#marc in every ep

[spectordameron]

Marc Spector in every episode: ↪ Asylum

[myfanfictiongarden]

Omg…. episodes 11 & 12 The Spoils and Kalends of February is what I`ve been looking for.

I’m not kidding when I say I’m in tears, this episodes were incredible.

[projectjasper]

i love how every time i watch a nlmg edit and phum shows up for three seconds to get his ass kicked as clear visual representation of palm protecting nueng, i'm like "omg hiiii win hii 👋"

[ranchthoughts]

An Update to the Kissing Multiverse!

The first version is here, second version here, third version here. There is also a little bonus stat crunching here. My tag for this project is here.

Well, Only Friends and Dangerous Romance are over, so I am back with another GMMTV Kissing Multiverse update for you all. And boy howdy it is a doozy. We've added 16 shows, 19 actors, and 33 unique kissing pairs!

Rules

Must have visible lip to lip contact

Must be shown on screen in a GMM tv series (no kisses from ads, promotional content, trailers*, movies, etc.)

*please note this means none of the GMMTV 2024 trailers count

Breakdown by Show

The data set now includes 77 shows.

(full list in alt text)

Breakdown By Actor

The data set now includes 131 actors.

(full lists in alt text)

Results and Discussion

Unique vs. Repeat Kissing Pairs

Last time round we learned that the vast majority of GMMTV kissing pairs are one-offs and that mixed gender pairs were less likely to repeat. Those conclusions hold true for this update.

There are 169 "unique" kissing pairs in the dataset, and of those, 156 (92.3%) appear only once, in one show. 13 pairs (7.7%) appear at least twice.

The 13 pairs that appear in more than one show are:

Book/Force (in A Boss and a Babe, Enchante, and Only Friends)

Bright/Win (in 2gether and Still 2gether)

Dunk/Joong (in Hidden Agenda and Star in My Mind)

Earth/Mix (in A Tale of Thousand Stars, Cupid's Last Wish, and Moonlight Chicken)

Fiat/June (in The Gifted and The War of Flowers)

Film/Gun (in Not Me and Three Gentlebros)

First/Khaotung (in The Eclipse and Only Friends)

Gun/Off (in Not Me, Puppy Honey, Puppy Honey 2, and Theory of Love)

Lee/Mook (in My Dear Loser and The Jungle)

Louis/Neo (in The Eclipse and Fish Upon The Sky)

Marc Natarit/Pawin (in Dangerous Romance and My Gear Your Gown)

New/Tay (in Dark Blue Kiss and Kiss Me Again)

Phuwin/Pond (in Fish Upon the Sky and Never Let Me Go)

The kissing pair that has appeared in the most shows is Gun/Off, with 4 shows out as of now (and 2 more in the works!).

10 out of 13 of these repeating pairs (77%) are same gender pairs, specifically BL branded or brand-adjacent pairs. Once again, an interesting look into the GMMTV het vs BL system.

All in all, 97% of mixed gender pairs and 85% of same gender pairs appear only once, in one show.

Same Gender vs. Mixed Gender Kissing Pairs

Of the 169 "unique" kissing pairs, roughly 60% are mixed gender pairs and roughly 39% are same gender pairs. This ratio has shifted slightly from the last update (when it was 59% mixed gender and 41% same gender) as I have added more het shows to the sample.

Now to look at the shows themselves: 35% of the shows had only same gender kissing pairs, 47% of the shows had only mixed gender kissing pairs, and 18% of the shows featured both. You will notice that this is a 8% increase in favour of "mixed gender kissing only" shows compared to the last update which is due to the number of het shows I added this update.

Most Kissing Pairs Per Show

The average number of kissing pairs per show is 2.4.

The shows with the most different kissing pairs are:

Only Friends (16 different pairs)

The Warp Effect (15 different pairs)

Friendzone (11 different pairs)

The Jungle and U-Prince (9 different pairs each)

The Player (7 different pairs)

Not Me, Three Gentlebros, and 3 Will Be Free have 4 different kissing pairs each, and then all other shows have 3 or fewer kissing pairs each.

Welcome Only Friends to the top of the ranking! 🎉 A well deserved placing. I would like to take a moment to hone in on the distribution of kissing over the course of the series:

We hit 9 kissing pairs in ep. 9, 10 pairs in ep. 10, 11 pairs in ep. 11, and 12(+) pairs in ep. 12. Very satisfying.

The Power of Jojo

Jojo, every series:

You get a kiss and you get a kiss! YOU ALL GET KISSES!

(inspired by @dribs-and-drabbles here)

As we've learned over these past updates, Jojo has an outsized impact on the number of kissing pairs. He has directed roughly 10% of the shows in this sample, but his shows account for nearly a third of all kissing pairs (32%). Half of Jojo's shows are in the top 6 for most kissing pairs per show (Only Friends, The Warp Effect, Friendzone, and The Player).

The average number of kissing pairs in a Jojo show is 7.4, compared to 1.8 for non-Jojo shows.

Interesting to note: last update, the average number of kissing pairs per show for Jojo shows was 6.0 (1.4 lower) and the average for non-Jojo shows was the same (1.8). Only Friends had quite the impact.

(note: in this section, I am just looking at kissing pair iterations here not at unique kissing pairs, e.g., Phuwin/Pond are a pair in two shows (once in a Jojo show and once in a non-Jojo show), so they are counted twice.)

Most Kissing Partners

First, to put this in context: 50.4% of the actors in this sample have only had one kissing partner. The average number of kissing partners per actor is 2.6 (an increase of 0.3 from last update - again, possibly due to Only Friends).

We've had some significant changes in the leader board this update. Previously, our top 5 were Joss (10 kissing partners), Lee and Namtan (9 each), and Ohm and Nanon (7 each).

Welcome our new leader, Lee, with 12 kissing partners!

Krist takes the second spot (11 different kissing partners), followed by Joss (10), Namtan (9) and First (8) to round out our top five.

Next we have Gigie, Mild, Nanon, New, Off, and Ohm with 7 different kissing partners each; Film, Mond, Mook, Neo, and Singto with 6 kissing partners each; and Bright, Fluke Pusit, Jan, Khaotung, and Mark Pakin with 5 kissing partners each. There are also eleven actors with 4 different partners, and fifteen actors with 3 different partners each.

This update sees an astonishing 6 new kissing partners for Krist and 3 for First, catapulting them into the top 5. The impact of Only Friends can't be denied either - it increased every one of its actors' total kissing partners, and pushed Mond, Neo, Khaotung, and Mark Pakin up into the upper echelons, along with First, of course.

Most Kissing Partners in One Show

We have a new reigning champion for "Most Kissing Partners in One Show"! Thanks to his tireless hard work in Only Friends kissing 5 different people, Neo rockets to the top of the list.

We now have seven people who have kissed 4 different people in one show thanks to Only Friends (First, Mark Pakin, and Mond in Only Friends; Fluke Pusit, Gigie, and New in The Warp Effect; and Plustor in Friendzone), and eight cases of people kissing 3 different people in one show (Book, Force, and Khaotung in Only Friends; Joss and Namtan in The Player; Joss again in 3 Will Be Free; Krist in The Jungle; and Singto in Friendzone).

Please note that all of these instances (except for Krist in The Jungle) happened in Jojo shows.

In total, there are 52 instances of people kissing more than one person in a show, and 31% of actors in the sample have kissed more than one person in a show at least once.

Which of the GMMTV boys has kissed the most guys?

Last update we had a five-way tie for first place between First, Fluke Pusit, Neo, Plustor, and Singto, with 4 men kissed each. Only Friends has significantly changed the situation.

Congratulations to First for taking first place in the men kissing men category, with 7 men kissed! Next we have Neo in second place (6 men kissed) and Khaotung in third (5 men kissed).

First has kissed Gawin (Not Me), Force (Only Friends), Khaotung (The Eclipse and Only Friends), Mark Pakin (Only Friends), Mix (Moonlight Chicken), Mond (Only Friends), and Ohm (The Shipper)

Neo has kissed Drake (Only Friends), Force (Only Friends), Louis (The Eclipse and FUTS), Mark Pakin (Only Friends), Mond (Only Friends), and Title (Only Friends)

Khaotung has kissed Book (Only Friends), First (The Eclipse and Only Friends), Mond (Only Friends), Pawin (55:15 Never Too Late), and Pod (Tonhon Chonlatee)

There are now seven men who have kissed 4 men each: Fluke Pusit, Krist, Mark Pakin, Mond, New, Plustor, and Singto. Special shoutout to Mark Pakin, Mond, and Plustor for racking up all these kisses over the course of one show each (Only Friends, Only Friends, and Friendzone respectively).

Finally, there are eight men who have kissed 3 men each, and eleven who have kissed two men each.

The Kiss Web

Behold... the Kiss Web, newly updated:

And, as usual, some colourful breakdowns too:

The reach of the top 5 kissers: Lee, Krist, Joss, Namtan, and First.

The kissing webs of the top three shows: Only Friends (in pink), The Warp Effect (in blue), and Friendzone (in green). Yes these are all Jojo shows.

Some "kissing triangles" (no squares this time because there were too many to show). Note the triangles completed in the course of one show: Nat-Plustor-Singto (Friendzone), First-Khaotung-Mond (Only Friends), Mark Pakin-Neo-Title (Only Friends), Fluke Pusit-Gigie-New (The Warp Effect), and Joss-Mild-Tay (3 Will Be Free).

I’ve been having fun Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon-ing around this web and I’d like to propose a challenge to you all: what is the longest chain between two people (with the most people between them) possible? Basically, reverse Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Bonus points if there is no quicker shortcut between them.

If you’d like to play another little game, see my post here.

Contributing authors: @airenyah, @alsoran, @alwaysthepessimist, various anons, @bengiyo, @burnsuncomet, @callipigio, @cangse-sanren, @catboykacchan, @catboyjosten, @catsundmaus, @chickenstrangers, @crowie, @dribs-and-drabbles, @ffirstkhao, @foralleternityidiot, @isaksbestpillow, @jeonghanurl, @kattahj, @kpinhiding, @lurkingshan, @maibpenrai, @maybeitdontmakesense, @nieves-de-sugui, @non-binarypal7, @sammie-lightwood-bane, @sollucets, @userneos, @theselightsareblinding, @tiistirtipii, @waitmyturtles, @williamrikers

Data visualization consultants and beloved proofreaders: @chickenstrangers, @dribs-and-drabbles, @wen-kexing-apologist

Asked to be tagged: @blmpff

[dis-aster9255]

Hi hi hello this is gonna be both a mix of like actual character analysis and a few headcanons cause these characters haven't left my head for two months.

But yeah I'm gonna be applying the idea that Steven, Marc, and Jake are all autistic and it's not just Steven. (based on what I know and my own experiences) :D

(Warning: it's long.)

Steven:

Okay so Steven is the one with the most visible evidence because i believe he's the only one who doesn't try to mask

He either does not care what people think of him or straight up doesn't notice that he's acting differently than "normal"

When he's confused he'll just straight up ask like with Dylan ("are you asking me out??")

The hyperfixation/special interest in ancient egypt. He's learning ancient egyptian and hieroglyphics he's SERIOUS

He works at a museum specifically because of that as well

Taking literally any chance he can to talk about it even if the people he's talking to clearly don't care (ex. Donna)

He got so excited when Layla knew what he was talking about like come on

Also ROUTINE

Every evening he adds the tape on his door, replaces the sand, and puts the ankle restraint on before going to sleep

Ik that's supposed to be because of Marc but it's a routine and it's clearly always done the same every night.

Calls his mother every day even if she doesn't answer (we know why but :( )

Also the necklace. It's barely visible but it is there every day

The way he stands:

Need i say more? I don't but I will

Seriously though I'm pretty sure whenever he's fronting he's like never standing still

Either like this or messing with whatever is in his hands

The rubix cube. He can finish that thing without looking at this point its not a puzzle it's a fidget object.

Now for some not fun things

He gets overwhelmed at least twice in the show

Once after he finds out everything with his mom and once with Layla

The one with Layla I understand completely, stressful situation along with two people yelling at you is the worst thing and I know the exact feeling.

Either way both times he was constantly repeating the same word over and over again while basically folding in on himself to avoid whatever was happening around him.

On a lighter note Steven expresses his genuine excitement openly

He was dead but he was still so happy he finally was able to meet someone who knows what he's talking about in ep 5

Idk how to transiton to Marc but HERE WE GO

Marc:

Okay so while I was doing this I realized I related to Marc a lot damn

Anyways Marc masks the majority of the time

Like all the time I don't think he ever hasn't even around Layla

His voice is so monotone and the way he expresses the changes in emotion is by getting either louder or quieter instead of anything else

That entire scene with Mogart and the sarcophagus. There is not way he wasn't forcing every aspect of that interaction

Holding out his hand until Mogart finally shook it because "this is how normal interactions start right???"

When he's asked why he wants to see the sarcophagus he has no idea how to respond and gives the most non-answer ever. Everyone thinks it's weird but he doesn't notice, it worked so whatever

Episode 5

We all know Marc hides his emotions

It's obvious

But what if he's hiding them because they're too much for him to handle, or he just straight up doesn't understand them

He runs from problems cause he doesn't want to confront his feelings

He ran from Layla because the issue with Khonshu was too much to deal with instead of having one conversation about it

He ran from his mother's shiva cause it was too many conflicting emotions

And when Steven was reliving the worst memory of his life he ran again (idk if it's like actually canon or not but I believe that while Steven was going through the memory he could hear the whole thing echoing through the hallways)

He also seems like the type to not show emotion on his face unless it's a strong one, but that's just what I think I've not no actual evidence for this

Anyways like with Steven he also gets overwhelmed a few times in the series

And he does what not many people are willing to talk about and gets aggressive when that happens yayyyyy /lhj

Seriously though in the scene in ep 5 when he doesn't want to confront his mother's abuse again

Yelling and hitting himself repeatedly same man same

In ep 2 when Steven is yelling at him through the mirror he breaks it so he can get some silence and then gets tormented by Khonshu which rude, asshole

Aggression can seem like the easiest way to deal with things so I get it, it happened quite a few times in this show

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

He also gets hyperfixations he just doesn't exactly have the time to indulge himself

The movie

Idk how much we should trust therapist Harrow in certain things but he made a note to mention that Marc has watched that movie a LOT

He loved that movie as a kid

He doesn't have much of a routine besides putting everything back the way it was before Steven can wake up but I think he deserves one

Jake:

This is gonna be short he had four minutes of screen time and two of those minutes have not actually been confirmed

But yeah he seems like he'd also not care about masking

Though I think if he gets too overwhelmed (which would probably take a lot for it to happen) he'd just end up retreating

Or if it's just someone being annoying he'd deal with them himself (maybe just a good punch in the face no big deal right guys /hj)

Kinda a mix of what both Steven and Marc do it just depends on the situation

Also this is just a thought but I think he'd be the type to be constantly forcing expressions cause he does not have the energy to explain himself verbally

Like yeah he expresses things visually but he over exaggerates them to get the point across if that makes sense

Anyways that's all I have

Kinda went on a rant but I hope it makes sense

I'd be happy to hear anybody else's opinions as well :)

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers Cyberverse: Megatron is My Hero Review (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy autobots. If you've been missing my look at more than meets the eye, don't worry as we're back with some robots in disguise. Transformers ONE is here and it is incredible and while i'll gladly review it next week for now we're looking at something related, another look at Megatron as he broke bad, the Transformers Cyberverse episode, Megatron is My Hero.

Transformers Cyberverse is a series I tried but could not get into. I loved animated, tried prime but fell behind on it, and fresh off getting into MTMTE I very much wanted more Transformers. I tried the first ep.. but it's just bumblbee using the radio gimmick and Windblade being the straight man.

Cyberse's problems, as I expected and tv tropes helpfully confirmed come from executive mandates: exceutive swanted Bumblbeee to have his car gimmick from the movies, which dosen't work nearly as well when you can't lisence songs or car commericals for it, the heavy flashbacks. These were ditched with season 2 and apparently the show picke dup from there so i'm more than happy to give it a full look at some point, as it does seem to get genuinely better and has an arc focusing on my boy hot rod. That alone is enough.

For now we're looking at an early episode under the cut as Bumblbee makes friends, gets throat crushed and otherwise is kind of an accesory in his own memories

We begein with Bumblebee is in his mind palace , which I suspect was a way to let bee talk normally before doing away with the voice box gimmick the second they could in season 2. He's reliving his past memories of Megatron and opens with Bee in the past chilling with Shockwave of all bots as they watch Megatron easily win as a gladiator.

Megatron as a gladiator happens in way more continuties than I realized which I found out thanks to reddit, starting wtih the UK G1 comics and continuing into both IDW continuties , the alligned continuity and more. I mostly associate it with IDW where he went from miner to gladiator hero. It's a backstory I like, that he was a hero of the people.. but in a way that still kept him down as like gladiators of old he has little choice

Here it's santized slightly being more like pro wrestling, though Megatron still beats the crap out of his opponent, gladly working the crowd. Bumblbee also high fives Shockwave, an image I will never forget and will treasure forever.

So Bumblebee declares Megaton is his Hero and this annoys his mind palace roomate Windblade. Windblade is a recent addition to the franchise, being added in the idw comics but quickly appearing in cyberverse and elsewhere. She's a cityspeaker, who can talk to city sized transformers and is generally pretty goo din the comics. In this season she's more an overprotective big sister and gets mad at an amnesiac for not remembering his greatest foe sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms. So she gestures him to a ... memory of Megatron holding a rally.

Rather than talking about his good friend hanniballectertron, Megatron is a good politican with an actual point: that cybertron needs to be better and optimus and co are all behind him.. literally and figuratively.

So to help the next memory... abrubtly skips to Megatron being awful.

Yeah this is what happen when you DEMAND the writers make every episode self contained yet also part of a larger story.. in 11 minutes. Hasbro.. thought none of this through and as such the crew kinda had to speed run his origin, which means the key pieces that make Megatrons origins in IDW and One so intresting.. are missing. We don't know WHY he went from a beloved politican to having his minons torture people and a tense conversation with optimus. Marc Thompson does a good job as Megs, easily.. but he dosen't really get filled out. He just goes from seeming genuine and helpful to

He COULD have been faking, true.. but we never get that. Or any sense at least in this episode WHY he's like this. I get it's from Bee's perspective, but we know Bee looked up to him, genuinely idolzied him and we could've gotten some insight into who megs is and why he became the monster he did thorugh how he handled bumblbee's disllusionment. Instead by the time we catch up Bee's already mildly scared of the guy. We miss a whole chapter of Megs life that explains why shit is this bad for him just in his villian later chilling and vaugely threatning optimus and bee.

That said the crew still did their best and the final scene.. is genuinely chilling. It's also one Windblade is TRYING to keep from Bee, wanting him to stop digging as she apparently just realized "Shit he'll probably relive the worst moment of his life" as it involves megatron.. and thus Bee directly looks for it.l

Bee was on a mission for the autobots early in the war when , despite his best efforts he was captured and taken directly to Megatron. Megatron is at his best all episode here: he offers bee a choice, making a case for how the strong must rule and all that jazz. Well okay maybe not that Jazz he's on the Autobots but Megatron is working on him. Bee refuses.. and Megatron shifts, revealing his evil plan and i'ts chilling: to make EVERY cybertronian a decepticon wether they want it or not. Peace through Tyranny. It works well.. and it makes what he does next chilling.. so Bee dosen't tell anyone.. he crushes his throat. And while we don't SEE most of it, we hear it and it.. is chilling

Bee takes it in stride, restored in who megatron was.. and okay with it. He can talk in his brain at least.. and talk and talk and.. maybe shut up now please?

Megatron is my hero is .. okay. That last scene does most of the lifting, but i'ts a hint at what the show COULD be and apparently is after this point. It's very much a one sccene an done high five episode but at 11 minutes it wasn't painful either. It was just kinda there. Still it does have me curious about the rest of the series at least so that's.. something. Thanks for reading

[moonshynecybin]

Im sorry but i never listend to the OxleyBom pod. Do you maybe have some marc-friendly episodes you could recommend to start with? ^^’

they pull hard for marc like every ep it’s pretty funny. they really enjoy how crazy he is. soooo the episode i AM going to recommend is actually about valentino rossi and is from december of last year, reviewing a chunk of his early career and his general personality. for context you must imagine you are me and that you are mere hours removed from politely (daintily) vomiting on dutch public transportation and are now sitting on a bench at the hague waiting for an art museum to open tying to white knuckle through it and your dad is grabbing a burger and you’re like. reckoning with week two of the WORST migraine symptoms of your life. now imagine a lil podcast episode about vale makes you laugh really hard alone to yourself on that bench despite all the horrors

[kittenninja14]

HELLOOO MOON KNIGHT FANDOM!!!

5th fic in this fandom lol... but DANG!! I'm on a roll lol (lets see how long this lasts XD)

Ratings: General Audience Relationships: Steven Grant & Khonshu Warnings/Trigger: Character Death (relax its just khonshu lol. the old bird is fine)

“I remember that night,” Khonshu murmured softly, gazing out at the distance. “I remember every night,” The moment those words slipped out of his mind, Khonshu knew that he had messed up. Turning back the night sky was hard, if not impossible for a mortal to accomplish, even with his aid. But surprisingly, Steven—Marc’s no-good, useless alter, or so he thought—stood, arm outstretched, his face twisted in a tight, pained but determined expression, keeping the stars in place. Khonshu stared at him, feeling a foreign expression slowly overtake him: pride. ~OR~ Khonshu’s POV during the ‘turn back the night sky’ scene in ep 3 (Featuring a bit of Dadshu ;3) Dad December Challenge- Day 5: Stars // Day 9: “Follow my lead”

welp we got another fic baby!!

I loved the prompts from @daddecember so my writer side of me couldn't help but give in to the urge to write some Dadshu <33 ANd after the really angsty/dark Manipulative!Khonshu fic I posted yesterday, I think we deserve some fluffy dadshu lolll

anywyas yeah byeeee

Lators Gators <33

https://www.tumblr.com/kittenninja14/731916269075480576/hey-yall-i-just-found-this-incredible-video-and

[londonspirit]

Leverage: Redemption has been renewed for Season 3, TVLine has learned, to premiere in 2024 on Prime Video in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The first two seasons of the heist drama streamed exclusively on Freevee, Prime Video’s ad-supported hub, and will still be available there.

TVLine hears that at this time, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf and Aldis Hodge (once again as a recurring guest star) are confirmed to return for Season 3. Noah Wyle and Aleyse Shannon, the spinoff’s two additions, may also return, as “fixer” Harry and “maker” Breanna.

Additionally, Leverage creator John Rogers himself is coming on board as Season 3’s new showrunner.

“Fans have been devoted to Leverage: Redemption since the series premiered on Freevee,” Amazon MGM Studios AVOD chief Lauren Anderson said in a statement. “Every season has showcased the fun dynamic between our cast combined with the triumphant, David vs. Goliath stories envisioned by our writers. As we embark on our next chapter, we are thrilled to be able to share the show with our Prime customers and continue to offer the exclusive Leverage FAST channel to our Freevee customers.”

Executive producer Dean Devlin added, “We are thrilled to announce the expansion of our Leverage franchise in collaboration with the Amazon MGM Studios team. Our dedicated fan base will be delighted to know that they can continue to follow their favorite reformed criminals as they use their expert skills for the greater good, championing the underdog in their acts of goodwill.”

Serving as EPs alongside Rogers and Devlin are Redemption co-creator Chris Downey, Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan-Wilson.

[spectordameron]

Marc Spector in every episode: ↪ The Goldfish Problem

[tinkerbclla]

Eddie Munson made it.

He did everything that his teachers had always told him that he wouldn’t. It was always “You’ll never make anything of your life if you don’t buck your ideas up!” and “Making music is such a longshot, do you have a backup plan?” and “Edward Munson if you don’t shut your mouth this second –” 

Eddie Munson didn’t shut up. And now, he was a star.

His first EP ‘The Upside Down’ had been an instant hit. ‘Vecna’s Curse’ made it to number one on the rock charts and stayed there for three consecutive weeks. He’d had two successful albums since, been nominated for countless awards and even won a few.

But he wasn’t happy.

Eddie Munson was bored.

Well and truly bored.

He filled the days however he could. His music wasn’t fulfilling any more. It was bland and repetitive and he hadn’t been inspired for a while now. He was writing, sure. He was writing more than anything. He’d filled two notebooks in the last week alone. Then he flipped through them and ripped out every single page. 

“It’s all drivel!” he complained to Gareth one day. “I’ve lost my touch! My edge! It’s gone forever!”

He’d met Gareth in high school. They were the best of friends, really. They’d formed a band together and they stayed together until Gareth went off to college to study music production. He emerged a new man and Eddie –

Eddie had still been playing for the same five drunks in the same dingy bars.

So Gareth had taken him under his wing. Gareth had a good knowledge of music production now and he became Eddie’s manager. He was signed to a label within six months.

It had all moved rather fast from there. Eddie had lost track of the time. It melted away, sped past him like the stars in the window of the Millenium Falcon as it shifted into hyperspeed. He’d been on every continent, played most major cities, sold out arenas that held more people than lived in his hometown.

And he was so fucking bored.

That’s how he found himself with – Jace? Kyle? Marc? 

He didn’t know. He wasn’t going to see him again, so it didn’t matter. For now he would call him sweetheart and hope for the best. He couldn’t complain much from his position, with Eddie’s cock sliding further down his throat.

“Just like that, baby,” Eddie crooned. “You take it so well.”

There was a muffled cry beneath him that sent vibrations up his shaft to pool in his gut. 

Eddie fucked into him harder, trusting his partner for the night to tap out if he needed. Eddie was a rockstar, he could take, take, take what he wanted. He gripped onto the blonde locks in front of him as his knees started to wobble. He wished he could give the other guy some credit, but Eddie was doing all of the fucking work. 

Eddie drew himself out of his partner’s mouth. He was even bored doing this, and god, wasn’t that just the most depressing thing?

“Lie down on the bed for me, sweetheart,” Eddie tried with all his might to inject some interest in his voice. “Let me fuck you.”

The blonde nodded at him dumbly, looking fucked out and lovestruck despite Eddie’s apathy. 

Eddie watched him for a moment, before retrieving a condom and some lube from his nightstand and finishing what he’d started.

*

If Eddie sat and thought about it, he realised that he spent too much of his time thinking about love. It was always something that had been so out of reach. 

When he was young – really young – he spent a lot of his time vying for the love of his parents. He acted out, mostly. Got scrapes and bumps and bruises on purpose, because he’d seen how his friends’ mothers fawned over them when they were hurt. His parents were too lost to fawn over him. Eddie being hurt was nothing more than a nuisance. He stopped showing them the scrapes.

When he first moved in with Wayne, the uncle who had always seemed so distant before, whom he barely knew, he turned away from the love. Wayne was determined to cook him a decent meal every night, so Eddie complained that he wanted take-out. Wayne bought him clothes to replace the ones that were becoming threadbare, so Eddie screamed when he realised his favourite t-shirt was gone. He pushed Wayne’s love away until Wayne came home with a gift. He pressed the fabric into Eddie’s hands wordlessly and Eddie scoffed in the way he was wont to in those days. 

And then he saw it.

Wayne had located an exact copy of the old Judas Priest shirt that he’d thrown out because it had a hole in the armpit. It looked brand new. It knocked the wind out of Eddie, he was totally in awe of Wayne from that moment. It was the most unambiguous sign of familial love he’d ever been shown. He stopped pushing his uncle away after that. He accepted the love.

The thing about love was that, as soon as Eddie had a taste, he wanted more.

He watched as his friends got girlfriend after girlfriend in middle and high school. He wanted what they had; he wanted soft hugs and gentle kisses on blushing cheeks. He craved affection more than he’d ever craved anything. 

He didn’t get it.

One day in high school, some of the guys on the football team had gotten hold of the information that Carter Anderson was gay. He’d been spotted holding hands with his secret boyfriend under the bleachers, totally innocent shit, but he was immediately ostracised. He was either sneered at or avoided completely. Eddie didn’t know which was worse. 

He’d wanted to comfort Carter, but he couldn’t have anyone know that he was the same. He was already a freak, Eddie didn’t think he could handle being the gay freak. 

He’d come out eventually, once high school was over and he was no longer bound by a hierarchy that was controlled by meaningless things like who had the most money, or who was able to catch a ball accurately. He’d even had a couple of relationships that went nowhere. 

He still craved something real, something permanent. 

It seemed impossible to find, especially as a famous musician. People wanted fame and people wanted money. It didn’t matter much to them how they got it.

The thought crossed his mind again when he was in a meeting about his upcoming tour. He’d chewed on a pencil until the yellow paint had chipped off and he’d most likely swallowed some of it, while the tour manager droned on about their schedule and the record label representative chimed in with the demand that Eddie keep working on his new album while he’s on the road. They kept talking until it was all static and Eddie’s mind drifted to love. Or his lack of love, to be more accurate.

It made him laugh to think of how he’d changed since the start of his career. A meeting like this used to hold his attention. It was new and exciting; he was getting to share his love with the world. But he hadn’t felt the love in his music for the past two albums now. He was surprised that his fans hadn’t noticed, yet he seemed to be as popular as ever. More popular, even. He was selling more than ever.

And he hated it. None of it felt authentic. None of it felt like love.

Eddie let out a sharp gasp of pain as Gareth elbowed him in the ribs, bringing him back into the room.

“Oh, uh –” Eddie scanned the room quickly in an attempt to figure out what had been asked of him. “Sorry, run that by me again?”

The executive in front of him rolled his eyes, obviously growing tired of the meeting and Eddie’s habit of daydreaming, “The tour schedule was confirmed by your manager, Mr Emerson, we just need a signature.”

“Right,” Eddie nodded, dragging the paper over to him. “Sure.”

Eddie wished he’d listened to at least some of the plan for his tour, but he couldn’t help it. The whole thing made him feel listless. Miserable. Apathetic. He’d ask Gareth for the details later, but honestly?

Eddie Munson wanted a fucking break.

He wanted to find the love in his music again, and he couldn’t do that while playing the same songs that had made him lose it. 

Eddie signed his life away and left the meeting without another word.

*

It was a dumb idea. It was reckless and stupid. Eddie knew that, but it wasn’t like he had any better ideas. Eddie sat at his desk and stared at the laptop screen in front of him. It was probably the only time he’d actually used the piece of furniture for more than just storage space for a thick layer of dust. He’d had to wipe it down thoroughly before he even thought about putting his laptop on it. The desk had sat in the corner of his music room unused; both Wayne and Gareth had insisted that he should have a desk to work at, but Eddie had written most of his songs either on the couch on the opposite side of the room or sprawled across the floor. A desk wasn’t exactly in tune with his creative vision. 

He wasn’t writing now, though, he was researching, and that was a task suited to the rigid conformity of a desk. Eddie opened up a browser window with a swift click and began to type.

How to stop hating mys–

No. He erased the words before he’d even finished writing them. They sounded too pathetic, but so did every other combination of words that ran through his head.

But how could he make them sound less pathetic? There was no admirable way to admit that you felt as though you were drowning in everything that had once been your dream.

How to feel less lost

That search was a dud. Eddie was willing to accept a lot of advice, but “accept that it’s okay to feel lost” was probably the most useless advice he’d been given in a while. He was past acceptance. He wanted change. Needed it with every fibre of his being.

He strayed away from the searches that would give him identical results touting mindfulness and going out for a walk as the cure to all mental health issues. He’d done it all. He’d even been to therapy. He needed something different, something fresh. He racked his brain until he settled on his next search –

Find writing inspiration easy

Eddie waded through pages of awful advice, telling him to look at writing prompts or to exercise (how was a jog supposed to help him come up with a hit song, exactly?).

Then came a beacon of hope. His answer.

A writers’ retreat.

The idea sparked a wave of hope that hadn’t washed over Eddie in a long time. He didn’t want to go on a specifically planned writers’ retreat, to be surrounded by twelve other writers who were constantly asking him what he was writing and what brought him to their little commune – he shuddered at the thought. Definitely not.

But to be able to escape? To book a flight to Bumfuck, Nowhere and exist among people who had no idea who he was? To hole up where no one would be able to track him and demand photos and autographs? He’d been asked to sign someone’s tits when he was out for dinner, for god’s sake, and he just wanted some quiet. The idea of quiet was thrilling.

A new Google search: Rural towns in the Midwest.

The Midwest was probably the most boring place that Eddie could think of. He lived in L.A., and the West coast was somewhere he wanted to get away from. If he went too far East, he’d end up with New York, and he wanted to avoid that just as much. In fact, he was probably supposed to go there on the tour he’d blindly agreed to. 

Eddie didn’t want busy. He wanted boring. So: the Midwest.

He clicked through a number of websites, waiting for a name to stick. A small town that sounded like it had some charm to it, something that would leave Eddie feeling in love again. 

He found what he was looking for in Fairland, Indiana. The whimsical name was already enough to send soft flutters through his chest; he felt the inspiration already, felt the love that radiated from the small town. He trawled through the pictures that he could find. There weren’t many – even the Trip Advisor page for the town only had two entries – but Fairland seemed quaint.

Eddie was sold.

He was opening up a new tab to browse AirBnB almost immediately. In the back of his mind, he was aware of the reaction his plan would solicit from Gareth and everyone else who worked for him. He knew that this was impulsive, that there were a litany of fans who had paid for tickets to the tour already. The idea of disappointing his fans caused an ache that settled in next to his heart, but he couldn’t keep showing them this watered-down version of Eddie Munson. They deserved his love. He owed it to them.

The only issue with choosing such a small town was that the AirBnB options were few and far between. There was only the one option, actually. A home that Eddie could only really describe as cosy, as close to a cottage as he’d ever seen. Eddie thought that cottages only existed in fairytales, or, like, England. But it was there, right in front of him in a high-definition image. An honest-to-god cottage with ivy growing up the grey stone walls. Eddie hadn’t seen a brick house outside of Chicago; it added to the charm of the building. It felt like a hidden gem, a treasure that he needed to snatch up immediately.

He scrolled further. The room for offer had a double bed, the house itself boasted a large wood-burning fireplace and a private garden. The pictures looked ethereal. He quickly found the contact button, barely taking notice of the reviews (there weren’t too many anyway – Fairland apparently wasn’t particularly popular). His eye did catch one note under the owner’s profile, though: The owner lives in the main house. 

It almost stopped Eddie from messaging, but surely he could put up with nodding politely at the man when he saw him in the shared spaces of the house? It was still rural and beautiful and everything he needed.

Eddie swallowed any hesitation and typed out his message.

Eddie: How soon would this room be available?

He immediately and deeply regretted forgoing a greeting, realising how rude and demanding he must sound.

Eddie: Sorry! Hi! Just very excited about your lovely home!

Eddie banged his head on the desk. Twice, for good measure. He was about to delete his entire profile when the reply came through.

Steve: Hi there Eddie! It’s available now and there aren’t any upcoming bookings. So I can accommodate you whenever.

He didn’t think before he replied, didn’t give himself time to.

Eddie: Would you think me insane if I suggested tomorrow?

Steve: I can get the room set up by then, no problemo!

Eddie: And if I don’t exactly have an end date to my stay?

Steve: As long as I’m getting paid, stay for as long as you want.

If he hadn’t been convinced before, he definitely was now.

Eddie didn’t have to think too much about money these days; he was impulsive and spent as much as he wanted to. He’d bought Wayne a house – an actual house with more than one storey and everything – without a second thought. He gave him an unlimited budget to furnish it and went to Ikea with him in disguise (it was a cap and sunglasses, very original and not the least bit effective). 

Still, this was the fastest Eddie had typed in his card information in a long time. He paid for a month up front to sweeten the deal for his host and immediately switched tabs to look for flights.

*

Eddie was buckling himself into a plane seat before he let anyone in on his plan. He’d been putting it off, knowing exactly how much he was going to screw them all over. Gareth didn’t deserve it, the fans didn’t deserve it, but Eddie struggled to feel an inch of sympathy for any of the other executives. 

Besides, this was going to be for the best. For both Eddie and his fans. 

With a steadying breath, he opened up his messages to Gareth.

Munson: I’m not doing the tour.

Munson: Don’t look for me. I’ll be back, but not any time soon.

And then he turned off his phone before the barrage of texts started to flood in.

He’d been clever about it; he’d covered his tracks. Eddie’s laptop stayed in his penthouse apartment, but the history had been completely wiped. He had logged into his banking app and changed his password, just in case Gareth knew the old one. He’d even phoned the bank to make sure they wouldn’t give out any of his information. He told them, and the police, in no uncertain terms, that he was not missing and none of his information was to be shared. He wanted to cover all of his bases, because the men in suits were vultures and they wouldn’t stop until they found Eddie. So he had to make sure that he wouldn’t be found.

He was pretty sure that he’d done a good job.

***

The opening scenes from 'The Unloved Ones' by tinkerbclla on ao3.

LINK

[batsplat]

hello, love your blog! it’s so fucking funny how you’re a lesbian motogp blogger who is into buffy, bc hey that’s me too but actually I first encountered your blog bc of your smallville posts. not to mention tennis (which I was only a very casual fan of thankfully afdhjkk)…….cool to know that there are several ppl like this apparently sgfhhjhjk.

anyways, buffy s6 is my beloved season and I like it for how dysfunctional it is. the only season I might like more is maybe s5. I am a spike fucker unforch

and as for motogp? sachsenring 2003 made me giggle. very embarrassing for you valentino. by 0.06 seconds??? and commentators made it worse by crowning him a winner before they even crossed the line. you just know if positions were reversed vale would capitalize so hard off this win, more ppl would be talking about it still. and well he did actually use that loss to reinvigorate himself. like valentino’s ability to make his wins (and losses too) narratively important is unparalleled. but regardless sete/vale rivalry is insane,

sadly only hot girls get it:(((

anon?? marry me??

such an incredibly funny overlap of interests sdfhjkdf well always nice to learn this is a Type Of Person who Exists. I love buffy season five!! I am very much a spike fucker!! undoubtedly one of THE great characters, him and buffy is one of those ships where I don't really seek out fics because it's like?? I'm actually thrilled with what canon gave me!! I love the slapstick, spike as a lovesick freak, the dark and toxic stuff where buffy used him as a way to punish herself, and all the more melancholic season 7 stuff where they found refuge in each other. spike is like. such a great Device to explore all kinds of emotions and themes and all that... so many of my all time fave eps are very much spike eps. love s2's school hard and halloween, s3's lovers walk, s4's something blue (also just like, so much of his s4 scenes, when they chain him up in the bathtub and against the chair and all that), s5's fool for love (!!!!!!!!!!!!! one of THE episodes, his 'death wish' monologue to buffy and then showing up wanting to kill her and ending up comforting her oh GOD), s6's life serial and doublemeat palace AND when buffy confesses to spike she was in heaven AND all their scenes in once more, with feeling, s7 the buffy/spike church scene.... spike's "all these years and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of" speech likeeeeee.... I get all the issues people have with that relationship and how it was written, I know it's not for everyone, and I don't even 'ship' them in the sense of thinking they belong together or whatever... but I just love it!! it compels me so much, did so when I first saw it and still does now!! and spike is such a FUN character, like they let him be pathetic, they let him be cool, and he's #gender enough that yeah he's very hot to me too. all those scenes where buffy's throwing him around,,,,, yes character of all time. just has a real place in my heart too idk like the emotional landscape really GETS me

sharp pivot to sachsenring 2003, which takes place a mere few months after the buffy finale......... that's as smooth a transition as I can manage yeah. thematic overlap between btvs and motogp question mark. the buffy x dawn dynamic is either a bit marc x alex or to a lesser extent vale x luca when u think about it? not just in the 'congrats you've spotted they're siblings' way, but well the siblings' respective statuses in the worlds of motogp & vampire slaying, and the older sibling often being 'prioritised' because they have a lot on their plates, younger siblings as a kind of way to keep them grounded and feeling human, also unconditional devotion to your younger sibling... plus actually all the death wish stuff, surely? the fool for love speech...

btvs and motogp both very much about the ties you need to the world, I reckon... also sports is inherently adjacent to chosen one narratives

ANYWAY sachsenring 2003, I think every detail about it is perfect!! whatever valentino says, I still reckon there's just no way he couldn't have made a move before that - and implicitly he acknowledges that by saying he will never leave it that late again. idk there's just something so deeply charming about that specific flavour of valentino to me, where he's so obnoxiously good he can get away a little bit with basically scripting his races BUT obviously that's only okay when he still ends up being the one who wins. and he gets so much shit for it!! it's so funny listening to the brno commentary like they are on his ASS and they're saying the italian press has been on his ASS and calling him washed and finished and even the commentary is going 'yeah he's been having a rough season' and it's very??

oh no! the horror!! what a flop!!

obviously in retrospect we remember it as a great season because after that he only lost one more race, but back then they didn't know that!! and at like. the perfect time of the season too, because obviously that's when you have to go off and Sit On It for the whole summer break and can't immediately redeem yourself.... but as you say, he used that!! it's part of his story now, it became such good fuel for motivation. like, the mistake itself is kinda.... I mean it's not great, but it's one of those things that also wouldn't be a massive issue if you did it five laps earlier? he basically just picks too defensive a line that ends up killing his drive out of the corner, allowing sete to beat him to the line. which - the bit that I imagine really got to him is how dumb it was. like it wasn't a riding mistake as much as it was a decision making mistake, it wasn't his race craft it was just a literal dumbass moment. it's silly!! it's both a moment that shows valentino was maybe a bit too cocky, but also kinda rattled by sete? that man got to him! he did it! he flapped the unflappable valentino rossi!

and it IS incredible how it's now not really Discussed any more, and in his autobiography it's so neatly integrated into his own narrative. like!! it's always the laguna 2008 and catalunya 2009 performances that get me - he knew those were going to be memorable victories IMMEDIATELY and he played to that!! kissing the corkscrew drives me insane because it's literally... he's doing this on the cooldown lap for something that happened LAP FOUR and wasn't technically the race winning move, or definitely not the only one!! but he immediately zeroed in on that element and his post-race narrative is unquestionably ONE of the reasons why that's something we all remember now. he gets it!!

the commentators did fuck him over though lmaoooo... I mean at least you have to say he learned from his mistakes. imagine losing a race by .06 and doing this in the very next race against the same guy

bringing back this too

sicko

it IS only the hot girls who get it but that's for the best....... only the select few can see the vision I fear

[bengiyo]

Our Skyy 2 x Never Let Me Go Ep 1 Stray Thoughts

WELCOME BACK MY BOYFRIEND! I'm excited to see Jojo and friends have fun with these characters, and really glad we're starting with Never Let Me Go.

I like that we're going to see them a few years into the long distance romance.

Pick him up from the airport? The reason Pran almost killed Pat???

I love Nueng being grumpy as shit as soon as they get together.

Nueng is so valid for wanting Thai food when he goes home. I'm the same whenever I go back home after traveling.

Thank you to Suzuki for sponsoring this episode.

Love the unabashed product placement of Our Skyy episodes.

I like watching Nueng calm down after realizing that the only reason Palm was busy was because he was thinking about Nueng.

Palm can fight. This man is lucky he didn't get his ass beat.

I'm absolutely here for this soulmates plot.

I like how Pond and Phuwin face each other. They stand in each other's space in a way that feels like they're together.

Oh lord is Palm about to get beat up by a bunch of dudes again?

"Go back to the beginning," has worked its way into my brain forever because of the Digimon Movie.

Jojo loves Pawin and is going to put that boy in so many situations now.

Oh, "faen" being a modern word is actually fascinating, and now I need one of you who knows Thai to explain this history to the rest of us.

I like Pond's hair in the past.

Oh, pratfall kisses, how you make no sense to me.

I'm trying to understand how Thai people walked around tits out with all those mosquitoes. Like I am happy to look at Phuwin, but it looks like you would get EATEN UP by bugs.

Nuengdiao being smart and quick to adapt has always been one of my favorite things about him.

Palm reversing the breakfast dialogue, and Nuengdiao being charmed and annoyed is *chef's kiss*.

Would love to get an approximate year for when this is going down. It's making me think about the history of mosquito nets.

Petch (Pawin's character) is going to try to kill Nueng.

Phuwin is quite pretty with that umbrella.

They are having a lot of fun with the camera work for the imaginary photos.

Suddenly Marc. Are he and Pawin going to interact?

Oh, Nuengdiao, please don't be smarter than you're supposed to be. Still, they like showing off how talented Phuwin is, and I won't complain about that.

I AM HERE FOR THE SECOND CHANCE FOR MARC AND PAWIN.

There's some interesting ideas about seeing the same people in every lifetime.

What if we kissed in ancient times?

Palm is right to be frustrated that they might spend another four years apart.

I'm glad I didn't have to watch Phuwin's back get destroyed. As a black person, I'm not keen on seeing folks get whipped.

I'm having fun with this! I'm glad Jojo got to play around with a different setting, and I'm enjoying the role reversal.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume Nine, Number 10

Older, but not a bit wiser, the Hives return

Fall comes with its smell of maple in the leaves, its intimations of mortality and, this year, its share of unsettling events—war in the middle east, AI in everything and the murder of our beloved Bandcamp by capitalist privateers.  (We are not equating these things by any means.)  Like always, we turn to music, the annihilating blare of metal, the agile interplay of improvisation, the well-shaped contours of pop, depending on our individual tastes.  We hope you’ll find something to ease your own personal burden in all this as well.  Contributors include Bryon Hayes, Bill Meyer, Andrew Forell, Tim Clarke, Jonathan Shaw, Ian Mathers, Alex Johnson, Jennifer Kelly and Ray Garraty. 

Due to technical issues we're posting this in two parts, so don't miss the second one.

Ad Hoc — Corpse (Shame File Music / Albert’s Basement)

Ad Hoc was a Melbourne-based improvising unit, an experimental outfit that should have higher prominence. It only took 40-plus years, but Shame File Music and Albert’s Basement are finally spearheading a reissue initiative. Last year saw the arrival of the trio’s sole release, the hypnotic Distance cassette. It disappeared the moment it became available. Corpse documents an unconventional live performance from the group. They prepared their instruments (guitars, an EMS Synthi AKS synth and tape loops) for performance prior to the arrival of the audience and then shut off their amps. When all were seated, the trio turned on the amplifiers and unfurled an aleatoric blast of sound. The resulting music is far removed from the ambient tone clusters of Distance. The first piece shimmers in a way that calls to mind Matthew Bower’s Sunroof project, while the latter piece bathes in guitar noise so thick that it may have influenced The Dead C’s The Operation of the Sonne EP. Ad Hoc have today’s noisemakers beat: Corpse presents itself with a freshness that belies its 1980 provenance.

Bryon Hayes

Axolotl — Abrasive (Souffle Continu)

The French trio Axolotl existed for a few years in the early 1980s, and it reflects the aesthetic concerns of its time. Guitarist Marc Dufourd’s playing betrays some acquaintance with the work of Derek Bailey and Henry Kaiser, and the fibrous tones and agile exchanges between reeds players Jacques Oger and Etienne Brunet recall Evan Parker. All three double on electronics, hand percussion and utterances. These accessories, in combination with the concentration of the album’s 12 tracks, give the music a truculent attitude and just-the-facts brevity that brings to mind punk and post-punk. This may be free improvisation, but it is improvised from a point of view, and it’s that informed attitude that makes the album worth visiting nearly 40 years after its original release.

Bill Meyer

Will Butler + Sister Squares — Self-Titled (Merge)

Will Butler joins with Sister Squares — multi-instrumentalists Jenny (Butler’s wife) and Julie Shore, Sara Dobbs and drummer/producer Miles Francis — for their debut album. Bouncy, heartland rock garlanded with that 1980s Fairlight and Linn drum sound mixes with touches of art rock as Butler emotes wholehearted. The influence of the 20 years Butler spent with Arcade Fire is inescapable, but it feels like the quintet have also been listening to Billy MacKenzie (“Long Grass”) and Russell Mael (“Arrow of Time”) as well as Springsteen, Mellencamp and company. “Hee Loop” sounds like a mash of Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel. The themes and emotions can be big in that Arcade Fire way that’s equal parts exhilarating and exhausting, but the album works best when the band dial down the melodramatic flourishes as on “Car Crash” and “The Window,” where Butler is right in your ear, tired, disillusioned, real. This is a record I wanted to like both more and less. For every heartfelt moment and interesting musical choice, there’s a cringe-inducing gestural overreach that makes you wince. A bit like his former band but with enough promise to persevere with.

Andrew Forell

Claire Deak — Sotto Voce (Lost Tribe Sound)

Melbourne-based composer Claire Deak’s last release on Lost Tribe Sound was 2020’s The Old Capital, a fantastic collaboration with Tony Dupé. In my Dusted review I said, “There’s so much wonderful stuff going on across these seven songs that it’s a delight to revisit.” As its title suggests, Deak’s solo debut, Sotto Voce, very much sits at the opposite end of the musical spectrum. This is subtle, minimal music that softly arises out of silence and speaks an elusive language. The background to the album’s creation is Deak’s exploration of the work of two women composers from the early baroque era, Francesca Caccini (1587–c.1645) and Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677). The dominant musical elements are strings, harp and voice, with other instruments coloring the edges of these understated, starkly beautiful compositions. Across the album’s 42 minutes the music feels, at times, to be battling the entropy of erasure, struggling to be heard amid the cacophony of these overstimulated times. For that reason alone, it’s necessary to invest your attention and listen closely. The experience is eerie and transportive.

Tim Clarke

Mike Donovan — Meets the Mighty Flashlight (Drag City)

On a musical Venn diagram showing the intersecting circles of garage rock, lo-fi, and psych, Mike Donovan has set up his sandbox. With Sic Alps he veered more noisy and lo-fi; with Peacers he favored a straight-ahead garage-rock sound. On this new record with Mike Fellows, AKA The Mighty Flashlight, Donovan steers in the direction of shambolic psychedelic-pop in the vein of the Olivia Tremor Control. (To anyone who knows and loves OTC, this is obviously a very good thing.) The splashy drums and percussion tracks feel like a gestural afterthought rather than a rhythmic backbone the songs are built around, and Donovan and Fellows steer these songs into some choppy, unexpected waters. Opener “Planet Metley” is the clearest and most successful distillation of their aesthetic, offering up a staggering range of ideas in under four minutes, stopping and starting erratically, the bass roving all over the fretboard. At the other end of the spectrum, “Laurel Lotus Dub” is the kind of experiment that sounds like it was more fun to create that it is to listen back to. Between these two extremes there’s the junkshop boogie of “A Capital Pitch,” which features the hilarious line, “Hanging out on the ramparts with some dickheads in black,” the concise drum-machine and organ instrumental “Amalgam Wagon,” and the plaintive, country-flavored “Whistledown.” Wherever Donovan roams it’s usually worth following, and Meets the Mighty Flashlight is a winning collaboration that fizzes with fun.

Tim Clarke

Everything Falls Apart — Everything Falls Apart (Totalism)

“Somn” means sleep, or more poetically death. It’s the title of six of the seven tracks from Everything Falls Apart, the self-titled album from the duo of Belgian bassist Otto Lindholm (born Cyrille de Haes) and English producer Ross Tones. Those titles (numbered six to 11) and the coda “Wonderfully Desolate” tell you only part of the story of the music the pair produce. Their conversation focuses on the nuance of the Lindholm’s double bass which Tones swathes in electronic effects, stretching notes and motifs into near drones in timbres that rise from the murk like lugubrious sentinels. This is seriously heavy music but the dynamism of the duo’s understanding and interplay distinguishes Everything Falls Apart. Whilst many of the pieces focus on stasis and decay, “Somn 9” is a desert storm with clicking percussion, almost didgeridoo like growls from the bass and screeching electronic noise. On “Somn 11”, deep bowed notes support Lindholm’s move through the registers as if shaking from fitful dreams into the morning light. “Wonderfully Desolate” is comparatively unadorned, a string quartet playing against the end times, shimmers of light through the cracks.

Andrew Forell

False Fed — Let Them Eat Fake (Neurot Recordings)

Is it accurate to call a band including members of legendary underground acts Amebix (Stig Miller), Nausea (Roy Mayorga) and Broken Bones (Jeff Janiak) a “supergroup”? It might help to note that Janiak has sung for Discharge since 2014, and Mayorga has done a couple stints as drummer for Ministry. All names to conjure with (though a few of us first encountered Mayorga as a teenager back in the 1980s Lehigh Valley hardcore scene, when he drummed for Youthquake; West Catty Playground Building forever, man). In any case, the players have pooled their talents to create this death-rocking, sorta goth, sorta post-punk record, and it’s a lot of grim, grimy fun. Most of the music is mid-tempo, grand and romantic in its gestures, but shot through with a crusty growl in the guitars and production tone. The best songs speed things up a bit; both “The Tyrant Dies” and “The Big Sleep” have compelling momentum, complementing the stakes of songs’ ideas. It's Armagideon Time, people. Here’s your soundtrack, from dudes that know.

Jonathan Shaw

Hauschka— Philanthropy (City Slang)

German composer Volker Bertelmann’s 15th album of prepared piano pieces under the name Hauschka is noticeably warmer than some of his previous works. Joined by Samuli Kosminen on percussion and electronics and cellist Laura Wiek, Hauschka continues his exploration of the rhythmic and timbral possibilities of his instrument. At times almost jaunty, there are echoes of Bertelmann’s previous experiments with melancholic atmospherics but the general tone here is welcoming and optimistic. Kosminen adds subtle effects which frame rather than obscure the piano. There’s a touch of Satie in Hauschka’s playful iconoclastic approach to the piano and his deceptively simple melodies, especially on “Loved Ones” where Wiek’s plangent cello lines sustain and decay over an allusive harmony that speaks both of innocence and experience. At the other end of the spectrum, the closing piece “Noise” builds abstract ambience from repeated piano notes, smears of cello and a quiet wash of effects as if the players are enveloped in a thick damp fog. A lovely album for both fans and newcomers.

Andrew Forell

The Hives — The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons (Disques Hives)

There are usually going to be some questions when a band comes back with a new record after over a decade, maybe especially so with an act like Swedish garage/punk flamboyants the Hives; can they match the energy of their youth? Are they still willing and able to give us the old thrills? Or have they (and this is usually asked with a small, tasteful shudder of disgust) matured? It doesn’t take very long into first single/first track “Bogus Operandi” for the concerned listener to have reason for a sigh of relief. Anyone who used to (or still does?) blast “Main Offender” or “Hate to Say I Told You So” or “Walk Idiot Walk” should feel the galvanizing charge of a true, Frankensteinian resurrection once the riff hits. And across these not-quite-32 minutes (the brevity is also a promising sign) Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and the boys kick up exactly the kind of racket you’d want from them, with tracks like “Trapdoor Solution” and “The Bomb” savoring the kind of gleefully dumb fun they’ve always provided (with a nice sideline in some of Almqvist’s deliberately, over-the-top awful narrators on “Two Kinds of Trouble” and “What Did I Ever Do to You?”). They even continue to throw out small, satisfying variations on the classic Hives sound like the brassy swagger of “Stick Up” and the surprisingly heartfelt thrash of “Smoke & Mirrors”. They may have killed off their “sixth member,” but the Hives are otherwise in rude health.

Ian Mathers

Islet — Soft Fascination (Fire)

The Welsh psych-electronic oddballs in Islet are on their fourth full-length now but show no signs of settling down. Soft Fascination is a bonkers mash up of dance pop, art song, hip hop, noise and folk. “Euphoria” floats a feather-light daze, a la Avey Tare, then punctures it the rat-at-tat of snare, the rifle shot rap repartee of Emma Daman Thomas. Gossamer textures of synth weave in and around the main action, snapping tight at intervals, like sails catching a hard wind. The whole thing is butterfly ephemeral with strong wires holding it up, a combination of daydream and architecture. “River Body,” if anything, tips even crazier, with its infectious sing-song, skip-rope vocals, its tootling toy keyboards, its blasts of noise and friction. And what can you make of “Sherry” which bucks and heaves and shouts out “Ay, ay, ay, ay,” like a lost Matias Aguayar cut? “Ay, ay, ay, ay,” indeed.

Jennifer Kelly

Jute Gyte — Unus Mundus Patet (Self-released)

Unus Mundus Patet is not the most dissonant or challenging record Adam Kalmbach has released during his 20-plus-year run under the Jute Gyte moniker. But neither is this black metal for the kvlt trve believers or for the hipster-adjacent sets, be they transcendental or ecstatic or blackgazy. The songs twist and turn in on themselves, always clear in their expressions of complex musical ideas, and also — somehow, someway — listenable and enjoyable. Avant-garde? Sure thing, and likely a much more authentic iteration of that phrase’s meaning than the music many other metal bands churn out under cover of high-minded beard stroking. See the by-turns undulating and fragmenting “Killing a Sword” or the trudging, vertiginous and then utterly thrilling “Philoctetes.” Jute Gyte doesn’t make music for the background, but if you can give these songs your full attention, you’ll be rewarded. Turn it up and open the portal into somewhere much weirder and more marvelous.

Jonathan Shaw

Danny Kamins / Chris Alford / Charles Pagano — The Secret Stop (Musical Eschatology)

Free improvisation may be a little sparser on the ground in the southern USA than it is in Chicago or New York, but The Secret Stop affirms the vigor of those who participate. Guitarist Chris Alford and drummer Charles Pagano play in New Orleans, and Danny Kamins is a saxophonist from Texas; this encounter took place in the Crescent City. As even players in places like the aforementioned northern cities or London will affirm, travel comes with this territory. Their interactions display a capacity to sustain balance when the energy is high and to back off when doing so will transform the music’s tension. Kamins intersperses long, coarse tones with emphatic pops, and Alford evidences a fluent stutter that suggests he’s spent a lot of time studying James “Blood” Ulmer’s sound grammar. Pagano’s cymbal sizzle and mutating not-quite-patterns provide both forward momentum and a framework within which the action occurs.

Bill Meyer

MIKE \ Wiki \ The Alchemist — Faith Is a Rock (ALC)

The long awaited collaboration between The Alchemist and MIKE took a sudden turn when they took on board another New York rapper Wiki who steals the show here. Both Wiki and MIKE were outcasts recording music in the vein of Earl Sweatshirt, even though MIKE was always a better version of Earl with only possibly a tenth of his fame. Knowing no rest, The Alchemist (that is his fourth collab this year) takes both MCs way out of their comfort zone, refusing to pander to the needs. MIKE and Wiki have to deal with The Alchemist’s fast and thick layered production, and it works for all of them. “Mayors A Cop” is a standout here, and Faith Is a Rock is one strong contender for the tape of the year.

Ray Garraty

Camila Nebbia — Una Ofrenda A La Ausencía (Relative Pitch)

The title translates as An Offering To Absence, which of course raises the question, what’s missing? Camila Nebbia is a multidisciplinary artist who grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but has seems to have spent a fair chunk of time moving around Europe in recent years, and is currently based in Berlin. She has a sizable discography, but this correspondent has not heard most of it, so let’s just focus on the album at hand. Its 16 tracks present three facets of her work — acoustic tenor saxophone, electronically adjusted saxophone and poetry — with the first method best represented. The unaccompanied saxophone performances reveal her mastery of both weight-bearing muscularity and adroit tap-dancing on the far side of the fences that confine conventional tonality. But when she layers long tones and feedback, Nebbia becomes a one-woman orchestra transmitting heavy Penderecki vibes. The one poem included, “Dejo que me lieve” (“I let it lie”), is recited in Spanish, and no translation is offered; perhaps home is what’s not there, so she needs to manifest it creatively?

Bill Meyer

[Continued in Part 2, because Tumblr decided we only get 10 audio links.]

[grumpybreakfastfriend]

One thing really weird to me is the accusations that Bell only agreed to do QOS because "they whitewashed his allegations", there's a LOT to criticise about the way QOS set all of these interviews up, they misled a fair amount of people on what this doc was about and it's... the end result is very sensationalistic and it does make money off the backs of other people's trauma, but it also started a good conversation.

But the thing about like "they whitewashed his allegations"... Like I agree it's something people should talk about but the documentary was about nick and abuse allegations on the set of nick shows with child actors and nothing in any of his allegations have to do with any other former child actors, other survivors should have a chance to speak and talk about their experiences but.... I hardly think that the thing about him only agreeing to do it because "whitewashing of his allegations"

They had been in contact with him many times over a few years and he kept refusing because he wasn't ready to publicly talk about what happened to him, he had also rejected to speak on "An Open Secret" in 2014, long before allegations against him ever came to light, so I think the narrative is honestly, not to be mean sounding, but BS. but people say it like it's a confirmed thing or they have "insider information" on that whole situation.

Speaking of, how do you feel about QOS and what Alexa Nikolas is saying (suddenly) about how QOS is opportunistic and using trauma for their own gain because she recently appeared on a news segment or whatever talking about Drake Bell's trauma, so I... that feels a little hypocritical if I'm honest because isn't she doing the same thing? I can understand Lee Bolleau (All That, Amanda Show) being upset about being left in the dark about major reveals in the series that she had thought was just about workplace toxicity, not p*dophilia and SA. And she says she was super close with Drake when they were on Amanda Show so imagine how horrifying it was for her to find that out. I don't want to paint the creators of QOS in a bad light but there's some stuff that's 100% wrong with QOS and should be criticised... They -seemed- like they had good intentions but keeping people in the dark and lying to others and then kinda editing the scenes to be a shockumentary and also the complete lack of focus the entire doc seems to have, it goes from "Dan Schnider has a horrible work ethic" several times to "Convicted SO Brian Peck" and then skips to talking about Amanda Bynes without her consent and... idk, i don't know how to feel about it too much, I know every documentary does this, I know that An Open Secret did this as well, but it's just... I dunno.

Bolleau says that she was misled on the subject of the doc for over a year, and Marc Summers had dropped out of the project because they lied to him about what it was about and he was like "I don't know anything about whatever happened here wtf", add to that the fact that Drake consistently answers vaguely about what abuse he experienced and they plaster it all over the screen anyway, and then the fact that they took out some of what Alexa even talked about in her interview, like Alexa is a little easier to criticise on this because she seems like she's flip flopping on supporting the doc based on not being invited to the LA panel talk or being asked to come back for ep 5, but I believe her when she says that they had a narrative to paint, mostly about Dan but they didn't have enough so they just cobbled together whatever allegations and rumors they could find which is so skeevy.

and to give Alexa some grace, she does talk about how she went in with a little more information on the subject and background about the doc because of her Eat Predators movement, but finding out that other people were misled and lied to she feels regretful that she sat down with them, so maybe she's -not- flip flopping, but a lot of people don't like her and criticise her for things like this.

Bolleau and Nikolas say that the producers pressured them in the interviews even when they voiced hesitation, which lines up with Drake being pushed to talk about explicit details of the abuse, Bolleau and Nikolas also say that they were harassed by endless attempts of contact during pre-production.

And then of course the 5th episode drops and it's so weirdly out of tone and touch with the rest of the series and though it was a good "idea" i guess in theory to follow up with the people, it felt so rushed and like they were cashing in, Schwarts and Robertson, the two who created the doc were defacto interviewers off screen in the first four episodes but out of nowhere Soledad O'Brian is the one asking questions to people regarding this stuff, and of course she brings up Amanda Bynes to Drake over zoom even though he looked very uncomfortable being asked about her life and there's a moment O'Brian says something like "What happened there, what happened to people like Amanda Bynes" and it's clear she's trying to get a very specific answer to that question.

With all these criticisms and then episode 5 it really paints this picture of them using these stories for the salaciousness factor and the ratings, even though it DID start a good conversation about abuse in these places, but they claim that 5th episode was for talking about where the industry can go from here, and offered absolutely NO discussion on that theme.

Nikolas was talking about how they edited the like, intro sizzle reel to the 5th episode, taking the sexually suggestive clips and putting them in a montage, stripping them entirely of context and kinda turning it into… like, idk, like how those true crime youtubers sensationalize the hell out of the cases they talk about.

And they take Lee Bolleau's words on an amanda show sketch out of context, kinda editing it to make it seem like something else.

Lee and Nikolas were just not invited to the LA panel at all probably because the doc producers didn't like their talking back about the misleading and lies…. and I do feel for Lee, and maybe more so than Nikolas because although I know a lot of people try to question or judge her trauma and I am 100% not doing that here, I just feel like she wants to hitch herself onto the backs of the other kids and what they went through, specifically Drake, it's weird that she's speaking on his trauma after HE bared his soul for the documentary.

And again, the interviewers / creators pushing for certain details of their guests when they knew it was making them uncomfortable... Its just weird, I know that Brian's charges are public record but they seemed to want to get shock value out of Drake's answers.... it didn't sit right with me.

I guess I'll just parrot people saying "two things can be true" because this did start an impactful discussion not only for the industry but for abuse and SA victims who have not come out yet and felt inspired to do so after hearing these stories, and it DID shine a light on Brian Peck who has been living pretttyy damn easy since being arrested and before this doc he was able to lay low and attend horror conventions and I'm just not sure that's super possible for him right now because everyone knows his face, and it did shine a light on many many many industry professionals backing a convicted p*dophile, but at the end of the day the more stuff that QOS and it's team does afterwards feels super super exploitative.

It's just a lot to think about, sorry for the long message!

I appreciate the message! I'm going to try and respond to the overall theme, since I don't think I can hit every point covered.

I agree that objectively, the documentary isn't that good. It's very disjointed and sensationalized. It felt like I was watching an old YouTube compilation of "creepy Dan Schneider feet scenes" that have been around for years with no actual new information, a bit about workplace harassment, almost conspiracy-esque speculations about Amanda which have been around for years, and then an extremely moving and harrowing story from Drake.

I've found a lot of his follow-up podcasts to be even more compelling and haven't gone back much to the documentary itself. We can have a larger conversation about how kids are vulnerable in entertainment, but their focus on Schneider as the Big Bad, when the Brian Peck abuse had nothing to do with him just didn't hit right for me.

I think the doc is still a net good and I am glad it is shining a light on these issues and gave Drake a platform to tell his story. I was talking to an older coworker who didn't grow up with these shows, and she found the doc to be a powerful watch, so I'm glad that it is still having that impact on people.

If it's not evident from my dozens of Drake Asks, I was really moved by his story. Quite frankly, I am not very invested in whatever is going on with Alexa. I hadn't heard of her before this, and I feel like I would have to spend too long watching all of her content to come up with an informed opinion, when I would rather spend that time checking out Drake's discography. It's a shame she's getting dogpiled for supporting Drake now, even if I do not know all of her motivations or issues.

[quarkslobes]

deep space 9!

ok here we go:

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

it used to be odo but now by far sisko, mainly because the benny russell plotline is my absolute favorite star trek plot ever. is he sisko or benny.... if he ascended to the prophets or whatever did he create benny?? if benny russell was a real author in strange new worlds... what does that mean. "you are the dreamer and the dream" is rotating in my microwave brain constantly. odo is still my emo repressed babygirl though.

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

if couples count, worf and jadzia. yes they can and have gotten away with murder yes i still want to put them in a little jar on my desk. they're legitimately one of the best written tv couples ever. worf is the wife and jadzia is the husband though

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

damar, im not saying hes a good person or anything but his arc was so interesting to me and he did have his very good moments at the end

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

rom and leeta. roms development was also SO good and leeta is the cutest side character ever i love her. like star trek does not get better than wimpy alien man finding his passion for engineering and falling in love with his hooters waitress wife who helps him form a union. that was peak cinema

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

i cant think of a character that's necessarily unpopular... maybe lwaxana?? i know she was like a minor villain in tng but i loved her in that ep where she hung out with alexander, and her friendship with odo later on in the show was actually super cute to me. she is a queen idc what tng says. headcanon she's still like alexanders cool aunt and worf is very tired.

also near the end... kai winn?? i do not like her or think she was a good person at all but i did feel bad for her for maybe two seconds near the end. i dont know she spent her life wanting to talk to god only for some alien guy to become emissary so while shes evil and i hate her i kinda have pity for her so shes my meow meow idk

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

dukat for sure. i would drop dukat in hot soup. definitely the best written star trek villain though and marc alaimo is such a good actor, every time i watch a dukat ep im like how does alaimo act so well that i genuinely hate this man with a passion

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

kai winn. i know i just said shes my meow meow but i hate her i hate her. same thing with marc alaimo though, louise fletcher was such a good actor that for 45 minutes i hated her like she was real dude