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thesunnyshow · 4 years ago

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Name: Elsie

Writing Blog URLs: @jyeonvoir, @linochee, and @cinnominroll

What fandoms do you write for?: The Boyz, Stray Kids, and NCT (Mostly for dreamie)

Age: 20

Nationality: Indonesian

Languages: Native-level Indonesia, Intermediate English, and Beginner-level Chinese

Star Sign: Aries

MBTI: ESFP-A

Favorite color: Soft blue and pink

Favorite food: Fried chicken

Favorite movie: Along With The Gods: Two Worlds

Favorite ice cream flavor: Chocolate

Favorite animal: Cat and Dog

Dream job (whether you have a job or not): Since I was in middle school, I dreamed to be a news anchor or a tv presenter

Coffee or tea? What are you ordering?: I actually prefer milk more than those two, But if I have to choose, I will go with tea

Go-to karaoke song: Popular songs of the year that I know (Western and Korean)

If you could have one superpower, what would you choose?: Space and time manipulation

If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose?: Srivijaya era (3rd – 14th centuries) or Majapahit era (1293–1500)

If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you?: I don’t think I would. Restarting my life would mean I have a chance to fix my future, but it also means I might lose something I have in the future (and it does not always mean good)

If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been?: Either the popular kid or the loner

Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken?: 100 chicken-sized horses. Normal-sized chicken already scares me, I can’t imagine what will happen if I have to fight horse-sized chicken, even it’s one.

Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures?: Yes, I do. Not everything can be explained in science, y’know.

Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know?: When I was five y.o, I had my parents panicked once. So back then, instead of going home with my little sister, I went to the hospital alone and visited my mother who had just given birth to my little brother without giving any notice to them. My neighbour, who saw my little sister went home without me, worried and called my dad. Panicked, my dad called my mom and told them that I was missing. Lucky, I arrived at my mom’s room just when she answered my dad’s call and they hadn’t called the police yet. Later that night, I got a long lecture from my dad at home.

When did you post your first piece?: If I remember it correctly, it was around early July 2018 on my personal blog -- one or two weeks after I just joined Tumblr. But, before Tumblr, I had posted fics on Wattpad in late 2014

Why did you decide to write for Tumblr?: It’s all because I found a few interesting fics here and then it motives me to write again. I also happened to be looking for a new platform to write since I was bored with Wattpad.

Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why?: I do write fluff and angst fics, but mostly fluff because I’m a sucker for fluff. I’m not good with angst and bad at writing smut

Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc?: Used to write Ocs, but since I joined Tumblr I write X Readers more often than OCs.

What inspires you to write?: MVs (The one with a story) and song lyrics

What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most?: Romance with a little bit of fantasy

What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively?: Take a break from writing for a while

What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful?: My favorite work of mine and the most succesful, excluding the drabbles and timestamps, is Lee Know’s fic titled “What Are You Up To?”. Among the oneshots I had made, it is the only fic that reached more than 200 notes and I’m quite proud of it. It was inspired by a Korean novel I read and a bitter experience of my junior high school love.

What do you hope your readers take away from your work?: I hope my readers can see many sides of a relationship, either it friendship or between lovers. Sometimes, relationship can’t be smooth and have a happy ending like in movies and novels, and it’s not always sad and dark. Also, since the culture that I have grown up with different from people that I meet from this online platform, I want to show how I see a relationship supposed to be.

Who is your favorite person to write about?: In the boyz, it was Sunwoo and Kevin since they are the easiest out of twelve to write for me. In Stray Kids, It is either Bang Chan, Hyunjin, or Lee Know. As for NCT, I think it will be Jaemin and Jeno.

Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose?: Yes, I do. To me, writing fanfiction is easier than an original. In fanfiction, I don’t need to make a detailed characterization of the characters since it’s using a real person as the reference. But as for an original, the more detailed the characterization of the characters the more people could get the sketch of the story since this is the character that I made myself without a reference.

What do you think makes a good story?: A good description, and language that easy to understand, followed with a balanced proportion of dialogue and description.

What is your writing process like?: I start by writing the outline first and do some research before starting to write it. I don’t have a specific plan like when should I write or how long it should be, but I tend to write when I’m in the mood. I can’t force myself to finish a fic just in one week (If I do, I will not satisfy with it and the ending will feel rushed). That’s why It usually takes a long time for me to finish a fic or req.

Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story?: Yes. Of course I would. I’m actually in the process of repurposing one of my old fics into a webtoon with my little sister. But we don’t know when we will start.

What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand?: I love strangers-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, secret relationship, and bad boy tropes. To be exact, any trope that show a good development of the characters and has a fantasy in it will be in my to-read list. However, I can’t stand the tropes with angst (especially if I’m not in the mood to read angst), break up, and thriller in it. I will still read it, but not on the top of my to-read list.

What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)?: Supportive friends and family members.

Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself?: No, I don’t. I always write for myself and put my satisfaction first before anything.

Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times?: No, I don’t. It never happens to me.

Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr?: Some of my college friends who are a Kpop stan do know about it, though they don’t know my blog url. Only my little sister does.

Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged?: Yeah, most of the times. Especially for those who write X Readers fics.

Do you think art can be a medium for change?: Absolutely. Art has the power to inspire change in the masses.

How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you?: Feedback and constructive criticism on my works are so, so valued! It’s important for me to able to improve and motivate myself.

What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers?: Please stay healthy and be happy. Feel free to talk to me whenever you want because my ask always open for you.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there?: You will never know your potential until you try it. It’s okay if your first work doesn’t look great. No one is perfect, even me. I used to make so many grammatical errors in my first fic (even in the newest one, though it wasn’t that bad like before). As long as you satisfy with it, you still can improve it in the future.

Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr?: Nah, There aren’t.

Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey?: Yes, I do. And I’m thankful for that. Because of them, I was able to learn new things and experience many styles of writing by reading theirs.

Pick a quote to end your interview with: “Sometimes you feel like you are alone in this world, but in reality, you have people around you who love and care for you.” -- Huang Renjun

BONUS: K-POP CONFIDENTIAL

Interested in your very own episode of The Sunny Show? Find out how to apply HERE.

#jyeonvoir #linochee #cinominroll #thesunnyshow #featured author #episode 17 #the boyz #stray kids #nct #nct dream

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words-writ-in-starlight · 6 years ago

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hey so rewatched legend of the sword yesterday w/ a friend (partially cuz i showed them one of your posts about it) - so vox machina: legend of the sword au maybe? randomly generated hozier lyric: Mid-Youth Crisis. hope youre doing well :)

INSPIRED! EXCEPTIONAL! VISIONARY! For this ask meme, which is still open!

mid-youth crisis

“Percival deRolo,” the queen says, rolling her words over her tongue like a fine wine lacedwith poison. She’s dressed in a fine gown of deepest blue, with the Briarwoodcrest embroidered over and over in silvery white at the hem. Her dark hair ishalfway pinned up under her circlet, the rest falling in orderly curls down herback. “You did cause us no end of trouble.”

“My name isPercy, Your Majesty,” Percy says, forcing himself to bow his head over hismanacles and look afraid. The fear isn’t a challenge. The bow costs himeverything. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m here.”

“Don’t you?You would have been—what, nearly eight?”

Percy triesto look guileless, tries to look baffled and afraid and every inch the bastardson of a whore. He doesn’t know if he’s selling it, but he does knowthat the second he stops trying, he’s going to be executed. He’ll never see Vexor Vax again, and any chance of revenge he’s ever entertained, any hope ofmaking the queen and her consort pay for the fall of the de Rolos, will diewith him. He wasn’t ready for this, he wasn’t prepared, and now he’s in a cell,unarmed and completely unable to call for aid. Even if he could, three streetfighters with a sword, a bow, and six knives between them aren’t liable to getfar against the full might of the Briarwoods’ personal army.

He neverexpected to live, when he faced Queen Delilah Briarwood, but he’d hoped to atleast take her down with him.

“I’m—twenty-three,Your Majesty,” Percy says. He keeps his eyes fixed on the chain between hisfeet. If he looks up, the acid rage in his chest will fight it’s way up histhroat, until he’s snarling at her. He forces his head down further andpictures Cassandra, her chubby little hands losing their grip on him and herblood staining her nightgown. “If that helps.”

“I’m sureyou’ve been told you look older,” Delilah says, reaching through the bars ofthe cell to curl her fingers thoughtfully into his hair, raking at the whitecurls.

The familiartouch, as casual and friendly as if he were her son, or her dog, is too much totake.

Percy jerksback hard, as much as he can without moving his feet and testing the chains.His head snaps up and he doesn’t know what his face looks like right now, buthe’ll gamble it’s neither deferential nor frightened.

“Do nottouch me,” he snaps.

“There itis,” Delilah says, and she catches his jaw in a lightning-fast move, forces himto look at her as she studies his eyes, the brilliant blue that he inheritedfrom his father, and his father before him. “That famous de Rolo pride. Tell meyour name, my dear boy.”

“You’regoing to kill me anyway.” He can hear an old accent starting to touch hiswords, distantly, as if this is all a play on a stage and he can’t do anythingto change it. The streets of Londinium fade, the high towers of thecastle taking their place in his vowels and liquids. If she wasn’talready sure of who she’d managed to capture, he thinks that alone might haveproved it to her.

“That’strue,” the queen says, her grip tightening until it’s nearly enough to leavefingerprint bruises on his jaw. “You are the oldest surviving de Rolo heir, theBorn King. The sword knows it. I can’t allow the people to know it,too. But if you cooperate, I may not kill anyone…else.”

Percy has amoment of ice-cold dread as he wrenches himself away from her grip. Gods,who— “What have you done?” he whispers, and it’s all nobility.

Delilahsmiles at him, the calm satisfaction of a cat watching its prey run directlyinto a trap. “My dear,” she says, raising her voice from its usual softmurmur to a summoning shout without taking her eyes off Percy. “Join us.”

And a womanwalks down the hall to stand at Delilah’s side. She has long, chestnutbrown hair threaded in several places with snowy white, pinned up over a longoval face, and for a wild moment, Percy thinks mother, but no. Thewoman is too young, younger than her hair and severe expression suggest—youngerthan Percy, maybe, with traces of childish roundness still in her stubbornchin. She’s dressed in a lighter shade of blue than Delilah’smidnight, a simple dress cut from expensive cloth that makes the woman’sstartlingly blue eyes nearly glow in the torchlight.

“Cassandra,”Percy chokes out. He feels like he did when he took the hilt of thesword, like there’s such unimaginable energy in his chest that there’s nowherefor it to go, nothing for it to do but rip him to pieces. Cassandraalways had the family eyes, even when she was such a tiny thing that her hairhadn’t yet darkened from baby-blonde to their mother’s deep brown. Hehasn’t seen his sister since the night the castle fell, when his mother forcedCassandra into Percy’s arms and told him to run. Cassandra had been fouryears old when she died. Cassandra had been four years old when shewas shot with an arrow, while he was still holding her, and the blood hadstill been soaked into his nightshirt and coat when he was pulled from theriver, numb and tearless with shock.

Cassandrahad died. Percy had watched her gasp desperately as he clumsilytried to stop the bleeding, had seen her eyes slip shut before he fled from thespell-creature in the silver helm, shaped into a bird’s skill and wielding awar scythe.

Cassandra hadto have died, because if she hadn’t—

Oh, gods, ifshe hadn’t, he’d left her there.

“Cass,”Percy forces through numb lips. “You’re alive.”

“Percy,” shesays. Her face is utterly serene, utterly removed. Colder than thestars and just as untouchable. “It’s good to see you again.”

“How did you—Isaw you die, how are you here?” He turns a look on Delilah andwhatever it is, whatever his blind rage has done to his features, it’s enoughto make the queen blink, although not quite enough to change the expression ofself-assured satisfaction on her face. “Is this some kind of trick?”

“Of coursenot,” Delilah says, almost offended. “I believe you’ve met my daughter,isn’t that right, my dear?” She strokes the back of herknuckles over Cassandra’s cheek, as carelessly proprietary as the way she’dtouched Percy’s hair, and Cassandra doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t evenblink, still watching Percy with a strange combination of white-hot intensityand complete blankness, as if so entranced by what she’s seeing that Delilahcould put a knife through her chest and not get even a flicker of response. “Cassandra, dear, answer the boy’s question.”

Cassandrainclines her head and says, “Of course, my lady.” Her eyes fix back ontoPercy’s, the bright blue showing a flicker of real life for the first time—anger. “After you left me to die,” she says, and her voice is still controlled,emotionless, so that her words cut like a naked sword, “I was found by HerMajesty herself. She saw to it that I was saved—that my wounds werehealed and no sickness was allowed to fester. She and Sylas have beenvery good to me, the past fifteen years. I was fortunate to be given asecond chance at a family, after my first one betrayed me so completely.”

Percy cannotbreathe, still so washed in the shock and elation of seeing her that he canfeel a smile fighting to appear, even under the fresh pain of her words. It takes a moment before he can answer her.

“I—Ibelieved you had died,” he says, and tries not to sound too much like a lostchild. Tries not to laugh in raw wonder. Tries not to rage atDelilah, for all she’s taken from them. He steps forward, so quickly thathis first step comes up sharply against the manacles around his ankles, andwraps a hand around the iron bars separating him from his sister. “Cassandra,I—I had no idea. I had never heard tell that the Briarwoods had achild. No one has ever spoken of a surviving de Rolo. Not even me.”

“I am not asurviving de Rolo,” Cassandra says, biting off each word like she’s in a hurryto get them away from herself as quickly as possible. “You left yoursister to die, and she did. I am a Briarwood, and—” For the first time,Cassandra’s determination flickers, and she advances a step, staring Percy deadin the eye like she’s challenging him to something. “And,” she continues,as hard as before, “I look forward to attending your execution tomorrow,Percival.”

Withoutanother word, Cassandra turns on her heel and strides out of thedungeons. It’s her stride that gives away her emotions, more than herperfect mask of neutral engagement and her near-immaculate vocal control—hergown flares and swirls around her with the force of each step, a fighter’s walkthat doesn’t match the image of the polished court lady. Delilah watchesher go with the same pleasantly satisfied smile as before, and turns back toPercy while he’s still reeling.

“So,” shesays, silken. “I believe you were telling me your full name.”

“Percival,”he whispers, staring after Cassandra. “Percival Frederickstein von Musel Klossowskide Rolo. The third.”

“Very good,” Delilah says, as approving as ahoundsmaster praising the latest addition to the pack. “Now, it mayinterest you to know that we are also looking into your friends in Londinium,but I expect that lovely Cassandra should be more than enough to assure yourcooperation, don’t you?”

#percy de rolo #cassandra de rolo #critical role #vox machina #lady delilah briarwood #starlight writes stuff #ask meme #this is actually such an UNBELIEVABLY phenomenal concept that i may write the rest of it??????#I GOT EMOTIONAL ON SHIFT AND WROTE LIKE...A B I T OF SYLAS STUFF IN THIS UNIVERSE???????#some other stuff in no particular order #keyleth is the mage/merlin but like...a beautiful earthshatteringly powerful goober #who spends all her time converting percy to the idea of actually ruling #rather than just showing up and murdering the briarwoods and calling it a damn day #vex and vax are backlack and wetstick except scarier #vex brings keyleth a wounded bear cub and gets herself A Pet #grog is a wayward viking berserker the size of a house who runs a fight club/training house in londinium #it is frequented by his long time best friend pike who was camelot's trainee priest before the briarwoods #she's also Scary with a mace and helping plan a revolution but nbd #scanlan wouldn't be helping if pike wasn't but she is so he's right there with her they're bedivere and goosefat bill sort of #THEY OVERTHROW THE BRIARWOODS AND PERCY GETS A MAGIC SWORD IDK WHAT ELSE YOU WANT FROM ME #lotheben #asked and answered #queue deeper than the sea of stars

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 6 years ago

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Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Hungary to Eurovision with yet another father song apparently

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Hungary, I love you, but you're bringing me down...

Never in my life have I wanted to fight a NF as much as A Dal 2019. The lineup was considerably less engaging with me than the previous year's one (but in the end it turned out to be even MORE engaging than the previous year's one), the design update (to which I got used to like 10 minutes later anyway) happened, the jury exterminated a handful of favourites, and a common Eurofan's worst fear apart from not having at least one glitzy-schlager-fiesta-wrapped entry a year occured yet again - the under/over-staging of songs with potential. What could've been a smooth sailing sweet ballad sung by a man with all his heart turned out to be a confused fisherman's piano boy tune with little to no emotional connection with the televiewer; a killer electropop soundscape piece sprinkled with intensity, fragility and neon-like colors was supposedly performed by a lost-on-stage housewive who probably has 2 kids and 2 cats at home; and that one folksy melody set to campfire suddenly lost all its fire with a snow backdrop behind. Truly a wrong time to become a full-on Hungary stan.

And yet, out of all this hot savaging and rampaging mess, entangled with fan-fave losses and one eliminee too late thanks to a common ESC song's worst fear (plagiarism accusations), emerged one gloriously victorious soul in the shape of a brave man of gypsy 'origo' who once has been elected to Eurovision to make his country proud with his killer ethnic track 2 years ago, and he nailed that right to the T, with the help of an onstage dancer and violinist (both female) to create some space for the song to breathe and exhale the passion of what he sang out of his heart by then - Joci Pápai. Yes, him again! Who did you expect, András Kállay-fucking-Saunders??

Anyways, his song this year is titled “Az én apám” (My father), written by him and partially co-written by a man hiding himself behind the name Caramel (and I prefer caramel candy more than the actual raw caramel tbh), who is probably finally lucky enough to see a composition of his go to Eurovision after he himself couldn’t quite make it as himself right back on the very first A Dal. This year he also wrote a cute little harmless ballad for a 16 year old girl but we’ll discuss her later (maybe), because it’s Joci’s time. Again.

As the title already indicates, it’s another song about a father, and unlike for AWS’s lead singer, Joci’s father is... alive and well, surprisingly, considering Joci is 37 and, at the time of his fatherly loss, Örs Siklósi from AWS was approximately 24-25. That definitely does not mean the parents’ loss can’t come in at any time of your year - A Dal 2019 had a contestant whose mother was murdered when he was NINE. 0_0 Not to mention that some mothers die during childbirth, too. Or even maybe some fathers die before children were born because all they need to be in part of babymaking is to give her satisfaction at the right time and boom, 9 months (or even earlier/later) of wait. But I digress. This is much different song from “Origo” as “Origo” had this ethnic upbeat rhythm to it, with violins included, and was mostly a captivating song with a little bit of rapping because Joci couldn’t fit so many words in all of the other verses he could have thought of for this song without having to extend the song for A Dal submission, so he had to do the rap, sorry “Origo” rap bit’s haters. “Az én apám”, meanwhile, has him project his feelings against a musical backdrop of a little bit more softer, acoustic, chill tune with a little poppier arrangement (and add some violins during his live performance on two of the A Dal shows, that are now a permanent part of the ESC version of the song!). And instead of the Romani onomatopoeia we’re getting “na na na, ya ya yah” in the chorus, which is as nice, but I’d rather “jalomaloma” out some bitches than have this.

For this one, he’s all alone, on his own, except for the other songwriter’s aid (dare I say that this personal song’s lyrics weren’t even written by Joci himself??? Not even a microscope??? Caramel you mastermind you). But mostly on stage, he’s alone. And shoeless. And with a starry-ish backdrop. Simple enough staging for a simple enough song, right? As it’s proven that simplicity can work in the past Eurovisions (see Sobral), and maybe, just maybe, Hungary does stand a chance for once again for being just simple, like Boggie was (but mostly she was more inoffensive and singing about a topic that’s still beaten to death every now and then, although this topic has fizzled out lately, which paved the way to all the love songs dominating NFs now, as well as the Latino craze). Though I doubted it was gonna remain so “simple” after it was revealed the Hungarian team is looking for everyone’s fathers’ pictures to be submitted to them. Yes, it was supposed to be one of THOSE kind of backdrops. I don’t even know what kind of use did Michael Schulte have of the fatherpics people sent HIM! Most of the backdrop focused of his lyric video aesthetic on the choruses, and I remember more of THAT, not the photos... so I doubted it was gonna work out on this one either. But in the end Joci wasn't satisfied with how all of those pics looked, so he will go for only showcasing his very own papi now.

Oh shit I forgot to talk what I feel about the song myself... well, safe to say that I didn’t warm up to it when I first heard the snippet ahead of every other A Dal snippet, but as in full, it just so happened to be nice enough, although I preferred “Origo” because reasons - not to mention that looking back at the A Dal 2017 state that I’ve seen from, I’d probably have had Joci as a legit fave to win it! And I already found Tótova to be too strange at first, unsure if it’s worth it to give them a second shot (post-2nd-listening-note: I did and it wasn’t that... bad?). And so, with low enough expectations, I didn’t even look into his chances all that further, especially with him being sick on the heat 3 day and only managing to barely tie-win in his heat just so he could dominate further rounds. But man did it turn out to be a beast later on.

So let’s, for now, say that I like it, but it’s just one of those artist return expectations that let you down because you really wanted to maybe see them again, but there would never be another song like the first one. Time will probably make me forget it all happened though and I’ll be able to enjoy it as much as “Origo”, as the “na na na” chorus part is really lovely enough. The song though, it is bafflingly too much reliant on too long verses in order to make the song just only have 2 of them and 2 choruses, and for the person that is biased for ‘2 verses - 3 choruses - bridge somewhere in between’ kind of songwriting that I am, it’s lowkey a glaring problem (as I'm finishing this weeks later than initially planned I actually got used to this structure and it even slightly compliments the song, but only slightly), as “Origo” has not only an engaging song but an engaging structure - nothing seems throwable out, nothing seems needed to additionally to be added. This one, however, is just there with its structure, and although hearts and minds are swayed by this, I don’t think I’ll get used to it this as a whole easy, unlike, like I said, time makes me forget the NF messfest and focus my love and support towards those that ARE going, not those that COULD’VE BEEN going. For now, I am not sure if I finished my review rant this properly, but for now, I’ll just wish Joci the best of luck, eventhough he’ll 1) never read this and 2) never understand this :( But still ^_^ Don’t let your nation down, big man and a father of two!

Approval factor: Despite reasons I’ll detail a little later, I’ll approve this entry, as I can’t be mad enough at Joci, for the humble man that he exists as, and the message he’s spreading, and the man he teamed up with. I approve of him but not of the background things.

Follow-up factor: From substance things, let’s just say it’s a bit of a yes and a bit of a no. No because ‘omfg it’s too soon for him wtf!!’ and I agree but if that’s what the juries initially wanted after seeing him in the lineup, and this return of his is now a bit more unnoticed and anonymous... but yes because it’s not a bad choice after AWS, because it was to be expected Hungary will send something softer after going out hard the last time, and they delivered the softness.

Qualification factor: depends on how does the audience feel for this emotionally, if Joci transmits his love for his father and that other supposed message as well well enough to the audience, in this simple staging of things (well if the fatherpic concept is still considered as ‘simple’ and nothing too cheesy or creepy). For now though I’ll be optimistic enough for Hungary - they won’t break their streak this year. If this simple-ish enough staging with just the singer on it doing his best worked for our lovely Ieva last year (despite these two not being a comparable songs), this would as well! And then settle around in top 15 provided enough people are there to give Joci just the right amount of love and patience that he needs (jury is a different question but since it’s not ethno-aggressive I think they might warm up to this as well, despite this being Hungary). Or even 16th-20th.

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

A Dal 2019, with all things considered, needs to immediately die in a hellhole. Mainly because of the juries doing their dirty work by drowning the public favourites yet again, and especially the good ones (I've mentioned some of them earlier in the first paragraph by description). Let me demonstrate two of my favourites to the unsuspecting audience:

• Let’s get the elephant out of the room first. LEANDER FUCKING KILLS. Would you even think they’d have had any sort of victory of a NF potential?? Well, not off the AWS’s heels, considering both them and AWS play metal music. But their 2019 entry, "Hazavágyom", was something else. It’s if your dad went out with a couple of his friends to start a campfire somewhere in the woods, and then he took out a guitar because he remembered that he wanted to play something new he learned after listening to a lot of Irish folk music. And they all go off together - one rhythm drum, one guitar, the others jam out to the rhythm and create a fully-fledged campfire song, and a mysterious violinstress appears out of nowhere to help keep the party going. No really, it’s in the music video. Them being the most positive surprise of the lineup 2019 really melted my heart as I didn't expect so many people siding with another shade of their music. And even I started to draw myself into that song more and more, of how dancy and heartfelt it sounded with them decent lyrics about some sort of personal affection (maybe??), hoping that the jury will listen with their hearts and minds open to this Leander’s change of things and let them win the selection that way. But in the end... you know that Assi Azar quote. That’s right. And even so guess what - their first hurdle was their last. Sure, you can say they had a flawed live performance (no violinstress :( too rough vocals at the last chorus :((((((), but if you crush a future of good potential ahead, you’ll never know what might have you lost and how much would you have liked it better if things were slightly improved according to what you thought that needed to be changed in it. As it is for now, both "Hazavágyom" and Leander Kills ended up being robbed of Tel Aviv 2019. Hats off for trying, though.

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• And then we have this fantabulous guy down here, with the name of Gergő Szekér and his journey-like legendary folk-tale, written for us guys, to let the past go, just like a (little) bird, and keep what matters only - “Madár, repülj!” mesmerized me from its first snippet (with me additionally commenting on that he’s a nice guy somehow), and then the full version came - with some rapping, wavy electronic bassline (that we haven’t seen striving since last days of dubstep’s relevancy), great choice of instruments, THAT gorgeous way of singing this whole song - I was ready to run away from the disappointment I had from Leander’s flop and immerse in this song fully knowing that it’s gonna be ‘such a jury darling!’... but a-MOTHERFUCKING-las! The boi missed the mark by 4 points in the superfinal vote-up in order just to tie with the unexpected new jury darling that was even BEATEN by Gergő in the semi, Bogi Nagy (the 16 year old I mentioned earlier)... the last juror thought that shooting up Bence Vavra to the superfinal spot was a good idea, and I can’t blame him as Bence deserved to go to the A Dal final for the little that he has participated in, but NOT AT MY BOI’S EXPENSE. ;_; I truly doubt that at this day and age there’ll be anyone capable of filling in the Gergő shaped hole in my heart... well, I can certainly TRY cutting him out of me, but the pre-NF-hype-build, his song’s remix with his X Faktor’s friends and my imagination of him dancing in the Telavivian postcards and engaging with his new Eurofandom fam through live interviews will haunt me from here on end... ugh.

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And normally I hype up the NF participants that I supported last time previous year but then they become just artists for me and I wanted more of their song but not of the actual performer in Eurovision and therefore I don’t want them to ESC anymore, but if both of those above artists go to Eurovision at some point, I’m likely stanning both the hell out of their songs AND themselves, for who they are and who they stand for (hopefully nothing too controversial, we already have had a fanfave oppose gay marriage once so imagine a Hungarian A Dal winner doing the same at some point :O). Leander for his overall talent, Gergő for everything he is (and plus a little bit of mutual acknowledgment I’m gonna talk about later UwU bias is strong ahahaha).

Now with my sorrows out of the way, let’s highlight some more of this shit-fest:

• How the fuck wasn’t Dávid Heatlie’s staging a big meme during the season?? At least nationwide?? Seriously. “La Mama Hotel”, his actual entry, might not be too much of a standout (considering it’s just some by-numbers-synth-heavy song with its only major saving grace being a kickass guitar solo), and he did not perform all his best, BUT THE LAMPS. THE FUCKING LAMPS. Too many of them, and they’re slightly too oldfashioned, but so aesthetically-satisfying out of nowhere. If I were a moth, I’d immediately run to his lamps at any given time, and even stay with them after they’re eventually returned to MTVA’s stage props garage or to a Hungarian IKEA. Yes I know the moth meme is dead btw but so what?

Not to mention the guy himself is a bit of a meme in my eyes.

• I already discussed about this on my only one-time “Fanwank Assimilation” bulletin and I have no intent to reiterate all that I said from there on this one word-for-word but let’s go on anyway. Olivér Berkes, the hipster friend of Zävodi from A Dal 2017, returned on his own to win many more hearts with a soft piano/acoustic ballad “Világítótorony” (lighthouse), which couldn’t have been staged more... disconnectingly. To summarize, it’s somewhat of a love song inspired by a lighthouse symbol (quite literally lol), staged as if it was like fisherman taking care of one lighthouse himself, coming and going to do his thing. And like, there was no click with people that made Olivér stand out with something else other than just this ballad, like he did by constantly tele-qualifying with Ádám Szabó’s current girlfriend back in A Dal 2016 and being put in the superfinal with aforementioned Zävodi in 2017. His song itself was just a nice song and kind of a lot people liked it it seems, but I wasn’t really getting it until too much later on after Olivér’s heat was over, so I was surprised with his elimination, but my feelings I got from this song off my first impression weren’t disappointed over this. Check his performance here.

• Can I call Rozina Pátkai a highlight? You might have not heard of her unless you’re Hungarian and/or THAT into their jazz scene, as she’s big on there. This year though she has had a “noisy electropop” song through to the chosen 30 of the A Dal selection, and it was of the name “Frida”. Nothing was too bad until she also ended up having some unfortunate first-hand mis-staging. I did say at the beginning of this post that she kinda looked like “lost-on-stage housewife who probably has 2 kids and 2 cats at home”, and that’s just me not being fond of the outfit she got, though I don’t really imagine in better clothes, or do I? Nevertheless, the Rubik’s cube visuals of her pictures and bright pink lighting (where visible) looked great on her staging somehow (and the on-screen effects), just not the visual aesthetic of the singer’s. Witness it here. Also witness what I meant with the visual parts of things:

Triple woman?? now I’m scared

who’s this shocked gal in the background that got cubed???? UwU

curious woman telling you a bedtime story on TV

Sorry, these captions are a little too silly, but still. The jurors were alright with it except for one (and that’s also the one who killed Olivér’s chances too a little) and the televote was harsh (5 points, yikes, the lowest ever telescore of this A Dal year). Well, if it was studio, we’d probably see her through, but me personally, I saw it as a semifinalist at best when I first heard her song. Now I think it would have been decent enough for a final too maybe? As at least the chorus of this is good but I was never too hooked on the first verse as it always reminds me of the annoyingly soft indie pop that dominates the current music trends... well alas.

(Sidenote: maybe her moterly styling was dedicated to her future child she’s currently carrying? Yep, turns out Rozina is currently pregnant, just like one other A Dal contestant this year!)

• A personal highlight for me, besides that one time Gergő Sz. spoke out to an ESCBubble interviewer that “there’s this, like, a guy or a girl from Lithuania, and [he] said “yeah, I’ve some re-LAH-tivs [sic] ... in Lithuania and she was like *exasperated gasp noise* “Lithuania! Oh my God! We love you so much!”” (and for a matter of fact, it was me :) I’ve been only acknowledged once ever but the acknowledgement still exists!!), was discovering Fatal Error (and USNK but mainly just Fatal Error) before they entered A Dal 2019 with THE EXACT SAME SONG I FIRST HEARD OF THEIRS. Yeah. “Kulcs” music video featured Örs Siklósi, your favourite Hungarian screamer/singer, as a presenter rather than a part of the song, and a good-ass metal song did he present. And as the A Dal 2019 season rolled on at the beginning, Fatal Error were on my hyping target until some better songs came on and I didn’t feel like stanning Fatal Error’s song as much as I only stanned them because they’re here for the fans even more at even more times than I expected them to be - liking their comments on the band’s Instagram and Youtube posts - nothing against other contestants though (Leander included), if they have their lives to carry on and only sit down to check Instagram twice a week or so, it’s perfectly fine. :) I am quite sure Joci is probably like this also. Nevertheless, Fatal Error totally rocked, despite coming off AWS’s heels, and they’re at least encouraging other rock acts to come over to A Dal to open themselves to the world of many eager people discovering new artists every now and then. Just like the victory of AWS sort of did. Also one of the guys from that band said that their mother was delighted to see his band live, which brings us to...

• ...The Middletonz, a fresh new band for András Kállay-Saunders to leech on through next few A Dals now that the band of his name is no longer a thing. They, and yesyes, were the first ever fan favourites to emerge, mainly for sounding modern and having these artists people hate seeing back to A Dal only because of so many tries in the show, but happy to see back in hopes for them finally taking A Dal by their hands (and for András it’s a ‘finally AGAIN’ moment), but problems arose when the juries weren’t fond of both Middletonz AND yesyes, so much so that the frontman of the latter band spoke that he’s not coming back to A Dal again (unless he lies to us by coming back in 2022 or so). What amuses me more about The Middletonz, other than the song (which is fine for the most part, the D’n’B + acoustics mix is neat and catchy, but the beat drops harder than my will to live, and it IS bad (okay further listens later it’s not THAT bad but still... you gotta have had tried harder, men), is their nationality. Besides the hidden phantom member of the group that we never heard on any interview but appeared to be present (at least on the heat stage of the NF), here we have András, which is Hungarian-American, and his friend of the (nick)name of Slashkovic, which is Dutch-Iranian! That’s a colourful palette of double nationalities. And not to mention, despite it being a minority language, therefore a perfectly fine addition, some Russian language is heard in their song, courtesy of Slashko himself. That and on the A Dal 2019 final night Slashko had his parents watching him perform live for the first time... and based on the amount of years he has hidden that from his parents, it took him SO DAMN LONG somehow to reveal himself. Damn. Anyways, anyone up here to bet we’ll see András again, especially after him being reminded to “never give up” by one of his fans? Well, now that he has definitely seen Joci win A Dal twice on his both attempts, it’s highkey positive. Now with or without Slashko? We’ll see.

• The infamous plagiarism incident, which actually hung like a shadow on one of the contestants and those accusations probably scared him for life, and then the scandal outright knifed out a completely different contestant, Petruska (if you remember him from 2016, you know who he is), a little too late into the competition. If you were so certain his song sounded alike, you’d have either eliminated him in the heats or not accepted his song at all, which... maybe did sound like a Vampire Weekend song, I’ll let you judge.

I can’t be arsed to highlight anyone else because there was a lot to go after. Like, two young-bun A Dal acts that came from the same kidshow (different season though) and one did the song all by himself but couldn’t carry it quite as far despite his basic technotronic visuals, another was completely dependent on Caramel’s songwriting capabilities and fared WAY better than everyone else expected, tied-winning the heat with Joci, being the 3rd qualifier on the semi and beating Gergő Sz. during the superfinal vote-up by 4 points (and Feró’s endorsement lol). Yes the latter person I was talking about was Bogi Nagy. Have her song linked too if you want to listen to it. (I could have also talked about her sitting on a hula hoop and having a long extended projector dress to showcase her childhood pictures onto, but that’s just a song-saving gimmick in my opinion, and I don’t wanna waste my thoughts on her any longer tbh.) And USNK, those two that won X Faktor 2018, Soundcloud-rapped a song about HASHTAGS HASHTAGS HASHTAGS, gave a needlessly over-colourful stage show and took Leander’s spot of qualification to the semis through televoting (and additionally pissed me and borisbubbles off. Ya welcome for an indirect tag too!). Wow. But enough being a bitter Betty, I’ll have to let the bird fly until the next NF season and wait for some more eager names to cheer for, even if they don’t have an exciting “#háttérzaj” of nationalities. Until then, A Dal, my love...

#eurovision 2019 #tel aviv 2019 reviews #hungary 2019 #joci pápai #az én apám #hungary

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bonpourlorient · 5 years ago

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Not a Take-Down of Susamam

I am wary of takedowns. They’re not necessarily clever nor insightful. But I can also see how they can be satisfying. So let me preface this by saying the following:

It goes without saying that the Susamam music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5K3IxINr7A) has connected with millions of people in Turkey and should therefore be lauded. The fact that the artists have been able to put together this effort, at a time when journalists, MPs, lawyers and even rappers are being persecuted by the government, is in and of itself worthy of praise. Last, this is not at all me dissing on Turkish rap. On the contrary, I care deeply about it. I have followed Şan-ı Şer from his earliest days. I remember being 18 and my friend S taking me to a concert in Keçiören to see Sarp perform. I’ve listened to and have been inspired by all kinds of rap from Gazapizm’s political anthem “Ölüler Dirilerden Çalacak” to Khontkar and Young Bego’s trap tune “Mutfak.” Turkish rap has had very powerful messages, so powerful that I’ve put them into my academic work. Here are the opening lines to my comprehensive answer:

“Ankara’s cold cuts through me… /In one pocket, I have (no) Capital left, /In the other, only cannabis seeds.” Ezhel – Şehrimin Tadı (Taste of My City)

But since every Gen X’er liberal is going crazy for the song on my twitter time line, I thought it’s useful to ask, what is Susamam actually doing? And why do we like it so much?

Here’s my hot take: Basically the song’s real concern is not to actually think through what is happening in Turkey, but merely reveal it and in revealing it extract a satisfaction that confirms one’s own awareness. It’s images, especially of women are images of pure lack/pure grievance. The more troubled question of subjectivity aside, the images of women for example are completely devoid of expression/action. This is why the song doesn’t bother listening to the struggles/lives/subjects it speaks about but merely assumes what their grievances are.

This is also why liberal intellectuals in Turkey love the song. The song “raises awareness.” Everything is “mentioned;” #nature #womensrights #law #justice #İstanbul. But it never actually encounters these issues as women’s rights activists, environmental activists, animal rights activists actually talk about it. It’s strongest verses are about what the young male artists of the video are already closest to; youth unemployment, the political apathy and complacency of more well-to-do, historically less marginalized, more secular “white Turks,” censorship etc. (Sokrat’s verse on education is pretty good and deserve an honourable mention. ) Even then, these verses accidentally frame these issues in terms that are familiar to the very white Turks criticised in the song. Take one of the earliest verses in the 15 minute video. #Law. Here are the lyrics

“I’m a white Turk/My laws are anglo-saxon but my head is Middle Eastern/I grew up a political/ I never voted. Instead I thought about travel, debt and holidays.”

The scene works as an indictment of the aforementioned white Turks as an unnamed performer recites the failures of white Turkism. Later Sarp breaks into the scene in a powerful verse reaffirming the sense that the unnamed performer is put on trial. But what does it mean to suggest that one’s “head” is middle eastern? Strange. And surely people in Turkey do vote? If there is a lack of political action, this is not due to a lack of voting. (Although the fairness of elections is another matter entirely).

Even stranger are Fuat’s verse on nature and Ados’s verse on draught, the opening two verses of the song, presumably placed here to underline the importance of these issues. The two verses frame environmental destruction as the result of ignorance and negligence of “maganda”s (roughly translatable as “chav”).

“Sağı solu belli olmayan /Mangala gitti maganda! / Orman yanar / Tabiatın gözleri kan ağlar / Kibir yaptı tavan” (The chav’s are out for a bbq. Forests burn down. Nature cries blood.)

What’s remarkable is the complete absence of Turkey’s extractive industries and destructive construction projects. There is nothing in here about the terrible mining accident Soma, about the destruction of forests and habitats through construction projects like Yeşil Yol. In short, the song leaves the relentless pace of capitalist “development” that has completely defined the JDP regime untouched, instead choosing to complain about trash.

“Brother don’t! / Don’t throw your cigarette stubs out into the sea / You can’t take them back.”

In a similar way, the verse on animal rights takes the route of showing cute stray dogs, rather than actually confronting the quasi-pornographic obsession with meat the more well to do sections of the Turkish society have developed - cue videos of salt-bae violently slapping pieces of meat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bakTmaO_yo (Turkish masculinity is so easily psychoanalyzable that it’s not even worth it.) There is so much to say about the violence of the meat industry, but instead Sarp choses to hug a puppy and feed it a bottle of milk.

Most unfortunately absent from the video are any female rappers, or any acknowledgement of the struggles LGBT, Kurdish, Alevi and other minority groups are being subject to in Turkey. Singer/song writer Deniz Tekin has her own verse that opens up the section on women’s rights, which is great (I know, I know, how do we classify rapping?). But the rapping on this verse is instead performed by Yeis Sensura and Sehabe both of whom go on to repeat the most unhelpful stereotypes about violence against women, chalking the epidemic of violence during the JDP period upto ignorant and uncontrollable men.

Kadına el kalkmaz ulan/beyinsiz Erkeksin ama insan değilsin/Aslında o en iyiye layık/Kadına şiddete hayır - One shouldn’t raise one’s hand against women/you’re a brainless man but not a human/ she actually deserves the best/ say no to violence against women.

Sure. But talk to any women’s rights group in turkey and they will tell you about enforcing the İstanbul agreement that has pretty good policies to help secure women’s rights. About the culture of violence slowly promoted by the wilful ignorance of laws and the scaling back of legislation. About the systemic hegemony of hetero-masculinity in Turkish culture.

In short, the song is more liberal critical awareness than an actual encounter with the realities of Turkey or with the activists who are dealing with these realities. Which is fine! I don’t expect people to get all their politics from music videos. Yet if the history of internet has taught us any thing it is that this mode of awareness is wholly ambiguous, just as likely to encourage the disengaging satisfaction of now “being aware,” of finally having revealed the hidden structures of power, as it is of inspiring political action and mobilisation. This is especially true when the awareness in question refuses to engage with/think through/ live with the issues it is supposedly aware about in any meaningful way. What we should question is less the song itself and why it gives us such pleasure.

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