#million plus of vivid | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sanvees · 4 months

Text

deep night คืนนี้แด่เรา novel

ทุกอย่างเป็นเพราะเวลา เวลาที่ทำให้ชีวิตเขาก้าวเดินไปข้างหน้าได้ในทุกวัน เช่นเดียวกันกับที่เขาจะเป็นเข็มทิศ เข็มทิศที่ช่วยนำทางเวลาให้ก้าวเดินไปข้างหน้าด้วยกันอย่างมั่นคง ไม่ใช่แค่เวลาฝ่ายเดียวที่รอเจอเขา เข็มทิศเองก็รอที่จะได้เจอกับเวลาอยู่เหมือนกัน

(everything is because of time. time made his life move forward every day. just as he would be a compass. a compass that helps guide time and move forward together steadily. it's not just wela that is waiting to meet him. khemthid is also waiting to meet wela.)

not doing a full novel break down lol the series actually did a pretty great job in adapting it. overall a decent $13 spent on meb.

warning: khemwela centered 😌🩷

⭐ khemthid ⭐

- name meaning: compass ; direction

- 4th year business management; wants to do a master's abroad

- when his parents divorced he choose to live with freya

- he is RICH rich (his dad's family is elite) but isn't arrogant about it

- popular with juniors and seniors but always rejects them

- has been friends with japan since their first year of uni but japan has never been to khem's house (since japan is a freya simp)

- loves sweets and hates bitter things ; has a soft voice (to all the shogun haters, 🖕🏻)

- doesn't want to be involved with deep night, wanting to move abroad to escape it. he isn't proud of the club but he loves his mom and doesn't want others looking down on her (he also admires the hosts' hard work)

- his auntie soinang is the older sister of his dad and she hates freya and the club and wants khem to move back to their house but he always refuses

- soinang says that the money made by the club (and freya) is "dirty" and khem snaps back with "that dirty money raised me well." 😌

- has an incredibly vivid imagination 🫠

- can't be fake with people and often questions why anyone would be a host

- employees can't drive to or from work so freya hires a van to pickup/drop-off khem which japan thinks is hilarious bc it makes him seem like a kindergartener, he even calls him nong khemthid

- japan also calls him a "love crazed bastard"

- basically becomes an unpaid part-time employee at nong wela's kitchen

- freya initially wanted khem to be "normal" and marry a woman

⭐ wela ⭐

- name meaning: time (in the drama he's also called กาลเวลา kanwela with can likely coming from 'eternity')

- 4th year business management; #1 in his class

- his parents named him wela (time) because he came into their life at the right time

- his dad passed away when he was in elementary school and left the family millions of baht in debt

- became a host to make money so his mom could have a more comfortable life

- the other hosts/employees dote on him

- he is the "rise and grind" type, doesn't let his time pass in vain and also doesn't like to waste the time others; he doesn't give false hopes and doesn't like to go out/hang around wasting time

- has never once broken the golden rules in the years he's been a host at deep night

- his golden rules are actually: what happens in the club stays in the club -- he doesn't sleep or go home with customers. (plus his "whatever i do, i must get paid")

- carries a keychain with an hourglass on it (matching his name)

- charming points: eyes, smile, gentleness (exceptional casting choice with first 😌)

- he is weak/allergic to vodka

- he is a good cook, learning from his mom as she runs 'nong wela's kitchen' 🩷

🩷✨ khemwela ✨🩷

- khem is slightly older than wela

- have been in basically the same classes since their first year of uni

- khem at first sees wela as an unfriendly nerd with thick glasses (เด็ก เนิร์ด my beloved)

- khem only started messing with wela bc japan low-key idolized him and was interested in being friends with him. this made khem jealous and he started taking more notice of wela, teasing him often

"khemtid didn't know why he was acting like this when he normally didn't. [...] maybe it was because japan liked to talk about wela often, admiring him and wanting to be friends with him. khem realized he was jealous."

- khem and wela bump into each other during a meeting with their teacher and seeing wela up close, khem notices how good looking wela is (glasses rizz 😌) and finds his heart being stirred

"khemthid realized that falling in love was extremely easy."

- different from the series, when khem is surprised to see wela at the club, wela is also surprised to see khem

- before the two get close, khem wants nothing more than for wela to notice him

"his heart, which had already fallen in love, hoped wela would greet him back."

- there's a moment where wela rubs pain relief cream on khem's shoulders when they are on a work break

- the night wela gets super drunk, he vomits on khem lol the shower scene is a series only addition, in the novel they just kissed. after, khem says he wants their first kiss to be better (since wela was drunk)

- the morning after, freya yells to khem that she forgot a necklace and that's how wela founds out they are mother and son

- they are a yucky disgusting pda couple :(

- khem confesses to wela while wela is teaching him some basic strap work

"why does the person i love have to like playing with these things?"

"who? you mean khun freya?"

"her too, but i mean you."

(wela kisses khem first)

- the khemwela date night was actually incredibly romantic. khem took wela out and about in bangkok. charoen krung area for famous oysters and nam tao thong (an herbal drink). they have bua loi and then go see the giant swing, wat saket, and saphan put (night market). while there, khem takes wela to the pak khlong talat (flower market) and wela picks out a bouquet of flowers for his mom. they get ice cream before khem takes them to unfinished property owned by freya. there's no fire hazard candle scene lol they just go up to the top floor of the building and look out at the city view

- wela is deeply touched as he's never had time to go out-- whether to the mall or a different province. apart from work, he only has time for studying and helping his mom in the restaurant

- khem wants to be someone who can lighten wela's burdens

- their first time similar to the series. it was wela's idea to blindfold khem (with his shirt) but his hands weren't tied. /also i rather liked the versatile ambiguity of the scene in the series but if anyone wants to know, wela "bottomed from the top" wink wonk

- the rooftop scene was also a series only (in the novel it was in wela's room but... more unhinged dhshsh)

- they have a lot of really good communication moments

"i want to graduate quickly. mom will get some rest and i'll take care of her myself."

"i believe you can do it. as for you, i'll take care of you myself, okay?"

"i'll take care of you too."

he loves the relationship between himself and his khemthid more every day, he is glad that he was willing to open his heart to this fellow faculty member. khemthid is a warm and caring man who cares for the people around him. even though there are times he does things without thinking, he accepts criticism and is willing to apologize.

- khem took wela to his grandmother's house (freya's old home). the pool scene didn't happen lol it was out in the open

⭐ japan / seiji / ken ⭐

japan

- from a middle class family

- has a younger sibling studying architecture at uni (1st year)

- he sees wela as an angel

- innocent type, never dated before

- he's the only one that calls seiji p'saen

"secretly he was glad p'ken stayed away, but if his p'saen was going to be this depressed, he'd allow p'ken to come back."

seiji

- saen ; seiji is his stage name

- wants to be #1 so bad he thought khem was gonna be a host and take his #2 position away (so he thought about just quitting lol)

- when japan confessed to him, it really stirred his heart as he'd closed himself off from love as no one treated him nicely or with sincerity

- being with japan relaxes him, he doesn't have to worry about things and he finds he can smile more and be real

- calls himself 'phi' with japan

ken

- he's a magician 😀 (no he really performs magic tricks for customers)

- he's good at word play

- ken's outting of khemwela is worse. seiji repeatedly and specifically tells him not to do it but he does it anyway and then he bullies wela a lot afterwards 🔪 causing seiji to be immensely disappointed in him

(tbh i wasn't going to add anything about their three person situationship bc that anon i got but y'all can have this snippet as a treat 🩷)

"true love is making the person we love one hundred percent happy, right?" japan turned to look at seiji's face. "p'saen," he pursed his lips, stopping to think a little, and then asked the other person, "do you really love p'ken?"

seiji felt his face numb. he didn't dare answer japan's question. he just stood there, afraid that if he spoke the truth it would make someone sad. because he has chosen to be with his nong. if he admitted that he loved anyone else it would not be a good thing.

"then for p'saen's happiness. i think…"

"japan."

seiji frowned and stared at his boyfriend's face with his heart sinking. he was so afraid that the words he didn't want to hear would come out of his mouth. he reached out and grabbed japan's hand and held it in his, eyes begging the other person not to say it. because if that were the case, he probably wouldn't be able to stand it either.

seiji truly loved japan. was japan dating him out of pity or was he just being nice?

please japan, please.

ken himself was not at all comfortable with japan's idea. he was so afraid that japan would give up to get out of his way. if that's the case, this matter will never end. was ken confident that seiji would never date him even if they felt the same way? not at all. no way.

⭐ great / james ⭐

- just as underdeveloped as they are in the series 👍🏻

⭐ freya / meiji ⭐

- the series fleshed them out immensely

- staff/hosts call freya: khun freya, khun frey, p'frey, p'ya

- freya has been dealing with soi's bullshit since before khem was born (but it got worse after) as she looked down on freya for being a dancer

- freya worked hard for ten years before divorcing her husband

#deep night #deep night the series #deep night novel #userpharawee #usersasa #rinblr #the novel made me more unhinged about khemwela 😌#i have even more Thoughts & Opinions ™️ about the throuple but i will say i liked getting a glimpse into seiji's thoughts #text post #novel tag

20 notes · View notes

ashdreams2023 · 2 years

Note

heyyy can i rq a klaus hargreeves smut with a chubby bimbo reader where she just sluts herself out to him and he fucks her really rough 👁️👁️

Sure honey

Klaus hargreeves x fem plus size reader

Smut

Missed you

Klaus puffed up another bit of smoke into the forming cloud in his room, even with the window opened the constant smoking wasn’t making it easy for the air to clear any faster.

You sighed dropping your bag on the floor just as you stepped through his bedroom door, you’ve already left your shopping bags in the hall and grace is sweet enough to put them away for you.

"Hey beautiful, how was your ready"

"Good now" you pulled your hands behind your back and walked up to him slowly, your eyelashes patting at him with lust, it didn’t take a genius to understand what you wanted but he was bored and wanted to see how far you’ll go to get his attention.

You climbed on the bed next to him and then unzipped your jacket showing your nice crop top that hugged your chest well and nice.

He let his eyes drag there and up to your lips and soft features.

"I missed you klaus, didn’t you miss me too?" You asked sliding your hand on his chest and biting your lip.

"Maybe I did" he teased you.

You tilted your head then climbed into his lap, sure you were heavier than him but the weight felt nice on top of him and loved digging his fingers into your soft flesh whenever he could.

"You’re so mean sometimes" you rolled your hips against him and felt his plug, you moaned loudly warping your arms around his neck and pressing your lips against his neck, he smelt like smoke, sex and liquor.

"Don’t you wanna kiss me? I missed your dick come on, don’t be mean to me" you all but begged.

Klaus huffed the last of his cigarette then put a decent amount of strength to flip you on your back but landing a firm smack on your ass before that.

"Much better" he crashed his lips onto yours then pinned your hands over your head.

He tasted like his cigarettes and a bit of grape juice he probably had for lunch earlier, a weird mix but you liked him in any way he came.

Klaus broke the kiss, letting go of your wrists then going down to pull your skirt down, he licked his lips at the lack of panties.

You reached for his belt unbuckling it like you’ve done a million times before. His dick was hard and you wanted inside of you so bad.

"Fuck me klaus, please"

"Whatever you say sunshine" he said pumping himself a few times, then spread your legs for him.

You moaned as he entered his dick inside of your wet walls, easily sliding in and out.

He groaned bounding deep inside of you, your sweet moans so beautiful like music to his eyes and smoke in the air made you seem like a vivid wet dream.

His pretty wet dream.

"Klaus i’m gonna" you gripped his arms and dug your nails into his flesh, klaus hissed then crashed his lips onto yours.

Your body shook as your orgasm rose up from the middle of your body to the tips of your toes.

"That’s my baby" his thrusts became sloppier the more you came down on his dick and his body couldn’t hold it any longer.

"Fuck" he laughed breathlessly, his fists gripped the sheets tight while his load filled you up nice and good.

His body dropped on top of yours, warping his arms around you.

You sighed then kissed his forehead, the room that had been too hot before now was starting to freeze up and the body heat coming from each other made you lay there, for an amount of time you couldn’t care less about nor did he.

#smut #klaus hargreeves x reader #klaus the umbrella academy #netflix the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy #klaus hargreeves #imagine #fanfic

94 notes · View notes

witchofthesouls · 1 year

Note

How do you take notes when you’re writing or planning to write a thing? Better yet, how do you force yourself to actually write?

Multiple Google docs, scrap paper with spare pens and pencils, several cans of Mountain Dew, and a cluttered mind.

But real talk, a lot of the ideas for my own things I keep snippets, segments, or small bits of dialogue ("I cannot give you my faith, for it belongs to another entity, but I can give you my loyalty." or "Violence is the way of the world." "No. Conflict is." or "This sword has been asleep for a very long time, even after so many eons, it still mourns for its old master. Faithful to this day, it lies dreaming of days long gone.") on a Google doc to keep them in place. If I have no access, then a pen(cil) and paper works. Plus, I could play around with a scribble to get more details down.

For me, my main problem is attaching everything together to make a cohesive story, so that's why I tend to have works that read in bites or short stories.

My process is basically hinged on a question: What happens in an AU if this happened? So-

The Stranger: What if Bulkhead was too late, the Esquivel home was destroyed, and June was an unearthly being of yore?

we be the same blood/this cycle we are bound to: What if Primus and Unicron had a cosmic progenitor, so that's why Earth is bound to them as well via Unicron-is-Earth?

Nesting Instinct: What if de-aged combiners trigger Seekerkin instincts where there haven't been any sparklings for millions of years?

And that's why I have too many ideas running in place from too many questions. I can't really force the writing. Sometimes I stare at the screen for a while, so I jump into asks and see what catches my attention, I focus on another fic, or I take a break play games, watch TV, do some stretching, read other fics, or do something to get my mind away. Sometimes, I get a lucky streak for days. Sometimes, I go on a cryptid break.

I like answering asks because 1) gets the wild thoughts or concept ideas energy out, 2) gives me a short bite to mull over, 3) refines other ideas, and 4) sharing headcanons or world-building aspects of the given canon/fanon, and 5) pure enjoyment of how we all scream into the Void.

Some asks are so good, it spawns a huge AU for me, like the Bayverse feral human carrier au, G1 Creature into Sparkeater!Reader AU, IDW Batmobile!Liaison, and TFP Cyber!Earth to name a few.

Sometimes, I get a very vivid scene in my head that I have to write it, even if it takes away time from something else. I need to do it, or it will haunt me at the most inconvenient times.

#ask #soul speaking #writing help #my thoughts and process in a very loose way

9 notes · View notes

c0mpvlsive · 1 year

Text

The Dawn of AI (Paperwar) by Ryan LeKodak

Book Summary:

One malfunction…

Millions dead…

The search for answers begins…

In the year 2040, the world's transportation is dominated by a highly advanced artificial intelligence system.

However, this seemingly perfect technology collapses, resulting in catastrophic disasters and the loss of millions of lives worldwide.

The disaster is dubbed Mayday, and its aftermath affects everyone. But was it simply a malfunction, or is there a more nefarious agenda at work? Who is accountable for the mass slaughter, and why was it carried out?

Order your copy and find out if the rise of AI, will be the fall of civilization!

Buy the Book – Amazon

Reviews:

★★★★★“LeKodak's stellar debut is a science fiction thriller that utilizes elements of speculative fiction, apocalyptic fiction, and conspiratorial mystery in a globe-hopping narrative that chronicles a group of adventurers trying to unravel who—or what—was behind a software malfunction that killed tens of millions of innocent people. It is well-written, relentlessly paced, and thematically profound, and will surely appeal to fans of SF thrillers by luminaries like Clarke, Dick, and Crichton. This is the good stuff.”

Paul Goat Allen, BlueInk Review

★★★★★“It's refreshing to see a talented author like LeKodak take the trope into the dystopian disaster novel niche and deliver an action-packed tale that gives just as many blockbuster thrills as it does intelligent technological questions. The plot and its themes are the primary focus, but in the ensemble cast of characters caught in the crossfire, each one has good solid development and moments to shine. I recommend The Dawn of AI to enthusiasts of intricately penned and exciting science fiction everywhere."

K.C. Finn, Readers' Favorite Book Review

★★★★★“The characters are extremely well developed, which is quite an accomplishment given how many there are. The most intriguing characters to me are conjoined twins with incredible story arcs and whenever the point of view kicked back to them, for me, it was like a favorite song playing again on the radio."

Jamie Michele, Readers' Favorite Book Review

★★★★★“The Dawn of AI connects the dots between characters that I neither expected nor saw coming in a story configuration that has an after-before-after pattern. I love this configuration as it hooks immediately and then goes back to fill in the blanks after I am invested in the plot. Excellent storytelling. Very highly recommended."

Asher Syed, Readers' Favorite Book Review

★★★★★“With the rise of Artificial Intelligence being a hot topic in the real world right now, I’m grateful to see such thought-provoking stories that explore this emergent technology's potential. This book is an easy recommendation to anyone interested in exciting science fiction, which takes a prevailing concern of today's world and explores it with intelligence and consideration."

Lexie Fox, Readers' Favorite Book Review

★★★★★“The pitfalls of giving the machines too much control play out in the storyline of Ryan LeKodak's novel. His take on an apocalyptic event is so vivid it is frightening to contemplate. The Dawn of AI is a science fiction aficionado’s dream novel."

Essien Asian, Readers' Favorite Book Review

★★★★★“In a world where jobs and livelihoods are being increasingly threatened by AI’s potential, this book is a reminder that machine malfunctions will inevitably happen.”

Theresa Kadair, Los Angeles Book Review

About the Author:

Ryan LeKodak is a science fiction author who lives in San Diego, California with his family. After emigrating from Vietnam in 1980 by boat, Ryan dreamed of becoming a doctor and nothing more. But upon learning the sight of blood made him squeamish, he pivoted from premed to begin a thirty-plus-year career in high-tech engineering, IT, quality assurance, and operations. Now a cybersecurity program manager based in San Diego, Ryan juggles a hectic career, raising his twin sons, and appeasing a needy Poochon puppy. At home, his lively boys take center stage, and their colorful comic doodles, adolescent puns, and wildly exaggerated stories from school inspired him to craft fast-paced science-fiction thrillers that explore the ominous potential of a future where AI surpasses human control. Through his writing, Ryan champions the extraordinary strengths that reside within each of us and celebrates the individual quirks that lighten fantastic worlds on the brink of disaster.

3 notes · View notes

podcasttoday · 1 year

Text

The Dawn of AI (Paperwar) by Ryan LeKodak

Book Summary:

One malfunction…

Millions dead…

The search for answers begins…

In the year 2040, the world's transportation is dominated by a highly advanced artificial intelligence system.

However, this seemingly perfect technology collapses, resulting in catastrophic disasters and the loss of millions of lives worldwide.

Order your copy and find out if the rise of AI, will be the fall of civilization!

Buy the Book – Amazon

Reviews:

Paul Goat Allen, BlueInk Review

K.C. Finn, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Jamie Michele, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Asher Syed, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Lexie Fox, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Essien Asian, Readers' Favorite Book Review

★★★★★“In a world where jobs and livelihoods are being increasingly threatened by AI’s potential, this book is a reminder that machine malfunctions will inevitably happen.”

Theresa Kadair, Los Angeles Book Review

About the Author:

2 notes · View notes

academicvoyager · 1 year

Text

The Dawn of AI (Paperwar) by Ryan LeKodak

Book Summary:

One malfunction…

Millions dead…

The search for answers begins…

In the year 2040, the world's transportation is dominated by a highly advanced artificial intelligence system.

However, this seemingly perfect technology collapses, resulting in catastrophic disasters and the loss of millions of lives worldwide.

Order your copy and find out if the rise of AI, will be the fall of civilization!

Buy the Book – Amazon

Reviews:

Paul Goat Allen, BlueInk Review

K.C. Finn, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Jamie Michele, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Asher Syed, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Lexie Fox, Readers' Favorite Book Review

Essien Asian, Readers' Favorite Book Review

★★★★★“In a world where jobs and livelihoods are being increasingly threatened by AI’s potential, this book is a reminder that machine malfunctions will inevitably happen.”

Theresa Kadair, Los Angeles Book Review

About the Author:

2 notes · View notes

ljf613 · 2 years

Text

For @orangepanic for the solstice exchange (full fic to come, but hopefully this will tide you over for now):

Blue. That was the first thing Mako saw when he woke up. A beautiful, vivid blue. He blinked, stretching out his arms, and by the time he opened his eyes, whatever he'd seen was gone. He'd wait his whole life if it meant getting a chance to see that color again.

Plus, a playlist:

Dear No One - Tori Kelly I don't really like big crowds I tend to shut people out I like my space, yeah But I'd love to have a soul mate

King - Lauren Aquilina You've got it all You lost your mind in the sound There's so much more, you can reclaim your crown You're in control Rid of the monsters inside your head Put all your faults to bed

Talking to the Moon - Bruno Mars I know you're somewhere out there Somewhere far away

If We Have Each Other - Alec Benjamin She'd never be alone Have someone to hold And when nights were cold She'd say The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad

Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Bublé I've broken my heart so many times, I stopped keeping track Talk myself in, I talk myself out I get all worked up, then I let myself down I tried so very hard not to lose it I came up with a million excuses I thought I'd thought of every possibility

#avatar legend of korra #excerpt #playlist #mako #if you know you know #mcr solstice exchange 2022

4 notes · View notes

bmpmp3 · 4 months

Text

So this weekend I'm just gonna go right into it, today we're talking about Toa's Patchwork Staccato (ツギハギスタッカート)!

youtube

A decade old classic, such a sweet sounding and uplifting piano-heavy instrumental that almost leans into the sound of a children's song game, a song that aurally really makes me want to play hopscotch outside LOL which contrasts beautifully with the lyrics and subject matter of the complicated and frustrated feelings of a shitty relationship, complete with ghosting and all!

I adore the instrumental work with all my heart, I'm a sucker for piano-led tunes so this is to be expect - but the vocals in the original are nothing to sneeze at either! VocaDB lists the vocals as Miku V2 Soft although I'm unsure if that's accurate, she sounds almost V3 Soft or Sweet to me, but there's hints of the V2 transition noise so I really couldn't tell either way. For a long time I didn't think much of the tuning, but looking at it closer now, 1) similar to sound design, unnoticed tuning is usually a mark of great tuning LOL but also 2) those throat clearing noises are unreal. How did Toa do that. How did they do that.

First cover I want to point out is a big one that doesn't need my help promoting it LOL the Project Sekai cover:

youtube

I've mentioned this before but I don't play the game because I'm bad with gacha games and it doesn't run on my phone, but I still follow the music despite not knowing the plot or characters because Fururin and Tomoriru voice characters in it LOL Love Live fans are insane like this, if you voice a character in that franchise there's a good chance I've ended up as a dedicated fan for life without either of us realizing it. You KNOW when they release a solo ver. album with the pink hair girl's versions I'll be all over that shit SHKFJKFSD

Anyway, I like this cover because the Fururin solos are fantastic (she's doing a character voice obvs but I'm a fan of both her natural voice and her skill at singing with character voices, she's very talented!) and the other singer is nice too, and despite the jank of the early Miku NT voice, I think it actually works really well in a song like this. Her weak and sort of wobbly tone helps for a song that keeps itself quiet and gentle, I think. Fun cover! Some of the instrumentation changes sound a little odd to me, maybe it's the mixing too, but overall I like it!

Another extremely popular cover that doesn't really need my introduction if the 2 million view count is any indication, but here is ePiaeon's version with all of Hatsune Miku's voicebanks!!

youtube

Iconic, it's just a really fun, well tuned piece that also serves as a great timeline and comparison between the sheer amount of voicebanks this blue anime girl has gotten over the past 15 years. This cover is from 2020, so Miku NT was still in beta and I don't think her appends (soft and whisper I think?) were out yet, but still thing it works great comparison-wise since Miku NT has been a bit MIA in the past three years anyway. When will NT return from the war... ANYWAY I love this thing, it made me really appreciate the V3 banks again especially, I love the tone of V3 Vivid!

This cover was so popular it started a very small trend of other's doing a similar bit with other vocal synths with multiple releases to this song, here's a few interesting ones:

Namine Ritsu version by rubeeish

youtube

Kasane Teto version by Teto Kasane-Chan

youtube

a Gekiyaku version by Akiroo

youtube

These UTAU ones can be so fun because there are a lot of UTAUloids who just have an absurd amount of voicebanks LOL probably because it's free and conducive to passion projects! Of course, Ritsu, Teto, and Gekiyaku all now either have or are getting commercial voicebanks in other software as well, but its wild how even just within one software we can have so many already, plus the sheer variety of them all! Gekiyaku's whisper bank is a standout to me, she genuinely sounds like she's whispering!! It's wild what UTAU can do.

There's plenty more out there, search up "all voicebanks patchwork staccato" on YT sometime and have some fun! And of course people do the same bit with different songs as well, ePiaeon also did a Melancholic cover with all the Len and Rin banks which is very fun:

youtube

I'm a sucker for a good product timeline what can I say!!!!!!!!! Maybe someday I should make an "all voicebanks" style cover of a certain favourite vocal synth character of mine too, a certain guy who's name rhymes with benbu... hmm...

Anyway, '"all voicebanks" cover tangent finished, back to the topic at hand - but this leads well into a cover I really enjoy: Omotelie's Genbu cover!

youtube

Just a really lovely and soft cover - one thing I've been really enjoying about Genbu specifically (although it's also audible in other standard-style SV banks too) is how when you turn up his breathiness and/or use his softer octaves/phoneme groups is how the program almost seems to like, double his voice in his aspirations, if that makes sense? It's more noticeable in his Lite and you can hear it clearest in his "ka" sounds and such, but it gives his voice this husky and sort of moody dimension I really enjoy. You know, I would love a full Genbu AI singing bank someday (we're getting close with Voicevox Humming!) but if that ever happens my pipedream would be them finding a way to mimic the raspy tone from his standard in like a vocal mode or an emotion style LOL

That's the funny thing about vocal synths, sometimes the so-bemoaned engine noise (and by engine noise I mostly mean audio artefacting and distortion as a result of the software's methods of resampling or reconstructing the voice) is a feature not a bug <3 Flower is a notable example, I quite like the 2.0 version of Ci Flower, but I do get why people prefer vFlower over her: she's still husky and a bit androgenous sounding in Cevio, but that extra husky-growly tone, flatter tone in the concatenative process of VOCALOID4 is just really unique and fun LOL sometimes engine noise is the noise you want, I guess!!

Anyway, engine noise sidetrack over, back to the very nice Genbu cover, I also wanted to mention that that I love the adlibbed harmonizing bits a lot, really fun and pleasant to listen to!

ANOTHER COVER I want to point out is this cover by the voice actor, singer, and I believe vtuber, Hazuki Saki (葉月さき)!

youtube

I knew them from her utaite days as Hazuki Yuu, if I remeber correctly her brother is the utaite Touyu? Lot of talent in these siblings LOL but I love her singing here, her voice is high but you can also hear this sort of deep nasal tone especially in the first verse and the chorus, it's like fuzzy and nasal but I wouldn't call it a full head voice nor a chest voice (<- not a musician, I am talking fully out my ass LOL) it's like... sound that feels near the sinuses and back of the teeth. This is a compliment. Am I making sense. I love voices and sounds. Anyway, very nice cover!

AND one last cover, I tend to keep the covers I listen to the most often for last and here's another one: 96Neko's (96猫) cover!

youtube

96Neko is a very popular utaite known for her sort of androgynous voice that, at the time when she started, often got slotted into a sort of "Len" type voice. We used to do that, describe utaite by what Cryptonloid they sound like HDGSKJHJDS Anyway, I really love her take on this song 'cause she uses both her higher range and her normal deeper ranger while also cramming so much emotion into these softer parts here and there... the way she says "mou iya da na" is wonderful, she uses bits of vocal fry here and there to make a real "singing" style sung performance... I am aware I am getting more incomprehensible by the second. To be honest I was holding back in the first few cover-remix weekends but I am going to talk about voices how I think about them now so watch out. I am going to get weirder. I prommy <3 Anyway, what I'm saying is, listen to this cover now!!!!!!! It's very lovely :)

That's all for tonight, partially because these were the main ones I wanted to talk about but also partially because I just discovered Tumblr has a 10 video per post limit. Future posts may be multiparters, watch out LOL anyway, thank u and goodnight! (you break up with me by phone and i die on impact)

#cover-remix weekend

0 notes

paulagnewart · 7 months

Text

Sonic the Oz-Hog Act 2/12: All My Friends are Echidnapped!

Sonic the Hedgehog issue 244 AU Publication Date: 20th February 2013 Price: $6.50

Back for more, eh? Unfortunately the time has come for a shocking second installment in these monthly musings of hedgehog history. Why? Maybe it's the masochist in me. Nostalgic pertinence? Stockholm Syndrome? Whichever way, reflecting on the past can be a merciless drug. Archie Sonic is long cancelled and unlikely to be of any further significance within my lifetime, so where lies the point of writing these posts nobody would rightfully read anyway?

Lunacy. Sheer lunacy.

If this is the result of two posts, part twelve will likely be DOA. When one considers the legacy of pointless shouting matches, ego stroking and litigations this comic suffered equally as it caused, giving it any thoughts beyond apoplectic is almost self-destructive. Still, if the book's vivid international history is to ever see the light of day again, guess I must make use of whatever avenues are at hand. Thus in the epic tradition of another 12-part pop culture event, if last month's introspective retrospective on Sonic Super Special 3 was a 'Nightmare Begins' scenario, then now comes a true 'Day of Armageddon'.

It's 20th February. Among the dwindling selection of comic books available across newsagents was a new high-speed hedgehog adventure. A multi-part story many moons in the making handled by a long-time writer which saw Knuckles take front and centre. With cameos from an echidna cast, he faced off against a powerful enemy destined to change the very future of Mobius. A story only superseded by immense publication turmoil that it left writer and editor scrambling by the seats of their pants, leading to a fanbase bitterly disappointed by its depressingly dour and rushed conclusion.

But we're not talking about issue 131. An incredible coincidence to be sure, but hardly a welcome one. Instead let's take a trip forward nine more years to that very same day in 2013.

The state of Australian politics were, as ever, chaotic. Julia Gillard, the nation's first female Prime Minister, was reaching the end of her turbulent three year term in the top job. Despite legislating sweeping changes to assist disabled citizens, better internet, student education and environmental protection, her conservative detractors were ruthless. Be it newspapers, radio or self-aggrandizing musicians, their demands to "burn the witch" were loud and clear, and none more so than misogynistic maestro and onion connoisseur Tony Abbott.

It wouldn't be an Aussie summer without bushfires, and true to form, early 2013 was plentiful. Records for hottest days previously set in January 1998 were smashed. Volunteer firefighters travelled the wide charred land to tame nature's chaos, resulting in multiple deaths. Thankfully the worst had already come to pass by this point as the extreme weather gradually wound down. A difficult recovery time began for many, but with hindsight on our sides, that summer paled compared to the sheer tragedy which awaited us come October.

Life that February wasn't all doom and gloom. Millions of viewers tuned in Channel 10 to watch our home teams weave their way to gold in the Sochi Olympics. Martin Scorsese's adaptation of 'The Wolf of Wall Street' was number one at the box office. Red Hot Chili Peppers led the charge for the 20th Big Day Out concert. Stone Music Festival swept the land later, spearheaded after a last-second venue shift by the triumphant return of Aerosmith, their first Aussie tour in over 20 years. And I suppose it's worth a mention how 'Harlem Shake' toppled P!nk and Nate Ruess' dominance of the charts for a grand total of… one week.

Baauer wasn't the only one left shaking. Upon conclusion of the 20th anniversary tale 'Genesis', a discontent among Archie Sonic readers began to seep across message boards. Questions and critiques over the book's direction, plus whether editorial or SEGA were responsible, became increasingly frequent topics of fiery debate. A sentiment which reached a peak by the time Sonic Universe's 'Scrambled' arc ran its course, ultimately spilling over to the BumbleKing Forums.

In response, Ian Flynn called an official "State of the Books" topic on 11th May 2012 for fans to civilly discuss their grievances. It's important to remember the fanbase was already running on knife's edge since certain litigations were announced back in July 2010, which intentionally or unintentionally influenced several commentators. Critiques over its 48 pages ranged from slowly erasing the Freedom Fighters in favour of game characters, a meandering plot going around in circles, Sonic himself being a boring hero, a lack of Knuckles, to forced melodrama and a constant string of depressing losses (complaints fans already aired to former writers a decade earlier. Oh, the more things change…). In spite of fan disagreements, civility won the day.

Which sadly could not be said when issue 244 was released. Once it became clear the story was hastily rewritten at the behest of Collen IP to remove legally contentious cast, forum members hit the roof in an intense 34 page debate. "Convoluted and convenient", "This. Development. Sucks!" and "Empty filler" were slung around. Nor was veteran artist Steven Butler spared, yet again heavily criticized for his page layouts and character proportions. One optimistic commentator opined "Why do i have a feeling that when issue 245 comes out everybody that was worrying a lot is going to wind up loving this arc?". A resolution they'd have to find elsewhere after the thread was locked.

"Where is everyone?" Knuckles yelled on the first page as he wandered into the abandoned wasteland of Albi-erm, echidna homeland. A good question, rad red. Perhaps they're all hung over after last night's Cliff Richard in Melbourne concert.

'Endangered Species' is Archie's ultimate Monkey's Paw story. The mind boggles how this same company who infamously toppled Dan DeCarlo and set creators rights back to the stone age ended up firing their own legal team. What should read like an Outhousers article is now part of Sonic's history. Yet for all the readers upset over cast culling, plenty more made it shamelessly clear they approved the move.

Page 11's "Now then -- to clean up the garbage." became a call to arms for fans sick of the series' expansive echidna cast. After 'Return to Angel Island' set the standard, they were poised, primed, ready for latter-era Archie Sonic to continue its indulgence in some permanent eth-chidna cleansing. No matter the character or relevance to the plot, "And nothing of value was lost" echoed across BumbleKing and beyond. A selfishly spiteful sentiment people steadfastly hold to this very day.

T(h)rash would be proud.

Next Time: Swing back to March 2001, a time where Sonic faced a foe far greater than any robo scientist or machine monkey could dare compare. The very real and deadly threat that was… mass unemployment? Had things behind the scenes truly gotten that bad for Riverdale's top-selling high-speed hero? Absolutely. But for Australia, it was Friday.

< Previous | Index | Next >

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Archie Sonic #Sonic the Hedgehog Comics #Archie Comics #Comic Books #Ian Flynn #Steven Butler #Knuckles the Echidna #Echidna #BumbleKing #Australia #2013 #Musings

0 notes

cyarsk52-20 · 9 months

Text

Can the Weeknd Turn Himself Into the Biggest Pop Star in the World?

He had millions of Internet fans for his strange, profane R.& B. Then he decided he wanted more.

By JON CARAMANICAJULY 27, 2015

Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

Save

The scene backstage last November at the American Music Awards, that annual gathering of pop perennials and idiosyncratic arrivistes, was carnivalesque: Niall and Liam of One Direction toddled about trying to snap a picture with a selfie stick, while Zayn, their bandmate at the time, smoked coolly out of frame; Ne-Yo was there in a leopard-print blazer two sizes too small; Lil Wayne was wandering around, alone, wearing absurd shoes. In the middle of it all, Abel Tesfaye, better known as the Weeknd, remained calm, slow motion to everyone else’s warp speed.

Allergic to these sorts of scrums, he found his way to his trailer to hang with his friends, five or so fellow Canadians, all of them art-goth chic, wearing expensive sneakers and draped in luxurious, flowing black. Tesfaye, 25, was dressed down by comparison, in a black corduroy jacket and paint-splattered jeans (Versace, but still). He stands 5-foot-7, plus a few more inches with his hair, an elaborate tangle of dreadlocks that he has been growing out for years, more or less letting it go where it wants. It spills out at the sides of his head and shoots up over it, like a cresting wave. Casually, Tesfaye did some vocal warm-ups and sat indifferently as his underutilized makeup artist dabbed foundation under his eyes and balm on his lips.

He’d just had his first flash of true pop success: ‘‘Love Me Harder,’’ his duet with Ariana Grande, the childlike pop star with the grown-up voice, cracked the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. He was scheduled to make a surprise cameo here at the end of a Grande medley. Until that song and, in a sense, that moment, Tesfaye had been a no-hit wonder: a cult act with millions of devotees and almost no mainstream profile.Photo

When Tesfaye came out from the shadows midway through Grande’s performance, the crowd screamed. For two minutes, the singers traded vocal riffs and unflinching eye contact, Grande playing the naïf and Tesfaye the aggressor. The performance was quick and sweaty, and seconds after it was over, Tesfaye was already speeding for the exit, stopping only for a quick embrace from Kendall and Kylie Jenner. When he reached the parking lot, a yappy talent wrangler for an entertainment-news show sensed an opportunity and asked for an interview. Tesfaye gave him an amused half-smile and kept walking. ‘‘Hey!’’ the guy shouted in desperation, fumbling for a name before landing on the wrong one: ‘‘A$AP Rocky!’’ Tesfaye turned his head and said, ‘‘C’mon, man,’’ arching an eyebrow, then picked up the pace.

Even though he had just performed for an audience of millions, Tesfaye was still, to many of them, a total stranger. When he began releasing music in 2010 — murky Dalí-esque R.&B.;, sung in an astrally sweet voice, vivid with details of life at the sexual and pharmacological extremes — Tesfaye chose to be a cipher. The only photos of him in circulation were deliberately obscured; he didn’t do interviews. His reticence was an asset — fans devoured the music without being distracted by a personality. Their loyalty was to the songs and, in a way, to the idea of the Weeknd. He was happy to stay out of the way.

Continue reading the main story

Tesfaye slowly began revealing himself in 2011 with a handful of live performances. By last year, he was a fringe superstar, selling out shows at huge venues like the Barclays Center, the Hollywood Bowl and the O2 Arena in London. Still, he began to feel that he had hit a ceiling — a high one, and maybe even a sustainable one, but a ceiling nonetheless.

The old Weeknd was comfortably, even enthusiastically, numb — the poet laureate of ruinous nights ending in bleary sunrises. His approach to songwriting, both in subject matter and production choices, was characterized by obscurity and darkness. But he began to wonder if there was another way. ‘‘I felt I had to change who I was,’’ he says. His new album, ‘‘Beauty Behind the Madness,’’ is the end result of a year’s worth of molting old habits, a creative upheaval that has begun to teleport him from the margins right to pop’s center.

By taking his old, gloomy gestures and repackaging them in ecstatic, radio-friendly arrangements, he has made one of the most sonically ambitious pop albums of the year, full of swaggeringly confident music indebted to the arena-size ambition of the 1980s, from Guns N’ Roses to Phil Collins to Michael Jackson.

Above all, it is Jackson in Tesfaye’s cross hairs. ‘‘These kids, you know, they don’t have a Michael Jackson,’’ he says. ‘‘They don’t have a Prince. They don’t have a Whitney. Who else is there? Who else can really do it at this point?’’

Tesfaye was slumped in the back of his Mercedes S.U.V. one evening last December while being driven through Scarborough, a dreary suburban district of Toronto just a short ride from his luxury apartment downtown. The vehicle pulled into a parking lot behind a low-slung apartment complex, and he pointed at an upstairs window, to the flat he used to share with his mother and grandmother. ‘‘It’s a small apartment,’’ he said, ‘‘about the size of this car.’’

His parents emigrated from Ethiopia in the 1980s, when the country was reeling from civil war and drought, and came to Toronto. They never married, and after they split up, Tesfaye’s mother moved with him to this dull expanse northeast of the city center. His father wasn’t in the picture, and the two haven’t spoken since he was a boy. Tesfaye found the stillness in Scarborough to be, by turns, bucolic and sinister. ‘‘Like a Coen brothers movie,’’ he said, staring out the window.

Scarborough was stifling, and he constantly plotted ways to leave. He dropped out of high school when he was 17 and persuaded his best friend, La Mar Taylor, to join him. They met the first day of high school — Tesfaye noticed Taylor’s pink polo shirt — and the two quickly became partners in creative endeavors and, eventually, self-destruction. One day they pulled up in a van at Tesfaye’s home. Tesfaye went to his room, grabbed his mattress, dragged it out of the house and threw it in. His mother watched him grimly. ‘‘The worst look anyone could ever have,’’ he recalls. ‘‘She looked at me like she had failed.’’

Continue reading the main story

Tesfaye and Taylor and their friend Hyghly Alleyne moved into a one-bedroom apartment in an old Victorian in Parkdale, an about-to-be-gentrified neighborhood that was populated at the time, Taylor says, by ‘‘students and crackheads.’’ They paid the $850 monthly rent with money from welfare checks. They were still teenagers, and they lived like it. During the days, they would shoplift food at a nearby supermarket. Some nights they would walk to the Social, a neighborhood bar. Occasionally, they would get into fights. Most nights, they would get high on whatever was around — MDMA, Xanax, cocaine, mushrooms, ketamine. ‘‘ ‘Kids,’ without the AIDS,’’ Tesfaye said. ‘‘No rules.’’

Continue reading the main story

Tesfaye sold a little weed, but for the most part he was broke. Eventually the three were evicted, so Tesfaye bed-hopped. When he needed a place to stay, he would tell a girl he loved her. ‘‘There was, like, three girls that thought legit that I was their boyfriend,’’ he says. He found a square job, folding shirts in an American Apparel downtown. Around that time, he began writing and recording songs — at first for others, but when there were no takers, for himself.

When Tesfaye wasn’t high, he wasn’t happy, so he did his best to avoid coming down. And when he began writing songs, he found inspiration in that haze, penning lyrics about the dystopian, bacchanalian nights that he and his crew were having. He worked with a young musician, Jeremy Rose, on moody, sinister beats. The combined result was something like ‘‘American Psycho’’ with a soundtrack by Prince, sonically gauzy and verbally blunt, with Tesfaye cast as both villain and victim.Photo

Taylor uploaded Tesfaye’s first three songs — ‘‘The Morning,’’ ‘‘What You Need’’ and ‘‘Loft Music’’ — to YouTube in the fall of 2010, posting the links to their friends’ Facebook walls and hoping for the best. The clips were audio only, accompanied by black-and-white photographs of not-quite-dressed women. Tesfaye’s likeness was nowhere to be found; you had to dig to find his name. He had wanted to call himself the Weekend, but there was already a rock band in Ontario called that, so he dropped a letter. His anonymity was so complete, he says, that his co-workers at American Apparel would listen to his music while he was working without realizing it was his.

At the end of that year, Oliver El-Khatib, now the rapper Drake’s co-manager, posted that first batch of Weeknd songs on the blog of Drake’s label, October’s Very Own, and Tesfaye instantly became the subject of international fascination. Soon after, he retreated to the studio to finish ‘‘House of Balloons,’’ the first of three planned mixtapes, which he released free online the following March. Meanwhile, Drake recruited Tesfaye to work on his 2011 album, ‘‘Take Care,’’ which included versions of three songs Tesfaye says he had initially written for ‘‘House of Balloons.’’ Over the next nine months, Tesfaye released the second and third free Weeknd mixtapes, ‘‘Thursday’’ and ‘‘Echoes of Silence.’’

Continue reading the main story

A&R; representatives and label heads had been flying to Toronto to woo him since those first songs were posted, and Tesfaye’s reluctance proved advantageous again. In May 2012, still unsigned, he played the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. Monte Lipman, the chief executive of Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group, took Rick Rubin for added ammunition. ‘‘I look to my left, it’s the Interscope crew, the Atlantic crew, the Columbia crew,’’ Lipman says. ‘‘It was like the Five Families all in one room.’’

Three months later, Tesfaye entered into a partnership with Republic, and for his first act he remastered the three mixtapes and sold them in a small box set called ‘‘Trilogy.’’ This collection of music — already available free online — went platinum.

At the time, R.&B.; — the genre to which the Weeknd notionally belongs — had atrophied. Years of hybridization had left it a submissive sibling to hip-hop, a bland side dish. But as Tesfaye was emerging, so were similarly heretical soul singers like Frank Ocean and Miguel. They made R.&B.; laden with references to indie rock and psychedelia for a younger generation accustomed to unexpected juxtapositions. The Internet had made novelty stars, and it had made mash-ups. But with this class of singers, it began to make auteurs.

Tesfaye’s music was a miasma of sensual, slithering rock and soul, cut with melancholic samples of Siouxsie & the Banshees and Cocteau Twins. He also imported hip-hop’s low rumble and vulgar mind-set, molding them to his sound. He moved at a crawl, his sound a dark vortex. In part, this left-field approach was strategic — he has a beautifully rogue voice far from the full-bodied, gospel-influenced traditional soul bellow. Instead, it suggests curdled anxiety, savage recrimination, the strain of pleasure and collapse. There are flashes of Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, even Robert Plant. Tesfaye attributes some of his signature vocal gestures to the Ethiopian influences of his childhood. (He still speaks Amharic, which he learned from his mother and grandmother.) The way he softly reaches for a high note, then falls back, then buzzes around it for a bit — that’s an inheritance from Aster Aweke, a veteran Ethiopian pop star.

This avant-R.&B.; was a hit with critics, but it didn’t always translate into commercial appeal. Tesfaye’s first major-label album of original material, ‘‘Kiss Land,’’ came out in 2013. It was a Technicolor version of his mixtapes, full of long, fluid, semistructured, absorptive songs about desire and suspicion, but it sold only 268,000 copies, and none of the several singles the label pushed to radio took hold. His fervent fan base remained steady — when he toured, they filled arenas for him — but the Weeknd was a superstar act only inside his own universe.

Stymied, he turned to Wendy Goldstein, the head of urban A&R; at Republic, for advice. ‘‘The underperforming of that record in his own expectations of what it was supposed to do shook him to his core,’’ she says. ‘‘I said, ‘You wanna be the biggest in the world?’ He said, ‘I absolutely wanna be the biggest in the world.’ ’’ She and the newly malleable Tesfaye got to work. First, she arranged for him to record the duet he would perform with Ariana Grande at the A.M.A.s, ‘‘Love Me Harder.’’

Continue reading the main story

That track came from the studio of Max Martin, the Swedish producer whose influence on 2000s pop is matchless — his guiding hand firmly behind the careers of Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and Katy Perry. He works with a large team of writers and producers out of a sprawling residential compound in West Hollywood that was once home to Frank Sinatra. Martin’s hit-factory typically solicits little creative input from the talent, who show up when it’s time to sing. This process was alien to Tesfaye, who had always written his own lyrics and was unsure that he would be a good match for Grande’s good-girl gleam. When he saw the lyrics that were sent to him, he found them to be tepid. He rewrote his verse, recorded it and sent it back.

What could have been a contentious exchange was actually edifying for both parties: Martin liked Tesfaye’s changes and kept them; Tesfaye realized he could make sleek, accessible pop on his own terms. He asked Goldstein to secure Martin’s services for his next album. ‘‘If I’m gonna be the biggest in the world,’’ he told her, ‘‘I need a handful of songs like that.’’

When Tesfaye went to Martin’s complex last fall to begin work, he set up in a wing where Marilyn Monroe used to live. Martin’s team presented Tesfaye with a selection of prewritten material, and he rejected it all. They worked from scratch instead, and the first song they wrote was ‘‘In the Night,’’ the new album’s most electric moment, a homage to and an updating of peak-era Michael Jackson. Before going into the studio, Tesfaye was listening to ‘‘Copacabana,’’ the 1978 Barry Manilow disco jaunt about the showgirl Lola, the bartender Tony and the murder that took his life — and, in a sense, hers too. Its exuberant arrangement is a wide grin masking unspeakable pain.

‘‘In the Night’’ moves in similar horror-story fashion. ‘‘She was numb, and she was so codependent,’’ he sings, pulling back from the notes with a splash of Jackson’s vocal agility. The music suggests celestial escape. Later, Tesfaye reveals the wound: ‘‘She was young, and she was forced to be a woman.’’ Underneath its sunbeam-bright euphoria hides a tale of childhood sexual abuse. For Tesfaye, ‘‘In the Night’’ was the sort of compromise he was excited to make, a glistening surface salving the wounds that are his stock in trade. When he first played the song for Ron Perry, the president of Songs Music Publishing, which handles Tesfaye’s publishing, Perry couldn’t contain himself: ‘‘It’s ‘Billie Jean’! It’s ‘Billie [expletive] Jean’!’’Photo

In his dressing room before concerts, Tesfaye plays Jackson’s ‘‘Off the Wall’’ for energy. Musically, though, Tesfaye’s fixation with Jackson has often been obscured by foggy production and his reluctance to conform to conventional song structure. On his early recordings, he says, his producers ‘‘would always try to structure it, make it more into a song, and I was always a punk: ‘I hate major chords. I hate structure. I want this song to be eight minutes long.’ It would kill them.’’ Jackson’s lessons seeped in, though. ‘‘My head-space now is, I love choruses,’’ Tesfaye says. ‘‘A chorus is not easy.’’

Continue reading the main story

Jason Quenneville, who is known as DaHeala and is Tesfaye’s engineer and longtime musical collaborator, calls this album Tesfaye’s ‘‘O.K., fine, I’ll play ball’’ moment. ‘‘ ‘Kiss Land’ was, ‘O.K., let’s play baseball,’ but you’re swinging a plate of spaghetti,’’ he says. ‘‘Now it’s like, ‘Fine, I will apply myself, play ball with a ball and stick.’ ’’ Tesfaye has embraced pop’s soothing strictures. He speaks of songs in terms of major and minor keys, prehooks and hooks and bridges. ‘‘In that area, he’s even stronger than I thought,’’ says Jimmy Iovine, who tried to sign Tesfaye before leaving Interscope Records for Apple Music. ‘‘You would think he’d be breathing his own exhaust and shutting the world out, and he’s not doing that.’’

Instead, over the last six months, the Weeknd has become one of the most reliable hitmakers in pop. ‘‘Earned It,’’ a soothing ballad he wrote for the ‘‘50 Shades of Grey’’ soundtrack with, among others, Stephan Moccio, a songwriter who has worked with Celine Dion, went to No.3 on the Billboard Hot 100. By mid-July, Tesfaye had three songs in the Top 20 — ‘‘Earned It,’’ as well as the first two singles from the new album, ‘‘The Hills’’ and ‘‘Can’t Feel My Face.’’ Radio, so long hostile to his voice, had fully embraced him, yanking Tesfaye from the dark into the light.

But success means having fewer places to hide. One sticky night in early June, as Tesfaye left the Trump SoHo New York hotel, a couple of paparazzi lurked outside, braving spurts of rain. They asked him to stop for a picture — they certainly knew his name by now — but he didn’t, instead heading for one of four black S.U.V.s idling curbside, waiting to drive him and his crew uptown for a performance at the Museum of Modern Art. Moments later, the 18-year-old model Bella Hadid stepped out of the building, her black jacket draped over a sheer black top. She was asked to stop for one, too. She demurred, wordlessly ducking into one of the other trucks.

Tesfaye and Hadid have been the subject of tabloid attention and online speculation for most of the spring. There is at least one Instagram account dedicated to documenting every instance the two have shared space, be it physical or virtual. (If one of them liked the other’s Instagram photo, it’s captured here.) For an artist who thrived on emotional detachment, love poses a threat. ‘‘Probably my and my manager’s biggest fear is if this kid falls in love, we’re done, we’re finished,’’ Tesfaye had said in December.

Once the caravan arrived at MoMA, everyone spilled out of the S.U.V.s and surveyed the room. Hangers-on began clustering around Tesfaye, so he scurried to an elevator and the safety of his green room. Hadid gave him a quick kiss, then went with her friends to stand at the side of the stage.

A couple of weeks later, Tesfaye refused to talk about Hadid. Asked if he was in love, he replied: ‘‘I don’t know, to be honest with you. I don’t think so. Maybe. It’s no, it’s yes, it’s maybe.’’ He is telling a more complete story on the album: ‘‘It’s about me being who I am and stepping out of my comfort zone to try to feel something else besides what I’ve been feeling the past four years,’’ Tesfaye said last month in Los Angeles. ‘‘Ups and downs,’’ he said. ‘‘In my past albums, there were never ups.’’

Continue reading the main story

The closest recent analogue to ‘‘Beauty Behind the Madness’’ is probably ‘‘1989,’’ Taylor Swift’s pop coming-out party from last year, which also pulses with 1980s pomp, and which Martin had a heavy hand in, too. Like Tesfaye, Swift spent the early part of her career cultivating a finicky audience and then cut bait and re-established herself at the very center. But Swift had, in essence, been making pop music all along, in terms of subject matter and structural approach. Tesfaye’s transformation is a more precarious balancing act, reframing his past without abandoning it, teaching his hard-core fans not to mind when the new ones show up to cheerily sing along. So far, it seems to be working; when Swift played at MetLife Stadium in July, she invited Tesfaye out to duet with him on ‘‘Can’t Feel My Face.’’

As he sees it, he is walking in the footsteps of artists of previous eras who, from an R.&B.; foothold, rocketed into the stratosphere. So it didn’t come as a surprise when Tesfaye was visibly (and uncharacteristically) thrilled to relate the story of how he first met the legendary producer Quincy Jones. The two were at a club called Drai’s in Las Vegas, where Tesfaye performs frequently. The owner introduced him to Jones, 82 years old but still spry enough for the club. The two sat down next to each other. ‘‘He knew about me,’’ Tesfaye said, beaming. ‘‘You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.’’

Tesfaye says that when he was working in the studio with Martin, he often thought of how Jones and Michael Jackson had pushed each other to greatness. Jones was there for the three seminal Jackson solo albums — ‘‘Off the Wall,’’ ‘‘Thriller’’ and ‘‘Bad’’ — and when Jones and Jackson first worked together, each was already well established. But in Jones’s hands, Jackson transcended race and style and spun pop gold out of the darkest subject matter.

Sitting next to Jones, Tesfaye said, he resisted the urge to badger him for old stories. Instead, he recalled, it was Jones who had a question for him: ‘‘What’s that one song, that more up-tempo song?’’ He was asking about ‘‘Can’t Feel My Face,’’ which Tesfaye had performed earlier in the night.

‘‘Yeah, I used to make music like that,’’ he told Tesfaye. ‘‘Sounds good.’’

Jon Caramanica is a pop-music critic for The Times. He profiled Justin Vernon of Bon Iver for the magazine in 2011.

A version of this article appears in print on August 2, 2015, on page MM40 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough. Today's Paper|Subscribe

Sent from my iPhone

#the weeknd

0 notes

lazyyouthmiracle · 11 months

Text

What Would the World Look Like Without replica bags designer?

1 one luxery bag replica web-sites quora

When it comes to luxury luggage, All people likes to have them but normally lacks the monetary electric power to take action. The feeling of wanting an opulent bag although not with the ability to get it could be overwhelming. Nonetheless, the point of luxurious is that it may be obtained Even when you don’t have tonnes of money. Replica internet sites are an awesome Answer to acquire designer baggage while not having to pay out total value. For this sort of funds-savvy purchasers or persons hunting for a 1-off acquire, obtaining a Louis Vuitton or even a Gucci, might be probable via duplicate web-sites.

But navigating throughout the wide range of duplicate internet sites is demanding – that’s why we switch to your almighty Quora for answers to all our thoughts. Right after scouring the online world for suggestions from Quora, We've got compiled a summary of a few of the greatest one:1 luxurious bag duplicate sites – ones that can get you replica baggage that search just like the originals minus the hefty price tag tag!

www.fakebagstore.me is among the finest 1:1 reproduction websites that features a catalogue of designer bags and wallets in addition to other luxurious products like watches and jewellery. This page has a wide array of baggage from common brand names like Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada, Gucci, Hermes and Burberry. On their own Web site you will find the ‘quality guarantee’ portion which states that their replicas are as many as 1:one requirements.

one one chanel bag duplicate

1:one Chanel Bag Duplicate – A superb Alternative!

It truly is no magic formula that Chanel bags make a robust statement of luxury and opulence. But with the expense of an primary 1 heading for sector-breaking selling prices, one:one Chanel duplicate bags might be a fantastic selection to think about for people today in search of that very same timeless design and style without having breaking the lender. What can make these replica luggage so appealing is the attention to depth, which assures Just about every and each piece is a precise match of its large-finish counterpart.

Don't just that, but a Chanel duplicate bag is crafted with competent artisans and made of good quality materials. It's got many of the attraction of the actual factor – from its exquisite metal components right down to its long lasting but luxurious cloth – with no hefty price tag. On top of that, it is possible to glance innovative and fashionable for far significantly less with these Expense-effective parts that also appear to be the designer parts.

What is even better is usually that these reproduction pieces are available both vintage designer colours and likewise new, vivid types. There are a few Daring and eye-catching shade mixtures that will surely make people envious after you walk in and out of any space. In addition to, there are various distinctive measurements to pick from, Every single of that has its very own unique charm and magnificence that could in good shape your wardrobe correctly.

And for those who are acutely aware about type and substance high-quality, you might have every thing you need with your desire reproduction bag. These luggage are made out of high-quality materials these durable and comfortable leather-based, synthetic fibers, and valuable metals that will make you really feel like one million bucks. No matter what the seem, you’ll know that the replica bag has the standard plus the style that can make it a real standout.

The affordability of one:1 Chanel replica baggage causes it to be a no-brainer and a great way to appear attractive devoid of breaking your budget. They make an excellent style assertion and they are certain to final For a lot of summers to come.

two. Consumer's Tutorial: Methods for Getting the Perfect one:1 Chanel Bag Duplicate

Purchasing for the right Chanel bag duplicate is not hard in case you really know what to look for. Here are some recommendations you could Bear in mind when looking for the proper 1:one Chanel bag reproduction:

Pricing: The cost of the duplicate Chanel bag needs to be in your wallet’s limit. Take a look at all accessible possibilities and pick one that gives the natural beauty and top quality you desire in a selling price that actually works for yourself.

Materials: Ensure that you scrutinize the material that has been accustomed to make the bag. Authentic 1:1 reproduction baggage are most frequently manufactured with leather, synthetic fibers, and valuable metals. If just about anything seems off, stay away from buying the item.

Hues: When choosing a Chanel duplicate bag, you are able to Select from the traditional designer hues or even the newer, vivid ones. Take into account the celebration as well as the appear you want to attain and decide the proper shade accordingly.

Craftsmanship: A 1:one Chanel duplicate bag ought to be crafted by artisans with exceptional notice to depth, so be certain that the bag’s craftsmanship is around mark, guaranteeing utmost pleasure.

Top quality: It can be imperative to be sure that the replica Chanel bag that you buy is of the best quality, so each sew and detail from the bag need to be of higher-top quality and authentically Chanel-model.

three. Get There in Model with one:one Chanel Bag Duplicate

There's arguably no greater way to get there in design than which has a 1:one Chanel replica bag. Whether you are attending an function or just doing some working day-to-working day errands, these replica bags are the ideal accessory to create a powerful vogue assertion.

They may be dressed up or down based upon your temper and might last from time to period. They occur in several dimensions, building them great for carrying each of the things you require and ideal for virtually any event. Plus, you can find them in new and typical colors, making it very easy to pair The best just one with any outfit.

Their exquisite metal components and signature CC logos incorporate a touch of class and timelessness, regardless of which just one you choose. And since they are much far more inexpensive than the actual thing, you may pick up quite a few pieces as opposed to just the one particular!

What's a lot more, a 1:one Chanel duplicate bag is certain to turn heads! It will certainly spark conversation and is likely to make you jump out from the crowd. And since these baggage are so very well-crafted, you may pair them with any outfit and occasion with out on the lookout from area.

4. Rocking a 1:one Chanel Bag Reproduction – Help it become Yours

A 1:1 Chanel replica bag is a great way to consider your style and persona to the following degree. Through the Experienced take a look at get the job done to evenings within the club with good friends, your reproduction bag is certain to make you look jaw-droppingly great.

Combine and match your bag with any outfit so you’re confident to create a stunning look right away whatsoever. Irrespective of whether you prefer to maintain it easy with common hues or provide a Daring and lively glance, there’s a one:1 Chanel reproduction bag for everybody.

These bags can be found in a variety of measurements, that makes them the right accessory for just about any predicament. You can toss within your laptop computer and business files therefore you’re established for each day with the Business. Or pack it with all your essentials for an all-ladies searching spree.

Despite the celebration, possessing a 1:one Chanel replica bag with your arm would make an announcement. You depict power, peace, equilibrium, and a way of sophistication, all neatly wrapped jointly in a gorgeous package deal.

five. Purchasing a one:one Chanel Bag Replica – The Positives and negatives

Purchasing a one:one Chanel reproduction bag will likely be a sensible alternative particularly when you’re seeking affordable nonetheless stylish luxurious. On the other hand, like anything else, there are both of those positives and negatives to take into account before making the acquisition.

To the beneficial facet, replica bags are way more Price-helpful than the first items. Don't just that, but these baggage are made with good quality resources and craftsmanship, so that you’ll get a similar timeless look and feel as its designer counterpart.

What's more, it is possible to choose from a myriad of traditional and vivid colours, and different measurements to fit your requires and Life style. You are able to switch up your look simply and stylishly, along with the luggage are sure to pull a stare or two.

Even so, the most significant switch-off for any 1:one Chanel duplicate bag may be acquiring to cope with any imperfections or inconsistencies within the stock or customer care. For those who’re not careful, you could possibly end up with a bag that looks almost nothing much like the a person you noticed online and much more importantly, very little like legitimate Chanel.

Ultimately, the decision is yours to generate, but this list of pluses and minuses will let you produce a nicely-informed obtain that you just’ll be satisfied with for some time.

6. Caring for Your one:one Chanel Bag Duplicate

Like every other manner accessory, a one:1 Chanel reproduction bag requires Unique treatment to help keep it looking its most effective and Long lasting For many years. Top quality maintenance may help maintain the bag's form, texture, and shade, so it’s essential to nurture your bag with specific safety measures and have a several uncomplicated steps.

Your bag needs to be wiped on a regular basis using a tender cloth and moderate cleansing Alternative to keep it dust and Dust totally free. You may also use a selected cleaning solution specifically designed for your type of bag to help keep it wanting stunning.

For additional safety from stains, spills, dust, Grime and also other unavoidable concerns, you can use a protectant specially suitable for leather-based or material bags. Cautious software of the merchandise can help your bag seem as good as new.

Make sure to steer clear of making use of sunscreens or hair items that might have oils or other severe chemical substances that might damage the delicate elements. And when not in use, retailer your bag inside a dry, cool position and out of direct sunlight.

7. one:one Chanel Bag Reproduction Will make an ideal Gift

Who doesn’t adore a classic gift just like a one:one Chanel duplicate bag? These timeless bags of luxury in no way manage to head out of style and they are certain to set a smile on an individual’s confront. The better part is that unlike the first, they are very reasonably priced which means you don’t require to worry about breaking the financial institution.

When looking for the ideal present for a liked 1, look at a 1:1 Chanel duplicate bag. Regardless of whether it’s for a member of the family, Close friend, Instructor or simply your self, the gift of luxury in the shape a classy replica bag is sure to put a smile on their encounter. From lively hues to vintage kinds, there’s one thing to match Every person’s preferences.

These bags are well-crafted, refined, and Certainly beautiful, in order to be confident that every and each element is just right. And mainly because they’re so reasonably priced, you don’t will need to bother with Placing your spending budget in peril.

Who wouldn’t desire a 1:one Chanel reproduction bag as a present? They make fantastic presents which have been certain to be treasured For several years to return.

eight. Developing Your Wardrobe Around Your one:one Chanel Bag Reproduction

Creating a wardrobe close to your 1:one Chanel reproduction bag is a great way to assure your design and style generally stays clean and timeless. Regardless if you are looking for a adaptable piece for get the job done or a luxurious addition in your night look, these replica luggage can do the job wonders.

With all the color and dimension variants, you may get creative and find a bag that should match any outfit or situation. It’s a great way to mix up your manner fashion and switch up your seem simply.

These basic parts is often dressed up or down, which provides to their charm and versatility. You may pair them having a skirt for just a feminine electric power search or acquire them to the Seashore for an easy stylish appear. In other words, the options are mainly limitless.

The signature attributes and common style of a one:one Chanel duplicate bag warranty it can previous long further than only one year. So why not make it the foundation of one's wardrobe and you’ll be sure to normally stay at the top of the fashion match.

9. Solutions to your one:one Chanel Bag Reproduction

If you’re trying to find lavish designer fashion over a budget, there are numerous alternate options to some one:one Chanel duplicate bag.

For example, Michael Kors baggage supply significant-stop designer bags with no enormous selling price tag. You can find an awesome array of authentic and replica Michael Kors baggage in all kinds of colors and sizes. From mini luggage perfect for an evening out to massive tote bags ideal for work and journey, there’s unquestionably something that will healthy all your preferences.

When you’re seeking something stirringly exceptional, Stella McCartney luggage are a terrific option. With its timeless magnificence, the styles of the manufacturer develop an aura of sophistication and exoticness. From bold shoulder luggage to smooth sprees, these luggage are perfect for any elegant situation.

These are definitely only a few possibilities to one:one Chanel reproduction baggage which might be also exceptionally Value-effective and stylish. So even though the first Chanel comes at a top quality selling price, you could find plenty of solutions that supply the designer design you crave at prices that won’t split the bank.

10. Shopping for a 1:1 Chanel Bag Duplicate – In which to Search

Acquiring the right one:one Chanel bag duplicate to fulfill your needs and fit your spending budget is no easy activity, but with the best guidelines you should be capable of finding the perfect piece with out Significantly difficulties.

The main location to look is on line, the place there is a superb collection of replica baggage in all hues and measurements. As constantly, it’s essential to be cautious, especially In regards to pricing. Be sure to Review costs and seek out opinions and shoppers’ pictures in the products to verify it can be of high quality and up for your specifications.

Another option is to check out next-hand suppliers which could provide fantastic deals. You’re likely to locate some genuinely unique items that can make your wardrobe stick out in a trendy way with no straining your price range.

Last but not least, you may want to think about looking at flea marketplaces. They normally have specials on replica bags, therefore you could get Fortunate and locate a little something certainly exceptional that should Allow you to unleash your genuine fashionista restrictions.

Despite in which you search, it’s vital that you Keep in mind that if the worth seems way too great to generally be genuine, it almost certainly is. So do your study and search for quality customer care and not just very low pricing. That way, you’ll be sure to get the beautiful 1:1 Chanel duplicate bag of your desires.

TAC-Retail store.com is an additional replica web site that ensures high quality and presents rapidly, responsible delivery. The web site has numerous types of products and solutions ranging from Louis Vuitton to Marc Jacobs. Also, their replica bags designer prices are extremely competitive. On top of that, they've got a fulfillment guarantee plan which promises that the customer will get what they purchased in as fantastic situation as feasible.

VogaBag.ru is yet another 1:one reproduction web site that also offers excellent merchandise. They've got a wide array of designer luggage that search just like the originals. What's more, they offer fantastic bargains on their reproduction bags and wallets.

Then You can find Repluxe.ru that's a 1:1 reproduction web page that also offers A variety of designer bags. What sets This great site apart is their motivation to buyer gratification. All of their merchandise are given a 12 month guarantee and they offer free delivery on orders more than 5000 RUB.

AtReplica.com is a web site that gives one:1replica baggage, wallets and accessories like belts and watches. They warranty top quality products that search accurately like the originals. The products and solutions on this Web site are of top-quality good quality with attention to depth. Moreover, they've got superb customer support and offer you pretty aggressive rates.

RSVPwww.com is the best place for All those in search of luxurious 1:one bag replicas. They have a diverse array of merchandise from leading designers including Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Prada. They offer quickly shipping and delivery and great customer support.

MirrorBags.com is the location for luxurious one:one reproduction baggage. They offer an intensive collection of designer luggage and wallets along with belts, sneakers along with other luxurious merchandise, all of which look just like the unique. They even have outstanding customer support and aggressive prices.

ReplicaLuxury.ru is often a responsible supply for reproduction luxurious bags and add-ons. They supply a good selection of one:one replica products from best brands for example Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada and Burberry. They also give fast shipping and delivery and a pleasure promise.

BagReplica.com is a replica website that provides high-quality one:1 bags, wallets, watches and accessories. Their catalogue includes designer baggage and wallets from leading models including Gucci, Dior and Chanel. They even have a fulfillment ensure policy so you are aware of that your buys is going to be of top quality.

StyleSweety.com is yet another one:1 reproduction web site with a variety of designer baggage and wallets. They supply good discounts on their items, speedy delivery in addition to a fulfillment warranty.

On the lookout for good quality one:1 luxurious replica baggage or wallets? Following consulting Quora,

#fake designer bags

1 note · View note

gemtvusa · 1 year

Text

SAMSUNG Class Neo QLED 8K QN800B Mini LED Quantum HDR 32x, Dolby Atmos, Smart TV (QN65QN800BFXZA)+ review

QUANTUM MATRIX TECHNOLOGY PRO: Dive into a mesmerizing display with Samsung's Quantum Matrix Technology Pro, using Quantum Mini LEDs to present over a billion vibrant colors with microscopic precision, delivering profound contrasts. NEURAL QUANTUM PROCESSOR: Witness the brilliance of AI-enhanced 8K. This powerhouse 8K processor employs 20 unique neural networks to orchestrate Smart TV Hub functions, immersive Dolby Atmos sound, and refined 8K upscaling (*Note: AI-driven techniques are utilized for 8K upscaling. The final image may differ based on the source). INFINITY ONE DESIGN & SLIM ONE CONNECT: Relish the refined elegance of the Infinity One Design. Its svelte silhouette and contemporary aesthetics are tailor-made for the modern home, blending seamlessly with your décor. The Slim One Connect keeps unsightly cables discreetly tucked away. QUANTUM HDR 32X: Unveil the filmmaker's vision with vivid clarity and contrast, thanks to HDR 32X. Witness an expansive color palette and uncover the subtle intricacies in scenes optimized for High Dynamic Range. DOLBY ATMOS & OBJECT TRACKING SOUND+: Engulf yourself in dynamic 3D sound with OTS+. As sounds travel from strategically positioned speakers behind the screen, you'll feel completely surrounded, whether it's the roar of a car zooming past or a plane soaring overhead. Amplify this experience with built-in Dolby Atmos. REAL 8K RESOLUTION & AI UPSCALING: Revel in the unparalleled clarity of 8K and the might of 33 million pixels. An adept processor elevates non-8K content, ensuring everything you view reaches 8K perfection, regardless of the source*. ANTI-REFLECTION & ULTRA VIEWING ANGLE: Experience an optimal view from any corner of the room. Designed to minimize reflections and enhance colors, the Ultra Viewing Angle ensures a consistent and immersive visual experience. SMART TV WITH INTEGRATED VOICE ASSISTANTS: Seamlessly integrate your favorite voice assistants. Whether you prefer Bixby, Alexa, or Google Assistant, they're all at your command, embedded right into your TV. Gem TV Usa Verdict The Samsung QNQ00B shines in various aspects but seems more tailored for future needs than current demands. While it excels in some areas, by today's standards, it presents certain challenges. Pros - Sleek and stylish design complemented by the One Connect box - Lively, vibrant, and brilliantly illuminated visuals - Strong support for gamers Cons - Tendency for images to appear over-processed or unclear - Lacks Dolby Vision HDR support

Samsung QN800B (Neo QLED 8K) review

The Samsung QN800B boasts an array of features that might initially make it seem like the ultimate TV. It's a product from a leading brand, packed with a comprehensive gaming toolkit, a robust smart TV interface, an unexpectedly superior audio system, an external input box, a mini-LED screen promising unparalleled backlighting, and an ultra-sleek design slimmer than the current top-tier OLEDs. Plus, it flaunts an 8K resolution, prepping for the day when 8K content becomes standard. But why doesn't it snag a full five-star rating? Simply, it doesn't entirely live up to its promise. There's no denying the Samsung QN800B has commendable attributes: remarkable brightness, noteworthy black levels for LCD screens, an expansive and natural color spectrum, along with remarkable edge-definition and motion handling. When it comes to the scant 8K content available, the detail it provides is awe-inspiring, rivaling the top 8K TVs. Its audio also surpasses expectations, offering a broader soundstage than anticipated. However, its shortcomings lie in backlight management, which doesn't stand up to the industry's best. Its self-adjusting brightness results in inconsistent viewing experiences. Despite its impressive audio range, its bass sounds are barely noticeable. The 8K resolution, while splendid, poses a challenge when upscaling content below 4K, leading to some visual glitches. Furthermore, when put head-to-head with 4K competitors like the LG C2 or Sony A95K, the QN800B falters. While these rivals can't showcase 8K, their 4K display performance is superior. They also manage to upscale 1080p content without hitches. Samsung's persistent exclusion of Dolby Vision HDR further detracts from its appeal, making it seem a tad outdated. Our assessment is based on the 65-inch variant of the Samsung QN800B.

SAMSUNG QN800B FEATURES

- 8K resolution bolstered by mini-LED illumination - Lacks Dolby Vision HDR integration - Superior HDMI 2.1 connections via One Connect box The spotlight here unmistakably shines on the panel's impressive native resolution. Boasting a pixel density of 7680 x 4320, the panel houses an astounding 33,177,600 pixels, which considerably outnumbers the 8,294,400 pixels of a 4K screen. The promise of enhanced image quality from an 8K display, in terms of sharpness, detail, and overall fidelity, is self-evident. However, the value of this hinges on the availability of native 8K content, which is currently sparse. Yet, Samsung remains optimistic, emphasizing that the QN800B’s adept upscaling can make 4K content appear even more refined than on an actual 4K display. Employing a VA LCD screen, the QN800B uses mini-LEDs as its backlighting source. This involves utilizing a larger number of tinier LEDs than typical designs, which theoretically allows for heightened precision in backlight control, leading to enhanced contrast. To address the VA panel's known issues with off-angle viewing, Samsung has integrated its Ultra Viewing Angle Anti-Reflective technology. This strives to improve viewing angles and reduce screen glare. For connectivity, it offers four HDMI 2.1 ports (including one eARC enabled) alongside three USB ports, Ethernet, and a digital audio output. Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 are present for wireless connections. Notably, all these connections are housed in a separate One Connect box, linked to the screen via a singular cable. This design choice, whether for tabletop placement or wall-mounting, results in a neater appearance and improved cable management. Samsung's decision to forgo Dolby Vision HDR remains consistent, instead offering support for HLG, HDR10, and Adaptive HDR10+ dynamic metadata standards. This exclusion is notable for users who favor platforms like Netflix and Disney+, both of which utilize Dolby Vision. On the bright side, the inclusion of Filmmaker Mode is a boon for cinema enthusiasts. Interestingly, while Dolby Vision HDR is omitted, Samsung embraces Dolby Atmos audio. The QN800B is equipped with a 4.2.2 speaker system, powered by 70 watts, designed to emulate the spatial dimensions of Dolby Atmos soundtracks. It incorporates Samsung's Object Tracking Sound+, aiming to align sound output with on-screen movements. Further enhancing its audio capabilities, the TV collaborates with select Samsung soundbars using 'Q Symphony' technology and supports wireless Dolby Atmos connections with specific 2022 Samsung soundbars, such as the Samsung HW-Q990B and Samsung HW-Q930B.

SAMSUNG QN800B DESIGN

- One Connect box ensures a sleek appearance - Slim 17mm profile - Ultra-thin bezels for an immersive experience The QN800B stands out with its impressively thin depth of just 17mm, making it an ideal choice for wall-mounting. It maintains this depth uniformly, sidestepping the common OLED design of appearing slim but bulking up at certain sections. Viewed from the side, the screen sports a unique perforation, facilitating heat dissipation from the mini-LEDs and aiding sound distribution. When viewed head-on, the Samsung essentially presents as a full-screen experience, thanks to its minimalist bezels. For those not opting for wall-mounting (keeping in mind the 65-inch QN800B weighs about 23kg / 50 lbs), the TV can be securely placed on a robust central pedestal weighing 8kg / 18 lbs. This design is particularly handy as the TV doesn't require an extensive base for support. Regardless of placement choice, the One Connect box ensures the QN800B maintains a clean and streamlined look. Typically, the QN800B comes with two remote controls. The first is a slender, solar-powered device focusing on primary functions, while the second is a more substantial plastic counterpart with an array of buttons. The sleeker remote includes a 'mic' button, highlighting the TV's compatibility with voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung's Bixby. Alternatively, the QN800B can be operated using Samsung's 'SmartThings' app, known for its user-friendly interface, stability, and integration capabilities with other 'SmartThings' devices. In terms of build quality, the QN800B meets the expectations set by Samsung. While some construction materials, especially on the back panel, might not exude premium feel, and there's a noticeable flexibility when setting it up, these minor concerns vanish once the TV is securely positioned.

SAMSUNG QN800B TV PICTURE QUALITY

- Stunning 8K visuals - Vibrant and accurate colors with the right settings - Backlighting could be more consistent Samsung smartly integrates the YouTube app directly on its smart TV interface, which provides access to native 8K content. While most of it consists of extended drone shots of landscapes and close-ups of flora and fauna, it's a rare treat to experience 8K content on an 8K display. Watching this content on the QN800B is nothing short of breathtaking. The colors are exquisitely vivid, the detailing is astoundingly sharp, and the depth perception is remarkable. It's hard to imagine anyone not being mesmerized by the QN800B showcasing top-tier 8K visuals. However, diving back into everyday viewing, things get a tad more complex. Given that most of its time the QN800B will upscale 4K content, this is where its real test lies. The results are commendable, but not without flaws. On the upside, the QN800B presents impressive black and white tones. Blacks are deep, retaining intricate details without blending into a single shade. Whites, on the other hand, are brilliantly luminous, especially when the TV is first powered on, and maintain clarity and details. As a result, the contrast is dynamic and engaging. That said, the QN800B tends to dim its brightness when displaying small white elements on largely dark backgrounds, likely to minimize backlight bloom. This adjustment can sometimes be jarring for viewers. Generally, the mini-LED backlighting is satisfactory, but the screen's brightness is uneven, with the center appearing dimmer than the corners. Color rendition is extensive and, after some necessary tweaks in settings, becomes more natural. However, by default, the color intensity is dialed up a bit too much. The Samsung TV boasts sharp edge definitions and proficient motion handling, though in challenging scenes, activating the 'LED Clear Motion' can result in the undesired 'soap opera' effect. The QN800B's upscaling of 4K content is admirable, given that it's generating the majority of the on-screen details in real-time. Yet, in intricate scenes, the image can occasionally appear over-sharpened. And then there's the reality of frequently watching content below 4K quality. The QN800B's upscaling prowess has its limits, particularly with standard definition or older content, which can appear soft. Before investing in the QN800B, potential buyers should consider their primary content sources and their resolutions.

SAMSUNG QN800B TV SOUND QUALITY

- Enhances audio depth in movies - Delivers clarity and crisp dialogue - Lacks substantial bass depth Samsung has put significant effort into the audio system of the QN800B, resulting in a sound quality that outperforms many TVs without an external setup. The audio presents an expansive breadth, with a subtle elevation to Dolby Atmos soundtracks, enhancing the overall cinematic experience. The OTS+ technology further amplifies this, offering a richer auditory experience than one might expect. The mid-range stands out, presenting clarity and a balanced tonality, revealing fine details seamlessly. The treble remains well-balanced and sharp, unless you push the volume to its extremes. However, it's the bass where the TV's built-in audio falls short. It lacks depth and can be overwhelmed during intense audio sequences. Nevertheless, for a TV in this price bracket, it's advisable to invest in a top-tier soundbar to match the audio quality with its visual prowess. Samsung offers an array of high-quality soundbars, and opting for one that's compatible with 'Q Symphony' allows the QN800B's audio system to complement the soundbar, enhancing the overall auditory experience.

SAMSUNG TV GAMING

All four HDMI ports support HDMI 2.1 with a full bandwidth of 48Gbps, offering compatibility for 4K at 120Hz, ALLM, VRR, and AMD FreeSync Pro. The 'Game' mode ensures an ultra-low input lag of less than 10ms at 4K 60Hz, making it evident that this TV is tailored for next-generation console enthusiasts. Samsung's 'Game Bar' is another handy feature, providing on-demand pop-up stats about frame-rate, refresh-rate, and more, ensuring gamers have essential data right at their fingertips. While the 'Game' mode effectively reduces latency, it does tend to amplify the brightness and color balance, sometimes giving them a bold and slightly aggressive appearance. The overall experience can feel like the screen is delivering its utmost potential when a gaming console is activated; the sensation is akin to being overwhelmed with intensity, which might be exhaustive over extended sessions. However, this robust visual delivery must be weighed against the TV's swift response times. Opting for more refined visual processing can introduce additional lag.

SAMSUNG QN800B SMART TV AND MENUS

Samsung's smart TV system is powered by their long-standing Tizen platform. Recently, Tizen has become a tad more assertive, expanding to occupy the entire screen with a reimagined menu layout that isn't the most straightforward to navigate. Although it might take some time for its content recommendations to align with your actual viewing habits, it boasts an extensive array of streaming services. Additionally, Samsung introduces 'Samsung TV Plus,' which offers a unique range of programming at no cost, a feature many might find intriguing. In terms of settings, Samsung manages to strike a balance between offering comprehensive adjustments and maintaining user-friendliness. For those who enjoy fine-tuning to achieve the perfect picture, the options are there. Conversely, if you're looking to achieve a decent visual setup shortly after unboxing, that's equally feasible.

Read the full article

0 notes

westletter · 1 year

Text

Summer 2023

Dear Friends, Mexican culture, going back millennia, is steeped in volcano lore. This marvelous painting by the 19th century master José María Velasco, can be found at the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City. It depicts Popocatepetl, on the right, and Iztaccíhuatl on the left, the volcanos that at 17 thousand feet plus, soar over the plain of Mexico City.

They don’t just soar, they dominate the imagination. In the neighbourhood where I have spent some very agreeable time this year, the leafy Avenida Amsterdam that rings Parque Mexico is anchored at one end by Plaza Popocatepetl and at the other by Plaza Iztaccihuatl. Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl were and are like the gods of Greek and Roman mythology. The legends vary, according to the periods they arose from, but there is a common thread. The beautiful princess Iztaccihuatl and the brave warrior Popocatepetl fell in love and pledged to wed when Popocatepetl returned from war. A jealous lover, however, entered the scene and fed poor Iztaccihuatl the false news that Popocatepetl had died in battle. Iztaccihuatl was devastated and died of a broken heart. When the triumphant Popocatepetl returned, he received the tragic tidings and was inconsolable. He laid her to rest where she lies today, in perpetual sleep, while he, ever restless beside her, reminds the world that the flame of his eternal passion is still burning. When the Spanish invaded the Aztec empire in the 16th century, their leader Hernando Cortes quickly realised the significance of Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl. When he proposed an ascent of Popo (as it was and is affectionately known), the indigenous members of his party recoiled in fear and said it couldn’t be done. Cortes saw an opportunity to reinforce Aztec perceptions that the Spaniards were of a superior, god-like race. He ordered a party, not just to scale Popo, but also to descend into its bowels! Here is a vivid description of that expedition, excerpted from William Prescott’s magisterial History of the Conquest of Mexico, originally published in 1843: “The Spaniards, five in number, climbed to the very edge of the crater .... Its depth might be from 800 to 1,000 feet. A lurid flame burned gloomily at the bottom, sending up a sulphurous steam, which, cooling as it rose, was precipitated on the sides of the cavity. The party cast lots, and it fell on Montano [the commander] himself to descend in a basket into this hideous abyss, into which he was lowered several times, till the adventurous cavalier had collected a sufficient quantity of sulphur for the wants of the army [to make gunpowder]. This doughty enterprise excited general admiration at the time. Cortes concludes his report of it to the emperor with the judicious reflection that it would be less inconvenient, on the whole, to import their powder from Spain.”

At the dawn of the 20th century, the government of long-standing Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz ordered the construction of an opulent opera house and cultural centre in Mexico City. After a pause for the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath (including the deposition of Diaz), the grand opening finally took place in 1934. The resulting structure, a beautiful mashup of neo-classical and belle epoque outside, and art deco and Mexican muralism inside, is known today as the Palacio de Bellas Artes. A charismatic artist, writer, political activist and volcano obsessive, Gerardo Murillo, aka Dr. Atl (his adopted Nahuatl name meaning water) was commissioned to provide the design for a glass stage curtain. It took Tiffany’s of New York a million pieces of stained glass to execute the design. The result, as you can see, is stunning and still in use today. Critically – and this was no small contribution on Dr. Atl’s part – it draws on native Mexican topography, iconography and mythology, in the form of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl.

Dr. Atl, pictured here, more than repays the trouble of getting to know him a bit better. When he was a young buck in the late 1800s, the time of Diaz, the Mexican art world was stiflingly derivative of the classical and religious works of the Old World. It was colonialism at its worst, and it was dead. Atl responded with a manifesto in 1906 calling for a new public art movement featuring native Mexican themes and monumental scale. Like a volcanic eruption, it shook the intelligentsia and the art world. Atl championed and mentored a new generation of Mexican-centric artists to his cause, among them, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco. This in turn led to the birth of the Mexican muralist movement in 1922.

In 1921 Atl, the volcano obsessive, met a beautiful, green-eyed volcano named Carmen Mondragon at a social gathering in Mexico City’s San Angel district. She is pictured here in an Atl portrait. Afterwards he confided to his diary: “I came home from the party … with my head burning and my soul trepid. Between the multitude of people that crowded the salons a green abyss opened before me, it was a green so profound as the sea: they were the eyes of a woman. I fell into that abyss instantly, like a man jumping from a high above rock ….” A week later they met again. Mondragon’s husband didn’t have a chance. Atl, the volcano obsessive, and the green-eyed volcano spent the day together. Two days later, she wrote back to Atl: “For me, for you, there will be no yesterday or tomorrow, for us both there is only one day, eternity of love and only one change: love that transforms into more love where there is no yesterday or tomorrow only an infinite space, a day where night does not exist but to love each other one night that will be more luminous than day itself when our flesh comes together, it is our destiny.” The two volcanos moved into an abandoned convent in Mexico City and established their love nest and studio there. Atl bestowed upon Mondragon the Nahuatl name Nahui Olin, for cosmic movement “both orderly and disorderly". They wrote and painted prolifically. In concert, Mondragon rapidly established a reputation as a model and muse for a parade of artists and photographers of the day, among them Diego Rivera and Edward Weston. She was not shy about disrobing (and putatively more). Yet it was the green-eyed volcano, not Atl, who was given to jealous fits of rage and tempestuous behaviour befitting her Nahuatl name. Sadly, this brilliant pair was not destined to find the eternal equilibrium of Popocateptl and Iztaccihuatl. They became known as the “escandalo” (scandal) of Mexico and eventually separated after seven years. Atl’s passion, however, for volcanoes of the terrestrial kind remained undimmed. For the rest of his life he trekked and spent vast amounts of time in volcano country, camping, sketching, painting and journaling. He even wrote an influential book that is still considered a valuable reference among volcanologists to this day. In 1943 there were reports of a fresh lava outcropping in a corn field in Michoacan State, to the west of Mexico City. Atl had to be there! And he was for the next year, obsessively documenting the birth and rise of the volcano known as Paricutin. He was so completely immersed in his work, and oblivious to the danger, that he lost a leg to Paricutin. Undaunted, he continued his trekking by mule. There is a spectacular exhibit on Mexican art and lore inspired by volcanoes, much of it Atl’s, on now at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. If you happen to be heading to CDMX, try to see it. You won’t be disappointed. Here, from that exhibit, is a stunning depiction of what grew from that lump of lava in a farmer’s cornfield, by Atl.

§ CLASS OF 2023 YEAR-END REPORT CARD Results capture only some of volcanic returns in info tech The Class of 2023 produced an average return of 5.6% over the Class year (July 1st, 2022 to June 30th, 2023). That compares to 6.8% for the TSX, 11.8% for the Dow and 17.5% for the S&P 500. While a decent recovery from the disappointments of the past two years, the Class clearly underperformed its benchmarks. The Headmaster notes: “There is no shame in failing to match the gains of the S&P when 75% of that performance derives from only 7 volatile stocks. The collective gains of Meta (parent of Facebook), Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet (parent of Google), Apple, Amazon and Tesla were volcanic. We had our share of that excitement by way of Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet. Along with Visa, our info tech foursome topped the Class with an average return of 25.9%. We have to remember that with volatile market leaders, what explodes upward, can also implode in similar fashion, as was the case last year when the S&P fell 19.4% vs a drop of 8.9% for the Class. I am happy with our degree of new economy exposure and would not want to increase it materially.” Other Class standout performers were teacher’s pets Alimentation Couche-Tard and Metro, with an average gain of 21.8%. Industrials benchmates CNR, John Deere and CCL did well too, with an average return of 17.6%. Class laggards were fertilizer giant, Nutrien, down 23.5%, and the energy twosome, Brookfield Renewable Partners and sad sack Algonquin Power (asked to leave the Class last November), down 12.6% and 42.1% (ouch!!!) respectively.

Here are the complete Class results. Financials - C The group’s results were mixed. While the average performance was -.8%, the individual results were more meaningful. TD and RBC were essentially flat. Scotiabank and BlackRock were mirror images of each other, with the former dropping 13% and the latter picking up 13.4%. With investor concerns over the past year that economies were veering into recession, and banks increasing their loan loss provisions, it is no surprise that the Canadian trio under performed. Comments the Headmaster: “Canadian banks are now trading below their historic valuation levels. Recession or not, if you can think ahead for the next five years and beyond, now would be a good time to add to positions. The yields are excellent. That said, I am increasingly vexed about Scotia. Its return on equity (a measure of investment efficiency) remains consistently below its Classmates. The discouraging stock price behaviour is a reflection of that. If the new CEO Scott Thomson doesn’t clearly signal a radical change in strategy this fall (as promised), it’s going to be ‘Adios BNS!’” TD, RBC and BlackRock, promoted. Scotiabank, on probation. Resources - C minus The soul occupant of the class resources chair is the Canadian fertilizer giant, Nutrien, owner and producer of the world’s largest potash holdings. Nutrien, one will recall, also has a major agricultural retail supplies operation throughout North America, South America and Australia. This relatively stable division acts as a buffer against the more volatile swings and roundabouts of the fertilizer business. Headmaster: “It’s a given that Nutrien is a cyclical business. I am prepared to live with that, given the leavening effect of the retail division, and management’s ability to deliver benchmark-level returns over the long haul. At the current beaten-down stock price, this classmate is beginning to look very attractive again.” Promoted. Energy - D As reported in the January issue, Algonquin Power’s business and stock price fell off a cliff in the fall of 2022. Rising interest rates on debt, and poor risk management decisions to deal with them, scuppered the stock. The Class in turn booked a 42.1% loss when Algonquin was unceremoniously expelled last November. Notes the Headmaster: “I have dined on humble pie before, and it will happen again. It is a necessary condition of this profession.” While disappointing, Brookfield Renewable Energy’s return of -12.6% should not be seen as alarming. This Class member continues to execute the fundamentals, if not flawlessly, then with a remarkable degree of acuity. Deal flow is intact and financing is second to none. Recent investments in Australia and India are poised to contribute to the bottom line. And the takeover of Westinghouse and its nuclear reactor servicing business is due to close shortly. Headmaster: “What a canny move, scooping up Westinghouse. Anyone who thinks the planet can successfully decarbonize its energy grid without nuclear power is smoking something. The global reactor fleet is essential to mitigating climate change, and there is one pre-eminent supplier to that fleet, Westinghouse. The only reason Brookfield Renewable’s stock price is down, is because of temporary market repricing.” Brookfield Renewable’s 10-yr total return, annualized, is 15.3%. Promoted. Infrastructure - B minus Brookfield Infrastructure, the sister company of Brookfield Renewable, saw its stock price drop 1.5% over the Class year. By way of consolation, it still has a stellar Class record, with a 10-yr total return, annualized, of 11.91%. Headmaster: “How do they do it? By patiently buying attractive long-term assets when they are out of favour (and selling at a discount), growing them both organically and with capital injections, and recycling them (selling for significant capital gains) when they become mature and fully valued. This is the antithesis of quick flipping.” Current Brookfield Infrastructure investments spread over five continents include port terminals, rail networks, data centres, cell phone towers, pipelines and a petrochemical complex. Promoted. Retail - A Montreal Classmates Alimentation Couche-Tard and Metro rarely fail to please, and last year was no exception. This pair produced an average Class year return of 21.8%. Headmaster: “Both are in the consumer staples business and both experienced about a 25% gain in earnings per share. Of course that had nothing to do with inflation and was solely due to management excellence.” Promoted. Industry - A Classmates CNR, John Deere and CCL produced an admirable average return of 17.6%. The leader of the pack was the venerable agricultural and construction equipment manufacturer John Deere, with a 35.3% gain. This was on the heels of a similar increase in earnings per share. CNR and label and container manufacture CCL turned in gains of 10.7% and 7% respectively, commendable if not volcanic. Headmaster: “Remarkably, each of these well-run businesses is trading below its usual valuations (price/earnings; price/book value; price/cash flow), despite solid performance. If we are headed for a “hard landing” recession, I suppose that makes sense. I wouldn’t bank on it, though.” Healthcare - B Healthcare stocks are seen as a safe haven in good times and bad. Their products being considered essential, they are almost immune to economic downturns. Hence their suitability in most portfolios. The Class healthcare trio are Amgen, Johnson & Johnson and Merck. Over the school year their stocks rose by an average of 3.7%. Headmaster: “The Texas two-step is a country and western dance derived from the fox trot. The rhythm is quick step, quick step, followed by slow step, slow step. In corporate legal parlance the Texas two-step takes on another layer of meaning. Class member Johnson & Johnson is facing a volcano of lawsuits claiming that its talcum powder products cause cancer. Step one: create a new company and transfer the claims liabilities into it. Step two: declare bankruptcy of the new entity!” That’s an over simplification, but one gets the gist of it. In fact, J&J prior to the two-step manoeuvre, had negotiated a potential settlement with the majority of the claimants. And it was prepared to transfer $8.9 billion into the new company to cover the claims. But the courts, which in the past have given their blessing to the Texas two-step, are giving J&J a hard time. For some reason they are having difficulty swallowing the contention that a spin-off of a company with a market cap of $450 billion and a triple A credit rating, is actually in financial distress. So after two appeals, this particular Texas two-step is still in limbo. Headmaster: “Guessing how this will all shake out is a mug’s game. Just remember, all the bad news is already baked into J&J’s stock. Whether they eventually settle via bankruptcy court, or slug it out in litigation, will not be material to the company’s long term prospects. This outstanding Class member will prevail.” Meanwhile Johnson & Johnson, as announced last year, has spun out its consumer division as a separate company called Kenvue. [Editor’s note: this is not related to the two-step proceedings.] It is currently offering existing J&J shareholders a chance to swap their stock for Kenvue shares at a slight discount. Says the Headmaster: “Why would I want to swap the high growth and high margin pharmaceutical and medical device divisions, for the low growth and low margin consumer business? Ixnay on that.” All promoted. Telecom - C Class member Telus has long been the cream of the crop among the big three Canadian telcos (the other two being Rogers and BCE). Telus has the best customer retention and average revenue per customer numbers. And vitally, the best free cash flow growth. What it does not have is the best earnings per share growth, and this has been a drag on the stock. Headmaster: “Telus has invested heavily in its best-in-class fibre optic network. This has required major capital outlays and taking on significant debt. That investment is largely behind Telus now, and we should see improving debt and earnings numbers. It is also worth noting that Telus now has three substantial subsidiaries, Telus International, Telus Health and Telus Agriculture. Each is contributing to the parent company’s earnings and cash flows.” Promoted. Info Tech - A+ Volcanic is an apt description of the 41.8%, 31.3%, 9.8% and 20.6% returns churned out by Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Visa respectively. They continue to bear out the wisdom of investing in companies that have enduring competitive advantages. Each is globally dominant in its specified domains. Apple has actually increased its market share for high-end smart phones, during this time of economic worry and uncertainty. For Microsoft it’s the rampant Azure cloud business, the legacy enterprise software (now mostly converted to a gravy train subscription model) and some spice in the form of a first-out-of-the-gate GP Chat-enhanced search engine offering. Alphabet, despite consistent scepticism among the punditry, continues to make hay like no one else in search engine and YouTube advertising. And Visa has come roaring back as the world’s preeminent payments toll road operator. Together with Mastercard, it has an extremely lucrative lock hold on what effectively is a duopoly. Headmaster: “Dominance bestows pricing power, and pricing power drives superior margins and profits. Q.E.D.” All promoted. Entertainment - C The sole occupant of the Class entertainment chair remains the house of Disney. The Headmaster has been surprisingly patient with this under performer whose stock price fell 5.4% over the school year. He comments: “Disney is a genuine conundrum. Before he retired, the then CEO Bob Iger did two big things. He loaded up the balance sheet with debt to buy the television and movie studio assets of the Fox Corporation. And he moved Disney aggressively into the streaming business. Iger’s replacement as CEO, Bob Chapek, was left with that deck to play with. To his credit, he grew the streaming business exponentially, and now Disney is second only to Netflix in that realm. But return on equity and profitability tanked. While the parks and studios side of the business throw off cash, the streaming side has been a major drain. It bleeds cash and it has to stop. But the board decided Chapek wasn’t the man to do the stopping, and brought back Iger! We are nearing the first anniversary of Iger’s return. He has made a number of promising moves, and there will be more to come, including the possible sale of some of the ‘linear’ (non-streaming) media assets, such as ABC. On another front, Disney-owned ESPN has just announced a $2 billion deal with the sports betting company PENN Entertainment. I am willing to cut Iger a lot of slack. He has the track record. The Disney magic is coming back.” Promoted. If you would like further information on any of the investing ideas raised in this issue, or a complimentary consultation, please call or email. CW

0 notes