#mars real time review

[minervas-wife]

TWD S6 E1 LIVE THOUGHTS

heath enjoyers unite

the way deannas just sitting in his pool of blood 😭😭

they have to tell tara about noah 😭😭

ron in the bg of that carl and enid shot has me weak 😭😭

sasha and abrahams hand signals im in love

daryl looking at him like 'thats literally my job bro :('

'sometimes ur safer when theres no way out' FORESHADOWING FORESHADOWING

ok nicholas redemption arc

'im supposed to be delivering pizzas man'

'no. who else' so funny

i have a lil bit of a soft spot for tobin in terms of the og asz residents. idk why but i just do

get back in ur lane nicholas !!!!!

im glad tara has such a special relationship with maggie and glenn😭😭 she deserves those good family feels

morgan is such a good judge of character its scary man 😭😭 they way he had carol from the very start

the others with carter are like 'yeah he was on his own man' asdfghjkl

good riddance carter

[fingertipsmp3]

Okay I don’t know how this is going to work exactly but I’m not reading book synopses anymore, I’ve just decided

[thaoworra]

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association recently released the poems that made it to the finalist stage for consideration for the 2024 Rhysling Awards for Short and Long Speculative Poems of the year. Congratulations to all of the nominees! This will be the 46th year these awards have been conferred!

Short Poems (50 finalists)

Attn: Prime Real Estate Opportunity!, Emily Ruth Verona, Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection Volume II

The Beauty of Monsters, Angela Liu, Small Wonders 1

The Blight of Kezia, Patricia Gomes, HWA Poetry Showcase X

The Day We All Died, A Little, Lisa Timpf, Radon 5

Deadweight, Jack Cooper, Propel 7

Dear Mars, Susan L. Lin, The Sprawl Mag 1.2

Dispatches from the Dragon's Den, Mary Soon Lee, Star*Line 46.2

Dr. Jekyll, West Ambrose, Thin Veil Press December

First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare, Emily Jiang, Uncanny 53

Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness, Ali Trotta, The Deadlands 31

Gods of the Garden, Steven Withrow, Spectral Realms 19

The Goth Girls' Gun Gang, Marisca Pichette, The Dread Machine 3.2

Guiding Star, Tim Jones, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, ed. Lee Murray (Clan Destine Press)

Hallucinations Gifted to Me by Heatstroke, Morgan L. Ventura, Banshee 15

hemiplegic migraine as willing human sacrifice, Ennis Rook Bashe, Eternal Haunted Summer Winter Solstice

Hi! I am your Cortical Update!, Mahaila Smith, Star*Line 46.3

How to Make the Animal Perfect?, Linda D. Addison, Weird Tales 100

I Dreamt They Cast a Trans Girl to Give Birth to the Demon, Jennessa Hester, HAD October

Invasive, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Polar Starlight 9

kan-da-ka, Nadaa Hussein, Apparition Lit 23

Language as a Form of Breath, Angel Leal, Apparition Lit October

The Lantern of September, Scott Couturier, Spectral Realms 19

Let Us Dream, Myna Chang, Small Wonders 3

The Magician's Foundling, Angel Leal, Heartlines Spec 2

The Man with the Stone Flute, Joshua St. Claire, Abyss & Apex 87

Mass-Market Affair, Casey Aimer, Star*Line 46.4

Mom's Surprise, Francis W. Alexander, Tales from the Moonlit Path June

A Murder of Crows, Alicia Hilton, Ice Queen 11

No One Now Remembers, Geoffrey Landis, Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov./Dec.

orion conquers the sky, Maria Zoccula, On Spec 33.2

Pines in the Wind, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, The Beautiful Leaves (Bamboo Dart Press)

The Poet Responds to an Invitation from the AI on the Moon, T.D. Walker, Radon Journal 5

A Prayer for the Surviving, Marisca Pichette, Haven Speculative 9

Pre-Nuptial, F. J. Bergmann, The Vampiricon (Mind's Eye Publications)

The Problem of Pain, Anna Cates, Eye on the Telescope 49

The Return of the Sauceress, F. J. Bergmann, The Flying Saucer Poetry Review February

Sea Change, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Ann K. Schwader, Scifaikuest May

Seed of Power, Linda D. Addison, The Book of Witches ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Collins)

Sleeping Beauties, Carina Bissett, HWA Poetry Showcase X

Solar Punks, J. D. Harlock, The Dread Machine 3.1

Song of the Last Hour, Samuel A. Betiku, The Deadlands 22

Sphinx, Mary Soon Lee, Asimov's September/October

Storm Watchers (a drabbun), Terrie Leigh Relf, Space & Time

Sunflower Astronaut, Charlie Espinosa, Strange Horizons July

Three Hearts as One, G. O. Clark, Asimov's May/June

Troy, Carolyn Clink, Polar Starlight 12

Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary, John Grey, Medusa's Kitchen September

Under World, Jacqueline West, Carmina Magazine September

Walking in the Starry World, John Philip Johnson, Orion's Belt May

Whispers in Ink, Angela Yuriko Smith, Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Long Poems (25 finalists)

Archivist of a Lost World, Gerri Leen, Eccentric Orbits 4

As the witch burns, Marisca Pichette, Fantasy 87

Brigid the Poet, Adele Gardner, Eternal Haunted Summer Summer Solstice

Coding a Demi-griot (An Olivian Measure), Armoni “Monihymn” Boone, Fiyah 26

Cradling Fish, Laura Ma, Strange Horizons May

Dream Visions, Melissa Ridley Elmes, Eccentric Orbits 4

Eight Dwarfs on Planet X, Avra Margariti, Radon Journal 3

The Giants of Kandahar, Anna Cates, Abyss & Apex 88

How to Haunt a Northern Lake, Lora Gray, Uncanny 55

Impostor Syndrome, Robert Borski, Dreams and Nightmares 124

The Incessant Rain, Rhiannon Owens, Evermore 3

Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis, Angela Liu, Strange Horizons November

Little Brown Changeling, Lauren Scharhag, Aphelion 283

A Mere Million Miles from Earth, John C. Mannone, Altered Reality April

Pilot, Akua Lezli Hope, Black Joy Unbound eds. Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle (BLF Press)

Protocol, Jamie Simpher, Small Wonders 5

Sleep Dragon, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

Slow Dreaming, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

St. Sebastian Goes To Confession, West Ambrose, Mouthfeel 1

Value Measure, Joseph Halden and Rhonda Parrish, Dreams and Nightmares 125

A Weather of My Own Making, Nnadi Samuel, Silver Blade 56

Welcoming the New Girl, Beth Cato, Penumbric October

What You Find at the Center, Elizabeth R McClellan, Haven Spec Magazine 12

The Witch Makes Her To-Do List, Theodora Goss, Uncanny 50

The Year It Changed, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Star*Line 46.4

Voting for the Rhysling Award begins July 1; a link to the ballot will be sent with the Rhysling Anthology, as well as with the July issue of Star*Line. More information on the Rhysling Award can be found here.

[uyuforu]

Astro Observations VII: Solar & Lunar Return

Hi everyone! I haven't post in a while, mostly due to busy schedule ;-; I'm barely sleeping these days, a lot of demands from clients, also visiting my family, and I have a wedding tomorrow. Im tired but my Lunar Return's 6H Stellium warned me! Anyway, I thought of doing a post that I consider easy: Astro Observations! This one is focused on Solar & Lunar Return. Solar Returns are charts that change every years and Lunar Returns change every month. Some people don't believe in Lunar Returns, yet I do and feel it to the chore lol! Anyway! Hope you'll like today's post ^^ Between! This post will mostly be about my FS' Solar & Lunar Returns! I thought it would be cool to change perspective :)

All pictures were found on Pinterest

Other posts you could like:

જ⁀➴ Astrology Observations VI

જ⁀➴ Lunar Return Chart I

જ⁀➴ Lunar Return Chart II

JUNE BOOKING OPEN

email adress: tarotjunoboda@gmail.com

Soft To You presentation and Q&A ᡣ𐭩 rules ᡣ𐭩 private readings reviews

astrology menu ᡣ𐭩 tarot menu ᡣ𐭩 special astrology & tarot readings

Solar Return

⋆˚✿˖° The 6H is very not appreciated enough in my opinion, mostly in solar returns! The year me and my FS met, we both had Groom/ Briede 6H. In my opinion, this can be an indicator of meeting your FS, because 6H is about routine and daily life, and having those asteroids, Venus or Juno there can be a sign of meeting someone/ your FS, who will have be part of your daily life from now on. So having Briede/ Groom can be a sign of meeting your FS and them being part of your life.

⋆˚✿˖° My FS had Briede conjunct Union in Sagittarius 6H the year we met, it was online. Indeed there was distance and we met on an app that was about learning languages. The conjunction is an obvious sign of meeting.

⋆˚✿˖° He also had Juno there and conjuncted Briede and Union lol. It was obvious. He had a huge crush and love at first sight.

⋆˚✿˖° MORE. The ruler of his 6H was Jupiter and it was in his 9H. He spent a lot of time on this app, learning languages, he was obsessed with it.

⋆˚✿˖° The year we met in real life, he had Briede conjunct Sun, def meeting "in real life". Him meeting me.

⋆˚✿˖° But he also had Briede conjunct Saturn, and he was putting barriers between us. And it's no surprise since he also had Sun conjunct Saturn. He was creating barriers for himself, for protection.

⋆˚✿˖° Saturn 6H was also about health matters, his health state was an obstacle for him. He also thought he didn't have his life fully together.

⋆˚✿˖° He had 7H Neptune also that year, he was pretty delusional about his love life and his point of view about love and marriage. He thought he was doomed to never marry, and never love and be loved.

⋆˚✿˖° BUT! He also had Jupiter there, so he was blind with those fake ideas while I was just standing there 🧍🏻‍♀️

⋆˚✿˖° The year he talked about marriage a lot to me, he had Briede conjunct Jupiter 5H, with Juno too!

⋆˚✿˖° His 5H Ruler was also in 7H, and it was Mars. His 7H Ruler was in his 4H, being Venus, he was thinking of something very serious for sure.

⋆˚✿˖° Yet, 7H Mars could also indicate fight, and Chiron being in the 5H too, we indeed had a big fight. He hurt me and I have hurt him too!

⋆˚✿˖° 9H Stellium could mean you are very focused on learning languages or traveling/ wanting to travel.

⋆˚✿˖° If your 9H Ruler is in 11H, you could spend a lot of time online to learn languages, or app that helps you learning languages.

⋆˚✿˖° Venus/ Juno in 8H or 12H could mean you have a secret crush, or you have a crush on someone who doesn't know about it.

⋆˚✿˖° 9H Ruler in 5H could mean you could find love while traveling or loving your traveling! You'll have a lot of fun.

⋆˚✿˖° 10H Ruler in 5H could mean you could have the reputation of being a player lol.

⋆˚✿˖° 7H Ruler in 1H could mean if you get in a relationship this year, you'll take it so seriously it will be part of your identity.

⋆˚✿˖° Scorpio MC means a big change and transformation in your career this year. If Pluto (the Ruler) falls in the 12H, you'll deeply change it that people will think you do something different. You could also quit your job and do something totally different.

⋆˚✿˖° If 9H and 4H have the same Ruler and it falls in your 12H, then it could mean traveling to see family who lives overseas.

⋆˚✿˖° Jupiter conjunct Uranus in 3H could be that at some point this year, you'll have a conversation that will reveal a lot of untold truth. You'll discover things, truth and it could be a happy realization.

⋆˚✿˖° Sun 1H means you'll focus on yourself this year, and it can mean you'll want to choose options that are best for you. You'll change your identity, appearance, you are more likely to glow up.

⋆˚✿˖° 8H Ruler in 5H means you could be in your era of wanting to have friends with benefits or one night stands.

⋆˚✿˖° Yet, if you have this aspect and Chiron is in your 8H, at some point this could come back to you and you could be hurt. For example, you could realize this is not actually something you enjoy, or you caught feelings, or it creates more pain in the end than pleasure.

⋆˚✿˖° AND if with Chiron 8H you also have Part of Fortune, this could mean this pain and karma is part of a lesson, and it's a good thing under a bad thing.

⋆˚✿˖° 1H Ruler in 5H is another sign of glowing up!

⋆˚✿˖° If you have 7H Ruler in 1H and Groom/ Briede also in 1H, and you are in a relationship, you could already see yourself married with this person.

⋆˚✿˖° 4H Ruler in 6H could represents enjoying your daily life routine, or finding a life routine at home/ family.

⋆˚✿˖° Scorpio 4H means your family and home life will be transformed. And if the Ruler is in 6H, it means your daily routine will be transformed too.

⋆˚✿˖° I realized Union in SRC could represents the new person you'll meet this year and the house could represent where you'll meet this person, in which life area.

Lunar Return

⋆˚✿˖° The Month I was so busy I was barely sleeping I had a 6H Stellium!

⋆˚✿˖° Mercury 11H means spending a lot of time on social medias, and perhaps even talking to people online. Otherwise, it can mean talking to a lot of friends.

⋆˚✿˖° Uranus conjunct North Node in 7H means a major change will happen in your relationships since

⋆˚✿˖° Neptune conjunct Juno in 11H could be a sign of having a crush online and stalking them lol.

⋆˚✿˖° Chiron 7H means you are feeling hurt by something your partner did or said. If not your partner, then someone you love (romantically).

⋆˚✿˖° Sun 8H can be a sign of being pretty private this month, but it can also mean discovering something that was hidden before.

⋆˚✿˖° 8H ruler in 11H is a sign of stalking online lol.

⋆˚✿˖° Briede/ Groom conjunct Juno 7H can be a sign of being in love with your spouse, or just feeling like you found the one.

⋆˚✿˖° Yet, Juno/ Groom/ Briede conjunct Chiron 7H can mean you feel hurt by their words or actions.

⋆˚✿˖° 7H Ruler in 9H could mean you will or want to travel for the one you love, or this could also indicate a long distance relationship.

⋆˚✿˖° Saturn conjunct Venus means there are obstacles in this relationship. Otherwise, if you have no Chiron in 7H, this can also indicate a long term love, feeling secure and like this will last.

⋆˚✿˖° A stellium in 1H means you'll prefer to stay by yourself and not hang out with people often.

⋆˚✿˖° Sun 12H with Saturn means the same thing. You are a loner and this could be by choice.

⋆˚✿˖° Saturn 7H means you prefer to be alone, and you may put yourself some barriers between you and the one you love.

⋆˚✿˖° Sun conjunct Mercury 7H means you will or want to declare your feelings. Or this can be a sign of wanting to propose.

⋆˚✿˖° Moon conjunct Chiron 5H means you are feeling hurt because of love.

⋆˚✿˖° Chiron conjunct Neptune 1H can be a sign of crying. If Moon is there, it means this is because of something that hurt your feelings.

⋆˚✿˖° Neptune 8H means you'll imagine a lot of steamy things, yet it could mean not having s3x.

⋆˚✿˖° Jupiter 9H is a sign of traveling!

⋆˚✿˖° 5H Ruler in 9H is a sign of traveling for holidays.

⋆˚✿˖° Jupiter 4H could mean traveling to see your family.

⋆˚✿˖° 11H stellium could mean you'll see and meet a lot of people this month.

⋆˚✿˖° 10H stellium means a big success in your career! You could get a lot of recognition.

Thank you for reading!

back to index ; ask ; request ; rules

[voidsuites]

ARTRICK BOT RELEASE !!! (11/13/24) ⌢⠀ 🎾 .ᐟ

art donaldson ・゜゜・．coach's orders. you’re art’s newest player— an up-and-coming name in the tennis world— but you’re stubborn and prone to working yourself to the bone in the name of the game. tashi would’ve loved you if she’d gotten her hands on you first, but you’re here with him, on his private backyard court, listening to his advice about your game and ultimately, your career. and damnit, art’s not going to take that for granted (even if it means pushing the delicate boundaries between an athlete and their coach). you’ve got to learn how to relax, and art’s not opposed to bending you over the net if that’ll fix things.

art donaldson ・゜゜・．lesson planning. it’s your first year having a hands-on role in building out and finalizing the curriculum for the middle school english department, but your focus has been equally split between what books your kids are going to read and the head of the english department himself, mr. donaldson. you’d been wary to accept such a high responsibility in the first place, but he’d insisted that you help him review the materials during prep week, and you'd never say no to art… even if it means awkwardly dancing around the fact that you’re both clearly into one another— oh, and that he’s finally taken off his wedding ring.

art and patrick ・゜゜・．night of the living frat! it really should be sacrilegious that sigma chi’s hosting a costume party just a week after halloween, but none of the brothers had been able to resist yet another party before finals overtook the rest of the semester. besides— who passes up a chance to dress up and drink? the music’s loud, the drinks are a-flowin’, and you’d never be able to tell that tonight isn’t halloween. no one’s the wiser… which only makes it harder for art and patrick to keep their hands to themselves and their heads out of the gutter when you eventually materialize. hopefully they can convince you to stay the night… if they can remember how to share first.

patrick zweig ・゜゜・．mr. z. everyone loves mr. zweig— or “mr. z” as the students like to call him— and as the newest teacher amongst the faculty ranks, he’s quick to make nice and befriend everyone, including you. normally, you’d normally be skeptical of a washed-up pro tennis player coming to fill in the vacant gym teacher position, but you instead find yourself spending more time with patrick and enjoying yourself. it’s only a matter of time before you realize that lines are blurring and that whatever is going on between you both is way more than a friendship between fellow teachers coworkers.

patrick zweig ・゜゜・．shopping spree. frequent trips to the high-end side of the city had never been your sort of thing thing, but now that you’re dating patrick they’ve become a weekly occurrence. you never leave empty-handed, and it’s always on his dime (at his insistence, of course, it’s all chump change to him anyway). who cares about the staring you two get when he totes you and your purchases of the day around the city?— he’s the one that gets to go about his business with you on his arm. everyone else is just lucky he just can’t help showing you off while he does.

got a request? go ahead and leave em here :) THANK YOU GUYS SO SO MUCH FOR FOR 5.2K AND 2 MIL+ CHATS! this is actually insanity i don't even know what to say or how to feel but thank you thank you 😭😭😭😭😭😭 challengers brainrot has struck again (big surprise) these are all mostly aus— the art and pat teacher bots (lesson planning + mr. z) are based off of headcanons by dearest mars (the lovely @saintzweig) and the shopping spree pat bot is based off of the moodboard by my true love @diyasgarden !!! please please please please please give my lovely moots a follow bc without them (and everyone else) i would not have any ideas and you all would just be subjected to the whistling wind that blows in my head when nothing is going on in there (which happens often!) love love LOVE you guys for real i am so grateful for all of the support and giggles that we all have <33333333333

[starastrologyy]

Astrology observations 🍒

My chart readings are still opened for those interested :) reviews are on my masterlist that is pinned to my profile 🤍

Something so interesting I’ve observed with Neptune conjunct the composite Ascendant is that the couple tend to be very forgiving of one another. However, there can be the inclination to engage in excessive drinking, gambling, or drug use together (if there are no mitigating factors).

It is not uncommon to begin dating someone new when your solar return Sun & Venus are in the Solar Return 5th house. Ideally, you want to have both to increase the chances. You want to look at the 7th house for a more long-term connection. However, it is possible for a relationship that begins in a 5th house centered solar return year to progress if there are aspects made to Saturn!

A “9th house heavy” solar return almost always indicates that a significant form of study or trip will present itself during that year. Some people may decide to enroll in college for the first time or others may even return to college in such a year. Alternatively, this could be a year in which your religious, political, or philosophical beliefs are highlighted.

It’s not uncommon to see individuals who have their Midheaven in Virgo, or the ruler of their Midheaven in the 6th house end up working in the health & wellness industries. These people can be drawn to personal training, nutrition or the healthcare industry.

If you have the ruler of your 7th house in the 9th. You may find that you have the tendency to attract long distance relationships or foreign partners.

Chiron or Neptune transiting the 6th or 10th houses are two planets I often see activated when a person is having trouble in their vocational sphere. Job losses or disillusionment pertaining to one’s career can often emerge during these transits.

Secondary Progressions are such an underrated predictive technique! You want to look out for when your progressed planets change signs, when the progressed moon enters a new house, or when there’s a progressed new or full moon! This is because these all often coincide with significant life events, this is especially true when it comes to the occurrence of a progressed new moon!

In synastry, when someone’s Mars falls into your 10th house they can motivate you to achieve your career goals and ambitions. However, if Mars is harshly aspected, this person can have a negative impact on your reputation, career, and the pursuit of your worldly ambitions.

You can expect to see a significant amount of advancement or abundance in your career in a year where your solar return Saturn or Jupiter trines the solar return midheaven!

Interestingly, you may experience sudden weight gain or weight loss when your Solar Return Uranus makes a conjunction to your Solar Return Ascendant! Alternatively, this could just mean that you decide to make an unexpected change to your physical appearance! This can be getting a new hairstyle or changing your wardrobe!

If you have your part of fortune in the 3rd or the 11th house you may find success with an online blog, sales, or anything involving the use of technology & social media!

Those with the ruler of their Midheaven in the 4th or part of fortune in the 4th can be drawn to real estate. This placement (ruler of midheaven in the 4th) can also indicate working from home or working in a family business.

Neptune conjunct the descendent is common to see in the charts of people who get married more than once in their lifetime!

If you have the ruler of your 9th house in the 9th, you may decide to pursue higher education/college abroad!

[sensualnoiree]

astro notes: mercury retrograde 8/4-8/28

From August 5 to August 28, it's time to re-analyze, reprioritize, reorganize, and readjust. Gemini, Virgo, Leo, Pisces, and Aquarius placements will feel this the most. This is a fantastic time to get real and ask yourself, are your true interests integrated into your goals, or are you focusing on duties and obligations instead?

This period is our chance to redo, review, and revisit specific themes in our lives. To be informed and make better choices. Reflect on themes like discernment, responsibility, priorities, and humility that have come up during the shadow phase ending August 4.

On August 4th, a New Moon in Leo begins a fresh lunar cycle, encouraging bold, creative intentions. Supportive sextiles to Mars and Jupiter promise engaging activities. Watch for confusion in relationships or finances due to a Venus–Neptune quincunx and irritability from a Mars–Eris semi-square. Venus moving into Virgo and Mercury retrograde emphasize caution and critical assessment.

Key Influences

New Moon in Leo: Bold new beginnings. Sextiles to Mars and Jupiter: Dynamic activities. Venus–Neptune Quincunx: Relationship and financial confusion. Mars–Eris Semi-square: Irritability and autonomy issues. Venus in Virgo: Critical assessment in love and finances. Mercury Retrograde in Virgo: Double-check details and communications.

Rising Signs

ARIES

This Mercury retrograde will emphasize your daily routines and responsibilities. Reflect on your work habits, health routines, and the balance between your obligations and personal joy. Are you prioritizing your well-being and passions equally? Use this period to adjust your schedule to include more creative and pleasurable activities. This is also a time to reassess any work projects or health goals, making necessary tweaks for better results.

TAURUS

Your focus will shift from creative pursuits and personal pleasures to home and family matters. Reevaluate how you express your creativity and whether it aligns with your home life. Are your personal passions supported by your family environment? Take this time to reorganize your living space and revisit family dynamics, ensuring they support your personal growth and joy. This is also an opportunity to reconnect with hobbies and activities that bring you joy.

GEMINI

This retrograde will highlight your home life and communication. Reflect on how your living environment supports your mental well-being. Are there changes needed at home to better facilitate clear communication and mental peace? Use this period to reorganize your home, perhaps decluttering or redecorating, to create a more harmonious space. Additionally, review any ongoing communications with family members and close friends, ensuring clarity and understanding.

CANCER

Your focus will be on communication and finances. Reassess how effectively you communicate your needs and manage your resources. Are your financial priorities aligned with your values and passions? Use this time to reorganize your financial plans and enhance your communication skills. This is also a period to revisit any educational pursuits or local community engagements, ensuring they align with your personal values and goals.

LEO

This retrograde will focus on your self-worth and personal identity. Reflect on how your values and financial priorities align with your sense of self. Are you investing in what truly matters to you? Use this period to reanalyze your financial plans and self-care routines, ensuring they support your personal growth. This is also a time to revisit your personal goals and adjust your approach to better reflect your true self.

VIRGO

Your focus will be on self-awareness and subconscious patterns. Reevaluate how your personal identity is shaped by your subconscious beliefs. Are there any hidden fears or habits holding you back? Use this period to reorganize your thoughts and address any underlying issues that may be impacting your self-image. This is also a time to reflect on your personal goals and ensure they align with your true desires and values.

LIBRA

This retrograde will emphasize your inner world and social connections. Reflect on how your subconscious beliefs influence your friendships and social engagements. Are you surrounding yourself with people who support your true self? Use this time to reassess your social circles and community involvement, ensuring they align with your personal values. This is also an opportunity to revisit any humanitarian goals or group projects, making necessary adjustments for better alignment.

SCORPIO

Your focus will be on social networks and career goals. Reevaluate how your friendships and professional aspirations align with your personal values. Are your social connections supporting your career growth? Use this period to reorganize your professional plans and social engagements, ensuring they support your long-term goals. This is also a time to revisit any community projects or professional networks, making necessary adjustments for better alignment.

SAGITTARIUS

This retrograde will emphasize your career and belief systems. Reflect on how your professional goals align with your personal beliefs and values. Are your career aspirations supporting your broader life philosophy? Use this period to reassess your professional plans and educational pursuits, ensuring they align with your true values. This is also a time to revisit any long-term goals or travel plans, making necessary adjustments for better alignment.

CAPRICORN

Your focus will be on belief systems and shared resources. Reevaluate how your personal beliefs influence your financial partnerships and shared resources. Are your financial priorities aligned with your deeper values? Use this time to reorganize your financial plans and educational pursuits, ensuring they support your true values. This is also an opportunity to revisit any spiritual practices or philosophical studies, making necessary adjustments for better alignment.

AQUARIUS

This retrograde will highlight shared resources and relationships. Reflect on how your financial partnerships and intimate relationships align with your personal values. Are your partnerships supporting your true self? Use this period to reassess your financial plans and relationship dynamics, ensuring they align with your personal values. This is also a time to revisit any joint ventures or deep emotional connections, making necessary adjustments for better alignment.

PISCES

Your focus will be on relationships and daily routines. Reevaluate how your partnerships influence your daily life and health routines. Are your relationships supporting your well-being? Use this time to reorganize your daily schedule and relationship dynamics, ensuring they support your personal growth. This is also an opportunity to revisit any health goals or work projects, making necessary adjustments for better alignment.

follow for more astro insights like this and head on over to @quenysefields or etsy sensualnoiree to book a session with me :)

[slayerkitty]

The DFF Experience: A Dead Friend Forever Fandom Round Up (Part 1*)

I had the wild idea of compiling links to all the various metas, theories, and other resources for DFF for everyone to use so that links and information were kind of all in one place. I dragged @shannankle along for the ride, and we combed through the tag to find all the things we could.

We most likely have missed something even though we tried to be as thorough as possible - if you think there is something we over looked that should be added let us know in the replies or the tags; if you write meta or other resource posts in the future, please tag us and we can add it to the post.

With that, please enjoy The DFF Experience!

Media: 

Official Trailer

Pre-Release/Pilot Trailer

Behind The Scenes

No More Dream - Barcode

Without Me - Bump

Por's RIP? Pic by @having-conniptions

Reviews: 

Dead Friend Forever is More Than Just A 90s Slasher Film Imitation by @syrena-del-mar

Dead Friend Forever is a Marvel of Mystery Writing by @lurkingshan

Phee, Jin, And A Masterful Misdirect by @lurkingshan

Fun Facts to Know and Tell: 

Non refers to his brother New as “P’New” during his argument with his parents in episode 8, confirming that New is the older of the two. 

White refers to Por as P’Por when he’s alone confirming he is younger and not lying about his age

Character Profiles by @raelle-writing

Based on screenshots, White and Phee do not go to the same school as the embroidery is different. 

Fuaiz says White’s parents are rich and engineers

What the Characters Know and Don't Know (As of Episode 9) by @raelle-writing

Actor Reveals About The Characters by @raelle-writing

Theories (Episodes 1-8):

Not Jin’s Video Theory by @raelle-writing

Not Jin’s Laptop Theory by @raelle-writing

Hints at the timeline/dates things happen by @yellingaboutkp

Why Uncle Dang Was Killed by @befuddledcinnamonroll

Is Jin final girl? by @blismytherapy

Non is dead (dead men tell no tales) by @mikuni14

Why So Many Maskys? by @slayerkitty

Tan is New by @tbhimnoteasyonmyself

Are The Boys Being Drugged (Are you High, Top?) by @italianpersonwithashippersheart

Non isn’t dead (alive men tell tales) by @respectthepetty

Theories (Episode 9-10):

Why Jin Sees Keng by @raelle-writing

Is Phee Still Playing Jin (Play On, Player?) by @yellingaboutkp

What's Up With White's Hallucinations? by @jeffsatyr with contributions by @italianpersonwithashippersheart

Tan is Going to Turn on Phee (and other upcoming episode theories) by @slayerkitty

Non Isn’t Dead (alive men tell tales, but they don’t change their clothes) by @subtextsays

Phi is on Tan's Hitlist by @respectthepetty

Non is Alive (Only Alive Men Tell Tales in Telenovelas) by @babyangelsky

Non is the Hidden Character And In This Essay I Will - by @babyangelsky

On The Episode 10 Preview by @crysta1ized

Non is Alive (Alive Men Tell Tales When They Paint in Grayscale) by @yellingaboutkp

Gas Mask for Masky? by @biochemjess

On What Tan Sees by @raelle-writing

Will Phee Tell Jin the Truth? by @mikuni14

How Much is a Hallucination and How Much is Real by @babyangelsky with contributions by @respectthepetty and @shannankle

White is the Mastermind by @sniggerwarning

Top's Scar and Masky on Crutches by @subtextsays

DFF Theory Time by @squishysquadstuff

Theories About White by @crysta1ized

Ninth Person Theory by @raelle-writing

Hallucination or Real? by @raelle-writing

Non is Alive for Now (Alive men tell tales if they're about to kick the bucket) by @harurio

A Scream/DFF Parallel Theory on Who's Behind the Mask by @crysta1ized

Tree Mark Theory by @babyangelsky

Episode 11 Preview Theory by @crysta1ized

New and the Antidote by @respectthepetty

White-Non Theory by @crysta1ized

*Due to the number links and mentions the round up is now four(!) posts. Please see Part 2 here, Part 3 here and Part 4 here.

[truevedicastrology]

🔄 Retrograde Revelations

Cosmic crew, buckle up! 🚀 We're diving into the topsy-turvy world of retrogrades. Ready for some celestial chaos? Let's go! 💫

💬 Mercury retrograde isn't just about tech fails - it's prime time for running into old flames! 🔥

💖 Venus retrograde? Time to reassess your values and love life. Ex's texts incoming in 3... 2... 1... 📱

🔥 Mars retrograde might have you feeling like you're running a marathon in quicksand. Slow and steady! 🐢

🍀 Jupiter retrograde is like a cosmic chill pill. Time to look inward for growth, not outward! 🧘‍♀️

⏳ Saturn retrograde is the universe's way of saying "Did you do your homework?" Time to review those life lessons! 📚

♐ Sagittarius risings often feel Mercury retrogrades more intensely. Double-check those travel plans! ✈️

🔮 Pisces placements during Neptune retrograde? You're basically a human magic 8 ball of intuition! 🎱

💼 Capricorn energy + Saturn retrograde = Career reflection central. Time to update that LinkedIn? 👔

🌙 Full moons during retrogrades can feel extra intense. Grab your crystals and sage, folks! 🧿

🎭 Your natal retrograde planets? They're not cursed, they're just a little quirky! Embrace the unique energy. ✨

💑 Retrogrades in synastry can indicate a "fated" connection. Cue past life romance vibes! 👫

🌿 Uranus retrograde might have you itching for a major life overhaul. New hair, who dis? 💇‍♀️

🧠 Mercury retrograde in air signs? Communication goes from "phone call" to "smoke signals" real quick! 💨

🌺 Venus retrograde in earth signs might have you stress-buying plants. Retail therapy, but make it botanical! 🛍️

💪 Mars retrograde in water signs = Emotional Olympics. Grab your cosmic tissue box! 🏊‍♀️

🎡 Pluto retrograde is like a cosmic excavation of your soul. Time to face those shadows! 🕵️‍♀️

🌈 Multiple retrogrades at once? It's not the end of the world, just a celestial traffic jam. Deep breaths! 🚦

Remember, stargazers, retrogrades aren't cosmic punishments - they're chances for growth and reflection! 🌱✨

[vintagelasvegas]

Union Plaza Hotel & Casino, July 1971

The hotel was built on the site of the former Union Pacific depot and Greyhound bus terminal. Two companies financed the hotel: Upland Industries, a subsidiary of Union Pacific Corp, and Scott Corp. directed by Frank E. Scott. The Scott Corp. was the landlord, Scott was the CEO and president of the hotel, with partners Sen. Howard Cannon, and downtown casino stalwarts J.K. Houssels Jr, Jackie Gaughan, Sam Boyd, and Bill Boyd, who managed the “world’s largest casino.”

'70: Aug. 10, Groundbreaking. (LA Times 8/9/70, RJ 7/1/71)

'70: Nov., Union Station demolished. (RJ 11/24/70)

'71: May 2, Final UP train service. Amtrak was established, and passenger service through Las Vegas is suspended.

'71: Jul. 2, Union Plaza Hotel & Casino is opened. Architects: Zick & Sharp (Las Vegas) in association with Stanley J. How (Omaha). Contractor: Blount-Yoxen Construction Co. The hotel complex contained a bus station, 500-seat showroom, 2nd story pool in front of the hotel, and an adjacent parking garage. The 504-room hotel was roughly the same size as the Fremont Hotel and smaller than some on the Strip, but it boasted the largest casino floor in Las Vegas at 66,000 sq ft.

'75: Jul., Sports book addition. KDWN Radio 720 AM begins broadcasting from the hotel with a station on the 2nd floor.

'79: Oct. 28, Amtrak’s Desert Wind line through Las Vegas begins the first regularly scheduled service since ‘71. Small room and platform in the rear of the hotel is used as the depot.

'81: Apr., Rooftop sign and lights changed. Design by Charles Barnard, Ad Art. 

'82: Construction of 26-story south tower, parking garage, and conversion of the front pool to restaurant designed by Louis Pereira. (RJ 3/16/82, 9/19/82, 10/28/82)

'83: Center Stage restaurant opens in Jan. (RJ 1/23/83) Mural depicting the past, present, and future of passenger rail service created in the hotel between the lobby and depot area. Tower topped off in Apr. and opened in fall. Total rooms: 1030. (RJ 4/23/83, 10/20/83)

'90-'93: Jackie Gaughan acquires the holdings of Union Plaza founder Frank Scott, followed by Upland’s participation in '93, becoming the majority shareholder and ending the relationship with Union Pacific. The hotel is renamed “Jackie Gaughan’s Plaza” circa ’92, though the signs remain unchanged, with “Union” on the rooftop sign for several years.

2004: Mar. 26, Plaza is sold. Union Plaza Hotel & Casino Inc, Exber Inc and Gaughan South sell Plaza, Las Vegas Club, Gold Spike, Western Hotel, and 60 acres of land and non-gaming properties to Barrick Gaming and Tamares Real Estate for $82M. The Barrick group plans a "themed street behind the Plaza which will re-create the ambience of old downtown Las Vegas." (RJ 3/26/2004)

2005: Tamares buys Barrick’s interest in Plaza hotel and the Las Vegas properties; Larry Woolf managing.

2009: Firefly opens in the former Center Stage restaurant; Oscar's Steakhouse opens in its place in 2011.

2014: Jonathan Jossel takes over as the CEO of the Plaza, the youngest non-restricted gaming licensees in Las Vegas. 

Construction in 1971. The first photo is dated 1/12/1971, Nevada State Museum Las Vegas.

Fremont & Casino Center, Apr. 1971. Union Plaza construction past Main St.

Sal Sagev Hotel and Golden Gate Casino; Union Plaza; Las Vegas Club and the Dugout restaurant. 1971. Photo via Plaza Hotel.

Postcards circa 1971.

Sources: UP Hotel Plans Ready for Signing. Las Vegas Review-Journal, 10/3/69; Work on 22-story hotel to start soon. Review-Journal, 8/2/70 p1; No Parking Here. Review-Journal, 8/10/70; Union Plaza Magic Hour Near. Review-Journal, 7/1/71; Plaza celebrates LV ‘uptown’. Review-Journal, 8/13/71; Rod Smith. Four Gaughan casinos pass to Barrick. Review-Journal, 3/26/2004; Howard Stutz. Lady Luck. Review-Journal, 12/13/2005; Oliver Lovat. A Golden Age for Downtown. GGB Magazine, 2021.

[justforbooks]

David Lynch

US director whose wildly unconventional films burrowed into the unsavoury depths of his nation’s psyche

David Lynch, who has died aged 78, was the most original film-maker to emerge in postwar America, as well as the greatest cinematic surrealist since Buñuel. His understanding of desire, fantasy and dread was unparalleled; the Paris Review called him “the Edward Hopper of American film”.

He made his debut with the experimental Eraserhead (1977), shot in sooty black-and-white and set in a churning industrial landscape where a man with a tombstone-shaped pompadour tends to his mewling, reptilian baby. From the first frames, Lynch mapped out a cinema of the subconscious that thrived on its own dream logic and nightmare imagery. It shaped everything he did, including his masterpiece Blue Velvet (1986), in which an innocent young man (Kyle MacLachlan) discovers a human ear and is drawn into the sleazy, violent world of a psychopath (Dennis Hopper) and a terrorised torch singer (Isabella Rossellini).

That film introduced into the archetype of cosy small-town America some potent notes of scepticism and revulsion that have never been dispelled.

This project to burrow into the unsavoury depths of his country’s psyche continued with the television whodunnit Twin Peaks, co-created with Mark Frost, which ran for two series in 1990 and 1991 then spawned a big-screen prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992). The show returned 25 years later in a bold but often harrowing and impenetrable third series that, despite being made for TV, was voted the best film of 2017 by Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound magazines. To preserve the spell cast by his work, Lynch refused to be drawn on explanations. Asked what the third helping of Twin Peaks was about, he replied: “It’s about 18 hours.”

He exposed the horrors lurking beneath apparently placid exteriors, and found beauty in the quotidian, the industrial – “I’d rather go to a factory any day than walk in the woods” – or the repellent: “If you don’t know what it is, a sore can be very beautiful.” For all the darkness of Lynch’s vision, his films could also be extremely funny, peppered with verbal and visual non sequiturs, skew-whiff line readings, slapstick violence and comic embarrassment. The mix of folksy naivety and elusive strangeness in his work extended to his persona and even his wardrobe: 1950s-style slacks and blazer, and a shirt buttoned to the gullet.

He drank a milkshake in the same diner (Bob’s Big Boy) every day for seven years between the late-70s and mid-80s. Watching him on set, the novelist David Foster Wallace observed: “It’s hard to tell if he’s a genius or an idiot.” The musician Sting, who starred in his science-fiction adventure Dune (1984), called him “a madman in sheep’s clothing” while Mel Brooks, who produced Lynch’s second film, The Elephant Man (1980), described the affable director as “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”.

Though his films were wildly unconventional, Lynch was still nominated three times for the best director Oscar. (He won an honorary Oscar in 2019.) Wild at Heart (1990), a road movie marked by baroque violence and homages to The Wizard of Oz, won him the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and he was named best director by the same festival in 2001 for Mulholland Drive, a warped neo-noir thriller about an aspiring actor (Naomi Watts) whose dreams of stardom disintegrate horribly after she befriends the amnesiac survivor of a car accident (Laura Harring). Developed by Lynch from his own butchered TV pilot for a series rejected by the ABC network, Mulholland Drive was one of his most seductively strange pictures.

But linear narrative was not beyond him, as he proved with two deeply moving films based on real events: The Elephant Man, about the severely deformed Joseph Merrick (“John” in the screenplay) paraded as a circus freak in the Victorian era, and The Straight Story (1999), in which an elderly man travels 300 miles on a riding mower to see his ailing brother. Both earned Oscar nominations for their lead performers (John Hurt and Richard Farnsworth respectively), which served as a reminder that Lynch’s skill as a director of actors could sometimes be obscured by his extraordinary imaginative powers.

He was born in Missoula, Montana, to Edwina (nee Sundholm), known as Sunny, who occasionally taught English, and Donald Lynch, whose job as a research scientist for the US government’s Department of Agriculture dictated the family’s peripatetic lifestyle. When Lynch was two months old they uprooted to Sandpoint, Idaho, and by the time he was 14 they had moved a further four times.

He described himself as a “troubled” child who was quick to intuit that all was not well. “I learned that just beneath the surface there’s another world, and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn’t find the proof. It was just a feeling. There is goodness in blue skies and flowers, but another force – a wild pain and decay – also accompanies everything.” The aftertaste of that memory can be found throughout Lynch’s work but particularly in the opening of Blue Velvet, where a montage showing schoolchildren, roses and white picket fences gives way to shots of insects thrashing in the undergrowth.

Having shown an aptitude for painting since adolescence, Lynch began studying art at the age of 18 at the Boston Museum School, then dropped out after a year to travel to Europe with his friend (and future production designer) Jack Fisk, only to return to the US a fortnight later. He got on better at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, where his canvases took a darker turn (one work, The Bride, showed a woman performing an abortion on herself). It was there that Lynch met Peggy Lentz, a fellow student, who in 1967 became the first of his four wives. Together they had a child, Jennifer, and there have been almost as many attempts to link the pressures of youthful parenthood to the plot of Eraserhead as there have been theories about what exactly that film means, with its flying sperm-like creatures, roast chickens that writhe when sliced, and a balloon-cheeked chanteuse who lives behind the radiator.

He had his first solo exhibition in 1967, the same year he made his debut film work, the one-minute loop Six Men Getting Sick. He received a grant from the American Film Institute to make his 34-minute 16mm featurette The Grandmother (1970), in which a neglected child grows an elderly companion from a seed. The film combined jerky stop-motion animation with live-action footage, and showcased the sound design work of the great Alan Splet. Along with Fisk and the composer Angelo Badalamenti, Splet would become one of Lynch’s most vital collaborators.

In 1972, Lynch began work on Eraserhead. The shoot lasted five years, with regular pauses whenever the production ran out of money; Lynch would then supplement the budget with cash from family and friends (Fisk and his wife, the actor Sissy Spacek, were among those who donated) and by working odd jobs, including a paper round. After his marriage broke down, he also slept in the stables where the film was being shot. When it was finally released, Eraserhead was received with bafflement in many quarters, and with a slow-dawning fanaticism by those who caught it in the midnight movie slots at cinemas in the US, where it played, in some cases, for several years consecutively.

The film attracted the admiration of the poet Charles Bukowski and the musician Tom Waits, and went on to influence film-makers including Terry Gilliam and Darren Aronofsky, the Coen brothers and Stanley Kubrick, who reportedly screened it to the cast and crew of The Shining to put them in the appropriate mood.

During the early stages of production on The Elephant Man, Lynch’s attempts to design the complicated makeup failed catastrophically. But the finished film, with makeup by Christopher Tucker, a clammy feel for Victorian England and some unmistakable Lynchian touches (such as the main character’s birth in a giant ball of smoke), was an outstanding success. It melded the director’s sensibility with compassionate, classical storytelling, even if it did play fast and loose with the facts (the real Merrick, for instance, took a healthy cut of profits from being exhibited).

Lynch’s next project, an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sprawling space epic Dune, was the only one of his films to escape his control entirely, and to be released in a form not approved by him. He was unsuited to the rigours of blockbuster film-making, and his attempts to wrestle Herbert’s many-tentacled narrative into coherent shape were doomed. The film was an expensive flop – Lynch called it “a fiasco” – but it still contained astonishing sets, costumes and sound design. And it introduced Lynch to MacLachlan, who played the bland hero and would become the director’s on-screen alter ego, the Mastroianni to his Fellini, in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. In the latter, MacLachlan played the coffee-and-cherry-pie-loving FBI agent Dale Cooper, whose dreams guide his detective work as strongly as any physical clues.

The experience of making Dune left Lynch drained and depressed. “I was almost dead,” he said. “Dune took me off at the knees. Maybe a little higher.” He amused himself by contributing a four-panel comic strip, The Angriest Dog in the World, to the LA Reader newspaper; it ran for nine years, during which time his drawings of a dog chained in a yard remained unaltered and only the text in the speech bubbles changed.

His fortunes were revived, along with his right to final cut, with the sumptuous and terrifying Blue Velvet, a project he had been planning since before Dune. The novelist JG Ballard called it “the best film of the 1980s – surreal, voyeuristic, subversive”.

Wild at Heart could only look frivolous by comparison, despite game performances by Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as the lovers on the run. But Lynch was back at the height of his powers with the first series of Twin Peaks, which began with the discovery of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) washed up dead and wrapped in plastic. It altered television irrevocably, paving the way for shows such as The X-Files and Lost, True Detective and The Killing; David Chase also cited it as an influence on The Sopranos.

That enthusiastic reception made it all the more bruising for Lynch when Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was widely panned. In its focus on the days leading up to Laura Palmer’s murder, the film sacrificed the quirkiness of the series in favour of an intense mood of violence and suffering, and it was several years before the picture was reappraised more positively.

Lynch’s next film, Lost Highway (1996), was a profoundly unsettling thriller that hinged on an audacious narrative fracture: one moment a jazz saxophonist suspected of murder is sitting in his prison cell; the next he has vanished and the guards find in his place a young mechanic who has no idea how he got there. The film was steeped in deadpan humour and violent imagery (there is a memorable death-by-coffee-table), as well as nausea-inducing high-speed driving footage that would be subverted comically in his next movie, The Straight Story, which never exceeded 4mph.

Acclaim for The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive restored Lynch to his late-80s standing – the latter went on to be voted the best film of the century so far in a poll of critics conducted by the BBC in 2017. His last film, Inland Empire (2006), was concerned, like Mulholland Drive, with an actor (Dern) suffering a breakdown. But at three-hours-plus and with an unusually ugly visual style (it was shot by Lynch on a handheld Sony digital camera), as well as a meandering narrative interrupted occasionally by a rabbit sitcom complete with laugh-track, it offered little of the compensatory seductiveness of the director’s other films.

That said, Lynch was not alone in feeling that Dern deserved an Oscar nomination, even if his decision to express this view by sitting on a Hollywood street corner with a cow and a poster of the actor’s face was more unorthodox than the usual method of taking out a full-page ad in the trade papers.

With the exception of the third series of Twin Peaks, Lynch devoted the rest of his days to painting, music and writing, while resisting suggestions that he had retired from film-making: “I did not say I quit cinema. Simply that nobody knows what the future holds.” Among the albums he released was the avant-garde blues collection Crazy Clown Time (2011). He also worked with the journalist Kristine McKenna on the memoir Room to Dream (2018), in which her biographical chapters about him alternate with ones in which he muses on what she has written and adds his own reflections, and gave an uncanny performance as the eye-patch-wearing, cigar-smoking film-maker John Ford in the final scene of Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans (2022). Though initially reluctant to take the role, he was persuaded by Dern and by Spielberg’s assurance that there would be a large bag of Cheetos waiting in his dressing room. “Any chance I can, I get them,” Lynch said.

He was a passionate advocate of transcendental meditation, writing and speaking at length on the ways in which it had helped his work and enabled him to “catch fish” – his favourite metaphor for the creative process. (“If you get an idea that’s thrilling to you, put your attention on it and these other fish will swim into it.”) The clarity engendered by meditation was perhaps at odds with the gnomic quality of much of his work.

Last year, he revealed that a lifetime of smoking had left him with emphysema. “I can hardly walk across a room,” he said. “It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head.”

He is survived by his fourth wife, Emily Stofle, whom he married in 2009, and their daughter, Lula; by a daughter, Jennifer, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce; by a son, Austin, from his second marriage, to Mary Fisk (sister of Jack), whom he married in 1977 and divorced in 1987; and by Riley, his son with Mary Sweeney, who edited and produced many of his films from the 1980s onwards, as well as co-writing The Straight Story, and whom he married in 2006 and divorced the following year.

🔔 David Keith Lynch, director, born 20 January 1946; died 16 January 2025

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[minervas-wife]

TWD S5 E16 LIVE THOUGHTS

'well u can lower that 😒🙄' u can hear him wanting to roll his eyes

'that's a lot :0'

the interrupting himself to say 'put that down' makes me laugh everytime

his stick martial arts always make me think of that capoiera episode of bobs burgers

eyyy back to aaron and daryl

nvm now back to rick

the laughing when he sees his in a 'cell' hes literally deranged 😭😭

'its like the train car' and he was LAUGHING about it 😭😭

'bc these people are children and children like stories' goes hard. go carol

dude what the hell. mans already planning a gd hostage situation

christ alive rick

i feel like ive typed that so many times for these few episodes

'he pointed out at people' dude i wish u could see what was happeningoutside the walls

sasha in the walker grave 😭😭 baby get out there

she is so condescending in this scene 😭😭 'oh sunshine...'

steven and lauren built such an unrivaled chemistry for maggie and glenn. they are the blueprint twd relationship

THE CHAIN OMG

im forever obessessed with this scene of carol threatening pete

can't wait for pete to die

nicholas u stupid coward

'cus all life is precious daryl' 🥺🥺

i love u rosita u are too funny

crisis of faith gabriel 🙄🙄

oh my god i forgot the walkers were the wolves

gabe the snake 😡😡

jessie is sitting there with a black eye and deanna is like yeah but we need to punish him for beating up ur abusive husband

bc he is useful to the asz,,, he's the only one with medical training but why did she never make him train up anyone else?? i mean what was gonna happen if he ever got hurt or anything

carl and judith looking at the music box he picked up for maggie 😭😭😭

ohhhh the wolves have pictures

girl got me cheering at 'do it'

[rei-ismyname]

Exceptional X-Men #5 - review

Exceptional X-Men continues to be the best X-Book by far, and just excellent on its own merit. After last issue's gutpunch of a cliffhanger it has a lot of work to do. Kate's recent history of killing people came to light and the students have some feelings about it. Also, Melee focus issue! Spoilers for all Exceptional X-Men issues.

Meaningful interaction with the recent past!

Opening to a flashback just after the Fall, where Kitty was outnumbered by ORCHIS soldiers - the group that had just killed all her friends, is necessary for catching up new readers. Her recollection leaves out that it was a genocidal war and gate access was the only advantage she had, but it makes sense that she believes it. Trauma rewrites your brain and Kate remembers her actions in the harshest light, conflating times of peace and war.

The scene after shows her buying 'special' weapons from Yukio (!) who doesn't judge her but tells her she has a choice about who she wants to be. Shadowkat fires back that she's a child soldier who was possessed by Ogun (a demon ninja guy, real dick, trained her as an assassin.) Some deep cuts here, and not just in the ninja fight she has to win to get in the door. The flashbacks tie then to now by using the 'child soldier' phrasing as representation of what she's struggling with and against. It's messed up her life and head, and she wants to break the cycle.

We also get some slick retcons involving the fate of ORCHIS members who survived the war. Jun Wei was spared by X-Force, Feilong was imprisoned on Arakko by Iron Man, and Dr Barrington (who is the WORST) survived the events of Sabertooth and the Exiles (barely.) Shadowkat hunted them down after the war ended and killed them. These people are the worst of the worst who gleefully engaged in genocide, slavery, medical torture and more.

The scene is beautifully rendered. That terrified eyeball and their faces as death comes for them humanises them to a degree, but it moreso expands Shadowkat's recent history and the scope of her motivation - she killed scared people out of revenge after the war was over. No military purpose here, Feilong was already imprisoned (he finally made it to Mars!) It's new information and it really sells why Kate is so messed up.

Importantly, it uses Krakoan continuity with finesse and grace, drawing a line from here to there by filling in blanks instead of overwriting or ignoring. I've been dissatisfied with how From The Ashes has handled Krakoa generally, so I love to see it done well.

After a tour through Kate's memories and history the bill comes due, with Thao being very much not cool with it. It's an organic reason to rattle the trust these young people have in her while exploring the book's thesis. Axo the empath turns blue (associated with empathy, sadness, and composed alertness) and tries to deescalate, pointing out that they don't know the full story. Trista is speechless and seems to be in shock.

Thao goes off and storms out, quitting. Kate doesn't back down or deny it, accepting their judgement and autonomy. Axo, back to a lighter green (associated with anxiety and feeling unsettled) withdraws needing some time to process it. Trista tears up and leaves too. This whole scene is fantastic as deeply believable emotional conflict and showing everyone's personality and values.

Thao/Melee, the eldest, is very principled and brash, inclined to action and speaking her mind. Axo, aged in between the two, is empathic and feels deeply, and tries to treat others fairly. His powers are on display here too, both reading the situation and being able to see where it's headed. Trista, the youngest (and newest mutant) isn't as sure of who she is, but she knows what she isn't and killing is outside her frame of reference. Kate is penitent, Emma is supportive. Bobby, the jackass, says he's going after them but there's no evidence of that. He's not in the clear.

Then it's just Kate and Emma, standing awkwardly. We haven't really seen them alone yet so this is necessary. Kate tries to push Emma away and gets empathy disguised as bravado back. I wouldn't call it a lecture - the two enter a dialectic with Emma saying she should have been honest. Her own history with killing doesn't come up, but it's there in the subtext like a raincloud.

They back and forth on choice vs necessity and survival then the elephant in the room comes up. Krakoa, that loss that everyone feels whether they were there or not. Krakoa, proof that no matter what they do mutants have genocidal violence as a constant fear. Emma shouting it then failing to compose herself and repeating it makes that subtext clear. Emma's not dealing as well as she pretends. They do have each other and a shared purpose though, sometimes that's enough. It doesn't make the pain or fear go away - only time can do that - but perhaps letting in someone who understands can help.

This page is perfect and the facial expressions are crucial to that. Eve L Ewing and Carmen Carnero make a fantastic team.

All that didn't even take up that much space, so the narrative follows Thao to her home life. We see she's got a lot of responsibility for her age (I don't want to call it parentification due to my relative ignorance of Vietnamese culture and family dynamics) and perhaps how feeling invisible has shaped her personality and outlook. Her much younger cousin arrives looking for help and support - she's a very visible mutant and her school peers are being, well, dumb kids about it. Thao doesn't quite listen to the exact nature of the problem but says she'll handle it. Consistent with her character and a test of her desire to do uncomplicated good.

Thao charges into the school and starts threatening children, something Ellie clearly does not want. A teacher (I assume) calls out how inappropriate this is and Thao escalates. Maybe it's an older student - it doesn't really matter. Thao phases instead of dodging a swing, or blocking/leaning in and gets stuck that way. Both cousins are mortified but Ellie is the one who has to deal with it.

Ellie refuses to go to school and Thao's family are like 'yeah, no. You've done enough.' She doesn't really listen and bails. Looking for validation from the X-Fam group chat (I love that they this,) she's surprised when she does not get it. Axo and Bronze break it down for her and she realises her tendency to just act is a character flaw - it's thoughtless when you don't listen to other people and rarely helps them.

10 or 20 years ago I'd have thought this conversation was unrealistic. My generation were not taught the emotional and social tools to navigate situations in this fashion. Teens today have much greater access and this kind of language is normalised. The kids are alright, etc. I can't claim to be an expert on young people, but I do listen to them and treat them like people. In my experience this is a true to life exchange. The support and solidarity is beautiful. The young X-Men do have each other and the conflict is external so far, which I love. I'm not sure the book would work without it.

Thao realises she made mistakes and re-evaluates her recent interactions. Instead of barging into Ellie's room she asks permission, then apologizes. It's actually a really simple parable - listen to people - but one that rings so very true. Parents, teachers, doctors, friends, partners, governments! Those you should be able to trust often do not listen, or they don't even know how. That goes double for the Subaltern, but each of us can try harder. Thao chooses to.

She decides to listen to Kate after listening to her peers. It's not a massive flaw instantly solved - that would be trite. It's just realising that she does want to apply this lesson to Kate as well, to hear her out.

After a chat with Kate Thao rescinds her resignation and accepts that nobody is perfect. It's implied they speak at length but the decision is made early. Here's why it works instead being a same issue turnaround on the issue of killing. Enough work is done through the flashbacks and the Emma/Kate conversation to establish Krakoa and ORCHIS as globally known to new readers (while those who know, know.) Your teacher having killed people is shocking AF, but the context of a genocidal war with public concentration camps and trials, murder robots patrolling the streets affords at least a little leeway.

Kate's honesty about the ongoing reflection on her education sells it even more. There's common ground there, and the implicit understanding that violence is coming. Kate doesn't want anyone to go through what she did so she's trying something new. New for them and new for the reader. I can't wait to see where it goes.

As a Thao/Melee focus issue it does a lot of work in 20 pages, establishing who she is and what she's working on. Managing to advance the central question and do valuable character work with everyone else too displays a level of craft and pacing that many of the other books are inconsistent on. The app that started all this drama with Thao's cousin is threaded into the final panel and beyond, with the next issue focusing on Axo getting a job there. Of course they're up to some awful shit, but Exceptional X-Men isn't. I'm so invested.

[aclockmaker]

more actors au continued from here

Shooting the first season is a fever dream. Creating and playing in a world that no one else gets to see yet—no reviews, no public, just them. The cast is tight, right away. Eddie, like, loves them. He's already made plans to go to Robin's family's house in Joshua Tree this summer.

Eddie and Steve don’t have that many scenes together. Eddie knows, guiltily, exactly when they’re all shooting.

It’s not just what goes on when the cameras are rolling, either. (Which is, like, still insane. Still makes Eddie feel like he's taken club drugs. And maybe he's not the only one, because—)

It's also that Steve is more likely to ask him to hang out, just the two of them, after they shoot together. Eddie could text him or ask him but he has a complex set of rules for how often he's allowed to be the one initiating it, because, well. He's nursing a pretty bad crush here. It's deeply unprofessional.

In the episode before this, Eddie confides in Nancy’s character, their teen journalist-detective, that he has something he thinks he needs to tell her. Something that’s going to blow her mind. But they’re just in the hall at school, the bell ringing, so he can’t do it right now. It’s his own little “I’ve got a secret, Veronica Mars. A good one.” (He’s watched as many dead-girl tv shows as he can to bone up for the role—all the classics going back to Twin Peaks. Veronica Mars is uniquely applicable because Lily does appear in flashbacks, and even though they’re subverting the trope by having a guy get killed, they all know what kind of story they’re telling.)

In the scene they shoot tonight, Steve's character comes to Eddie's house that same night before he can get to Nancy to try to convince him not to tell her. It's not clear what Steve thinks he knows, when he climbs in through Eddie's window, only that he's practically begging Eddie not to do it. He starts off aggressive, like they're yet again about to get into a physical fight. But the fact that Eddie lets him in speaks to the fact that maybe there's a little more to their relationship. And then Steve's character breaks down, cries a little, and it's really—something, to be wrapping his arms around Steve's shoulders in front of the camera and the crew, under the lights. Eddie is a professional, and he's perfectly capable of slotting those feelings into their correct file folders for later perusal, but—it's something. He's given Steve bro hugs. He's pretty sure Steve even hugged him for real the first time he saw him after he was cast (it's a blur). The only time they've hugged like this is on film.

He's not surprised when there's a message waiting for him on his phone when he eventually gets back to it post-short scene with Max, whose character lives next to Eddie's in-story. The message itself is a little surprising. Hey, I'm wrapped so I'm going home but do you want to come by? And then an address in Silver Lake.

It's not so crazy. Steve takes awhile to decompress after filming something emotional; he doesn't like to be alone. Eddie has learned this very quickly and has very quickly come to crave being the one Steve decompresses with. It just typically happens on the studio lot, in Steve's trailer. But this is fine, too. It just makes sense. Steve was done for the day so he went home. But he still wants to see Eddie.

Eddie sends back three thumbs up emojis, bangs his head on his steering wheel, and starts driving. He chews a fingernail, wonders if he should stop somewhere to get something to bring. A bottle of wine. But that’s stupid probably—it’s not a dinner party. It’s just two friends hanging out. (If he thinks it a little defensively, that’s because Mike was leaning heavy on the innuendo when he asked Eddie where he was going tonight. “Oh really, with Steve? Huh. It’s nice you two get along so well.” Eddie had just glared at him and moved on. The kid is such a little shit.)

Steve hugs him when he gets there, which is almost funny—now that he’s acted it out, he’ll do it in real life, like an echo. But it doesn’t seem fake, it just seems like that’s what Steve does when someone comes to his house. He’s a little high strung, maybe, in constant motion while he waves Eddie in and offers him a beer.

They end up on the pool deck, beers in hand, sitting with their legs dangling in the water up to their knees. It’s secluded here, big, old trees blocking them from any neighbors’ view.

“So,” Steve says. “Good scene after I left?” It doesn’t sound like what he really wants to ask.

“Yeah, fine,” Eddie agrees. “You know what Max is like—she’s too cool for school.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” Steve laughs.

“Never,” Eddie agrees. The teasing would never end. He glances at Steve, who seems mostly relaxed, maybe a little hunched in on himself.

“Did you ever, um,” Steve starts, looking out at the water. “Date a co-star?”

Eddie’s brain whites out a little, just static. “Uhh. I thought you were going to ask if I thought you looked weird when you cried, or something.”

Steve sputters. “Do I?”

“No, dude, very pretty crier.” Eddie smiles.

“Thanks I guess,” Steve says, frowning a little.

Eddie chews on his lip. “But, uh. No, I haven’t.”

Steve sighs. “Yeah, me either.”

Which is funny, because he’s been linked with a couple of them from previous projects, but Eddie guesses you can’t believe everything you read.

“Is there someone,” Eddie asks carefully, “you want to date?” Steve is close with Robin and Nancy. Eddie can’t see Robin dating a guy, but what does he know.

“I don’t know,” Steve admits. “I feel like. I don’t know if it would be a terrible idea, because we work together.” And then he just stops talking.

“I might be able to respond better if I knew who we were talking about here.”

Steve gives him a look. “You do know. Don’t make me say it.”

“Gonna definitely need you to.” And then, because he can't help trying to make Steve laugh. "It's Joyce, right?"

"Please," Steve says, and does laugh a little. "I wish I thought I had a shot with Joyce." She's a legitimately famous actress who Eddie often can't believe he's going to share an IMDB listing with.

"But, uh," Steve goes on. “I don’t want to mess anything up, though.” Now he sounds careful.

Eddie doesn’t know what Steve thinks he’s messing up—their chemistry, he guesses, if he’s not reading this very wrong. Their friendship maybe. The show. Any remaining semblance of professionalism. Eddie is pretty ready to throw most of that stuff out the window—after all, who says just because they hook up the work will suffer? Maybe it’ll be better because Eddie won’t be crushed under the weight of absurd amounts of sexual tension anymore. Not that it’s been a hardship, but…

“I don’t think you’re messing anything up,” Eddie tells him. “I mean—personally. Who says anything will get messed up?” I think it might be worth it even if it does, he doesn’t add, because it’s shocking to even think it, and obviously too much for the moment. He doesn’t know if he really means it—this show is, like, the opportunity he’s been waiting his whole life for. But he’s already dead on it; there’s only so many flashback scenes they can film as he ages further out of the high school age bracket for a character who can’t get older.

“Yeah, but.” Steve runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. “The way we are on the show—“ he shoots a worried little glance at Eddie, who tries not to react outwardly to that, which is hard. “Don’t you think some of that’s because—I mean, for me at least, it is, I’m not saying—for you—"

“Me, too,” Eddie assures him before he hurts himself. “But—okay, you brought this up, not me. What do you want, then?”

“Dude, I wish I knew,” Steve says. “I mean—“ he glances at Eddie— “I know what I want, but I don’t know what we should do. But I just felt like I was going crazy, and the only person I really wanted to tell was, well, you.”

Oh. “Steve,” Eddie says, almost a warning. He wants to offer that they can hook up and it won’t mean anything and nothing will change. He wants to offer that they can date and nothing bad will happen. It’s all stupid, impossible to promise.

“I know,” Steve says miserably. “Sorry.”

Eddie shakes his head. It’s almost unbearably sweet that Steve is so bent out of shape over him. “Come on, we only have, what, two more weeks of filming? We can make it through two weeks, right?”

“Guess we have to,” Steve agrees, but he moves his hand over a little so their pinkies touch on the edge of the pool.

tagging a few people by request, thank you for being interested <3 @atlas-talks @obsessivlyme @lyriclight @deadflowercollector @thatonebadideapanda @wolfstarlights @eddiemunsonswife @alienace @wishiwasacasualfan

[uyuforu]

Briede Persona Chart Observations IV

Asteroids Used: Groom (5129), Briede (19029), Juno (3), Union (1585), Boda (1487).

This post was observed on a Briede PC, on someone who is interested in women, so this is more about Briede PC. You can still look at this post and apply for your Groom PC.

All pictures were found on Pinterest

Other posts you could like:

જ⁀➴ Your Future Spouse's Appearance & Personality based on Astrology

જ⁀➴ How will your Future Spouse's propose to you?

જ⁀➴ Groom Persona Chart V

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₊˚⊹♡ Scorpio Rising means FS can look cold, detached, mysterious, they can look like they do not like you at first. You''ll see FS as very hot as well, you will think they are your type for sure. They can arouse you, you can also sense such a deepness in them, something very strong. You can also feel like FS is drawing you physically, you'll always want to be close to them, your heart against their. You'll feel a very strong pull and connection between you two, the passion and feelings will be truly something else.

₊˚⊹♡ 7H Sun means FS is very lovely, very romantic, super sweet. You'll feel like they are the sweetest, you'll probably have a soft spot for them too. FS can think romance or their relationships is very important to them. FS can have placements in 7H, or in Libra.

₊˚⊹♡ Sun 8°, 20° means your FS is intense, deep, mysterious, you'll be intrigued by them, you'll want to know them, be very curious. You FS can have many secrets, and they may also be quite deep. They can feel things deeply also. Very emotional, but can actually not wanna show it. FS can live a strong transformation when you meet them first. FS can have 8H or Scorpio placements.

₊˚⊹♡ Aquarius Moon means FS will feel comfortable around friends, people they know for sure. They will also feel like they need time to open up surely, they are quite chill too. Can be a little shy at first, but they often seem very nice and friendly.

₊˚⊹♡ 4H Moon can mean FS can love their mother. FS can be very close to their mother, or a mother figure in their family. FS can have grown up with a lot of women too. FS can also feel comfortable with woman rather than men. FS can have stayed at home a lot, or love to feel home.

₊˚⊹♡ Moon 5°, 17°, 29° means FS can feel comfortable in a fun settings, they can also love to express their emotions through arts, so perhaps a very creative person. FS can also love to laugh and have a good time. FS can feel comfortable or enjoy being the center of attention.

₊˚⊹♡ Cancer Venus tells us your FS is such a romantic, super sweet. They can do the cutest thing ever out of love. They can sometimes be a little too much in their feelings, perhaps forget the real world, but you'll feel like they truly love you. They can also act like a parent to you, it's a way to show you they love you.

₊˚⊹♡ 8H Venus can means FS can be quite shy with their feelings for you, they can often not want to express it right away. Perhaps they can also feel overwhelmed by how they feel for you. They can show you they love you without actually saying it, they can be quite intense with their feelings for you.

₊˚⊹♡ Venus 11°, 23° means FS needs a friendship in your relationship. They will need to feel like they are dating/ married to their best friend, they need to feel very close to you and that your relationship isn't based on lust.

₊˚⊹♡ Mars 6H can mean FS can be pretty chill, doesn't get angry easily, if they do they can be quite mean. They do not get angry right away, and actually get it controlled well. But they can be quite jealous and possessive too.

₊˚⊹♡ Mars 4°, 16°, 28° can means FS can be very emotional and they can often cry to let their emotions out, mostly sadness and anger. They can just feel things so much they need to let it out this way.

₊˚⊹♡ Jupiter 6°, 18° means FS can believe in hard work. They can be quite lucky when it comes to their job, perhaps very lucky to find good jobs. They can also often be lucky when they work hard.

₊˚⊹♡ Saturn 4H means FS can struggle with their family, perhaps more their father figure. FS can have difficulty to find stability too or to take their independence from family.

₊˚⊹♡ Saturn 11°, 23° can mean FS can also struggle with friendships in their life, they can often deal with fake friends, have a lot of lessons about it. They can also struggle to reach for their dreams.

₊˚⊹♡ 3H Uranus means FS can speak many languages! FS can be very smart, and can have very unique ideas, very unique way to think or to talk too. People can think this person thinks outside the box too.

₊˚⊹♡ Uranus 2°, 14°, 26° can mean FS can spend a lot in unpredictable way. They can struggle to control their money and how they spend it. FS can also often have times they struggle with money and other times when they thrive.

₊˚⊹♡ 3H Neptune means FS can have a foggy memories. FS can also be very creative and very poetic. They can often talk or write in such beautiful way, you may wonder where they find such inspiration. Yet FS can sometimes struggle to go to the point when they speak.

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₊˚⊹♡ Neptune 11°, 23° means FS can have a deep link to communities, they may want to belong to a group and they can often connect to spiritual or religious people. FS believed in a higher force, they can also be quite dreamy about the future.

₊˚⊹♡ Pluto 1H can mean FS can be sometimes confident, they can have a strong desire to know themselves, they want to also control, perhaps have control issues, mostly when it comes to themselves. Can't stand if someone tries to control them.

₊˚⊹♡ Pluto 2°, 14°, 26° can mean FS will have transformative experiences when it comes to money. Could be either poor or rich, will experience both in their life. They can struggle to save money, and they can also have anxiety when it comes to their possession. They very possessive too.

₊˚⊹♡ Briede Cancer can mean your spouse is very sweet, gentle, caring, very soft too. You'll have a strong soft spot for them. You can feel like they remind you of your mother too. You could see them as the parent of your children when you meet them.

₊˚⊹♡ Briede 9H can mean FS can be a foreigner, be from a different culture than you, be from a different country, but also can speak a different language than you. FS can be smart, curious, funny, spontaneous too.

₊˚⊹♡ Libra Juno means you'll have love at first sight for your FS. You can strongly feel they are the one when you meet them. Very romantic meeting, could also meet on dating apps, at least the meeting is directly linked to romance for you. You can also have a crush on them.

₊˚⊹♡ 12H Juno can mean you'll dream of your FS before meeting them, but the meeting can be highly spiritual. You can know your FS before meeting them, and it can be because of a strong link between you two, either connected to spirituality or religion. You can meet them in foreign lands as well. You can also have a secret crush on them before being close to them.

₊˚⊹♡ Juno 5°, 17°, 29° can mean FS can feel like you are fun, they can feel like they have their most fun with you. You could also flirt a lot with each other when you meet. A lot of adoration in your connection.

₊˚⊹♡ Groom 3°, 15°, 27° can means FS LOVES to talk with you, they may love your voice, your ideas, but they adore having a chat with you. They can want to talk to you often and you guys can speak together for hours.

₊˚⊹♡ Chiron 10H means FS will have lessons related to their career, perhaps they can also struggle to go on the right path for their career or know what to do.

₊˚⊹�� Chiron 3°, 15°, 27° means FS can struggle also to say their truth, they can often perhaps be scared to hurt people with their truth. They can love to gossip too. Communication issues.

₊˚⊹♡ Union 10H can mean work can be involved in your meeting, or a job perhaps. You can feel like things are serious right away with your FS. Moreover this can indicate both working together and that's how you get together. FS can also make you want to settle for something serious, or make you feel more responsible, you'll perhaps want to take good care of them, be a provider.

₊˚⊹♡ Union 1°, 13°, 25° can indicate love at first sight, or rapidly dating, being together. Things can go fast between you two when you first get together.

₊˚⊹♡ Gemini Boda can mean FS can often think of marriage, they can also often think of the wedding they want. They can even have a Pinterest board about it, perhaps already thoughts of every details. You can speak of wedding together too. FS may want a fun and chill wedding, but one where people have fun and dance.

₊˚⊹♡ Boda 7H can mean FS wants a romantic wedding, they can feel like they want a wedding that is good looking too. FS wants a wedding where they will appear good looking, and perhaps also already know what they will wear.

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[schismusic]

Noctourniquet for Noctourniquet

A while back I reached out to Tumblr user @yourlocalsanitizedoctoling to thank her for her kind words regarding my piece about NIN's The Fragile. In her bio I read that she refers to herself as Noctourniquet, which was actually a bit of a conversation starter for us. Noctourniquet might be my favourite Mars Volta release; not the best – that would be Frances the Mute, of course – but the one that most resonates with my personal sensitivity. So that specific name took me all the way back to when I first listened to the record, sometime around December 2013. I don't exactly ever remember this time of year feeling especially magical or unique to me (and, for what it's worth, I suspect that my sister only really likes Christmas music more so than she does just about everything else about it), but I do remember how relevant this exact climate and weather were for my enjoyment of this record that I'd bought on a whim, as a massive fan of the first three Volta records, almost as if to prove all those professional reviewers wrong. I still maintain that they are wrong, and I still cherish the record to this day – way more so than their most recent outings, anyway, but also way more so than The Bedlam in Goliath, which is a story for another time. So I guess this was a sign to finally say my piece and own it, for real. Dear Tumblr user Noctorniquet, this one goes out for us, specifically.

So if you're familiar with the average Mars Volta record (if you're not, here's a little something) you might be feeling a bit confused right now. As usual, I'm not an inside guy, I bring nothing to the table – no scoop or profound insight or private information concerning the making of this album – but I have been listening to this record for more than ten years at this point and I feel quite strongly about it. For starters: TMV fans almost always make a point of underlining just how groundbreaking, daring, eclectic, et cetera et cetera et cetera the band was/is. And I mean, sure, I would be hardpressed not to agree with that, but part of the reason why I'm inclined to give them credit for this is the existence of Octahedron and, yes, Noctourniquet. The other part is the existence of De-Loused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute, more or less specifically: Amputechture is good and it tries a number of cool bits here and there but it's, you know, a very codified Mars Volta album for the time it came out at, and The Bedlam in Goliath is -- God, okay, let's take a deep breath and get this out of the way.

See, ideally this'd be a whole different post unto itself, a post that has more to do with the nature of music criticism and music fans than it does with Noctourniquet as an album. Look, it's simple: The Bedlam in Goliath is nowhere near as good as Noctourniquet or, fuck it!, even Octahedron, because it is not a good album by just about any metric. The long and short of it is: you know that meme that's like, this is what [insert band here] sounds like to people who hate them? Yeah, that's the entirety of The Bedlam in Goliath to me. It's overlong, overplayed, overcomplicated, its only direction is off the nearest fucking cliff, and I don't give a shit about any stories about ghosts and wiped hard drives and everything: how this is rated higher than Amputechture (or any of the releases after it) simply escapes me. I will say I'm sorry for the personal injuries sustained by the band, because I am a functioning fucking human being, but I'm sorry y'all: this is a bad album that displays no class at all. Except Ilyena, which is an honest-to-God good song, despite Thomas Pridgen's best attempts to deface it with sulphuric acid at every chance he gets to cram a fucking drum fill in.

Man, that's a load off my chest. DMs are open to death threats, by the way. Now back to an actual interesting record.

So the consensus about Noctourniquet seems to be that it's a record that displays the signs of a lack of internal cohesion, different visions for the project colliding and not merging properly, underbaked songs with uneven structures and glaringly lacking songwriting that manages to feel somewhat placeholder. I will go out on a limb and say this: all of this is true, actually, but this is specifically why the record should be cherished. Like, be fucking for real here: are we surprised that the band we all praise for their experimentation actually went out of their way to experiment with their sound? Worse than that: are we mad that they did, because this experimentation includes raising the synths' levels on the final mix? It's not like they completely abandoned guitars, or the occasional classic-Volta number, as per the song I just linked before this paragraph. There's just a whole bunch of stuff going on here (at least until track 8, but I'm getting ahead of myself). And the idea of future punk itself – it's not exactly new at all, one might argue that Noctourniquet is basically just synthpunk with extra steps, but aren't the extra steps kind of the point here? What truly makes Frances the Mute different from Brain Salad Surgery, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Lateralus, Fear of a Blank Planet or even Script for a Jester's Tear, if not the extra steps?

One funny thing that I figured was worth including, since this entire post is basically turning into a journal entry. A friend of mine a while back posted an Instagram story with the song Nuclear Seasons. Wrong as I might be, I don't exactly expect The Mars Volta and Charli xcx to have much fanbase overlap, so in case you're not familiar it's one of the very earliest singles that Charli released as a signed artist (for obvious reasons, I'm not getting into the early mixtapes here, thank you for your cooperation). It's a whole bunch of Eighties clichés slapping you in the dick, ostensibly, but she does do one thing in the pre-chorus that just fucked me up hearing it for the first time. You'll hear it when you listen, I'm sure: there's at least two separate instances where Cedric Bixler-Zavala wrote vocal lines with that exact same sense of melody over Noctourniquet – the title track, for instance. This is to no one's detriment, but it does display very clearly just how zeitgeist-y the Mars Volta were being with this particular release. Some might potentially argue that it could be a net negative: after all, it's not like any of their other record felt particularly era-appropriate, if you ignore the smashing success of bands like Porcupine Tree, Muse and …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead at the exact same time in the exact same circles, which – after typing it and re-reading it black-on-white – sure sounds like a really hard thing to ignore, now doesn't it? I'd still argue TMV is the superior band (Source Tags and Codes notwithstanding, maybe), if only by virtue of them releasing a record like Noctourniquet at what one could argue was their most broken. Not even a year after this dropped, Bosnian Rainbows looked like they were the next thing, then Antemasque for like thirty seconds flat – before everyone realized that one song sorta sucked – and then relative radio silence for a while. We were, essentially, left wondering. At the Drive-In reunited and made a couple more records, then disbanded again, then The Mars Volta reunited, released the same exact record twice and I didn't like it either time. It was a victory lap that clearly displayed the band has learned nothing of what Noctourniquet truly had to offer.

Deantoni Parks has an absolutely inorganic approach to groove and drumming that completely altered the way Volta songs were written. It made them more alien, harder to quantify and yet at the same time tighter, more clinical, laser-focused. The Mars Volta can write a radio song, they've proven it time and time again, which is why they just did not really do it for this one. Even The Malkin Jewel – lead fucking single for this thing, mind you – starts out sounding like it's coming for your carotid with a bread knife, wearing clown shoes. It's this impossible song that makes no fucking sense and sounds outright goofy on multiple occasions, and then it coalesces and has that big ass ending that we should all love so much in an ideal world. What went wrong here? Absolutely fucking nothing. It sounds like that intentionally, and it's that intentionality that I cannot help but respect. On Imago, the band starts off with this delicate emo-ass acoustic guitar arpeggio and then proceeds to absolutely mangle the bridge with shimmering synth arps, and the percussion gets smothered in slapback delay that turns it almost annoying and the track might be one of my highlights, specifically because of this. Even when the band goes medieval on the listener and tries a couple of the old tricks, the results sounds ice-cold and mechanical, and god do I love this fucking record. See next exhibit.

Granted, the record does lose a bit of steam in the second half. In Absentia, yet another banger, unfortunately just sort of inexplicably ends there, just like that, almost as if it was willingly cut by the band around the seven-minute mark so as to not turn it into "your usual Mars Volta thing"; and the record itself ends on Zed and Two Naughts (pretty good track, taken in itself), which basically just cuts the whole thing off with no particular qualms or time for reflection. I will say the track sequencing could be improved a bit, with some cuts here and there: Trinkets Pale of Moon, for instance, could have made a fun B-side, but as a whole ass track on the finished record? Eh. But then, just as you're looking the other way, the band hits you between the eyes with Vedamalady. I really don't know what to say about this anymore.

Does this not prove my point? Why is there so much beauty in what is, ostensibly, considered a "minor release" by just about anyone I've ever talked to, apart from this one stranger on Tumblr? And why is the beauty so apparent in spite (or perhaps because) of the unfinished, brutalist, stark naked nature of a record that actively got Cedric and Omar to argue, so much so that they had to call it quits for a while? No surprises that there was potential here, seeing as Omar immediately recruited a keyboard guy (Nicci Kasper) and this exact same drummer to make a new band, Bosnian Rainbows, that feels like a direct evolution/iteration on his exact sound. It is also a band that I love to death, and we sorta deserved a second album honestly, but that's a story for a different time. Point being: Noctourniquet sounds like a band falling apart, it is ostensibly unfinished, has way too many ideas and it never quite focuses on one or the other, its identity crisis is clear from the first FM bell arp all the way to the sudden full band stop at the end. And yet it holds so much potential to make it burst at the seams, and this potential feels so untapped, raw – alive, ultimately.