered the most was me fighting with my friend over how to pronounce his name 😅. I'm very interested in what's to come with him!

What I Liked/What Worked: This is a great introduction to the story at large. The author(s) take their time building up the backstories of these bears and don't rush to throw them together. Each story had its own pace, although I will say that I enjoyed some a little more than others. Lusa and Toklo are standout characters for me, and I enjoyed many of the scenes they were involved in. The story ended with an excellent cliff hanger that had me itching for the sequel.

What I Didn't Like/What Didn't Work: This is a very solid story, although I will say that split-perspective books are generally not my favorites. My main issue with them is that one story is usually way more interesting to me than the other, and I'm forced to read the less interesting story(ies) so I can get to the story(ies) that I'm actually here for. Unfortunately, this book falls into that same trap.

Kallik's story was certainly the weakest for me. I think what set it back is that she had so little direction, and she's just too similar to Lusa. For Kallik, early on, she loses her mother and brother and vows to herself to find her brother. The problem is that she has no idea where her brother is, and she doesn't even know if he's alive or not. Therefore, she spends the entirety of her story in this book wandering northern Canada aimlessly, constantly on the brink of starving to death. Sure, she additionally has a vague notion of finding the legendary place of everlasting ice, as well as going on small side adventures. But it's just feels like a lot of nothing for me.

For Lusa, we spend a lot of time with her at the Bear Bowl and getting acquainted with her family. After meeting Toklo's mother, Oka, she decides to go off by herself into the wild (Canada), wandering somewhat aimlessly, on the hunt for Toklo, who, by the way, she has no idea where he is. And yet, with Lusa's character and the slow, steady build up of her story, it ends up being so much better for me than Kallik's. I genuinely think Kallik started her journey to find her brother/the land of everlasting ice way too early in the story with way too little direction. Her chapters felt like a drag to get through, with the same reports over and over. One thing I will say, though, is that I recently read Kathryn Lasky's Bears of the Ice series (the first three books that are out currently). That story also includes two polar bear cubs getting separated from their mother and going on a quest to find and save her. So a small part of my dislike for this story likely stems from the fact that it's very similar to me when compared with Bears of the Ice, even though this book came out long before those books did. Unfortunately, I did read Lasky's books before my reread of this one, but suffice to say, I'm just a little tired of the plotline.

The most notable thing that happens to Kallik, for me, is when she gets captured by humans and meets Nanuk. Now, I really liked the idea of Nanuk. Kallik is a poor, bedraggled orphan doomed to her own solitiude. Nanuk is a motherly bear who immediately takes Kallik under her wing and comforts her. I would have loved to have seen multiple chapters with Kallik and Nanuk traveling together. Kallik can serve as a daughter figure to Nanuk while Nanuk plays as a mother figure to Kallik, and this way, Nanuk can teach Kallik how to hunt (the constantly starving baby bear details were a little much for me as well, by the way), they can help each other to heal a little bit, and generally Nanuk could have just provided way more opportunities for Kallik to display her personality and character traits, while growing as a character. I would have loved Nanuk way more than that fox that followed Kallik for some time. But no, sadly we only get Nanuk for about two or three chapters, when she suddenly dies in a helicopter crash. Yeah. I'm not making this up. I could go on about the wasted potential Nanuk's character is, and how much more meaningful her death could have been if she'd just stuck around for a couple more chapters, but I don't want this to get too long.

A bit more of a lighthearted note here, I just wanted to say that when I read this book for the first time, I was absolutely stumped for the longest time about what the "Black Paths" and "firebeasts" were. I just could not get what they were supposed to be, and it drove me crazy for the longest time. I understood eventually, but I got embarrassingly far into the story before I realized that BlackPaths are roads and firebeasts are cars. I felt so stupid! I was so baffled as to what they were talking about, I actually thought they might be talking about either canon balls being fired or maybe that dragons were the firebeasts. And I thought to myself, "Why, if there are dragons in this book, are we focusing on bears??" Anyway, all this to say, sometimes the code-speak in these books aggravate me. Like, I can appreciate coming up with different terms for human things that animals don't understand. I love when they're clever work-arounds for bears or wolves or whatever-have-you who don't comprehend human creations. It makes sense that "car" might not be a word in the language of bears. But I don't know, sometimes I think the authors just assume we know what they're talking about and forget that some people (me) are kinda dumb sometimes. I remember it really taking me out of the story lol. So yeah, I wish we could have gotten more of a description, at least. You don't even need to say the word "car", just describe a car in a way that the goofy kids in the back can figure out. Anyway, I'm probably alone in this and I'm just outing myself for being dumb. I'll stop talking now.

The Theme(s) or Message(s) of This Book: People/humans are abusing our planet and make it hard for wildlife to live like they're meant to. We need to take a step back as a species and stop being so selfish by pursuing our own desires and disregarding the natural world that hurts as a result.

The Feelings This Book Evoked In Me: Intrigue and nostalgia. I loved the set up for the mysteries and journeys ahead. And being able to come back to this series is a great hit to my middle school memories, mindset, and interests.

Listening Experience: No real notes here, I thought the narrator did her job well. Sometimes her deep voice for big bears sounded a little silly to me, which made it hard for me to take them seriously, but otherwise, she did a good job! I especially loved the voice she gave Lusa, it's so cute!

Final Notes

Favorite Parts/Quotes/Passages: I think my favorite part was when Toklo meets Ujurak for the first time. It caught me so off guard! I genuinely forgot that there was magic in this book, and Ujurak's introduction to this story upped my interest and enjoyment in this book tenfold. I also really liked the part when Lusa escapes from the zoo. It was like a mini heist story!

Enjoyability: 7/10

Would I Ever Reread This Book?: Maybe. I'm not planning to any time soon, but I'm not wholly against it. I'm mostly just excited to continue reading the series and seeing how this story ends, as well as taking the journey to get there.

Do I Recommend This Book?: Yes! If it sounds like something you'd like, totally give it a read!

Who Would I Recommend This Book To? What Would I Like For Them To Take Away From It?: I would recommend this book to middle grade readers who like animal fantasy stories. Those who like Warriors, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Wings of Fire, etc. All I'd like for these people to take away from this story is enjoyment. I ate this subgenre up as a middle school wolf girl, and while I'm not sure if that's still an ongoing phenomenon, those who are like little me would love this story. Also the themes of environmentalism and respect for the wild are obviously important as well.

Overall Rating: 6/10

[therumpus]

The Mini Interview with Tajja Isen

By Allison Armijo

Tajja Isen and I were in the same eleventh grade English class. Just a few years apart. And in different countries–her, in Canada, me, in the US. But like many with an upbringing not dissimilar to the suburban worlds created by Raymond Carver, we both were aspiring writers who wanted to write like the ‘tiny white people,’ as Isen dubs them, that lived–and sometimes continue to live–in our heads. 

Isen is a voice actor, writer, and the former editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine. Her work approaches this boundary between the physical and the linguistic–our actions and our words–with curiosity, that which makes space for the seemingly contradictory state of living and growing in a world with language and its debt, or the space between our values and actions. 

Isen’s 2022 debut collection, Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service (Atria, 2024), looks at how the language of social justice activism has evolved over time: change without guarantee of progress, revision without redress (also known as ‘lip service’). Each essay combines research with cultural criticism and personal experience, asking questions about where the boundaries between the personal and political lie, and how the language used to navigate those spaces disproportionately affects people of color. By interrogating her own experiences within various American and Canadian institutions, Isen explores what happens when language becomes transactional, and how lip service diffuses this very necessary tension. 

With the upcoming release of the paperback edition of Some of My Best Friends, I was delighted to chat with Isen over email about what it means to have a changing relationship to language, the importance of surprise (and self-love) in the writing process, and much more. 

***

The Rumpus: The book opens with two epigraphs, one by W.E.B. Du Bois and another by Lana Del Rey, the first of which comes from The Souls of Black Folk, and the second from Instagram. Both approach the tokened: “I’m not racist, some of my best friends are Black,” in a different way. Do you think W.E.B. Du Bois would be a fan of the modes of activism through social media?

Tajja Issen: The book is extremely interested in how the language of social justice has changed over time, for better and worse. With these epigraphs, I wanted to highlight the opposite idea: How little things have changed. When I was reading The Souls of Black Folk, I was both disturbed and amused at how contemporary that particular moment of tokenization felt. [...] But I also don’t want to make sweeping generalizations about social media activism being bad or simplistic, especially now—I’m thinking of the way Palestinians have used it to document the ongoing genocide and asked us to bear witness and amplify the calls for a ceasefire, or the power of social platforms as tools of organizing in protest of those abuses. If somebody sat Du Bois down to explain that capacity to him, I bet he would be a fan.

Rumpus: How do you see language as a structure of resistance to bridge confession and storytelling? Were you resistant to any particular forms of framing or storytelling?

Isen: That’s a great question. Related to my hesitance to get personal in the book, I was resistant to a framing that writers of color often get cornered into, whether by their own impulses or, more commonly, by market pressures: to describe their identities as though racialized pain is the axis on which they spin. This is a story the publishing industry is very comfortable with and one that I wasn’t interested in telling. (Drama ensued!) But, to your question, that’s the whole point of language as a structure of resistance—to disrupt the comfortable, anesthetic modes of narrative and argument.

Rumpus: You mention in “Tiny White People” how when you were younger, you imitated popular white authors that “find ways to talk about race without really talking about it.” How do you see your own relationship to language developing over time?

Isen: When it comes to my approach to writing, I try to stay in a permanent state of surprise. Surprise is the goal and the dream state. With that essay in particular, the version of it I wrote for the book is very different from the version that was originally published in Electric Literature in 2017. By the time I sat down to update that essay for the book, I realized none of the original version was reusable. My thinking had changed too much. My politics had changed too much. “I need to feel seen” is the type of soundbite that’s super accessible and conforms to the mainstream version of racial discourse that is easy to market. It was more important to me to remain faithful to these confrontations with my own mind, however personally jarring or corporately inconvenient (lol), than to rehash what a predominantly white readership is already comfortable hearing.

Rumpus: What forms does revision take in your work? Do you see it as more of an emotional or technical endeavor?

Isen: I love the idea of a writer who can distinguish between the emotional and technical aspects of revision, but I’ve got to admit I’m just not that writer. A piece, a page, a book transforms many times before I stop evaluating it. If I had to boil my revision process down, I’m always subjecting the work to two questions. The other day, I described it to my husband as akin to knocking on a wall to find a stud: First knock—Is it true? Second knock—Is it interesting? I keep knocking, keep asking those two questions, until the quality of sound that echoes back to me meets my standards. 

Rumpus: I love the way you physically map tactics of white femininity: innocent and deviant on the Y axis, tough and wounded along the X axis. You give various examples of the ways white femininity often evades racial consciousness out of a lack of obligation to acknowledge it. How, if at all, do you see aesthetics as an inherently political approach to conflict and compromise in predominantly white spaces?

Isen: I love that you frame aesthetics as “inherently political,” which they are, and which I think is easy for a lot of people to forget. We see the aesthetic-political split play out pretty literally in which artists get asked what questions—who gets asked about representation and identity versus who gets asked about craft choices. I’m far from the first to point this out. It was important to me, in that essay in particular, to stake out that territory and to remind the reader that aesthetics, especially in work by white (female) artists, can be a convenient way to make politics seem invisible. 

Rumpus: In your last essay, “Dead or Canadian,” you mention Lee Edelman’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” I loved what you said about the song “[getting] its rocks off knowing that [you] overheard its pleasure.” This returns to ideas of spectacle and voyeurism in tokenized forms of representation that you explore throughout, but also introduces the idea of self-love in the personal address. Thinking about the relationship between language and the self, do you see self-love as a product of fluency–i.e., recognizing the ins and outs of lip service across fields and disciplines–or a rejection of it? 

Isen: That’s an interesting distinction and not one I’d considered before. I guess, for me, I come into clearer focus for myself when I can name and isolate the forces that shape, constitute, and frustrate me. And that’s also what I hope the book gives to its readers: the aha moment where it names a dynamic or pattern that they’ve registered—this kind of insidious, comic creep of meaningless language—but haven’t necessarily found the words for. Articulating something long-felt but unexpressed is, I think, the best thing that writing can do. I like the notion that it might be a form of love, both for oneself and for others. 

***

Allison Armijo is a creative writing student in Boston, MA.

[anghraine]

I'm very fond of the Byzantine elements of Gondor in particular and I've talked about them a lot! It's a great concept.

That said, I do want to emphasize the link between Egypt and the Dúnedain of Gondor, who form the elite upper echelon of Gondorian society. One of Tolkien's clearest statements here is that Gondorian Dúnedain are "best pictured" in terms of ancient Egyptians.

Although the Arnor-Gondor relationship is somewhat unavoidably reminiscent of the relationship between the western and eastern Roman empires, with the western empire in Arnor falling apart while the eastern one in Gondor persisted long afterwards, and Tolkien did compare Gondor to the Roman empires as above, his most explicit comparison of the Gondor-Arnor dynamic was to the kingdoms of ancient Egypt. We rarely see this influence depicted even in aesthetics of architecture or costuming, much less in the Gondorian Dúnedain themselves, occasionally in favor of the Roman influences but often the preference is simply for something more generically NW European-medieval-ish.

I don't mean to be hostile, but I'm also not sure what you mean by the Gondorian cast in the movies looking Portuguese. I've actually criticized the narrow and inaccurate range of casting for major Gondorian characters many times. IIRC only very light-skinned, Anglo-looking men from the UK, Australia, Aotearoa/NZ, and Canada were cast in the roles of Gondorian characters of any significance, even down to those with very minor speaking roles like Irolas or Madril. Do you mean the extras? The only female Gondorian characters in the movies would have to be played by extras, I suppose.

I don't know about those, though I've heard that a lot of kind of random locals were cast in the background roles—though it is clear that people who looked noticeably different from the main actors were not considered eligible for even very minor heroic roles, despite the variance in Gondorians' appearance/ethnicity/skin color/size in the book. Tolkien's Gondorians vary considerably apart from the universal dark or black hair, which the films obviously didn't care about (while actively excluding actors who are dark-haired for not being white or light-skinned...). This is getting ranty but I genuinely think film Gondor fails really badly at depicting a genuinely multiracial former(ish) empire with much more varied, less western (esp northwestern) cultural inspirations.

I don't think Tolkien describes the Rohirrim as Nordic. He's using the term in response to an interview and write-up on him talking about his alleged love for Nordic languages and culture, which for Tolkien was pretty obviously distinctly reminiscent of Nazi ideology. His letter sharply denies the existence of Nordic languages and emphasizes that the new seat of power after Sauron's defeat is Mediterranean-inspired Gondor rather than anything Nordic, and that his own interests are not confined to the Germanic or otherwise northern.

But the point of geographical comparison to emphasize how far Minas Tirith and Pelargir are from that kind of Nazi-friendly fantasy isn't Rohan but the very English Shire; Gondor is not supposed to be northern European at all.

In any case, the Rohirrim are not originally from Rohan; it's just a part of northern Gondor that was given to them several centuries earlier, but their culture originated much further to the north.

I know I've ranted about it a million times, but every time someone brings up Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian inspirations/influences on Gondor in more mainstream Tolkien fandom spaces (not me, because I don't even talk about it off Tumblr/DW), it seems like there's always someone who gets super weird and defensive about it. I've seen so many "well actually there's no need to consider any influences outside of England, mythology for England blah blah" responses.

And it's like! Oh, you want to play the decontextualized Tolkien quotes game? How about this one:

“But this [the setting of LOTR] is not a purely 'Nordic' area in any sense. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence [in Italy]. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient [Gondorian] city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy [in Turkey]. Auden has asserted that for me 'the North is a sacred direction.' That is not true. The North-west part of Europe, where I (and most of my ancestors) have lived, has my affection, as a man’s home should. I love its atmosphere, and know more of its histories and languages than I do of other parts; but it is not ‘sacred’, nor does it exhaust my affections. I have, for instance, a particular love for the Latin language, and among its descendants for Spanish ... The progress of the tale ends in what is far more like the re-establishment of an effective Holy Roman Empire with its seat in Rome than anything that would be devised by a 'Nordic.'”

Or this one:

we come [in ROTK] to the half-ruinous Byzantine City of Minas Tirith

Or:

In the south Gondor rises to a peak of power, almost reflecting Númenor, and then fades slowly to decayed Middle Age, a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly impotent Byzantium.

Or:

The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled ‘Egyptians’ - the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive. And in their great interest in ancestry and in tombs. […] I think the crown of Gondor (the S. Kingdom) was very tall, like that of Egypt, but with wings attached, not set straight back but at an angle. The N. Kingdom had only a diadem (III 323). Cf. the difference between the N. and S. kingdoms of Egypt.

Or:

Thank you very much for your letter. … It came while I was away, in Gondor (sc. Venice), as a change from the North Kingdom

Middle-earth is not equivalent to England, or northern Europe in general, and Gondor especially is not northern at all!

[asher-the-diaster]

the sister planets part 9

the penner project

this is part of a ingoing humans are space orcs series that i'm not totally sure how i ended up writing, as always the link to the part index is here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DYMuKK5CIgJgDapNbu5sBqr_b5uT1Yz4pJoJ2fuAk4w/edit?usp=sharing

Earth was in chaos, and I had never felt this useless in my whole life.

After first contact with extraterrestrials, the government tried to keep the information classified, which did not work. And when footage leaked and people discovered that the Canadian prime minister had been at diplomatic contact soon the fact that i was the one who made contact was out of the bag too.

My crew was on leave to recover from the ordeal, and deal with the fact that ourship exploded, so I was on earth witnessing the chaos first hand, unable to do anything.

Aliens.

Everyone was up in arms.

Riots in the streets, death prophecies, just general incoherent panic.

My crew ended up in a secure facility, partially to monitor our health both physical and mental, mostly to keep us safe from being targeted by the riots outside.

Governments went largely silent on the issue. Censorship cut off information from the general public in an attempt to curb the chaos, it did not work.

After three weeks of non stop general panic a nurse told me that there was someone who wanted to see me.

I got dressed as professionally as you can in a hospital with a broken leg and walked out on my crutches, now a human model. I was kinda sad they didn’t let me keep the one twee-ake had given me.

The nurse led me into the common room, then handed me a translation device.

“The fuck? I thought this was my family or something.”

“They’ll call you in when they're ready.”

“Okay...” i put on the device, it looked like a pair of over the ear headphones someone had removed one ear from and pushed the other one out, the point to that was to ensure that you could still hear your environment during translation, i put it on and pushed the bottom that let the mic pick up my voice to translate.

Soon after I had the device on, the other members of my crew started to arrive in the common room. Unsurprisingly Olivera looked the most put together, how she had gotten her uniform in here I don't know. Davoin wore jeans and a t- shirt, and Richardson was in sweats.

None of us seemed to have any clue what was going on.

I was called in first, they led me to a conference room type place at the end of the hall.

Inside was my platoon leader, the nato and spto generals, a rep from the UN, and my brother, the prime minister of canada.

“Should I be in uniform?” I asked.

“It's fine captain, we understand that you are recovering from your... ordeal.”

“Right.” get abducted by aliens one time and everyone puts the kiddy gloves on around you, “May I ask what is happening here?”

“Sure, so you are obviously aware of our first contact with extraterrestrials, and the problems that have arisen on their front and ours.”

“Yeah.”

“Well our delegations and their contact crew, I believed they were called, have come up with a solution to the problems that have arisen due to these particular circumstances.”

“You mean the fact that the two most advanced species in interstellar life happen to be martians and venusians who are terrified of us because they think they were children of a death god? Or the riots about aliens existing?”

The UN rep looked at Mathew, “don’t look at me I've seen her cuss at a president, that is filtered for her.”

“Anyways. The spto rep said, “the solution that was reached was a joint study in interstellar space, we send a crew on a interspecies ship that will run odd jobs in order to help with the galaxy and they also send crews to join us, we get to study and learn from each other.”

“That sounds like a plan but why tell me?”

“Because,” Matt said, putting his head in his hands, “they want you to run it.”

“Well you too captain the ship, not necessarily do the study.”

“Why me? I stuck at improving humans opinions on humans, why woud anyone want me to represent the planet?”

“The martians and venusians, twee-ake and titita? Asked for you by name.`` Mathew said, rubbing his temples.

“Ok,” i trusted those too, they had saved my life, if they were involved i trusted the project.

“What?”

“As long as my crew can come I'll do it.”

“Catain,” the nato general said, “we are talking about being light years from your home, at the wimes of a race and we know nothing about, I implore you, think this through.”

“I have, these people saved me and my crew's lives, that bodes a lot of trust for me, plus they legitimately think we are children of a death god, they won’t try to hurt me. If my crew is allowed to come and is willing, I'm in.”

“Your crew, if willing, were on our list of potentials, along with an even number of citizens from the spto, we refuse to let nato do this without our input.”

“Understood.”

“Can I talk to my sibling out in the hall?” Mat asked, “great” he said not waiting for an answer, he pulled me by the arm and into the hall.

“What are you doing?” he asked in a whisper yell.

“Agreeing to help my people advance, how is this different from you running for pm, this is my way of helping earth.”

“This could end badly, we don’t know anything about these people. What if they hurt you?”

“Did you miss the part where they saved my life?”

“You could get even more hurt.”

“My leg wasn’t there flaut, and even if it was you can get hurt walking down the street, the possibility of injury is nothing new to me matthew.”

“Sam please.”

“I love you, but this isn’t your decision to make.”

10 minutes later me and my crew were in front of the brass, as they finished the project's explanation.

“Well?” i asked, “we can’t force you to go but i’m not doing this without you, what do you say?”

“Let's blow this popsicle stand.” Richardson exclaimed.

“In 5 weeks when the ship and your broken bones are ready.”

“Am i the only one who is wondering how this is going to stop the riots?” Oliveira asked.

“We are keeping the interior mission declassified, we are working for open information and familiarity to stop the panic.”

“I feel like that logic is flawed but okay…”

As we discussed the details I caught a glimpse of Mathew, he looked worried sick, but he would come to understand, wouldn’t he? This was what the oracle started, and what our remaining members would finish.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 2

And here’s the next part of the long answer set of the day!

When will OL: N&F take place? Beginnings and Always took place during summer breaks, will now and forever take place during a fall break or will the characters be going to school at the time of the events we play through? 

It takes place over all of the fall season, so school will be happening in OL2. Some events do take place in school, though many times events only start after school is already out for the day, haha.

Hey!! I have kind of a weird question?? I’m sorry if it’s been answered before and I just haven’t seen it but is OL 2 taking place during the same years as OL 1? I’m just curious, thank you for such amazing games!!! 

It’s a similar time frame, but not 100% exactly same.

Do you have any idea when the demo for now and forever will be available? 

Hopefully this fall! But that’s not a guarantee.

Okay the crime show in Step 2: Growing up. Long blonde hair, police station, crime series? Was it The Closer? Because I’m the same age as MC and Cove and my mom was constantly watching that when I was 13. 😂 

Haha, yeah! The Closer and, to a lesser degree, Medium were the kind of shows I was referencing there. My mom also used to watch those back in the day.

Hey um this might be an odd question but if the setting of OL: N&F is  fall/autumn, what country or city will it take because my mind tells me it is either Poland or Canada. Also I can't wait for the game I am hyped 

It’s set in the USA again. We’d like to be able to have cameos and that’s easiest to do if the OL games take place in the same country.

Is it possible for the PC of OL to have non-seriously dated other people in the in between years even if they’ve had a consistent crush on Cove? 

You can causally date Baxter in Step 3 if you get his DLC and then ultimately choose Cove in Step 4. If you mean off-screen people, it doesn’t really come up, but you can certainly headcanon that. The game never says Cove is the only partner you’ve ever had.

Is there going to be a Kickstarter for Now and Forever as well? For like voiced names and stuff again? Didn’t find B&A until after it was released and I’d really love the opportunity to hear my name in the game 🥺 

Yeah, we are gonna have a Kickstarter with getting a voiced name as a reward! Though, it will be more expensive than it was for OL1. I feel bad to raise the price but we realized too late the first time around that it was being super undersold for the amount of work it took, aha.

Do you know how much the remaining DLC for OL will cost? (Step 4, Derek, Baxter) 

Step 4: Free

Wedding DLC: $2.99USD

Derek DLC: $4.99USD

 Baxter DLC: $4.99USD

Has an artist for the new position been picked yet?! I'm super excited for the new game! 

We did fill that spot. Thank you so much for taking the time to apply!

hmmm what would it take to get each of the XOXO jerk squad to feel the need to hug you? 

They’d have to first like you a fair amount, otherwise the most you’d get is maybe a pat on the shoulder. If they were attached, they might hug you if you broke down crying or if you gave them super good news.

Unless it’s Shiloh, of course. If you want a hug you only have to ask!

May i ask how the Derek DLC will work? I believe that there aren’t any memories in step 4 and doesnt derek’s dlc take place during that step? So will the dlc add memories? Thank you! 

Derek’s DLC will add five Moments to Step 2 (a new page will appear on that screen if you get the DLC). Then in Step 4 you’ll have to choose between playing the default epilogue or going through the Derek romance story.

Is the pc version on itch,io different from the steam version? Like an offline one or something? 

Steam has achievements, but that’s about it. Both can be played offline, if you prefer.

I've been wondering this for awhile, what determines if cove winds up with a ponytail in step 3? I've done multiple runs with different MCs with varying hairstyles. Or does it have to do with a particular moment in step 2? 

I’m afraid I can’t say exact choices that determine things. But generally it’s preference based options in the Step before that decide those things.

Any Floret Bond updates? 

No, the artist had to leave the project and it’s been on-hold. I’m not sure if I want to try working just with what we have or replacing it all entirely. The design is a bit too specific for us to easily find someone who could mimic it. Hopefully we’ll work things out later, though.

In step 3 is Cove's plan always to stay in sunset bird? 

Yeah. He is never ready at 18-years-old to make a big life change.

I love your content! If it's alright to ask, you answered in a previous ask about how Jeremy was too particular with what he likes his types to be romanceable with just any MC and it's sort of got me wondering.. What /are/ his types and/or preferences and such? Sorry if it's a lot! 

Jeremy likes stubborn jerks and will not date someone who’s sweet or even generally a decent person, haha.

uh, excuse me if you said this somewhere before, but how will step 4 be actually? Will it he like an actual step and have moments and dlc and all? Or will it be more like a long epilogue of some sort?

Will the step 4, the wedding and extra routes dlcs be paid too? Im just confused, sorry if im asking too much

Step 4 is only an epilogue, so it’s just a long series of scenes one after the other rather than a collection of Moments you can choose from.

The Step 4 epilogue is free, the wedding DLC, Derek DLC, and Baxter DLC cost money.

i’m not sure how much of the wedding dlc you have planned already, or if this would be to spoilery, but what kind of wedding traditions will be included? i keep thinking about how flustered cove would get over a garter toss & was wondering if we’d see a scene like that haha. obviously no worries if it’s not included, i’ll enjoy literally anything cove related 

I don’t know for sure yet, haha. Right now we’re focused on the parts before the big day. We’ll see how many scene alterations we can include for the wedding itself later on.

Hello! Firstly, thank you for creating such an amazing game like OL, and I couldn’t be more excited for OL2! Out of curiosity, are you looking for any writers to come on for OL2 or are you all pretty much set in that department? Just thought I’d shoot my shot haha but I’m still excited regardless ^^! 

We will be hiring writers for OL2 later this year! Thank you for the interest.

Will we be blessed with a spin-off Yandere Cove, like XOXO Blood Droplets? 

Sadly, no. It’s a shame but there’s not enough time to keep making OL1 bonus/spin-off content.

How is Q pronounced?

I’m afraid Q’s full name hasn’t been publicly announced yet so I can’t answer here (Q and T are the first letters of the names for the new LIs in Our Life: Now & Forever).

Question; is the steam version getting a Mac update?  I purchased the dlc there thinking it had Mac support without realizing it and just wondered if I’d need to refund it to purchase on itch.io 😭 

I’m really sorry, you will need to get a refund from Steam. We do hope to have it there for Steam eventually, but have no idea of when it’ll happen. Apple requires special notarization to be an officially accepted app for their devices. We don’t have that. Steam requires having that, Itch will let you release it as an non-notarized third party app. That’s why Itch is the only place that has the Mac version right now.

would you mind posting outfit sheets for Cove in every step? it would make things a lot easier for us artists. it would save a lot of time spent looking for references 

I think we did do the earlier steps when they were finished way back in 2019 (this game took a long time to make, aha), but we can probably repost them sometime!

In our life n&f, will we be able to get into qprs/will there be more options in regards to having deep platonic relationships with the love interests? Because as an aroace individual, it would be great if there could also be emphasis on platonic love so that it's more aspec inclusive. 

It’s a little hard to say at this point. There may not be things like a wedding DLC for OL2 and so the relationship for platonic and romantic feelings might not go as far as it did in the first game. We’ll kind of have to see how much we can do based on timeframe/budget constraints that will only be set near the end of the year. But we will be keeping things like that in mind at least.

hi! i really really like your game and im absolutely in love with it! i cant wait to try your other games like xoxo droplet and future OL NF :))

during the step 3 erands moment i got curious, which fudge flavor is his favorite? it seems like he likes all of them, but which 4 do you think he would like best?

also i noticed that in some playthroughs cove would let me give him a piggy back ride, and in some he wouldn't, how come?

how does your choices affect cove's interests or looks? i replayed the game without changing any choices but i got cove to look different, is it just random?

thank you!

Cove’s favorite flavors are ones with nuts and that are fruity! But he appreciates them all. Whether or not you can give him a piggyback ride depends on if your MC is fit/large enough to hold a muscular 6-foot-tall beach boy, haha.

Cove’s appearance does depend on choices and it’s generally tied to choices that are preference based rather than emotion/action based, such as which key chain you pick in Step 1.

Is it possible for cove to reject MC's proposal at the end of step 3? 

Nope. He’ll always accept.

hi! i was wondering how heavily the side characters will be featured in the our life wedding dlc? obviously it'll be cove & mc focused, but i was thinking it'd be sweet if we could take lizzie dress / suit shopping or dance with cliff at the wedding or something. 

The side characters are there about as often as they are in normal events. So, it’s clearly focused on Cove but he’s not the only person you have any meaningful moments with.

When will responses be sent out to applicants? 

I’m afraid we don’t send responses out to all applications, only ones we’re interested in offering the position to. Not everyone likes rejection emails and the amount of applications is too high to contact them all to say we’re not hiring them. We post updates on the job page when a position has news. Right now we’ve filled every role that was open.

Is there also going to be the option to keep your relationships with the love interests platonic in Our Life: Now and Forever? That's something I really appreciate in Our Life: Beginnings and Always

Yeah! OL will never force you to end up in a romantic relationship with someone.

I was wondering, in the Step 3 Happiness moment, what are the different fishes Cove can compare MC to? I got "you'd be a paradise fish, because being with you is paradise," but my friend got "you'd be an angelfish." Are there more variations? 

He says paradise fish if you’re a couple, angelfish if he’s just crushing, and then a royal dottyback/queenfish/emperor tetra (based on your gender) if he likes the MC platonicly.

Hello! So, in one of the Step 3 DLCs, Cove's arm was gone. I think it was to show him putting his arm behind his back. But if that wasn't the case, did it get yeeted? 

Thanks for letting us know. That was an error we tried to fix a little while back. When did you make the save file you were playing? If it was older that might be why it happened. Or maybe the error wasn’t fully fixed after all.

Asking for your opinion, but do you think Cove would at all be into ABBA? Because all I could imagine during the car trip in step 3 was him and the MC belting to Mamma Mia. 

Haha, yeah, there’d definitely be some ABBA songs he was into.

So throughout the game, Cove can develop different interests depending on the player’s choices; does this mean that he can have different careers in Step 4? Or his is line of work in adulthood never mentioned at all? 

He can have different career paths in Step 4!

Hi!! I'm so so sorry if this has been asked before but I just acquired knowledge about the so famous nsfw dlc for OL and nearly chocked on my bubblegum 💀💀💀 So, my real inquiry is if that specific moment will have any kind of impact at some point of the fourth step OR if it will just be treated as a side-story-ish “what if” scenario.Also, is there any chance there'll be something similar for Step 4? Haha jk,,, unless 😳Questions apart let me thank you profoundly for making the best visual novel I've ever played 😭 Really really looking forward the epilogue and OL2 💕 Have a nice day 

It’s just a bonus side story that’s fully separate from the main game.

It would be nice to have one for Step 4 too, but I sadly don’t see us having time to actually do it. I don’t know, if people are still asking for more OL1 content several months from now it might be doable and worth doing.

I'd just like to ask, when is Baxter's birthday :0 -- I'm really curious esp with their zodiac signs so ;w; 

I don’t know, haha. Maybe I’ll come up with one someday.

Please help!! I bought the Step 3 DLC but I still have no idea how to get to where you can propose to Cove - any tips? 

&

How do I get the option to propose to Cove at the end of the game?

You can click HERE for a discussion on that.

I love that Miranda and Terry are getting together! I'm curious if you have canon sexualities for them? Also just wanted to say how much I love OL and how much joy it brings me everytime I play it <3 

Terry likes ladies and Miranda likes dudes!

ngl Step 4 Terry's design reads like y'all see trans guys as their assigned gender more than you see them as men to me (a trans guy)... like maybe if he isn't heavily dysphoric, I could see it, but everything you've said about him doesn't line up with that. Even then, immediate warning bells go off in my head looking at him. I wouldn't have touched the game if I saw him ahead of time.

I’m sorry you aren’t comfortable with the way the design looks. The situation with Terry is that he’s now open about who he is, but the body he was born with is still physically the same. He only came out recently as an adult and hasn’t gone through any treatments/procedures yet (his chest is flatter because he wears a binder). However, even though his body hasn’t transitioned at the point Step 4 happens, no one treats him as anything other than the guy he is. Having a trans character who’s identity is supported/respected from the start is what we’re going for in this case. But what we’re doing with Terry isn’t the only trans content we’ve ever had/ever will have in the future.

how would baxter react to bae pyoun and vice versa? and can you please detailly explain both love interests personalities from our life 2: now and forever? i was just curious, sorry for dumb question!! 

I imagine it’d be pretty opposite experiences, haha. Bae would initially think Baxter is pushy and thoughtless, but would quickly realize, oh, he’s instead a soft, considerate boy. Very cute. Baxter would first be struck with the impression that Bae is charming and gentlemanly, but then would realize that, no, he’s a sarcastic asshole. And I’m afraid we can’t reveal the personalities for the next game yet.

Sorry if you've already answered this, but I have a question about the patreon exclusive moment you're working on. I was wondering if it's mainly going to be CGs or if it's mostly character sprites + backgrounds with some CGs.

Either way, thank you for doing the Lord's work and not only making Cove, but making this bonus moment as well 😌😌😌

It’s mostly sprites/backgrounds with two CGs!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for the interesting questions everyone :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[ophelialoveshandsomemen]

😲 That both surprises me and doesn’t at the same time, tbh though! Anne of Green Gables is super popular in canada and has been since it was published. But I’ve always wondered if it is even remotely well-known outside of canada. It’s a wonderful series, following Anne from an 11 year old girl all the way through high school and college and she gets married and has kids and in the last book she’s reached the age of 45 or so. It’s just such a wonderful series to read. I’m actually getting inspired to reread it, now that I’m talking about it with you! Especially the two books where Anne is around my age, maybe I’ll pick up on something that I missed first time around! Who knows! lol If you ever come across a copy, def pick it up to read, it’s like getting a warm hug when you read it!

You know, I completely ignored Oscar’s character in that movie for the first ten years of watching it?!?!?!! The first time I watched it, I had this thought that his character couldn’t possibly actually be a good guy( dunno why I thought that 🤪) so I just, ignored him. Then I started admiring Oscar apart from that movie and I remembered that he was in For Greater Glory so I rewatched it, and I, having matured and getting a better understanding of morally grey characters in general because of it, completely and unabashedly fell in love with his character and have yet to look back! 😄

 On another note, since you said that you are interested in that particular history, have you heard of St. Padre Pro? ( Not Padre Pio! lol It’s so easy to mix them up!) He’s a great hero of the Cristero War.

On the '3 things' asks:

#11, #18, and #34

Thanks so much girl!!!

(omg, you're breaking my heart with that gif!) 💖

Anyways! To the answers! I'm sorry to inform you that it has turned into an article, I cannot write about books I'm passionate about concisely. So buckle up I guess?!!?

#11- 3 books I would recommend that everyone reads!

So I'm gonna put down books that I also think most people ( if not all) Could read, because a.k.a Lord of the Rings is not easy for a lot of people, for various reasons surrounding pacing and whatnot, though I highly recommend that one as well!!!

First book would be Sastun by Dr. Rosita Arvigo. It is a woonnnnderful book about her apprenticeship with a Mayan H'men. a.k.a shaman-like healer, who reminds us that the spiritual and the physical Cannot Be Separated! A very easy read that will blow your mind when it comes to your body and how you should treat it and it will forever change your perspective on Western Medicine. One warning though, if you do not actually know beforehand about what is and isn't "allowed" in Catholicism, do not base your future knowledge of it on this, as these healers really mix together Mayan worship and Catholicism. I do not judge them for this, but please be aware that not everything that they recount doing in this book is necessarily okay for Catholics.

Second book is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This entire series was my comfort book growing up, but I recommend the first as it truly is the cornerstone of the series. ( FYI My personal favourite is actually the last book, Rita of Ingleside.) :) A story about girl with a wild imagination and longing for a kindred spirit, nothing better to dive into!

Third book will be Mexican Martyrdom by Rev. Fr. Wilfrid Parsons. I was obsessed with the Cristero War as a young teen ( thanks to my mother getting me the movie, For Greater Glory, when I was 12 because she knew I liked war movies...I know, weird 12 year old girl, I was a tomboy okay...) This is a period of history that, if I remember correctly, is very rarely talked about because there's a lot of misunderstandings and bad blood surrounding it. But this book was written by a contemporary catholic reverend who was in and out of Mexico while it was happening and was acquainted with some of the "people in charge" shall we say. So it's quite reliable and helps clear some of the murk clouding this patch of history. ( Also, I highly recommend watching the aforementioned movie, For Greater Glory ( 2012), (which you will very much enjoy if you are Oscar Isaac fan btw) and another thing I rec is this short film from around the same time, called Cristeros y Federales, link is here. ( Also, this one has the ever lovely Tenoch Huerta starring! ) ;)

#18- 3 dream jobs from my childhood

Ummm I got at least two. I wanted to be a religious Sister who was also a nurse and I would go help third world countries. Then I realized that heat existed....

And then I wanted to become a famous stage actress!

There was also a bout of wanting to leave everything behind and become a mountain (wo)man/trapper in the Northwest Territories. Dunno if that counts!! ( esp. since I still wanna do that half the time...)

#34-3 people from history who inspire me!

I might stay short and sweet with these, because most have got some, shall we say 'ugly history' attached to them, through no fault of their own.

Pocahontas, the Algonquin Princess. Really inspired me to respect and love and ally myself with nature.

St. Joan of Arc. Peasant girl turned saviour of France who stuck to her principles no matter what.

Marina Raskova, founder and leader of the ' Night Witches' a.k.a the elite soviet pilot regiment who are amoung the most badass ladies ever. Check them out! Their story is so cool!

[iamanathemadevice]

Wherein I whine about Star Trek: Picard

Even though it's a show I actually adore. (I'm going to do my best to avoid spoilers here, but I'll put a cut in for the nervous)

Look, they do a great job on so many things. The staging and costuming and music are just fantastic. They clearly know their Trek canon.

But the script writers have been seriously handwaving a lot of shit. For example:

They never address something incredibly important and obvious about time travelling that far into the past - language.

We can just about understand written English from 2-3 centuries ago, but even then we struggle with slang and abbreviations unless we're scholars. Look at the rhymes in Shakespeare that no longer work. The jokes. The puns. We can't understand Shakespeare as written without help and study. Can you imagine trying to understand what was being said if we were just hearing it?

Have you ever look at newsreels from last century? Ever noticed how differently your own country's accents sounded back then? And that's only a hundred years ago. Four hundred years ago, a time traveller from our time would be almost unintelligible to a nominally English speaking person. Four hundred years from now, the same will be true. Not just because of our accents, but because our entire vocabulary will have changed. (Can you imagine how many more 'foreign' words and expressions and tics English is going to pinch in the next 400 years, considering how much it's changed just since the internet was born?)

Rios's conversation with the ICE guard is amusing, but ridiculous. He should not be able to make an idiomatic, rapid-fire monologue at anyone at this period, because no matter how much time he spends on a holodeck, he won't sound like a 21st century Chilean man either in accent or vocabulary. Rios is a starship captain, not a linguist or a historian. This stuff needs work if you want to do it right.

If you're going to do a time travel arc, you really can't afford to be this sloppy.

2. Smoking at a gala.

An indoor gala. Smoking a fucking cigar at an indoor gala. No.

I mean, I knew this and I'm Australian, FFS

3. Does anyone on that scriptwriting team know anything about how they choose astronauts?

They're filming in Canada - perhaps they might have heard of Chris Hadfield? He wrote a whole damn book about becoming an astronaut. Suffice to say, the process is arduous, and amongst other things, thoroughly weeds out the neurotic and uncertain from a vast field of talent. So a particular plot twist about the future of humanity resting on a person who is depressed, a heavy drinker, and generally not in good mental health, being able to complete a multiyear mission to the outer reaches of the solar system is...silly, to say the least.

Star Trek isn't as silly as Dr Who (which isn't science fiction in any defensible definition of the term) and I'm happy to sit back and suspend disbelief with the best of them - until it starts doing stuff which I know about (like history and language and how it changes) and then I have to take notice of the nonsense, and I don't like that :(

I'd much rather concentrate on the bisexual ladies in love, and Rios being delicious, and the wonderful, wonderful costumes and music. So if the scriptwriters could start paying some goddamn attention to the details, I would appreciate it.

[1863-project]

This has been tickling me for a while- but as a Pakistani person of Indian descent, I'm here to ask...What's your favorite train from that general vicinity? Focusing on mainly India since Britain established quite a few railways there historically- I should've clarified that sooner. But yeah! I feel as though Indian railways don't receive as much address as they should- especially in a post-colonial setting. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this sorta thing!

OH I WAS LEGIT THINKING ABOUT THIS THE OTHER DAY

The coolest thing about Indian railways is that they managed to maintain steam well into the 1990s. It just delights me so much that steam locomotives were running regularly in my lifetime somewhere and it wasn't a heritage thing - these were just regular trains moving regular people (i.e. not tourists) around. I actually found an article from the Irish Times on the subject from 1999 - steam survived on the mainline until the dawn of the new millennium in India, and in some specific places even longer! Apparently there's a book by a fellow named Vikas Singh documenting steam locomotives in India, so I'm going to have to see if I can get it! According to him the most recent locomotive in the book was built in 2014, aka EIGHT YEARS AGO from the time of this post. That's incredible. One of the things I love about steam locomotives from India is they're often more decorative - a lot of them have designs on the front of the boiler, often stars. They're so beautiful and elegant-looking and I adore that.

I absolutely cannot post this without mentioning the Fairy Queen, which is the oldest regularly operating steam locomotive in the world. She was built in Leeds, England in 1855, and was then shipped to Kolkata that same year. Serving consistently until 1909, she then went on display for years after that until being restored and returned to service in 1997. She's tiny and she only maxes out at around 25 mph, but she makes up for that by sheer longevity.

Look at her, she's so cute! This photo was from 2011, when she was in for repairs after some of her parts were stolen, but she's as good as new again and now lives at the Rewari Railway Heritage Museum when she's not running. She's actually had National Treasure status since 1972.

Now, my taste in steam locomotives tends to veer heavily towards high-speed passenger rail, which of course means I’m going to naturally gravitate towards things like 4-6-2 Pacifics - and we’ve got a great one to look at here!

This is a Class WP, and they’re interesting because they were designed specifically to run on coal in India that was low-calorie and high-ash - they were made to optimize the particular type of coal available. The first locomotives in this class were actually built by Baldwin, an American locomotive manufacturer, with more being ordered from manufacturers in Canada, Poland, and Austria, and finally being built at home in the 1960s by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with some slight changes that made them slightly heavier (these are referred to as WP/I locomotives). Apparently the entire class was still operational in the 1980s, and many survived into the 1990s in regular service! Three of them are operational today, with nine total in preservation. I just think these things are gorgeous, and I’m so glad there’s some survivors still in operation!

Basically, I love that steam lives on so gloriously in India in so many places. If you’re a steam nut like me, India is definitely not to be overlooked!

[stylesnews]

“Feeling good in my skin/ I just keep on dancing,” Harry Styles sings in his latest single, “Treat People With Kindness.” And in the song’s exuberant music video -- which has garnered 17 million YouTube views and counting since its debut on New Year’s Day -- he does just that: Wearing a sequined jacket and bow tie, he chassés, spins and flutters jazz hands like an MGM musical star (with a little help from his equally debonair partner, Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge).

Styles shot the video in early 2019 after several weeks of training with choreographer Paul Roberts, a collaborator since his One Direction days. “I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew this could be something special,” says Roberts, a veteran stage director and choreographer who’s worked on videos and tours for the likes of Sam Smith, Katy Perry, Diana Ross, and the Spice Girls (their Spiceworld stadium tour).

Watching the explosive fan reaction to Styles’s little known dance talents -- including from the Spice Girls, who've “sent lovely messages" about the video -- Roberts says it seems like "Treat People With Kindness" arrived at the precise right moment. “Most people’s comments are, ‘I’ve not felt that happy for three and a half minutes in a long time,’ or ‘I smiled from ear to ear the whole way through.’ It’s a positive light.”

He spoke to Billboard about Styles’ intensive training process -- and why he wouldn’t be surprised to see him dancing onstage again.

There’s been one pretty overwhelming reaction to this video: “This is the guy who was in the group that insisted they couldn’t dance?!” Did you expect this kind of reaction to Harry dancing? I’ve been with Harry for 10 years: I was with the One Direction boys from the beginning the whole way through their career before they took the hiatus, and they always made a very conscious decision that they didn’t want choreography as part of their brand -- but they did want a kind of disheveled organization in order to allow the cameras and the lighting to stand a chance in terms of presenting them in the best manner possible.

What was very evident to me was that all five of them, and then it obviously became four, they’ve all got their own magic. The only time I’ve experienced that was when I worked with the Spice Girls. I always knew that they had special skills aside from what they were in One Direction, whether it was movement, songwriting, being able to handle the business side of things. For such young lads they were very astute and very decisive.  So, getting together with Harry -- he’s a bit of an alchemist, is Harry. Everything he turns his hand to turns to gold. Where did the initial dance-centric concept come from? Harry and the directors, Ben and Gabe [Turner], sent me a video link to the Nicholas Brothers scene from Stormy Weather and Harry asked me, "How long do you think it would take to dance like this?" I was like, "OK, are you being serious?" "Yeah, I’m being serious."

That is probably one of the most standout dance sequences ever captured on film -- so I knew we were aiming high. I said, "Why don’t we go into a studio and let’s workshop some choreography, some moves, some short sequences, and see what your ability is, see how we can tailor this to make you look the best you can possibly look." Obviously it would take some investment in terms of rehearsal and commitment, I told him it would be mentally and physically exhausting, but I thought, "My God yeah, let’s do it; this will be an adventure."

How long did the whole process take? We started in mid-January 2019, and we rehearsed and workshopped for about four to five weeks before the shoot, every day. Both Harry and Phoebe had other things going on, so, for instance, Phoebe was working on the new Bond movie in Canada, so I sent my assistant to Canada to work with her. I stayed in the U.K. with Harry, and then we went to L.A. where Harry shot two more videos, for “Watermelon Sugar” and “Falling.”

At the end of the “Watermelon Sugar” shoot, he wrapped, got in his car, came to the dance studio and we rehearsed into the night. Knowing how short a time you sometimes get with artists even for really big performances, I thought the rehearsals would dilute and we’d lose momentum, but both Phoebe and Harry were so committed.

What was the process in the studio like with Harry? We didn’t even use his [vocal] track to begin with -- we used different big band songs, some contemporary alternative music. It was just about finding his [movement] language first and foremost.  Then we developed the choreography and sent it to the directors, who gave us feedback. We enhanced the work a bit more, and then once we had some really solid sequences, Ben and Gabe storyboarded the scenes against the timeline of the music.

At this point Harry and Phoebe were still working separately, and then we joined forces in London, where we really started to refine these sequences of choreography we’d developed, trying to find the finesse and the style, almost making sense of the movement for them so they felt they had a dancer’s way of working the movement through the body. You’ve worked with a wide variety of artists, many of whom aren’t dancers first. How do you find, as you put it, the “language” of movement that makes sense for each of them as individuals?

I think the general answer is really communicating -- listening and understanding what the artist’s desire is. And also collaborating, so you don’t get too lost in yourself as a choreographer. What looks good on you might not transcend to the artist, or even necessarily the dancers.

With Harry, what was important within the language of the choreography was that it felt joyful and had personality. Him and Phoebe, with the work she’s done with Fleabag, you associate them and what they do with a sense of style, a real confidence, but at the heart of it it’s entertainment. And with the amount of time and budget we had, which was such a luxury in this day and age, we wanted to do something that pushed both of them out of their comfort zones. We tried to make it as athletic as possible but without compromising them as artists and becoming too comedic. We wanted it to be a bit quaint and cute in places, but we definitely didn’t want it to be thought of as nonsensical or silly.

Harry’s movement in the video is so crisp and precise, even his hands and arm extension look very dancerly. Did that come through a lot of specific work with you? As a songwriter and artist, for Harry it’s about detail, about pushing yourself to be the best. He’s always got questions: "Why are we doing that? Should we be doing this?" We got to a point during the rehearsal period where I brought in a ballet teacher, really to just get Harry and Phoebe to open themselves up from behind their shoulder blades, have an idea of extension, the lines that extend from your center all the way to the tip of your finger. I’d be saying, “Your arms Harry, your arm line!” Asking him to push his shoulders down, lift his carriage up, extend through his breast. And when he hit those lines, he’d be like, “Oh yeah, that feels different.” It’s funny: We spent a couple days apart -- he had to go off and do a gig somewhere -- and I was like, “I hope you’re rehearsing when you’ve got some downtime, dude!” And he sent me a picture in the gym with his arms in the most beautiful balletic arm line! I was like, "Yes, by George, you’ve got it!" Besides the Nicholas Brothers, did you have any particular dance references in mind for the feel of the choreography? I just delved into the MGM archives. Obviously [Fred] Astaire and [Gene] Kelly, the two greats -- especially with Astaire, we loved how sometimes it seems so effortless yet a bit throwaway, not totally totally perfect always.  We enjoyed the moments from him of “I’ll just do a bit of this,” “I’ll just walk off camera left,” the dropping in and out of movement.  We loved the duet “Moses Supposes” from Singin’ in the Rain, for Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor -- we loved the camaraderie between them, which felt a bit goofball at times, and just that wry smile, the look to the left, knowing your partner is there and has got your back. It feels fizzy, it feels joyful.

And yes, there was a massive core of MGM-ism, but at the same time an absolute huge dollop of Harry-and-Phoebe-ism. It was important to us to feel a bit more contemporary, so again we stay true to Harry and Phoebe as artists. Has Harry indicated any interest in dancing more going forward?

We had a conversation back at the end of the summer about how much we enjoyed the process, and I know he was doing another project where choreography was involved, so we were just talking about it and how he felt. Coming from where he came from to what he was about to do, he felt he could be pushed even further. I don’t know if he got the bug, or if it’s just the way he is as a person, very inquisitive and wanting to keep elevating himself. There’s now been some talk on social media that it can’t be long before Harry does Broadway. What do you think?

I mean, I think with Harry Styles, anything is possible, is it not? I mean, I’m sure because he’s tasted the dance, he’ll inject that along the line in his career. It won’t necessarily be out-and-out dancing, but I guess it’s a bit like Bowie used to do, isn’t it? It’s the showmanship and presentation of the performance. Who knows? He’s just so open-minded and open-hearted — and because he’s so open it allows the universe to come back at him and he’s able to do anything he sets his mind to.  

[faerune]

I love reading about Kaidan and Jane so much 🥺. I was wondering, what does post-war life look like for them? <3

AHHH omg thank you?? that means so much <3

as for post-war jane and kaidan...

i'm caught where in particular they settle down but they do build their own house on a stretch of land! it's next to water - either the ocean or a large lake and among a foresty area. either in canada or i think kaidan mentions he owns land in australia?? for some reason lmao. i just know they it's earth they want to be

jane's injuries leave her with long-lasting pain and disabilities. it's a lot of work to get to her new normal and it's frustrating and there's a lot of grief she has to work through. i haven't thought of specifics of her injuries yet but it's a lot of physical therapy which kaidan supports her through including letting her vent her anger and sadness.

jane eventually starts helping earth rebuild, organizing efforts and just in general using her reputation to gain funding and stuff. it makes her feel good to be apart of it. becomes a director or smth of relief efforts and donates a lot of money for support and memorials and stuff.

it's a good thing that jane isn't going to be a combatant anymore. that was her last fight and she's ready to settle down and live the rest of her life doing other things.

about a year after jane wakes up, her and kaidan get married. it's supposed to be a small affair with just their family and friends but then they realize just how many friends and family they have. jane's a little annoyed at the start but they have such a great time surrounded by the people they love :')

kaidan and jane sell their wedding photos to whichever press junket that offers the most and donates it all to earth relief charities.

it's a lot of quiet healing the first two years after everything. just making their new lives, dealing with their wounds both physical and mental.

i can see kaidan becoming a biotic teacher, he seems to really love his old squad of biotics and it's just a good fit for him in his mind.