#pop culture white whale

[eternaliee]

my pop culture white whale is the full album Wonder Girls were rumored to have completed when the Why So Lonely maxi single was released

[watchmorecinema]

Sometimes an adaptation is so strong that it eclipses the source material, so any deviations are assumed to be canonical to the original. This is also true for anything that just happened to filter through pop culture, like King Kong or Godzilla. Some examples that I found:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a mystery! It's from the point of view of a different character who tries to uncover the relationship between the two characters. Every single adaptation is about how they're both the same person affected by a crazy experiment.

King Kong references just focus on the climax where he climbs the Empire State Building, but most of the movie is about going to the island and what they find there. Natives that revere him as a god, dinosaurs and giant snakes are all present.

Moby Dick is maybe 10% about a guy trying to hunt a white whale and the rest of it is a lot of history and philosophy.

Blade Runner feels like it was based on a dream someone had after reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but without remembering all the details. In the book Deckard is married, owns a machine that helps him experience specific intense emotions, is part of a new age religion based around taking care of animals, has dreams with other people, gets arrested for being a replicant, etc. Every character basically just shares a name, and any events that actually occur in both still end completely differently. There's a scene where Deckard gives a test to someone and finds out they're a replicant. In the movie the creator is pleased because she's a replicant that isn't aware she's a replicant, and she's been passing their tests without being able to pass the police test. In the book they claim she's a human as a way of forcing Deckard to drop the case. It's the exact opposite conclusion.

Blade Runner in particular is the really odd one because it's the only one where the film didn't ruin the book for me. I already know the broad strokes or the important scenes in King Kong, Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula, etc. so there's nothing much there for me to get. Androids is so different from Blade Runner that I had no idea where the story was going to go next and it ended up being a really exciting read for me.

Any piece of media that is adapted and referenced endlessly is probably very, very good and definitely better than the references are so they're worth searching out. If all you know about the Twilight Zone are the Futurama parodies then you are missing out on some prime television.

[singlesablog]

Sunshine Pop

“Happy Together” (1967) The Turtles White Whale Records (Written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon) Highest U.S. Billboard Chart Position – No. 1

Imagine me and you, I do I think about you day and night, it's only right To think about the girl you love, and hold her tight So happy together…

One of the great, enduring singles of the 20th century, “Happy Together”, by the Turtles, was released when I was only 2 years old, and still the song has had a lasting impact on my musical tastes.  It is today grouped under the moniker “Sunshine Pop”, which would include many contemporary purveyors of light psychedelia, including The Association (perhaps the most successful example) and the family band the Cowsills (with their seminal hit “I Love The Flower Girl” and its ringing lyric “happy…haPPY…HAPPY”), and many, many others.  The category, like the term Yacht Rock for the 70s, was only applied later to pull together the swirls of styles and culture springing up from a combination of folk, pop, and the Beatles, and not un-notably was possibly a reaction to the civil unrest bubbling up in the late 60s.  I can only guess the genre was the mainstreaming of a kind of specific tension rising up in America, a hip solution to changing times.  The genesis of these songs is elusive to understand, being a combination of hippie culture, long hair, and corporate rock—pulling apart the strands of influence is nearly impossible. But I will try.

I have read the Wiki on the Turtles many times and no cohesive idea of the band will gel.  Like the Association, some of the 5 or 6 male members were shuffled around during their hit-making period.  The band was clearly an easy listening vocal band for youth culture; they rarely wrote their own songs, instead they sifted around the industry for potential hits to record (which is in line with a lot of 60s hit-making).  During the period of “Happy Together” a new bassist, Chip Douglas, was added; this would be important because he would arrange the astounding vocal wall that crescendos at the end of the record.  Another important element, perhaps lending this single such authenticity, was that the band’s label, White Whale, was small and scrappy.  Because they could not afford the premium session players that all good California bands used for making hits, the band members, outside of orchestral sounds, played all of their own instruments.  The last bonafide is the lead singer, Howard Kaylan, whose dreamy vocal is undeniable.  But how did a journeyman band like The Turtles do it?  

One of the antecedents that explains their sound is California.  As surf music (the Beach Boys) was replaced by folk music (Dylan, and the West Village of New York), so emerged The Turtles with their first hit, the Californication of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe”, going groovy with it.  Before recording “Happy” they scratched around with hits comprised of older styles, the Brill Building of “You Baby” (P.F. Sloan and Steve Barry) and “Let Me Be” (P.F. Sloan).  These were solid songs, but the band clearly had ambition and wanted more, so they went on the prowl for a hit hit.  “Happy Together” was a demo that had made the rounds among many bands and rejected by all: the Happenings, the Vogues, and the Tokens. The two songwriters, Bonner and Gordon, had a connection to the Lovin’ Spoonful, and were shopping it around.  Howard Kaylan, the Turtles’ lead singer, has told the story of hearing the acetate for “Happy” and not only was it barely audible from use (acetate records, cut live rather than pressed, were inexpensive and were purposely used for demos and had short life spans) but terrible as well, with rickety guitar and a falsetto vocal.  But it appealed to the band, it had “something”.  Instead of recording it, they decided to workshop it live, and took it on the road for eight months before going into their studio, Sunset Sound.  According to Kaylan, they were more than ready, and recorded the whole track in 6 hours on an 8 track recorder.  They obviously did have the money for woodwinds and brass, but Kaylan has reported that listening to the separate tracks and arrangements he detected nothing special.  It was only when they heard them all at once, and mixed, that it was clear something magical was there.  He described it as elusive, with the mystical feeling that something had happened, and for the only time in his life he knew instantly they had created a No. 1. record.

The result was ebullience. Describing a perfect, hooky pop record is nearly impossible; suffice it to say that I hear it nearly daily as a tagline for an obnoxious tv ad and yet I always get that explosive tingle (ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba). Perhaps the Turtles are harder to understand today because we, of a certain age, have all been so profoundly changed by the singer songwriters of the 70s; before that movement it was commonplace for record labels to shift and shuffle band members and songwriters endlessly to generate a hit (one only has to read about the formation of the Drifters or the Temptations to become fully dizzy).  Making a hit record was always the preeminent idea, and it is our modern minds that has lead us to believe that artistry has to be the end result of a personal genius: no, no, not at all.  Sometimes it is in the air, and sometimes it is luck.  Perhaps it is always luck.  One thing is for sure, like the late, great, recently passed Quincy Jones has stated: it was always all about the song, man.

---

The Turtles, of course, wanted to repeat the success of “Happy Together”, and they nearly matched it with a song intentionally parodying themselves, “Elenore”, purposefully writing nonsensical lyrics like “Elenore, gee, I think you're swell” and “You're my pride and joy, et cetera” to send themselves up.  The joke wasn’t on them: it was a huge hit (Billboard No. 6), and uncharacteristically it was one the band wrote themselves.

One of the obvious precursors of the sound for a band like the Turtles is the Mamas and the Papas, who took Motown and the British Invasion and added a vocalese that was strictly California.  If you compare their sounds, so dependent on the vocals, they are remarkably similar.   I also hear this sound everywhere during that period, from the Cyrkle’s “Turn Down Day” (talk about an earworm) to the the arguably more successful and prodigious tunes from The Association, who’s monster No.1 hit “Windy” charted that very same year. Albeit whiter and squarer than the hippyish Turtles, their work would lead directly to the greatest white bread duo ever created, the Carpenters.

Now, I must insist: go listen to the song, and get happy!

[hanakihan]

to follow @i-bring-crack, here i present you all

Sung Jin-Woo / Woo Jin-Chil Weird AU WIPs Bingo (because my fantasy runs wild)

Fatal Frame AU: Jin-Chul disappears on assignement to investigate disappearance of people near small village. Jin-Woo, worried, plagued by nightmares and paranoid over moving shadows in their shared apartment, goes to find Jin-Chul himself. He had no idea that he’s Abyss’ creation that helped It to find and seek back what belongs to It. Jin-Chul was the only survivor in sacrificial night because his mother helped him to escape and ritual failed, entire village consumed in eternal darkness that froze this place in time. Jin-Woo, fighting with his nature as Abyss’ creation, arrives at sacrificial altar, where remaining piece awaits, clad in white and reds. The question is, will he succumb to shadows and finish ritual that failed or will defy his fate.

Houseki no Kuni AU: Clinohumite (Jin-Woo) is a right hand for Gray Diamond (Go Gun-Hee), not the hardest yet not the most fragile of gemstones. Being the one to keep track of all gemstones and their schedules, it falls on him to find always sneaking Alexandrite (Jin-Woo) and finally assign him a proper task. Game of hide and seek results in first proper meeting, the best fighter among them all that catches Clinohumite from falling and breaking, while shining purple eyes laugh at him. Since Clinohumite won by finding him, Alexadrite arrives next day at meeting in clear blue glory, under different light he changes his color and slightly personality. Clinohumite once was on Moon and returned from it barely whole but has no memories of it, because Alexandrite was his initial partner on patrol duty until he failed to save Clinohumite from abduction and that’s why he avoids him, ashamed of his previous weakness.  Clinohumite’s abduction resulted in appearance of other self in Alexandrite (basically pre Monarch awakening Jin-Woo as blue hue Alexandrite at day and Shadow Monarch Jin-Woo as purple hue Alexandrite at night).

Idol AU: Jin-Chul wanted to be a normal office clerk, not to work as an idol manager. He lacks enthusiasm but he gets the job done, but even then he decides that he’ll quit after his final assignment. Final assignment happened to be the most popular Idol in South Korea - Sung Jin-Woo, who, compared to other Idols, is actually nice and easy to manage. Poor Jin-Chul has no idea what a disaster Jin-Woo is, especially after Jin-Chul caught his eyes.  ‘After our contract ends i’m going to retire’ ‘Oh great i plan to graduate from idol industry and take a vacation with you’ ‘Congratulatio-- WAIT WHAT’ And Jin-Woo’s graduation alnum was full of love songs that broke top charts in less than a day.

Absolute Being Incarnation AU: No matter what, Shadow Monarch seeks his God, while God seeks familiar presence. They both awakened through pain and suffering, but in the end they’re together after lifetimes of separation. They’re Origin and Finality of everything, but most of all, they’re two pieces that perfectly match. 

Gacha AU: Jin-Woo was a prime example of pop-culture illiterate. And then apparently Jin-Ah drags him into gacha hell where in addition to his Shadow Monarch title he earns The Supreme Whale title and he absolutely doesn’t regret speding money on 2D husbando when in theory he can have 3D one. Two pining dorks whaling the hell out of game for each other’s content because they’re afraid to speak about their feelings in real life.

Childhood sweethearts AU: Jin-Chul was a white crow that other kids avoided. That is until a really cute boy approached him and asked if he wants to play. Jin-Chul had a thought to be rude so other boy will leave him alone but honestly it won’t hurt to play with a child who’s younger by some years? After that they were playmates for some time because Jin-Chul’s orphanage took kids out to play in park, and one day this boy gifted Jin-Chul really cute but clearly child made plushies of himself and that boy, and Jin-Chul almost cried because no one gifted something directly to him and for him. And boy had courage to propose to him despite being at least head shorter and younger, and Jin-Chul told him to grow up first. That was their last meeting, but Jin-Chul still held those plushie dolls dear to his heart, caring and repairing them when time came. Jin-Woo never forgotten that lonely but pretty boy from childhood to whom he promised to marry once he grows up, and deducted it was Jin-Chul after seeing those old plushies that are clearly taken good care of.  ‘If that boy from years ago to propose to you again, will you accept?’ And Jin-Chul silently drops plushies he was holding, seeing a fine man that still look at him with same admiration and affection just like that pure boy on playground.

Howl’s Moving Castle AU: Jin-Chul is a workaholic who rarely rests, but he still finds time to be kind to people. After unknowingly helping a Shadow Monarch in disguise, he gets cursed by other Monarchs for contacting with exiled one. Now it’s up to Shadow Monarch to return a kindness favor to human who got caught in this mess and fall in love with warmth and brightness of his soul despite his eldery appearance. Also there’s definitely a scene of Jin-Woo lovingly stroking Jin-Chul’s golden locks as man becomes youthful in his sleep again wrapped in blankets near fireplace.

Hades and Persephone AU: Under request of Gun-Hee (Demeter), Jin-Chul (Persephone) visits Underworld to welcome and help new God - Jin-Woo (Hades), since Jin-Chul knew previous Shadow Monarch and helped him from time to time to run things in Underworld. Because Jin-Woo had no idea, he accidentially fed Jin-Chul food from Underworld. Jin-Chul found a solution, thus creating seasonal cycle. Jin-Woo feels bad about his mistake and doesn’t notice how he fell in love with god of spring and nature.

Frog Prince AU: Jin-Woo is a soon to be heir to a kingdom, and he needs a spouse. Unfortunately, he’s not interested in getting married when whole country is open for explaration. In the end, his parents make him to shot an arrow - where it lands, there will be his spouse. Jin-Woo finds his arrow in swamps and near his arrow is an ordinary looking frog. Ashamed to lie to his parents, he brings frog back to palace, where he becomes an object of laughter. Heir’s spouse shall go through trials to show their skills, but seeing that heir brought a frog with him, no one took it seriously. But surprisingly, each morning Jin-Woo found each required item made with utmost care. Jin-Woo goes to bed ready to be a laughterstock next evening because there will be a ball to congratulate him on his engagement on swamp frog, but before falling asleep he feels someone stroking his head and whispering to wait for him at ball night. At that same night instead of a frog a beautiful man enters the room, a shining brilliance that adresses Jin-Woo as his future husband who took a good care of him while he was small and weak. Jin-Woo later finds and burns frog skin making things worse, because Jin-Chul was a cursed missing adopted prince that king Gun-Hee tried to find for years. Now it’s up to Jin-Woo to lift the curse and fix his mistakes.

Palace intrigue AU (Heavily inspired by Kusuriya no Hitorigoto and Cinderella): Jin-Chul’s parents were high ranked prostitutes in red light district that raised him in brothel. By sheer luck and because brothel owner knew General Go Gun-Hee by old friendship, he ended up in his care as a right hand man. By no mans Jin-Chul was a best educated man, but he knew basics enough to preform taks given to him. Who would’ve known that during his visit to palace with Gun-Hee he’ll manage to save princess Jin-Ah from being poisoned? Apparently brothel knowledge comes in handy when someone tries to assassinate someone. And just like that a faceless soldier with no name behind him and no education gains a favor of the Emperor, whom almost no one saw. And on top of that some palace minister, who happens to be Gun-Hee’s friend, has a tendency to drag Jin-Chul into problems while Gun-Hee laughs on background because while Emperor Jin-Woo is in disguise to escape his obligations as a ruler of a nation, it’s still hilarious to see that sparkle in Emperor’s eyes when your adopted son scolds the Emperor for doing something dumb.

IB-inspired AU: Jin-Chul is a busy salaryman, but when given free tickets to attend an art gallery dedicated to famous missing painter Sung Jin-Woo who had a very distinct style focusing on blues and purples, he attended. Too caught up in admiring art pieces, Jin-Chul doesn’t notice changes in gallery and accidentially falls into one of paintings. Ending up in reverse gallery with nothing but a vibrant yet dead looking yellow rose he wanders around and tries to avoid hostile Shadow series paintings that came to life. In the end Jin-Chul finds missing painter - albeit he has some memory issues. But then also he finds that Jin-Woo made a themed self portrait for Shadow Series before his disappearance titled ‘Shadow Monarch’. Now Jin-Chul questions who’s real and who’s impostor while questioning if the person he bonded with is the real Sung Jin-Woo or a pretending Shadow Monarch.

Genderswap AU: Jin-Chul never understood what Hunter Sung found in her - he got the looks, the power, everything he can desire at this point, he’s surrounded by best looking hunters out there, yet despite it all he follows her around, a workaholic, constantly tired and not best looking person out there. She’s tall and too sharp for a dream girl, no curves and softness, only sharp angles and muscle, no skirts and heels, only suits and occasional loafers. She even gets confused for a man most of the times so yes, what Hunter Sung potenially could’ve found in her is a complete mystery for her.  On side note if both are women, Jin-Woo domineering the fuck out of men but chosing bae over hoes because she has her lesbian priorities okay and because chairman’s right hand lady is so fun to tease

Nier AU: After fall of humanity, two Androids - B1 (Jin-Woo) and A8 (Jin-Chul) - continue to wander on Earth trying to fulfill their mission despite no need. B1, who in reality happened to be E1 type Android and A8 - an old model - locate and destroy Monarchs - signle A.I. units that stop Earth from self regenerating. They succeed, but in the end, nothing is left on them, empty falling apart shells that want to meet their end together, because maybe they found humanity while it ceased to exist? /whoever gets why there’s numbers 1 and 8 ilu

Titanic (kinda?) AU: a rich class young master and an ordinary overworked coal covered engineer meet on luxurious cruise ship even though they were never supposed to. What can go wrong on nighttime when both of them meet and talk without social boundaries surrounded by lull of waves? As a part of engineering team Jin-Chul stays on sinking ship and after securing his family Jin-Woo having none of this self sacrificial shit because Jin-Chul has people he cares about too.

Gambler/Organized crime AU: Investigator Jin-Chul having a cold case on his hands - and potentially, the Shadow Monarch, one of Monarchs that rule underground criminal world in Korea, has needed leads to finally solve it, so killing spree can be ended. Once a month his syndicate organizes gambling night - a type of gambling battle royale between participants and Shadow Generals for winning and having a chance to have an audience with unreacheable Shadow Monarch. Jin-Chul, desperate to find a lead, signs in as a participant and slowly climbs him way towards victory, avoiding death along the way. Surprisingly, he gets small aid from ‘benefactor’ who seems benevolent enough. Jin-Chul survives the night and has a meeting with a mysterious Shadow Monarch, who’s curious what a government dog (heh--) is doing in such place and why going to such lenghts. Jin-Chul saw Monarch’s face and learned his name over a cup of herbal tea and didn’t even thought how he’ll walk out of here alive after that. It was written all over his face and Jin-Woo had best laugh in years because of that and after drugs kicked in and exhausted Jin-Chul fell asleep, Jin-Woo spared him, curious of what Mister Investigator will do and will his actions shake Monarchs balance in underground world. 

Benelovent God AU (Crane's Return of a Favor inspired): Jin-Chul led a simple life as a peasant - there was food on his table and his adopted father was well, and that was enough for him. One night he got lost and stumbled upon a butterfly field, pleace clad in darkness yet luminated by flapping wings of blue butterflies. In middle of it grew an old majestic tree and right under it was almost destroyed altar. Jin-Chul, feeling tired after field work, tidied place a little and prayed to unknown god, asking for forgiveness and a chance to sleep near tree. Next day he wakes up covered by expensive looking robe and with butterflies sitting on him, but instead of taking anything, he draps it over altar and even leves small offering from remaining food he had. Jin-Chul continues to visit that altar and take care of it, eventually sharing how his day went or his troubles while doing work here, and when that happened, one of butterflies always ended up following him back home only to disappear later. With time his household started to flourish and life in village became so much better, and Jin-Chul one day asked if unknown god wants something in return for shown kindness and unknown god finally manifests, replying that Jin-Chul showed kindness first even though he had no idea to whom he prayed. It was kindness of a stray human that awakened a sleeping god that fell in love.

Fashion industry AU: Who would’ve thought that an average looking manager will catch worldwide known fashion designer’s eye? Jin-Woo was having a slump of ideas, none of best models inspired him, he had no one to model for his recently released collection photoshot. Enter Jin-Chul who was just accompanying one of models to end up dressed up and groomed for a photoshot under careful eye of essentric fashiom designer Jin-Woo. And then he gets an offer to be Jin-Woo’s personal model for next collection? Cue sexual tension during a simple measurements taking scene--

Blind and Mute AU: Jin-Chul was born blind. Jin-Woo became mute because of trauma. Two of them meet in a park, awkwardly sitting on a bench. Jin-Woo helps Jin-Chul to navigate around new places while Jin-Chul talks with Jin-Woo without demanding answering back. They grow comfortable around each other and their communication method is touch, two become function as one, comfortble and complete.

Villain/Hero AU: Jin-Chul was absolutely unfortunate enough to be selected as a Hero that will go and slay Shadow Monarch. Turns out Shadow Monarch is a bored shut-in who didn’t even leave his lands and has no idea that someone does crimes under his name. Entire misunderstanding gets resolved with a good cup of tea and Shadow Monarch decides it is time to socialize after being a shut-in for 1000 years. Jin-Chul thinks it was a bad idea. Jin-Woo says that hero now can rest since Shadow Monarch was slayed - his heart now belongs to a tired man who unceremoniously entered his palace to slay him.

Soulmates AU: with appearance of Gates and Mana, in rare cases hunters can become Soulmates - those who have a connection through which their mana reaches other. Jin-Woo was weak, but he felt much stronger mana trying to keep him somewhat safe, while Jin-Chul felt a weak flicker of someone’s mana shyly touching his own. The stronger Jin-Woo becomes, the more Jin-Chul knows and feels it, and eventually Jin-Woo’s mana starts to terrify and hurt him. Jin-Woo has no idea that Jin-Chul is his soulmate since his own mana started to eat other’s. Weak warm touch of other’s mana is what reminds Jin-Woo of who he is and that he mustn’t lose himself in his own power.

Omegaverse AU: Jin-Woo is a weakest hunter but also a completely ordinary beta. Then he gets hit with Ashborn’s yassification and changes to alpha that demands to domineer to claim to own. And then there’s Jin-Chul who’s also a normal beta and has no idea that Jin-Woo is an alpha because betas literally cannot smell others or feel. Despite Jin-chul being a beta, Jin-Woo still finds his smell rather nice and soothing, not annoying like alpha’s or sickeningly sweet like omegas. Cue alpha’s courting that an ordinary beta completely doesn’t understand. Alpha in Jin-Woo is completely overjoyed when Jin-Chul allows him to mark his neck with a bite even though it does nothing to beta and it’s a literal pain in neck but oh well, he can survive this (he has no idea it will become worse once it’s rut period someone save him).

That’s some weird ass AUs okay but those are at least fun sounding (i hope) because i have additional 30 in my safe but G O D they need brushing because they’re an overall idea mess WHEEEEEEEEEEZE)

[t-800]

my pop culture white whale btw

[akenvs3000f24]

BLOG 7: Nature and Music

Music and nature are ingrained within one another, albeit the way music is shown in nature is a little different to how we perceive music to be. Personally, when the word ‘music’ is used, I first think songs and artists. Big celebrities like Taylor Swift, Adele, and Hozier come to mind. Different genres like pop and classical are also a first thought. However, when looking at how it intertwines into nature, music becomes so much more.

At the break of every dawn, you can hear the birds begin to sing, signifying the rise of the sun. In different forms of media, we commonly associate birds with music. For instance, Snow White. She is shown singing with the birds, whose tunes slowly merge with the soundtrack. Birds are commonly used as musical accompaniments in films like Snow White and Cinderella, where they create harmonies and interact as if they’re in sync with the characters. However, they are not the only creatures that ‘sing’ in nature. Many animals use sounds and melodies to attract mates, signal their territories, or even to simply communicate with others of their species. Whales, for example, create long, complex songs that can travel vast distances underwater. Music in nature serves as a complex network of sounds, each having their own, important meaning, but serving as a pleasant tune to our ears. For centuries, musicians have been inspired by the sounds of nature.

In today's norm of ‘music’, the thought of nature might not come to mind immediately. Most songs follow a common trend of finding love or heartbreak, as artists write lyrics that their audience can primarily relate to in some way, shape or form. However, Indigenous people commonly incorporate the theme of nature in their musical traditions, both physically and spiritually. The instruments they use are commonly made from materials you can find in the environment; seeds, wood, and animal parts (Hoefnagels 2011). Hoefnagels (2011) states these instruments are treated with the utmost care, as they are seen as sacred within the Indigenous community. Their music also frequently incorporates sounds that mimic nature like the rustling of leaves or rushing of water. In Indigenous culture, music as a whole is deeply ingrained with their culture, as it served as a way to pass on historical narratives, legends, and general expression (McLeod 2024). 

Composers like Beethoven also incorporated birdsongs in their music to connect their pieces with nature. In this post, I’ve linked one of his pieces; Symphony No. 6 in F major, which incorporates different bird sounds. I believe this particular piece of music does well to convey how nature can feel; whimsical, peaceful, and calm. But pieces such as Allegro, where the music is more fast-paced, gives a sense of urgency and serves a bit of a warning; to never get too comfortable in nature, as it is still the place where danger can lurk around every corner.

Overall, I believe that music and nature go hand in hand. But in order to dig deeper into how they connect with each other, we have to dive back into our history.

References

Hoefnagels, A. (2011) Music of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The Canadia Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/first-peoples-music

McLeod, D. (2024). Heartbeat of a People. Canadian Museum for Human Rights. https://humanrights.ca/story/heartbeat-people

[sushigal007]

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!!! Especially for me, because seeing this animated was my pop culture white whale! Yes, I know it's not going to be the same animation, but all four episodes animated plus a colour version after we were told there wouldn't be any more, more than makes up for it. Also! Hopefully this means the rumoured animation of The Smugglers is also true, because there are precious few Hartnell animations and I really enjoyed Galaxy 4.

[astranauticus]

btw now that ive gotten set me free out of my system womxnly by jolin tsai has become my new cpop translation white whale like not because the song itself is that impossible to translate but because i cannot think of any way for me to make a post about that song without getting completely sidetracked into a deranged rant about chinese pop culture's unceasing efforts to try and act as if that song's message about overcoming adversity and discrimination can be applicable to everyone and that it is not, in fact, explicitly a song about homophobic/transphobic violence

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #19:

Tom Petty's You're Gonna Get It!

Imagine a new Tom Petty record.

I don't mean some new archive set like the expanded/alternative versions of Wildflowers or She's the One. I mean a record that is entirely unheard of; one that no one even knew to long for.

I'm disappointed it hasn't happened yet. I hoped Petty's and, for that matter, Prince's, estates would provide a much needed balm to us all after each of their tragic passings by gifting us a miracle, a great white whale we did not even know was lurking beneath us all these years, on the order of Neil Young's Homegrown or Dylan's Complete Basement Tapes.

Sure, we got to hear Prince alone at the microphone, but I feel like he probably made recordings like that, effortlessly, once a week in 80's. And yes, there's a single, previously unknown, piece of pop greatness to be found on the posthumous Petty box set, 1982's Keep a Little Soul.

But where's Petty's Black Eyed Dog? Where's his Hundred Highways? It's not enough for us to miss Tom; we want to hear his voice reach out and comfort us once again from his untimely grave.

I know exactly what I'm asking for here because I've already experienced it. That's right: at age 13 I was sure I'd discovered an entirely-lost-to-history Petty album.

Let's start at the beginning. My two buddies - both named Matt - and I reacted to Full Moon Fever by going Tom Petty crazy. Tom checked every box a few geeky, unpopular and yearning-for-the-ladies white kids needed checked: he wasn't already property of the cool kids, he was counter-cultural in obtuse, safely-white man ways, his songs were as often as funny as Weird Al's, he rocked, and his middle name was Earl.

So for Christmas / Hanukkah that year we embraced communism's concept of collective ownership in an effort to get our hands on the entire Petty catalog. As the beloved leader of our oligarchy over none, I directed Matt 1 to ask for Let Me Up and Damn the Torpedoes and Matt 2 to get the self-titled debut album and Hard Promises (which, based on its cover, looked like the lamest record), leaving me to squeeze my own stocking with confidence that Southern Accents and Long After Dark were in there on tape, waiting to change my life for the better.

What else, you ask, did we ask for that holiday? Blank tapes of course: it was our standing and too-obvious-to-speak-about agreement that by dinner time on the 25th everyone would have copied both their new albums twice and delivered the copies to one another by bike.

That's right folks: none of us asked for You're Gonna Get It! There was a simple reason: the record was utterly out of print, had never been released on CD and was nowhere to be found in any local Dollar Bin. To three 13 year olds in 1989 who were busy exploring music without knowledgeable parents or older siblings in an era long before the internet, it was as if Petty's sophomore album had never been made. We didn't ask for it because we didn't know it existed.

And so when we rolled up with my dad to the Fabulous Forum on March 1, 1990 for our first ever popular music concert the three of us believed we had the entire Petty catalog memorized.

Ah, what a glorious night....

After buying Petty shirts and promptly putting them on we took our seats and saw the cringy but sorta awesome opening act, Lenny Kravitz. Lenny tried to lead the entire indifferent audience in a sing along to a song no one had heard at that point, Let Love Rule. This was long, long before he got a marketing clue and traded in his second-fiddle-to-Liza-Bonnet role and became a peddler of planet destroying SUVs.

The night also marked our first brush with rock and roll royalty as both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen joined Petty and the boys for the encore. And, although the internet tells me it's not possible because of the concept known as death, I feel like Roy Orbison appeared as well. I guess it must have been his ghost that appeared behind those famous shades...

But to us 13 year olds none of that compared to the women directly in front of us getting into an all out, beer flinging and fake nails in the eyeballs, brawl in the middle of Freefallin'. My father, lord of the bon mot, instantaneously summed up the crazy scene by yelling "they're slamming boys!" All hail my father.

Is it any wonder that I wound up with a lifelong love of music after such a night? And I haven't even told you the best part: Benmont Tench hitting the opening riff of Love is a Long Road in the full dark as the show dramatically opened is one of the top 10 moments of my entire life.

There was just one unsettling moment all night. Mid-show Petty played a song we didn't know, all about listening to your heart. That wasn't too upsetting; there were plenty of songs he played that we didn't know. We figured they were covers, or coming out of the next record, because no one else in the audience knew them either. But when Petty told us about a ladyfriend resisting some dude's money and his cocaine everyone else all around us sang along.

We were a smart group of kids but we didn't put two and two together that night: take the fact that we were the youngest people there by a decade, add in the fact that everyone else there new the song and you wind up with an obvious conclusion: we were missing a Petty record. And so I went home with a nagging worry: what explained that one song?

The answer came from Saint Cross's Quaintance Shop a month or three later. Picture a fading church thrift store 35 years ago. Wigs and berets on white, styrofoam heads, mismatched golf clubs, iron-on izod patches for dressing up second hand kids shirts filled the front room; even less desirable items could be found in the back. A rotation of women born in the 20s manned the counter, clucking about whatever whenever my busy mother stopped by to pick up the shop's meager taking in her role as vestry treasurer.

I was still too young to have an excuse not to join her on these errands, and thank god for that because I wandered into the back room, thumbed through their quarter bin - that's right, in 1990 there was no such thing as the dollar bin; rather every record cost a quarter - and had my universe rocked when I saw Tom Petty standing in blue light with Stan (check out his handmade, drawstring hot pants!), Mike (pensive as always, deferring to the Tom as the boss), Ron (looking like he already has one foot out the door and is working up to his managerial role at an eighties bikini shop) and Benmont (forever a teenager) on the cover of a previously unknown record. Had the sun exploded in the sky at that moment I would have shrugged: the Holy Grail was in my hands and a moment before I had not known there was a God.

"Mom, please can I buy this? I just found it and I really need it."

"Sure you can, honey. Where's your money?"

"I mean, mom can you buy it for me? I don't have a quarter. But I'll pay you back, I promise." (This wasn't a case of not having my wallet; I literally did not own a cent at that moment. Every cent of my weekly $2 allowance would instantly go towards tapes. I did not yet own a turntable of my own and the recently discovered player in my parents cabinet still had a needle that had needed replacing in '74. I was forever broke and I remember borrowing money to buy Sergeant Pepper for a quarter from a different thrift store soon after.)

My glorious mother sighed and made a look that said "children these days..." Then she produced the precious quarter and I took home the arc of the covenant.

My glory was strong but short lived. Yes, the Matts were both blown away to discover a hithertofore unknown Petty record. But the only working turntables we knew belonged to Matt 1's formidable aerospace stepfather, and only Brahms was allowed on that one, and Matt 2's parents, and listening to a record in their living room necessitated dealing with Mickey, a truly insane golden retriever who weighed way more than me and was an incessant licker of his own formidable balls.

So it wasn't until high school that I really got into the greatness of You're Gonna Get It!

First, let's pause to consider the greatness that is an album that ends in an explanation point. We've already discussed Jonathan Sings! at length in these pages but there are plenty of other amazing albums made by brilliant artists who are goofy enough to add a ! to the end of their album title. Consider Get Happy!! And Henry the Human Fly! And what about Help!? These Are All Great Records! For that matter, wouldn't If I Could Only Remember My Name and Wild Tales be even better if Crosby and Nash had affixed explanation points to their titles? Man, I wish it was called Blood on the Tracks!

(Dear Stephen Stills, I know you're reading this so please pay attention: yes, we see that you tried to jump on the explanation point bandwagon in '05 by putting out a record entitled Man Alive! Good try Stevieboy, but to this day no one has ever listened to that record, and no one ever will. And don't try reissuing your 70's back catalog as Stills 1! Stills 2! Stills! and Illegal Stills! It will not change anything; those records will still forever suck.)

By ninth grade I had a turntable of my own and my first real appreciation of Your Gonna Get It! was getting way into Magnolia. I ask you, what better song is there for a horny heterosexual male ninth grader? I guarantee you I'm not the only boy who spent a whole lot of time visualizing themselves as Petty's first person protagonist:

From a table across the room

She was signalling me with her eyes

I walked over to be introduced,

I said hello, she just smiled

And said I know a place not too far from here,

We could get away for while.

Yeah that's when she kissed me and told me her name

I never did tell her mine...

Magnolia...

There's a lot to say about this track even after 24 years of blissful marriage. This song, and all of Your Gonna Get It!, features a complexly layered, full band vibe. Petty didn't just put everyone on the cover, he also gave them equal sonic billing; an approach he increasingly abandoned at the eighties increasingly set in and he got tempted by all the money and the cocaine. Hear the thick, bending bass stepping forward like a bold and reckless Romeo, driven by the tiptoeing lead piano riff. Petty's not the only one who gets lucky during this track. Everyone does.

Indeed, all of Side 1 is stone cold classic material, too rich and dense to have initially grabbed hold of me in eighth, then ninth, grade. The album opens with When the Time Comes. Tell me, please, why this elegant, powerful pop song is not more famous than everything on Wildflowers? When the Time Comes views every song on that overrated record with withering pity.

Tench's organ swells, the bridge spans mammoth depths, the drums and guitar carry us relentlessly forward up to a hollered fade. And then it's suddenly over and before we know it we're already kneeling down before Petty's declarative, white man soul in the title track.

Do you hear that guitar solo give way to the spaced out Dead vibes and then back into the chorus of chasing vocals? How the hell did this album ever get overlooked, forgotten and dropped out of print? Why are we ever listening to anything else in our lives?

On the back of my original 25 cent thrift shop copy of the LP there's the obligatory encouragement to reach out to the Official Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers Fan Club at 890 Tennessee Street in 'Frisco. I say that if we all send them self addressed stamped envelopes right now and demand a reissue of this record complete with bonus tracks then they'll do it and they'll also release, after all these years, Petty and Co's previously recorded, utterly forgotten and never before issued 77 lost album.

Come on people, lick those stamps. We're Gonna Get It!

[all-seeing-ifer]

speaking of threesomes and theatre director daniel fish (great start to a post) it haunts me knowing that that man directed a production of twelfth night like YEARS ago way back in his early career and it haunts me even more knowing i'm never going to be able to see it. like it was early in enough in his career that idk if he would have had the same artistic sensibilities he does today but I suspect it would have been unhinged in a way I'd enjoy. a true pop culture white whale

[ms-demeanor]

Your ancestors aren't the only thing that make up your culture. Your culture is your food and your family traditions and local dishes and regional celebrations. It can be things you grew up doing in your lifetime, it can be the things your parents told you about. It's the holidays you celebrate and the things you expect with the changing seasons.

Does your town have a fourth of July parade? Is there a time of year when there's a specific local produce available? Is there a county fair? Did your school have Sadie Hawkins dances?

What food gets served if you go to a barbecue? Do you go ice skating? Do you go fishing? What happens in your city during the Superbowl? Do the diners near you show the World Series on TV in the fall? Are there pumpkin carving contests and trick-or-treating?

Look. Pumpkin Spice Latte season is genuinely, legitimately part of American Culture - white American culture, even. Sure it's commercial as hell, but it's also born out of being the season when people in the US make pumpkin pies, and want things to taste like spices and cider.

Did your parents have annual traditions? Did their parents? If you have a family get together for Thanksgiving (which is a part of American culture - white American culture even; just because it is propaganda that was meant to create a friendly founding myth instead of focusing on genocide doesn't mean it's not part of your culture - culture is not only good things; machismo is part of many cultures, menstrual taboos are part of many cultures) is there a dish that people *have* to have? Is it some mayonnaise or whipped-cream based salad? Those salads are an example of American food culture, which were formed for a tangled variety of reasons ranging from 'the great depression' to 'post-war excess and competition between women in a compulsory homemaker role.'

Did/does your family go to church? Does your church have rummage sales? Are there church carnivals? Are there ice cream socials? Does your fire department do pancake breakfasts to fundraise? Do kids at the local schools sell magazines or candy? Did your school have homecoming dances or a prom? Did your school have SPORTS? Did you go to college? Did your college have sports? Did your college sports have tailgates?

But also - who are these ancestors you're looking to for a feeling of belonging? Are they your parents? Your grandparents? Your great great grandparents? If your family was Swedish and they immigrated to the US a hundred and fifty years ago, why do you think you're missing Swedish culture from your life? What is it from Swedish culture that you think you'll connect to more than your Grandpa's annual ice fishing trip or your aunt's blue ribbon pie recipe? And if your aunt doesn't have a pie recipe and your family gets their pie from Marie Calendars, that's a part of the culture too (as are pizza hut birthdays and Chuck E Cheese and "Cheesecake Factory at a minimum" to reward your kids for good behavior).

There are actually whole American cultural rituals set up based on your different regional food franchises. I grew up in Farrell's Ice Cream Clown culture, not Caravel Whale Ice Cream Cake culture.

Weird Al is American culture. Nick at Night is American culture. PBS Masterpiece Theater is American culture. Clifford the Big Red Dog is American culture. Hurricane cakes are American culture.

Towns grinding to a halt for a few days at the beginning of deer season are a part of the culture. Getting your learner's permit. Getting a corsage for your date. Proposing on the Jumbotron. Getting pizza and beer for the friends who help you move.

This is all your culture, all around you, all the time.

And you can *change* your culture. Culture is, generally speaking, pretty malleable and adaptable (just look at the differences between Italian American food and Italian food, look at the way that diaspora populations adapt their culture to different areas, look at the way that pop culture becomes embedded in culture - we've just gone through A Christmas Carol season - that was pop culture created by Dickens that has become a huge part of anglo holiday culture). You can incorporate Swedish holidays. You can add Chinese recipes to your recipe book. You can decide that you like a few Saint's days and make titty cupcakes because of it. You can start having a friendsgiving (friendsgiving is a relatively new part of American youth culture; you can participate in it!).

Like, somehow people have gotten the idea that "culture" is something other than what they're living in. That there is A Culture that belongs to them and if they practice it properly they will feel like they belong within it. They think that culture is what people did in The Old Times. And that to really celebrate or connect to your culture you have to tap into your family's history and. Like. I don't know, do highland dance or something. Start drinking tea from a samovar every day. Learn to like lutefisk.

I don't know. I've started using my grandmother's tea set. I suppose you could call that an heirloom. It's made up of pieces of glass that you could collect by mailing in box tops or buying a certain kind of detergent. It's an heirloom. It's a cereal box prize.

Cereal box prizes and Cracker Jack's toys are also American culture, for what it's worth.

God, you know what makes me crazy? When people (not you, this is me venting) are like "mayonnaise isn't a culture!"

But. Like.

You know, right, you know that those midwestern mayonnaise salads were largely created by Scandinavian immigrant families. "Ohhh American Potato salad is so gross, all that mayo that's not a salad" like you know Germany has a wide variety of potato salads with mayo in them, right? And they have for a long time. And they brought that with them when there were a bunch of German immigrants to the colonies.

Like, mayo isn't in itself a culture but there are cultural reasons that it's such a large part of American cultural cuisine - and yes, ambrosia salad and campbell's casseroles and tuna salad are part of white American culture that is adapted from centuries of immigration.

The thing is that early generations of white immigrants to the US assimilated really completely in a way that more visible immigrants and later generations of immigrants weren't able to. There was a time in America when scandinavians were the unwanted, uncouth immigrants. There was a time when Italians were considered a racial threat to good white families. But eventually they got folded into whiteness in the US and the edges got sanded off of the things that were a little too scandinavian or a little too italian or a little too slavic or a little too german or a little too catholic and it became potato salad and spaghetti and meatballs and hotdogs and turnovers.

So, like, you're not connected to the culture of your family but if you're not connected to it it's because they weren't either. And if that's because they were forced to suppress their culture to survive then I understand wanting to learn and celebrate the culture that they weren't able to but if your (white) family is made up of a mixture of people who came from the various cultures that were allowed to totally assimilate I understand it less.

If you're Irish and Swedish and English and Slavic and German and Italian - and I tend to think that most of the people who are doing 23 and Me ARE descended from different immigrant groups that were assimilated into whiteness, because if they were from a proud family of Irish immigrants who stayed in a strong Irish enclave in the US and married other Irish immigrants, they'd know it and be fairly connected to that culture - then what ancestry are you chasing? Do you want to feel like you're a part of all of those cultures? Are you picking one of those cultures to look at? Are you looking at the culture *now* or at the time that those ancestors immigrated? How far back do you take it when you're looking at cultural traditions? If you're German do you take your traditions from before or after Luther? If you're Italian do you focus on recipes that don't include tomatoes? If you're Scandinavian are you thinking of traditions from the 800s or the 1800s?

The "lol, white americans don't have a culture" thing is actually a pretty limited and regressive viewpoint. It presupposes the idea of an accessible unified culture that is shared equally by everyone and it erases the way that cultures in the US have blended over time. It's actually not a bad thing that the US has mixed food cultures and mixed clothing cultures and mixed languages and religions. That's not to say that it's good when people living in the US are forced to assimilate to American culture or forced to chip away at their identities in order to live safely in the country. But I'm glad that Jewish food has become part of American culture in a lot of places. I'm glad that schools have choirs. I'm glad that we've got spaghetti and meatballs. The Massachusetts Bay Colony founders would have shit a brick if they heard that it was common for American schoolchildren to have ritual celebrations for not one but TWO saint's days (Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's day, celebrated by candy and pinching respectively). It's good that we didn't just stick with Puritan culture and carry that through and refuse to add or adapt or accept other parts of culture into our own.

I know "white americans have to appropriate our culture because they don't have one of their own" became a way of owning sports fans who want to defend wearing headdresses but a lot of people doubled down on the argument that cultures shouldn't share. That there shouldn't be crossover. That there is one lane for your culture to be in and you should stay in it.

And if you've landed in the camp of "there should be no cultural crossover, I don't want people taking things from my culture ever and I don't want people putting their things in my culture ever" you are arguing for cultural purity and cultural contamination and. THAT'S NOT GREAT, actually.

So I guess what I'm saying is,

TL;DR, yes culture is more than just what your ancestors did - if you are a human being alive around other human beings you are participating in a culture (and unironically yes "i live in a crumbling rust belt town where walmart ate the local businesses" is an example of a facet of modern American culture. It is a shitty one, but there are likely other things in your life that are part of a culture you've grown up in that you may simply not recognize as cultural because that's the background radiation of culture that you consider 'business as usual')

(also none of this is an endorsement of American Sports culture, American holidays, or christian religious traditions the fact that football, the fourth of july, and christmas are inescapable whether or not you wish to participate in them are examples of these things being a part of the *dominant* culture of the US; not all aspects of any culture are good, which is just one reason why it's a good thing that cultures change over time)

'White Americans don't have any culture, they're just [normal/boring/generic/empty]. 'Culture' is when you're quaint and exotic and have interesting ethnic foods and holidays." is such a grating bit of nonsense to have somehow become progressive commonsense in a lot of places.

[lrandconkdors]

Just heard about an upcoming platform fighter where all the playable characters are based on public domain characters. Infatuated less with the advertised concept and more with the execution. This is no average indie fighter... it's an indie toon fighter - a sub-genre term I just coined to describe fighters where every attack is basically just a visual gag with a hitbox attached - like Darkstalkers, or Rakugakids, or Cuphead-if-you-ignore-the-part-where-it's-not-a-fighting-game. (It's a somewhat under-repped subgenre.) Instead of simply portraying these old characters as our society generally remembers them, RoyalFree uses these strange crack-cocaine caricatures, except replace "crack cocaine" with whatever drug makes the world look cuter. They made Sweeney Todd a walking electric shaver / barbershop pole with a cape and pointy teeth. You have Dorothy from Wizard of Oz as a little dog (not Dorothy's little dog from Wizard of Oz like my brain first autocorrected it to) with a command grab where she grows an elephant's trunk to grab enemies and then stabs them by sprouting giant tusks. Grade-A nuttiness on display. I used to pray for games like this.

Additional notes:

Keep an eye out during the reveal trailers and you may notice each character is apparently played by a fictional actor. I don't have any opinion on this yet. Kind of waiting to see whether they do anything with this element.

There was this movie that reimagined Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends as monsters, and this other time somebody announced a horror parody of Mickey Mouse's first cartoon feature, while the mouse's semi-publicization was still hot in the news cycle, and as a result, every video @/RoyaltyFreeForAll uploads has at least one Jeffrey commenting, "Finally 🙄, a project that turns public domain characters into anything other than horror movie garbage," demonstrating Blood and Honey has fatally wounded the way ppl think when they hear the phrase "public domain"

The inclusion of Lilith, a mythological figure who shows up in pop culture all the time, yet I needed someone to explain who she was supposed to be, reveals how much potential the public-domain toybox holds, but I don't know if this much potential is a wholly positive thing. Royal Foy'll might be destined to the same issue as MultiVersus where no matter how many characters it adds, the candidate pool is so large that everyone will still have one or two characters they would have chosen for the game.

The current reigning queen of Missed Potential by a Character's Design is Mother Goose, who is described as the ancestor of every bird ever, and employs a flock of avian-centric attacks (fave is the feather-formed crossbow). But it's a bummer that nothing in her arsenal acknowledges her being pretty much the mascot of nursery rhymes. The team forwent the endless possibilities at hand wing, and instead created an OC whose entire thing is just Being A Bird.

With the newest character revealed, Roifuri's devs have- okay that's JUST Orcane. Humanity just invented Orcane again! maybe with a bit of Ranno mixed in as well? First Marvel Rivals rips off Orcane, and now this?! Im eating it up!! more games rip off Orcane please!! anyways, my initial reaction was 'why not Moby Dick?' I questioned how they could pass up the ferocious White Whale with a Tale in favor of Shady Photograph of a Bathing Lizard.. but on second thought, that might have given Aether Studios actual grounds to sue..

To be clear, there is a lore reason as to why Dorothy is a dog, hidden in the description of her moveset guide. To make another MultiVersus comparison, it reminds me of the blurb they give Shaggy Rogers to explain why he's a Saiyan in this one. To be less clear, the official website gives a seemingly contradicting origin story for the pupper.. I also want to re-spotlight the elephant move, whose origin of existence is stated to be "it's frickin cool" and like? they're not wrong??

wait hold on, i have a thought about that "actor" thing now. Why do the actors' names, on average, sound more fictitious then those of the characters they play? "'Sweetpea' as lilith" "'Knighty Knight' as lancelot" are you listening to yourself right now??? Imagine if like uhhhh. Antonio Banderas' legal name were Dr. Dashing or sumtg and he voiced a dapper swordskitten named umm. "Ramón." like "we did the story of Ramón for our school play" "oh you have to see Ramón's Last Wish it's better than you'd think" actually now that I mention it Puss in Boots would go hard in this game. you literally couldn't mess up the character if you tried

[kaoarika]

So, there was a post about "white whales" of unexisting/unrealized media that basically became a reblog prompt post, but OP turned off the reblogs some time recently? I don't know, but I had a draft based on it, but I dunno how Tumblr may bypass that since the draft has been there since August 2022, so... rather than posting it, I will post my thoughts about the twt/tumblr prompt here instead (OP link was this one, with some interesting responses) and I will also turn my reblogs off just in case bc I don't want this post to surface in the tags or search and all that :P

Pop culture "white whales" of mine, or at least, some of them:

Continuation of Kia Asamiya's Corrector Yui. Imagine mystifying this version of the manga for over 2 decades and just now, a few months ago, you find that it was "incomplete" because I don't remember AT ALL anyone mentioning it in the few English fansites that existed back in the day. not even vaguely? :/c I mean, YEAH. I can SEE it only had 2 volumes, but come on.

Edgar Wright's version of the Ant-man movie. That's all.

Obviously the Dance with Devils AYAIBD 2016 event recorded footage that is PRETTY obvious Avex Media did record, but for one reason or another it was never released on DVD and/or BD. And, like, even if Avex DID recognize the existence of the event while including part of the script in the 2020 BD box-set of the series and fan recounts still exist online, the full footage never saw the light of the day. No one knows why, only speculations about it. I find it a little weird, but I have a slight idea on why they did this, as I wrote in another post, years ago.

These are much more local cases, I think? And perhaps not "famous", per se. Some stuff related to original manga-like published series in my country, Mexico. There was a time, before the internet and social media and sites like DA existed, where a couple of local publishers had their hands on publishing manga-inspired comics as anthology series-like in comic book format and in magazine form. The projects seemed to have died because they didn't sell as they wanted, and wanted to focus in better stuff, I guess. And perhaps stuff that I'm probably just scratching the surface of, because it's probably also stuff about authors' disagreements with their editors/publisher and/or more serious stuff that I may not know of behind the scenes. Many of these series were "officially" cut short. The thing is, what I'm partly? sure of is that, at least some of these creators got their works' rights back and perhaps, there's a possibility they DID publish them in some way or form thanks to more indie endeavors and/or the internet and also sold them through the anime/comics conventions circuit (especially in the Valley of Mexico, ie CDMX and its metropolitan area), a circuit I didn't frequent as I live in the north of the country :// (and I only went to the ones in my city during the summer from 2007 through 2016). But, I do remember a more scummy example :/. In a similar fashion as the infamous Tokyopop manga contests in the US, there was this animanga magazine that organized their own manga contest in the mid 2000s. The contest had a winner and I remember they even announced the winner was going to have their own series published on the same publisher and the like... Thing is, the date came and went and I don't remember the series was ever published (and, look, I know some of the magazines I used to buy back in the day had a weird distribution in the rest of the country, but I still had access to newspapers' stands as I lived in the afforementioned Valley of Mexico area until mid 2010). EVEN SO, the artist did some stuff for the magazine, yes. But, eventually the magazine changed their focus to more cartoon/Di*sney stuff and had a more tweeny/teen demography, and this isn't the only scummy thing they did that I remember, btw. I don't even know what the winner even did afterwards, but I hope they, at LEAST, has an artistic hobby or is doing some great stuff in any of the webcomic/webtoon platforms or hosting it in DA or on their own. I don't know. (To add salt to the injury I cannot look properly to what happened to the series per se because there's barely any mention online about the magazine that organized the contest, either. Be it because, again, we -lots of times- fail to archive stuff like this and, even if there was a mention about this online, many message boards from that time and era ceased to exist in the past 10 years and so)

These are all at the tip of my tongue at the moment.

[adam-scott]

What’s your pop culture white whale? Like some niche pop culture event person or anything that you are fascinated by?

i don't have something extremely specific but i really think that i know way too much about hollywood stars in general lmao

[macbethheadband]

My pop culture white whale is the midnight commentary with dt rtd and alice troughton. Anybody got a box set they wanna give me.