#moby sails posting! the first of many moby posts to come!

[micamicster]

Thou hast been where bell or diver never went; hast slept by many a sailor’s side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down. Thou saw’st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them. Thou saw’st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed—while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms.

MOBY DICK by Herman Melville, chapter LXX The Sphynx

[stillbornedprincess]

the long awaited Moby dick book review observation for the modern young lady.

do not open if you do not want spoilers

now. The novel is a very dated one, but with all renowned dated novels it’s timeless with at least one theme to touch everyone. Personally I enjoyed reading the novel so much but why it is I found it so beautiful would be untranslatable. Not that I won’t try, and with the first part of the title of this post, “a review”, this will not be a review. Nor will it be a summary: so for accuracy “observation” was coined. A unique aspect of the book, which also makes it notorious, is that is serves more or less like a mirror. What you’ll find in your heart, you’ll find in the text. A journalist would prove it to you in a neater way, but bear with me. There were plenty chapters that twinkled in its secret tongue to me but I’ll highlight two or three. I will start with chapter 85: the fountain. This chapter is about the enigmatic spout of sperm whales. In the olden days, people could only guess how those bodies worked. And even still today, suppose, we still do guess, guessing this time maybe not just with fickle mind but with machines as well. A photograph is a sacred thing. Anyways, here’s a quote narrated by the narrator ‘Ishmael’

how nobly it raises our conceit of the mighty, misty monster, to behold him solemnly sailing through a calm tropical sea; his vast, mild head overhung by a canopy of vapor, engendered by his incommunicable contemplations, and that vapor—as you will sometimes see it—glorified by a rainbow, as if Heaven itself had put its seal upon his thoughts. For, d'ye see, rainbows do not visit the clear air; they only irradiate vapor. And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in my mind, divine intuitions now and then shoot, enkindling my fog with a heavenly ray. And for this I thank God; for all have doubts; many deny; but doubts or denials, few along with them, have intuitions. Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eye.

now, whenever talk of rainbows come up in art or literature, it’s bound to stick out to me. with colours, they make up my stillbornland, and with colours, they make up awe-ful greys. my arguments for the colour grey would be just as jagged as ‘Ishmael’’s arguments for the colour white in the chapter 42. But matters like this are never rational seeing the nature of colours. Maybe God the Painter was a postmodernist. Of course this is a joke, please take it as the joke it is.

and on the topic of jokes, the humour of Moby dick is wry as dried whale foreskin. Worn to take on scalding topics, not so different from try-working workers would put it on to shield from soot and fire. The narrator, who I’m not too sure whether or not he would be the protagonist; funny guy. We the reader are taken by the shoulder like the wedding guest and from then on the leaves of the book fly by like the wedding banquet happening indoors as we watch into the eyes of our ancient marinier with a brisk opening note of “Call me Ishmael.” And an immediate “Some years ago—never mind how long precisely, having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore. . ..”

the character of Ishmael is simple: he tells us about the time as a young man he dreamt up sweet nothings. It also happens that he is very lonely. He’s alone in the first few chapters, and alone again in the epilogue. Ishmael isn’t alone for the whole novel though. His weary heart finds rest in the manly arms of pagan queeqeg which kept him warm at the spouter inn. this gooey part of Ishmael and his friend isn’t really acknowledged again. but what I said about the text being a mirror, many reviewers as seen on Goodreads and jstor, and slate magazine, found it a little erotic. Erotic if you wilt. But personally, I understand why one would interpret that, and I suppose this novel, the watercolour fresco it is, in its washing shades, a layer inbetween touches on that human weakness. And on human weakness, another wash it is, can be traced from the tube that is moody captain ahab. The shade of “mood” as I’ll call it, its body will be taken from ahab. think how paints are mixed together to be darker or bluer or redder, that’s what I’m getting at, as I said about journalists. Ahab: the blue. Pipin: the white (a blinding, humbling white) (ironic cause Pipin is very very black. You could say even, Pipin represents the swallowing mythology of race within the ancient western order, made self aware.) And why it is I chose Pipin to be the lighter shade of mood, particularly white, is that he is pure. He holds no hate, only foreboding. If Pipin loves God it’s up to the reader, and, on that, Love of God is known by most theist philosophies by “forever search.” The Nepalese priests don’t know God, nor do the Sufis of Chad, they may know less about God then the laymen, but their hearts bleed on and on for Him.

Pipin knows God. He saw His foot in the Pacific, and never knew anything else. He saw the thread spindle by and never saw anything else. And that is where I will close on the character of Pipin for now. Ahab, as I was saying, is the mayonnaise of the story. He is described a lot how he’s perceived by readers. Old greek hero: learned, lined face. A line in his description that stood out to me was when his appearance was compared to a broken doll for the thick white scar that runs down his face and neck. It is unknown whether it ran through his whole form. On broken dolls, Ahab is wounded both in the spirit and in the body. He misses a leg infamously licked off by his nemesis, and many scholars write on how this symbolises castration, but, in my opinion, isn’t so necessary because it’s connoted enough that his, um, phallus, Excuse my language, was damaged one horrid time. His prosthetic leg was “so violently displaced, that it had stake-wise smitten, and all but pierced his groin.” He was found somewhere layed unconscious alone in a freak accident.

The madness was planted not the hour when he lost his leg, but I’ll say it was placed after how his coworkers treated him as he was sore. Of course he was distressed, he was just after getting maimed by a leviathan. Then they leave him in the ship basement in a straitjacket for three months. A believable 20th century psychology experiment. And on that absurdity on both his freakout and the funny treatment others follows with, all ahab did was poke a little knife into moby’s thick skin; what’s six inches to a whale? the calf of a man it seems. And on this, I’ll say, especially on the last five chapters of the novel, it really tugged at my heart. How many people go mad over silly things and how many of them sit in their graves, over something so silly. The sober portrayal of madness in Moby Dick was new to me, and poor ahab, nothing was holding him back. I’m sure one of you here have tasted madness before and you’ll know how it wraps the particles in the air. You’ll be right till you’re wrong and by then it’s too late and everyone hates you and what’s left then but to kill the White Whale. Lucid or not, a self fulfilling ‘prophesy’. If you are mad, I am sorry. I was planning to add some quote about how ‘people that don’t go mad after adversity are unlucky’ or whatever but I think this one will be more appropriate for my case.

“I like to feel something in this slippery world that can hold, man.”

... What people do for truth. Sigh. If only the reformation didn’t happen.

A short wedge away from crazy Ahab now, a character I will pull in front will be Fedallah, the formally secret pagan accomplice of the captain. While I was washing my hair thinking about this text straight after I completed it, thinking about how phallic it is. There also happens to be no female characters obviously seeing the setting, now I could write about how all the maces and harpoons and daggers and such all the sperm and domination castration etc and I sure will, maybe, but a tidbit I dreamt up under bubbles of shampoo:

I feel ‘Fedallah’ is a very feminine character, how Ahab is an archetypal wounded masculin. He kind of works though him, teaching him the eastern ways of blood magic and all queer ideas on how to defeat the whale. On my observation of Fedallah being feminine, many people critique that this ‘Fedallah’ is orientalist. Someone wrote a whole paper on it, but I didn’t read it, Said’s book on Orientalism is enough, and yes I suppose one can see why someone else takes that view. A phantom parsee whom ‘Stubb’ and ‘Starbuck’ call the devil well before it’s open to see that they were right. He kind of slithers in and out, like a veiled witch in some western story about those Moroccan seductresses, feasting on the woes of a madman just getting eviler and eviler. Fedallah, as a character, I will make a joke now, maybe it was that unnamed wife of ahab’s in a strap on beard. It makes sense seeing how Old Testament the novel reads, Wicked Jezebel. Now. What do I write that hasn’t been written by others. another chapter I quite liked. Say, chapter 96 was memorable to me, really all the chapters in the early 90’s. Here’s an excerpt from this ninety six.

“Nevertheless the sun hides not Virginia's Dismal Swamp, nor Rome's accursed Campagna, nor wide Sahara, nor all the millions of miles of deserts and of griefs beneath the moon. The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true—not true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon's, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. "All is vanity". ALL. This wilful world hath not got hold of unchristian Solomon's wisdom yet. But he who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing grave-yards, and would rather talk of operas than hell; calls Cowper, Young, Pascal, Rousseau, poor devils all of sick men; and throughout a care-free lifetime swears by Rabelais as passing wise, and therefore jolly;—not that man is fitted to sit down on tomb-stones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon. But even Solomon, he says, "the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain" (i. e. even while living) "in the congregation of the dead". Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.”

The sun doesn’t hide anything over ground, all encompassing to feed everyone vitamin D. The ending of this extract, narrated by Ishmael, suggests that some people get more vitamin D than others. This reads like a clever sermon and you’ll be sure to find other witty sermons, the one on Jonah ch.9.

I wanted to write about the character of ‘Starbuck’ now that I am thinking of preaching and morals. Starbuck is the yellow colour in the sandwich. He is the formal second-in-charge of the boat, and a pious Christian he is. His piety is seen in chapter 123 where he debates whether he kills his boss with his own musket in his sleep. He doesn’t kill Ahab, although he was noble to entertain it. I think the of Starbuck represents empathy. He worries for his friend’s soul, always telling him to come back to the Light but failing. A chapter where starbuck confronts Ahab once again, around the last 4 chapters, Ahab wept and admitted to his friend that maybe he didn’t want to chase on this suicide mission. Of course Ahab being Ahab he takes back his statement and goes back to being stoic but. Starbuck emphasised with the madman by reflecting what they both had in common; and we know most good holy people would brush a philistine off as a heathen with no humanity, and might even try to kill them not out of worry for their mortal soul, but from a sinister spot, hoping the wrongdoer burns in Hell. And on the topic of pagans, right and wrong, followers of old timey Nantucket christianity, presentations, we have a ‘Queequeg’ to stain the fresco with the shade of outsiders. I suppose Ishmael is an apparent outsider but only just to the reader. In the pretend word of Moby Dick he would had blended in just fine a tidy american boy. His name, like crazy Elijah and loony Ahab puts the nature of his background frankly. Not here or there, what morals he held, and geographical location, manhattan to God knows where. Ishmael bows down to his husbands idol goddess and seemed to want to do as he did until the idol goddess told him otherwise, and instead advised ‘queequeg’ to follow Ishmael.

Now, I could go on about how this character was ment to resonate to culturally Christian American western people, but that’s obvious and boring with “better a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.”, But instead I will lend the map my meek mind interpreted while pondering ‘Queequeg’. I think maybe, if I were in charge of a modern adaption of the book, I would shift Queequeg into a “pointless migrant” from some place that isn’t war-torn or necessarily unpleasant but for some reason bleeds out immigrants like blood. Say, Albania. Excuse my rude language, it’s supposed to be wry. I say this not to make a geopolicical statement, it’s just, well, a modern Moby dick, surely a Polynesian devil worshipper would fain to be relevant. A hardworking young man from Timbuktu ready to die for his employers as long as he gets to mope around hostels, away from the oppression of his family. Something to think about, we don’t often hear the plights of these undesirables on euronews. In this modern Moby Dick the details of Queequeg’s past life would change but the structure would stay the same methinks. In the novel, he’s of noble stock. First in line to a barbarian throne to a cannibal kingdom. Dismayed with what he sees on his island he abandons its customs and goes abroad to see what life is like in the fabled new world. Poor fellow was in for a shock, turns out the Christians are so much worse than the pagans in daily life. While the cannibals may chop up and eat a person once every so often, Americans drink until they slobber and spit on others for being the wrong shade of brown. The story goes, the mere observation of it all makes ‘Queequeg’ feel so tainted to even return to what he escaped, so he put on the brimmed hat and linen and squawked how’de’ye’doo .. … that story was touching. as a younger girl the muslamic ways of my family made me sick. even now when I ponder on them too long the similar nausea manifests… but. I look out the window to see what the folk around me get up to. As much as culture and its rules may sting, imagine living without it? right now there’s a European girl finding this conclusion but vice versa. Fickle thing this all is. Now, that’s a theme touched on the text, how we really are all just copies of one another, shaped by circumstance. And on that, I’d imagine a modern Ishmael to look a bit like this:

art hoe kind of person.. r/redscarepod when it was still about art. And on art, this book, really, it’s nothing like how i describe it. It’s really beautiful. Maybe I’m a bad reader, I don’t know literature, but this one was different. Nothing washed over me like it before. And I know the novel isnt finished with me yet. Lord willing I’d be sure to pick it up again in a year. The text is thick with references and even though I might have caught the biblical ones, and the ones I did not understand were filled in via powermobydick.com. Maybe twelve months later I’ll be the wiser. On beautiful things, here’s a pick of three pretty book covers.

1. A unique rainbow. Oh! How come I wrote nothing about the whale! Wow. Here’s a excerpt that stood out to me about the creature.

“the White Whale tossed himself salmon-like to Heaven. So suddenly seen in the blue plain of the sea, and relieved against the still bluer margin of the sky, the spray that he raised, for the moment, intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier; and stood there gradually fading and fading away from its first sparkling intensity, to the dim mistiness of an advancing shower in a vale.”

a confession, picturing The Whale in my head while reading; it was not much like how it was described. Maybe its eye sockets were broader, but full of void. Misty, opaque poltergeist of pale pastels and whites. Kind of kawaii, but not so much a fish-mammal but an angel.

2.

Adore the paper cutout impression the colouring produces. not much distinction between the ‘sky’ and the ‘sea’. Moby Dick could be flying.

3.

Who’s the face supposed to represent? And the whale, that certainly cannot be Moby, because it’s hurt. I think the face is supposed to be Ishmael, the disheveled beard makes me wonder that it’s supposed to be him after a day or two floating in Queequeg’s coffin, after the Pequod sank. Look at those colours, those scraggly bruises look sore. Poor whale, I think it’s crying.

oh, sob, it moved me so much I wanted to make art about it, a collage was my first idea, but it occurred to me I don’t know how I’d execute that. Usually collages are reserved for art on different feelings. I was thinking maybe a video collage, a retelling of the novel though internet memes and pop culture moments. But what memes other than Dj Khalid clips would be added? So scrap that. A journalist would know.

useless note: this made me think of the character ‘Stubb.’ :

hardy harr harr, what were your thoughts on Stubb? Many reviewers found stubb a poopyhead, which he was, but an intresting poopyhead nonetheless. Unforgivable what he did to Pipin though.

This is the end of my observation. Thank you if you read all of this. Thanks. God bless.

“Heaven have mercy on us all—Presbyterians and Pagans alike— for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.”

[derivativealigner]

I rewatched the second season of South Park and took so many notes that I had to split them into two parts. Like seriously, I took so. many. notes. And pictures this time. I started rewatching just in case I’d find some cool little facts to sprinkle into my fanfic but I went way too far and now there’s a million facts under this cut (including gay stan, a domestic violence psa, and craig fucking dying)

Stan doesn’t like hospitals, he finds them gross and he gets sick 🤮. Also the hospital in South Park is called Hell’s Pass hospital. Early seasons have the name as Hells Pass but it gets fixed later

Cartman has to sing all of Come Sailing Away by Styx if he hears a part of it. After he says this, Kyle sings the first part and Cartman has to sing the rest. Kyle does it again later, which is kinda mean

Cartman’s mom tries to abort Cartman, who is an eight-year-old child and thus cannot be legally aborted. Later, after she slept with Bill Clinton to change the law and make 40th trimester abortions legal, it turns out she meant adoption

Kenny sacrifices himself to turn on the generator to the hospital and save Dr. Mephesto’s life along with others. He says “I’ll fucking do it” then does it and dies, absolute legend

Cartman gets way too into his deputy role. He goes undercover, pretends to be a prostitute, says “Respect my authoritah!” a lot and beats people up with his police stick

Kenny’s brother first appears when Cartman responds to a call about a disturbance at Kenny’s house. Apparently there are like 10 adult family members in the house at that time. Kenny’s dad has a black eye because Kenny’s mom punched him. She says he can’t hold a job

Token sits in the classroom in season 2

Cartman starts hating hippies in this season, like a lot

Chef tells the boys that the right time to do drugs is in college

Ike’s name is Ike Moisha Broflovski and he was born in 1996, making him 2 years old in 1998 when this season aired

This is probably obvious but yeah Kyle and Ike are circumcised

Kyle says family isn’t just blood, it’s who you care about, and he says “That’s why you guys are more than just friends, you’re my family. Except for Cartman.”

Craig’s finally sitting in the classroom in S02E04

None of the boys like dodgeball

Clyde gets a dodgeball to the face and he cries :( and he’s the only one who cries by the way

Pip throws a dodgeball in Kyle’s face and breaks Kyle’s nose

When Kyle’s mom tells the boys about conjoined twin myslexia (which isn’t a real term) and says anyone might’ve absorbed their dead twin in the womb, Stan and Cartman run away screaming but Kenny and Kyle stay to listen. Kenny even leans in to look at the book “Freaks A-Z!” that Mrs. Broflovski is reading from, and when she leaves, Kyle grimaces and Kenny laughs

Stan’s mom (Sharon) calls Kyle’s mom (Sheila) when Stan is all freaked out and trying to put an icepick through his brain, and Sharon tells Sheila to get run over by a truck. Sharon is pretty mean in these early episodes

Mr. Broflovski doesn’t really listen to what Mrs. Broflovski is saying, bad husband >:(

South Park’s team is always called South Park Cows no matter the sport

The school nurse, Nurse Gollum, went to Colorado State University

I just realized Butters exists. I think he appeared before S02E05 but I didn’t notice but yeah he’s there with the dodgeball team, injured

Here’s a picture to make up for my disgusting anti-Butters bias

Kenny’s dodgeball uniform number is 69 obviously. Kyle is 7, Stan is 4, Cartman is 325

Sheila smacks Gerald in the face so hard he falls off his chair, lots of violence perpetrated by women in this show. Remember, don’t do domestic violence no matter your gender, it’s not cool

I realized after this whole Butters thing that I should’ve made more notes about Pip, so I’ll make a note about his anger issues now. When people call him French, he gets angry and throws dodgeballs at them

The boys launch a jelly roll at Ms. Crabtree and make her crash the bus. They do it just for fun

The kids somehow go to China in the school bus

Cartman references Moby Dick, but he probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about

Kevin Stoley gets named in S02E05 and has his first speaking role when he says he has Chinese parents and after Cartman hears it he immediately says something racist. smh cartman, what a problematic fave

Cartman says “I love you guys 😊” but Stan and Kyle just stare at him and he goes 😐 “Eh, screw you guys 😠”

If Jimbo and Ned really fought in Vietnam, they youngest they could’ve been in 1998 is early forties, which means in the latest seasons they would be early sixties. Btw they met in Vietman

Jesus and Pals is a recurring TV show in seasons 1 and 2. Jesus just kind of lives in South Park

I just remembered that Terrance and Phillip are really old in canon, it’s so weird, like how can South Park canon still be changing, it’s been 20 years

Also the early seasons are casually racist who knew

Kenny flashes his ass on a tape the boys send to Jimbo and Ned’s TV show, which airs and at least 12 people see Kenny’s bare naked ass

Cartman really doesn’t like hippies in these early seasons. He throws a chair at Ned and yells, “Take that, hippie!” (Ned is in a catatonic state and did nothing to provoke this)

Jimbo and Ned live together I guess. Jimbo’s gonna take Ned home and show him some hardcore porn to snap him out of his catatonic state, good husband unlike Gerald Broflovski

Saddam Hussein is in hell and has a Canadian accent and is Satan’s lover in S02E06, I guess he died in Canada in the first episode this season but I wasn’t paying much attention since that’s the Terrance and Phillip episode that pissed a bunch of people off in 1998 because the audience wanted to know who Cartman’s dad is instead. It was kind of a boring episode so I understand why everyone was pissed, but it is funny that Matt and Trey did that so I’m not mad about it

Aww look at them!!! We’ve got background Style, the vaguest inkling of Crenny, and Cartman/Cake

I’d take more screenshots but it’s a pain since I’m watching legally and stupid legal websites block screenshots so I have to find youtube videos instead ughhhh piracy is the answer kids

Apparently there’s a huge waterfall and canyon somewhere close to South Park, maybe? At least in Stan’s dream

Mary Kay Bergman was an incredible voice actor. How the hell did she voice all the moms, Wendy, Shelly, principle Victoria, the mayor, Nurse Gollum, and fucking Ms. Crabtree??? Holy shit what a queen

Kenny has some feelings about death. He reimagines the episode where death boops him to death and in his version, he beats death the fuck up, then has ice cream and is happy 😊 But again, this is in Stan’s dream

S02E07 kind of establishes that nobody remembers Kenny dying because when Cartman tells a story where Kenny dies, Kyle questions how Kenny could’ve died then when he also died just a few hours ago when a giant monster took him

rip craig, he falls out the bus and into a canyon

But it’s okay because it was all Stan’s dream so everything in the episode is questionable. Everything after this is no longer a dream

Pip’s parents are dead and he has to go to summer school while everyone else is having a nice summer break

Officer Barbrady and the mayor are having sexual relations, I’m sure this is the most interesting note I’ve made so far. Idk I’m just writing everything down, this is how I enjoy things, I have no off switch

Ew summer bus stop, cursed

Kyle casually sings little tunes every once in a while, how cute

This is pretty obvious but Kenny likes dirty jokes, he laughs when Cartman innocently says he loves Chef’s salty chocolate balls (which are chocolate candy). Nobody else laughs

Cartman says “Screw you guys, I’m going home” or variations of it a lot in this season

So Stan throws up when he likes someone, right? Well, he’s watching an indie movie about two gay cowboys who start making out and he throws up, which is either a terrible homophobic joke or confirmation that Stan’s a little gay. I know which one I prefer

Kyle says Mr. Hankey is his best friend after Stan. Like I know it’s definitely canon that Stan and Kyle are best friends but it’s still nice to see confirmation, it’s very precious. Also Kyle is best friends with literal shit, so cute 😊

Kenny deaths:

S02E02 Kenny sacrifices himself by connecting a generator wire, which electrocutes him but brings power back to a hospital

S02E03 A tree falls on Kenny and crushes him

S02E04 Kenny falls in a grave and the gravestone falls on him

S02E05 The Chinese dodgeball team throws a ball at Kenny and he gets splattered against a wall

S02E06 Two guys pull on Kenny and tear him in half, as in one has the head and one has the legs

S02E07 A big scary monster plucks Kenny out of the school bus and carries him away. Also in Cartman’s fake memory of Fonzi jumping over cars, the motorcycle hits Kenny and crushes him against a brick wall. Kenny gets smashed against walls a lot, doesn’t he?

S02E08 Flashback: Baby Kenny has a firecracker and it explodes, sprinkling little baby Kenny parts everywhere. Later in the episode, current day Kenny dies when a giant firework snake bumps him off a stage and under a fence, which then crushes him.

S02E09 Kenny is playing with a yoyo outside a movie theatre when a bunch of people come outside and trample him to death. They say “Oh my God, I found a penny!” and “You bastard!”

I’ll post part 2 of season 2 in a couple days. I’m having way more fun writing these stupid notes than I thought I would (also gnomes is coming up soon and i am fucking ready for tweek)

[benthemusicalbeard]

11 Sep 2019

Greetings all. I hope you’re getting along with your weeks without too much hassle. Come dip your toe in my pool (so to speak) and give the following three songs a blast! Starting with......

Dutch alternative rock. A genre I know which is close to many of your hearts. I know this will shock you but it is one which isn’t very close to mine, well not until last week anyway. Having heard this song I’ve struggled to stop letting it appear in the car, in my house and whilst I work so I feel it needs a share. The group are called De Staat, which translates into English as The State. Formed in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 2006 they are relatively unknown in the UK aside from a number of Glastonbury performances. They have also supported Muse on legs of their European Tours but mainly in France, Netherlands and Spain. The band have released six albums in total, their latest coming at the start of this year. I decided to start listening to their music with the album containing the song I’ve chosen to share which I first heard when I used the radio function on Spotify whilst listening to OK Go (OK Go feature in a previous posting). Their sound from the earlier albums is more alternative than anything else, backed up by the album I listened to first, their 2013 release ‘I_Con’. Later albums sail bravely into more electronic rock seas and I have listened to the 2019 release ‘Bubble Gum’ which does not have the same number of listenable songs as I would have hoped. That said the opening track ‘Kitty Kitty�� is strangely addictive. The albums ‘I_Con’ and ‘Machinery’ would be worth a listen to fans of the alternative, later albums will be right up your straat should you enjoy something a bit more off the wall.

De Staat - Devil’s Blood - https://youtu.be/AgObLNPlBzY

Secondly this week and I’ve gone Dutch on yo ass again, let me introduce you to Kraak & Smaak. They are a musical production trio from Leiden in the Netherlands and have been going since 2003. My first intro to their music was when I heard the song ‘Squeeze Me’ featuring the vocals of Ben Westbeech who I’ve mentioned in another previous posting from his work with Jazzanova. Annoyingly I think this song has since been used in a TV advert for some classy establishment like Argos or PC World.....Anyway, their style of music is electronic funk which is very easy to tap along to and is popular with audiences worldwide. As De Staat, they have appeared at Glastonbury and are successful across Europe but their popularity also stretches to the US having appeared on US chat shows as well as appearing at numerous US music festivals. They have five studio albums as well as countless other remix albums and they have also collaborated with the likes of Moby, Jamiroquai and Caro Emerald (she’s Dutch, FYI) on remixes/singles of theirs. I heard the song I’m sharing as a new release of the week on Spotify, it is a collaboration with a group called Satchmode who, unfortunately are not, repeat NOT Dutch.  Discussions of a new album will certainly follow but I’m confident there will be something hidden in the back catalogue of Kraak & Smaak you will enjoy.

Kraak & Smaak feat. Satchmode - Don’t Want This To Be Over - https://youtu.be/9ksI8RJ8lgk

Finally this week and someone I saw play whilst I was at University who I thought had slipped well and truly off the radar but I’m happy to report he’s back, Jack Peñate. Hailing from London, although I can call him Dutch if that will make it easier, he has released two albums to date but the last one was way back in 2009. His debut album I loved when it was released as I was in my final year at Uni and I returned to the Uni as he played the Student Union upon the release of his 2009 follow up album ‘Everything Is New’ and from what I remember he was brilliant. The debut album in 2007 titled ‘Matinee’ is an enjoyable indie/rockabilly album which contained some brilliant songs, the most famous of which would be ‘Torn On The Platform’ and ‘Second, Minute Or Hour’ both of which were Top 20 hits in the UK Charts. I remember the album being one of the albums I had in the car when I first started to drive back in 2008 and having listened to it again this week after hearing of the return of Peñate it made me feel very nostalgic. The follow up album was not as successful but I still loved it with the title song ‘Everything Is New’ and ‘Be The One’ the highlights. He was one of those artists who, whilst not being uber popular, did enough to grab my attention and it was hard to find a song off either album I did not enjoy. I would consider myself a loyal fan so the lack of follow up material and any further albums was a bit disappointing. I had a moment of elation when I noticed he had released a new single, the song I’m sharing, and I hope this is the first single off a new, long overdue album. His music is just fun to listen to and both of the albums released to date are everything I need when I start reminiscing about my Uni years, my first proper job after Uni and then being allowed out on the roads legally for the first time!

Jack Peñate - Prayer - https://youtu.be/Un8fZVIKjgw

Posting complete. Two weeks today I’m on annual leave so depending on my movements I may leave the next posting until my return in early October. Enjoy the songs above, enjoy the journey into the back catalogues, if you’re that way inclined, and let me know if you enjoy them as much as I do!

[6505-blog1]

The Greatest Rock/Metal Albums of the 21st Century.

21st century marks the most diverse decade for rock and metal continuation. Absorbing, if not radiated by the long progenitors from Led Zeppelin who cranked up their amps and Black Sabbath that turn it out murky and sinister grim, to the dazzling theatrical persona of KISS and Motley Crue, to the new level heavy metal confronter of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, to the head crusher of Motorhead and Metallica, to the destructo maniac of Slayer and Kreator, to the prog menu offerer of King Crimson and Tool, and finally aligned to have some peculiar layers and brooding tendency of Korn. We have come a long way. Yet our engine keeps raging.

I have cumulated the finest, the most influential, and the most prominent albums released in the new millenium by the descendents that took their predecessors to a whole different level, sustain the genre, and move myriads of people to mosh.

In a particular order:

10. Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil (Warner Bros, 2005).

Rolling Stones magazine has named the sonically-punk with the flames of Iron Maiden, City of Evil on the last number of their 100 Greatest Album of All Time list. That should be a fair consideration since the extravagants like Beast and the Harlot, Bat Country, and Seize the Day altogether with the rest of the setlist ultimately transced the whole level and the destiny of the band as a leading force of eliticians in not so distant future. The 11 tracks have also successfully resurrected the triumph of classic guitar virtuosso portrait demonstrated on 80's as the talisman, Synyster Gates embarked over tons of appealing riffages and dueling solos which was buried after Nirvana and grunge breaktrough on the early 90's. Veteran and Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society guitarist, Zakk Wylde acknowledged him as a "Torchbearer" for arguably giving a birth and cultivating the guitar culture to the next generation.

9. Behemoth - The Satanist (Nuclear Blast, 2014).

The tenth album of Polish most profound extreme metal giant after Adam "Nergal"s battle with leukemia. Unlike the speed and precision exhibited over prior releases, the coagulated dense and horified cultish doom are found intensely throughout the setlist as to explicit the heretic messages. The result is astonishing and stronger than ever. More to add, The Satanist is pure, cathartic, flawlessly emotional, carefully-savage, and conquering by its complexity of repertoire within vivid and cinematical gradation as multi-dimensional tracks Messe Noire, In the Absence ov Light, Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, and the leadoff Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel ravage in none but diabolical fervor. This album expansive flair has comprehensively unfolded the darkest caverns and creates the new standard of underground craftmanship.

8. Bring Me the Horizon - Sempiternal (RCA/Epitaph, 2013).

I wouldn't believe that i need to make Sempiternal in the cut. Who would have guessed? But i will beat every negation towards it. It is the album that eventually transforms Bring Me the Horizon from bunch of hipsters to one of the most important unit in the 21st century modern rock landscape. A year and a half after the release, Oliver Sykes and co. took over the world attention of rocking Wembley Arena, the same monumental venue where Queen — one of the biggest rock band in the history — was there doing the same story. It was approximately 12.000 attendees which made Sykes stated: "So this is our biggest show ever". The soaring Can You Feel My Heart, the furious The House of Wolves, the euphoric Shadow Moses, and the melodic of Sleepwalking are undeniably the new testament of rock music.

7. Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake (Epic, 2004).

Count how many metal bands on the planet started after invented Laid to Rest or Now You've Got Something to Die For! It was countless. Lamb of God has became the crowned icon of "New Wave American Heavy Metal" and one of the most distinctive band in the scene. Their ferocious riffs, blistering drum works, lyrical contents, sound, even how to sing like Randy Blythe are largely imitated and seem to be the ideal menifesto of modern metal anatomy with obviously Ashes of the Wake as the highest pedestal. It contains tremendous chaos of 11 front-to-back blazing tracks immensely portrayed after Mark Morton - Willie Adler's virtuosity and of course, Chris Adler's voraciousity. Implying both abundance and how well they grasp the roots that will less likely be outnumbered.

6. Mastodon - Leviathan (Relapse, 2004).

We are now talking (and unravelling) the true genius minds of Atlanta-based extraordinary quartet. The newborn Metallica, Mastodon — the group that always exceed anyone's expectation — has seamlessly ranged their pinaccle from sludge to prog to avant-garde to even folk with staggering exponents of highly sophisticated masterpiece. With any fruition that comes in, the sheer Leviathan is believed as the opener tap. Written after Herman Merville's 1851 novel entitled "Moby Dick", the 46-minutes concept album is nothing but endless breathtaking experience of capturing bizarre Ode to the sea soundtrack. Blood and Thunder, I Am Ahab, and Aqua Dementia are torrent of forceful yet fascinating guttural power chords with Brann Dailor's tracherous drum tempo reflecting the theme while Iron Tusk sets sail upon muscular stoner riff and Naked Burn for menacing-tactical intro and flaunted visceral jarring chorus are hulking the imagery of the beast. Until the epic Hearts Alive with a glimpse of Metallica's The Call of Ktulu patiently reigns and all the greatness rendered.

5. Evanescence - Fallen (Wind-up, 2003).

The album that made Evanescence — a small town band from Arkansas — a megastar in the blink of an eye. It was the second semester of 2003 where the breakthrough hit single, Bring Me to Life played million times on the radio around the globe (and MTV as well) picturing the female face lead singer and her gleaming voice, Amy Lee who started the band with the co-founder guitarist, Ben Moody (though the relationship didn't survive and separation happened in the midst of suporting Fallen tour). The fame that nowhere expected begun when the terrific duo met on a camp and cliche of having the same musical taste brought them to finally sign the major label Wind-up and dominated the world stages in a brief. Fallen with the added values of enchanting piano, symphonical strings livery, and haunting soundscape that most nu-metal groups didn't have at that time effortlessly stood-out and arised in comparison to even Linkin Park. Other songs served like the down-tuned goth Going Under and the everlasting ballad My Immortal are only legitimating their popularity.

4. Ghost - Prequelle (Loma Vista, 2018).

In our nearly five decades of heavy music, such names as Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Van Halen with their fantastic works and spirits have became a catalyst that will be remembered greatly in the faraway future for causing an enourmous impact to our community. Those that have bloomed and paved the way many artists to follow. And if there is a chance for this millenium bands to extend the list, Ghost will be the first to step up the grace.

This year, their most recent release Prequelle has been nominated for The Best Rock Album and its single Rats for Best Rock Song of 61st Grammy. An award that should be familiar since they have been winning it two times with Infestissumam (2013) — their second major label album — as The Best Hard Rock/Metal Album and Cirice — the single taken from previous album Meliora (2015) — as Best Metal Performance. A peak of a decade existence for one superior man behind the wheel, Tobias Forge. Appear himself as a satanic pope, Papa Emeritus I, II, III, Zero, and now with the newest fully renowned ascencion clergy Cardinal Copia has completely shaped the band's identity. But the latest Prequelle has more than to be attained to an award. Forge's admiration to film makes no surprise if any substance on the record is prone to get visualized and draw medieval realms so alive and real. He could blend joyous disco with scattered shock rock backbone for Dance Macabre, provide brilliant exotic pop-esque instrumental opus for Miasma, and close all the novelty and intellegiousness by a soothing grand finale of Life Eternal. That is the last strike.

3. Greenday - American Idiot (Reprise, 2004).

With the overwhelmed mainstream-breaking punk rock hit single American Idiot, it was an album (a concept album, for specific) everyone knew which handfully restored a big disappointment both sales and critical of their previous release. Taking the power back after four years gap with anti-Bush vitriol narration over long and merged tracks was everything we could expect from an ambition. Performing sarkastic American-post 9/11 political singable outcry and dragging down to emotionally-related suburban decline on Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams, followed by californian sunset accoustic staccato and straighforward revv Give Me Novacaine/She's A Rebel, a love story of Whatsername where a street punk main actor St. Jimmy fell and how it all ended on Homecoming.

The grandiose worths 16 millions selling CD is the anthem of this generation where a generation ago pridefully have The Clash with the classic London Calling.

2. Slipknot - Iowa (Roadrunner, 2001).

The most brutal and confrontational album of 21st century nothing to this day can bear. That is the deal. A remorseless turmoil just from the first second of welcoming to the house of pain intro, (515) to the last 15 minutes epilogue of magnificent unrelenting drama title track, Iowa. Please recognize the insolent hate mantra "Here we go again motherfuckers" as Corey Taylor opens up and rips off anything with hammer to the face misanthropic followed track, People = Shit that seems a vulgar warning to extend the torture of their 1999 debut phenomenal self titled album. But things got tenfold. They were all damaged animals, making it excuriatingly worst instead, and wanted any living to hear them. That they fuck what trend you live up on bludgeoning bestial Heretic Anthem, that they are adamant bastards you can't bleach their darkness out on atmospherical assault New Abortion, that killing is their primal instinct on grinding jaw-breaker scorn Disasterpieces, that they are fucking obsolete machines on the scorching psychosis Everything Ends. There lies Neurosis-ian dressed Gently and never eschew Grammy nominated singles, Left Behind and My Plague.

All the violent rampage should be addressed to Ross Robinson (producer) for being able to wrap up the devastating times the band encountered in the studio and that was how its ruthless resonated the world where many people are pissed-off to everything. An absolute impossible album to be re-recorded due to its hell of organic material. Yet apart of any malevolence, Iowa is sadly, a gift to liberate your heart and soul.

Honourable mentions:

System of a Down - Toxicity (American/Columbia, 2001).

Converge - Jane Doe (Equal Vision, 2001).

My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade (Reprise, 2006).

1. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (Warner Bros, 2000).

The world seriously gives us no chance to break. After Lemmy, Bowie, now we have lost the most beautiful voice that represents our generation.

May rest in peace and honour, Chester Bennington.

We miss you everyday, and we do care if someone whose time runs out is you.

The album that took nu-metal to a whole different level forever and highly contributed to shape the sound that outbursted the 21st century. For two decades, Linkin Park has became the most iconic group on the planet. Breeding the bands like Bring Me the Horizon, Asking Alexandria, and Bullet For My Valentine (with their recent 2018 album, Gravity).

Hybrid Theory (which was the actual name of the band before settling to Linkin Park) is the sublime fusion of heavy metal, alternative rock, hip-hop, pop, and electronica desired only to make a lifetime change. It is truly no derivative. Yet recalling back, it was multiple rejections of label after label before it took off with Don Gillmore (previously worked with Eve 6, Lit, Pearl Jam) to produce the album and pushed the band excessively. It was the part that would not have regretted where all they saw afterwards and going on was all miracle. 28 millions copy sold should be a very serious sensastion everyone must have a seat to talk about. A rock n roll revival after Guns N' Roses's Appetite For Destruction (1987) so to speak. With angst to fuel, Hybrid Theory yielded the catchy single opener One Step Closer, the drug abuse easer Crawling, the unhinged paranoia Papercut, and the most well-known last single sung by anyone In the End. Not to mention its cohesive supplementaries A Place For My Head, Runaway, and My December that blur the foursome due to their equivalent prowess. Admit it, Linkin Park and Hybrid Theory are the gateway to rock and heavy metal empire.

[sunshinepunks-secretsanta]

M3h’s Secret Santa Gift

For @justm3h, tried to fit all your requests. Merry Christmas!

This wasn’t how he wanted things to go. How exactly did this, come out of delivering papers to one of the Marine outposts?  Honestly it wasn’t like he had to do the odd job, Coby was far along his dream of becoming a Marine Admiral. He was only three weeks of his official promotion to being one of the top three people in the Marines, but no he just had to volunteer his ship to do the pit stop because he just happened to be going in that direction!

Coby can almost hear Helmeppo rolling his eyes at his well-meaning actions. His best friend was always complaining about the pink haired boy being much too nice for his own good, though Coby always ignored his words as a good friend should.  

If he got himself into the mess he can get himself out through hard work and strong will, that was the one thing Luffy taught him above all else.  (Coby is willing to lay down his life to prove that straw hat wearing man was right in saving him)

His ship arrived on the post being attack by a no-name pirate crew, and Coby had his men joining the ferry as soon as they could. The pink haired man was quick in saving some of the cooks held hostages shaving to the side of the possible first mate. As he took care of the fool he missed the crazed look of the captain.  She shot two of his men in the chest, forcing Coby to put pressure on the wounds in order to not lose them.

She had attacked the post for the rumored devil fruit they managed to uncover, though no one had any recording of the particular fruit or it’s possible powers, and she wasn’t about to let the Marines rush in and ruin her raid. By the time Coby turned his sights to her- after making sure a medic could save those wounded- she had already broken the safe, holding the blue spiked apple.

One pirate taking a bite of a fruit, shooting a colorful beam at him which he should have dodge but doing so would have meant someone else getting hit and that- that wasn’t acceptable was all it took to have everything he knew ripped from him.

Now, look at him.

He was a short, chubby, soft-fleshed kid trapped on a fat pirate’s ship, where he was treated badly. Again.

It was disheartening to have his mind know what to do but to have his untrained body unable to go through with it.

When Alvida had raised her club at him, Coby was so in shocked of going from a battlefield to a boat with the screaming hag above him, his first reaction was mostly reflex of jumping out of the way and throwing a punch.

He was not pleased with the pain that came from his knuckles, nor with the way Alvida had gone at him for attempting to fight back. It was painful, but nowhere near Garp training painful so after she was done he just laid there confusingly staring at the ceiling wondering what the hell kind of fruit that had been.

A Devil Fruit with the ability to Time Travel or at the very least to send a soul to another dimension, such a powerful thing in the hands of a bloodthirsty criminal doing who knows what with it. Coby really hopes someone stops her before she does more damage with a power like that.

The only consolation to this dis-aging was that Coby managed to returned the day before he meets Luffy which meant he was getting out in only twenty-four hours.

In that time he needed to figure what he was going to do, because while he’s devastated that his hard work had been ruined…he’s not as broken up about as he should be. Don’t get him wrong, it burns that he was sent back before his office promotion but it was the only real regret, and even then it wasn’t regret as it should be. It was more of a annoyance similar to stepping in mud.

The biggest feeling is more positive then it should be over his predicament.  

He’s excited about a do-over even. He shouldn’t be, but he is.

On one hand, Coby could find a way back make it so he can return to the life he had built for himself through sweat, blood, and tears.

On the other hand…..

The screams both in a battle cry and a shout of mercy, the sound of blades clashing and fists meeting flesh, the booms as cannons fire into the sky with ash and smoke in their wake and the small figure holding up a body, blood surrounding them both as the smallest cries in agony.

Coby stands to the side feeling horror bleed into his veins as he watching the strongest man he’s ever known breaks down before his very eyes and being unable to do anything to help.

Coby is loyal to the Marines for all that they should stand for. But he owes a man a life debt that sometimes feels it feels heavier then the duty he swore to and sometimes when sitting in his bed, he turns his head to the wanted poster he pinned up on his wall.  A far too bright smile for their far too dark world staring back at him underneath a straw hat, makes his stomach twist in guilt knowing that the people he works for are crueler then he likes to admit.

He’s high ranking enough to have seen things that made him question who the real monsters were in the world. The marines protected people but they also terrized them as fast as flipping a few coins. They saved them from death but killed faster then a bullet being loaded. They stop pirates from ruining their lives, but allowed them to be enslaved like the sound of chains didn’t echo through many streets.

He has a dream but he also has a heart.

One that beats for someone it shouldn’t.

With those though circling his head the chubby boy wills his sore body to stand,  intending on finding a quite place on the ship to start training. He needed to whip himself back into shape as soon as possible. Because he had come to a decision, one that would change history for good or for bad, and he had to be ready for the changes.

He had seen what life was like a Marine, but come sunrise he will see what life is like as a pirate, in order to pay back that life debt.

This time it will be Coby saving Luffy….by making sure Portgas D. Ace does not die. Somehow he’s going to have to find his way onto the Whitebeard Pirates and keep that stubborn fireman from getting caught. (and if he asks for his blessing to peruse Luffy along the way then all the better for him)

First thing was first.

He had to get to the New World. Should be easier if he train himself along the way and he already knew it pretty well, right?

Marco was not prepared for the boy.  He was not expecting anyone to approach the Moby, especially not a flimsy looking lad in a rowboat, with nothing but his crack glasses and a stubborn frown.  No clean clothes, no food, and no water….and yet still standing tall when he yelled up permission to come on board.

It takes guts to do something like that, real guts that younger generations of pirates have seemed to forget. This was proably why Pops allowed the young man to climb on board. He was…not as impressive as his voice made him out to be. The pink hair stranger was covered in wounds, his body was not that of a cillian but not that of a fighter either but his voice carried command and strength that showed a glimpse to the monster he would be in just a few years.

“I’m looking for Portgas D. Ace.” The stranger says, back straight, head held high and throwing all the body language of a no good marine. It makes the crew weary (they don’t want to kill the kid, he’s far too young) but Pops seems to find him amusing because he calls for the Second Commander after ordering Thatch to get him something to eat.

The way the boys eyes grow grateful as the chef runs off to do as he told lets Marco know he’s dealing with a polite fellow. Which is always good as it means his siblings won’t break into a fight with him. It’s not until Ace steps through the crowd that his real problem with the  visitors rises, as the boy takes notice of the second commander.

Marco does not appreciate the way the kid eyes his boyfriend. Does not like the way pinky’s face gets warmer the moment Ace steps in front of him.Say what you will, but he’s a Phoenix, which means his territorial. It’s in his very soul to puff out his chest and let blue fire flicker around his shoulders as he notices someone else trying o steal his shiny treasure. (Ace’s hair in the right light always looks like it’s made out of jewels and it drives Marco absolute wild)  

If it wasn’t for Thatch elbowing him in the side, The First Commander may have killed the brat.

“What do you want from me?” Ace asks somehow being polite enough to not come off as rude but hinting at it with his tone of voice. He was talented like that.

Pinky straightens up, staring at Ace like he’s the answer to the universe, which Marco hates to break it to him but Ace is taken and no way is he-.

“My name is Coby, I have sailed from the East Blue by myself and I will like to formally ask your blessing for Luffy’s hand sir!”  Coby blurts out, nervous and red but still with a straight back  “I will, of course, be willing to serve you and prove to you I am worthy of Luffy! If- if you will have me that is!”

All of Marco animal instincts to rip the youth apparent with his talons come to a screeching halt as the deck falls unnaturally salient. The first commander is actually thrown for a loop, stumbling to make sense of the words he just heard.  

Luffy? As in Ace’s precious little brother, his lover will never shut up about? As in the cause for Ace’s terrible brother complex?  Did he sail all the way to the New World to ask Ace for permission knowing that Ace may kill him on sight?!

Because by the way he is eyeing Ace, Coby knows this is a death warrant knows that any wrong move- hell any move will be his last. He came here expecting Ace to burn him alive and came anyway just to do right by the one who captured his heart.

Holy shit.  Marco thinks, respect rising for the pink hair lad easily ignoring that he almost took the boy out a second ago. Now that’s what I call love.  

“No.”  Ace syas flatly flames licking the back of his shoulders. His quite rage, promising danger would have made anyone sane realize how bad that idea was. The heat surrounded the boat rises, making a few men sweat. Coby forehead is covered by a thin layer of sweat, and his knees are shaking under the weight of Ace’s barely restrained haki but he doesn’t step down.

He meets Ace’s eyes evenly  saying in a surprisingly strong voice.  “I know that I don’t look like much now. But I truly love Luffy. So please allowed me to prove it to you.”

Ace’s haki snaps as he hisses hands balling into fists. “I said no.”

It’s the sight of Coby not even flinching at the fire slowly rising from Ace’s being that makes Marco hope he’ll lie through this. Because he recognizes that look on the obviously straining to stay on his feet boy’s face. It’s the same one he wears whenever he thinks of how the world would try to take Ace away from him if they ever found out about his dad.

His boyfriend does not like that reaction. He muscles tighten up, and the wave of heat is either by heat or by haki it’s hard to tell with the difficulty it is to breath suddenly. Marco rises one eyebrow as the Coby’s stumbles but he does not fall, it’s obvious that his body can barely handle the pressure but his eyes are steel and ready to fight.

Marco’s approval rises for him.

“My answer is no.” Ace’s voice is practically ice which is somehow more terrifying then the literal flames around him. “Get back on your little boat and row away boy. We are done here.”

Everyone on the crew takes a step back, when Coby stubbornly shakes his head and Ace growls (secretly Marco drools over how protective Ace is. If they were to ever build a nest together Ace would guard it with his life and that is one of the most attractive things about him)  “No, you- no one is good enough for my Lu. No. One. Is. ”

“You’re right. That’s why I have to get better. Luffy is going to be Pirate King, I have to become the best for him. He deserves only the best” Coby answers without hesitation, and it is impressive when the pressure forces him to his knees yet he never breaks eye contact with Ace. Never shows signs of rolling over.

It’s said in such a matter tone that many of the Whitebeards are thrown for a loop.  Even Ace, who looked like a second away from frying the boy alive is surprised into cooling down long enough that Coby can stand once more.

“That’s why I am asking you….please help me become a man that is good enough for your brother.”

It’s all Pops needs to hear, stepping in before Ace can even respond.  Marco is glad, he likes this kid’s spunk would be a shame if he died because of Ace before he could reach his full potential. Standing up to a Whitebeard commander was a great start.

________________________________________________________

It’s a few months later after Coby proved to be a diamond in the rough, strong and a great leader one that just needed to train his body Up. A perfect addition to our family, who fits in just fine even though he tends to be more merciful then a pirate should be.  But it was thanks to that merciful nature that they were able to save Thatch.

Marco is woken by a pale and sweating Ace one night, after waking up screaming name.

He had a nightmare it seemed.

A nightmare about Luffy’s wedding.

“Luffy is going to fall in love with Coby and I can’t kill him, Marco. He’s part of the Whitebeard crew, he saved Thatch from Teach and he’s trying to steal my brother. Pops won’t let me kill him Marco”  Ace whines like it the greatest offense their father could do to him.  

“I see you dilemma and I offer cuddles as a means to cope yoi.”  

“Cuddles won’t make that pink haired brother stealing lunatic go away.”

“You were the one that helped him get stronger.  Now you have to deal with Cody looking for your brother in Alabasta.”

Ace is silent before a grin stretches on his face. Marco feels his hair stand on end because he knows that look. Knows it all too well. His boyfriend- soon to be husband if things go as planned at Ace’s next birthday- just got a horrible idea that he plans on roping Marco into.

The sad part is, the blond isn’t sure he can say no. Not with Ace looking at him like that.

“So Marco, you ever wanted to go on a couple vacation with me? I hear Alabasta’s sunsets are romantic.”

[awedbyhersplendor-blog]

I got tagged

by @zerfindung (thank you, dear! I loved reading yours as well! =))

nicknames: I have loads of those. Mostly people call me Avi.

zodiac sign: Gemini (no it doesn’t suit me)

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw (yes this one does suit me aha)

height: 1.63 m (I *know*)

orientation: demisexual

ethnicity: as white as white wonderbread

favorite fruit: all of them? I love apples, pineapples, all the berries (even the blueberries) fejoas, passionfruit, apricots etc, fruits are good!

favorite season: basically every season that doesn’t have snow in it. Get that snow away from me!

favorite book series: are you… kidding… me… There are like… so many?? I loved the Dune series (even tho they are very very problematic) Lord of the Rings, Search for Lost Time by Proust… (But now I realize I haven’t read many series, most of it are just like… individual novels…

favorite fictional characters: … … James McGraw/Flint. Miranda Barlow. Thomas Hamilton. Abigail Ashe (the London crew) Madi Scott. Eleanor Guthrie. (Listen, like, all the Black Sails characters? I love them. All of them.) Also recently I rewatched Re-Animator (only the first two movies there were no third, it doesn’t exists) and I have to say I still love Herbert West dearly. And I have an absurd fondness for Helen Vaughan in The Great God Pan by Machen. And Hilda in The Marble Faun by Hawthorne. And Queequeg and Ishmael (and Ahab) in Moby-Dick. (They count right?)

a fictional character you’d like as a sibling: Eleanor Guthrie, she’d be the best older sister.

favorite flower: peonies and white roses!!

favorite scent: bergamot, old books, the smell of the rain...

favorite color: black.

favorite animal: all of them. Cats, raccoons, bats, whales, all of them.

favorite artist/band: it… oh gosh… It has a tendency to change. Right now, I love Pansy Division and G.L.O.S.S., but I also love Dead Can Dance and Sopor Aeternus. I absolutely adore David Lynch’s album The Big Dream and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. (this is a coherence-free zone I’m afraid)

coffee, tea or hot cocoa: tea!

average sleep hours: 7

number of blankets you sleep with: just one

dream trip: hiking around the Tasmanian bush with a tent, a backpack, and a camera, looking for the Tasmanian tiger! (this is sadly not even a joke)

last thing googled: tips for writing a cover letter

blog created: 2016 (I was trying to stay away from tumblr but then I was pulled right back in. It’s incredibly addictive)

how many blogs do you follow: 314 (but there are also the blogs I follow for the aesthetics, not all of it is fandom)

number of followers: 123 on the fandom blog (half of them are porn bots I think aha)

what do you usually post about: in here: Black Sails. There are so many wonderful gifs, fanarts, fanfics, headcanons! I want to reblog them all! And also, sometimes, show you my stuff! (There might be other fandoms coming about soon? Re-Animator for example!!)

do you get asks regularly: nope, but I get the opportunity to discuss with some fandoms friends sometimes and it’s honestly even cooler!

your aesthetic: do I have to pick just one? (seriously if you want to know more about my aesthetics you can take a look at my aesthetics blog, shestoodintears, it would give you a good idea of the mess it is!)

Whoever wants to do this, please consider yourself tagged! (and tag me in it so I can read about you! =))

[loribos]

New Post has been published on Toronto Events, Activities and Entertainment

New Post has been published on https://www.torontonicity.com/2019/07/04/best-patios-in-toronto-2019/

Best Patios in Toronto 2019

Summer is finally here and for many people, that means enjoying drinks or dinner on a Toronto patio. The summer months are so short in southern Ontario that you really have to take advantage of the gorgeous weather by partying al fresco. Toronto has a lot of great patios to enjoy and now, many of Toronto’s patios have their own pools. Here are some of the best patios in Toronto 2019.

Mojitos at Bizarre Beach Club

Bizarre Beach Club

Grand Bizarre has opened the Bizarre Beach Club for the summer only. Located at 15 Saskatchewan Road on the CNE grounds, Bizarre Beach Club makes our best patios in Toronto 2019 list because it is an expansive 40,000 square foot patio that is perfect for large gatherings. There are also two Instagrammable wading pools to dip your toes in. Reserve a cabana for a more private and luxurious experience. Enjoy a variety of fare from popular Toronto food trucks including Karma’s Kitchen, Food Dudes, Tom’s Dairy Freeze, Kimono Sushi and The Arepa Republic. Bizarre Beach Club is open only on Saturdays during the summer. Read more about Bizarre Beach Club here.

DEQ Terrace at The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto

DEQ Patio

Situated just west of King and Bay at The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto, DEQ Patio offers a classy, but relaxing vibe. Enjoy spectacular views of the CN Tower and Simcoe Park while sipping on a thirst-quenching drink and listening to the live DJ set in the afternoon. On cooler evenings, you can warm up by the fireplace. The DEQ Patio is known for their unique, handcrafted cocktails: Try their signature Sunset Sail, $20, which is made from Hennessy VSOP Cognac, J. Wray & Nephew Overproof Rum, lemon juice, pineapple juice, guava juice and Orgeat Syrup. You’ll want to order the Truffle Fries and Carmelized Cauliflower from their upscale Cottage Social menu. Read more about DEQ Patio here. The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto is located at 181 Wellington Street West.

1800 Coconut Crusher at The Gaarden

The Gaarden Rooftop Patio

Cube on Queen Street West has opened The Gaarden Green Rooftop Patio for the summer months. Located just east of Spadina, The Gaarden is a comfortable patio boasting a fabulous view of downtown Toronto and lots of greenery to provide a relaxing vibe. Sit nestled in the handful of booths or meet new friends at the communal tables in the middle of the patio. If you love a summer cocktail, try their one of their signature drinks: the 1800 Coconut Crusher is made with 1800 Coconut Tequila, coconut syrup, pineapple juice, soda and a shaved coconut rim. Read more about The Gaarden here.

Cabana Pool Bar

Cabana Pool Bar

Cabana Pool Bar started the craze back in 2013 of Toronto patios with their own pools and it is still one of the best patios in Toronto. With a west view of the city skyline across sparkling Lake Ontario, Cabana features a delicious menu from Oliver & Bonacini, which includes Scallion & Cheddar Fries, Buttermilk Fried Moby Dick and Pulled Pork Pot, as well as a refreshing swimming pool to take that dip on sweltering summer days. New this summer: there is communal seating in the lower level seating area that does not require bottle service. This seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. You can also reserve a table/cabana starting at $1,000. Cabana Pool Bar has a cover charge of $20 per person and an additional $20 for pool access. Towels can be rented for $5. If you are arriving via boat, there are no more docking fees! Cabana Pool Bar is located at 11 Polson Street at Polson Pier.

I hope you get to enjoy a Toronto patio this summer. Let us know if you have suggestions to add to the best patios in Toronto 2019 blog post.