#rich the factor

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 10, Number 10

The Ex

October closes with a macabre flourish — blackened gardens, elaborate yard displays of skeletons, Halloween, the day of the dead, a terrifying American election.  We music lovers react in various ways, some turning to darker, more ominous musical textures, others seeking solace and distraction, still others ignoring the backdrop completely and listening to what they would listen to anyway.  And so, we gather another wide-ranging dust, spanning sounds inspired by a Bolivian earthquake, pogo-friendly snappy jangle, a crust supergroup, a celebration of the Ex’s 45 years in music, and much more.  This month’s contributors include Jennifer Kelly, Bryon Hayes, Bill Meyer, Jonathan Shaw, Christian Carey, Ray Garraty, Tim Clarke and Ian Mathers. 

Alma Laprida — Pitch Dark and Trembling (Outside Time)

Alma Laprida is an experimental artist and musician from Argentina, here playing a medieval stringed instrument—the tromba marina—through a 21st century array of effects pedals and an 18-inch subwoofer. The instrument, with its yards-long strings and vibrating bridge, is, by itself, capable of unusual sounds. Its natural timbre hovers between a cello and a trumpet. But fed through Laprida’s electronic rig, the sound turns harsh and ominous, blistering and dissolving into tones so low you feel rather than hear them. This album comes from a live performance at Bard College in 2023, taking as its subject Laprida’s experiences during an earthquake in Bolivia. In the long, “Trembling,” low, sustained vibrations make the air tremble, while trebly, metallic sounds skitter and rattle, like pots and pans clattering in the shock. A clock ticks in the foreground, steady on top of roiling, shifting undercurrents. “Vibra,” the other lengthy track, looses then subdues the tromba’s brassy sound, letting the echoes linger for long, not-quite-empty minutes. A corrosive blare interrupts, a foghorn in a world of mists and uncertainty, then clear string tones and its scratching echoes. Pitch Dark and Trembling distills an ambient unease into sound.

Jennifer Kelly

Artificial Go — Hopscotch Fever (Feel It / Future Shock)

This Cincinnati quartet produce a short, sharp brand of post-punk that induces spontaneous pogoing. Hopscotch Fever is Artificial Go’s debut, but it could easily be mistaken for an unearthed gem from late-1970s England with its snappy rhythms and chiming, angular guitars. Vocalist Angie Wilcutt (Corker) adopts an English accent as she sings charmingly, her lyrics unfolding in an energy-filled stream of consciousness that keeps pace with the bouncy backbeat of songs like “Payphone,” “Aphrodisiac,” and the band’s calling card “Artificial Go.” Cole Gilfilen (Corker, The Drin), Micah Wu, and Claudio Thornburgh round out the band’s lineup. Like a game of hopscotch, their churning jangle is a lot of fun but comes to a halt far too quickly. Hopscotch Fever is full of earworms. Its effervescent spirit lingers in our brains long after the music stops.  

Bryon Hayes

Black Toska—The Orphan (Self-Release)

The Madrileño goth punks in Black Toska return with six more haunted, synth-swathed, night visions, revisiting a sound Dusted described in early 2023 as “like John Spencer without all the arch theatricality or Rocket 808 in less of a growl and more of a croon.” If anything The Orphan is even more ominous than Dandelion was, with corrosive guitar sound tripping a hole in “Little Dead Bird” and a fever-dream unease percolating through “The Only Thing We Need.” The best cut is the title track, intimating baroque dangers its flowers-of-evil flare of wah wah and mannered vocal melody. “Who can steal a baby?” asks Victor Garcia, his elegant, jaded voice hemmed in by wild surges of electrified dissonance, as you’re left to consider that bad things—and compelling music—flourish in the shadows.

Jennifer Kelly

Paul Bryan — Western Electric (Paul Bryan Music)

The title might cue you to ponder your power situation, but the intent is more oblique. Bassist-programmer-producer Paul Bryan took Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West, an exercise in restriction that happened to open doors of conceptual opportunity for everyone who was feeling confined by the piano’s roll as the chord cop of bebop. But Bryan, whose cv. includes production and arrangement work with Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, and Aimee Mann, is a plugged-in kind of guy, so his restriction involved writing the material on a little Yamaha keyboard and recording it with a trio comprising Jay Belleroe on drums and Josh Johnson on alto sax. Since you can’t completely separate a studio dude from his gear, there’s some processing and programmed drum, which results in the album having a soft jazz-funk feel that is uncluttered, but hardly minimal. Western Electric is the answer to a question that few might ask; what if you subtracted the guitar and the layered production from Jeff Parker’s New Breed?

Bill Meyer

CPC Gangbangs — Roadhouse (Slovenly)

CPC Gangbangs is back after a long hiatus and not a bit tamed. The Montreal garage punks with ties to Les Sexareenos and Spaceshit flared out in 2007 and reappeared (some of them) as Red Mass. But 17 years later and without explanation, they bash and slam and clatter again, serving up two covers and one original, all flayed and confrontational like it’s the rock-is-back aughts all over again. CPC Gangbangs jack up Louisiana swamp rock “Going Back to Philly” on agitated city-boy jitters. They blast through “Rock ‘n Roll Enemy #1” from the SF proto-punks Crime with furious intent. They haunt Bo Diddley’s grave site with a rackety beat in “Roadhouse.” It’s referential but never reverent, well-informed but never studious, good stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

Deadform — Entrenched in Hell (Tankcrimes)

Sort of stupid to reference the notion of “supergroup” in relation to a subgenre as witheringly anti-commercial as crust, but Deadform hits all the right notes, as it were: three dudes who have Oakland’s concrete ground into their bodies, and who have played crucial roles in bands as storied as Dystopia, Stormcrow and Laudanum. Dino Sommese (of Dystopia, and also Noothgrush and Ghoul) has the most recognizable name, for listeners beyond the Bay Area and outside of crust’s stinky, dirty milieu, and he pounds the skins and hollers with energy belying his 50-some-odd years. But all the players (including Brian Clouse and Judd Hawk) are all in. Entrenched in Hell doesn’t move beyond crust’s characteristic properties: lotsa nasty metal-tinged guitar parts, some sludgy yuck clotting up the bloodstream, the smell of filthy dreadlocks, and so on. It’s a heavy record, the second half of which hits especially hard. Check out “Peacekeeper” and especially “Fetid Breath.” Then pick yourself up off the dank floor of whatever squat you passed out in and play the tunes again.

Jonathan Shaw

Efterklang — Things We Have in Common (City Slang)

Danish post-rock band Efterklang has been releasing recordings for 20 years, as well as producing an opera in 2015 and making music through core members’ side projects. Things We Have in Common is the culmination of a trio of albums, beginning with Altid Sammen (2017) and continuing with Windflowers (2021). This time out, the group doesn’t eschew its characteristic experimentation, but several of the songs evince a gentle, art pop vibe, particularly “Plant” on which singer/cellist Mabe Fratti guests, “Getting Reminders,” with Beirut and “Animated Heart,” featuring the choir Sønderjysk Pigekor. Efterklang on its own is persuasive too. “Shelf Break” has an artful use of vocoder against oscillating synths and abundantly syncopated percussion. “Leave It All Behind” combines whispered vocals, keyboard arpeggiations, sustained sine tones and a drum thwack on alternating beats. Taken as part of the trio of recordings, Things We Have in Common is its hopeful conclusion.

Christian Carey

The Ex — Great! / The Evidence (Ex Records)

In 2024, the Ex are celebrating their 45th year by putting out their first new music in six years. It’s just two songs on a 45-rpm record (although they’re also throwing a celebratory shindig in Amsterdam and Mechelen late in November). Not many bands last 45 years, and of those that do, it’s pretty rare for them to put out work you’d want to hear as much as the songs that first drew you into their camp. The Ex are not a common band. The quartet of Terrie Hessels, Andy Moor, Arnold de Boer, and Katherina Bornefeld are still engaged with the moment; the words to these two song address current realities with a combination of elliptical expression and blunt veracity. They’re still engaged with each other, locking into these tough, intricate, but fat-free tunes with combustible chemistry intact. And they’re still tuned into the joy and outrage that’s infused their work across four and a half decades. That’s pretty rare.

Bill Meyer

Jill Fraser— Earthly Pleasures (Drag City)

Electronic composer Jill Fraser has been making music for commercials and films, as well as performing New Age pieces live, since the 1970s. Earthly Pleasures is her first album release in a while. It demonstrates her versatility with vintage gear such as the 1978 Serge Modular synth and newer resources such as Ableton Push 3. “When We Get to Heaven” is a ten-minute long track that uses these resources to make a diaphanously appealing arrangement. “Amen 1” and “Amen 2” are more aphoristic, the first with clouds of harmony and a sci-fi sounding ascent, the second with sparking bell timbres, oscillating percussion, sampled voices, and a fluid keyboard part. Earthly Pleasures closes with “I Stand Amazed,” with trebly, widely spaced synths. Fraser has suggested that the theme of this album is, “What happens to our music when we die?” History suggests that mileage varies, but while she is earthbound, one hopes Fraser has more recordings to share.

Christian Carey

Häxenzijrkell — Portal (Amor Fati)

German maestros of bummer black metal Häxenzijrkell are back with another slab of downtempo musical maelstroms, engineered to drag you into a terrible, soul crushing void. That description and the band’s sonic profile sound a lot like blackened doom, but somehow the music on Portal scans as straight-up black metal — at least to this reviewer’s ears. The best tracks are at the end of the record: “Assiah” and “Aeon” drone, churn and distend like the effects of some of that legendary brown acid, which we aren’t supposed to eat. There’s nothing especially lysergic (to invoke that too-trivially used term) about the textures or production of Portal. It’s more the nightmarishness of the tunes, the mechanical edges on the band’s sound, the taste of something metallic at the back of the tongue — all that stuff accumulates, alongside the deliberate, glacial progress of the songs. Soon that glistening, awful wall of ice looms over you. You can see your face on its glassy surface. You know it’s a bad idea to stare, but you can’t help yourself. It’s excruciating. It’s entrancing. You are through the Portal.

Jonathan Shaw

Boldy James & Harry Fraud — The Bricktionary (Boldy James / SRFSCHL)

The Bricktionary is the fourth Boldy James’ tape this year and apparently not the final one. The producer Harry Fraud has also been too busy lately, spreading himself too thin. The good news is that Boldy is good even on generic beats (probably half of his output has been on some unknown guys’ production). It’s the kind of street music which never forgets that it’s an art and not a report card. The best track here is “Shadowboxing.”

Ray Garraty

Danny Kamins — Retainer (Sound Holes)

“Solo Horn,” declares the J-card art, and it does not lie. This tape presents Texan Danny Kamins playing sopranino and baritone saxophones at home, alone. It would appear that he spent his lockdown time developing his circular breathing. On the small horn, his examinations of patterns that subtly vary and throw off flurries of orbiting overtones feels like an homage to Evan Parker’ solo soprano work. Parker got there first with such authority that he has made it hard for other people to do it and not simply sound like him. Kamins sounds great but doesn’t quite overcome the challenge of differentiation. The baritone is another matter. Kamins sculpts massive ribbons of tunneling, rippling sound to consistently compelling effect.

Bill Meyer

Seiji Murayama / Jean-Luc Guionnet — Balcony Inside (Ftarri)

Multi-instrumentalist, graphic artist, composer, improviser, film-maker, etc.; Jean-Luc Guionnet is a confirmed polymath. On Balcony Inside he and frequent collaborator Suijiro Murayama perform a duet for church organ (Guionnet) and snare drum, cymbal and voice (Muriyama). But it might be more accurate to say that they play with space. There’s the apparently capacious interior of the Taborkirche, which Guionnet represents with massive chords that beat against the walls. And there’s the space inside your head, which is likely to be rearranged by Muriyama’s horror-movie-victim cries and emphatic, elastically rhythmic beats. A seasonal suggestion: pipe this music loudly out of your house on Halloween, and keep a tally of how many are drawn by these massive sounds and how many avoid your house.

Bill Meyer

The Necks — Bleed (Northern Spy)

It’s impossible to guess where The Necks might head next, whether live or on record. Their new album, Bleed,is a single 42-minute track that unfolds patiently in an episodic fashion. There are no conventional rhythms from Tony Buck; instead, he punctuates the space with chimes, bowed cymbals and snare and tom rolls that suggest something ominous is about to happen. Sparse, sustained piano notes from Chris Abrahams are left to hang in the air — listen carefully and you can hear breathing in the room — or Abrahams switches to organ and projects pulsing clusters of notes into stereo space. In an unexpected turn, an electric guitar appears, with accompanying tube amp hum. Lloyd Swanton’s bass is largely absent, save for occasional isolated octave plucks, or some ominous bowing. When the piece coalesces in its final stretch with two piano chords, bass and guitar, the music is begging to continue in this vein for at least twice as long as it does but is cruelly cut short. That’s The Necks for you: always expansive, always surprising, always tapping into music’s eternal potential.

Tim Clarke

Rich the Factor — The North Face Whale, Vol. 3 (WE MFR)

We mostly listen to Rich the Facc’s music because of his gruff voice. The North Face Whale, Vol. 3 is another sample of his voice. The big mistake would be to try to pay attention to what he’s saying on these songs. It is some usual nonsense about how he’s “on money mission, not on dummy mission.” Even after dozens of replays no song off this tape stays in memory. But it’s fine. You have only one question: how is The North Face Whale, Vol. 3 any different from Vol. 1 and Vol. 2?

Ray Garraty

Colin Andrew Sheffield — Moments Lost (Sublime Retreat)

Sound source resonates with subject on this brief minimax (a 3” CD embedded in a 5” plastic disc) CD made by Colin Andrew Sheffield, an electronic musician who resides in Austin TX. Sheffield’s preferred method is plunderphonics; he mines his own media collection for sounds to be procured and (most of the time) processed into music of his own. Moments Lost is a soundtrack made from soundtracks. Sheffield has marshalled a mass of samples from movies, mostly string passages that imply moments of pause, reflection, transition and loss, and layered and sequenced them into a 20.33” sequence of sounds daub association and reverie like a painter might daub paint. Played at low volume, it could be your next go-to ambient recording. But if you spend time listening closely, perhaps while peering at the sleeve’s stills from a film that Sheffield played along with the music when he first presented it at the Molten Plains Festival in Denton in 2023, you might find your physique and consciousness sinking deep while you hit the play button over and over.

Bill Meyer

Chelsea Wolfe — She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (Loma Vista)

Considering Chelsea Wolfe hasn’t put out a solo LP since 2019’s Birth of Violence, and that was basically a folk record, casual fans may well wonder what kind of upheavals led to this very different seventh album. On a personal level there have been plenty (sobriety, relationships changing, learning to live alone, etc) and that combined with additional pandemic time spent working on the demos led to Wolfe going in a more electronic direction and deliberately seeking an outside producer (Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, many others) to transform the songs. The result is further in a darkwave/trip-hop direction than the already protean Wolfe has previously gone, and also one of her most consistently engaging records. Whether on the noisier, spikier bursts of “Whispers in the Echochamber” and “Eyes Light Nightshade” or the more delicate likes of “The Liminal” and “Place in the Sun,” there’s a beautifully sung and relentless Gothic vibe to the whole thing that’s extremely satisfying. Wolfe may well choose to move on again after this, but it’ll be a bit of a shame if she does.

Ian Mathers

[acepalindrome]

No one should be obligated to feel sympathy for a bunch of rich people who are probably dead after spending a grotesque amount of money doing something stupidly risky for no practical reason but that they’re rich and bored,

BUT

I do think it’s fucked up that some of you guys seem to think it’s a moral failing to feel anything but glee and delight at a bunch of people, one of which is 19, suffering one of the most horrific deaths imaginable that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

[mazeyphaedra]

HELIO CHOSE HER, BUT SHE CHOSE CASSANDRA.

Traci Brimall, Vive, Vive // Mitski, Goodbye My Danish Sweetheart // Unknown // Katie Maria, God is made of hunger and I am made of dreams // Ally Beardsley, Fantasy High: Sophomore Year // Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes // @inkskinned, When I’m sad, I write goodbye letters to the people I care about. Once I’ve said goodbye to everyone, I can go. // Ally Beardsley, Fantasy High: Junior Year // Florence & The Machine, Girls Against God // Hozier & Allison Russell, Wildflower and Barley

[wfl-art]

Having an anime moment

[salvadorbonaparte]

Would you mind sharing your views on backpacking? 👀

Take all of this with a grain of salt because I'm mostly just bothered by backpacking content on Instagram.

I think the concept is fine. I'd actually like to do some backpacking some time.

But backpacking content, as well as most overland* content, always has a really weird vibe. It almost feels like cosplaying poverty if you know what I mean??

It's almost always young people from the so called "West" and almost always they're somewhere in South or Southeast Asia. The most popular backpacking destinations I'm seeing at the moment are Bali (exclusively that part of Indonesia for some reason), Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. The algorithm has recently also started showing me content from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

Since flights to these destinations are usually quite expensive, and many of these people stay abroad long enough that they might need a visa and that accommodation and food would also add up, it can be safely assumed these people have a certain amount of financial stability. Some of them are full time influencers too.

And while travelling with a backpack instead of a suitcase makes sense, and while you want to have an "authentic" experience, the vibe on those videos is often sooooo weird.

They're always like "I just spent 45h standing in a cramped bus without AC because it was only $1. I'm sleeping on the floor of this abandoned building that costs me $4 a night. I only carry 2 t-shirts with me, can't find a laundromat and I'm travelling for 3 months. Yesterday I got scammed and got food poisoning."

And I'm like why are you doing this? Is it really more "authentic" just because it's a foreign country? You can find the same uncomfortable situations and people who live like that all the time in your home country, but when you're abroad it's cool and authentic and #humbling #eatpraylove. Meanwhile there's also people in that same country you're backpacking through who, like, have a comparable standard of living you're used to. Your holiday doesn't have to be luxury resorts but it also doesn't have to be absolutely god awful.

And of course there's also the factor of adrenaline and stepping out of your comfort zone but with these videos it seems like they're almost glamorising having an awful time in an "exotic" country because that's what it's supposed to be like? I guess?

Idk I feel like I should get the opinion of someone living in one of those backpacking hotspots to make sure I'm not just getting annoyed at nothing but I think the vibe is off.

*overland content as in "travelling from XY to YZ without flying - Day 420" type videos. They're often interesting and I follow some of those people and I actually have some ideas for cool overland or long distance train trips but some of the accounts also have a weird vibe. Most of the ones I saw were men and they're like hitchhiking through some desert somewhere and I'm like oh this would feel so unsafe to me as someone perceived female. And obviously they also make lots of content where you know they have lots money because they've been travelling for several months but it has that same fake low budget backpacker vibe.

I hope this makes sense. I'm not sure it does.

[dumbassalex]

Ok, as someone who sorta defended The Crow 2024 reboot, and now that i've seen it, i have thoughts about it and i wanna share them... (More under the cut, spoilers ahead)

So firstly i liked the action, it was clear and you could see what's going on and the gore in those scenes was good, so no real issues with the action scenes. I really dug the soundtrack, the songs they chose to play were good and something i'd listen to.

I also like that Shelly had more screentime and got to be more of a character, that was fun and FKA twigs played her well in my opinion. Bill Skarsgard gave a good performance, as basicly always, with his Eric too.

Now my biggest issues is with the story itself, and especialy the pacing, it was SO slow, we spent like half the movie on Eric and Shelly while watching the villians look for Shelly, while also barely any real time has passed for Eric and Shelly, or at least it didn't feel like much of a time has at all passed between Eric and Shelly running away and being murdered.

And even once the couple gets killed by the villians, it takes us like another third of the movie for Eric to really become the Crow, for most of the movie he's just Eric with healing powers, and only becomes The Crow right before the opera scene, whitch is way too long for something based on a comic that's mostly just Eric being The Crow and hunting Shellys killers.

Another thing i dislike is the villians and their story, the original idea for the villians was just a group of street criminals coming across Eric and Shelly on a random day in the rain as their car broke down and deciding on a whim to do what they did, that was the tragedy, that it was random, senseless and didn't have to happen if a single thing happened differently. And changing it to a group of rich people hunting Shelly specificaly due to an incriminating video is such an odd change, along with the change to give the main villian superpowers.

Another thing that i feel like is a big difference between the comic and the movie is that the movie is very literal and very open about Eric coming from the death, healing super fast and there being supernatural entities and superpowers, while in the comics it was all more lowkey with Eric not feeling pain and healing slower than what the movies show, with his walking around wounded and scarred, the crow talking being in his head, same for the skeleton cowboy and the vision of the white horse that was a metaphor for the conflict of the story, it was a random senseless act that Eric had no control over yet he couldn't leave it be and blames himself for what happened.

In the movie it's a literal thing that happened to child Eric and doesn't set up his character arc and personal conflict of not blaming himself and moving on. Whitch was WHY he came back for revenge, because he was angry, blamed himself and couldn't move on, something he was only able to do at the end when he died at Shellys grave.

Whitch brings another change i disliked, the ending, the original ending of the comics is about Eric finaly being at peace and being able to move on and die, joining Shelly in the afterlife. But in the movie the reason he keeps going on is from pure love (somehow he felt such love after such short time) that can waver and make him loose his powers until making a deal for Shelly soul and becoming The Crow, bringing Shelly back to life while Eric stays dead. That just kinda misses the point, there wasn't no coming back and living again, it was about Eric having to come to peace and move on, it was a bittersweet ending but it was fitting the story and the themes, but just like the white horse methaphor, the movie ignores that.

So all in all, as a movie it's alright, but as a Crow adaptation it's overall kinda awfull in most ways. If you enjoyed the movie, good for you, but i personaly didn't really like it as a Crow adaptation and think it could've been much better. One thing i will give the movie for sure tho, is that it skipped Shellys assault, something i think wasn't entirely neccecary to motivate Eric to do what he did.

[sysig]

Bad time of it, all things considered (Patreon)

[goldenstarprincesses]

From the photo album of Lord Arthur Kirkland- Amelia, Smith College, 1883

Historical Note: In 1866, the first all women-baseball team was formed at Vassar College. While this first team, and the many that followed, never lasted long due to outside pressures related to fears that such "manly" activities would harm the female reproductive system, many unofficial teams began to pop-up at the women's college of the Eastern United States. One such team was formed at Smith College in 1883. For many of these early sport pioneers, the uniform consisted of wool dresses that went from either the ankle to just above the knee. Often teams would personalize them with embroidery and other design choices.

Color drawing and references under cut

[lumaspin]

i don’t think tumblr is ready for this take but yall remember how the twilight renaissance shed a lot of light on how things commonly classed as “women’s interests” were regularly shit on and socially acceptable to put down bc misogyny and whatever else. that but with disney world & the disney adult phenomenon

[dustedmagazine]

Ampichino \ Rich the Factor — Midwest Tygoons (Double F)

Midwest Tygoons is a welcome collaboration between two veterans. Their sound is stuck in the mid-2010s, but it perfectly revives the spirit of the Jacka’s music.

The two “tygoons” share a region, but also a mentor. Both worked with the late Jacka, Ampichino more closely but the Jack gave space on his albums to Rich the Fac as well. It’s been almost 15 years since the last collaboration between Am and the Jack (not counting the posthumous CD). The Devil Rejectz series remains one of Ampichino’s crowning achievements, establishing him as an artist of great talent, not just the Jacka’s sidekick. Rich the Factor has been paving his own path in Kansas since 1997. He’s put out an insane amount of material, more than 50 albums and mixtapes combined.

We don’t know why they took so long to make this collaboration. Midwest Tygoons is a blast from the past, totally nostalgic in its sound and style for the early 2000s drug rap. It can be easily mistaken for a Bay Area tape, with its minimalistic and creepy production. Both artists have nothing to prove now. Maybe this is what makes this tape so smooth. Past their prime, they’ve found a niche and feel quite relaxed in their drug kingpins position.  They also bring younger blood, like Berner, Young Bossi and King Locust, artists the Jack worked with.

Ampichino captures the spirit of the album on the chorus for “Heartbeat”: “We big whales with sharp teeth \ Trying to chase mail on these dark streets \ Under the street lights we spark heat \ Put your ear to the turf and hear my heartbeat.”  Rich the Factor’s unusual mumbly flow and Am’s overly emotional delivery lay smoothly on slow beats.

Even though Midwest Tygoons was released on Ampichino’s label, the tape has all the flaws of Rich the Factor’s music. Roughly half of the songs here last longer than they should, and a few tracks wiggle and waggle with no clear focus.

If Midwest Tygoons was released 15 years ago it would have been a clear hit. Today, it is a dose of nostalgia for those who miss Bay Area \ Midwest collaborations in the vein of The Devil Rejectz. And there is nothing wrong with nostalgia if the dosage is right.

Ray Garraty

[solipseismic]

more high fantasy needs to b written by ppl who have lived in new jersey. “we have all tacitly agreed to call this clearly defined and unanimously agreed-upon region North Fantasyland and this other clearly defined region South Fantasyland” gtfo here w that central jersey ass bullshit. the only ppl who think there’s a central jersey live in north jersey. there is no central jersey. no one agrees on where north jersey starts and south jersey ends. where’s my “well i live in fantasyjersey but i tell everyone fantasynewyork bc that’s where i travel to sell my crops”

[veunho]

Playing Elnea kingdom as if Knights and Scholars are sort of like nobility, and trying to figure out arranged marriages between them (and also my character) on first gen to get the best talent odds on future generations is a NIGHTMARE

[animapunkocchidipeterpan]

Ghali e Rich ospiti di X-Factor 🩵🩵🩵

video difficile da giffare ma ecco qui

[notmoreflippingelves]

Naomi/Esteban: 1, 7, 16 and 55 ; Gregory/Manfred (AA): 20, 21 and 59 please!

Naomi/Esteban

Who would end a heated argument by defending their actions with ‘because I love you!’ ?

Both to be honest. Albeit in slightly different ways. Esteban is more likely to have pre-emptively made a decision/taken action without informing Naomi or asking for her permission first. And Naomi would be livid that she wasn't consulted beforehand. Esteban would be very smug and condescending and talk about how he knows better since he's older (physically, maybe but not necessarily mentally) and wiser (questionable) so Naomi should defer to his judgement. And he would use "I love you" in a slightly manipulative way to try and silence all her protestations. (It doesn't work. His love for her just makes her even more determined to save him from his own noble urges).

In circumstances that specifically involve Esteban putting himself at risk (to protect Naomi/other members of his family/Avalor), he would probably also try to pull the "I am older and less worthy/important, so I am more disposable if things should go wrong" bullshit, which would make Naomi absolutely livid.

Also I think it would be impossible for Naomi to end the argument simply with "because I love you." She would specifically end it with "because I love you, you asshole!" (Emphasis on that last part). Sure she loves him and wants him to know that's why she's behaving as she is. But she also wants to remind him that he is incredibly aggravating and often stupid and she can just barely stand the sight of him sometimes.

Would they build a pillow fort together just because?

Just because? No I don't think so. And certainly not together. That being said, I can see them building separate pillow forts under very specific circumstances for the sheer purpose of outdoing each other. One of them mentioned building pillow forts as children and being very good at it. And the other immediately follows up with "That is nothing. I built forts twice as high and just as impressive." and the inevitable response is "Oh yeah. Prove it!"

And so there just ends up being the pettiest little competition as to who can build the best fort. (Elena is named the judge since she has a foot in both camps. And she's rather shook about the whole thing. She herself would've absolutely accepted a pillow fort building challenge in an instant. But like she kind of expected Naomi and Esteban of all people to act like actual, reasonable adults--as they do in most circumstances. But no, they are the ones acting like children just because neither can bend even in a little where the other is concerned).

Not sure who would win the competition, though I might have to give a slight edge to Esteban. Simply because we know he likes to stack a pillow given the like 6+ we see on his bed in the sick day episode. (Of course, if Elena had taken part, she probably would've won because she has even more stacked pillows on her own bed and she's more stubborn than either of the others to boot).

Can they stay up all night just talking?

Could they stay up all night talking? Yes, probably. Both have a lot to say, enjoy the sound of their own voice, and like spending as much time as they possibly can with their partner.

Would they stay up all night talking? I kind of doubt it. While both are very hard workers, they are also two of the more practical characters on the show. (To an extent, Esteban can definitely have his super irrational moments). Therefore, they know the importance of getting a good night's sleep. They also seem like the sort that genuinely enjoy the sleep that they get. Like they're not going to protest too much or try to stay up any longer than necessary. Sleep is good (especially in each other's arms), so there is no strong drive to push it off.

Do they like watching clouds or star gazing?

Both of them are canonically into sailing, and using the stars to navigate is kind of a big part of that. So I definitely think they would look at the stars together. Additionally, Naomi has lived in a bunch of different places, and Esteban traveled a lot during his time as chancellor. So I think they would both know and talk a lot about the different names for various constellations in different places--as well as any legends/stories associated with these or the stars themselves.

On a similar note, they might also watch the clouds a bit--but more out of practicality than enjoyment. It's always good to be on top of changes in the weather--especially when one or both is out at sea and/or if they have specific plans outdoors in the near future. That being said, Naomi is particularly fond of pointing out any cloud that she sees that even vaguely resembles Esteban's facial hair. (Esteban's usual reply: "You do me a great disservice with that remark, Miss Turner! I would never allow such a miserable, misshapen thing to grace my face.")

Gregory/Manfred

Choose one song that perfectly describes their relationship.

I'm sorry, but I am so bad at this. I don't know music like at all. (It's really just musical theater and artists my parents like. That is the extent of my music knowledge).

So we're gonna have a few songs from random musicals and they're gonna be angsty since that's where my brain goes with this ship.

So I don't think this one will come as a particular surprise especially given I know you are a Les Mis fan...but yeah, the whole sequence of Confrontation --> Stars--> Javert's Suicide.

Just Manfred being horrified and disgusted at being at Gregory's mercy and the audacity of this man to be kind and just and dedicated toward the Truth when he has no right. Just go ahead and substitute "defense attorney" for "thief"/"criminal" in a lot of Javert's lyrics, and you've got Manfred being a toxic, doomed, would-be tsundere.

"Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief/ Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase./ I am the Law and the Law is not mocked./ I'll spit his pity right back in his face./ There is nothing on Earth that we share....

"How can I allow this man to hold dominion over me...This desperate man whom I have hunted."

And as for another toxic musical yaoi ship, Judas' reprise of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar. (Arguably Mary Magdalene's original as well). Just Manfred destroying the man that he loves (unrequitedly?) as Judas has done--simply because their goals are not aligned and because he doesn't know how to handle his feelings that he can't help but feel are irrational--especially as Gregory (or Jesus in the original) is just so damned Good and Manfred knows he never would've been worthy of him.

And even though I don't particularly read MVK as wallowing in guilt nearly as much as I do with Kristoph in krisnix, I think here could be an element of that there as well.

"I have been splattered with innocent blood./ I will be dragged through the slime and the mud./ I have been splattered with innocent blood!/ I will be dragged through the slime and the slime and the slime and the mud...

I..I don't know how to love Him./ I don't know why he moves me./ He's a man; he's just a man./ He is not a King./ He is just the same as anyone I know. /He scares me so."

There's also a bit of a similar feel from Burr's parts of "The World was Wide Enough " from Hamilton. Realizing that your idealogical opposite and narrative foil and foe didn't need to die at your hands. That your victory at long last is distinctly Pyrrhic and that there was and should've been room for both of you in the courtroom (which is THE world for all intents and purposes for Manfred).

(For both of the above songs, the beginning isn't really the vibe for angsty Manfred/Greg, so I went ahead and linked to right where the relevant part starts).

And on a much, much lighter note. "Horny Angry Tango" from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (Bonus in that both characters are lawyers and the background of this is them duking it out in court in a proxy battle for their relationship issues.) Just Manfred and Gregory getting super hot under the collar while arguing against each other in court, but also like genuinely being furious with each other as opposed to just horny and in denial.

And similarly, You're Only Second Rate from The Return of Jafar. I see this as early in Manfred and Gregory knowing each other. Manfred is just so aggravated by Gregory and thinks its so absurd that Gregory thinks he is a match for him. And he just quickly becomes overly obsessed with him in a totally not healthy or normal way that Greg in no way asked for. But Manfred just can't let this go for some reason. (It's a crush; he's got a crush, but he'll never realize it).

Who would get into a fight to defend the other’s honor? Who tends to the other’s wounds?

I'm not sure I can see either of them getting into a fight to defend the other's honor. Gregory doesn't ever think fighting is the answer, and it would take awhile for Manfred to ever get to the point where he is self-aware enough to admit that he cares about Gregory in order to defend him.

That being said, I can definitely see Manfred getting into a fight that concerns Gregory in some way. Maybe he's jealous of someone else he thinks is moving in on his man? Or someone (Gant probably) makes this mistake of teasing Manfred about his obvious "crush." Then, Manfred gets really really defensive about it (he's so in denial) and may even retaliate with his fists if the person is really pushy about it.

Greg would have to be around to bandage Manfred's wounds, but he would definitely do it and very carefully. Which of course makes Manfred even more furious about everything. HOW DARE HE BE KIND WHEN THIS IS ALL HIS FAULT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Who tops? Who bottoms?

Honestly, I don't think I've ever seriously thought about this, lol. I am friendly with some Manfredf*ckers, though and so I have thought/heard a little bit about their thoughts re: von Karma sex in general.

My main feeling is that I feel like whether Manfred would top or bottom depends entirely on whom he is being shipped with. He bottoms for Gant and Blaise, he tops Udgey, Yanni, Phoenix, Miles or Kristoph (I've only seen it one fic but like...👀).

But as for Gregory...you know I have a feeling Manfred would bottom for him too. Specifically in the sense of being a rather pushy power bottom and sort of for similar reasons as Kristoph. He's super uptight and repressed--and I feel there's a part of him that would enjoy losing some of his trademark control and perfection but specifically in a controlled, safe, private environment like the bedroom. Also, he's worth it so he would enjoy making his partner do most of the work and he just sits and enjoys like the perfect and deserving von Karma that he is.

As for Gregory, I guess see him more as a service top anyway. He doesn't strike me as particularly dominant, but he strikes me as a submissive even less. Maybe it's the overall "dad" energy that he exudes, but I feel like he would be very attentive to his partner and focus on making sure that they feel good and are well-looked after.

So yeah, they're probably both switches but in this case, Greg as service top to Manfred's power-bottom.

[swiftcola]

i think if you’re already struggling to read/understand the male characters despite their prominence and accessibility, you might not yet be able to comprehend the female characters of the series

[lyncotek]

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