#most likely will only post stuff I make for others to that gallery

[spaceratprodigy]

oh yeah the new commission post is typed up and will go live sometime in January :]

[littlestpersimmon]

I am almost out of the trenches.. I did all my taxes.. I finished two big comms I was really nervous about because of my own insecurity.... I sent my cousin some of the money I made from my commissions for her biopsy.. and we repaired all the holes in my sisters room and got rid of the mold.. I only need to do legit three more big comms and work will be less crazy. The electricity bill dropped today and its like 90 usd.. please.. if you like my art would you consider getting a print.. ! I have most of my gallery there n would love to get this electricity stuff out of my hair.. I have not had a break since January.. have not had time to make personal art.. please.. would love a break

N also. My patreon n tipping jars if you want. I have nearly 200+ exclusive art on patreon. I feel the last three art I posted there was especially good. It's not posted anywhere else....!!!

N for anyone with disposable income. Everything will go to the electricity bill. Anything extra goes to insulin, rosuvastatin and anti seizure meds on g-d.

[myysaints]

saw your requests are open so i’d like to request something! something angsty because this came to me after listening to ‘cherry’ by harry styles :p reader is danny’s ex but they broke up, few months later he’s dating someone else and reader is now in a (new/fresh) relationship with another driver, max/charles i couldn’t decide so i’ll let you do that! ♡ just something angsty like him realizing how much he misses her but she’s moved on and happy 🫶🏼 hope this makes sense? ah, love your stuff btw!!!

thank u anon you're so sweet! and ughhhh this request was IMMACULATE cherry is one of my favourite harry styles songs. wasn't sure if you wanted a socmed fic, if u did lmk and i'd be happy to adapt it into one! but i hope you enjoy nevertheless :)

I, I just miss I just miss your accent and your friends

Daniel stares down at his phone.

What a cruel twist of fate it is that the moment he opened his Instagram, he sees you.

You’re laughing in the picture, your hand looped around none other than Max’s neck. You’re sprawled on the Red Bull driver’s lap, and there’s a giddy grin on both of your faces, Max’s arm wrapped protectively around your waist. It feels bittersweet, seeing that familiar sweet smile of yours, only now it’s pointed at another man.

It’s only one photo in a carousel of others posted by your best friend. Why Daniel still follows her, he has no idea. But he stares at the photograph of you for longer than he’d like to admit.

There’s a shuffling noise from the kitchen, and Daniel’s new girlfriend pokes her head into the room. “Danny, we still going out for dinner?”

Daniel can only stare at her for a moment, too caught up in the memories of you and him to reply.

He knows what he’s doing is wrong. He knows he shouldn’t be leading this poor girl along. He knows that all this relationship is to him is a way to distract himself from what’s really eating at him. He knows that she’s just a replacement for you.

But the quizzical smile his girlfriend sends has his heart aching in guilt, so he manages a feeble nod in response, quickly shutting his phone off and throwing it onto the bed, before making his way to her smiling face.

The guilt eats him alive as he makes small talk with her over dinner. He would never admit it, but sometimes he can’t stand to look at her; to roll over in bed and see someone other than you laying beside him.

Did you know I still talk to them?

Everything changed after Zandvoort.

Daniel was partially to blame, he knew that. The crash in free practice had taken a toll on him, not just physically but mentally. The season in AlphaTauri was his one shot at proving that he still had it in him to be a class Formula 1 driver - to the world, to Red Bull, and to himself.

You were supportive of him all the way. From the moment he entered talks with Red Bull and AlphaTauri to get back into F1, to when he first got in that white and blue car at Hungary, you were always there, by his side.

But Zandvoort changed things. Zandvoort changed him.

He started to push you away. The comments from the media, from fans, from people everywhere, all around him, were starting to get to him. Did nobody believe in him anymore? Was he really not cut out for Formula 1?

Was his time really up?

The weeks of recovery were dark for the both of you. For him, most of it was spent in bed, his mind fuzzy from the painkillers and medicine, too tired and too beaten to do anything. For you, it was utter torture. To see the man you loved, the man whose laughter and mere presence brought so many smiles to those in the paddock, the man who never knew when to give up, look so futile and disappointed? It hurt.

But he hurt you more.

Does he take you walking round his parents' gallery?

It’s funny. Fate, he means. How it has a way of testing him, how it has a way of bringing his mind and him back to you. Always you.

“Has anyone seen Max and Y/N? They were supposed to arrive a while ago, are they late? ”  

Instinctively, Daniel turns. It’s almost pathetic really. How just the sound of your name catches his attention and has him whipping around, his eyes searching for you. How you unwittingly made him into your own lapdog.

You aren’t there, though, so he keeps his head down and ignores the questioning look his girlfriend sends him.

In the final few weeks, and perhaps even months, of your relationship, Daniel hadn’t been kind on you. He became bitter, spiteful, even jealous. To him, you just didn’t understand the weight on his shoulder, the pressures he had to face. But how could you? Despite all your protests and pleading, he was shutting you out of his life, bit by bit.

Every time you came over, it ended with screaming matches and you leaving with tears in your eyes. Daily visits from you turned into weekly check-ins. He started to turn his head away from you when you tried to kiss his cheek. Those turned into brusque hand squeezes. His texts, too, became sparse and dry. He recoiled from you when you were around.

He could still remember the heartbreak on your face when he told you he wanted to break up. "It's for both of our own good," he mumbled. "I need to focus on racing. You should have a life outside of me."

It was a bitter end, and to this day, Daniel still regrets not putting up enough of a fight. How stupid he had been, to think that without you, he could give his 100% to racing. How stupid he had been, to think of you as a distraction.

He can’t imagine how stupid he must appear to you now, showing up on Sunday with a new girlfriend on his arm.

Don't you call him baby

“You sure you’re okay?”

You smooth down your dress for the umpteenth time, breathing out a nervous sigh as you smile back at Max, who glances at you in slight concern. His press officer is fussing over the both of you, the paddock entrance looming both terrifyingly and excitingly ahead.

It’s about to be your first public appearance with Max, and your first public appearance at a Formula 1 grand prix since… Well, since your relationship with Daniel ended.

It’s been a rough few months. It took time, getting used to Daniel’s absence. You hadn’t realised just how much of your life had revolved around his being; it became painful to even step foot in the paddock, to even switch on the television to catch up on the latest grand prix.

Even worse was the public scrutiny. You and Daniel had always been open about your relationship, frequently sharing bits and pieces of your life together on each of your social medias. So it was no wonder than when you both stopped posting each other, and when you took down all your posts with him, that fans knew something was up.

Things hadn’t been easy. But Max had made it better. What started as a friendly reaching out turned into a heartachingly romantic and sweet courting, and now, he was your boyfriend.

You smile at Max, reaching up to press a gentle kiss on his cheek. You can hear a flurry of cameras snapping away, and you resist glancing at them, choosing instead to focus on your boyfriend. At your peck, Max ducks his head, as if suddenly shy despite the two of you having dated for going on 3 months now. Still, the small grin on his face tells you all you need to know.

“I’ll be fine,” you say as you slip your hand into his, and give a nod to his press officer. Max’s thumb smooths over your knuckles, and you finally feel yourself relax. You look into his eyes, and in this moment, you know: You’re happy.

“Don’t worry ‘bout me, baby.”

We're not talking lately

Everyone notices when you enter the paddock.

Not only because it’s the first time in months that you’ve appeared at a Grand Prix, but because you have Max Verstappen beside you. With his arm around your waist.

“What’s happening?” his girlfriend asks, craning her neck to peer at the paddock entrance. “Did someone just arrive?”

“It’s Max,” a passing journalist calls, as he hastens towards the paddock entrance himself. “With Y/N!”

Daniel can’t help himself. Really, he can’t.

It happens before he can stop himself. He’s getting up and pulling his hand from his girlfriend and his feet are taking himself over to you as if they have a mind of their own. As if they still remember that it's where he’s meant to be. By your side.

The crowd doesn’t part for him. Not anymore. He finds himself standing on the outskirts of the gathering group, watching from afar as you bashfully smile for the many snapping cameras, and cling onto Max a little tighter, as the Red Bull driver nods politely at the journalists swarming you.

“Alright, alright, let us through, please,” he hears Max say, “Let my girl have some space, yeah?”

Something akin to jealousy rears its ugly head.

Then the horde of people are moving, and some are finally beginning to notice Daniel.

“Danny!” “Daniel, over here, please!” “How’re you feeling today, Daniel?” “Daniel, how does it feel that Max is dating your ex-girlfriend?”

The question has him reeling, and he can only stare at the waiting journalist incredulously. What a ridiculous fucking question. He has half a mind to charge at the dickhead and throw a punch that will send the cunt into a coma for weeks-

“Look, mate, leave us alone, yeah? Daniel, how’re you doin’?”

Max claps a good-natured hand on Daniel’s back, steering him away from the throng of journalists and photographers, who groan before turning their attention to Fernando, who’s just gotten out of his car.

Max’s friendliness momentarily stuns him, and all he can manage out is a half-convincing “Good, good” in return. This seems to satisfy Max enough, though, because then he’s smiling and nodding and rubbing Daniel’s shoulders.

It’s at this moment Daniel realises you’re still here.

He glances back at you, trailing behind him and Max.

You’re just as pretty as ever, he thinks to himself. It’s almost as if nothing had changed. Like you’re still the one he walked into the paddock with, like you’re waiting for him to finish a conversation with Max, not the other way around.

You don’t even look his way.

“…so then I told Charles, ‘No way, there’s no way you’re convincing Carlos that!’, and then, you know what he said? Really, it’s hilarious, he-”

Max stops his rambling midway, leaning down to listen to something you whisper in his ear.

“I’m gonna head to the garage first, okay?” Daniel hears you mumble, “I’ll see you later, baby.”

Then Max tilts your head up and presses a kiss on your mouth.

It’s at this moment that Daniel can’t help but feel a little foolish. Actually, more than a little. He feels stupid, downright idiotic standing here with his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Trying to pretend like everything was alright.

The worst part of it all, is that you don’t seem fazed at all. To you, it’s like he’s just another driver you bump into ever-so-often. You don’t seem to care about him. It’s like he and the weight of your shared history don’t even exist. Like it never did.

The sight of you walking away from him – again – pains him more than he thought it would. He can’t bear to lose you again, not when he’s still so fucking in love with you.

Soo he darts his hand out and grabs your wrist, and you whip around, eyes wide and stunned, and Daniel feels Max halt beside him, watching him intently.

And you’re looking at him now. Finally, you’re looking at him.

His eyes roam yours, trying to find a hint of familiarity, hoping desperately that he’ll find the same yearning and aching he feels for you reflected in your eyes.

“Don't you call him what you used to call me,” he whispers. Pleading with you.

Something in you seems to soften, and there’s a flash of pain in your eyes, but it's one that is quickly replaced with anger.

You wrench your hand from his grip and shove him away, storming off as Max follows you, casting an indecipherable look at Daniel in the process. Daniel watches as Max catches up to you, and he watches as you let him cradle you in his arms.

But it’s not your anger that hurts the most.

It’s the fact that you never once looked back at him.

[geoledgy]

Does anyone else have a complicated relationship with posting/sharing art publicly online? I've been finding it very difficult to have any motivation to share art/crosspost anymore. It doesn't sit well with me.

With the way that social media sites are built, it feels more like posting my art is meant for others to "consume" it and that I am expected to always share anything I make for the entertainment of others rather than start a conversation or connect with community, because everything on social medias is so fast paced and my posts are often visually competing on the feed (if not working against an algorithm) to be seen by a person. And it's like, it's not that I don't appreciate all the likes and shares on my art, I really do and I like sharing stuff I do that I'm proud of but unfortunately it just feels so superficial after a certain point especially on Twitter/Bsky/Instagram, when anything I post racks up thousands of notes yet no one says anything about it. It's shared around the internet space but I get no gratification (And honestly I'm so glad people on Tumblr are more inclined to comment on art but I wish I could respond to tags to tell them how much I appreciate their response and have a conversation!!)

On Sheezy, I just post whenever I want and it's for organization and gallery purposes, also bc I really want to have my art posted there and honestly no where else, just like back then on dA when that was my only site to post art. And since nothing can be shared the way art is shared/RT'd/etc on social media, I did it because it was fun and more of a community thing than really wanting popularity or anything. I post art to start a conversation, to share my knowledge, and to express myself. I honestly even set a small goal for myself to comment on 3-5 pieces on Sheezy whenever I log in, and say something nice about someone's art because I know they'd appreciate something small like that on an incredibly fast-paced internet.

I get more gratification from posting my art in RP discord servers where likes/shares are not a thing, and everyone is more encouraged to comment and talk about the piece.

The art side of the public internet just makes me very sad nowadays, and it just isn't fun to post publicly most of the time anymore. I have no reason to do so either because my main job isn't art lol

[koolades-world]

Hihihihi, in case ya remember me, im the Pain-sensitive anon, and in case i will request again remember me as BigS, because my requests are as big as my S, but enough about that.

Poor you, so many requests. Drink water, be stronger that those 637181 requests, don't let them kill you!!!

But im here to torture you with another one~

So i have an album with 3814 Asmodeus screenshots(I FKIN LOVE MY BOYFRIEND!!!), and i had an idea "dam, if Asmo became real, it would be very hard to explain why i have 4k pics with him... " So here is request!

Brothers, finding out that MC's new hyperfixation is... them?

Apparently MC is neurodivergent or something like that, and as many neurodivergent ppl, they have a hyperfixation! They just randomly becoming very interested in something specific and collect stuff with it, talk with everyone about it, and remember every single detail about it! Like Levi with TSL.

But one day, brothers realise that MC stopped talking about their past fixation and was less interested with it. They think that "Oh, they probably just found something new!". But one day, they take MC's phone just to find that... They have a giant album in their gallery that is dedicated only to him????

The album has every photo he posted on Devilgram, every photo that he send MC, some unique photos that MC shooted themselves, even some chat screenshots with times when he said something cute to them! They even was photographing thigs that "reminds of him". Like some cheeseburger with "Beel vibes", Blue flower that "Looks like Luci" or gorgeous mannequin that "feels like Asmo".

If its someone like Asmo, he would also notice thta MC started buying their fanclub's merch! Like "Asmo lover #1" shirt or "Lucifer best man!!"cup(Luci is very popular, he probably also has some fanclubs! i hate this guy tho)

I think Levi and Mammon would die from embarrassment. Asmo would die out of happiness and Satan with Luci will try to pretend like thay never saw that. and idk about other ones. :P

I think that would make a cute fluff and a very scary situation if it was real uwu

Thats all

Have a nice dayyyyyyyyyyyy~~~

-BigS aka.AlgophobicDude

hey! great to hear from you again :)

haha thank you! been slowly knocking out requests one at a time and let me tell you it's a lot more fun than it might look haha

i wrote this while wearing a pink cowboy hat. i just wanted to share that

you got it! enjoy!!

Mc with a hyperfixation on the brothers

Lucifer

is this a human thing?

he's happy to indulge you as long as you're not too loud about it out in public

especially please don't share those pictures with anyone, like mammon. he will sell those, especially the ones he only intends for you. please

he's happy you don't hate him, actually. you make this old man very happy haha

Mammon

he would never tell you, but he's also got a photo album dedicated to you

also has a note on his D.D.D. full of all the things he never said to you but hopes to be brave enough to one day to tell you

he doesn't tell you he's got that though, not in a million years

he really loves that you're hyperfixated on him because that just means you care about him just as much as he cares about you

Levi

as expected, he's very flustered

he knows what it's like to have a little blorbo and he would give anything to be able to see them daily in person and live with them

he's over the moon once he realizes this and despite his embarrassment, he pushed through to spend more time with you

he's so dedicated <3

Satan

he's probably the most puzzled

he's always learning new things about humans even when he thought he knew everything

he knows and trusts you so from time to time, he'll take a picture with you in mind that he knows will remind you of him

all in all, he does think it's a little strange but won't stop you since he's never seen you happier

Asmo

like they said, you're literally about to become the number one member of his fanclub!

lucky for you, once he finds your asmo photo album, he's feeding into your hyperfixation

you get lots of exclusive privileges, such as early morning selfies and all his merch for free, including prototypes

he's always ready to pose for a picture for you. every side is his good side!

Beel

he's a little confused but he's happy to make you happy

he listened to you talk about your hyperfixations the most beside levi so he's quick to pick up on this shift

to make you happy, he decides to make a handmade adult bib just for you haha and at first he's a little sad but then he finds it while digging for your snack stash

you've never worn it once because it's hanging in your closet next to your fancy outfits <3

Belphie

you what? is his initial reaction

from the outside, it seems like it doesn't bother him or that he could care less

but, on the inside, he's elated since he thought after how he tricked you, you'd never want to be close to him again

now, you're the very thing that makes you excited to wake up every morning by his side

[listentoace]

This will freak you out

... or at least I hope it does. Yes, I know most of the stuff I post on here is just kinky and horny talk and that's totally fine. By now, thousands of users have found their way to my blog and I'm very grateful for the support. I know I don't share much about myself, but the following will be about a more personal matter. I work in IT, or more specifically, with data. Lots of data. Being into data science, I am hyper-aware of the constant collecting and aggregating of user data. I know it's somewhat common knowledge that you're being tracked, but I want to take this opportunity to point out how bad the situation is and why privacy matters. I'll try to keep it as easy to follow as possible, so please bare with me!

The Trackers

Right now, you're on Tumblr. As you are reading this, your app connects to over a dozen servers that are not from Tumblr itself. They are from companies like Google, Amazon, Yahoo, but also lesser known companies such as Adjust and Moat. Within a single day, the Tumblr App sends about 5.000 tracking requests to the aforementioned and more companies, sharing your personal data. That's once every 15-20 seconds, regardless of whether you have the app opened or not. While I can't say exactly what data is being shared, it is likely that this is personal information that can be utilized to assume your opinions, target ads, or predict future behavior, as these are ways how companies will ultimately make money. Depending on what permissions you have granted the Tumblr app, it might also scan your gallery, your entire file system, access your call history, or your camera and microphone. By granting this permission, you are essentially giving Tumblr the keys to your phone on a complete "just trust me, bro"-basis. To me personally, that sounds scary.

But why do you use Tumblr yourself, then?

Very good and fair question! I actually am conflicted regarding using Tumblr, but I have put several security measures into place to minimize tracking potential as much as possible. While Tumblr can still see when I go online, read all the messages I send to others, know what content I view, like, comment on, and otherwise engage with, that is about it. Tumblr cannot acces my general file system, it cannot remotely access my camera and microphone, and even all the aforementioned trackers are blocked. I'll go more into this later.

"So what, I've got nothing to hide."

It's great that you think that! That's just what the big tech companies want you to believe. But answer me this: have you ever found it uncomfortable when a person next to you was reading all your texts, looking at your gallery, and just generally kept an eye on what you do on your phone at all times? Well, if a single person doing that is bothering you, how much worse must it be to know that several companies with thousands of employees spy on you for a living? Yes, they have seen your nudes, your breakup texts, your hours of Whatsapp calls with your best friend. It's literally a Big Brother Dystopia.

"Why would they be interested in me?"

I bet you have heard about the Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal from 2018. Just to summarize: a data analytics company CA worked closely together with Facebook to target adds specifically tailored to users to manipulate them into voting for Donald Trump as President. If you are asking how specific this could be, just look at this demonstration by Signal, where their ads are extremely specific to a point where probably only a few thousand if not only hundreds of people would fit the description and just those exact people saw their ad.

"You got this ad because you're a newlywed pilates instructor and you're cartoon crazy. This ad used your location to see you're in La Jolla. You're into parenting blogs and thinking about LGBTQ adoption."

Facebook took it down within hours. But imagine you seeing this ad of a random company knowing this much and lots more about you. Note that Instagram and WhatsApp belong to Facebook/Meta, so even if you're not using Facebook directly, you're still being watched just as closely.

Knowing exactly what you like, dislike, fear, and love, strong emotions can be triggered for political or financial gain. You're into sustainability? Buy this product and we will retrieve one pound of plastic from the ocean! You are conservative and maybe slightly racist? Immigrants are taking over more and more healthcare jobs! You are scared by a possible nuclear war? Vote us for safety and peace!

This is how Cambridge Analytica managed to pull in millions of voters in the US and manipulate the election in a way that Donald Trump wouldn't have won without their manipulation. This is literally a threat to democracy. And as you know, my allegiance is to the Republic, to Democracy!

You might be aware of how right-wing and extremist parties all around the western world use very polarizing and emotional topics in their campaigns and are doing very well on social media. Often much better than more centered, leftist, or conservative parties, who tend to polarize less. This is not a coincidence. Not only is this because of customized, targeted content, but it's also because strong emotions generate more attention

Doom Scrolling & Dopamine

Social Media has had decades to perfect their dopamine lottery. The algorithms know exactly what you are into, no matter how much of a niche it might be. A good, user-oriented algorithm would show you a few posts, the best ones of the day, and then simply say "well, that's been all the good stuff. Wanna see the rest anyways?". But that's not how it works, is it? When opening an app like Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, etc., you usually immediately land on a recent top-post. This is to give you the instant gratification and that sweet hit of dopamine.

Have you ever noticed how you had to scroll a bit before you got a post again that you really loved? That's by design. The mix of top-posts and mediocre ones is on purpose, to keep you waiting for more. You never know when the next super funny TikTok will come by. All you know is that it might be the next one. In-between top-posts, you're met with mediocre garbage and an add or two and just before it gets too boring, you hit gold again. The constant release of much higher than normal amounts of dopamine make your brain temporarily lose touch with what levels are normal. Why is it that you feel drained and tired after scrolling through social media for a few hours, even though you've done nothing but sitting around? You didn't think hard, you didn't move much, so what is it? It is the dopamine-rollercoaster that is mentally straining you. And there are tens of thousands of highly trained software engineers and corporate executives designing their platforms to keep you scrolling for as long as possible. If that little chiming sound increases your screen time by as little as 2%, it will be added. It is designed to suck your life away, chain your eyeballs to the content they want you to see, just so they can literally sell you to anyone who has the cash. You need that new gadget, visiting this country is an absolute must, this new sports competition is amazing, definitely vote for this cool party. Trust them. They know what you want. You don't know anything about them, but they know everything about you.

"What do I do now?"

Well, it is unlikely that you'll stop using social media at all. I mean, even I am still here. But there are things you can and should do for your mental and financial health, and for your own safety and protection against manipulation. Here is a list of things you should consider

Limiting social media to only a few apps you actually use and are interested in

Spend no more than 2 hours on social media per day

Meet friends irl instead of only texting

Stop sharing personal information. It is not illegal to enter false names, birthdays, etc into random sign-up forms! Protect your children as well!

Use privacy- & user-oriented platforms, such as Signal instead of WhatsApp, or Mastodon instead of Twitter. They finance themselves through volunteers and donations instead of by selling your data and lifetime to any buyer

Use privacy-oriented frontends (the visual interface and application you interact with), such as NewPipe or FreeTube instead of YouTube. You also won't be seeing any ads there

Don't buy anything impulsively. Take a week or two to think about whether you really need and want it.

Check facts, do your own research, use multiple sources, be critical

And in case you're interested in what I use:

I'm have an Android phone running /e/OS and a total of 5 computers/servers which run Linux and a Windows laptop for work. My phone block any trackers, fakes my GPS location (not VPN/IP) to where I am in Barcelona. All devices have a 24/7 encrypted VPN connection. I don't have WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or even a Google account. For personal use I have Signal, Element (Discord alternative), and Proton Mail. That's it. Every website or platform I have an account on has it's own, unique, single-use email, a randomized password and 2FA whenever possible. I use KeePass as my password manager, encrypted with a password, key file, and hardware key. I enter false data into any random form, use hardened Firefox browsers to resist fingerprinting and tracking, and back up all my data at home on a hard drive instead of using a cloud service. (Yes, there is much more)

For my content, I use Tumblr and a semi-active Discord account, Reddit accounts are banned.

For my professional life, I am forced to use Microsoft Teams and Outlook, yet I only use those on my work computer & phone.

Privacy = Freedom

Yes, I know my measures are far beyond average, but I wanted to present an example and hopefully inspire some of you to take back your online freedom and privacy! Because that's what it is! Privacy is Freedom!

I hope this inspired you and please ask any questions in the comments! This truly is a topic that means a lot to me so thank you for reading all the way through it. Please reblog to further share this important topic and encourage others to protect themselves!

- Ace

[too-many-rooks]

42 Reverdy Road, The Rider Household.

Follow up from This post

Can be found on the gallery under '42 Reverdy Road' ID: rebecca707

Some things about the house that occurred to me whilst building this, under a read more to restrain my ramblings.

General background first;

This is the end of a row of pretty classic English Victorian terrace houses, these are the sort of buildings I've lived in most of my adult life in the UK, and if you ever take the Thameslink south of the river in London you'll see tons of houses like this; especially with the modern extension with skylights and large sliding doors on the back.

They film Alex's neighbourhood in Bermondsey, which is not quite as affluent an area as Chelsea, (because, honestly, would be wild if Alex actually lived in Chelsea) but is still definitely quite wealthy, houses like this one in this neighbourhood would sell for upwards of a £1M in the current market.

Onto design choices for the build;

The downstairs is fairly open plan, and In the show we see several scenes that more or less show the whole thing, so I tried to replicate it as accurately as I could. In the lounge, it looks like there's a desk in the back corner, and since we see Ian has an office, and Alex has a desk in his room, I thought maybe this was for Jack to study, so in the build I added some case files for her to be reading. Also, I added bikes for Ian and Alex and put them under the stairs.

I found the upstairs really tricky - we only see Alex's room, and a brief look at the hallway outside his room, which seemed to lead to more rooms, and the stairs. This made me think he was at the back of the house, as most terraces taper at the back for access to the garden. Also, the window seems to line up with a window we see on the upstairs floor in an exterior shot of the kitchen. I feel especially proud of Alex's room - I think it gets the vibe of slightly messy but active high achiever - there's a certificate by his front door in Hebrew (presumably a Krav Maga thing), so I added lots of rosettes and medals and certificates. He's also got a row of hooks above his bed with like a snorkel, and climbing rope, so I used some of the snowboarding stuff to replicate that, and gave him a desk full of hobby items for boy scout spy crafting.

Jack's room was total conjecture, and also a bit of a challenge, since I don't feel I have a sense for her aesthetic taste in furniture, I tried to think what her room would be like considering she's lived there for presumably most of her early twenties, but this also being not her house/not her family/not permanent. I definitely think it would be nice, and comfortable, and personalised to a certain extent. So I gave her some kinda Ikea-ish furniture, and decorated it with small, movable clutter, and posters, pictures, and tapestries, tapped and blue tacked to the wall rather than nailed in.

Ian's bit was also a challenge, despite being the other room upstairs that we see. His office is categorically in the wrong place, the entry door should be on a different wall. Conceivably, it should be where I put Ian's en-suite, and there's a little corridor leading there, but I couldn't make that work without squishing everything together too much. So I put it in the modern bit, thinking that Ian might have built in some extra protection when doing the extension to add more security to what might be like the 'spy hub' in the house. We also see that there's another door inside Ian's study - for the level of privacy that room would need, it only really made sense to me for that door to lead to his bedroom, which also shows how he never really gets away from his work, when he sleeps right next to his study. So I gave him this kind of self-contained suite of rooms, which makes him somewhat shut off and isolated from the others. Considering how immediately Jack complies with a request for a moment of privacy when Ian is in his office, I imagine there's some pretty deeply ingrained house rules about disturbing Ian's office for 'confidential banking reasons', which makes him harder to access when he's in his bedroom. Also, Jack and Alex share a bathroom, but Ian has an en-suite. His bedroom is nice but bland, with a few souvenirs of his travels and a rack of monochrome clothing for his grey casual wear, and his bathroom is modern and dark, with some medical supplies by the sink for patching himself up after a mission.

The garden, on reflection, is a bit chaotic - I think it should actually be larger, and have a little shed. But what we see of it in Season 3 is different to season 1, it's smaller, more enclosed, and has some pretty high walls all around. I wasn't sure which way to go so left it fairly blank, with space for the wheelie bins round the side, a little patio, some grass, a drying line, and a football. The chaotic bit comes from the bbq I gave them in the corner which, looking at the photos, my Rider Sims must have managed to set on fire and burn immediately. Oh and also to make Ian Alex's uncle in CAS I had to make a John to be Ian's brother and Alex's father, so I Immediately killed him and put his headstone in a corner of the garden, so they can all be haunted by John's ghost. Neato!

[unwri-ten]

i just looked at your site for comms and i'm like this 'cause it got me scared of you [/POS /POS] ↓

[i'm being so serious, how do you do the whole making a site thing-]

HI HIII OUBSDFJNFSD- Don't be intimidated!!! I don't bite <333 But yeah, omg sites and stuff- !! Really intimidating when you start out I totally get it, BUTT It's not that difficult once you get the hang of it, 'cause from my experience, that slump mostly comes from just not knowing what to put and the overloady junk ykyk? But anyways, Yeah! I can talk about some things I learned while developing a portfolio website/landing page

First would be what you want to use it for! For this whole thing I'm just gonna use Weebly and Carrd as samples because they're both free. ANYWAYS, I use two websites for two things, first is a directory that includes almost all the links to my stuff, and the second is my actual main website as a portfolio and professional place to showcase my work to clients and potential employers. The directory is pretty simple since it's just a compilations to links, Carrd is pretty easy to use so I'd recommend this one if you just need one place to put your socials, commission info, and etc.

I put everything in sections and since I mostly use all of this for work in general, I showcase my work status and my website first and foremost!

Andd all of this is just links to stuff that might be important, I'd also recommend having navigation buttons on each page that helps with loading back to other part of your website, (beloww)

and as for my main site, it's a lot more complicated and I'm already babbling way too much in one post so I'll try to condense it pretty quick. Visuals can come later! Focus on what content you want to put in the site first. Usually it's sanctioned into three things: Your Portfolio/shop, a showcase for the services that you offer, and an about-me (I got inspiration from other sites like local brands and their shop websites and art portfolios) (oh and TOS is important too if you're an artist!)

You can of course add and not-add anything you please but that's the generalized gist of it and what worked for me personally. Once you know what to put then you can build up the website bit by bit, I'd recommend weebly for heavier sites like that because not only is it free but unlike carrd, it has no 'element limit'. the only drawback is a footer that advertises weebly on your website, and to me that's not that bad of a con really LOLOL some tips: *I'd recommend putting your best work forward than -all- of your work in a portfolio/gallery. Find what best showcases your talent, quality over quantity! *Find other portfolios/websites that align to what you're looking for, most artists you know prolly have their websites too so it's a good starting point to find inspiration on what to put! *and for actually learning how to use carrd and weebly's interfaces, its a WHOLLEEE other conversation I can't really divulge in without going on a ramble-bam sooo if you have any questions, i dont mind dms! I'd love to help :)) I think advertising and marketing yourself is really important (sometimes even moreso because yk how it is with art as a business), and I already went through the nittygritty of learning this all by myself so I'd love to help anyone that needs it, o7!!!! Hope this helps!!

[tennessoui]

kit's ko-fi fics: July Wine Party AU!

she's here, she's arrived - it's july ko-fi time and the au i wrote a longer fic for this time is the wine party au! a quick rundown of the wine party au: obi-wan is a bit of a wine snob/retired chef and sommelier. anakin is a bit of a broke college student/retired frat bro. they fuck a lot and enter a quasi-relationship where they find each other fascinating and attractive but hate everything about the other except for all the parts they like. padmé and her psychologist friends find them fascinating. here is the tumblr tag for the au, and here are the links to the two ficlets I've written for the wine party au in the past: Tumblr Tag / Past Ficlets For Wine Party AU

and here is a little teaser for the fic that i've just posted up on my gallery on ko-fi for monthly supporters only:

“I don’t know, Padmé,” Anakin says, squinting at her tiny face on his phone. “I wasn’t asked to bring anything.” On screen, Padmé rolls her eyes. “You’ve been to enough of these things by now, Anakin. You should know you always bring something.” “I’ve been to a lot of these things at Kenobi’s house,” Anakin corrects, setting the phone down against the toaster so he can survey the kitchen around him. “I’ve never been to a fancy rich party on a big boat before.” “A yacht,” Padmé corrects. “And don’t try to pretend you’re not on first name terms with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker. I’m a renowned psychologist, not an idiot, and don’t think I haven’t noticed the hickies on your neck after every wine party you attend with me.” “He’s a dick,” Anakin tells her. “And those could have been from anyone. Your other friend there, Organa maybe.” “My happily married and very straight friend, Bail Organa?” she asks, with such a tone of disbelief that Anakin entertains the idea of hanging up on her. It’d certainly make him feel better for a few moments at least. “Yeah,” he says staunchly anyway.  “Better him than Kenobi.” Kenobi, who is a dick. Kenobi, who always looks at him with a slightly incredulous sneer, as if he’s unsure who allowed him into his social circle, or like he’s just caught him wearing muddy shoes on his precious white fur rugs. 

as a general reminder, my ko-fi fics are standalone fics set in an au of my choosing that i've talked about on tumblr in the past. no ko-fi fic will include key information you need to understand for any fic published on ao3, but rather they're just extra stuff and longer fics than i usually post on tumblr. to see these fics, you need to be a monthly supporter on ko-fi - and if you are, you can see this most recent wine party one as well as 12 others!!! cancel anytime - you'll still have access until your sub runs out, a month after your last supporting payment. and of course i will continue to post things on ao3 and also on tumblr that anyone can see - this is just. extra stuff that i have fun writing!

[spellcaster-dude]

The spellcaster dude's stats

+12 wisdom

+8 intelligence

+4 dexterity

+6 constitution

+5 strength

+8 charisma

HP: 30692/30692

Crown Mass: 100%

"Spellcaster speaks like this"

"Or like this"

<The crimson crown speaks like this>

Alludo communicates like this

{Mod speaks like this}

(Actions action like this)

[Other things other like this]

Conditions:

None!

--------------------------------------------

KNOWN KNOWLEDGE

Name: Furor Corvus Exponentia, God of Rage

Pronouns:

Spellcaster: He/him

Crown: Any

Alludo: They them

Lore drop 1

Owns many magic items

Mage armor description:

[Until either 16 asks have passed, they have donned armor, or 8 hours have passed in-universe, the target will be protected from most nonmagical damage, as it takes the form of whatever armor is most efficient for the situation. (i.e. a slash would form chainmail, a stab would form plate armor, and casual situations would form a light blue version of their normal clothing.)]

Wild Spinner post (Links to a tumblr post)

-Wild Blade: A sword with a spinner on its guard. The wheel spins as the blade cuts and/or stabs through the air, generating wild magic energy. Upon attacking, it spins the wild magic table from the wild spinner (may change in the future). The magic favors the wielder if they hit, and the victim if they fail. (I.e. a boost to spell damage will apply to the wielder if they beat the target's ac, or the victim if they fail.) Acts like a longsword otherwise. Attached to the Blades of Anarchy. (Tumblr post linked.)

Bloodflame Blade post

Run by @kenidur1561

My favorite spell is Summon Anvils.

--------------

RELATIONS

@flashbang-guy "He's neat, tried to kamikaze me, but so long as he doesn't hurt any more children, we're cool."

<A crownless god... Interesting...>

@kali-lamb "She revived me twice and made me a whole new body. I owe my life to her three times over."

<I gotta meet the pink crown. I always love meeting alternate versions of my family!>

@disciplesofthelamb "Briar and dotty are pretty neat! Silas is an asshole though."

<I've yet to meet them.>

@askdennycotl "My friend. We help each other out with mental health, and I'm teaching her magic!"

<If I let her die, him disowning me would be the best case scenario. I don't wanna know of the others.>

@scannys-back "Protect. I will defend him with my life."

<Seems neat. I guess I'll help protect him so spellcaster doesn't kill me.>

@nox-the-cat "My friend, I'm glad she was able to be free of her mod."

<The fuck is an olive garden?>

@pbam0ney "My friend, he tries to help me with tally and the such, and made me a new house! He also revived me when tally made all my blood vessels burst."

<He seems like a cool guy.>

Tally: "HATE."

<I do NOT want to meet him.>

Oblivion: "He seems neat, and guests are always nice!"

<I still don't understand why Furor called me off that one time.>

@temporal-mayhem "That place is creepy. And I still only know one of the 10 websites."

<Eugh... Spooky...>

@ask-follower-jade "Another student of mine, and I'm glad that they and denny are happy together."

[No comment provided]

@ask-the-red-serpant

<Heh, she's jealous that I get to be a bear :)>

@askthe-littlepoet "What happened to you?"

<Something is off about that tie, but I can't quite tell what.>

-----------------

TONED DOWN (for silly non-canon stuff)

+3 in all stats

536/536 HP

Rage: Double HP and stat buffs

Does not have self-awareness

Can't make quite as powerful magic items.

(The rest is up to mod's discretion)

ALSO THE STUFF THAT HAPPENS WITH THIS FORM IS NOT CANON

----------------------------------------

Gallery:

[detectivereads]

Darkwing Duck F.O.W.L. Play by Amanda Deibert

10/5

This post is for fan entertainment, I’m not being paid.

As it obvious, I am huge Batman fan, he is my favorite hero and is the best hero in my opinion.

Granted when I was kid, I didn’t connect the dots that Darkwing Duck was a parody of Batman until I was much older. I always liked Darkwing, and when I could, I would try to catch his cartoon.

But now that I am older and stepping back and looking at Darkwing from a distance I loved this hero almost as much as Batman. For Darkwing his rouge gallery is just like Batman is enormous, and you can draw parallels to Batman.

Also, Darkwing has some amazing sidekicks like Gosalyn Mallard and Launchpad McQuack

OK on to the comic!

Behold on the roof tops stands a lone figure, the silent knight of St. Canard, he is the lone lego block that is under the bare foot of villainy, there stands…. Darkwing Duck (*cue thunderclap*).

In the first chapter of this comic, Darkwing is being honor by the city of St. Carnard for all his heroic deeds, but the celebration is stop by Darkwing Duck most electric criminal MegaVolt.

Megavolt is using his power over electricity to control the people who are in attendance, with their cellphones.

So, Darkwing and the crew has to use their heads to stop Megavolt and not really do any damage to the mindless citizen.

The next chapter Drake Mallard takes Gosalyn to the newly open toyshop, after her help with Megavolt, Dark thinks it’s time for Gosalyn to do some normal kid stuff. After shopping around a bit Drake and company comes across the Darkwing Duck toys. But they come alive and well as the rest of the toys, who would crazy enough to make evil toys?? The evil toy master Quackerjack has come out to play.

These next two chapters are like part 1 and part two that it centers around one villain, and we are introduces the lovely mistress of spells Morgana. Drake explains to her that he wants to hang up the cape, Gosalyn needs a stable normal life, and Drake wants Morgana to join him.

(*INSANE FANGIRL SQUEALING)

I kid you not I thought these two were perfect together when I was watching the cartoon growing up. When Drake said that I couldn’t even think of words on how happy I was.

With some objections from her family, Morgana join Drake and Gosalyn in St. Carnard.

Drake is having trouble adjusting to his new life as a working stiff, he misses being Darkwing. He has a very bad presentation at Gosalyn school where Morgana has to go and pick him up.

But throughout the chapter, vines have started to take over places in St. Carnard, with the vines now taking over Gosalyn’s school. Morgana and Drake team up to be the pruning shears of justice, and now it’s them against the floral menace Bushroot.

Ok I wanted to say this, has there ever been an issue of Batman where Bats goes to a day spa, that is not linked to a case. For health and pampering.

This next villain wasn’t one of my favorites growing up.

DW and Lanchpad are at the spa to get some pampering done, since having three super criminals and a small spat with your girlfriend’s family in a close time frame. A superhero needs to think about their health.

When relaxing in the pool, DW notices a familiar statue of the liquidity villain Liquidator.

Now I did enjoy this chapter, but Liquidator wasn’t really one of my favorite villains like Bushroot or Quackerjack. If I remember the episode, he was a salesperson before he turned into the Liquidator.

However, I did like this chapter because it wasn’t just DW and LP having issues with a villain.

Gosalyn and Honker in support of their favorite principal who what being let go, they stage a walkout in support of the old principal. But this new principal plays dirty, he installs candy machines in the school and Gosalyn and the other kids are quick to support the new principal.

However, these candies are mind controlling candies and the kids are quickly ready to pummel Darkwing with dodgeballs. Only one person is able to organize this kind of hostile takeover, the evil organization F.O.W.L.

The last chapter is one heck of a fight between Darkwing and his team and the villains and Negaduck. I like the setting where the big fight takes place, at a carnival.

Darkwing duck is a hero that is near and dear to me. I am so excited that he got a resurgence and all the comics that are coming out. I have some high hopes that we get more stuff for the cape crusader.

[venomous-soliloquy]

Some things I've realized since I started mainly drawing OCs again:

I was putting too much of an expectation on myself to churn out fanart and it was both debilitating me and stagnating my growth

I was too worried about validation, if a certain piece of fanart didn't preform well I would question if I was even that good of an artist when I constantly saw other fanart getting sometimes 500+ or 1000+ notes - Worth noting, that yes, when I post my OCs on Bluesky in particular I do hope they do well and people enjoy my art. But, I no longer care if they 'do numbers' because at the end of the day I'm actually enjoying myself while creating art and that's what counts

The StonyLovesSteve event forced me to stop drawing for nearly a month after it, I was in horrific pain from my hand to my elbow after spending hours every day working on the animation. Despite that, the pause in creating helped me to reevaluate what I was doing and why. - I am still suffering ramifications from doing that animation. I spent a month working on it, still barely finished it. I now am consistently forced to take breaks in the middle of creating art because of the hand and arm cramps that pop up.

I'm growing artistically by leaps and bounds and because I don't feel the weight of 'having to get the characters right' or 'having to draw something that appeals to the fandom at large'. This is not a weight that the fandom itself put on me, but one I put on myself. But, in the past few months I've gotten faster and because I'm not constantly stressed about 'doing it right', my muscle memory is being set free and shit that I struggled to draw before just comes so easy now it's ridiculous.

All this being said; yes, I will still be drawing Stony stuff in the future. However, to grow as an artist and a creator and if I ever want to get any of my dreams off of the ground, I definitely need to lean further in the opposite direction. After all, how am I supposed to write a webcomic about a 15+ year old story with my OCs if I'm just drawing fanart all the time? Do I always want to contend with copyright over popular IPs by only selling prints and stickers of them, or is it wiser to also work on original/personal designs along side that?

I'll keep making fanart, 100%, but it's going to slow down to a veritable crawl.

The biggest thing is, I'm a little leery about posting my OCs here, because this blog was first built on my Stony fanart. I'm not going to pretend like all 400+ followers I have here didn't come for Stony first and maybe my OC work second. Still, this blog was always intended to be an art gallery of sorts... So, yeah, I'm gonna keep posting my art here. And most of it is going to be OCs, studies, personal work that has nothing to do with fanart.

I absolutely understand if people need to unfollow me because of it, because you came to watch me for one thing and I switched it up on you.

Love ya guys.

[dearweirdme]

https://x.com/privategall23/status/1653332766619230208

Do you think any action will be taken regarding this by company? Or will you think karmys might do something because atp I don't have any hope from international armys. Iarmys after reading this are trending they love jmn.

Hi anon!

No I don’t think they will. They have known about this for years and have either failed or not done enough to stop this. I have no clue as to how hard it is to cancel something like Dc gallery, I imagine it isn’t an easy thing. Perhaps if this thing hits the media hard enough there will come a statement? But I’m not really big on trusting BH to protect their members much. BH doesn’t actually care. They care about money and power, and Jk and Tae getting hate and smearcampains from Pjm’s doesn’t really matter to them. What matters to them, is Jm’s own fandom not ruining him for the whole of army. It says a whole lot about how seriously harmful Pjm’s are (speaking in general terms here) if BH recognizes that their fandom is so harmful that they will be able to destroy their own favorite. All members have solo fandom’s, and apparently PJM’s are the only group their own favorite has to need protection from. Bh are assholes unfortunately, so sadly no.. I don’t think they’re gonna do much.

It’s insane. I am no stranger to reading what goes around in those spaces. Throughout my years of Tkk blogging I’ve gotten the most vile asks about Jk and Tae (I’ve never posted those.. and you’ve seen the stuff I have posted.. so you know what to imagine). I hate their way of dealing with this. I even hate how this is worded, because it makes it seem like protecting Jm is the benevolent thing to do. Ofcourse Jm should be protected, but in this case there are other members (Tae and Jk mostly) constantly getting hit with smearcampaigns. It’s also just so silly to think that working on the way Jm is perceived in fandom is some sort of solution. It’s the rotten apples in fandom that should be dealt with, and it’s not the other apples that need to be brainwashed into thinking what’s happening isn’t actually bad. If you don’t take on the haters, they will only keep thinking they are justified. If they see that Jm gets a special treatment (and don’t even come and say it’s not special treatment if a company decides to not take on a certain member’s solo fandom that is malicious to other members in order to protect the member himself, because it is).

It’s fine to love Jm. I certainly do. But it is absolutely tone deaf if on reading all of this that is what you feel you need to tweet out.

[tokimaeki]

Making a post about Sasha and Milla's respective traumas and how they handle them, bc I'm obsessed with the way they foil one another. Read below for my takes:

SO. In Sasha's Shooting Gallery, Sasha's mindscape is a big, mechanical cube. It's sleek. It's clean. It's perfectly controlled, just like Sasha himself.

Then Raz starts messing with the lever, and things start going wrong very quickly. It only takes one mistake for Sasha's childhood traumas to come bursting out of the cube in a way that is far less organized than his mindscape would like to have you think. What's more, these childhood traumas aren't exactly well-organized. Each side is haphazardly cluttered, as if the memories were just shoved inside the cube with no thought given how well they'd fit.

It's sort of like how, when cleaning my room as a kid, I'd just shove all my stuff into the closet and shut the door before it could all tumble out. Sure, the room looks great now-- but once I mess up and accidentally open that door, it's going to take a lot of work to get things back to normal.

And the same thing happens in Sasha's mind. Once one repressed trauma bursts out, it doesn't take long for another to follow suit. And another. And another. Raz can't stop them from coming out, and by the time he's managed to deal with one side of the cube, another one has already popped open. And of course, this all culminates in a giant Censor coming out to promptly beat the tar out of Sasha. It takes a lot of time, effort, and pain to get Sasha's mind back in order.

Meanwhile, Milla's mind is, for the entirety of her stage, perfectly stable-- despite her tragic backstory of her orphanage burning down in a fire, the psychic screams of the children in her care echoing in her mind. Why is that? Well, it's because Milla's traumatic memories and other painful emotions are safely sequestered off the beaten path, in that little locked room of fire and brimstone.

At first, I thought this was another case of a character dealing with their trauma in an unhealthy way. I mean, she's literally locking away her negative thoughts! That can't possibly be healthy, right?

But then it hit me. While Milla has put her thoughts in a part of her mind that's difficult to access, they're not really 'locked away.' in fact, you can access them pretty easily, as long as you know what you're doing and what steps you have to take. And once you do get there, the nightmares can't hurt you. They're scary to confront, sure. It's heartbreaking and distressing to hear the children's screams for help. But nothing in that room physically harms you.

And that's the beauty of Milla's mind. Similarly to Sasha, she successfully copes with her trauma by compartmentalizing it, putting it in a spot where it can't hurt herself or others. But unlike Sasha, Milla's pain is accessible. It's easily reachable, but near impossible to stumble into accidentally. And most importantly, it isn't going to come bursting out and causing mayhem if you make a mistake somewhere.

I love the way these two's minds foil one another. It's such a good example of unhealthy repression VS healthy compartmentalization.

[dustedmagazine]

Listening Post: Kim Gordon

Kim Gordon has long been one of rock’s female icons, one of a tiny handful of women to get much play in Michael Azzerad’s underground-defining Our Band Could Be Your Life and a mainstay in the noise-rock monolith Sonic Youth. It’s hard to imagine that quintessential dude rock band without Gordon in front, dwarfed by her bass or spitting tranced out, pissed off verses over the storm of feedback.

Yet Gordon’s trajectory has been, if anything, even more fascinating since Sonic Youth’s demise in 2011. A visual artist first — she studied art at the Otis College of Art and Design before joining the band — she continues to paint and sculpt and create. She’s had solo art shows at established galleries in London and New York, most recently at the 303 Gallery in New York City. A veteran of indie films including Gus van Zant’s Last Days and Todd Haynes I’m Not There, she has also continued to act sporadically, appearing in the HBO series Girls and on an episode of Portlandia. Her memoir, Girl in a Band, came out in 2015.

But Gordon has remained surprisingly entrenched in indie music over the last decade. Many critics, including a few at Dusted, consider her Body Head, collaboration with Bill Nace the best of the post-Sonic Youth musical projects. The ensemble has now produced two EPs and three full-lengths. Gordon has also released two solo albums, which push her iconic voice into noisier, more hip hop influenced directions. We’re centering this listening post around The Collective, Gordon’s second and more recent solo effort, which comes out on Matador on March 8th, but we’ll likely also be talking about her other projects as well.

Intro by Jennifer Kelly

Jennifer Kelly: I missed No Home in 2019, so I was somewhat surprised by The Collective’s abrasive, beat-driven sound though I guess you could make connections to Sonic Youth’s Cypress Hill collaboration?

The more I listen to it, though, the more it makes sense to me. I’ve always liked the way Gordon plays with gender stereotypes, and “I’m a Man” certainly follows that trajectory. What are you guys hearing in The Collective?

Jonathan Shaw: I have only listened through the entire record once, but I am also struck by its intensities. Sort of silly to be surprised by that, given so many of the places she has taken us in the past: noisy, dangerous, dark. But there's an undercurrent of violence to these sounds that couples onto the more confrontational invocations and dramatizations of sex. It's a strong set of gestures. I like the record quite a bit.

Bill Meyer: I'm one of those who hold Body/Head to be the best effort of the post-Sonic Youth projects, but I'll also say that it's very much a band that creates a context for Gordon to do something great, not a solo effort. I was not so taken with No Home, which I played halfway through once upon its release and did not return to until we agreed to have this discussion. I've played both albums through once now, and my first impression is that No Home feels scattered in a classic post-band-breakup project fashion — “let's do a bit of this and that and see what sticks.” The Collective feels much more cohesive sonically, in a purposeful, “I'm going to do THIS” kind of way.

Jonathan Shaw: RE Jennifer's comment about “I'm a Man”: Agreed. The sonics are very noise-adjacent, reminding me of what the Body has been up to lately, or deeper underground acts like 8 Hour Animal or Kontravoid's less dancy stuff. Those acts skew masculine (though the Body has taken pains recently to problematize the semiotics of those photos of them with lots of guns and big dogs...). Gordon's voice and lyrics make things so much more explicit without ever tipping over into the didactic. And somehow her energy is in tune with the abrasive textures of the music, but still activates an ironic distance from it. In the next song, “Trophies,” I love it when she asks, “Will you go bowling with me?” The sexed-up antics that follow are simultaneously compelling and sort of funny. Rarely has bowling felt so eroticized.

Jennifer Kelly: I got interested in the beats and did a YouTube dive on some of the other music that Justin Raisen has been involved with. He's in an interesting place, working for hip hop artists (Lil Yachty, Drake), pop stars (Charli XCX) and punk or at least punk adjacent artists (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Viagra Boys), but nothing I've found is as raw and walloping as these cuts.

“The Candy House” is apparently inspired by Jennifer Egan's The Candy House, which is about a technology that enables people to share memories... Gordon is pretty interested in phones and communications tech and how that's changing art and human interaction.

Andrew Forell: My immediate reaction to the beats was oh, The Bug and JK Flesh, in particular the MachineEPs by the former and Sewer Bait by the latter. Unsurprisingly, as Jonathan says, she sounds right at home within that kind of dirty noise but is never subsumed by it

Jennifer Kelly: I don't have a deep reference pool in electronics, but it reminded me of Shackleton and some of the first wave dub steppers. Also, a certain kind of late 1990s/early aughts underground hip hop like Cannibal Ox and Dalek.

Bryon Hayes: Yeah, I hear some Dalek in there, too. Also, the first Death Grips mixtape, Ex-Military.

It's funny, I saw the track title “I'm a Man,” and my mind immediately went to Bo Diddley for some reason, I should have known that Kim would flip the script, and do it in such a humorous way. I love how she sends up both the macho country-lovin’ bros and the sensitive metrosexual guys. It's brilliant!

This has me thinking about “Kool Thing”, and how Chuck D acts as the ‘hype man’ to Kim Gordon in that song. I'm pretty sure that was unusual for hip hop at the time. Kim's got a long history of messing with gender stereotypes.

Bill Meyer: Gordon did a couple videos for this record, and she starred her daughter Coco in both of them. The one for “I'm A Man” teases out elements of gender fluidity, how that might be expressed through clothing, and different kinds of watching. I found the video for “Bye Bye” more interesting. All the merchandise that's listed in the video turns out to be a survival kit, one that I imagine that Gordon would know that she has to have to get by. The protagonist of the video doesn't know that, and their unspoken moment in a car before Coco runs again was poignant in a way that I don't associate with her work. And of messing with hip hop!

Tim Clarke: “Bye Bye” feels like a companion to The Fall’s “Dr Buck’s Letter.”

Bill Meyer: From The Unutterable? I'll have to a-b them.

Tim Clarke: That’s the one.

Jonathan Shaw: All of these comments make me think of the record’s title, and the repeated line in “The Candy House”: “I want to join the collective.” Which one? The phone on the record’s cover nods toward our various digital collectives — spaces for communication and expression, and spaces for commerce, all of which seem to be harder and harder to tell apart. A candy house, indeed. Why is it pink? Does she have a feminine collective in mind? A feminine collective unconscious? The various voices and lyric modes on the record suggest that's a possibility. For certain women, and for certain men working hard to understand women, Gordon has been a key member of that collective for decades.

Jennifer Kelly: The title is also the title of a painting from her last show in New York.

The holes are cell phone sized.

You can read about the show here, but here's a representative quote: “The iPhone promises freedom, and control over communication,” she says. “It’s an outlet of self-expression, and an escape and a distraction from the bigger picture of what’s going on in the world. It’s also useful for making paintings.”

Gordon is a woman, and a woman over 70 at that — by any measure an underrepresented perspective in popular culture. However, I’d caution against reading The Collective solely as a feminist statement. “I'm a Man,” for instance, is told from the perspective of an incel male, an act of storytelling and empathy not propaganda. My sense is that Gordon is pretty sick of being asked, “What's it like to be a girl in a band?” (per “Sacred Trickster”) and would like, maybe, to be considered as an artist.

It's partly a generational thing. I'm a little younger than she is, but we both grew up in the patriarchy and mostly encountered gender as an external restriction.

As an aside, one of my proudest moments was when Lucas Jensen interviewed me about what it was like to be a freelance music writer, anonymously, and Robert Christgau wrote an elaborate critique of the piece that absolutely assumed I was a guy. If you're not on a date or getting married or booking reproductive care, whose business is it what gender you are?

There, that's a can of worms, isn't it?

Jonathan Shaw: Feminine isn't feminist. I haven't listened nearly closely enough to the record to hazard an opinion about that. More important, it seems to me the masculine must be in the feminine unconsciousness, and the other way around, too. Precisely because femininity has been used as a political weapon, it needs imagining in artistic spaces. Guess I also think those terms more discursively than otherwise: there are male authors who have demonstrated enormous facility with representing femininity. James, Joyce, Kleist, and so on. Gordon has always spoken and sung in ways that transcend a second-wave sort of feminine essence. “Shaking Hell,” “PCH,” the way she sings “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

Jennifer Kelly: Sure, she has always been shape-shifter artistically.

The lyrics are super interesting, but almost obliterated by noise. I’m seeing a connection to our hyperconnected digital society where everything is said but it’s hard to listen and focus.

Bill Meyer: Concrete guy that I am, I’ve found myself wishing I had a lyric sheet even though her voice is typically the loudest instrument in the mix.

Andrew Forell: Yes, that sense of being subsumed in the white noise of (dis)information and opinion feels like the utopian ideal of democratizing access has become a cause and conduit of alienation in which the notion of authentic voices has been rendered moot. It feels integral to the album as a metaphor

Christian Carey: How much of the blurring of vocals (good lyrics — mind you) might involve Kim’s personal biography, I wonder? From her memoirs, we know how much she wished for a deflection of a number of things, most having to do with Thurston and the disbandment of SY.

Thurston was interviewed recently and said that he felt SY would regroup and be able to be professional about things. He remarked that it better be soon: SY at eighty wouldn’t be a good look!

Andrew Forell: And therein lies something essential about why that could never happen

Ian Mathers: I know I’m far in the minority here (and elsewhere) because I’ve just never found Sonic Youth that compelling, despite several attempts over the years to give them another chance. And for specifically finding Thurston Moore to be an annoying vocal presence (long before I knew anything about his personal life, for what it's worth). So, I’m in no hurry to see them reunite, although I do think it would be both funny and good if everyone except Moore got back together.

Having not kept up with Gordon much post-SY beyond reading and enjoying her book, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this record. After a couple of listens, I’m almost surprised how much I like it. Even though I’m lukewarm on SY’s music, she’s always been a commanding vocal presence and lyricist and that hasn’t changed here (I can echo all the praise for “I’m a Man,” and also “I was supposed to save you/but you got a job” is so bathetically funny) and I like the noisier, thornier backing she has here. I also think the parts where the record gets a bit more sparse (“Shelf Warmer”) or diffuse (“Psychic Orgasm”) still work. I've enjoyed seeing all the comparisons here, none of which I thought of myself and all of which makes sense to me. But the record that popped into my head as I listened was Dead Rider’s Chills on Glass. Similar beat focus, “thick”/distorted/noisy/smeared production, declamatory vocals. I like that record a lot, so it's not too surprising I'm digging this one.

Jennifer Kelly: I loved Sonic Youth but have zero appetite for the kind of nostalgia trip, just the hits reunion tour that getting back together would entail.

Jonathan Shaw: Yeah, no thanks to that.

RE Christian's comment: Not sure I see deflection so much as the impossibility of integration. We are all many, many selves, always have been. Digital communications interfaces and social media have just lifted it to another level of experience. Gordon sez, “I don't miss my mind.” Not so much a question of missing it in the emotional/longing sense, more so acknowledging that phrases like “my mind” have always been meaningless. Now we partition experience and identity into all of these different places, and we sign those pieces of ourselves over, to Zuck and the algorithms. We know it. We do it anyways, because it's the candy house, full of sweets and pleasures that aren't so good for us, but are really hard to resist. “Come on, sweets, take my hand...”

Bill Meyer: I would not mind hearing all of those SY songs I like again, can’t lie, although I don’t think that I’d spend Love Earth Tour prices to hear them. But given the water that has passed under the bridge personally, and the length of time since anyone in the band has collaborated creatively (as opposed to managing the ongoing business of Sonic Youth, which seems to be going pretty well), a SY reunion could only be a professionally presented piece of entertainment made by people who have agreed to put aside their personal differences and pause their artistic advancement in order to make some coin. There may be good reasons to prioritize finances. Maybe Thurston and/or Kim wants to make sure that they don’t show up on Coco’s front door, demanding to move their record or art collection into her basement, in their dotage. And Lee’s a man in his late 60s with progeny who are of an age to likely have substantial student loan debt. But The Community is just the kind of thing they’d have to pause. It feels like the work of someone who is still curious, questioning, commenting. It's not just trying to do the right commercial thing.

Justin Cober-Lake: I’m finding this one to be a sort of statement album. I’d stop short of calling it a concept album, but there seems to be a thematic center. I think a key element of the album is the way that it looks for... if not signal and noise, at least a sense of order and comprehensibility in a chaotic world. Gordon isn’t even passing judgment on the world — phones are bad, phones are good, phones make art, etc. But there’s a sense that our world is increasingly brutal, and we hear that not just in the guitars, but in the beats, and the production. “BYE BYE” really introduces the concept. Gordon’s leaving (and we can imagine this is autobiographical), but she’s organizing everything she needs for a new life. “Cigarettes for Keller” is a heartbreaking line, but she moves on, everything that makes up a life neatly ordered next to each other, iBook and medications in the same line. It reminds me of a Hemingway character locking into the moment to find some semblance of control in the chaos.

Getting back to gender, there’s a funny line at the end: one of the last things she packs is a vibrator. I'm not sure if we're to read this as a joke, a comment on the necessity of sexuality in a life full of transitory moments, as a foreshadowing of the concepts we’ve discussed, or something else. The next item (if it’s something different) is a teaser, which could be a hair care product or something sexual (playing off — or with — the vibrator). Everything's called into question: the seriousness of the track, the gender/sexuality ideas, what really matters in life. Modern gadgets, life-sustaining medicines, and sex toys all get equal rank. That tension really adds force to the song.

Coming out of “BYE BYE,” it's easy to see a disordered world that sounds extremely noisy, but still has elements we can comprehend within the noise. I don’t want to read the album reductively and I don't think it's all about this idea, but it's something that, early on in my listening, I find to be a compelling aspect of it.

[minmos]

below the cut (because there are so many bug pictures) i would like to post. a gallery of WASP DIVERSITY

ruby tailed wasp. it rolls up like a pillbug to protect itself and cannot sting. it lays its eggs in other wasp nests

blue mud dauber. not aggressive, males cannot sting. adults are pollinators, their young eat black widow spiders. It's also blue if you can believe that

pelecinid wasp. cannot sting. this has two population groups - one in the southern us & most of south america that does regular parasitic wasp stuff, and a population in the rest of north america consisting only of females that reproduce asexually.

baeus wasp. this guy is fucking crazy. flightless & preys on spider eggs. and it's small as hell

fairyfly. world's smallest insect. lays eggs in other insects' eggs and only lives a few days.

doddifoenus rex. having trouble finding more information about the species.

chalcura. check out those antennae! preys on ants.

tarantula hawk. even more pretty antennae! one of the largest parasitoid wasps. preys on tarantulas. very docile, but does have one of the most painful recorded stings of all insects - it's beat only by the bullet ant on the schmidt pain index. just don't fuck with it though it's not going to go after you

thread waisted wasp. isnt she cool! one got stuck in my bathroom once.

giant ichneumon wasp. isn't that crazy! unable to sting. preys on one specific other species of wasp (pigeon horntail).

organ pipe mud dauber. described by wikipedia as "exceedingly docile" so you know she knows what's up... and she makes nests out of clay because she's a beautiful little potter. so apparently these guys are haplodiploid, which means that they'll just lay eggs and any unfertilized eggs generate males and fertilized eggs generate females. that's weird.

steel blue cricket hunter. You'll never guess what she hunts.

anyway umm yes. WASPS. theres so many cool wasps out there. Dont let yellow jackets poison wasps for you i promise theyre not all like that ...