#my favourite one to make by far but holy fuck was this tricky

[jcorrachcomics]

Tonight we see our audience in a different light...

Update | First

[d-criss-news]

Nine Songs: Darren Criss

When Disney, Phantom Planet and Mr Hudson collide: Glee star, Emmy and Golden Globe winner and musician Darren Criss talks Andrew Wright through the pivotal songs in his life and the unexpected ways they found him.

“When we are younger, our gateway drugs to a lot of popular things don’t come from the sexiest of places. It’s up to you how proactive you want to be with your curiosity from there, and how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, if you go down at all.”

Choosing the songs that define you is a tricky business to say the least, especially when the power of song has provided an ongoing soundtrack to your life. “When you’re as avid a music consumer as musical artists are, trying to pin down Nine Songs is difficult,” Darren Criss laughs. So much so, his final choices only really crystallise as our conversation draws to its close. “It’s hard for me not to see the value and joy in literally everything,” he explains. “The curse of the creative person is that your ideas and your interests always move way faster than your body can execute.”

Criss is a creative par excellence. As well as his Emmy and Golden Globe winning performance in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, where he played serial killer Andrew Cunanan, to his upcoming role in Muppets Haunted Mansion Halloween special as The Caretaker, he’s also a prolific musician. Criss enjoyed a decadent musical consumption since childhood, so “this was a bit of an archaeological dig,” he admits. As such, everything from jazz standards, to 808s, punk rock, ‘90s teen pop, and musical numbers are excavated in the course of our extemporaneous journey through the music he loves.

Equally on his mind is how to go about approaching the task of creating his Nine Songs, full stop. “The interesting social experiment is: Are my answers going to be songs that actually shaped my life and were formative to me as an artist? Are they songs that were formative to me as a human being? Or am I picking songs that I think represent who I am to people that do not know me? All three of those things aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

He reaches a conclusion of sorts. “For the purposes of making some kind of decision, I’m gonna lean less into trying to look cool to your very cool readership, and more into the literal, ‘What made me think about music in a different way? And hit me in a very emotional way?’ I think that’s probably the healthiest route.”

Embracing the accessibility that characterises Criss’ picks - or at times the initial touchpoints that led him to them - are something he vacillates over during our chat. “I’ve seen a lot of other people’s Nine Songs and they’re super cool. It’s like Leonard Cohen B-sides and old opera records and stuff. I’m gonna be pretty honest with the pop culture zeitgeist of how I grew up but explain why there is so much value in those moments.” His contemplation continues into the next day, Criss’s publicist passes on his regrets at being tentative to admit how he encountered one of his song choices via the Shrek soundtrack.

A yearning to reinterpret accessibility and the value attached to it drives Criss, however. He tells me that a festival performance that applied the anarchic verve of punk rock to a more refined Great American Songbook number remoulded his perception of music entirely. His love of the fusion of these two genres in particular symbolises the salient musical backdrops of his childhood - the guitar bands he played in with friends, and his musical theatre endeavours that led him to Broadway and multiple Ryan Murphy juggernauts, including his breakthrough playing Blaine Anderson in Glee.

Criss employs these contrasting musical lexicons, and other areas in between, on Masquerade, his new EP. Comprising five stand-alone “character-driven” singles, it sees Criss donning different musical personas. “I’m leaning into people that might know me as an actor,” he explains. “Because if actors can do Shakespeare, romantic comedy, and then do a horror movie and wear a prosthetic nose and a wig, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just do that with music.” The song “walk of shame” draws on jazz-standard chords interlaced with hip-hop production, “i can’t dance” looks to new-wave, and “for a night like this” is the product of Criss’ goal to create the ultimate end-of-the-night crowd-pleaser for a new-year bash, wedding or bar mitzvah. “This is all of the parts of me as a lifelong fan of these genres, trying my hand at servicing the pieces of them that I love.”

“I really love all styles of music and understanding what makes them unique and special and what makes them really pop. There are so many things that really make things sing - for lack of a better verb - and I like acknowledging those things and celebrating those things.”

“So, let’s begin. I have runners up and shit, and I have artists, I don’t just have the songs, so we might have to pick them as we go.”

“Part of Your World” by Jodi Benson

“When people read this, they’ll go ‘That’s cute, he likes Disney songs’, but it’s more profound than that. Some of the most formative pieces of music to hit me at a very early age would have been any of the songs that were coming from ‘The Disney renaissance.’ The early-mid ‘90s explosion of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast.

"One of the through lines between the three of those musicals was Howard Ashman, who is one of my all-time heroes. Dramaturg, songwriter - he really was the voice behind what made those songs great. I have always loved Howard’s lyrical sensibility and also Alan Menken, his partner who wrote these songs with him. There was a musical structure to a lot of the songs which I would unconsciously pick up in my own songwriting, not just musically, but the idea that not only did somebody make these songs, but they wrote them for a story.

“There’s a clip of Howard Ashman vocal directing Jodi Benson, who was the original voice of Ariel. It’s a wonderful example of his genius, where not only was he songwriting but he was storytelling in the way he would tell her how to perform it, and you can really see the song coming to life in that clip. That’s when you cross the street from ‘It’s a song’ to ‘This is an experience.’

"There are certain ingredients that are required to elevate music that goes beyond just a nice melody, a beautiful orchestration and a good voice. There are things that are required to really give a performance a characterisation, context and a vulnerability, that he architects in real-time with Jodi Benson. You see that what he’s doing is what makes the record so special, and that’s something that’s always been inspiring to me.”

“MMMBop” by Hanson

“I think my love of Hanson was because some people didn’t like it, so I was like ‘Fuck you, I like this, how do you feel about it?’ But this is difficult for me, because you know, I’m speaking to The Line of Best Fit and we’re trying to be cool! Although, do you know what’s cool? Being accessible! Writing a pop hit when you are 10 years old. Being in a band with your brothers and you’re all below the age of 15, you have a record contract where you are writing, producing and performing songs that are doing well.

“I was 10 years old when their first album Middle of Nowhere came out, and I remember reading somewhere that there were these kids that had a record. At the time, I was playing guitar and I was writing songs, but in my mind I was a kid, and that was it. I couldn’t be on the radio; you had to be a grown up to do this.

"This was the first time where I realised ‘Holy shit, kids can do stuff!’ It’s the value of seeing yourself in the media - that’s a whole other conversation to talk about - but there’s an immense value in feeling like there’s a piece of you out in the zeitgeist and doing well because it’s encouraging. You go, ‘Holy shit, maybe I can do this as well.'

“When you see children doing things, you’re ‘Wow, this is so cute and fabulous’, but then when you actually look at it you go, ‘This is miles above what most people in this age group are capable of,’ and that’s all I saw, because I was in the same age group and I was so inspired by that. This whole album was really a turning point for me, where I was like, ‘I can do this, I can do music too, because these guys can.'

“Ooh La La” by Faces

“This song really blew my mind. It became my own theme. It’s that ‘Make your heart sing’, nostalgic moment when you’re a teenager, driving in the car listening to it, playing guitar with your friends and you’re singing “I wish that I knew what I know now / When I was younger.” You’re like, ‘because I’m an adult now, I’m 15-years-old. If I only knew what I know now.’

“I was doing theatre from a young age and I was part of a young conservatory called A.C.T. in San Francisco. By way of somebody who knew somebody, I had an audition for a movie. As a kid not being near New York or Los Angeles it was really exciting, and this audition was for a film called ‘Max Fischer’, which would become the movie Rushmore, which would become one of my favourite movies of all time by the now very distinguished Wes Anderson.

“Separate from my own objective love of Wes Anderson, when this movie came out I was just around the age of getting into my own sort of identity with music, but also movies - indie movies - and trying to assert who I was. So, I see this movie Rushmore and I love it. I love the soundtrack, I love it so much, it’s one of my favourite albums ever. This song is the end sequence, and the way it made me feel - the vocals on it, I could play it on guitar and it was part of a cool movie - it really represented a lot in my life.

“And because of the acting thing, and Rushmore being great - it’s about this kid in high-school who's misunderstood but has his own agenda - everything about it was just so fucking cool to me. To this day, I cite that song as one of my favourite records of all time.”

“Recently Distressed” by Phantom Planet

“A guy that really formed the way I would sing and write songs is Alex Greenwald, the frontman of Phantom Planet. I went to see Phantom Planet because I loved Rushmore and I found out that Jason Schwartzman [who had been cast as Max Fischer] was also the drummer for a band called Phantom Planet.

"So, when I saw their name on the bill I went, but I didn't know their music. I was barely 14, but their set blew my mind. It was Rock and Roll, but I loved Alex Greenwald’s voice. I loved everything, and I would follow their career from there. I always tell people that my voice is a combination of me trying to be Alex Greenwald, Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright, but failing. Alex was incredibly formative for me.

“One of their biggest records was a little while after I first saw them, which was the song for The O.C., "California." That was more of an Elvis Costello thing, and they employed a lot of stuff that sounded to me like The Beatles and a lot of ‘60s mod/pop-rock. But later they would employ things from Fugazi, Radiohead and harder shit, and that eclecticism, again, only accelerated my love for Phantom Planet.

“Recently Distressed” is from their 1998 album Phantom Planet Is Missing. This was a cool rock song that employed these George [Harrison] and Paul [McCartney] background vocals and included all of the things that I loved. It was harder but melodic and employed minor 4th chords and more complicated chords than I was used to. I had grown up with power chords - which are very Gregorian - on a lot of alt. punk rock, like Green Day or Nirvana, and if Kurt Cobain was using power chords then that’s how I was playing guitar. Hearing this music was like ‘Oh, I’m using full chords, not sevenths, minor 4th chords, diminished chords’, shit that I would learn to use more and more.

“When you haven’t experienced much, anything that gives a hint towards possibility, even though it’s probably always been there, you’re like, ‘I like this, I’ve always kind of liked this, but it’s very encouraging to hear somebody else do it and it’s gonna make me reconsider my possibilities.’ That was literally the moment that my power chords turned into full barre chords.”

“Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright

“I forgot the other day how I got into Rufus Wainwright, because all of this stuff I was getting into quite young. It’s like when I talk to 11-13 year olds, it’s funny to think that this was when I was really starting to build my musical identity. But then I remembered, and I didn’t want to say because I didn’t want to sound uncool, because he is such a revered artist who exists in a much cooler place than what I’m about to say.

“I loved soundtracks and I would always buy soundtracks for movies that had cool playlists. I had the Shrek soundtrack, and there’s a cover of Leonard Cohen’s seminal “Hallelujah” that Rufus does and he smashes it, and I’m like, ‘Who the fuck is Rufus Wainwright? What a beautiful voice.’ Then I saw that he was going to be at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco one week, so I go and he’s there promoting his new album Poses. I remember I didn’t have enough money to buy the album that day, so I had him sign my sneaker and I saved that shoe.

“The first song on Poses was “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, which is a very dark and reflective song about his own battles with addiction, but he’s singing it over this really beautiful, whimsical song that has a lot of really great wordplay. I always love when artists, especially lyricists, can encapsulate an idea with not exactly what they’re talking about. The song’s called “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk”, it’s not called “Addiction”. Its talking about things that he craved and how that’s representative of other things that he’s gone through. There was a sophistication and elegance to that that I really gravitated towards, that I didn’t possess but wanted to shoot for. So when I saw him, that was a big one for me and he would also continue to influence me later in my life.

“I’ve become friends with Rufus since. I’ve performed with him and we’ve made records together, which is crazy. His songwriting was very complex and punk-rock, but he had this classic cabaret voice, the kind of voice that I don’t have. I was fascinated that there was somebody that could write this really dark material but have such elegance on top of it. He was virtuosic on the piano, which I thought was very cool because musicianship is always the thing that gets me going the most about artists.

“You know what? People say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.' I completely disagree. Chase the living fuck out of your heroes. I’ve spent a lifetime doing so, it’s made me a better artist, and I’ve sometimes got to meet them and work with them. I’ve worked on music with Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. I’ve performed with Hanson. I’ve performed those Disney songs with Alan Menken at The Hollywood Bowl.

"This is all because there are people that I love who I have put on my vision board, and the things that they have done are the things that are bringing me to them. So it is nuts, but at the same time you’re like, ‘Well, what else did you think would happen?’ They did stuff that some part of me connected with, so obviously there’s a magnetic pull towards that person.

“Rufus Wainwright is one of my absolute favourite artists of all time and like I said, me trying to sing like him and failing is a big part of my own journey as an artist.”

“3x5” by John Mayer

“John Mayer’s another guy that came around when I was 15. I heard a song of his on a middle-of-the-night, singer/songwriter college radio show. This is where I used to get music. You would listen to these carefully curated playlists that you wouldn’t be able to hear anywhere else, and the host played “No Such Thing”, a new song by this young kid who had just dropped out of Berklee College of Music - John Mayer.

“I’m listening to this song and I’m like, ‘Not only is this guitar playing really interesting, but the lyrical value and everything that is going on here ticks all the boxes.' It was jazz, but it was pop. And he did something that all these other guys and girls I’ve mentioned did. They made something very unique and very accessible.

“I immediately went out to buy this album, Room For Squares, and I listened to it over and over again. It was an album that was really formative for me. "3x5” is a really beautiful song that employs a lot of chord structures and melodies that blew my fucking mind at the time, and it made me wish that I could write songs like that.

“That album was a huge turning point in the way I played the guitar, because it was the first time in my life where I would look up tabs. Up until this point in my life, if I heard a song I could play it instantly. It was like a party trick, I would get how it worked if I heard it, because most of the songs I would hear on the radio - especially those that involved a guitar - were [centred around] power chords. And now I’m hearing all of these ninth chords and thirteenths, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ So I’d have to look up tabs.

“I think any young artist can attest to this - when you try and learn other people’s shit, it’s the best tool for educating yourself. Playing other people’s music really helps you lock in what your own style is. Trying to learn these songs - and sometimes pulling it off and sometimes not - really changed the way that my hands moved around the guitar and considered chords and voicings that I’d never really thought of.

“There’s another tie to musical theatre here, where I remember seeing Audra McDonald, who is a very venerated theatre actor, and she did a cabaret. If you’re familiar with cabaret culture, it’s more about performing the story of the songs – ‘Life is a cabaret’. She did a John Mayer song because she thought it was from a musical theatre show, and I was so tickled by this, because I was like ‘Yeah, if you really think about it, I don’t think he knows this and I don’t think his fan base even thinks about this, but there’s a number of his songs that feel very theatrical in the way that the lyrics play with each other and the way the chords move’.

"When I saw this I thought, ‘That is why I like John Mayer’, because yes, he’s an amazing guitar player, but he’s also a really strong songwriter.”

“Cabaret” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

“Also, around this time growing up in San Francisco, as a guitar player playing music with your buddies, the number one thing that you play is punk rock. There are different parts of the spectrum of punk rock, there's the NOFX, Swingin’ Utters, like real punk, punk. And then there’s the pop-punk thing that was happening at the same time, which was also equally influential - blink-182 and Green Day.

“Fat Mike was the frontman of NOFX. I loved NOFX, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were a supergroup of different members from different punk bands, of which Fat Mike was one of the main architects. They would cover songs and turn them into punk rock songs. They have an album of hits from the ‘60s, and they also have an album called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Are a Drag, and that record is just a tonne of musical theatre covers that are done through punk rock.

“That was completely in line with everything I loved at this time of my life but didn’t really know how to articulate. I loved punk rock but I also really loved musical theatre. Not only the performative element of it, but there was a real musicality to musical theatre that wasn’t as present in some of the other shit that was popular at the time, just harmonically, or where chords would go. There was a sophistication I loved that seemed to not exist in punk rock.

“Then hearing Fat Mike at The Warped Tour going ‘Alright, which one of you Motherfuckers loves Julie Andrews?’ and hearing a mixed bag of reactions, because people were ‘What? I was not expecting that from you, sir?’ And then they start playing “My Favourite Things”, a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein song which is very accessible, but sophisticated nonetheless. And I am just living. I’m like, ‘This has got the attitude and simplicity of punk rock, but the sophistication of a beautiful song.’

“That was the first time in my life where I went, ‘It’s just all music. All these categories and boxes are completely arbitrary.’ So I thought, ‘I can do that.' I was playing power chords in punk bands but I realised that you can take chords and make them into other rhythms and voicings and have the same song. I could take a punk song and make it jazz. I could take a jazz song and make it country. So, quite providentially, I would end up on Glee, where they took popular songs and would sometimes do their own versions.

“By that point, I had been doing this my whole life. The first time this ever became a possibility for me was seeing Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and that way of thinking about music and genre. I’ve put that into Masquerade, and it’s all born from that moment of ‘Oh my God, nothing has to be one thing. It’s just about how you look at it.'

“Cabaret” is from a pretty famous musical that I would’ve probably heard about later in life, but I first heard that song as a punk song and then I went back and heard the original. It doesn’t matter how these things happen, the inspiration happens and then you can go from there. But Me First and The Gimme Gimmes were a huge gateway drug and I play “Cabaret” now every year at my festival. That’s why the festival is called Elsie Fest, because it covers the song.”

“Modern Nature” by Sondre Lerche

“One of the great joys of being a younger brother is that you get to inherit the music of your elders. My brother and I were both really proactive consumers of music, so we would share stuff with each other all the time. But then he would come home from college, which is like coming home from a music festival essentially, right? He was in a new time zone with new people, so he’d bring home these mix CDs that he’d made from people that he’d heard about, and he brings home this guy named Sondre Lerche.

“Hearing this guy blew my mind, because he also was using jazz chords and drawing on musical theatre. Musical theatre’s a massive category, so I can’t just say that musical theatre sounds like one thing, but when I say this, I’m referring to The American Songbook, the jazz standard songbook. “Modern Nature” was a duet that I would go on to play many times with one of my oldest musical collaborators, Charlene Kaye. When we got to college and we both found out that we loved this guy.

“There was a much more whimsical way to how he wrote these songs. And what’s crazy is that loving this guy meant that we also loved Rufus Wainwright, that we also loved these other artists. But Sondre was the first time I considered that I loved that type of music, but I didn’t know that you could be a singer/songwriter and put out music that sounded like it.

“I don’t know if ‘twee’ is the right word to use, but with “Modern Nature” there was a playfulness about it, and again, a musicality that I really gravitated towards. There is a through line - there was a sophistication that was accessible, and me trying to learn those songs did make me rethink the way that I was writing music. The structures were weird and different and I liked that.

“To this day, I find myself writing songs that I think might be difficult for people to ingest, because they’re a little too left of centre, and I realise that I’m trying to write like Sondre Lerche, or I’m unconsciously just copying him.”

“Everything Happens to Me” by Mr Hudson & The Library

“I was in an H&M in Stockholm when I was 21, and I heard this really cool groove and the lyric was “Why must I always play the clown?” It was sung with a really thick British accent, had an 808 feel on it, and lyrically it had an attitude. Who would say something that sounds so like you’re in a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, but it feels hard? It was cool.

“I went home and looked this up and it was off the record A Tale of Two Cities by Mr Hudson and the Library, which would really, really fuck me up. I bought the album immediately because I loved this song. I had to order it on the internet because I couldn’t find it. It was doing well in England and he was on the festival circuit in the early-mid 2000s, but the first song on the album was a musical theatre cover with 808s.

“It was a pared-down, sort of a hip-hop version of “On The Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady, and I’m like ‘No fucking way, this guy gets where my head is.’ I’d thought about punk rock musical theatre, but I never thought about 808s and 909s scoring these beautiful songs. I go down the track list and he has “Everything Happens to Me”, which is another very famous standard, and he had this really cool, what we would now call chill-hop, ‘study beats’ version of this song. I was like, ‘This is it. This guy gets that good music is good music and you can reinterpret it to offer it as a new song.’

“I would later become great friends with Mr Hudson. I got to meet him years later when I was with Columbia Records, and they said to me ‘Who do you want to meet?’ He was at the top of my list. I went to London and we’ve been friends ever since and have created all kinds of music together.

“He told me a story where Tyler the Creator went up to him once at Coachella and said, ‘Oh man, “Everything Happens To Me”, that’s like my song.’ We both wondered if Tyler the Creator knew that it was a Chet Baker cover. And we were thinking how cool it is that you can offer these songs to a new audience through a different lens. Tyler’s a smart guy, he’s very cultured, and I’m sure he did know. But it’s more the idea that if someone experienced this song and didn’t know that it was a cover, and this is like the first time they ever get to experience it.

“Mr Hudson would go on to do his own thing with Kanye and was on 808s & Heartbreak and has had his own career. I think “Supernova” was a hit in the UK, it didn’t really cross over here to The States, but before that moment for him, that Mr Hudson and The Library album changed my life. People use that phrase willy-nilly, but this literally was a turning point in my life. It all had to do with the same thing that happened with these other songs, where I saw someone do what I always wanted to do but didn’t really know how to pull off. Where he had this fusing of old songs delivered through a contemporary lens, but also laced it with his own original material that also employed the things that made that old songwriting interesting.

“It’s like changing the font of a great essay but finding the font and figuring out that that font is its own art form. He really displayed that marvellously on this.”

The Masquerade EP is out now

[carriedawayfromhome]

Surprise - L.H

Count - 2.5K

Summary: Luke has a surprise for you. 

Rating: Mature

Masterlist

You feel the anticipation build in your stomach. You received a text only twenty minutes ago that read, Be ready in thirty minutes, I have a surprise. Now surprises in your household are usually big events. The dog you two own together was a surprise, the holiday you both went on together last year was a surprise, the beautiful necklace you have around your neck was the most recent surprise. 

Your feet bounce up and down as you sit on the sofa, waiting to hear that click in the handle. What could it be this time? Another holiday? God forbid it’s another dog, you wouldn’t complain of course, but you both can barely handle the one you already have. 

You glance up at the clock on the wall, another five minutes have passed. You feel giddy, this has always been one of the best things about being with Luke. He is a sucker for surprising you. You remember when he asked you on your first date together, one of his first questions was, what was one of your favourite things in a relationship and you had answered - surprises. And had he delivered, it always kept things fresh and exciting, never a dull moment as they say. 

You finally hear a click in the door and you stand, a smile involuntarily crosses your face. Regardless if there wasn’t a surprise, you always look forward to him coming home at the end of the day, finally being able to wrap yourself around him, letting your body consume his entire being. Seeing his mess of dirty blonde curls bound through the hallway into the living room, smile across his face, him just as eager to see you as well. 

Now just like all those times before you listen to his footsteps pad down the hallway until he appears in front you, the usual smile on his face.

“Hello darling,” He walks forward, cupping your face in both hands, leaning in for a kiss, “You look excited, am I correct?”

You nod, “You know I do love your surprises.”  

With that he walks back into the hallway picking up a bag you didn’t see him drop before he turned the corner. He walks back towards you with an unfamiliar look on his face. You watch as he reaches into the bag and pulls out a box. 

“What is it?” 

He hands you the box, eyes not leaving yours, “It’s for you. All for you.”

You open the box and glance down, stomach tightening at the objects inside. Handcuffs, vibrator and blindfold. You feel your mouth go dry. You have never used anything like this before, though you’ve both briefly talked about it, but have never gone as far as to actually purchase said items. 

You feel speechless for a moment, a light ping of arousal shoots through you as you trace your fingers over the blindfold, the plush like material soft beneath your fingertips, “Luke…” 

He cuts you off before you can finish, “I’ve been thinking about his for awhile.” He waits and watches your reaction, your eyes widening, “I want to tie you up, blindfold you and make you cum.”

Holy shit. The arousal is stronger now as you shift your legs. He’s never spoken like that before, ever. This dominant nature has come out of no where and it is one of the hottest things you’ve ever experienced. You always thought he might have some sort of dominant nature behind his eyes, you never thought though it would be hand delivered to you in a white box. You don’t have another chance to think before he leans forward and kisses you hard, one hand behind your head, one hand taking the box back from you. 

“Let’s go.” 

You follow as he pulls you behind him, into the bedroom, you’re eager, more eager than you’ve ever been. You both start to undress at the same time, eyes never leaving each other. The surprise box sitting neatly in the middle on the bed. 

You lightly shiver as the air in the bedroom hits your naked body, light goosebumps rise over your skin, your toes curl into the carpeted floor. You watch intently, almost hungrily as your boyfriend throws his last item of clothing onto the floor, moving his way around to you before embracing you his strong arms holding you to him.

Your arms follow his body, his arms, shoulders, neck and finally resting on the back of his head, fingers curling into his hair. You both start out with slow, long warm kisses everywhere, lips, cheek and neck, your hands tightening whenever he slightly bites at your skin, your hot breath coming out in pants now. 

You can feel him growing bigger between you two. You hold out, not wanting to touch just yet, to make this last longer, to make sure you enjoy every last second. 

Luke has a different idea though and before you have a chance to reach down, you’re suddenly thrust onto the bed, head lightly hitting the pillows and eyes wide. You watch as Luke crawls over your body, eyes following your body’s every bend and curve, leaning down occasionally to press a chaste kiss to the exposed areas. That spike of arousal shoots through you once more as his lips take a hold of your left nipple, lightly sucking, lightly biting, making sure you’re feeling every sensitive nerve, after doing the exact same to the right nipple, his face is now in front of yours, lips inches from lips, hands on either side of your face. 

“Luke…”

He silences you with a quick kiss, “I don’t want you to say anymore from here on out. Only speak if you want me to stop, but nothing else. Are we clear?”

Your heart starts to race, this is all so new, the toys, the demeanour, this new Luke. You only nod at him, following his instructions clearly. You’re usually quite a vocal lover, you’ve always gotten off from letting your partner know how well they’re pleasing you or how much faster, harder you want them to go. This will be tricky for you. But you’re always up for a challenge. 

You smirk back up at him, nodding eagerly. You watch as he reaches over the the box, pulling out the first toy - hand cuffs. Any nervousness you had felt before is now turning into excitement. Luke grabs your wrists, one at a time, pulling them up over your head, securing them tightly within the cuffs. You tug at them, the sound of the straps hitting the metal bed post fills the room and you feel your lip go between your teeth, this is all such a new sensation for you. 

Luke being as eager as he is, doesn’t waste any time. The other toys follow, the blindfold secured across your eyes. Darkness.

It’s all up to feel now, Luke can do whatever you want and you won’t know until it happens. The anticipation is exciting and oh so fun. You can feel his hands first, following every curve of your body, from your neck, breasts, hips, legs and back up again, he stops half way. You both know what you want desperately and he delivers. 

You jump and lift off the bed every so slightly as you feel his tongue hot and flat against your clit, no warning, no sound, nothing. You hear him chuckle and that makes you smile, you feel him shift around, bringing your thighs over his shoulders. Your breathing gets stronger and you feel your hands grip the cuffs as his tongue works his way around you, long wet strokes from top to bottom, stopping to swirl his tongue around you once again, loving the way he can tell you’re trying not to say a word. 

“You’re doing well for me love,” He shifts so he can slip a finger into you, “Being so silent, doing exactly what I asked.” You nod, not knowing if he’s watching or not. He adds another finger and starts again with what he was doing before. This is one of your favourite things he does, working in sync with his mouth and fingers.

He continues his movements for a little longer, you can feel that first touch of your orgasm begin. You can tell Luke knows as well, you hear his breath start to get heavier and his movements get rougher and faster. You want to say something, anything and to be honest you actually want to know what would happen if you did. 

You’re almost there, you can’t help but lift yourself up and closer to him, he doesn’t mind though, he loves it, knowing that he can do this to you. 

Before you know if your orgasm washes over you and before you can stop yourself, you yell out, “Luke! Shit! My god….” Your body still lifting up into his touch, his fingers still working inside of you, drawing out your orgasm for as long as he can. 

As you lay back down, breathing heavily you feel Luke pull away from you. You spoke when you weren’t meant to. What happens now? Will he punish you? ……One can only hope. 

You now feel the bed dip - he’s above you. You feel hands on your hips and you relax into his touch, breathing still coming out laboured. You let out a shriek as you’re suddenly flipped over, arms crossed above you still cuffed to the bed frame. You wonder what he’s doing, he hasn’t spoken either which is making this so much more exciting. You’re waiting for him to say something, he’s straddling you now, hands lightly running across your back. 

He doesn’t say anything though, because now all you feel is his cock, leaking and hard between you, you don’t get a chance to even think because without warning he slides right into you. You try desperately to hold back a moan as you feel him lean over you, hands on either side of you, completely buried within you. 

You can hear him though, hard, heavy pants above you, small beads of sweat hitting your shoulder blades. He doesn’t move, just letting the feeling wash over both of you, letting the intimacy consume you. You lift your hips up, hoping this is enough of a signal to let him know to keep going and he does, he starts slow, letting you both feel every inch of each other. You feel yourself tugging so desperately at the cuffs as he speeds up, the only sound in the room is his heavy breathing and the sound of skin on skin. 

“Fuck love,” You hear him growl above you, he suddenly grips your hair, your head lifting up off the mattress, “You feel so good around me.” 

This is new, but damn does it feel amazing, he now has you completely under his control, hands cuffed, eyes shielded, hair in his hands. You can feel him speed up even more, his moves starting to get erratic, more animalistic. You feel hands on your lower back as he lets out a loud moan, you clench around him as you feel him finish, letting him ride out his own orgasm inside of you.

You hiss slightly as he pulls out and you feel the bed dip next to you, one hand coming to rest on your back, drawing light circles. 

“Luke…” 

He suddenly shushes you, breath still coming out erratically, “I told you not to speak. You think we’re done do you?”

You did. You did think you were both done and then suddenly the last object in the box comes to mind. Vibrator. 

You wait for instruction or some kind of movement from Luke, “Turn over.” He shakily says, still clearly coming down from his own orgasm. You turn back over, hands no longer crossed above you, you feel weak though the anticipation is still there. You turn towards a sound, a buzzing suddenly coming from your right hand side. 

You wait again, heart rate picking up once again from where it had just started to relax. You hear the buzzing get stronger and suddenly you feel it directly against you, you jump slightly, you are still quite sensitive from before, the sensation causing a rush that rides it’s way up your body. That heart beat of yours speeding up now, lip back between your teeth, he runs the vibrator down until it reaches your entrance, slowly slipping inside before making his way back up to your clit, sitting directly there. It doesn’t take you as long this time, very quickly you feel your second orgasm rising up inside of you. 

“Love, you can speak now, I want you to tell me how much you love it, okay?” His voice is close to you, as he starts to circle your clit his tongue is doing the same movement on your nipples, your whole body is so sensitive at this point. Every inch is hyper focused on the situation, every inch of skin wanting to be touched.

You arch up into his touch, “Luke, I love it, fuck, it’s so good, I’m going to cum soon, please.”

“Tell me more.” He demands from you, only coming up to speak before leaning down latching back on to your nipple, teeth lightly pulling, making you moan out. 

“You felt so good inside of me, I felt so full.” Your voice starts to get higher, “Please let me cum, I’m so wet still, please.”

He leaves the vibrator directly on you, his lips have now made their way up to your neck, light kisses being left there. Your legs start to clench as the feeling once more washing over you, his strong hands hold you as he lets you ride it out, the vibrator being turned off before you got to overstimulated. 

As your breathing starts to slow down, you feel his hands once again drawing circles over your body.

“Luke, I want to see you.” You say to him, “Please.”

You feel his hands slide up past your blindfold up to the cuffs, undoing them one by one. You roll your wrists around, feeling the blood come back to them. His hands then trail down to your blindfold, lifting over your head slowly, you blink rapidly letting them get used to light. You look over at Luke, he looks exactly as you would except, disheveled. Hair sweaty and sticking to his forehead, a light sheen across his body and a smirk upon his face. 

“Hello you,” He smiles widely at you, leaning over to plant a kiss on your forehead, “Well, that was fun wasn’t it?”

You both laugh, taking in the afterglow. You reach over for him and he falls into you, head on your chest, you run your fingers through his hair, your fingers reaching down to scratch his back as well. 

“Mmm love you Luke.” You whisper into his hair, his grip on you tightening, “Thanks for the surprise.”

You can feel him grin against your skin, “You’re welcome and love you too.”

[prokitty101]

002 Iceberg because why not uwu

Hohooo! My number 2 RWBY OTP! Alright, strap in boys and girls, mama gonna tell you why I love this ship.

When I started shipping them/My thoughts/What makes me happy about them: (I’ve clumped these bullet points together to make it easier and sound less repetitive) I’m gonna be honest with ya’ll. I couldn’t stand Neptune the first time around, because he came off as another “The cooler Daniel” meme. However, what truly sold me to the ship was Weiss’s feelings towards Neptune. 

She is known as the Ice Queen amongst her companions (And Roman lol) and it is expected of her to act like that from time to time. Neptune’s appearance was the beginning of the trope subversion. She doesn’t just harrumph at Neptune because he slightly did a better job at flirting than Jaune, no, she downright falls for him, HARD. And that is NOT a bad thing for her character. 

I am all for character subversions because it adds another palette dynamic to their personality. Yes yes, we see her tone her tsundereness down a notch towards Ruby earlier, but that’s different. It was so damn refreshing to see Weiss openly express her attraction to Neptune; someone who didn’t utter anything about her background being an Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company during their initial meeting. He saw her for her, not her money or title. (like Henry Marigold did.) 

I enjoyed watching the build-up between Weiss and Neptune. It’s small but their mutual attraction had always been around. It was natural and (free to tell me if I’m wrong) Neptune was the first person she met who was actually nice to her. Granted he also didn’t say anything to piss her off.

Weiss crushing on Neptune is great because it is one of the very few things she has complete control over without her family’s interference, especially father. It is something Weiss wants and can do, not what her daddy told her to do. Her mustering up the courage to ask Neptune out was so freaking rewarding to me. Weiss is incredibly sweet and cute, and it warms my heart knowing there was that special someone she could just completely gush over. 

After watching RWBY the second time around, Neptune’s character grew more and more to the point he is my #1 favourite character now. He’s balsy, a tease, flirtatious and get’s straight to the point with his words, but he’s also hilariously unaware of how stupid he sounds sometimes. I LOVE dumbasses like that. Although, Neptune is quite similar to Weiss in regards of having to mask his true self for arguably the entertainment of others. Weiss is known as the Ice Queen so she begrudgingly sticks with it. Neptune is the cool dude and he keeps it up.

You can probably argue I’m giving the ship too much credit or thinking to deep into it and you’re probably right. This is not me saying there were some stupid “coding” or subtleties you need to dive in and search for, it’s just me having this thought about Iceberg makes me really happy that it could’ve been more. (If that makes sense.)

What makes me sad about them: The refusal to develop the ship and Neptune as a whole. It really cuts me deep because there is clear potential in Neptune to be a valuable secondary member of the RWBY gang. Like how Sun is to Blake, Neptune could’ve been that to Weiss. BUT NO. It feels like the backlash Neptune had gotten after V2 - 3 stunted the idea of making the ship work.

I’ve been told there were a lot of Neptune/SSSN scenes cut out for team CFVY and that saddens me. Even the Neptune & Sun vs Pyrrha & Nora fight was cut. Apparently, there was going to be a part in the fight where Neptune had to take off his jacket and reveal his inflatable armbands, then Weiss would go into a laughing fit. COME ON THAT WOULD’VE BEEN SO FUNNY AND CUTE.

Also, people saying Neptune didn’t care for Weiss, especially because he was teasing Team NDGO. C’mon man, the dude was clearly joking. Y'all saw how the crowd reacted when team SSSN entered the grounds. What would’ve been damn disrespectful if Neptune had continuously teased the girls throughout the match, spouting a lot of sexist comments. Despite his obvious distraction during the match, he does take his fights seriously.

Yes, Weiss’s reaction was slightly justified but it’s just the typical “I wanna beat my crush’s his ass because he’s stupid and useless” gag in anime. He’s basically a blend of Yuu Kashima and Mikoto Mikoshiba from Nozaki-kun.

Then there’s the whole Dance conversation with Jaune and Neptune. Some of y’all are so quick to assume Neptune was objectifying Weiss with the “She’s all yours.” line while conveniently ignoring “I don’t want to get in your way.” line that immediately followed up. Look, he knows Jaune likes Weiss too and was willing to back out believing it was the right thing to do, but Jaune is the one encouraging Neptune to keep going after his blunder, understanding how much Neptune indeed likes Weiss. Brofist.

Neptune reappearing in V6 and contributing nothing again got on my nerves. That was a great moment for the writers to put in a small moment between him and Weiss after the Beacon incident, BUT NO. The fuckers only remembered he’s Sun’s friend. Seriously what the hell man. Are they trying to bury the fact the ship happened in the first place? Mean.

And to make things worse, you make him talk to Ilia? For gods sake WHY.

Another is saying Weiss is better off with Sun or Jaune because Neptune doesn’t deserve her. If that ain't the definition of objectification then I don’t know what is. Also, that weird reasoning of Weiss isn’t interested anymore because she had a gay awakening IS SUCH A DAMN REAAACH LMAO BITCH WHEREEE?

Iceberg is truly underrated.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: You’ll be surprised to hear I don’t read a lot of Iceberg fanfiction. Just not in the mood right now. But I do hate the idea of fanfic writers amping up Neptune’s personality to make him seem like a complete douchebag. Yo, that title belongs to Henry Marigold. Quit mixing the two up, please.

Things I look in a fanfic: NEPTUNE AND WEISS BEING HAPPY WITH EACH OTHER, PLEASE. Or Weiss being a cute tsundere to Neptune. Just cute things!

My wishlist: Oh boy do I have whole buncha posts about that already.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Okay, this is a little tricky. I don’t like Whiteknight BUT I can’t ignore there was some potential between them. Especially after the abomination that is volume 5. Weiss and Jaune could’ve easily had a meaningful conversation about her injury and how he saved her. It’s never brought up again and it baffles me.

As for Neptune? I don’t know. Seamonkeys is my top OTP of all time but holy fuck am I against it becoming a thing. So maybe like during the Vacuo collaboration of SSSN and CFVY, Velvet genuinely stars crushing on Nep and he is adorably oblivious to it.

My happily ever after for them: Ahhh you know what I didn’t really get that far lol, get back to me on that.

[iridescentwinters]

hi there! don't know if you have done it before but could you give a description of each william remake on what you've seen so far including og? 😊

hello hello! oof i’ve never done this before!

and holy shit i made this super long,,,, but anyway here are my takes and personal descriptions of all the williams!

william (skam) – oh, william. the king of all williams because he’s the original bad boy with a broken past; the reason why we have the rest of the remakes boys. i think my initial opinion on him was how he was going to be a typical “wattpad” bad boy who would just chase after the good girl for the kicks of it. but my opinion changed heavily after watching season 2. while he did make mistakes in both season 1 for being an asshole to vilde and also not hearing noora out after learning the “truth” from his brother (the biggest asshole/villain) about the party, i think people take hating on him to the extreme. to me, william presented himself as someone who was ignorant with a cold-hard exterior, but in reality he was a determined person who was willing to change for the better and he also did look out for others’ well-being. he was quite soft-spoken i would say especially around noora, but nonetheless he stood by his virtues of being a loyal friend even when she told him it was “wrong” to use violence. he was a realist as well. twisting all of those characteristics about him make him look like a bad person, but he really wasn’t. he had a difficult family and he lost his sister. he was just a little lost, but i’d like to think he’s now a mature person who’s made a good connection with himself.

charles (skamfr) – like william, charles also presented himself as an ignorant asshole who couldn’t care less about what others thought, but in reality he’s quite the opposite! my favourite thing about charles is how that entire cold exterior melts whenever he’s around manon. watching season 2, i noticed that he was a lot more clingy than william (i would say). especially in the scenes where manon almost broke up with him, he looked desperate, sounded fragile and was a lot more apologetic (shout-out to michel and his incredible acting!). he’s a lot more cut-to-the-chase kind of person (maybe that could also be because of the limited time skamfr had for every episode lol). he didn’t like beating around the bush. and he hands-down is the most emotional william SO FAR. that tear when he found out about the party scene, and when manon said she didn’t know if she slept with his brother or not? MADE ME CRY. overall, charles is a huge teddy bear that needs to be protected at all costs. he tore toxic masculinity down.

alexander (druck) – now, this is a tricky one. my first impression of alex while watching his entrance was that he was going to be the coldest william. and i think i still stand by that impression. most of season 1 was him looking and sounding stone-cold. cool as ice. now this is where my inner winterberg warrior jumps out, but literally i kid you not the first time alex genuinely smiled was after mia confronted him and asked him if he wet the bed. from then on, every scene he had with mia in season 1, you can see him smiling. i think that’s what’s nicely done about alex: he genuinely doesn’t give a fuck about others’ opinions. including mia’s right now. i know every single william is very educated and keeps up with what’s going on in the world, but druck currently is showing that very well, with the discussion he and mia had in class about israel. not only does that underline mia’s flaws in her thoughts, it characterises alex of not just being a pretty face, but he understands the world’s issues. from the recent clip (the christmas eve one), we see that he’s not celebrating christmas with his own family, so that definitely will play a major role in why he’s so cold. i have a feeling his broken past is going to cut deeper. overall, alex is indeed the coldest william, but i have a feeling that hard rock exterior is going to break soon. kudos to chris veres!

edoardo (skamit) – ughhhh can i just say how much i miss his face?! i can’t wait to see him soon in season 3! to me, edo’s the funniest take on william. i wouldn’t call season 1 edo a fuckboy; i’d call him a PLAYBOY. he’s so…. classy. from the very limited scenes we’ve seen of him, i would say he’s bold. like alex, he isn’t afraid of how he’s being perceived (probably too rich to hear them), but like charles, he melts at the sight of eleonora. in the first clip of season 2, you literally see him roll his eyes at silvia, but the moment he catches eleonora’s eyes, he just becomes a whole other person. i’m interested in seeing how his character development will be like in season 3 and how giancarlo portrays edo. i think he’ll be a lot more open about his past to eleonora than all of the other williams. and he’ll get more serious in situations where he’s supposed to be. but overall, i see him as someone who’ll use humour to hide his true emotions!

daniel (skamaus) – daniel’s entrance was hands down my favourite entrance. the song, the positioning, everything just screamed king of school without even trying. i’m not even saying this because grace made this reference in her text to megan, but he really does remind me of sebastian valmont from cruel intentions! this is gonna make him sound like an asshole for 5 seconds but bare with me; i think he sees grace as a challenge. INITIALLY he does. he radiates “villain” energy, but in season 2 he’s going to forget all of that and will genuinely risk everything for grace. i just know it. he’s going to be the epitome of cliché (thanks to julie 😉). i think he’ll be the most afraid of breaking his tough barriers. i can’t wait to see how his character development is going to look like!

alejandro (skames) – BABY. A BABY HAS BEEN SPOTTED. but listen, don’t be fooled by looks,,,, alejandro most definitely is not the softest william. he may look like it, but he ain’t. and i think that’s what i like about him. he just never fails to surprise you. it’s nice to see a teenager play a teenage role! he just gives off cocky vibes, tbh. especially confident, which we can see in the halloween clip where he subtly asks nora for a dance (RIGHT IN FRONT OF VIRI). now, the reason why i brought up the fact that a teenager plays a teenage role is because despite having an arrogant upfront, i think alejandro is going to make a lot more mistakes and will be a lot more emotional than maybe even charles himself. fernando is 18, he’s still experiencing the teenage life. he’s going to have a more realistic take of a fuckboy in Spain.

noah (skamnl) – oK. noah is by far the most mysterious william. THIS MAN DOESNT EVEN HAVE HIS SURNAME DISCLOSED YET. he’s definitely a lot more quiet than the rest of the williams. i would even go to the extent of calling him alex’s foil (in a good way, of course!). that doesn’t mean he’s not confident though. most definitely is, especially with the last clip of season 1 where he gives liv the note behind engel’s back lmaoo. along with charles, he said fuck toxic masculinity by not only having a passion in the arts, but also with painting his nails. it’s the little things about him that characterise him as a good person. i wonder if he’s a lot more soft-spoken because of his family background. i have a feeling he’s going to be an ultra-soft version of charles. ugh writing about him makes me so sad bc i miss him, but i can’t wait to see him again in 2019 hehe

senne (wtfock) – senne’s a lot more involved with school than all of the williams combined (even daniel, who doesn’t seem to care much about popularity at school). which makes sense tbh, because i feel like the textbook definition of the most popular boy at school is being socially involved and yeah, being a jock basically. ugh i really need to get caught up with the rest of wtfock’s season 1, but from what i’ve seen, he’s kinda like a mixture of alex and edo. like alex, he’s not afraid of pointing out zoë’s flaws in her thinking, but like edo, he’s bold. he looked surprised when zoë made him pick up all of her stuff, but he nonetheless did what she told him to do, so i have a feeling we’re going to see more of that in season 2. he’s not going to be afraid of tearing down the stereotypical male bravado or being called “whipped” for listening to his girlfriend. i’m SO ready to see more of him next season!

[manadude-blog1]

The Wise Dudes

Since becoming a Dudeist in,like, what was it? 2015 or something, who fucking knows man...i’ve noticed a lack of material reference that was a bit beyond the usual “Dudeists” who would only ever quote the movie non-stop; every post, every meme, every comment quotes. It gets a bit exhausting after a while. So I wanted to use this blog thing as a platform to point other Dudeists in the direction of other cool characters that abide in their own way. 

In my quest to live my best life I’ve come across a handful of people, who, after studying their character for some time, have dubbed them the “Wise Dudes”, they aren’t bearing gifts of Mir, but they are sagely no doubt. True abiders, people, but mostly characters these people play who really tie those archetypal aspects together in one holy, far out Dude. 

The Dude Himself - Jeff Bridges

The Holy Dude himself. Jeff Bridges.  It seems since his role as the Dude in The Coen Brothers The Big Lebowski, Jeff has himself adopted and nurtured what it means to be a Dude in his real life.  When he isn’t doin’ the whole acting this, he is out there doin’ his part for starving kids, or the environment. 

He even produced the Sleeping Tapes, which is a massive trip, ASMR, guided meditation hybrid of strangeness, but even stranger it makes sense. 

Which you can find here on Youtube: https://youtu.be/y3_Evj0iPDk

And he also co-wrote a uniquely awesome book with his own Zen Master buddy Bernie Glassman Titled “The Dude and the Zen Master”, which is a collection of in-depth jams discussing the ins-and-outs and Zen messages hidden inside the film, and the character of the Dude. 

But above all these things, Jeff Bridges really just displays all the virtues of a true dude, from every single interview he takes part in, he spreads a real chill, and riffs with anybody and everybody like they are close friends. Thats what makes him the Wisest Dude of the lot, because he is the same off-screen as he is on-screen in the role that started it all. One of my favourite interviews is this one where he groks with another Wise Dude in this list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmqtyVE290Y

Don Stark - Gerry “with a G” - Maron Season 3. 

In Season 3 (episode 6) of IFC’s Maron; Mark finds himself attending Narcotics Anonymous Meetings and in need of a sponsor (after meeting two very Donny characters) meets Gerry “with a G”.  I instantly loved this character played by Don Stark (from That 70′s Show fame).  From his first words, mumbled out between gulps of food, explaining to Maron he shouldn’t eat the birthday cake because it’s covered in “junkie Germs” and that he is immune.  And just his look; which resonated with me alot personally, as we dress almost identically (even to the point of me buying the exact same ringed necklace shown in the above picture), loose tshirts, oversized un-buttoned overshirts and a rugged demeanour. Gerry has all the markings of a true Wise Dude. 

Gerry has alot of cool lines in the few episodes he’s in. He not only helps Maron find an awkward living situation, which is what any fellow dude would do, reflected in Gerry saying: “One Addict helping another, that’s what it’s all about”. He is genuinely just living his best life and helping out others in the process, with his own dude style all his own. 

Mark Boone Junior - Jerry - Flaked

You might know this next dude from Sons of Anarchy fame.  In Flaked, which stars Wil Arnett, Jerry is the main character, Chips, ex Father-in-law.  A self made millionaire, but you wouldn’t know it at first. His house is pretty chill, actually, i downplayed that, I fucking love this dudes abode. 

Which, like our previous Dude, reflects something in my own life and Dudeness; all the dream catchers and aesthetics that come with the lifestyle; a chair out the front with a native-american looking throw, nick nacks, overgrowth, ambient lighting etc.  When we first meet Jerry, he is a bit tanked on red wine and possibly stoned, waking up from a dream he’s not quite sure he was asleep for. he is talking in metaphors and seems to be in some kind of evening stupor, which i can relate too, because when the sun sets, I just wanna chill out, hang with my dog, smoke a J and watch the light fade, anyone rocking up to my place unannounced would totally throw me off. And although he doesn’t particularly like Chip, he still lets him in to chat. 

Although Jerry loses his chill, later on, it shows, like The Dude himself, that none of us are immune to life, but at least we aren’t fake, we tend to it, we get back to whoever we are when the shit passes. As long as we abide, where we are, that’s the goal line. 

Joaquin Phoenix - Larry "Doc" Sportello - Inherent Vice

I admit, I had to watch Inherent Vice more than once to actually “get it”, aside from the story which really throws you through the ringer, and leaves you feeling like your coming down of some massive LSD binge journey, the main character of Doc, a private investigator high as a kite, bumbling his way from one location to the next dazed and confused is pretty dudely and his demeanour and dress code and way of life got him an esteemed place in my Wise Dude Pantheon.  Not much I can about him, check out the movie and see for yourself. But you might wanna smoke a joint before hand AND during, I had to to really get what was going on, it’s a wild ride man. 

Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson - Steve Addington & Jack Mayweather - Surfer, Dude!

 This one is a double feature. The movie Surfer, Dude! is pretty cool, i watch it occasionally for a refresher course in taking it easy when the waves of life die off and I need to reset.  Steve, McConaughey’s character, is a surfer bum. Travelling from surf to surf living his best life until a media mogul attempts to lock him into a contract that starts chipping away at his Dude-ness! fuck, media mogul or not, we’ve all been there right?  His friends and fans abandon him, he gets set up looking like a douche bag poser, and the surf stops coming leaving him lost in life.  In the end, everything turns out alright for Steve, but go watch the film, it’s pretty cool.  It even co-stars Willie Nelson as a pot-growing goat shepherd.

Jeff Dowd - The Original Inspiration for The Dude

This ones a tricky one, when i first came across Jeff Dowd, i thought “oh hell yeah, the original Dude, what a trip” but as i started to discover more and more about him, watching videos and interviews etc. It really dawned on me that although this guy is a DUDE, he’s not as chill as i first thought. 

But that was a very Dudeist message for me at that time and place, because alot of Dudeists out there, the poser ones, the perpetual movie-quoters and posters of very undudely things, think the message and archetype of The Dude, is to be chill all the time, to abide with no worries in the world. But after many viewings of the Big Lebowski i’ve found that the real message of the movie isn’t about that at all, neither is the Dudes character; It’s about bending with shit that comes up moment-to-moment, dealing with it, and coming back to yourself, a place you can abide in, and although Jeff Dowd is very chill, sometimes incoherent and sloppy, he’s passionate about life, and doing what he wants to do, dealing with the shit as it arises. And that’s what it’s all about. So maybe that’s where the inspiration mostly came from.  As Bruce Lee Said: “Be like Bamboo, strong yet supple, bending with the pressures of life, and snapping back to form when it passes” or something like that. 

FINALLY, ME - Rick Boland 

Man if there was ever a person who felt like someone pissed on his rug it’s me.  Life has it’s Strikes and Gutters, no doubt.  But at the end of the day, after i’ve been out doin’ my thing; mentoring and working with young people and the community in whatever aspect that is, I come home, I have a shower, I listen to some tunes, light some incense, hang with my wife and canine pal, and abide.  Have I put myself on this list because I consider myself some Wise Dude? Nah, not at all, I’m just a simple Dude, living his best life, or trying too, helping who I can, and remembering at the end of the day, even when life punches you straight in the mouth, that getting back that place where it all ties together and makes sense is what it’s all about.  Bob Dylan once said “A man is considered a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and inbetween he does what he needs to do”.  That is something I can certainly Abide with. Peace Out Dudes 

[kheichou-blog]

Three fandom asks

Tagged by: @agi92

I’m honestly excited to do this and expand on some of my other fandom stuffs :D

Tagging: I will tag... @geekgoddess813 @prettyprompto and @stopmopingstarthoping

You guys are totally welcome to complete this or ignore it!  I don’t care xD  Just uh... trying to tag people and interact since I’ve been a little MIA x’D

Also anyone else is welcome to join in!!!!

My chosen 3 fandoms:

Just going with 3 things I’ve been playing most recently so...

1. FFXV 2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 3. Tales of Berseria

The first character you loved: 1. Prompto 2. Link... of course 3. Velvet

The character you never expected to love so much: 1. Ignis.  Like holy fuck.  Here’s this walking embodiment of bland with a cowlick hairdo and zero personality beyond “hello yes I am perfection incarnate” but then... he talked... and had personality, and though I really wish he’d had more backstory I FELL SOO FUKKIN DEEP INTO IGGY HELL AT WARP SPEEDS LOLOLOL 2. Revalli.  He’s like... pseudo tsunderi prick and I love him xD  Like his personality type can be really tricky, and a lot of times when I’ve seen it it’s been too much and I really hated that character.  But Revalli just feels more balanced.  Maybe because he’s a bird guy, but also because you can hear him getting worried and genuinely caring in his own ways for Link.  Plus, some of his narcissism is kind of understandable considering the attitude of the race, and his legitimate achievements. 3. Magilou!  I thought she was pretty much just gonna be walking, sexy, “omg did I do thaaaaat lol -insert fan service- character but she honestly ended up being my favorite <3

The character you relate to most: 1. Probably Prompto tbh.  Like he’s really happy and sweet.  He is a complex character with layers like... all this self loathing and insecurity and anxiety, but he will take it and force it down in order to help his friends and be a shoulder to lean on, despite his own feelings. He’s always trying his hardest.  He has his good times, he has his bad times, but he still pushes through. 2. hmmn... Sidon?  Because I try to be extremely supportive and friendly to people? x’D 3. Probably Zaveid.  Becaaaaaaause I’m against hurting things, I am pretty fiercely loyal to my people, and I get hella salty over things similarly to how he does in game x’D

The character you’d slap: 1. Gladi!  I know that seems obvious, but hear me out.  I know the guy gets  a lot of hate.  It’s not that I hate him.  I honestly -love- Gladio, especially early game.  I really feel that he needs a good slap post Altissia, because even though he eventually buckles and starts trying to make amends, he never apologizes, and I feel like he really did take some things too far.  I really just want an apology, and maybe a strong slap across the face will yield that xD  But yeah, for the record, I love Gladi, but I wanna slap him. 2. Zelda ZEldA ZELdA ZELDA!  omfg it takes more... than a single. journal... saying “ooooh whoops I guess that was bad” to make up for what an incredibly awful person you were towards the guy who was just ordered to watch you and WHO DIDN’T CHOOSE TO BE... THE CHOSEN ONE!  CRIPES! 3. Melchior because fuck that asshole...

Three favourite characters (in order of preference): 1. Ignis, Ardyn, Gentiana 2. Sidon, Revalli, Mipha 3. Magilou, Eizen, Rokurou

A character you liked at first but don’t anymore: 1. Okay so I wouldn’t say “I don’t like anymore” but I gotta second what Agi was saying.  Prompto.  I really adored Prompto, but seeing the divisions in fandom over the character and the ways he is portrayed often just makes me kinda... less fond.  I like canon Prompto, and the people I RP Prompto with and stuff has also done him good and fun IMO (I’m not judging people’s interpretations of him etc), but as a whole it’s made me enjoy the character a bit less :/ 2. Laphicet/Phi.  It was all great till they did the weird “You’re like my sister but the way I talk and approach these situations makes me seem kinda incesty too” and it was just kinda... eh.  Again, I wouldn’t even say I “Don’t like him anymore”, just it definitely dulled my enjoyment of the character. 3. Urbosa.  Again, not a “don’t like anymore”, more of a “I love her but I hate her sometimes too”.  See in BotW, I really hated how they -really- pushed “oh hey Zelda is special.  She’s SO special.  She works SO hard...” all the time, and Urbosa kinda pushed that the hardest and I was just kinda like “eh... can we move past this now?  Please?”

A character you did not like at first but do now: 1. Cindy.  She’s still far from my -favorite- character, but as I did more quests of hers I warmed up to her a bit more.  Wish she had a bit more to her because I’m p. sure she’s capable of building like... an epic mech or something xD  And of course I wouldn’t mind if she maybe wore something more becoming of a hardcore mechanic... not to say a mechanic wouldn’t/couldn’t dress like that, but just... if she’s the type who is supposedly “really into her work” to the point that she’s pretty blind to people hitting on her, I’d think she’d probably dress a lot more plain and covered to avoid injury and what not... possibly more like Cid or something :/ 2. Riju.  Like I really thought she was just gonna be bratty mc child queen -tm- but she turned out to be pretty okay and likeable actually!  Like I genuinely feel she’s trying to do what she can to uphold the ideas of her mother while also still genuinely just being a kid, though not in the annoying way. 3. Eleanor.  I mean, I think she’s supposed to be the “character you like at first and get to liking later” so good on yah xD  But anyways, she’s just... really hard to choke down for a while.  Like she’s all about the loyalty and righteousness and even as it’s really strongly pointed out that her side isn’t all too righteous, she’s still like “Well you’re bad anyway so I’m only doing this cause I have to and plah plah” and it gets really old.  Like even after she comes around fairly well, it’s still like “well I don’t knooooooooow I still don’t -really- think I should -really- accept and trust you and this is only for such and such” but I digress.  Later on, though she still gets on my nerves, I didn’t mind putting her on my team~

Three OTPs: 1. (other than my OC/Canon of Ashe and Ignis? lol) Gladio/Sania 2. I don’t really have an OTP... but I do like Mipha/Link (SHE MADE ME ARMOR?!  HELL YAH MARRY ME <3 ) 3. Eizen and Rokurou (but like.. brotp instead of otp) though I also like Velvet/Eleanor alright :3