#reading up on the history of moe this is so epic | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lucienballard · 3 years

Text

The Velvet Underground’s 30 greatest songs – ranked!

30. Ride Into the Sun (1969)The Velvets recorded two versions of Ride Into the Sun: a fabulous 1969 instrumental laden with fuzz guitar and a hushed 1970 vocal take backed by organ. Somewhere between the two lies one of their great lost songs; Lou Reed’s disappointingly flat 1972 solo version doesn’t do it justice at all.

29. Run Run Run (1967)For all the shock engendered by the lyrics of Heroin and I’m Waiting for My Man, the most malevolent-sounding track on the debut album might be Run Run Run, a powerful R&B groove lent a gripping darkness by Reed’s noisy guitar playing and the screw-you-I-take-drugs sneer of his vocals.

28. Beginning to See the Light (1969)The title suggests awakening, the melody is bright, but the lyrics are dark and bitter. They may have been directed at John Cale, who played on an initial version of the song, which was subsequently re-recorded after Reed sacked him, against the wishes of his bandmates. A ferocious 1969 live version amps up the tension.

27. Foggy Notion (1969)Reed was a lifelong doo-wop fan. His passion usually found its expression when the Velvet Underground recorded backing vocals for their ballads – as on Candy Says – but the tough, rocking Foggy Notion went a stage further, gleefully stealing a chunk of the Solitaires’ 1955 single Later for You Baby.

26. The Gift (1968)In which the band set a two-chord grind that may, or may not, have been based on their instrumental Booker T in one channel and a blackly comic Reed short story read by Cale in the other. “If you’re a mad fiend like we are, you’ll listen to them both together,” offered the producer, Tom Wilson.

25. Guess I’m Falling in Love (1967)Recorded at the White Light/White Heat sessions, but never completed, the April 1967 live recording of Guess I’m Falling in Love – taped at the Gymnasium in New York – will more than suffice. It boasts three chords, a distinct rhythm and blues influence, Reed in streetwise, so-what punk mode and explosive guitar solos somehow potentiated by the rough sound quality.

24. Temptation Inside Your Heart (1968)“It was not Mein Kampf – my struggle,” the guitarist Sterling Morrison once reflected of the Velvet Underground’s career. “It was fun.” A delightful late Cale-era outtake that inadvertently captured Morrison, Cale and Reed’s giggly backchat as they recorded the backing vocals, Temptation Inside Your Heart bears that assessment out.

23. New Age (1970)New Age comes in two varieties. Take your pick from the world-weary, small-hours rumination found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, or the more epic studio version that the Velvets biographer Victor Bockris suggested was “an attempt to present some encouraging statements to a confused audience as the 70s began”. Both are superb.

22. After Hours (1969)The Velvets’ eponymous 1969 album ends, improbably, with the drummer, Moe Tucker, singing a song that could have dated from the pre-rock era. The twist is that her childlike voice and the cute melody conceals an almost unbearably sad song, ostensibly a celebration of small-hours boozing, but filled with longing and regret.

21. I Can’t Stand It (1969)Amid the Velvets’ songs about drugs and drag queens lurked the plaintive sound of Reed pining for his college sweetheart, Shelley Albin, the subject of Pale Blue Eyes, I Found a Reason and I Can’t Stand It. The latter’s cocky strut is disrupted by a desperate lyrical plea: “If Shelley would just come back, it’d be all right.”

20. The Black Angel’s Death Song (1967)There is something folky and vaguely Dylan-esque at the heart of The Black Angel’s Death Song, but by the time Cale had finished with it – alternately strafing it with screeching, insistent viola and hissing into the microphone in lieu of a chorus – it sounded, and still sounds, unique.

19. I Found a Reason (1970)It is one of the ironies of the Velvet Underground that the most forward-thinking, groundbreaking band of their era could occasionally sound like old-fashioned rock’n’roll revivalists. Buried on side two of Loaded was one of the loveliest of Lou Reed’s loving homages to doo-wop, complete with spoken-word section.

18. Some Kinda Love (1969)Musically straightforward, sensual in tone, Some Kinda Love is a complex business, part seduction soundtrack, part refusal to be hemmed in by standard categories of sexuality – “no kinds of love are better than others … the possibilities are endless / and for me to miss one / would seem to be groundless”. Killer line: “Between thought and expression lies a lifetime.”

17. European Son (1967)European Son isn’t a song so much as an eruption. It sounds like a band overturning the established order of rock’n’roll, almost literally: after two brief verses, it bursts into thrilling frantic chaos with a verbatim crash, like the contents of an upended table hitting the floor.

16. Rock & Roll (1970)It is hard to see Loaded’s driving, joyous hymn to music’s redemptive power – “her life was saved by rock and roll” – as anything other than disguised autobiography on the part of Reed. The suggestion that music will endure “despite all the amputations”, meanwhile, seems to look forward to his departure from the Velvet Underground.

15. Candy Says (1969)No one else in 1969 was writing songs remotely like Candy Says, a stunning, tender pen portrait of the transgender Warhol superstar Candy Darling set to a gentle doo-wop inspired backing. Its melancholy seems to presage the note Darling wrote on her deathbed in 1974: “I had no desire for life left … I am just so bored by everything.”

14. Sunday Morning (1967)Sunday Morning was written at the behest of Wilson. He wanted a single that might conceivably get on the radio; he got a haunting, melancholy sigh of a song, its battered wistfulness and undercurrent of paranoia – “watch out, the world’s behind you” – the perfect encapsulation of morning-after regret.

13. What Goes On (1969)Morrison maintained that the studio incarnation of What Goes On wasn’t a patch on the live versions the band performed with Cale on organ. Maybe, but the studio incarnation featuring Cale’s replacement, Doug Yule, is great. It prickles with nervous energy, Reed’s guitar playing is amazing, its churning coda takes up half the song and it still feels too short.

12. Femme Fatale (1967)Apparently provoked by the damaged, doomed Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick – with whom Cale had a brief affair – Femme Fatale is as beautiful and fragile as its inspiration. The story of a wary, ruined former suitor warning others off the titular anti-heroine is lent a chilly edge by Nico’s delivery.

11. I Heard Her Call My Name (1968)In the Velvets’ early days, Reed purported to be “the fastest guitarist alive”. A berserk claim, but his Ornette Coleman-inspired solos on I Heard Her Call My Name are some of the most extraordinary and viscerally exciting in rock history, frequently atonal, spiked with ear-splitting feedback and pregnant pauses.

10. Ocean (1969)The Velvet Underground recorded Ocean several times – one version is supposed to feature the return of Cale on organ – but never released it in their lifetime, which seems extraordinary. It is among the greatest of their later songs, its atmosphere beautiful, the epic ebb and flow of its sound completely immersive.

9. I’m Waiting for the Man (1967)An unvarnished lyrical depiction of scoring drugs tied to music on which Reed’s rock’n’roll smarts and Cale’s background in minimalist classical music – the pounding, one-chord piano part – meld in a kind of relentless perfection. Amusingly, there is now a pharmacy at the song’s fabled location of Lexington 125.

8. I’ll Be Your Mirror (1967)A song about Reed’s affair with Nico that could just as easily be about Andy Warhol’s approach to art, I’ll Be Your Mirror is one of those Velvet Underground tracks that makes their initial commercial failure seem baffling. How could a pop song as wonderful as this fail to attract attention? Nico and Morrison on stage at the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry annual dinner in 1966.

7. White Light/White Heat (1968)A delirious paean to amphetamine, its subject reflected in the lyrics – “I surely do love to watch that stuff tip itself in” – and the turbulent, distorted rush of its sound. The band appear to be barely in control as it careers along; the chaotic finale, where Cale finally loses his grip on the bass line, is just fantastic.

6. Heroin (1967)Heroin was the deal-breaker at early Velvets gigs, provoking a “howl of bewilderment and outrage”. The shock of its subject matter has dulled with time, but its surges from folky lament to sonic riot still sound breathtaking. Oddly sweet moment: Reed’s chuckle as Tucker loses her place amid the maelstrom and suddenly stops playing.

5. Pale Blue Eyes (1969)“High energy does not necessarily mean fast,” Reed once argued. “High energy has to do with heart.” Hushed, limpidly beautiful and almost unbearably sad, Pale Blue Eyes’ depiction of a strained, adulterous relationship proves his point. In its own vulnerable way, it is as powerful as anything the Velvet Underground recorded.

4. Sweet Jane (1970)Sweet Jane started life as a ballad – see the versions recorded live at the Matrix in San Francisco in 1969 – but, sped and toughened up, it became as succinct and perfect a rock’n’roll song as has ever been written, based around one of the greatest riffs of all time.

3. Venus in Furs (1967)For a band who inspired so much other music, the Velvet Underground’s catalogue is remarkably rich with songs that still sound like nothing else; they were as inimitable as they were influential. Venus in Furs is a case in point: umpteen artists were galvanised by its dark, austere atmosphere; none succeeded in replicating it.

2. Sister Ray (1968)A monumental journey into hitherto-uncharted musical territory, where a primitive garage-rock riff meets Hubert Selby-inspired lyrics and improvisation that sounds like a psychological drama playing out between Reed and Cale, all at skull-splitting volume. Fifty-three years later, it is without peer for white-knuckle intensity.

1. All Tomorrow’s Parties (1967)Ninety per cent of the Velvet Underground’s oeuvre consists of no-further-questions classics. The astonishingly high standard of almost everything they did makes picking their “best” song a matter of personal preference, rather than qualitative judgment. So let’s go for Warhol’s favourite, on which the sour and sweet aspects of their debut album entwine faultlessly. The melody is exquisite; the music monolithic and unrelenting, powered by Cale’s hammering piano and Tucker’s stately drums; Nico’s performance perfectly inhabits the lyrics, which turn a depiction of a woman choosing what dress to wear into a meditation on emptiness and regret. It is original and utterly masterly: the Velvet Underground in a nutshell.

source

#the velvet underground

59 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Once Upon a Time in America Is Every Bit as Great a Gangster Movie as The Godfather

https://ift.tt/38Ku8cF

This article contains Once Upon a Time in America spoilers.

The Godfather is a great movie, possibly the best ever made. Its sequel, The Godfather, Part II, often follows it in the pantheon of classic cinema, some critics even believe it is the better film. Robert Evans, head of production at Paramount in the early 1970s, wanted The Godfather to be directed by an Italian American. Francis Ford Coppola was very much a last resort. The studio’s first choice was Sergio Leone, but he was getting ready to make his own gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America. Though less known, it is equally magnificent.

Robert De Niro, as David “Noodles” Aaronson, and James Woods, as Maximillian “Max” Bercovicz, make up a dream gangster film pairing in Once Upon a Time in America, on par with late 1930s audiences seeing Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney team for The Roaring Twenties or Angels with Dirty Faces. Noodles and Max are partners and competitors, one is ambitious, the other gets a yen for the beach. One went to jail, the other wants to rob the Federal Reserve Bank.

Throw Joe Pesci into the mix, in a small part as crime boss Frankie Monaldi, and Burt Young as his brother Joe Monaldi, and life gets “funnier than shit,” and funnier than their more famous crime films, Goodfellas and Chinatown, respectively. Future mob entertainment mainstays are all over Once Upon a Time in America too, and they are in distinguished company. This is future Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly’s first movie. She plays young Deborah, the young girl who becomes the woman between Noodles and Max, and she even has something of a catch-phrase, “Go on Noodles your mother is calling.” Elizabeth McGovern delivers the line as adult Deborah.

When Once Upon a Time in America first ran in theaters, there were reports that people in the audience laughed when Deborah is reintroduced after a 35-year gap in the action. She hadn’t aged at all. But Deborah is representational to Leone, beyond the character.

“Age can wither me, Noodles,” she says. But neither the character nor the director will allow the audience to see it beyond the cold cream. Deborah is the character Leone is answering to. She also embodies the fluid chronology of the storytelling. She is its only constant.

The rest of the film can feel like a free fall though. Whereas The Godfather moved in a linear fashion, Once Upon a Time in America has time for flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, and detours that careen between the violent and the quiet. It’s a visceral experience about landing where we, and this genre, began.

Growing up Gangster

Both The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America span decades; it’s the history of immigrant crime in 20th century America. But they differ on chronological placement. Once Upon a Time is set in three time-frames. The earliest is 1918 in the Jewish ghettos of New York City’s Lower East Side.

Young Noodles (Scott Tiler), Patrick “Patsy” Goldberg (Brian Bloom), Philip “Cockeye” Stein (Adrian Curran) and Dominic (Noah Moazezi), are a bush league street gang doing petty crimes for a minor neighborhood mug, Bugsy (James Russo). New on the block, Max (Rusty Jacobs) interrupts the gang as they’re about to roll a drunk, and Max makes off with the guy’s watch for himself. He soon joins the gang, and they progress to bigger crimes.

The bulk of the film takes place, however, from when De Niro’s Noodles gets out of prison in 1930, following Bugsy’s murder, and lasts until the end of Prohibition in 1933. Max, now played by Woods, has become a successful bootlegger with a mortuary business on the side. With William Forsythe playing the grown-up Cockeye and James Hayden as Patsy, the mobsters go from bootlegging through contract killing, and ultimately to backing the biggest trucking union in the country as enforcers. They enjoy most of their downtime in their childhood friend Fat Moe’s (Larry Rapp) speakeasy. Noodles is in love with Fat Moe’s sister, Deborah, who is on her way to becoming a Hollywood star. The gang’s rise ends with the liquor delivery massacre.

The final part of the film comes in 1968. After 35 years in hiding, Noodles is uncovered and paid to do a private contract for the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Christopher Bailey… Max by a different name who 35 years on has been able to feign respectability and make Deborah his mistress. An entire life has become a façade.

Recreating a Seedier Side of New York’s Immigrant Past

While The Godfather is an adaptation of Mario Puzo’s fictional bestseller, Once Upon a Time in America is based on the autobiographical crime novel, The Hoods. It was written by Herschel “Noodles” Goldberg, under the pen name of Harry Grey while he was serving time in Sing-Sing Prison.

Coppola’s vision in The Godfather is aesthetically comparable to Leone’s projection. From the opium pipes at the Chinese puppet theater to the take-out Lo Mein during execution planning, the multicultural world of old New York crowds the frames and the players in both films. Most of Once Upon a Time in America was shot at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. The 1918 Jewish neighborhood in Manhattan was a street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which was made to look exactly as it had 60 years earlier.

Leone skillfully, yet playfully, captures the poverty of immigrant life in New York. The first crime we see the four-member gang commit could have been done by the Dead End kids. They torch a newspaper stand because the owner doesn’t kick up protection money to the local mug. And like the Dead End kids, they needle their mark, and joke with each other. At the end of the crime, Cockey is playing the pan pipe, and the very young Dominic is dancing. They are proud of their work and enjoy it. It’s fun to break things for money. And even better when they get a choice between taking payment in cash or rolling it over into the sure bet of rolling a drunk.

Violence without the Cannoli

Gangster films, like Howard Hawks’ Scarface and William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy, were always at the forefront of the backlash to the Motion Picture Production Code. Which might be why gangster pictures were one of the first genres to benefit from the censors’ fall. A direct line can be drawn from the machine gun death which ends Bonnie and Clyde (1967) to the toll-booth execution of Sonny Corleone (James Caan) in The Godfather. Another from when Moe Greene (Alex Rocco) gets one through the glasses and Joe Monaldi gets it in the eye in Once Upon a Time in America.

The Godfather has some brutal scenes. We get a litany of dead Barzinis and Tattaglias, horse heads and spilled oranges. Once Upon a Time in America ups the ante though. The shootings and stabbings are neat jobs compared with the beatings, which allow far more artistic renderings of gore, and pass extreme scrutiny. The one time the effects team balks at a payoff is when it’s not as gruesome as the setup.

“Inflammatory words from a union boss,” corporate thug Chicken Joe asks as he is about to light Jimmy “Clean Hands” Conway O’Donnell on fire. The mobster has such a nice smile, and the union delegate, played by Treat Williams, looks so pathetic while dripping gasoline that it feels like it might even be a mercy killing. It is a wonderful set piece, perfectly executed and timed. When Max and Noodles, and the gang defuse the situation, rather than ignite it, it is a lesson in the dangerous balance of suspense.

Like many specific scenes in Once Upon a Time in America, Conway’s incendiary introduction would’ve worked in any era. This is the turning point for the gang. The end of Prohibition is coming and all those trucks they’re using to haul liquor can be repurposed for a more lucrative future.

“You Dancing?”

Music is paramount in both Leone’s and Coppola’s films. The Godfather is much like an opera, the third installment even closes the curtain at one. Once Upon a Time in America is a frontier film. The score was composed by Ennio Morricone, who wrote the music behind Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The film opens and closes with Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America.” Though the scene occurs during the 1968 timeframe, the song comes out of the radio of a car seemingly from another point in time.

Morricone’s accompaniment to Once Upon a Time in America is as representational as Nino Rota’s soundtrack in The Godfather. Characters, settings, situations, and relationships all have themes, which become as recognizable as the Prohibition-era songs which flavor the period piece’s ambience. Fat Moe conducts the speakeasy orchestra through José María Lacalle García’s “Amapola” while grinning dreamily to Deborah who is chatting with Noodles. He’s a romantic.

Movies

Taxi Driver: A Look at NYC’s Inglorious Past

By Tony Sokol

Movies

The King of Comedy: What’s the Real Punchline of the Martin Scorsese Classic?

By Tony Sokol

The music becomes part of the action in Once Upon a Time in America. Individual couples cut their own rugs, doing the Charleston between tables as waiters and cigarette girls glide by. Cockeye, who has been playing the pan pipe since the beginning of the film, wants to sit in with the band.

Forsythe almost steals Once Upon a Time in America. He cries what look like real tears at the mock funeral for Prohibition and drinks formula from a baby bottle during the maternity ward scene. The blackmail scheme, which involves swapping infants, plays like an outtake from a Three Stooges movie, something Coppola would never dare for The Godfather. The ruse is choreographed to the tune of Gioachino Rossini’s “The Thieving Magpie,” which elicits the youthful thuggery celebrated in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.

Devils with Clean Faces

One ironic difference between the two films is whimsy. The Godfather, which glorifies crime as corporate misadventure, is a serious movie with no time for funny business. Once Upon a Time in America, which is an indictment of criminal life, has moments of innocence as syrupy as in any family film (of the non-crime variety) and can be completely kosher. It’s sweeter than the cannoli Clemenza (Richard Castellano) took from the car, or the cake Nazorine (Vito Scotti) made for the wedding of Don Vito’s daughter.

The scene where young Patsy brings a Charlotte Russe to Peggy in exchange for sex is a masterwork of emotive storytelling. He chooses a treat over sex. On one level, yes, this is a socioeconomic reality. That pastry was expensive and something he could never afford to get for himself. But as Patsy sneaks each tiny bit of the cream from the packaging, he is also just a child, a kid who wants some cake. He learns he can’t have it and eat it. It is so plainly laid out, and so beautifully rendered.

The Corleone family never gets those moments, not even in the flashbacks to Sicily or as children on the stoop listening to street singers play guitars. We know little of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) or Sonny as youngsters, much less teenagers, and are robbed of their happier moments of bonding. We know they are close, they are family. But Michael has his own brother killed while Noodles balks at the very idea. Twice, as it turns out.

Movies

The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone Proves a Little Less is Infinitely More

By Tony Sokol

Movies

Mob Antipasta: Best Gangster Movie Food Scenes

By Tony Sokol

“Today they ask us to get rid of Joe. Tomorrow they ask me to get rid of you. Is that okay with you? Cos it’s not okay with me,” Noodles tells Max after the gang delivers on a particularly costly contract, double-crossing their partners in a major diamond heist. They are not blood family, but from the moment Max calls Noodles his “uncle” to fool a beat cop, they are all related.

Noodles then does what young men in coming-of-age movies have done since Cooley High: Something really stupid. An indulgence the Corleones could never enjoy. He speeds the car into the bay. The guys can’t believe it. It adds to his legend. The scene could have been in Diner, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or even Thelma & Louise. It is hard to dislike the gangsters in these moments. We know them too well, even as they do such horrible things.

How Women are Really Treated by an Underworld

The Godfather is told from the vantage point of one of the heads of the five established crime families; organized crime is as insular as the Corleone mall on Long Beach. That motion picture reinvigorated the “gangster film,” long considered a ghetto genre, but its perspective is insulated. By contrast, no matter how far they climb, Leone’s characters never really get off the block. They are street savages, even in tuxedos. Once Upon a Time in America whacked the gangster film, and tossed its living corpse into the compactor of a passing garbage truck.

The Godfather doesn’t judge its gangsters. The Corleones are family men who keep to a code of ethics and omerta. They dip their beaks in “harmless” vices like gambling, liquor, and prostitution. While there are scenes of extreme domestic violence, and a general dismissal of women, the film stops short of challenging the image of honorable men who do dishonorable things. Leone offers no such restraint. His history lesson is unabridged.

Long before Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman stripped gangster lore to a tale of toxic masculinity, Once Upon a Time in America robbed it of all glamor. There is a very nonchalant attitude toward violence and other demeaning acts against women in Leone’s film, from the very opening scene where a thug fondles a woman’s breast with his gun in order to humiliate her civilian date.

This is deliberate. The director, best known for Spaghetti Westerns, wants to obliterate any goodwill the gangsters have accumulated through their magnetic antiheroism. One scene between Max and his girlfriend Carol (Tuesday Weld) is so hard to sit through, even the other members of the gang squirm in their chairs.

Noodles sexually assaults two women over the course of the film. While there is some motivational ambiguity in the scene during the jewel heist attack, the rape of Deborah is devastatingly direct. It kills any vestige of romance the gangster archetype has in film. The camera does not look away, and the scene lingers with terrifying ferocity and traumatic intimacy. There is a visible victim, and Noodles’ wealth and pretensions of honor are worthless.

The Ultimate Gangster Epic

Once Upon a Time in America brings one other element to the genre which The Godfather avoids, a lingering mystery. Coppola delivers short riddles, like the fate of Luca Brasi, which are revealed as the story warrants. But the 35-year gap between the slaughter of Noodles’ crew and the introduction of Secretary Bailey is almost unfathomable. How did Max go from long-dead to a man with legitimate power?

What happens to Noodles in those years is fairly easy to guess, without any specifics. He got by. The gang’s shared secret bankroll was empty when he tried to retrieve it as the last surviving member. He put his gun away and eked out a quiet life. But even as the details spill out on the true fate of Max, it is unexpectedly surprising, as much for the audience as Noodles.

“I took away your whole life from you,” Max/Bailey says. “I’ve been living in your place. I took everything. I took your money. I took your girl. All I left for you was 35 years of grief over having killed me. Now why don’t you shoot?” This final betrayal, and Noodles’ inert revenge, take Once Upon a Time In America into almost unexplored cinematic depths.

Max has gone as low as he could go. The joke is on Noodles, everyone’s in on it, including “Clean Hands,” who is tied in to “the Bailey scandal.” The cops are in on it, and so is the mob. Max admits even the liquor dropoff was a syndicate set-up. He’d planned this all along. Just like Michael Corleone had a long term strategy to make his family legitimate.

This is an ambitious story. Beyond genre, this bends American celluloid into European cinema. By sheer virtue of being outside of Hollywood, Leone transcends traditional boundaries. He has a far more limitless pallet to draw from. He can aim a camera at De Niro’s spoon in a coffee cup for three minutes and never lose the audience’s rapt attention. Leone can pull the rug out from everything with a last minute reveal. Coppola bent American filmmaking for The Godfather, but stayed within proscribed parameters. He never gets as sweet as a Charlotte Russe nor as repulsive as the back seat of a limo.

Once Upon a Time in America ripped the genre’s insides out and displayed them with unflinching veracity and theatrical beauty. It is a perfect film, gorgeously shot, masterfully timed, and slightly ajar.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Once Upon a Time in America Is Every Bit as Great a Gangster Movie as The Godfather appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3yRxHIy

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

3 notes · View notes

uniformbravo · 3 years

Text

having a full on existential crisis over an episode of anime i watched tonight

it all started with big time rush

in 2009 a sitcom called big time rush aired for the first time on nickelodeon; it was about a group of four teenaged boys from minnesota who move to hollywood under a famous producer to become his next big boy band sensation. a simple premise, launched into unprecedented success, resulting in four seasons of musical shenanigans, three full music albums, and three big concert tours, including international shows. the band, both fictional and real life, featured four attractive young men by the names of kendall, james, carlos, and logan. they quickly gained a fan base of mostly teenage girls, which resulted in online spaces created for the purpose of sharing their passion, and as is common in such online communities, this certainly involved fanfiction- lots of it.

enter me, a teen in high school who loved to write fanfiction. my big time journey began the day my younger sister decided to put on the show big time rush in the living room, where i sat at the family computer typing away. the noise caught my attention, and i got sucked into the episode. there was a boy wearing a dress on the screen. i became interested.

i watched more of the show. i typed its name into the search bar on the website fanfiction dot net. i had a friend at school who shared my interest in fanfiction, particularly of the slash variety. i introduced her to this new show i had been watching. she shared a fanfic she had enjoyed immensely with me. we dragged each other into the world of big time rush fanfiction reading and writing.

it took over my life; i lived and breathed big time rush. i began posting my own stories to fanfiction dot net. i received positive feedback; i met people. i made friends- two people in particular who became very close friends. we communicated through ffn’s private messaging system, then through email. we talked every day, we wrote stories for and with each other, we exchanged phone numbers. it was one of these friends who introduced me to the website called tumblr, where fellow fans of our beloved big time rush gathered and talked about it- a community.

it was a slow start- this website was new and unfamiliar to me- but eventually i got the hang of things and settled into my niche. i had fun, gained followers, met even more people. tumblr was a place not only for sharing one singular interest, but for accumulating all of your various interests and celebrating them in one place. it was through this aspect that i first learned of the up and coming band known as one direction.

they had released their first smash hit single and everyone was talking about it. i was wary, far too loyal to my beloved big time rush- but eventually i started to feel left out and in an effort to feel included, i decided to take the plunge and see what this “1d” was all about. it was intimidating, though- there was so much information, and no apparent beginner’s guide to tell me where to start. this drove me to making a post calling for a “one direction buddy” to take this role, to introduce me to all the most important aspects of this band. and my call was answered.

enter my wonderful friend cam, a follower of mine at the time. they were into both big time rush and one direction and were eager to provide me with all the information needed to get into 1d. while ultimately this venture didn’t amount to anything, as i lost interest in becoming a fan, my friendship with cam persisted and we grew very close. even as time went on and big time rush faded into the background to be replaced with newer, fresher interests, and our paths as fellow fandom members split, we kept in contact and remained friends. years and years of fandoms, years and years of friendship.

in the midst of the tenth year, cam developed a new interest, in a sport called ice hockey. as is tradition, they shared their passion with me, showing me their favorite team, highlighting their favorite members. we watched a game together. personally, i’ve never been one for sports, but i am quite into anime, which consists of many genres, including the “sports” genre. one in particular that i’ve enjoyed immensely in the past is the volleyball anime, haikyuu!!. this anime devotes a lot of time to explaining and depicting the sport in a way that makes it easy for any viewer to understand the rules and inner workings of volleyball. it’s exciting. it’s the first time i’ve ever even adjacently been invested in a sport. one could even call it a gateway into the world of sports.

all this to say, when i watched that game of ice hockey with cam, the same parts of my brain that loved haikyuu!! lit up and in a classic display of my specific brand of interest, i found myself yearning for the epic highs and lows of ice hockey, but in an animated format. an animated format originating in japan. a japanese animation. an anime. my curiosity burned a hole in my brain that resulted in a combination of the google search bar and the words, “hockey anime”.

to my disappointment, i found nothing- at least, not to the degree i was hoping. there is an upcoming anime, slated to air in the fall 2021 anime season, about a group of girls who form an ice hockey team together- as it is an original project rather than an adaptation, it remains to be seen whether the anime will fall into the category of “sports anime,” or if indeed it will lean much more closely to the “moe” genre. the latter is not what i had in mind during that particular search.

adding the anime called “pride of orange” to my “plan to watch” list on myanimelist dot com, i moved onto the next result: an article about an early 2010’s anime i had never heard of before. while not about the sport i was looking for, it featured a character whose signature weapon was a field hockey stick. it wasn’t even the right sport. it was a weak, insignificant link, but all was not lost.

i happen to have an affinity for watching anime i happen upon completely by random and know little to nothing about; i found the movie “anthem of the heart” purely coincidentally, when i searched the name “jun” as part of some research for one of my original characters and discovered that it was the main character of said movie, which i then watched and ended up enjoying quite a lot. another time, when i was at best buy one day i happened upon a dvd on their dedicated anime shelf for a movie called “hana and alice”, which i had never heard of before. i liked the box art, so i took a picture of it to remember the title and watched it on my own later that week; it became one of my favorite movies.

with these and other similar experiences in mind, i saved the anime in my “plan to watch” list, and, later that same week, began my watch of “sket dance.”

it’s a school comedy anime, one of my favorite genres, so it’s no surprise that after overcoming the initial skepticism i carry into every new show i watch it quickly became my new fixation. not an obsession, but something i was pleasantly surprised to find consistently enjoyable. the characters are fun, the humor is tight and fresh, and the stories are unexpectedly touching at the right moments. everything i like to see.

which brings us to tonight. the culmination of this ten plus year string of events and occurrences. getting into big time rush. joining tumblr. meeting cam. watching anime. searching for hockey anime.

i put down my apple(TM) pencil. i set my ipad aside. i downsized the ebook window i’d been referencing. i stretched; i was hungry and tired. i’d been rereading passages of various animorphs books all day. i needed a break. i needed to sit back with some food and an episode of my latest comfort watch, sket dance. it’d be nice to set the dramatic, tragic world of animorphs aside for something lighthearted and fun in its place.

well.

i sat down with my bowl of strawberries and played the episode. it finished. i watched another. this one broke the formula a bit, played with the art style. i was into it. the preview for the next episode was mysteriously blank, and short, stating only the title. it was intriguing. i’m down for the show to get a bit more serious for an episode, i thought. i’m down for some potential backstory for one of the main three. i’m ready.

i was not ready.

bruh.

b r u h .

next two episodes proceeded to take me out back and beat me to within an inch of my life, slowly at first and then all at once. barely made it out alive. questioning everything. how can a show, so silly and goofy, do that, to me. how could i let my guard down like that. how could i be so tricked, and deceived, and blindsided like this. i don’t know who to trust. i don’t know if i can trust again. whiplash so damaging, permanent. i thought i wanted answers. i thought i wanted to know backstory. i didn’t want this. i never wanted this. emptiness

how did it come to this, these twelve years of my life. had i known back then, would i have posted that fanfiction? would i have joined tumblr? would i have sook out a “one direction buddy”? a hollow husk of a person, i am left with only my thoughts to ponder this small history of mine. the things i could have done differently. the things others could have done differently. all these butterfly effect moments, adding up to what? culminating in what? it’s 2:26 am and i’m writing an essay on how shook i am over that episode instead of going to sleep. but i can’t just say nothing, you know? i need to put something out there, reach deep enough within myself to find the thing that’s still there, broken and huddled and tiny as it is. i need to feel some semblance of the self again. the me from before i watched this episode. the innocent version of myself, blissful in ignorance. it’s too late now.

that episode…………..was fucked up. that was seriously fucked up. im not okay bro they really just came in left field and slapped that in my face expecting me to get up and walk away just fine afterwards like No that isn’t how this Works y’all need to bundle some therapy sessions with ur episodes pullin that shit come ON

exhaustion is taking over the shock, i am simply tired now. i will fall asleep and when i wake up sket dance will be a happy fun show again with NO fucked up backstories ever Or Else. i’m fucking serious right now i’m gonna count to 3 and that shit better be retconned when i turn around,

screams

thank you

#tldr sket dance has some really fucked up shit in it & i wasn’t expecting it & im having a crisis #it was supposed to be funnie clown show not ouchie oof show #how did it end up like this #fuck. christ. what the fuck #retag later #ani blogging #me watchin this show: yea this is fun like idk if i see myself getting /invested/ invested but i’m enjoying myself nonetheless!#gets to That Episode: …../oh./ oh i /see./ we’re doing That Shit huh #*sound of me getting /invested/ invested*#just a neat lil show about funy jokes :)#wheeeeeeee

1 note · View note

princess-of-sims · 4 years

Text

10 Random Questions

Hey there! Still can’t be bothered to deal with the malfunctioning queueing system, but here’s some non-sims stuff that @mrslandgraab tagged me in. Spoiler: I’m not going to tag anyone, mostly because I’m not sure who’s done it already.

1. If you could travel one place in the world where would you travel?

I’ve not been able to get to London in far too long! I keep thinking I should go to a particular shop, park, etc. only to remember that they’re in London and I’m not. I also really want to visit Paris again within the next year and a half because after that I’ll be too old to get into museums for free.

2. What do you do in your free time away from sims?

Same as everyone else, apparently: Play other video games and D&D! I also do watercolour paintings and write poetry on occasion. And I just started doing collages again and it’s very frustrating that I’m not very good at it (yet).

3. What other games do you play besides the sims?

Mostly Fallout (3, NV, 4, 76 and recently Shelter) and sometimes the free games from Epic Games. Honourable mention to The Last Door which I replay in its entirety about once a year because it’s fantastic.

4. How tall are you?

Not very. I’m just under 1.60 m which, according to Google, is about 5' 3".

5. One random interest of yours?

I’ve got a couple small trees on my balcony, and I can’t stop myself from collecting seeds outside to plant when I get home. So I might eventually end up with a whole forest. Does that count as an interest? If not, then, uuh, unicorns.

6. Current favourite bands or artists?

Not a band or artist, but recently I’ve been watching (and listening to) a lot of musicals, so I guess that sort of counts. Apart from that I’ve been listening to Moes Haven on my last few trips to the supermarket and back.

7. Something you’re looking forward to?

Being rich and famous. Also the day that all my cats finally get along.

8. Current favourite films?

I can’t think of anything at all. I’m kind of bad at films, and whenever I try to think of favourites, I only come up with ones that are either musicals or musical-adjacent.

9. What food could you not live without?

Pasta. Were it not for pasta, I’d have starved long ago.

10. Favourite series (book or movie series)?

So just looking at my bookshelves, the only proper book series I’ve read are the Vampire Chronicles, the Hitchhiker Trilogy, Harry Potter, and a few other childrens’ series. I’m also going to count Shakespeare’s history plays which are great. As for movies, I can’t think of a single one other than the Sharknado series (which I’m not caught up on, for shame!) (unless The Hollow Crown counts. I don’t even like it all that much, I just can’t be bothered to reread several plays whenever I miss my boy Henry VI. And now I really, really want to rewatch the whole thing, god damn).

#non sims #nonsims #ask thingy #mrslandgraab

8 notes · View notes

manjuhitorie · 5 years

Text

Hitorie’s various antics + bonus bursts of trivia - Mid June-July 2019

I’ll begin this long digest with news of ygarshy’s recent involvements! Because he has been dipping his toes into a few pools of waters and his bass is *chef’s kiss* precious.

It’s been disclosed that he played for the song ‘Shadow Tag’ on Ken Kamikita’s new album! Kamikita is a singer songwriter, also once known as KK, who belches out vivid vocals from his diaphragm while the substructure of skilled technique is there as instrumentals, holding it together sturdy. His songs are very thought-provoking alone, yet music isn’t his only reign as he writes scripts for his shows, he puts careful consideration into his visuals: and abracadabra! ygarshy is continuing to be supporting Wasureranne yo with concerts for the summer.Concurrent reports consist of ygarshy smiling, poker facing to hide his smile, yet his smile seeping out because of Shibata’s noble passion for music. Shibata will do risqué shouts or gatling release the word "sex" out of his mouth, when which yg will subtly sip his water in a means to dodge, or just knifesharp glare at him. I love these drunken bards. Wasureranee yo's twitter posts clips of them performing after ever show also!

Also Wasurerannee yo with The 50 Kaitenz↑ good. June 8th was the Kankaku Pierrot x Hitorie concert, which was originally meant to be a joint show for their tour, yet was now turned into a jamboree of respects and thunder... Rie themselves were unable to attend yet Kan-ero nevertheless performed a cover of Ao, Polaris, and clenched a spiritual presence...! The cover of Ao is a tear trenchcoat I'm a trench of water... Kan-ero so good...

I was finally able to tell Shinoda-san that “These lyrics are way too long.”. For the sake of today I had to spend the whole week sleeping on the couch, as my bed is practically buried by all the alphabet He wrote, yet still I simply want to thank him for leaving us with so many words. They’re really all so cool. I’m sorry for being unable to sing them well. Let’s meet up again soon. The photo shows a large cloth-covered bed-like surface strewn with printout papers of World End Dancehall, Montage Girl, Imperfection, and Senseless Wonder lyrics.... Because..... The setlist for Village Man’s Store’s concert on 6/13 went like this. 1. Senseless Wonder 5. Montage Girl 7. Imperfection 13. Ao Encore 1: World’s End Dancehall

Thanks for coming to our show, “The Holy Land Pilgrimage - Village Man’s Store VS Hitorie”! Utmost love and gratitude goes out to Hitorie and all of you who made this day possible. P.S. Hitorie, cheers to doing even more with you in the future. From vocalist: Mizuno Gii. Mizugi “I sent Shinoda-san a LINE message reading “I'm going to be playing this song and this song and this song and~~... at the next show”. And normally right, you’d think someone’d reply “Sorry ‘bout making you do this” right? Yet Shinoda replied “Why’re you doin’ that many lololol” Han (drummer): “He laughed at you" After all is said and done, have y'all properly purchased 'Tsuiraku, Kurushiku wa Lucky Strike’ yet or what. It’s fire isn’t it

youtube

((I hate(love) how Mizugi has (14 years old pun) in his profile, (63 years old) in this MV while dressing up as a slanky old man, and is actually 31 years old.)

When is the rain going to stoppp

youtube

There's a lot of people who dislike Weezer's Green Album but I like Green Album Is it cause the music takes such a different turn? Reply from Saito Shinya, the vocalist and producer of ONIGAWARA: The drums suddenly neatened up so it hit by surprise. Also Matt Sharp left. SND: Ahhh so it’s because of Matt Saito: Fans of their first-second album’s more squishy sound went into denial I think

I can’t believe 'Sayonara Dake ga Jinsei da' isn’t here *The late 90's band 'Eastern Youth’ has uploaded the majority of their discography unto music streaming sites. Except for the niche EP which SND is fond of, but all their albums are cool so zipper your lips and open your eyes shuuush!

Is Tanktop Shoutai's new video out yet They're a posse of blurred out faces with burlesque bases. Their current series is one where they dress up as Yugioh characters, roleplay them with accurate voices and cult-like enthusiasm, before the instigation of the series’ famous ~Shadow Games~ together. Which are all uhh, epic card games, yeah, like tabletop Jenga or or Mariomaker or electric Russian roulette, pick them up like they’re Kuribos. It’s a riot.

I’m sure I’ve said this for the umpteenth time now but, my favorite album from syrup16g is “delayed" syrup16g are an indie band who began in 1993 and keep resurging again to pop off. With performances in Budoukan and high Oricon points on their back. This pivotal album of theres is mellow with whimpering instruments and ephemeral sounding visuals and it's really nice, thank you SND.

Media outlets have been making misleading headlines like “A manga opposing the legalization of euthanasia”, and I bet there’s a lot of people are blindly dissing Death Harassment now Death Harassment is a comic written by Yoshida Yori, challenging the problems which could come with euthanasia, and a society which might pressure departure unto the unwilling. Euthanasia has been becoming a uproarious subject in Japan, ever since a woman fled to Sweden because she suffered brain diseases, and wanted to die while still preserving her sanity and dignity. People are now starting to welcome the prospect and yearn for a mercy fate but, please consider the demerits and the demoralization also, is the message. I translated the comic for fun also here.

This evening as I was eating soba alone, in front of me were a middle-aged couple throwing curses at each other with sullied mouths, but by the time I finished my soba they were smiling together. I think that’s perfectly peachy. That reminds me, I ate 4 whole eggs today. I think I ate too much.

My habit of getting the urge to play with people only at this time of the day, is really bad. Posted at 3 AM JST.

Yumao, also at 3~ AM JST. Bubble milk tea for sensible people has been gaining traction on twitter but, the fact that it's not Chinese tea milk tea is the nonsense to me. There was a post about purchasing uncooked tapioca pearls at a Seijou Ishii (an exotic super market chain), and putting them inside of a convenience store bought bottle of cheap tea. Budget bubble tea. In regards to Yumao’s comment, the Chinese oolong tea is such a standard I’m assuming he’s referring to that. Is this more flavor wars, the civil wars over various flavors of integrated foods from equal or same brands is rampant throughout Japan’s domestic history. It’s kinoko VS. takenoko etc. Why such fervor over flavor YUMA

I gotta buy toothpaste I can’t sleep whatsoever so I thought if I drank I would get sleepy but I drank and it’s somehow backfired by revitalizing me so now I got no idea what the fuck to do, I’m screwed I’m screwed I know that feeling when your stomach is in a frenzy, too well

I haven’t heard the term “moe” used in a while I kinda want to go heavy on it now Replies: "Shinoda you’re moe” “Shimoeda” “Your expression when you got kicked was so moe" (He was kicked by yg during SLEEPWALK ref: the 6/1 report)” “The term moe technically d- (*The definition copypasta-ed from wikipedia*).” Within a split second replies have already turned into hell so I’m putting the lid back on moe, please forgive me Damn it’s hot.

I saw Tokyo Syoki Syodo in concert for my first time today. It was the best. I seriously thought I was gonna burst into tears. It might be a long time since I was last this excited to see a band live - it's been a long time since I even saw a concert live but still,,, I was surprised by how much of the lyrics to Saisei Button I subconsciously remembered. It just shows that Tokyo Syoki Syodo's songs are that good. They are a group who indulge in the typicality of cutesy culture, instagram filters, sparkling make-up, and all while flexing the power to whack you with whamming hard rock. He mentioned them again in his June 9th twitcast also, calling them natural and epiphanic to how bands can just be just as they are. I have no doubts that this is my top-played song these past few months. This is my anthem. -Saisei Rock, their most recent music video, check it out! I don’t even know how many years I’ve lived at this point but it’s not commonplace to find a song this great.

This example will only be understood by super like-minded folk, but I haven’t felt this way since I got obsessed with Sakasama Cider.

He’s expressed countless times how much he likes this song and the artist, Gucha Gucha's, Though the story behind SND’s partiality may be ultimately uncertain, it can be easily understood from one listen. The guitarist and cofounder of the Gucha Gucha’s, Shimoyaka, borrowed Shinoda’s guitar for their first live. Chikyuu Monogatari chapter 3 uses Shimoyaka as a model. Shimoyaka has posted porn on forums, getting banned from youtube, he was on a team with infamous Shotacon Kurage, here’s SND’s cover of Sakasama Cider playing over the team, nowadays he does retro~modern gaming livestreams or his own cooking episodes because he got kicked off a cooking show, he slipped at the Niconico Douga Game Party, he’s videos are quite civil now though Shinoda even joined him for a stream and is watching them often. Shinoda on the July 9th live said not verbatim “When I heard Sakasama Cider and ‘Sad Delay-chan’’ live, I was amazed by Shimoyaka that he can actually make good songs. Justice doesn’t have to be one-sided~ Gucha Gucha’s are unrefined and shitty and helpless, but then they bounce back up with a sudden good song and it’s irresistible. I’m always yearning to meet those sort of exciting experiences.

We are people who clench our fists until our palms are red with blood, and we keep going on singing. Though we tend to forget it

Happy birthday ygarshy!! ygarshy's birthday is on June 17th and I hope you celebrated. SND’s birthday is also on June 6th. And I Hope. If not they can still be celebrated 365/24. Because even SND had proceeded to tweet these words of celebration at…. 12 o’ clock AM June 18th. Right when the clock changed!!

Look at this simultaneous trickery. Then Yumao RT-ed them both. I love you Rie… I love you so much...

I liked when Brocken Jr. was hit by Prisman's rainbow shower and super fucking glowed. (Timestamp 1:38) Also Mariposa’s victory pose was freakish-, ly cool (Timestamp 3:14) Kinnikuman is branded as Ultimate Muscle foreignly, if you recognize it! This youtube video is is a short promo reel celebrating the 40th anniversary of the series, Yudetamago has been in it for the long haul and is well honored by the lords of the wrestlers.

Wooooooooooah

I wanna eat a negitoro bowl Raw tuna and scallions plomped on top of a bowl of rice The special issue of Kinnikuman, I didn’t think it would put me on the verge of tears like this. Chairman takes way too many goods to the table. Plus everyone is cheerfully chit-chatting about how absolutely maniacal of a character Robin Mask is. Robin Mask really is one loony mister. Most characters are weirdos on thin ice but Robin Mask is in a whole different league of weirdo so,,, Also for the 40th anniversary, an original episode was spotlighted in the 29th issue of Shounen Jump magazine. and taken for another spin! Chairman, AKA Harabote Muscle, had an emotional arc in it too. Robin Mask I'm guessing is as rambunctiously malicious as ever in it.

The final episode of Sarazanmai had me bawling like a baby.

A photo of the possession of Kinnikuman -Supermen Dictionary-.

futurrrrrrrreee funnnnnnnnnnnk

I spent about 4 hours dancing alone in the club I am a party person Party people(パリピ is just ENG articulated into JP)* is a slang which means just that. It’s believed to have been originally popularized by a song called Let’s Party People from Illmania. Since then it’s curved to hold different nuances for all kinds of different people also. It can indicate ‘avid partygoers' or ’normies’ or it can just be for people who’re having a good time.

Puuuuuuussssshhhh! An issue of 100M, an upcoming shounen manga by the author Uoto. It's bout a runner who’s world revolves around his sport and nothing other, who then meets a boy who runs only to forget the troubles of the rest of the world. The story spurts off from there. 笑顔いっぱい！ https://youtu.be/QXuGweSMxUI @YouTubeさんからときめきメモリアル　キャラソング【おサカナになりたい～1000wに願いを～】～虹野沙希～（TokimekiMemorial music） https://youtu.be/rV16KgKKUi8 @YouTubeさんから YUNG BAE - Fly With Me https://youtu.be/BWgQvj0Nd_U @YouTubeさんから TenmaTenma - September https://youtu.be/6VsJgk5Qw6s @YouTubeさんから ~~~A slew of various song recommendations~~~

People that're posting pics of ramen while talking about being on a vegan diet, and people who gang up on them both, aren't they all becoming a clusterfuck of boringness without even heed to their actions

People who were peacefully posting their favorite music until suddenly bursting blustery onto the net, ain’t that the definition of emotional instability SND are you heeding your own actions Seven-eleven when are you gonna sell microwavable mugimeshi (rice with boiled barley mixed in) Task-san (a trusty companion of all of Rie’s, and an even more lovable animator who runs most of Minaken): *Replied to SND with a photo of Seveneleven brand microwavable mugimeshi* SND: So they do have it

As I was frying some fried eggs, it hit me, people who heedlessly throw heavy words at other people tend not to let anyone else complain about the heavy weights they themselves may put onto other people huh.. But actually that’s not necessarily true so whatever

I just recently caught up with Murata-sensei’s version of One-Punch Man but, thanks to the insanity of the quality level, Tatsumaki has gotten so sexy I burst out laughing See: ONE VS. Yusuke Murata

Clever folks, I’m positive you could figure out who my favorite One Punch Man characters are. There’s two of them. The answer is King and Unlicensed Rider Oops there’s Zombieman too

I’ve noticed that washing ashtrays squeaky clean seems to put me in a better mood The Marías - Cariño youtu.be/QHVp9xiUr9U @YouTubeさんから The Marias are soo good The 3 monkies game, the host is so cockeyed that I’m laughing out loud I think he’s talking about サルヂエ(Sarudie), a quiz show about 3 people donned in hyper-realistic monkey attire, overseeing the “homo sapiens” as they try to solve unique questions. Which are usually twists on daily life concepts, find the difference, or digesting puns on pop culture. The word Sarudie(猿知恵) itself refers to something which seems profound but is actually simple and shallow, like monkey business etc, and the hosts are spoofs of The Three Wise Monkeys, while they hooked in a lot of famous figures to be the quiz undertakers. I want the DVDs. Though if SND is talking about a different 3 monkey game then I’m oopsie-doopsie. I heard a voice for the first time in a while

I can feel my manga-artist muscles crippling

nico.ms/sm35308083?ref… #sm35308083 #ニコニコ動画 It’s here!!!!!!!!!! Ref his tweet from earlier 'Is Tanktop Shoutai's new video out yet’. So if any youtuber works with a band on a music video then everyone’s going to assume they’re Starmie next I guess A recent cause of discourse was the twitter account A Starmie Who Wants to Quit My Band(@shhf9kr)*. It originally was suspected of being the side-account of KANA-BOOM's bassist, Meshida, due to the timing of the account's appearance and the unsettling content. Meshida had gone missing for about a week’s time, much to relief he’s returned home, but upon return he’s now taking a break from the band to heal from pressure/anxiety… Which is a huge worry in itself (On top of Alexandros’ drummer going on hiatus because of physical issues and then MONGOL800.....) though for now we only have the power ease his soul.. BUT ANYWAY - This Starmie twitter account tweeted “I’m so far gone with band work that I’ve devolved into a Starmie. ~~~~ I feel so disgusting.” on the exact same date as the dilemma. As the situation progressed the details Starmie revealed about financial problems and wage didn’t match up with KANA-BOOM, so they’ve continued to suspected to be SEKAI NO OWARI, now signing salient as someone named Ishihidari from BASEMENT TIMES, the writer of a snazzy sassy J-Rock blog and band of that same name. Shinoda here is a direct reaction to Starmie’s recent tweet under the lines of “I hate having to work with a youtuber.” Yeah SND you're 100% right, it's now on the radars of us curious critters. Why is the J-rock scene such a pain hoho. I bought new shorts but it’s chilly out today so I’m in a sort of pickle

I tried out lo-fi hiphop style for a change of pace and I ended up making songs I get to feel like I’ve done good work as easy as fast-food, lo-fi hiphop is good Maybe this is fine, we have flowers here (The word in the insta video means "to hide from the rain")

I don’t wanna add screentones

He used a southern accent on this, unlike his usual slurry casual city boy tone. I notice that southern JP seems to simplify the connotation of tone by omitting certain sounds or replacing them with vowels and then they’ll proceed to make the whole phrase more musical, it’s like ending your sentences with a “~” but it’s a whole accent done that way~ vowels are cute, gimme more~ Or maybe not idk It’s a hardship to even work on my manga because of my back pains, people who’ve actually wrecked their back must go through serious hell Kobayashi Doumu (*ref: later in this post): *sends SND a photo of himself hospitalized with crutches and bandages for his back* I was watching Kura-kyun’s stream but, does that guy actually still live in Aichi…? This seems like a rabbit hole I don’t want to dip my toes so I’ll take a step back but… Shotacon Kurage is a long time streamer who seems to get up to a lot of unfavorable antics. のどちんこって呼び名、いくらなんでもメチャクチャ過ぎないか No matter how you put it, isn’t the nickname “throat schlong” just a little too messed up Kids super often call the uvula part of the mouth by that nickname I don’t like the rain because I can’t go out drinking

View this post on Instagram

ボディメンテナンス怠るべからず

A post shared by シノダ (@snd_vs_snd) on Jun 27, 2019 at 11:14pm PDT

One mustn’t slack off on their self-care The drawing says “Shoulder pains”.

シノダ「地球物語 35話 – BABYBABYの夢 – 」 | MEETIA After a 2 month break period, the 35th issue has been topped off. It’s full of all the ideas and memes I’ve accumulated over the whole 2 month span, so please if you may, take it easy on me. And please give it a read. Shinoda “Chikyuu Monogatari: Chapter 35 - Dreams of BABYBABY - meetia.net/manga/shinoda-… #meetia

Shiohigari, fantastic artist of 1 panel light-heavyhearted gags, girls who share their feelings and a Picasso-esque mascot named after himself. He also happens to share many interests with SND and a decade-long historic friendship with him: That part there, that’s the Robin Mask moment! During the Survivor Match for the Kinniku Throne Arc, the match against Kinnikuman Zebra and Parthenon! SND: I’ve been exposed Trivia: ●The title "Dreams of BABYBABY” is a reference to the song by TANUKI of the same name. SND’s interest in future funk grows. ●The Chikyuu Monogatari chapter has a parallel to a Kinnikuman scene. When that manga went on hiatus for 3 months due to an illness of the author's, right in the middle of a fight scene's cliffhanger, he returned and doubled-down on it. By making the characters do this:

And SND’s comic has this parallel:

“Wake up!” “Please excuse me. How could I not get sleepy after being left here for 2 months….”“Are we allowed to say this stuff, I’m sorry Yudetamago-sensei.” ●Please keep having fun Shinoda-sensei.

I made 10 lo-fi hiphop songs *They’re magnificent and they’re incoming, check his Instagram for the ongoing bonanza! https://www.instagram.com/snd_vs_snd/ Laundry is so draining Harassment sentences are going to such extremes that now it’s as if they’re the one’s doing the harassment meow, said the kitten who’s sleeping next to me There’s not actually any kitten sleeping next to me: it’s the imaginary friends in my head

What an article. Don’t be releasing things like this into the world. Do they have no dignity, mishandling words while trying to write about the subject of words. Emo, in terms of usage and genre, has especially been through a lot of change. But upholding only the era you lived in and then proceeding to feel nostalgia and begrudging the next generation for being different is amazing in itself, not to mention their absolute subjectivity combined with presumptuous usage of “Us”.

Or, so had spoke the kitten sleeping next to me... In reference to his retweet of this article: https://letters-to-you.life/emoi It’s a petty, convoluted text rebuking the masses for a simplicity and resisting the implacable evolution of language. The word “emoi” in Japan (which is super equivalent to the English "emo") is transforming from not only the emo band subculture or a descriptive of emotional experiences, but also to mean the likes of an adjective for any emotion-evoker and the author is uhhh conservative. Let us get emotional over things!! wowawa lived through all the evolution also and he’s still an enthusiastic user of all definitions of “emo” too...

I’ve been cooking nukaduke at home recently and all I have to say is that home-cooked nukaduke is the best.

Trivia: Yumao lives together with his super duper saikou cool mother, Yurika.

My nukaduke paste is getting better and better, and the pickles I’m making are amazing. I need to consider cutting back on the salt a bit though.

Ah nukaduke is emo

Yumao has nowset his location to nukaduke, hunger ensues

Kobayashi Doom congrats on a good run & Congrats on the new issue #SupportForLet’sMeal

The picture shown is SND’s face was drawn in the background of Meshi ni Shimashou(Let’s have some food!), a manga by Kobayashi Doom. It’s a story which digs into the lives of a a manga artist and her assistant, who bask in the dying embryos of production and then cook meals with crazy twists or gimmicks to restore their ��MP”. There’s an official sneak-peak preview of it here! It’s only available in JP though… If you like the look of it please feel free to yell at your local manga provider to officially translate it, Kobayashi Doom is someone SND is so undeniably influenced by. Especially their series Negi nee-san. A webcomic about a surreal girl drowned in surreal antics. It’s usually rooted in nonsense and that’s the grandest appeal. The visuals consist of copy-pasted collages, intricate professional art dynamics, cute girls, to stoic jokes such as “’seven eleven is an integer so seven & I is a complex number” and mostly references to mathematics or science or Jojo. The most parroted one is “Yes” “Not yes”. Also worthy of mention is that things resembling Negi-neesan’s various nameless beasts will show up as backdrop etc. in SND’s manga Chikyuu Monogatari. And most importantly here, there’s even a comic about Shinoda on that link, with the Let’s Meal characters! It reads: Madare ”Who's that?" Omega "From the band 'Hitorie',His name is Shinoda and he seems to be a zealous fan of mine, (sign reads: zealous whatever food hall) He told me he wants me to experience his recent works so he sent me the mp3"Madare “Ooh Isn’t Hitorie that [insert amazing praise here]“. Omega “Look, he’s even wearing a Negi-T (Negi-nee-san’s surreal brand) in this video” (Reference: In the Talkie Dance MV he wears this one) Woah　Click-click Omega “So now, I’ve listened to it 100 times but in sheer honesty I don’t know anything about rock besides the band Ningen Isu so I thought I’d use this comic as an equivalent of an answer to him, a sort of "guess my feelings" quiz. Madare “I see you're popping your conman skill again. (You’ve even beaten me with that skill before )” “I’ve been eavesdropping. Time to cook a meal and get together with him” Omega “I like it." *The chorus lyrics to Hitorie's NAI from ai/SOlate are written on the top left corner, Kobayashi Doumu on the right, and the beastly text written next to the youkai-looking Shinoda in slide one I believe is an feisty ateji encrypting ‘For Shinoda’. SND replied to that comic too! Saying “Even insane miracles can happen huh, Doom-sensei thank you so much!! No this is seriously sick, wtf…." Q.E.D. Kobayashi Doom is strangely important for SND’s character development.

This isn’t specifically concurrent with my current feelings but The text on the video reads “I like you I like you!l I snuck a glance at myself in the mirror and my back has a hunch far worse than I even imagined SND’s RT: ONE BY ONE RECORDS, the indies label, is hanging up the hat after 12 years of service…. Ahhhh… Congrats and good luck on future ventures oh employees.. Key to this article is the band, JONNY. A Weezer cover/original group of which, a certain familiar chestnut-headed rock hero played for. I’ll save the stories of the explorations into that beloved dark past dungeon for another day but, yes, click that link and you’ll see, that glasses fella is a young Shinoda in the flesh. I woke up in the middle of the night. Have a listen to this if you plan to go to bed anytime soon. instagram.com/p/BzV23p6HpRl/… Written on the drawing is “Poyashimi”, which simply means “Oyasumi (Good night)". It was originally just a misspell due to “O” and “P” being so close on standard keyboards but, it’s cute so it’s been adopted in it’s own rights. Can been paired with “Pokita (= Okita = I just woke up)” in the morning. Cute. I wanna go to the beach instagram.com/p/BzawsWGHaGg/…

I wrote MUNEYAKE but I myself don’t have any muneyake heartburn, that’s all there is to it I couldn’t make the bubble tea visible without making the emblem on the hat invisible, and just fought a weird-ass battle with this https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzh7fqRnkBQ/?igshid=1hmx49pswt6ns … “Yasumi" means like “take a breather"

I recorded drums for Sasaki Sayaka’s song, the ending theme for 'Ultraman Taiga’. I used a big and powerful setup for this. The broadcasts start on 7/6. I can’t wait. Also Taro's son is crazy. Ultraman Taro's son is the main character of this new spinoff tokusatsu series! The ending song is called “Hitotsubishi” and will premiere along the first episode, I’ll update this if an official video arrives later, so we can listen to it! I watched the first episode of Taiga, I’m think I’m gonna cry.

This morning a drunken me slipped while walking down the stairs, and turned into the Kinnikuman side of the Kinniku-Buster. My butt hurts. Smack down on the floor, legs aflight.

colormal’s concert was downright fantastic, everybody listen to colormal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ83BZ_BIHA&feature=youtu.be

colormal, a galvanized nerd who turned his hobby into a hopping constitution for his livelihood, his quest for the alternative rock. He makes music alone and he’s namely even inspired by Shinoda’s past solo project “cakebox”. He’s bound to mention a cakebox song in his interviews, on top of a whopping list of other western or indie bands. His music itself has flows of climaxes into unfluctuating concord and it’s either guitar or guitar with pretty effects and I enjoy it SND. His filling bassist, Matsuyama, was even thrilled! https://twitter.com/mtymJb/status/1147537998898069504

My body isn’t able to finish even the small size ramen with full toppings. “Mashi” is a trademark menu option of the chain Ramen Jiro. It’s under the lines of “Pile it up”. You can choose to pile up a bit of everything like Shinoda seems to, or you can choose from specific topping such as veggies or meats. If you ever go into such a ramen shop, try shouting “yasai mashi mashi!” or “buta mashi mashi!” for a heap of piggie.

Tokyo Shoegazer are definite They’re an indies band who had a concert in Shinjuku that day! One of their most recent tweets draws my attention 👀 The wheat and grated yam beef meal at Yoshinoya is delectable but, the sign says the large rice portion and refills are given for free until 11 PM, but when I go there’s a fee on the large portion, how am I supposed to interpret this Reply: I work at Yoshinoya but the free portions and refills is a recent offer, the menus just haven’t been reprinted to represent it… The meal packages generally all have free refills and large rice portions. Shinoda: Thank you. Ref: their ENG menu. Feel free to use this information if you ever get the chance to go to a Yoshidora!!(?) SWEET https://www.instagram.com/p/Bznm6DTH-Gs/ I want to see Siamese Cats live They’re a definite J-rock band who have tinges of psychedelic and a sort of 80’s pop style to their music. They had an outdoor show the day before SND tweeted this, but they also have a 10th Year Anniversary Celebration concert this December. SND GO! Siamese Cats - Escape Eve (Official Video) 2018　　シャムキャッツ - 逃亡前夜 https://youtu.be/5Jtd5nmI0Fc

salad days was on Amazon Prime so I gave it a gander but it was really fucking good. The walking alone Straight Edge scene or at the beginning when everyone was partying together until strange people starting flooding in one by one and the safety of the concert went downhill Or how the terminology “emocore” doesn’t resonate at all with people who were directly associated with it at the outset.

The fact that controversy which we’re still having today has existed since the 80’s is an astonishment  Also once the Smells Like~ MV wrought the knowledge of crowd-surfing (stage-diving) upon the world, and then the crowd became a flood of stage-divers so much that Fugazi lost his temper, that scene was so good

The joint show with Trouble Funk, when they were reflecting on what became the final Minor Threat show, everyone was vocalizing the horrors, the turmoil of it, yet I laughed when only Ian said it wasn’t that bad

Not disregarding how these types of issues really did exist those days, ultimately the concerts and their music really are awesome, the energy and thrill everyone held was amazing

Formidable figures such as Thurston Moore and Dave Grohl are shown looking back on the past, and then pops in J Mascis with such batshit indifference that I laughed again  Why does Ian MacKaye not have a Japanese wiki page If it draws your attention here’s the link!:https://www.amazon.com/Salad-Days-Fred-Armisen/dp/B01MAV0YAH I’m not specifically feeling emo https://www.instagram.com/p/BzqVd4wnaOX/?igshid=nhnyzm9vipdi …“emoi”

#ヒトリエ #hitorie #long post #Shinoda played violin in the twitcast yesterday how do I report on this #SHINODA VIOLIN

8 notes · View notes

celticheartedfangirl · 6 years

Text

25 Fucking Stupid Writing Choices OUAT Made

This post is a snarky response to Adam and Eddy’s little humble brag article that came out today:

http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/14/once-upon-time-crazy-storylines/

This is meant to be snarky and critical and if you don’t like that -- don’t read it. (MY post, not the link above.)

Look, I am a OUAT fan an there are many things I love about the show. But there are many I just DON’T LOVE and I think they’re worth discussing. If you don’t like criticism, you won’t like this post. That’s fine.

Thank you for all the suggestions! I think I got quite a bit crammed in here.

Under the cut for length and so as not to upset those who only want to ‘think lovely thoughts’ . . . . .

25. Here’s a magic doohickey thingy we’ve never heard of before but NOW we’re using this thing.

Look, I’m not gonna list all the MacGuffins this show has used, I’d be here all day and there are worse things they’ve done, and this IS a show about magic after all.

But there’s also such a thing as overkill. And there was too much MacGuffin use that we didn’t know about before in this show. It was far too convenient and usually used as a cop out in lieu of – you know – actual STORY TELLING. THAT is my MacGuffin issue. Don’t use it to replace character development. We’re not here for that.

24. The Lost Boys/The Untold Stories and Other Dropped Plots

So the Lost Boys -- Did they get homes? Did they grow up? I don’t know! Do you? Of course not – we’ll never know!

What about all those Untold Stories folks? Weren’t there a bunch of them? Are they still meandering around in Storybrooke?

Edited to add: Maleficent and Lily. SO SORRY I forgot to initially include you in this one. My bad. You are missed, ladies!

Edited once more to add: Poor Gideon. Both parents dead and his extended family doesn’t give a shit about him. Or at least I assume so because we don’t know where he is. The child of Beauty and the Beast -- treated like a disposable plot device. Nice.

OUAT is great with creating and LOUSY with follow through. I know there are many others. But there shouldn’t be. There shouldn’t be that many dropped plots on this show. If you’re not going to follow through with a story line, why add the characters AT ALL? Speaking of that . . .

23. JFC, how many new characters do we NEED on this show???

Especially since you still haven’t figured out what to do with some of the ones that are CONTRACT PLAYERS on your show! Hey, didn’t Archie and Ruby used to be those? (Waves hi to Belle! Also the Charmings post S4. More on that later.)

22. You know – Rumple is Henry’s GRANDFATHER

He is! Really!

You’d never fucking KNOW IT, would you? The erasure of any sort of familial relationship with Henry/Rumple was a damned shame. And much of that, I believe, was because if they acknowledged THAT, they’d have to mention the character they want us to forget. More on that later.

21. The Shattered Sight Hype

Remember what a BIG DEAL the whole Shattered Sight thing was gonna be in S4? OMG people say what they REALLY FEEL about each other! It’s gonna be EPIC!!!

And then it – wasn’t. We basically got some Snowing/Evil Queen snark, Henry bitching at Hook, and Belle – well, Belle was asleep – what else is new?

I think of all the things that were PROMOTED as something amazing for this show – this is the one that was a big old dud and a whole lot of NOTHING.

20. Belle’s mom/Belle is written out of her own storyline in S6

In Family Business we met Belle’s Mom for about two minutes. Then she was dead. And Belle didn’t remember what happened. And then – we never heard about it again.

I don’t know about you, but I wanted to know what happened there. Why didn’t Belle remember? Did Moe get a roofie magic thingy from Arthur? Did Belle’s mom turn into an ogre and she killed her and blocked it out?

SO MANY possibilities there. But hey – it’s just Belle. Why write a story for HER?

In the same regard -- whatever your thoughts are on Rumbelle in S6 (MHO – it was garbage and an OOC shit fest, but that’s just me) – what happened with Gideon – Belle’s SON – was because of HER CHOICE. Choices have consequences. And in GOOD WRITING – the person that MADE the choice that caused the mess is supposed to be the person to help CLEAN IT UP.

But apparently – it was a better thing for ZELENA of all people to be the one to do that. And Emma and Hook too. Because why the hell not, right? That makes all the sense.

Yes, Rumple played his part too in the whole Gideon mess. And he did get to take part in the resolution. But that was something they should have done TOGETHER (what a concept!), and overall Belle was just – not part of it. Even in the last two minutes they sidelined her with a sprained ankle. Absolutely ridiculous. Which leads me to . . . .

19. Belle being sidelined since Season Two.

OUAT brought the lovely Emilie de Ravin onto the show as a regular cast member in Season Two, and had no fucking idea what to do with her character. So she gets fridged. She gets stuck in the hospital, left behind while the rest go to Neverland, she’s very fond of naps, she’s forgotten about in Camelot, not cared about while in a sleeping curse because the “heroes” care more about “stopping” her “evil” hubby (see #17) and written out of her own damn storyline in 6B (see #20) – and then she’s dead. (More on that later.)

I love Belle. I love Rumbelle. And I will forever be resentful that for the bulk of her time on the show, the character of Belle, one of my fictional heroes, was written as nothing but a plot device. She deserved so much better.

18. The Musical Episode

I mean – if this nonsense (and it WAS nonsense) had moved the story forward, I could maybe – MAYBE – let this one slide. But it didn’t. It just rehashed the same shit that we had been talking about for 6 seasons. And then Hook married Emma and her Stepford Wife conversion therapy was complete. (More on that later.) This episode WILL NOT HOLD UP in the future. Future generations will be “WTF-ing” all over the place with this one, mark my words.

17. Rumple is a Hero – no he’s a Villain – No wait he’s a hero, nope a villain, make up your DAMN MIND WRITERS!!!!!

I got whiplash trying to follow the trajectory of Rumple’s story, as many times as they changed his characterization. He’s a villain – then in 3A he’s a hero. Then he’s the victim of a molester and kidnapper and show doesn’t address that AT ALL. Oops he’s evil again. Except now he’s not – his heart is PURE! He pulled Excalibur out of the rock, he’s a HERO! Nah – he’s dark again. Bad Rumple! Oooh now he’s REALLY DARK and his fetus with no brain stem hates him and his wife is living on a boat with his sworn ENEMY while pregnant, so he traps here there (!!!!!) and he’s macking on the Evil Queen . . . come ON. Enough already.

Rumple is a complex character. You can’t just flip/flop willy nilly with a complex character. You have to know how to write them as nuanced, and CONSISTENLY complex but never falling fully into one camp or the other of ‘good’ or ‘evil.’

Rumple is played by Robert Carlyle, one of the best actors around. And the ONLY saving grace from the horrible writing of this character over the years is the fact that Bobby knew how to play him most of the time – even when the writers didn’t know how to WRITE HIM. Which was almost ALL the time.

16. Hook is a Dark One/Resurrecting Dead Hook/Hook the Gary Stu

I toyed with ranking the dark one higher on the list and as its own thing because really, this reveal caused the biggest MID EPISODE ratings drop in the history of the show up to that point. Nobody liked it. Nobody wanted it. And it ended up being a setup to the ‘Save Hook’ trajectory because of COURSE of all the characters in the history of the show, HE was the one that deserved saving THE MOST. But I think all of these things tie together.

What this moment did was solidify the fact that Hook was officially a “Stu” character. He definitely had Gary Stu tendencies up to this point, and was basically an irritant to anyone but CS/Hook fans, but from here on? That’s pretty much all he was and all he’d ever be until he was replaced (or should I say upgraded?) by his doppelganger.

I combined the DO/Save Hook/Stu thing because it was in the Underworld that Hook’s full Stu-pification took place. There wasn’t a line of people he had murdered wanting a word with him – as there SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

And Hook still got to keep all his murder trinkets when he got resurrected and made out with his girlfriend over Robin’s grave. What a guy.

15. Regina/The Evil Queen Stay Split

I’m just saying – wouldn’t it have been better character growth for Regina to have to live with her ‘evil’ half than to split it off? And no, the ‘heart mixing’ thing doesn’t count. I get that the whole thing was really fan service to the Outlaw Queen fandom. But that doesn’t make it good writing.

14. The Wish Realm

Oh, I could write a whole post about this (and I may do that at some point) but there are so many damn holes in the whole Wish Realm mess I wouldn’t even know where to start. But so many things about it just DO NOT line up in a sensible way. And even if you find one that DOES, it’ll create three things that DON’T line up.

I’d have bought a ‘parallel universe’ over the ‘wish realm’ stuff. They could have gone with that and it would have made much more sense. But you know – they wanted dead Belle, dead Baelfire, dead Snowing, no Emma and old Hook so – Wish realm it was. I just got to a point where I didn’t care anymore. But that doesn’t negate the stupid.

13. The Timeline

The timeline in OUAT made sense – and then it didn’t. And then they just stopped trying. And I stopped caring. But for paid, professional writers – just not cool. DO YOUR JOB!!!!!

12. Will Scarlett

Do I really need to say any more here? No? Didn’t think so. Moving on.

11. Neal’s Apartment in New York City

Have you ever been to NYC? Places of residence are at a premium there. There is no way in hell that an abandoned apartment wouldn’t have been emptied and taken over by a new resident in that much time. And I’m sorry, but odds are Neal did NOT pre-pay his rent for TWO YEARS out.

10. Belle and Hook – Best Friends Forever!*

You know – no woman with a brain in her head would befriend a man who straight up tried to murder her FOUR TIMES. So, either Belle doesn’t have a brain in her head, or that’s some crap writing right there. (My vote is with the latter if you’re wondering.)

It was bad enough when Belle was just handing over the dagger to “Hook” in S4 (yes, I know it was Rumple but details shmetails, Belle didn’t know that), but a PREGNANT BELLE going to live on a boat with Hook to be ‘safe’ – come on. Who does that? I get that Adam and Eddy wanted to wave the middle finger at the Rumbelle fandom, but they could have found a way to do that without making Belle look STUPID.

*Honorable mention to Belle/Zelena being friends which was equally as stupid

9. Zelena is Marian

Come ON – they pulled that one out of their asses halfway through S4 because they wanted to find a way to bring back Bex. There was NO INDICATION of that until the reveal. Because it didn’t EXIST until the reveal. Ridiculous.

8. Making the Charmings Supporting Players

Starting with S4, Snow and David basically became secondary characters. They had MOMENTS, but overall they were on the backburner and if they left the show at any point – would it have made a difference to ANY of the trajectory they were playing out? I’d say no.

I mean – how the hell did that happen? How do you run out of ideas with the couple that you touted as THE ‘main couple’ after only three seasons? I don’t get it.

7. Golden Queen

Just no. There was never anything romantic between these two characters. It was stupid and out of character for both of them. No.

6. Queer baiting 101

If you gender-swapped either Emma or Regina – made one of them a man – they’d be banging by S2 and by the end of the series they’d be married with at least two more kids and three break-ups/reunions between them. (Hey, I watch soaps, I know how this shit works.)

The chemistry between the actors is there. They share a kid. But they’re both women. And you know – family show -- #nohomo and all. Sure.

The writers KNEW that Swan Queen was popular. Now okay – if ABC didn’t want to go there, fine. I don’t agree with that, but fine.

But don’t keep freaking queer baiting your fans every chance you get! It never stopped. In fact, it got progressively WORSE as the show went on! That’s just bullshit right there. Either do it or drop it. Because what OUAT did with Emma and Regina and the baiting of their fans was just flat out shitty.

And if that weren’t bad enough, we got the whole queer baiting with Mulan/Aurora, and THEN in S5 we’re handed Dorothy/Ruby as a token olive branch to the LGBT community and then – we never see them again!

Okay, in S7 they got on the right track with Alice and Robin. I will give them that. But after six years of baiting, it kind of rang hollow for many, and rightly so.

5. Hey, Here’s a Person of Color – Let’s Kill Them!

One of the first warnings I give to any new OUAT is ‘don’t get attached to any POC’ and with good reason. They don’t last long on OUAT.

Now I don’t want to assume or accuse any of the OUAT writers of flat out racism but . . .. . you’ve gotta admit – they don’t have the best track record there.

It’s especially obvious when they bring on a character that is compelling and portrayed by a charismatic actor that the audience enjoys. Lancelot, Merlin, and Facilier are the three best examples of that. Okay, so Lance was resurrected but – where’d he go? Is he still trying to undo dead-Arthur’s roofie on Guinevere?

And then we have an amazing hero and a compelling villain in Merlin and Facilier, respectively. Both of these characters – and their actors – were bright spots in the show. So naturally – they needed to die. Without their storylines resolved.

But it was just a coincidence that they weren’t white. Of course it was.

4. The Death of Belle

Yeah, yeah, I know, Beauty was a beautifully written episode and Bobby and Emilie loved it and we got some great moments, blah blah blah . . . . . . but was it NECESSARY? Did they REALLY NEED to kill off Belle? You’re telling me that there’s absolutely, positively, not one plausible scenario for S7 wherein Belle is in Hyperion Heights and Rumple can find a way to rid himself of the darkness WITH HER THERE???? Really? They couldn’t write even one lousy full season of Rumbelle (hello BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) happy and in love with struggles but still beating the darkness in the end? Really??? There weren’t any options for that scenario AT ALL???? Give me a break.

3. The Stepford Swan

Over the course of seven years, many of the OUAT characters suffered with out- of-character moments. It’s not uncommon and I would even venture to say that this happens on occasion on MOST television shows. But on OUAT, it was a common occurrence from Season Four onward. And NONE of the characters experienced as much of an out of character de-evolution as Emma Swan.

When we first met Emma Swan she was a badass, intelligent, independent woman. Yes, she had her issues and her inner demons and we saw her work past those as the series progressed.

And then . . . . she got a boyfriend. And he became the center of her universe. And Emma – changed. The writers (and Jennifer Morrison) will swear up and down that it was an ‘evolution’ but I’m sorry – a character that starts OUT like this:

Does not END UP like this:

That’s not evolution. That’s a shell of a woman dependent on a man for her self-worth. That’s NOT who Emma Swan is. This was THE worst character assassination on the show, and I’d say it’d be up (down?) there in the top 10 (er, bottom 10?) of worst character assassinations in all of television. What a shame.

2. Rapists – rapists everywhere!

Once Upon a Time has always been marketed as a family show. For a family show – there’s sure a heck of a lot of rape in it.

The first CANON rapist we have is Regina and her 28+ year imprisonment and repeated sexual assault of Graham. Regina came a long way as a character in the show’s 7-year run – but it would have done great service to her if this had been addressed somehow. Now, I know that Jamie Dornan is all famous and off making money playing Christian Grey but – you know, in this particular case – I’d have been good with either a recast or at the VERY least an apologetic mention. But we never got that.

And that’s the problem with every rapey issue on this show – it’s never addressed for what it is. In fact – it’s really not addressed at all. Hook’s rape jokes in S2 are treated like ‘playful banter’ by the writers, cast, and viewers alike. Zelena’s ‘Hester the Molester’ stuff with Rumple in S3 doesn’t even warrant a discussion. Hook’s rapey innuendo in the CS movie is also waved off. Then we have Zelena raping Robin in S4, Arthur magic roofie-ing Guinevere and probably raping her in S5 (Is she still roofied? Who knows!), and Mother Gothel raping Nook in S7.

That’s a hell of a lot of rape for a “family show.” And aside from the off-handed comment from Robin about lack of consent with Zelena, none of it is addressed for what it is – RAPE.

1. The Death of Baelfire/Neal Cassidy

In Season One there were three main story line arcs driving the series: Regina’s war with Snow White, Emma as The Savior, and Rumpelstiltskin’s quest to reunite with his son, Baelfire. All three stories intertwined, and it only made sense that the trajectory of the show would be that in the end, all of these characters would somehow come together, as they all were tied to one character: Henry.

Unfortunately, the writers made the foolish decision in Season Three to execute one of the main (if not THE main) driving forces on the show. Baelfire/Neal was connected to all of the aforementioned people, and his loss was a blow to everyone. At least it should have been. But that’s not what we saw.

Not only was Neal/Baelfire killed off – he was flat out ERASED from the show. His name from the point of his death on was rarely brought up. We didn’t get to see anyone truly mourn or grieve him. (Okay Rumple, but BARELY – and anyone who has lost a child understands that it’s quite possibly the deepest type of grief imaginable. I’m told you never get over it.) As the show moved forward, you could literally spot the times when the writers made deliberate dialogue choices to avoid saying the name Neal/Baelfire in places where it not only made sense, it was WARRANTED.

Let’s be REAL here – we all know the “reason” Bae/Neal was written off the show. I don’t care what the writers say. I’m not an idiot and neither are you. And I’m sorry, but if the ONLY WAY you can think of to make a “romance” happen on a show is to kill off a character that would be forever “in the way” of said romance – you’re not a skilled enough writer to be writing a television show for a major network. I mean – it works in spiteful fanfic (which I am more than guilty of writing). But for a television show? The viewers deserve better than that. NEAL/BAELFIRE and every character that ever loved him deserved better than that.

I know I probably missed a bunch but I really did try to hit the highlights and put them in the order they deserved.

Thoughts? Comments? If you think I’m missing a tag for this (I’m doing my best) let me know and I’ll add it.

#ouat criticism #anti ouat writers #anti hook #anti cs #anti stepford swan #tw: rape #anti zelena #anti golden queen

384 notes · View notes

ramajmedia · 5 years

Text

The Godfather: 10 Hidden Details Everyone Completely Missed

Anyone who dares call themselves a film fan has no doubt seen Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. More than perhaps any other film in history, it is listed by critics and fans as one of the best films ever made. The epic saga of the Italian-America mafia family, the Corleones, is filled with iconic moments, unforgettable performances and an engrossing story.

RELATED: 5 Reasons The Godfather Is The Best Mob Movie Ever Made (And 5 Why It's Goodfellas)

Despite being one of the most famous movies ever made, there are still details about the film and its creation that even the biggest fans might not know. If you're looking for an excuse to revisit this masterpiece, have a look at some of the things you might have missed. Here are some of the hidden details in The Godfather.

10 Low Budget Beginnings

Looking back now, this film is one of the most respected and successful films ever made, but there was a time that there wasn't a lot of confidence in the project. The rights to the novel by Mario Puzo were purchased before the novel was even finished, but the sweeping crime epic was too ambitious for the producers' tastes.

Puzo was originally asked to write a script for the film that was set in modern time instead of the period setting of the novel. They also wanted more shoot-em-up sequences, turning it into a low-budget gangster film. Coppola was the one that insisted on the period setting and re-established the more epic tone.

9 Nervous Luca Brasi

Though he has a relatively small role in the film, Luca Brasi is a very memorable character. The enormous and intimidating gangster is best remembered for his memorable end, but his introduction scene is just as interesting.

RELATED: 10 Most Memorable Quotes From The Godfather Trilogy

While at the wedding of Don Corleone's daughter, Luca nervously pays his respects to the Godfather, fumbling over his words. Apparently, this was unplanned and was the actual reaction of actor Lenny Montana who was nervous to share the screen with Marlon Brando. The scene of Brasi practicing his speech beforehand was included as a way to explain his nervousness.

8 Brando Behind The Scenes

Marlon Brando has a reputation for being one of the most brilliant actors of all time and a nightmare to work with. His performance as Vito Corleone in this film speaks for itself, and while his behavior was better in this film than others, he did make for some interesting behind the scenes stories.

Brando refused to learn his lines beforehand, insisting that he read them as the scene plays out on camera. This led to cue cards and script pages being posted throughout the set. He is known for his love of practical jokes and he embraced that passion on this set, even mooning all the extras during the wedding scene.

7 The Cat

It's hard to picture Vito Corleone in this film without that white cat perched on his lap. Seeing the head of a mafia family calmly petting a cat as he conducts business says a lot about the character. It's an image that has been adopted and parodied endlessly.

However, the iconic moment what not originally included in the script. In fact, the cat is not even a trained animal but rather a stray that Brando found on the film lot. It is said that the cat was so content to sit in Brando's lap that dialogue in the scene had to be re-recorded due to the cat's loud purring.

6 Period-Accurate Cars

Part of the reason the studio was hesitant to make the film a period piece was the expensive and painstaking details that are needed to recreate the proper era. With an auteur like Coppola at the helm, you can bet he went the extra mile to achieve that accuracy.

RELATED: 10 Best Movies For Dog Lovers, Ranked

The film is filled with cars from the era which is to be expected, but many of these cars feature an extra bit of period recreation. During the war, people used to remove their chrome bumpers and send them in to help with the war effort. The bumpers were replaced with wood which you can see in the movie.

5 The Mattress Montage

During the 70s emergence of New Hollywood, there was a group of young directors making some of the most ambitious films of the time. Two of those filmmakers were Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas who were also close friends.

After Coppola produced Lucas' film THX 1138, Lucas returned the favor by filming the so-called "Mattress Montage" for The Godfather. Taking place during the war between the families, the montage shows various real-life crime scene photos of mob assassinations. There is even an image of Al Capone's right-hand man, Frank Nitti after his suicide.

4 Alex Rocco

Despite the often-praised authenticity of the film, Coppola maintains that no real-life mafia people participated or consulted on the film. However, there appears to be one exception with Alex Rocco who memorably plays Las Vegas mobster, Moe Greene.

Greene is based off mobster Bugsy Siegel but Rocco had real experience to draw on for the role having been a member of the Boston Irish mob gang known as the Winter Hill Gang. It is even reported that a mobster hitting on Rocco's girlfriend ignited a deadly gang war.

3 John Cazale's Debut

While he doesn't get the showiest role in this first film, John Cazale is still unforgettable as the black sheep of the Corleone family, Fredo. As the screw-up brother of Michael and Sonny, Cazale is funny, heartbreaking and captivating.

RELATED: 10 Crime Movies All Anti-Hero Lovers Should Watch

Sadly, Cazale died at the age of 42 from cancer. Remarkably, he had appeared in five feature films in his lifetime, all of which were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. They are The Deer Hunter, Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation, The Godfather: Part II and The Godfather which was his feature film debut.

2 Corleone, Scilly

The movie explains that Vito Corleone hails from a small Italian village in Sicily called Corleone. After killing Sollozo and McCluskey flees to his father's hometown to hide out in a memorable extended sequence.

As it turns out, Corleone is, in fact, a real place in Sicily. However, the sequences that are set in Corleone were not filmed in the actual village as it had become too modernized to fit the time period. Interestingly, Al Pacino's family emigrated to America from Corleone.

1 Horse Head

There are so many iconic moments in the film, but few are as shocking as the infamous horse head scene. After Tom Hagen pays a visit to a Hollywood producer and tries to get him to hire a specific actor, the producer refuses. In order to convince him, the head of the producer's prized horse is placed in his bed.

The scene is made even more shocking by the fact that the horse head was real, taken from a god food plant. This angered many animal rights groups and Coppola even admits some of the crew were turned off by the idea.

NEXT: 10 Sprawling Crime Sagas To Watch If You Like Scarface

source https://screenrant.com/godfather-10-hidden-details-everyone-completely-missed/

#screenrant

0 notes

enzoendoplaylistchallengo · 7 years

Text

Endo Enzo Playlist week 6: Episode 26 Introducing the hip new anthropomorphic character to spice up the series, The Extreme Dude-erino Beech Martin with attitude, Dash Cola! Transitioning to “epic” “3D” “animation.”

Blow out your cartridges and dust off the wires its time to start up your saves for week 6! Plug your headphones into that front port your forgot about and listen up for that full experience as you get some stuff to watch and listen too.

We are not broadcasting from Castles N' Coasters. This amusement park has one of the largest arcades I've ever seen, with wall to wall classics with classic arcade games and new games as well. The tiers coliseum like set up of the arcade makes it so unique in my opinion and is a sight to take in. Who am I kidding talking about architecture theirs a wall to wall arcade games I grew up with, give me forty bucks I'm having a fun day at this place. They even have a vast collection of pinball machines, love pinball. Okay before I go into a history lesson of arcade machines and pinball machines lets move onto the music. All of this located in Phoenix Arizona.

Monsters by Matchbook Romance

R.I.P. by Zombie Ghost Train

End of the world by The Living End

You're all fools by The Adicts

Terrible Tommy by Ryan Horne

Gamma Ray (Acoustic) by Beck

The State of Massachusettes by Dropkick Murpheys

The Regulator by Clutch

And now for a commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szZsKdJYR-A

So their Meg is Batgirl in this universe? Gosh call her out for breaking a window Robin, would you rather her use the front door? I would also like to think somewhere someone actualy talks with “Holy [noun relating to something he sees] [event that is apparent.]” I know I talked about the show in the last blog post but I wonder how a parody series with all its camp would do today. Like not neccesarily Batman or The Tick but where the cliches are apparent and pandered around, like a Monty Python take on it maybe?

Speaking of humor theirs a channel if you want a good laugh, a bit of a history lesson about anime from time to time, and anime itself. AnimeAbandon hosted by BennetTheSage as he calls himself takes you down the path of old anime series and movies that made it to vhs or DVD back in the day. His humor is one that doesn't overly pick apart a anime but points out cliches or humorous moments with his reactions. With vast referencing he pools from plus decent scripting he can make really entertaining videos. I recommend it if your wanting some reviews on animes to watch or to break up your binge of Moe. Really he is a connoseiur of what he likes but isn't above putting himself down or admitting its his own taste for a dislike of a anime which I like.

Speaking of someone else who wears jorts Kevin Smith has done a good bit of decent films. Some people reading this may be expecting me to name off his earliest works like Clerks. Nah. Perhaps you think I will talk about a film that focuses not so much around the dynamic duo of Jay and Silent Bob such as Dogma or Jay and Silent Bob Strikes back. Nope. Maybe a more recent work like GONNA INTERRUPT YOU RIGHT THERE ITS...Mall Rats. Now I have no bias for this particular film but I feel its overlooked by many. What I like about the film the fact the protagonist isn't perfect, nobody perfect in this film. He gets jealous that his on again off again girlfriend is palling around with this hunk (Who turns out to be a jerk.) and she is going to be on some dating game in the center of a mall where the characters hang out or work. The film has lots of funny moments and lines in it, even Stan Lee. Its a entertaining underdog story worth a glance if you get the time.

In this weeks versus we put two people who are trained in weaponry with a wide aresenal and resouceful tactics they will pose a challenge for each other in this face off.

The Punisher, original Frank Castle who spends his life with a campaign against a crime ridden New York seeking vegence for the murder of his daughter and wife. He has training, serving in a war as well.

Facing him is Jason Todd formerly Robin, serving under the training of Batman and acrobatic skills as a child. He took the former moniker of the Red Hood and acquired a large arsenal of civilian weapons letting him blend in and throw those searching off his true identity. Unlike the person who trained him he is not afraid to use lethal force.

These two will hold nothing back as they unload their ammo toward each other.

The Punisher vs The Red Hood.

Thats another week down of playlist and stuff to watch. I'll post another one up next week. I hope to see tuning in next week. Stay radical doods!

12 16 4 23 8 21 21 12 5 15 8 26 12 12 23 8 21

#playlist blog #music blog #Mall Rats #AnimeAbandon #jay and silent bob #The Punisher #Red Hood #what am i even doing #anime

0 notes

heavensentgohansrage · 7 years

Text

Recap and Notes: Heracles!Stiles Ch. 4

find the chapter here

Myth and Historical Overview

The battle is based on the war of the Olympians against a group of Gigantes, the Gigantomachia. Through a prophecy that was told to the Olympians by the Oracle, they learned about the plan of the Gigantes, children of the Earth (the Titan Gaia), to take over Moutain Olympus, and that they would have to have a mortal by their side to win against them. They called Heracles for help, obviously, and through team-ups between him and the Deities (like Zeus dazing a Gigante for Heracles to shoot an arrow at him, and Apollo and Heracles both shooting an arrow on each of another; both of those acts you can see coming to fruition in other ways, and also the reason Stiles brought a bow) they saved Olympus. Hecate is the only Deity to be involved in the battle in the fic (according to the legend, she set a Gigante on fire by throwing torches at him), since it was another good way to get her involved with Stiles, which led to the meeting with Gale. But ultimately, yes, the legend of the epic battle is actually credited to the awesome pack of Derek rather than the Greek Deities, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Antaeus, the Gigante they fought against in the fic, though, did not take part in that war (and was actually a half-Gigante). He was involved with Heracles in another story that has nothing to do with it. The reason I chose him to represent the Gigantes was that Heracles fought against most of them, and did not have any main target on whom he noticeably focused on the most (there were two who were the biggest threat, Porphyrion and Alkyoneus, but I didn’t know how to pick between the two of them). So it was basically either singing “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” and pick one, or looking for another Gigante that Heracles had more history with (that I may and may not use in further chapters :P). His “smaller” size in comparison to real, tall as mountains Gigantes, also contributed to the decision.

Ironically, according to the legend, Heracles saved Hera from the Gigante Porphyrion, who got her cornered. It would have been weird for Stiles to save his biggest enemy in this part of the story (and I’m not even sure if this part of the legend is set before, during or after the labours anyway) so I decided to make her the reason for the attack, instead.

SHOOTING A BROKEN ARROW IS COMPLETELY NOT REALISTIC, EVEN IN A UNIVERSE WHERE WEREWOLVES EXIST, I KNOW. But the legend of Heracles is so popular to this day because he had done things other mortal heroes were never told to be able to do, like wrestling with actual Deities. And even though has been implied already, there will be an explanation of why he gets so damn talented out of the blue, while normally he is too clumsy to hold a weapon for more than a moment without cracking the window. Making him being able to control his natural talent when he barely controls his flails in the show is just too OOC of him, which is worse for me than impossible moves like that.

The Soteria/Soter honorific is how the ancient Greeks used to the Deities, or at least the Olympians and some of the lesser Deities.

Again, like I said about the connection between Lycaon and his gang and the Druids in the previous recap- the part about their involvement with Hecate is not real, not even in the show’s mythology. I’m really pleased with making that explanation, though, it just makes so much sense, considering there’s no reason for Werewolves to be connected to the moon when real wolves don’t. And, of course, with how it brought Gale to Stiles, so she could give him the answers he needed to motivate him to do something about Hera hate getting out of control (as Hecate is never actively involved with Heracles in the legend).

Some sources claim that she was originally the Deity of childbirth, but other simply refer to her as nothing more than associated with it (without mentioning anything else besides the story with Heracles)- since it’s very vague, I decided to not include that either way in the fic.

Without the existence of the legend of Heracles, and the uniqueness of it considering his inhuman strength, I can’t see any other Demigod or hero getting his popularity. Persues’ legend, for example, is as famous as it is in our universe, which means most people may have heard about him, but not enough to remember who he is by being told his name. That’s another reason to why Stiles had never thought about it- it is more of a term to describe most of the Greek heroes in general, but not really seen as a species, if it makes sense.

The rest of the story of how Zeus impregnated Claudia, which Gale preferred to not be the one to tell him about, will be explained in further chapters, as implied.

When Heracles was nursed by Hera, it is said that he bit her nipple so hard that some of her milk was squirted, creating the Milky Way- which obviously doesn’t really make sense with the time the fic is set at.

Today, there aren’t actual Hellenistic settlements, communities who do believe and who worship the gods in festivals every year. Sadly, it seems that the Greek government refuses to acknowledge their religion, and doesn’t allow them to perform traditional ceremonies in patron temples, despite the cultural connection :/

There will be more explanation about the separation of the Deities from the human world in further chapters, so I’ll leave the profound explanation for it to future recaps.

General Recap

So I read and watched a few videos about sinkholes (which is the closest thing I could think about when I tried to find what would actually happen if a Giant breaks through the floor of a building xD), so I hope the way it turns out was as realistically correct as possible? It’s surely a complete mess, but I hope at least it was generally understood.

Stiles and Derek did the finishing move on the Gigante

Is Boyd taking charge of the situation is another hint for him being Derek’s (best he could ask for) second in command? Absolutely yes :D

Fun Facts

I was really debating with myself who should be the Alpha to be killed between Ennis and Kali. Eventually, I decided I wanted to give Derek a chance to redeem over Paige, so I chose to let Ennis continue with Deucalion for their future encounters.

Gale has a similar name to mine, Gal, so I was so excited to find out about her badass story (that’s also why I wanted her to talk with Stiles and have an important role in the fic, which is why I planned to make Hecate be involved with Erica and Boyd’s rescue). I wanted to make her with the same personality as mine, but I’m just so shy that it’s hard for me to imagine myself being in her shoes xD My personality came through her in some way, as it is natural to happen to writers with different characters they write, but I don’t know if that was as much as I wanted it to be.

THANK YOU AS USUAL FOR READING, AND IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FEEL FREE TO ASK!

#Heracles!Stiles #fanfics recap&notes #heracles!stiles recap&notes

0 notes

markedmoirai-blog · 7 years

Text

There was the beginning, that newness, the unfamiliar territory that you wanted to explore, the way your heart would skip a beat or two whenever they came into view. The lights dimmed, it was straight and simple tunnel vision. Your throat went dry, thoughts turned into a web that was linked to other thoughts, tongue failing to get out the words your mind knew very well. It was the way your stomach flipped when you saw them smile, and you swear that you never saw anything better. It was in the way your eyes would lock, and everybody else would disappear. In a crowded room, you would always search for them. In the way where you found yourself smiling at random moments throughout the day, out into space, for no reason at all. The times where you saw something and the first thing that came to mind was them and how, now, experiences were not your own but to be shared. It was in the way they said your name, dripping in religious devotion and you swore, right then and there, that they would be the only one you would ever worship. A single touch and your entire body was aflame. Nothing made sense. Everything made sense.

Then there was the brutal falling. The cracks that would ebb deeper and deeper, and no matter how much you tried to cover them, some stains were invisible and permanent, damage already too far gone. It was in the way that promises of forever had suddenly turned around, seeming like a dead end. It was in the way that now, there were only words of poison, voices louder than they had been previously and mouths that had once worshipped were now spewing venom, cutting skin with words sharp, knowing exactly where to cut the other, weaknesses well known because who knew each other better than one another? It was in the drying of throats, but now for a different reason altogether, the fighting and the fighting and oh god, the fighting, and for what? Trying to hold together the broken pieces of something that had already become a mosaic; pieces that had once fit together perfectly were now cut jagged, only to leave the other bleeding, to pick up the pieces they had cut themselves on. There was always one person who was more vulnerable, the person who fell first, the one who fell harder and gave more of themselves because they only knew how to wear their heart on their sleeve, and to give and give and give until they were empty, but it didn't matter if the other person was full, if the other person was happy. That person was me.

Dating and I used to be best friends. It used to be easy when you were the head cheerleader. The boys had been like bees, and I was supplying the honey. There was never any shortage and I always had a date to the dance (even two and I had to eenie meenie minnie moe it.) Enter Destiny, stage right. Thomas Prescott — Captain of the football team and a target of mine when life used to be cheerleading and parties. Everything had been going just peachy, and he had asked me to be his date for the Spring Fling. Then came a lot of people dying, freaky accidents and somehow, I was always around when they happened (Slayer business and all) and that brought out the stigma of ‘where Buffy went, trouble followed’. Of course, Thomas couldn't be seen with someone like that, someone whose image was starting to shatter from perfection to delinquent, and there endeth the dreams of dating the captain, and it only seemed to be a downward slope from there. Billy Fordham — Hemery High crush, one of my first major heart throbs came back to Sunnydale. What did I do? Blindly trust, only to learn that he had learned of the things that went bump in the night, having been promised the gift of eternity in exchange for one tiny gift – the slayer's death. I sure knew how to pick them. Owen Thurman — He was quiet, soft and an all around hunk who had a soft side for Emily Dickinson and carried around her volumes to read between classes. He was someone who seemed to walk on the side of safe, normal and boring and boy, did I find that endearing. Except, one date with me and suddenly the boy was seeking adrenaline thrills and wanting to go on more fangy adventures, and I knew that he would last all of fifteen minutes in this life. Somehow, slaying had come meddling in between and me and my lack of luster love life, once again. Scott Hope — I wasn't going to make the same mistake again, slaying would be my dirty little secret. The only thing was, that dirty little secrets often ended up being distractions, building little white lie on little white lie until all there was left was big, black lies and nowhere to turn. According to him, I was never present, not in the now, always distracted (I had to be, I had a job to do, but he couldn't know that.) Tom Warner — Mutant ninja turtle, basically. Boatload of steroids for being on the swimming team and all around icky. I sure knew how to pick em.' Angel — The first. That epic love (or so one thinks in the moment), the one that made my head spin in a tizzy. Always. Forbidden — not only because he was hundreds of years older, but because he was the very thing I was destined to kill. First loves came with naivety, and this relationship did not disappoint. There was heartache, the kind that made your knees buckle and your heart break into pieces, the kind that knocked the wind out of your body and left you immobile. "Was it good for you too?"

Words, mocking, painted in blood for everyone to see my vulnerable state. My first time — and I had turned my boyfriend into a monster. After a night of blissful love making, the sheets had been empty and cold, and the body I slept with was not the same one I came back to.

"It wasn't like you were my first. C'mon, Buff. You were... you'll get better."

Those were the first words I heard afterwards, and it had taken everything in me to not cry, to not let him see me more broken than I had felt. I had never let anyone in like that, and this was the result. It wasn't Angel talking, it was Angelus, but those were words that I hadn't forgotten, even now.

When it came time to save the entire world, I was ready to make that sacrifice, to kill Angelus. But I hadn't been ready to kill Angel.

Malice had been replaced with vulnerability, and everything that had happened, everything he had done, wiped away... I kissed him and still, I had to kill him. The world had been saved, I had been broken, a fair trade. Parker Abrams — Charming was part of the personality trait, just as was being a jerk. His interest in me had caused me to think that maybe, just maybe, he cared. He was attentive, and was good with his words, and me, heart on my sleeve, fell into every single trap he laid out for me like the hunter he was, laying breadcrumbs until I had found his bedchamber and thinking that this could be different, that he was genuine, I slept with him. History loved to repeat itself because this time I was met with a: "It was a good time. What did you think it was?"

Was it me? Did I have it written all over my forehead, that I was an easy pit stop? Even someone as crappy as Parker didn't want me, well only for one thing. I hated that when it came to the matters of the heart, I tended to ask questions later because I thought that everyone would be as genuine as I was. I was starting to think that letting people in wasn't a good idea at all. Not when they saw their opportunity at manipulating. Not when I always ended up caring more. It was only a matter of time before lessons would begin to harden even the softest of hearts. Riley Finn — A good man. A wonderful soldier. Sweet, and probably the best boyfriend material I had encountered. Yet... there was always this space between him and I and that space was because of me. I kept everyone at a distance, I kept him at a distance because I wasn't sure if I could take another hit at my foundation. He pulled me in, I pushed him out, and no matter how hard I tried, that wall of stone only seemed to thicken with question marks between us, leaving us further and further apart until there was nothing left to hold on to, nothing to base this foundation off of. He deserved better than half baked proposals because of a girl who wasn’t sure if she could let people in anymore. He had been good at giving me an ultimatum and leaving… just like the rest. Apparently it was easy.

Dean Winchester — the biggest question mark in my life. Our history had been a long one, dating back to Hemery High, and that had been just the start of it. He had been the mark that never faded, fitting like my favourite sweater; nostalgia, a taste bringing me back to the most bittersweet time of my life. Maybe it had been the way he had this air of secrecy around him, or how he seemed to not care at all. Or maybe it had been the stolen kisses between classes, and the way he spiked my heart rate or the way that I could see something behind that signature smirk but he had been the one to hurt the most, and he had never faded from me, even years later, the memory of him leaving without a single word was fresh, as if it had just happened. The anger, the hurt, the embarrassment and the black pit of something I was only beginning to learn about — heartbreak warfare.

If that had been the end of it, I might have coped but our relationship was confusing, with more words unsaid and longing looks exchanged. A distant memory, coming back to life and with it, everything I had felt when he was near me. How dare he? Just come back unannounced and make me drown with what I felt? Once again, I was the reason for the death of a possible lover, disappointing him but he would never say. The good luck kiss still imprinted on my lips, the disappointment because I knew I was partly to blame but, I had to do what I had to do. Damn, this job.

The joy when he had returned, again and again, feeling more than I should for someone who had the tendency to leave for prolonged periods of time. The confusion that only grew with the feelings that I couldn't dare put into verbal words, the confusion that came when the tension became too much and we could only answer with locking mouths and exploring hands; but never words. Never. We wouldn't go near that, that plate was too hot to the touch and none of us wanted to get burned. The way that I felt like I could be me with him, not the Slayer, not the one that had to be “on” all the time, but me, Buffy Anne Summers. That there was this smile, completely organic, matching the happiness that coagulated within me only when I was with him. He was the match that lit up that flame, and that flame would be the same one that would burn me. Sometimes I thought I saw something, something in those green eyes of his. Something that resembled affection for me, but it had probably been my own reflection. There had always been an elephant in the room with us, suffocating me and taking away my air because I felt like I would combust with just how much I lov— felt for him. A way he didn't feel about me.

I didn't even have to ask. I knew what this was. I was his Sunnydale stop, just like the ones he had all over this country. Dean was the love em' and leave em' type, and didn't know the first thing about relationships. Settling down was never in the corner of his mind, so just entertaining the thought was asking for heartbreak, another one, and this one was one that I knew I wouldn't come back from. This was different from all the rest, he was the one that never went away, no matter the miles between us. But I could pretend he cared about me — I could pretend when his fingers were gripping my skin, when my hands were in his hair and his mouth was mapping out my skin in complete devotion, as if I were the only one he was going to touch like that. That was when I could pretend that this was more than just a distraction for me, and one for him. When teeth bit down onto his lip, when soft sounds were muffled into the junction of his shoulder, hot breaths spilling with pleas and that feeling when complete and utter ecstasy came to pull us both under, when he said my name with such affection... I could pretend he loved me too. That he wasn't going to leave for weeks on end. That whatever we were doing, it was real.

I was good at pretending. Why was it that I always pursued relationships that were doomed from the start — was it on purpose? As if I knew that there stood no chance of something normal, that my being the slayer would hinder it, so I chose something that was a flickering flame from the start, needing only a little breeze to let it die. There was only so many times that I could put the blame on my slaying, on others, and maybe it was time to face the true root of the problem — that, maybe, it was me. That maybe, the girl with the heart on her sleeve had to die, so the Slayer could live.

#✦ MarkedDrabbles

0 notes

funkadelicthreads · 7 years

Text

Clean Vibes, Good People, Great Tunes.

This was the mantra that resonated throughout the weekend, rain or shine. Sweetwater & Happy Ending Production’s seriously stepped up the talent this year bringing this powerhouse headliner lineup, but even the smaller stages had the best local jammers as well. If you missed the fabulous preview of 420 Fest by Savannah elder – you need to check it out here!

It’s hard to come by a successfully run festival that is smack dab in the middle of a city, yet somehow ATL does this quite well. This is especially impressive when the festival is packed yet seems like there is green space between you and your neighbor. The heavy hitting headliners included WSMFP, Trey, Moe., Lettuce (If you don’t know then you better learn), Ween, Dopapod, Break Science (w Adam Deitch of Lettuce and Royal Family Records w/ Fitty Cent), Trombone Short, & Twiddle – just to name a few.

… But y’all could get that review from all the other media houses – L4LM, Jam Base, or Live ‘n Listen. This ‘rebrew’ is all about the smaller acts with that BIG sound! In order of appearance: The Hip Abduction, CBDB, Andy Bruh, Hedonistas, Voodoo Visionary, HIKU, & Funk You. So enjoy the epic photos by Blake Towns and listen to some Lettuce while you read!

Video by Clifton Dyer

The Hip Abduction

T.H.A. is an honorable mention since they are unable to play die to their singer’s vocal cord strain earlier in the wee which called for no talking/singing for a week (Doctor’s Orders)… coulda just jammed though y’all! Enough hate though I’m sure they heard it enough. They are currently touring w/ 3rd studio album under their belt and recently added synth sound incorporated into their tribal reggaeton arsenal due to their most recent producer from Nashville. Cheers to that guy because it works actually, big risk big reward because they have been shooting straight up the festival bills.

The Hip Abduction featuring David New (lead vocals, guitar), Pat Klemawesch (kamale ngoni, guitar, vocals), Chris Powers (bass), Dave Johnson (baritone and tenor sax), Sean Fote (keyboards), Matt Poynter (drums, vocals), and John Holt III (kamale ngoni, guitar, vocals) have shared stages with the likes of Ziggy Marley, Umphrey’s McGee, Thievery Corporation, 311, Dawes, Galactic, and Moe.FE and has performed at Sunfest, Wanee Music Festival, Suwanee Hulaween, Orange Blossom Jamboree, Tropical Heatwave Music Festival, The BIG What? and more.

All Photos are by Blake Towns

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

CBDB

The slayers and purveyors of Joyfunk from L.A. (that’s Lower Alabama, not Los Angeles). These guys kicked off the festival with elegantly intricate riffs over light hearted prog jams. Its intense in a whole-hearted way which is hard to describe. CBDB always brings the heat and their performance at the Lyrics & Laughter Stage was no exception. Before the show, I talked to their newest bassist (that’s their 3rd if you are counting, but the rest of the band has held tight so no worries) but this new guy knows what’s up on the down low. Check out their third album, entitled “The FAME EP”, they are seeing a pattern of snowballing momentum with large, energetic crowds hungry. They blend soulful vocals and virtuosic instrumentation with smart, tasteful songwriting resulting in a sound that can be enjoyed by the casual listener and audiophile alike.

Speaking of questionable choices, as much as I hate to love Twiddle (Half of you Phish fans know what I’m talking about) I really do love this song and Bird Dog Jubilee does a spot on rendition. Here is vid of the song at 420Fest.

Andy Bruh

The Heartwood Artist who is always in between Decatur and Athens has been raising the stakes in the DJ Realm for quite some time. After getting his start packing out New Earth, he quickly rose to support slots for Bassnectar, one of his biggest influences. He and Nectar also have more in common – they walk the line of producer and band by bringing together fresh perspectives, original music, and a true sense of community that is built on the entrepreneurial spirit of friends that surround them.

Andy’s other partner in crime, Robbie Dude, didn’t make the se this year, but they both were reunited alongside JuBee & Friends at the 420 Fest After party on Sunday. The Duo accompanied by accomplished MC, JuBee was nothing short of magical. Also Shoutout to JuBee playing Red Rocks this September // #keepATLfunky homie! The Atlanta born producer and DJ captures the soul of his city while pushing into unknown sonic territory with full control. Steeped in the history of Southern hip-hop, Andy Bruh builds on it’s melodic backbone and brings the full force of the electronic bass wave to create an energy unrivaled by many in the scene.

Hedonistas

Due to a time conflict, we weren’t able to cover these cool cats, but we still wanted to give them a shoutout and recoginition they deserve. Hit this link is after reading to get a peak of their set from the festival!

Also if that isn’t enough, our mutual homie Ethan “Dancin Shoes” Eloquin will be submitting a full rebrew of Hedonistas. Stay tuned kids!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Voodoo Visionary

The Hometown Hero’s of Funk never disappoint. Here is just a little look into the set, but be looking out for a promo video and more media later! Where do we start?! Well, they played one of the best versions of “Harmony” I have head since its debut. Not to mention the monster jam that ensued after playing “Life During War Time” ( better than Widespread’s version i.m.o – more funky and to the point). Imagine that whilst slowly transitioning into the funkiest version of “Apache” (Jump On It) by Sugar Hill Gang all while Bret and the Krewe tossed out Voodoo Volley Balls into the insatiable crowd.

These newcomers ATE IT UP, and they fully satisfied their longtime fans as well. It was a magnificent marriage of olde & new, experimental & funk, young & old… so basically it is what you get all the time if you consistently go to VV’s shows. I cannot stress how much that this is a band not to miss next time you see them on a bill *cough cough* SCI afterparty. The crowd was so wild, I truly thought that widespread panic was about to ensue.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

HIKU

This Dynamic Duo is new on the block; however, the two producers are defiantly not. Niles, keys/synth/pad of ATL hellions Higher Learning who have been disrupting the electronic scene more than anyone since STS9 (which makes cents* since they were well-deservingly signed to 1320 Records last yea. (…don’t say 1312 like I always mistakenly say, it’s embarrassing. Especially if you say it to Alana while relating to bass theory) Moving on now.

Tyler (whose last name will remain a secret due to him being in the GBI’s Witness Protection Program) turned away from a life of killing beats to turning to the light side where he met Niles who noticed Tyler’s keen ability to produce phenomenal bass hits while pulling in drops to other covers which is the basis of HIKU. They do an extraordinary job of interlocking covers and original material to send out earthshaking drops atop there mountainous sound onto the audience.

Funk You

The OGs Renegades of Georgia Funk hailing from East Augusta have been on the grind for years and really been gaining this deserved recognition recently. The troupe is made up pf Will Clark on Drums, Will Foster on Keys, Gavin Hamilton on Vox, Evan Miller on Guitar, Palmer Owens on Perc, and Rob on Bass. Really they were well kept secret in Augusta, but nationally touring musicians have recolonized their talent for quite some time which has landed them in great festival spots like 420, The Werkout, The Big What, and the list goes on.

Back in 2014 at the first iteration of The Major Rager with Umphrey’s McGee and Moon Taxi, they were playing the afterparty at Sky City with The Kinky Aphrodisiacs and Chris Myers actually jumped on the drumset and jammed out! They had a number of flawlessly executed impromptu sit-ins – all while UM & Moon Taxi band members were in the crowd cheering them on. It was a magical moment to watch and after talking to Will Foster, it seems that there are many more stories to tell. We will save that for another article on these new age James Brown revivalists of the south. Catch them opening for PGroove at Georgia Theatre on June 2 in Athens and the Cox Capitol Theatre in Macon June 2. For tickets and info here!

Stay Funky My Friends,

~Kyle Dee~

… and if you still are reading, you deserve this: WSMFP night 2 – 2nd Set (I almost put the Ween set, but then thought you Gene and Dean fiends probably saw their set and already looked up all the recap plus pressed through the other single song vids from the night… I know I did. Roses was a great opener and Bird Dog Jubilee did a good cover of it at the Vinyl after Party too)

FEATURED THREAD: 14th Sweetwater 420 Fest’s Heady ‘Rebrew’ Clean Vibes, Good People, Great Tunes. This was the mantra that resonated throughout the weekend, rain or shine.

0 notes