#seriously fuck the streaming only era

[pedrospatch]

conflicted

Raider! Joel Miller x Female Reader

summary: Your captor gives you a bath. You have some conflicting feelings when he touches you.

warnings/tags: 18+ ONLY, MINORS DNI. RAIDER ERA. DARK!JOEL. DUBCON. also tagging elements of NONCON just to be on the safe side. UNSPECIFIED AGE GAP (reader is in her 20’s and Joel is 50). READER HAS NO PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION. mentions of Joel’s group murdering reader’s group, Joel killed her father, mention of blood, Joel pretty much kidnaps reader and keeps her as his own. pet names (baby, babygirl, honey, pretty girl, little girl), daddy kink, very minimal editing.

PLEASE HEED THE WARNINGS.

if this isn’t your thing, that’s fine, just scroll on by.

word count: <1k

a/n: this is a bit less than a blurb. a blurb of a blurb. a blurbette, if you will. i shelled it out in like less than an hour. to me it is part of the captive universe, but can be read as a standalone! please be advised that this is not fleshed out at all, i just felt like writing something that didn’t require too much brain power.

He pours one last pail of hot water into the tub.

“How’s the water?” he asks you.

His voice is so deep. Rich, like molasses. 

It’s also laced with a southern accent, you’d noticed.

Aware he’s still waiting for an answer, you shrug.

He tries again. “S’not too hot, is it?”

He had ordered one of the women in the group to start a fire and boil water collected from the stream they had stumbled upon just a mile south of the small cottage.

“Seriously, Joel?” Angela had glared at him. “I am not a fucking maid.” Hands planted on her hips, she foolishly added, “If I’m gonna haul and boil water for a bath, it’s gonna be for me, alright? Not for that little fucking brat of yours.”

His switchblade had gone straight to her throat.

“Fuckin’ say that again,” Joel hissed, the sharp edge of the blade lightly slicing into her flesh. “Call her that one more time and see what fuckin’ happens.”

She apologized and then got to work, completing the task within a couple of hours.

Finally, you answer his question.

“Water’s fine,” you mumble. It’s hot, but not scalding.

“Good.”

Joel kneels beside the tub.

Flinching, you hunch over and pull your legs up against your chest.

It doesn’t matter. He’s already seen you naked.

He’s the one who had undressed you, after all.

Dipping a washcloth into the water, Joel instructs, “Sit up straight, honey.”

Honey.

The pet name makes you feel sick to your stomach.

You’re not his honey. You’re his prisoner.

He frowns, the creases between his brows deepening.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, pretty girl.”

Obediently, you nod and the water sloshes around you as do what he says.

You saw what he was capable of. You’re terrified of him.

With a satisfied hum, he begins washing you.

It had been three days since the massacre. Joel gently scrubs away the crimson caked onto your skin and the color of the water turns to rust. You don’t know whose blood you’ve been wearing—could it be your father’s?

He had been standing in front of you when his life was taken by the very same man that knelt beside you. Had his blood splattered on you? Was it being cleaned off by the same man who had so violently spilled it?

Your stomach lurches at the thought.

He had been trying to protect you during the ambush.

Your father had been trying to fucking protect you.

And Joel Miller had killed him.

He had killed him just to get to you.

Joel runs the washcloth down your arm, his dark gaze dragging over every inch of your body. “Such a pretty, pretty little girl,” he murmurs. Dropping the washcloth into the water, he gently cups one of your breasts in his large hand. He sweeps his thumb over your nipple and lightly teases the pebbled flesh, his digit circling it until it becomes a stiff peak.

Your eyes flutter closed and you inhale sharply.

There’s a strange feeling in your lower belly.

Strange because it’s not entirely unpleasant.

He trails his hand lower, raking over your tummy.

Lower.

Lower.

Lower.

He rests his palm over the mound of your pussy.

Gasping, your thighs clench together.

You’d like to think it’s to keep him out, to keep him from violating you further, but the burning pressure building in between your hips seems to be saying otherwise.

Horrified, you squeeze your thighs even tighter.

No. Don’t let him in.

But what if your resistance led him to force his way in?

You shudder, unable to decide which would be worse.

Joel leans forward over the bathtub, pressing his lips to your temple. “Don’t fight it, honey. S’okay that it feels good,” he mumbles against your skin. “It’s s’pposed to feel good when I touch you, baby.”

No, it’s fucking not!

Bowing your head, quietly begin to sob.

He wraps his arms around you. “Don’t cry, babygirl,” he soothes. “Don’t cry. Daddy’s gonna take real good care of you. I promise I’ll always take good care of you.”

His vow makes you cry even harder.

divider credit @saradika 🤍

[dearlexies]

No fandom. I repeat NO FANDOM is as fed as usual ENGENEs and I'm really fucking sorry to Enhypen that their fans can't seem to act on that well.

Enhypen should've had a dedicated fandom. It's not even hard cuz we KNOW what exactly we need to focus on but well. There's still time. Wake up.

we are all about talking but not putting much effort into streaming since orange blood. seriously... stop hoping for miracles. stop relying on GP and casual listeners. enhypen deserves a fanbase that will carry them out and push on charts regardless of circumstances. it's really quite alarming since the rate of competitiveness only increases in this industry with each year. certain fandoms are doing so well, much better than us in many areas. what's happening with us? 4th year is approaching and we are going backwards.

we are almost 4 years in!!!

no bb200 #1

no consistent top 100 entries on spotify

not even 100 days on Spotify Top Artists

apple music is forgotten

yt streams are shit

solos> ot7 accs here

too few having en- as a priority.

We need to do better, the votations will start again!!! start collecting jams in upick (ongoing!!) allchart, idolchamp, mubeat and others, stream the mvs on yt, tell other engenes to do the same, guys Sunghoon wanted three wins for this era and we only got one!!!!

[snow-lavender]

now that we're a week out from the finale, i'm feeling settled enough to make my sappy post. TL;DR is: fable has been incredibly important to me, and i think it's a story that's important to have out there. to the community and cast, you've made something beautiful and helped me more than you could know.

so here we go-

i started watching fable in the summer of 2022, to kill time in between summer courses (and thank fuck for that, cause my brain desperately needed to have some fun after 5 hours a day of doing psych stats by hand.) i was originally pulled in by vo'lete, as dissecting a conlang is really fun to me. it became basically the only media i consumed, as 2022/2023 was the fourth year of my BA and i was crazy busy. and then the characters pulled me in further with their earnestness and their devotion to redemption and compassion.

i think one of the theses of fable is "people always deserve happiness. doing awful things doesn't erase your ability to change." and i think the simplicity and love of that take hit really close to home. in the era of modern fandom where bad actors try to make everything black and white, it's an important point to make.

i started making shitposts on tumblr, started enaging with stories from an analysis standpoint again, and found a lot of joy in the community here. i don't have the words for what that means to me, so i'll just default to you guys are great <3

then mid-august happened

those of you who frequent rin's streams might have caught bits and pieces of this, but basically, i had a fall and my knee became royally fucked beyond belief. it can only be fixed with a surgery that's not very common. the pain was (and still is) debilitating to the point that i had to drop out of my second degree, and couldn't walk more than like, a block every few days. my life, my dreams, my future all got put on hold. i was in a new city with no supports, no friends, and no way to leave my apartment. fable went from the only media i consumed to the only thing i did, period.

the fandom became the only people i talked to regularly, other than my family, as online relationships were the only ones possible to maintain. in fableblr and in rin's chat i've found people who i really click with, people whose company i enjoy and who enjoy mine. when i was lying in bed, feeling so alone and less than human, having people on the internet go "i know who you are and you are making an impact," quite frankly, kept me sane. i know i don't talk to people super often, but know that seeing you in my notifs brings me so much joy, and i'd love to talk to you more.

to assuage any worries- i'm doing a bit better now. i've moved back in with my parents so i have human contact and people who can make up for the things i can't do. i have a new doctor who is taking the severity of my condition very seriously and is fighting to get me treated asap. i'll be okay.

so yeah. fable has been super important to me, and will remain so! for me it's a story with so much joy and deep feelings and rediscovery of passions and just. fun. it's been so much fun. and i'm not letting go of that fun any time soon. i'm gonna keep making and watching and enjoying.

to sage, corn, and cob- you guys are great, i cherish every time we get to talk. i hope that it's okay that i count you among my friends

to my other mutuals and people who are here frequently- recognizing you in my notes is such a joy and i hope to get to know you better. y'all are cool and i'm glad you think i'm funny

to rin- thank you for nurturing your little community and creating a space where i have so much fun. also thank you for putting up with my constant setting off of automod

to beck- thank you for making a story that explores sisterhood in all its ugliness and beauty, that shows how even families full of love can fuck up, that holds space for loneliness and loss and joy and fear and new beginnings

to the rest of the cast- thank you for making a story with so many varied and yet connected points, characters and world. with so much love in it. you've truly done something special here and its impact will not be forgotten

to all of you- thank you for knowing my name. thank you for breathing life and joy into these stories. i can't wait to see what else we make. <3

[aimwigs]

hey! i came across a list of lud's boundaries a few days ago, one of which was "don't write fanfic about him or his friends" which is valid, but i wonder whether the person who wrote that was simply assuming or actually knew something that i didn't?? i wouldn't be here if i hadn't indulged once or twice, so this isn't an attack on you (clearly), you're just one of the bigger authors who has like public social media and i got curious?? i guess? the only time i've ever heard ludwig reference fanfic was like once on the pod where he made a joke about it. obviously rpf is inherently weird and a touchy subject but he doesn't seem to give that big of a fuck idk guy i feel like i'm a detective going around and questioning suspects lol my bad still no clue as to why i'm in your askbox

i mean i dont really know it might be something that he said a long time ago or it might be something that someone just decided but honestly he has opened ao3 and read fanfic on stream (and was pretty chill about it in the clip) so i think it's fine LOL but i keep all my works archive locked for a reason and my public social media is intentionally on a website he doesn't use + i don't maintag my fics, or really any of my posts for the most part. i'm big proponent of separating rpf from the people it's about (it's what hockey fans have been doing for ages) and avoiding pushing it in their faces. fanfic and ship content should be for the fans and not cross that border (and for the record, i don't think any of it is "real". it's fiction based on their personas). i honestly think donating to creators directly to ask if they're cool with fic is super weirdChamp and i'm glad that's a mostly bygone era lmaooo. i doubt they seriously give a fuck as long as nobody is like sending that shit to them.

[penguinkyun]

chapter 158 review

well so that was all bullshit

this is literally worst chapter in the entirety of the series so far and it spits in the face of rubys entire character along with the series themes

first of all, how has ruby surpassed ai? no seriously. how? what has she even done to earn this supposed transcendent idolhood? she only has this popularity because she nepotism'ed her way through the industry and stole literally all the work in bh mode from the rest of her group members (who couldn't even stream without her presence) and did absolutely nothing to make it up to either kana or mem (whose other jobs like streaming and acting were also impacted btw), loses any character she had in the incest subplot and then says shes going to surpass ai like a broken record when that was never her goal in the first place!

both sarina and aqua say it - ruby wanted to wear cute clothes and sing on a stage like ai, inspiring others. she never had the goal of "surpassing" ai, she just wanted to be an idol because she loves idols. her arc is supposed to be about connecting with her mother from her idolhood, inspiring others and understanding ai. all that warmth, inspiration, honesty and naivety literally disappears from her entirely. and while a corruption arc isnt bad, you have to actually, yknow WRITE THE ARC PROPERLY.

why does ruby want to surpass ai? theres no rhyme or reason to it. and also what surpass? your ceo adoptive mother made your group for you, your brother scouted your group members and landed you a spot in an idol festival for your debut concert and while i'm not saying ruby hasn't worked hard and/or struggled in her job or life, she definitely has worked hard in her job, but its a bit much to say she "surpasses ai" when if you think about all the factors that made ai's life miserable - i.e. excessive favouritism, exploitation, purity culture, toxic industry and fan standards - none of that has any bearing on ruby's experience as an idol because she is explicitly shielded from all of that by literally everyone around her. everything that made ai's idolhood difficult is nowhere presented in rubys arc as something she has to deal with and so when you try to compare their two careers like this it just rings as incredibly hollow - a parallel for the sake of a parallel

even when kana (rightfully!) blows up at ruby, all the shit ruby put her through in black hoshigan mode is never addressed and its just ruby going "ill be your friend if you like it or not!" as a barest bandaid on the true issues kana has with her and kana just accepts it! she doesn't have to deal with falling outs either because it gets fixed at the drop of a hat!

also what the fuck is that monologue lol. my girl would NEVER say that and would especially never use her beloved mothers death as some sort of embellishment on a speech about the transience of Idols or whatever she was saying there, especially when ai's death was deeply rooted in the toxicity and purity standards of the idol culture of her era, a culmination of her exploitation and entitlement the industry and fans had towards her and was not about how idols can only be idols for a short amount of time because of aging out - ai didn't age out she was fucking murdered in her own home.

which. what narrative benefit does ruby's stabbing even have? ai's death served as both a capstone to her narrative arc, an enormous shift in the series tone and themes, and commentary and indictement on the idol industry and fan entitlement as a whole. what does ruby's stabbing serve? what narrative lesson is being taught here? what arc is being fulfilled here? is she just being stabbed for shock value? because the anime episode is releasing today?

its stupid (and not only because of what it does to nino which i will get to) and also makes this look like a walmart version of ai's death with the same pose and none of what made it actually thematically interesting. also if you wanted to fulfill narrative parallels and death flags, kana should've been stabbed there i said it. she is the ai parallel in bkomachi, she's the one whose viewpoint we view the problems of the industry from, she has commentary on those problems of misogyny and the pressures of the industry, she's the one who should be the focus here because it is her graduation concert tour. she's even the same age as ai!

speaking of kana goddamn im so sorry for you. you lose centre focus IN YOUR OWN GRADUATION, and now your one dream from 151 wont even happen because of this narratively bullshit chapter. you deserve better truly (and i am also really mad they used kana sun moment her best moment where she is literally the fucking sun to compare to rubys inherited ascended form of idolhood)

(also akanes monologue was ridiculous and entirely forced)

also fuck what this chapter did to nino. my girl im so sorry this has been done to you, you deserved better. the twist COULD have been interesting if lacking the set up but noooo we had to make nino as somehow the spokesperson for how ruby has achieved the Final Form of an Idol when literally just over 20 chapters ago she coldly stated ruby was nothing like ai and then had to turn her into a murderer when literally why would she.

especially with her conversation with kamiki, where she very interestingly says "oh you think we can be forgiven for all the shit we've done?" and her apparent response to that is to go commit another unforgivable crime? really? way to reduce your character to just "no one should surpass ai" instead of all the complex feelings nino had before! and also along with making her an idiot this chapter somehow leaning even harder accidentally or otherwise into the "crazy lesbian" stereotype which absolutely sucks.

also ruby did you learn nothing from your mothers death. do you not have door chains. also i refuse to believe neither miyako or aqua instilled safety procedures or kept the door locked especially after their fame skyrocketed. unless they're like. still at miyazaki hotel??? even then did you not check who was at the door, especially after how your mother died like why is ruby being hit with the idiot stick again. this is again another contrivance just like 142 was so heavily contrived.

even madder at the sheer disservice rubys character has been done through the entire past three arcs.

also also the art is just. weird. the way the knife has been framed makes it look like it slipped completely past ruby and the entire panel feels washed out unlike ai's stabbing panel where its dynamic with motion, flowers falling past her, the knife in clear view along with ai's stunned expression. its beautiful in the most haunting horrific way possible and sticks in your mind. i'd forget about this panel in a second. i wish i could forget this chapter jfc. it better be a fakeout

anyways. break next week.........

[antonio-chandranis-dream-blog]

it's fine to keep dreaming. earth year 2005 a.d.

What I ate this morning… Right. I stole my brother Raj’s junky chocolate éclair for his own good. He tried to kill me, but Fernando held him back. After that, I went and spoke with Layla. She told me she couldn’t save me from Alejandro Caldera-Altaha. She’s so dramatic. All I wanted was a little hint for how annoying our exchange might be… Gatekeeping-ass seer.

I went to where Alejandro was—simply standing by the seashore! We are still vacationing by the City of the Starry-eyed, and much too close to the father I cannot stand. Why always this city? Not that I care for the plans of adults, even our fabled mentor’s, Kiyotaka Miura.

I didn’t wait. >:( I told Alejandro I’d throw his prize into the sea!

Do you know what he said? He smiled at me as he said it— “I fucking wondered if you would.”

I obviously—I obviously had to open my damn trap and say, “If you put it on my wrist for me, I’d have to wear it.”

“Why?” The one he names Alejandro—the one I have known for eras as Shakir—asked. “Because it’s something everyone expects.” “But would you suddenly want to?” Shakir sounded so curious—he is that kind of young man. “You just said you were going to drop it in the sea.” “Something like this… I’d hate it. You’re such an idiot. Still, if you—”

He said, “I would never do that.”

Alejandro Caldera knows, you see—we’re supposed friends, and nowhere near lovers. The world knows. Through our streams, those million eyes always… They’re always waiting for him to announce his beloved—Alia, or Khalida, or… Diego… No.

Anyway, I was an idiot and had to go and yell, “So what do you want me to do?”

He said, “I really thought you’d throw it into the sea. I feel like the girls—Alia or Konna or someone—would challenge me to a duel for daring to insinuate anything. Honestly, they’d just have killed me. Those journos really wouldn’t stop talking about them earlier during the interview… I couldn’t give it to Diego. It’d be way more awkward, considering how much they talked about meaning. I couldn’t—”

Alejandro really wouldn’t shut up. I can’t even inscribe half his ramble—I only memorized that much, and the rest was worse yak. He brought up Leo being unreachable and Fernando and how they’re not even close anymore and how he barely knows Maria—why are you even bringing her up, then!? What is wrong with you!? I had to yell at him—

“You’re seriously acting like you have no real friends! Anyone in the world would’ve accepted the bracelet from you—”

He said, “You already know they made it something so meaningful. Diego or Fernando or Leo would’ve just gone along with it, but my entire life would be upturned. Does it mean what we’ve all been waiting to know? The elemental potential of the era! Anyway, I wasn’t sure what you would do. I thought you’d throw it into the sea.”

In truth, Alejandro Caldera-Altaha doesn’t care about being a proper mage. He’s just as simplistic about our magecraft as you unfathomably old Earthians. If I look at the skies in my world, maybe I could see your star, the Sun, 100,000 lightyears away… Or maybe not.

I could care less.

I never paid enough attention to how far away it was in my classes.

I told him, “I won’t wrap the bracelet on your wrist.”

Alejandro said, “I never expected you to.”

“You want me to throw it into the sea.”

“I thought that you would.”

“You really wanted me to give it away, didn’t you? Start a drama with your whiny-ass brother.” I thought I might as well have said it.

Like an idiot, Alejandro said, “After you threw it into the sea, I thought I’d push Diego into a dramatic retrieval mission together with your brother. Since Diego is the one who still talks to Fernando. I was wondering how Fernando’s been.”

I was…

Close to—

I—

He was close to brea—

Stop.

I was…

So infuriated. Seething, even. So mad.

I just said, “You didn’t need me to start your stupid game with my brother—”

He sounded upset too, by then. Over what? He said, “You could’ve just pretended you didn’t open the damn book!”

I… Well, I finally paused.

I mean. I just told him, “You fucking know I wouldn’t let you think I couldn’t solve a puzzle that you gave me. Like duh I solved it. Hello?”

The idiot burst out laughing so soon after looking unhappy. He laughed for a while. I don’t know why he found it so funny.

“You never would be able to resist! It really is so like you, Antonio.”

>_> WTF.

Why did he find it so funny? He went back to smiling like the idiot he is.

He said something so stupid. He said, “Give me back my family’s book, too.”

I told him, “No way. That’s my real damn prize from you. My pillow now, even.”

He turned to me and said, like he might as well be talking to Alia or Konna or Diego or Fernando or Leo, “That’s such shit!” Though around them he would’ve been so much cuter—for the streams and all that, just, “I can’t believe you!”

He is a man of respect. ( <_< )

I told him, “Don’t give me things you don’t want to lose.” I am a man of respect too, of course.

He said, “I imagined you might find it interesting. I can’t parse some things I was hoping to, in the end.”

I think he needed me for it, and so the book wound up more important than the magical Alejandro-fetching bracelet in the end.

>:")

We wound up less caught up in our bullshit. He finally lightened up, and the seashore was my home again. I'm sure I won’t remember what made me mad soon enough—an Alejandro whose goals I understand is all I will ever need. I know it.

I know.

[inmyhorrorsera]

S5E7 "Hybrid Creatures" thoughts

That's it. Those are my thoughts.

.

.

.

Kinda...

I'm kinda used to the writers putting Nadja in situations and see what it sticks, but (un)holy shit its so obvious that they don't know what to do with her character. What we do in the shadows learn how to write women challenge.

I don't know if the Guide even appeared. My stream stopped a couple times and I have to refresh so maybe I missed her (if not see previous point because it also applies to her).

LOVED Nadja's kitty hair buns, love to see that at least the hair and costume department still cares about her.

The line about burning the school made me roll my eyes, not only because that story doesn't make sense with what we learned about her childhood, but also because I can FEEL when tv shows throw lines with the specific expectations of them being gifed, become memes, etc.

I know it's stupid to discuss about the ethics of Laszlo's experiments on the dick and balls show but in this episode I was all 😬😬😬 about it. Like, I don't give a shit if it was done with comedy purposes, animal experimentation is one of the subjects I will never find remotely funny or make jokes with, specially if we start thinking... How much consent Guillermo gave for Laszlo to straight up play with his DNA in this way? He has nothing to say about it except for a confused frown or looking panicky at the sight of the creatures?? More important, if Nandor did this exact same thing the past season and created the hybrids with a Djinn wish or whatever, how would the fandom have reacted??? (spoiler: waaay more angered than when everybody's fave Laszlo does it).

The work of puppetry and digital effects was good as always, nothing bad to say about the team behind the cameras that puts all their hard work and craft on this, sadly, mid storyline.

Despite how little I care about mAd ScIenTiSt Lazslo plot, the moment when Guillermo believes he won't help him anymore was truly heartbreaking just by looking at his face. You can see he really has all his hopes in Laszlo finding a 'cure'.

I wish the whole thing about Guillermo being incapable of killing the hybrids hit me harder (as if we didn't saw him luring innocent teenagers so they can get killed in the literal pilot).

Sorry but that lady character didn't work for me and the "Helen the Magic Johnson" joke was unfunny and kinda old :/ i wonder if half of the wwdits fandom even got the reference (also lmao shameless product placement, you can tell they needed the money to pay for the cgi used on the creatures).

Colin was like his season 1 self. I bet the wwdits reddit ate up that shit.

See also: Laszlo calling Guillermo 'Gizmo' again. Hated it.

Colin becoming the stereotypical 'cool' white liberal teacher was hilarious specially when he said the cliché "history is written by the oppressors" line because that's where the parody becomes too obvious. This is the guy whose dna results on s1 were "100% white" after all. AND YET some people here are still celebrating and repeating it as this 'so true bestie 😔✊' moment without realizing the show's laughing at you, not with you. But hey, this is the we don't get satire even if it bites on our ass site. Imagine fans celebrating when Kendall Succession shouted "fuck the patriarchy!" in front of the paparazzi for being a #feminist. That's how wooosh the moment went over some of y'alls heads.

Nandor and Colin at the museum felt a little tackled on, but at least Nandor annoyance at his personal items being displayed was fun.

And Colin being friendly (dare I say…sweet?) with him at the end again gave me a happy smile. I'll never guessed this season was all about the Colin and Nandor (Condor??) era but I'm all for it.

Biggest Mild laugh of the night: Nandor mannequin having male and female lovers on the display, the dude is wearing Calvin Kleins!

I can't say much about Guillermo leaving the hybrids at the senior home because it's a overused ending for wwdits at this point. Seriously, when this show doesn't know how to end an episode they always do the same shit: Leave the characters that are a problem in a different place. It happened with: Topher at the zombie sweatshop, Jim the vampire as the volleyball coach in Tucson, familiar Benji in a different city/state (forgot where), The Baron and the Sire in the countryside, Derek working at Sean's MLM, Freddie!Marwa in the Uk. They have done this ending 👏🏼lots 👏🏼 of 👏🏼 times👏🏼already!!

Having a wank?! The setup and payoff for this joke really worked.

Next episode seems interesting.

Anyway, I am once again asking for the Djinn...

[manysmallhands]

FearOfMu21c #1

Lana Del Rey - Mariners Apartment Complex

Released - September 12, 2018

Highest UK chart position - #79

Spotify streams to date - 191,434,509

Of all the artists in this list, Lana has been the biggest pain in the arse. Despite being one of my favourite singers of the last decade, it has proved nigh on impossible to pin down the perfect Lana single. There are obvious choices to be made here but ultimately they don’t feel like mine; elsewhere there are fantastic albums that seem to work best as a whole, or where their best tracks are tucked away in the folds rather than placed out front. But just as I was ready to settle for something that wasn’t quite right, or maybe not even bother at all, a chance listen to Mariners Apartment Complex made me understand that the right song had been staring me in the face all along.

The first single off of what would eventually become Norman Fucking Rockwell casts Lana as mythmaker, one of the things where she truly excels. This is the beginning of her era as 70s revival queen, with the soft focus, soft rock vibes recreating a world of Laurel Canyon grandeur that almost existed but which somehow feels not quite the same; the production is just a little bit Disneyfied and there are even elements of clear cut, on the nose hokeyness which perversely only seem to heighten the impact. Lana herself is in commanding form: when she sings “You lose your way, just take my hand”, in effect she’s offering a manicured grip out to all of us, wrenching us back across the decades to a time when rock and roll still ruled and romance was the American way.

As is so often the case with Lana, it’s hard to know how seriously yr supposed to take it all but then that’s entirely the point: the artifice is part of what makes it convincing but without some sincerity at its heart, the song would be a hollow shell. Norman Fucking Rockwell was an album that took these apparent contradictions and ran long distances with them; Mariner’s Apartment Complex is just the best example of her creating something that’s even better than the real thing.

[lord-radish]

Oh yeah I finished Tears of the Kingdom. I'll talk about the story in a future post, this one should be fairly spoiler-free aside from mechanics.

First of all, I made a post back when I started the game about how I don't want Breath of the Wild to be displaced by Tears of the Kingdom. I don't think Breath of the Wild should be seen as a glorified tech demo - not only for the effort that went into making that game in the first place, but because it devalues what that game did on its own merits.

Having played Tears of the Kingdom, I can safely say that the slow, calm, melancholic vibe of Breath of the Wild is kind of gone. Like it still exists a little bit, you're still clambering over hills and gliding over valleys between human settlements, but between the three biomes and the Gloom chasms everywhere and the new creation feature, everything's a lot busier and it's harder to sit back and take in that sort of atmosphere.

That being said, Tears of the Kingdom is incredible. It's jam-packed with story and gameplay functions that are a lot more robust than Breath of the Wild. It takes the wide-open nature of that game and busts what was already a groundbreaking sandbox game wide open, increasing verticality both ways and giving you unprecedented locomotive tools to get around.

I was thinking about Jak and Daxter because I've been revisiting the Snapcube streams of the first game, and as much as I love that game, I realised that it had finally hit a set of limitations that made it "old" in my mind. Like, Jak and Daxter is an incredible open-world platforming game. We're talking a seamless open world that looks and runs fantastically. That game has better tech for rendering shadows than most games have had for the past 20+ years.

But then I thought about Jak doing Ascend, and in comparison to Tears of the Kingdom, Jak and Daxter just seemed rigid in comparison. And that's fucking nuts, because JnD is one of the most fluid games ever! But something like Ascend breaks the mold.

The creation system is unbelievable. The powers set a new precedent for freedom. Like seriously, fucking Ascend? They give us physics powers that let you stick physics objects together and make bikes and cars and ladders and springpads and all this crazy shit - they give us fucking FLYING MACHINES, WITH STEERING - and THEN they add a power that lets you DIVE THROUGH THE CEILING TO GET ON TOP OF ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME????????? That's genuinely unbelievable.

I played 75 hours of this game. For me, that was enough. Getting to the ending was a bit of a slog, but it came after like 70 hours of total, unabashed fun and freedom to do what I wanted. I could have finished the game in like 40 hours or less if I rushed, but that would have hurt my experience with the game. I ebbed and flowed according to my own whim, and it took me all the way through Tears of the Kingdom.

I don't know how Nintendo keeps doing it, but they keep setting new standards for the open world genre. It's close to being a masterpiece on all fronts.

So after this, what do I think they should do next?

Personally? I don't think I have a third BotW-like left in me.

These games are unbelievable on all fronts, but I think this little sub-franchise within the wider Zelda franchise has run its course. Between 2017 and now, we've actually gotten three Zelda games set in this era - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity may have been a side-game in a different genre, but that's a fully realised game in the same setting as Breath of the Wild.

The games look great, but I think the aesthetic of these games has gone as far as it can go. Story-wise and gameplay-wise, I don't see how they can follow on from Tears of the Kingdom.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm content. I've had my fill. I still need to play that Hyrule Warriors game, actually, but once that's done I think this era of Zelda has done everything it needs to do. What's up next? How are they gonna approach the setting from this point forward? I want to see something new.

[risu5waffles]

Two fives for a TEN, mate?

Woof. Time. Fast. You know the drill. Seriously, tho', this is just getting foolish.

Gosh, but i just fell in love wiv the presentation on this one. The choice of colours is top notch, all the little creatures, the pulled, warped dimensions on things. i love that Keith put a puppet of himself in there, and it has appropriate piercings. Seriously, this was both my jam and my toast. There's a bit around the middle where something feels a little wonky wiv the platforming, but i don't know if that's a translation issue, or a skill one. Aside from that, there isn't going to be much here, challenge-wise, that will give most players pause. It's just a nice, cruisey trip through Keith's imagination, and i'm here for it.

Yoooo! This was such a nice bit of LBP1 kit to stumble across, let me tell you. i love the physics-based mechanisms we had from that era, even if they are prone to breaking in LBP3 (hell, let's be honest, they were prone to breaking back then, too, just a little less so). i love that the level references a "great points drought" a few years prior, and i wish i could remember the community at that time wiv enough granularity to know what they're talking about. My only real quibble here, is there isn't a really good chance to see the engine once it's running. They put a camera on it, but i think i backed out of it too quickly. i wish there'd been, like, a viewing platform? 'cause it's really neat. At least we get to see it powering up.

There are some nice ideas here, and i love the presentation, but it really is overlong, and the loop is just a bit too clever for its own good. Plus, it's variously broken in LBP3. That's, you know, a problem. The lighting takes a pretty nasty hit; none of the dark areas are supposed to be quite as dark as they are for us (i found someone else's play through, it's included in the video description). But the big issue is there's a whole set of platforms that are supposed to be emitted where we got stuck. Wivout them, you just can't make the jump to the sponge bit you need to progress. It's a real shame, too, because it's pretty close to the end of the level.

Eh, we talked about this before, and it still is what it is.

This one's pretty well done for one of the standard LBP2 archetypal styles. It does feel a touch slow moving and fiddly, but the "sunrise" bit at the end was nice, and i appreciated all of the semi-secrets in there. It's weird, but there's a sticker switch toward the end, that doesn't pull up a corresponding sticker? i played through a couple of times to see if it was an Ace level prize or something, but i got nothing. i wonder if it was something from a DLC i don't have. As much as i love sticker switches, and i do love sticker switches quite a bit, that was always one of their downsides. If players haven't got the sticker, well, they're kinda fucked. i know that was a way to make special secret areas for friends, which is, honestly, a pretty neat idea. Just hope no one deletes community photos ever.

Oh, oh dear Entropy, the charm just oozes from every pore of this level, and i love it. The Wobblebots are such a cute little take on the standard LBP-style patrolling enemy. Y'all know how i feel about those. But the presentation of space, and just the layout of the gameplay, it's all so very good. We tried playing another of Chicoleunis' levels on stream, but it looks to be broken in LBP3, and that's just such a gosh darn shame.

The environmental design is so nice in this one! The track is really solid, as well, tho' i can't say that it's the best fit. Was still really nice to listen to. Nothing too standout in the gameplay, but it keeps you moving well enough, and there's not anything here that should be a point of frustration, so that's nice. You know, i saw the Q in the creator's name, and got so excited that my brainmeats glossed over for a bit that their name actually starts wiv O. Where're all my Q creators at?! Seriously, i'm backlogged up to episode 204, and we still have yet to see a single creator whose name starts wiv Q. That seems statistically unlikely, and i hate it.

i wasn't 100% sold on the material choices in this one, and there are a few bits where you can get hung up behind thin layer bits and wind up getting killed, but this was still a pretty fun one in the end, and it felt like it was just about the perfect length for what it was trying to do. It's a good 'un.

Big and chonky, and a pretty fun go, although there are definitely a few points that could be polished. i don't know if this was a translation issue, or if the creator just didn't account for it, but there's a bit where you're riding up an elevator, and it looks like you should be able to jump to a (maybe?) secret area to the left. Except if you do that, it's real easy to get yourself killed. Which isn't the problem. The problem is the elevator never comes back down, and the last checkpoint is before it, so you basically softlock the level. It's deep enough into the level i can't imagine a lot of players going back in. i tried 4 or 5times for the archive, before i just had to throw my hands up and say "it's not worth it. i just don't have the time." It's a shame, 'cause there's a whole lot after that point players will miss if they just bounce. i guess... don't jump off that elevator? Also, i don't think i managed to catch the magic mouth, but that owl is kinda a douche. Just a real jerk.

This one was really quite cool. Definitely tricky from a pure gameplay standpoint, but not too hard; at least not if you're just going for the goal. Some of those beetles were a real pain in the butt, and i just said nuts to that. Lighting and material choices were really solid as well. Definitely one i feel like i could recommend to folx.

----------------------------

So, that's the that. Coming up on 200 Archive entries, and that's all kinds of wild. When i started the series, i wasn't really sure daily entries was going to be where it was at, and yet, here we are.

Life is life. There are parts that could be better, but my brainmeats seem to have calmed down from "housefire" levels since our little bout of excitement last month. i dunno, maybe they're burned themselves out a bit, which, you know, is kind of fine by me? Not being able to feel the extremes means i get to be buffered from the lows, but it also means i don't really feel the highs either, and i do hate that.

Level building has slowed down a little. i'm trying to think of a list of small things that need doing, so i can focus on those and keep moving forward until i have it in me to tackle the last couple of real chonky bits. Gee, it's just like life in meatspace. Folx, i love y'all, and i gotta say, i'm getting a bit sick of metaphor.

Anyhoot, yeah. Y'all have a wonderful day, and keep yourselves safe! i'm rooting for you over here on this side of the world!

[baekhvuns]

Whatever makes the royals uncomfortable is good imo 😉 back in the day I watched and read things about people who worked with them and I just couldn't believe (I mean I could, but still, wtf?!)

Winter is romanticised in general and I'm sick of it. Unless you live in Hallstatt or other places in the Alps don't give me that OMFG WINTER IS SO COOL. - I'm a hater, yes. Sure I love waking up to pure darkness and going home in total darkness as well (AT 4PM), love freezing at the bus stop or scrubbing my cars' windows early in the morning </3 be serious people. Something in the NYC air... yeah pollution kwhhsjdhsjshsha, if I were to move anywhere in the US I would choose NYC or SF.

I cannot remember the Shinee dream, all I know they were at my grandma's house and I was in pyjamas and Teamin didn't want to speak to me, while Key was cooking

I know you can vote and stream normally and if someone wants to do that then fine, but some people are fucking crazy and dramatic and make the experience so bothersome for everyone. Obviously not every user here reads and writes ff, but Twitter is full of sexual things as well, everytime I stumble upon NSFW kpop stan Twitter I wanna die 🤡

You can take my furries, good luck with them!

The smudged lipstick they know what they did and I'm thankful 😳 I might die, but it's fine. And the highlighter too, man is gloooooowing. I remember Atlantis yes! But I need a siren Hwa fic so so baaaad

Not an AU based on my dream 😭 I NEED IT

I actually told Yeo I would like to tattoo a Hehetmon, I feel like I need to do both, the OG and the Hwa one 😅

Baek illiteracy era <3 as long as you can write it's fine! I know, but I was so happy the sad ending wasn't the end game in Clannad it made me appreciate it more actually! Though some people were disappointed and preferred the tragic ending...🔫🔫🔫🔫 but you're right the angst was too much. Who would've fucking guessed 😢 I'm sorry Yunho stans 💔

Yes Teezers sang at someone's wedding! Reminds me of the recent Taemin wedding spotting, but the fact he was in a turtleneck?!

Models

Welcome user Seonghvws shshdhshsjsnshss

Our boy Seojun spent too much time mopping over Jugyeong, I don't know if he has anyone atm. He's busy being successful! Also her and Suho are so boring, seriously, every time I see Suho I wanna slap him 😭

No one in TXT went to the same event, Soobin was serving vampire though

I only know about that drama because of Jongho's OST. Oh the plot seems interesting and sad... I'll get to it one day ahahhaa

I did scream for the DC girls, yessss also some people were barking...

STOP THAT'S MODEL HWA I NEED HIS SUIT TAKE IT OFF MATE 🔫

Shinee's plagiarism is the only plagiarism I respect and adore 🥰

Boa comeback, Kara comeback soon too MISS NICOLEEEE

Did you take the Skz quiz? I got Seunglix lol, I don't think I'm cute like them 😭 - DV 💖

hi hello!!

Whatever makes the royals uncomfortable is good imo 😉 back in the day I watched and read things about people who worked with them and I just couldn't believe (I mean I could, but still, wtf?!)

LMFAOOOO UR RIGHT charles was right for once, the monarchy is so out of touch 😭😭 OH PLS DO ME A FAVOUR AND SPILL 🤲🏼🤲🏼 my late night quora and reddit adventures on the royal family always has me giggling gbendb

Winter is romanticised in general and I'm sick of it. Unless you live in Hallstatt or other places in the Alps don't give me that OMFG WINTER IS SO COOL. - I'm a hater, yes. Sure I love waking up to pure darkness and going home in total darkness as well (AT 4PM), love freezing at the bus stop or scrubbing my cars' windows early in the morning </3 be serious people. Something in the NYC air... yeah pollution kwhhsjdhsjshsha, if I were to move anywhere in the US I would choose NYC or SF.

I cannot remember the Shinee dream, all I know they were at my grandma's house and I was in pyjamas and Teamin didn't want to speak to me, while Key was cooking

omg ur so right 😭😭 fall >>>> winter,,, the snow??? the slush it makes, the amount of times u slip but the only good thing is when it’s a snowstorm and everything’s closed 😮‍💨IM A HATER RHWKDHWK STOPPP I HAVE BEEN FREEZING !!!! FREEZING AT BUS STOPS AND WE’VE HAD ABOUT 5 SNOWFALLS STARTING MF OCTOBER 😭😭😭 my uni’s in the mountains so it’s either fog or just f r e e z i n g wind,,, LMFAOOOO POLLUTION BFNWBD UR RIGHT UR RIGHT 😭😭😭 TAEMIN WHY DIDNT HE WANNA SPEAK DID U ASK 😭😭 THIS IS SO FUNNY IM INVESTED

I know you can vote and stream normally and if someone wants to do that then fine, but some people are fucking crazy and dramatic and make the experience so bothersome for everyone. Obviously not every user here reads and writes ff, but Twitter is full of sexual things as well, everytime I stumble upon NSFW kpop stan Twitter I wanna die 🤡

atp people are way over the line of over doing things,,, before 2017, this speaks facts (also the way ppl are attacking the op is vile) nothing was about streaming and voting it was more important to enjoy the music and get the concert experience and now??? it’s so embarrassing,,, sTOPPP TWITTER IS WORSE WITH NSFW BC SOMETHING BE TRENDING, SOMETHING SO INNOCENT AND THEN I CLICK IT AND BOOM COCKS EVERYWHERE 😭😭😭 thankfully ihave not stumbled upon nsfw kpop stan side i’d probably deactivate

You can take my furries, good luck with them! /// The smudged lipstick they know what they did and I'm thankful 😳 I might die, but it's fine. And the highlighter too, man is gloooooowing. I remember Atlantis yes! But I need a siren Hwa fic so so baaaad

IM ON MY WAY,,, whoever styled them, i need them to get a raise bc wow,, it’s so simple yet so iconic 😮‍💨😮‍💨 THE STYLIST BETTER PUT THIS SHOOT ON THEIR RESUME,,, MAN IS GLOWING UR RIGHT !!!! THE STYLING THE MAKEUP THE MELANIN 🤌🏼 siren hwa u got it bestie, but do u rmr the siren jk fic 👁👁 it was absolutely amazing show stopping mind blowing fantastic

Not an AU based on my dream 😭 I NEED IT /// I actually told Yeo I would like to tattoo a Hehetmon, I feel like I need to do both, the OG and the Hwa one 😅

I GOT U BC IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT OFTEN ITS A NICE SLICE OF LIFE ,, PLS DO OMG THAT BE SO CUTE 😭😭 do that deranged yunho one too

Baek illiteracy era <3 as long as you can write it's fine! I know, but I was so happy the sad ending wasn't the end game in Clannad it made me appreciate it more actually! Though some people were disappointed and preferred the tragic ending...🔫🔫🔫🔫 but you're right the angst was too much. Who would've fucking guessed 😢 I'm sorry Yunho stans 💔

LMFAOOOO 😭😭😭 IN MY FLOP ERA <333 I think tbh im glad it ended bc the emotional damage it cost me, like even if the ending was nice the emotional damage has already been done I WASNT EVEN EXCITED ANYMORE I WAS SO PISSED FBHKWDHSK CLANNAD TRIGGERS ME !!!!!

Yes Teezers sang at someone's wedding! Reminds me of the recent Taemin wedding spotting, but the fact he was in a turtleneck?!

PLS THE CAMERA MAN FILMING THEM U KNOW THEY’RE GONNA BE IN THE WEDDING HIGHLIGHTS HAVING A SLOMO MOMENT OF THEMSELVES,,, taemin at a wedding 😔 when is TAEMIN AT HIS MANAGERS WEDDING IM WAITINGGG ITS BEEN TOO LONG FBFB

Models /// Welcome user Seonghvws shshdhshsjsnshss

stop it. mingi model au u say.

Our boy Seojun spent too much time mopping over Jugyeong, I don't know if he has anyone atm. He's busy being successful! Also her and Suho are so boring, seriously, every time I see Suho I wanna slap him 😭

IM SO GLAD BC HE DESERVES IT IDC IF SHE ENDS UP SUHO BUT IF SUHO AND HER BREAK UP AND SHE SKRTS TO SEOJUN ITS ON SIGHT 🔫🔫🔫 LMFAOOOO IVE NEVER SEEN A PAIRING BE THIS BAD SINCE BRIDE OF HABAEK 😭😭

No one in TXT went to the same event, Soobin was serving vampire though

YOURE RIGHT EVDJD this twt summarized it perfectly

I only know about that drama because of Jongho's OST. Oh the plot seems interesting and sad... I'll get to it one day ahahhaa

it really is! and jinyoung’s in it as well!!

I did scream for the DC girls, yessss also some people were barking...

LMFAOOOO AS THEY SHOULD !!!!! THROW A BARK FROM ME TOO AT DAMI

STOP THAT'S MODEL HWA I NEED HIS SUIT TAKE IT OFF MATE 🔫

FBWKDHWKDKK HE IS COMING TO LIFE AND IM SCREAMING BC I REREAD MODEL HWA LAST NIGHT AND FHWKFHQKFHWK everytime i see a picture of his hands it reminds me how yOUVE HELD THEM 🔫🔫🔫

Shinee's plagiarism is the only plagiarism I respect and adore 🥰

no but the solo debut teaser looks so good omg i hope he has some taemin influence on him

Boa comeback, Kara comeback soon too MISS NICOLEEEE

boa’s cb sounded like an avril lavigne song fbfb HELLO MISS MAIN DANCER DROP IT DOWWWNN STOP THEIR STAGE IS GONNA BE SO INSANE

Did you take the Skz quiz? I got Seunglix lol, I don't think I'm cute like them 😭 - DV 💖

I DID AND I GOT HYUNCHAN

, i found a new quiz! felt very called out <3

uh anon

😭😭???

pls read this first and then this…

ALSO SAUDI WINNING OVER ARGENTINA???? LMFAOOOO????

ANON

bestie is this not mr and mrs park au

so i started watching the vampire diaries, why is damon a bitch, but a really hot one 🤨

IF I REMEMBER U WERE A CAPRISUN WHAT IS THIS MISS CAPRISUN

did not sign up for this

[blindrapture]

As much as I do love Salmacis, that is a heavy song to leave You with, and the impression I want to leave is that Genesis brings me joy. So here's the Dodo suite.

After six albums, Peter Gabriel left the band and Genesis was led by Phil Collins. Everyone knows that, more or less; that is the Genesis factoid. And then after two more albums, guitarist Steve Hackett left, and Genesis became its long-running three-piece form who wrote 80s pop music and got mainstream success (this is the other Genesis factoid). I happen to love both distinct forms of the band, myself (I am a big boy with a lot of love to share), but what definitely helped me appreciate the Collins era is that they never really stopped making longer-form developed experiments; they just reserved these to maybe one per album. Duke has the 25-minute Duke suite, the self-titled has "Home By The Sea," Invisible Touch had "The Last Domino," We Can't Dance had two different ten-minute tracks. Abacab seemed the exception, and it is an album that hangs its hat on pleasantly abstract pop music.

But there was one song on the album, "Dodo/Lurker," which maybe stood out. It was clearly two songs tied together, and the Lurker section was weird and mysterious and I always liked it for that. And that's when I bring up... the B-sides. These took me a long time to learn about, since I was working with the CDs alone as a kid. A lot of them are just extra Collins-era songs, there are a couple of Gabriel-era ones which made me so happy (IF YOU LIKE GABRIEL-ERA GENESIS AND WANT JUST ONE MORE NEW SONG FROM IT, HERE IS "TWILIGHT ALEHOUSE," IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ON SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND AND IT SHOWS), there's also "Pigeons" which is just fucking charming,

and, pertinently, there are the two B-sides from Abacab: "Naminanu," and "Submarine." Alone, they're interesting wordless curiosities. But when bookended onto "Dodo/Lurker," they become The Dodo Suite. The band confirmed this to be the intended order, and I seem to recall they only broke it up because they didn't want Abacab to have such a long song on there. It's 15 minutes. It is fucking adorable Phil Collins. It ends like a fucking chill Pink Floyd song, seriously see for yourself.

It is a Good Time.

LYRICS:

NAMINANU:

naminanu naminanu naminanu namina

DODO:

Too big to fly, Dodo ugly so dodo must die. Dog go, with fear on its side; Can't change, can't change the tide.

Dog baiter, agitator, Asking questions, says he wants to know why. Ain't no reason that money can't buy. Mink, he pretty, so mink he must die, Must die, must die.

Sun, he giving life in his light, Part of the system. Friend to man and friend to the trees, No friend to the snowman.

Where does he go? What does he do? Does he meet with the mole, the stream, the cloud, And end up at the bottom of the sea?

Fish, he got a hook in his throat, Fish, he got problems.

Where does he go? What does he do? Does he hope he's too small, to poor a haul, Who'll end up bein' thrown back in the sea? I'm back in the sea.

Caretaker, horror movie, Only one eye, only needs one boot. Sweet lady, she know she looks good. Vacuum coming for the bright and the brute.

Big noise, black smoke, So pig-headed, couldn't see the joke. But it ain't funny, ask the fly on the wall. It's only living, it don't matter at all, At all, at all.

Pimp, he make you drool and grunt, He got an answer. One, he got a dream of love Deep as the ocean.

Where does he go? What does he do? Will the siren team with Davy Jones And trap him at the bottom of the sea? I'm back in the sea. I'm back in the sea. I'm back in the sea.

LURKER:

Meanwhile lurking by a stone in the mud Two eyes looked to see what I was and Then something spoke and this is what It said to me…….

Clothes of brass and hair of brown Seldom need to breathe Don't need no wings to fly And a heart of stone A fear of fire and water Who am I?

SUBMARINE:

(instrumental)

[lizzygrantarchives]

Billboard, August 22, 2019

With her new album, 'Norman Fucking Rockwell,' the singer makes her most adventurous and candid music yet -- and leads Billboard's list of the 38 most-anticipated things about music this fall.

YOU’VE GOT TO CLIMB THE HILL BEHIND the Chateau Marmont to get to the office where I’m meeting Lana Del Rey, which feels appropriately on the nose on this early-August day: The hotel is Hollywood’s ultimate nexus of glamour and doom, the keeper of 90 years of celebrity secrets that touch everyone from Bette Davis to Britney Spears. It shows up in the homemade visuals for Del Rey’s breakout single “Video Games” and in the lyrics of songs like “Off to the Races.” She lived here while writing her Paradise EP in 2012. Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski lived here, too, in Room 54, before moving to Cielo Drive where — exactly 50 years ago, as of midnight tonight — the Manson Family arrived.

But these kinds of connections are standard in the Lana Del Rey multiverse, where nods to Bob Dylan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Elton John and Henry Miller can coexist in a single chorus and not feel overdone. (No, seriously: Play her 2017 duet with Sean Ono Lennon, “Tomorrow Never Came.”) And if the Lana of five years ago radiated significant Sharon Tate circa Valley of the Dolls energy, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter has more of a Summer of Love thing going on now. The songs she has previewed from her fifth album, the exquisitely titled Norman Fucking Rockwell, are far more Newport Folk Festival than femme fatale — meandering psych-rock jam sessions and slippery piano ballads that shout out Sylvia Plath. The narrative thread throughout all of this can lead listeners down an endless rabbit hole of references, but you can sum it up like so: The music Lana Del Rey makes could only be made by Lana Del Rey.

That means songs like the nearly 10-minute-long “Venice Bitch,” the most psychedelic tune in her catalog, or the title track, a ballad rich with one-liner gems like, “Your poetry’s bad, and you blame the news” — songs that represent the best writing in her career yet have almost zero chance of radio play. Norman Fucking Rockwell, out Aug. 30, is a “mood record,” as Del Rey describes it while perched barefoot on a velvet couch in the new office of her longtime management company, an airy pad way up in the Hollywood Hills with platinum plaques scattered about that no one has gotten around to hanging up yet. There are no big bangers, just songs you can jam out to during beach walks and long drives. This is not exactly a surprise: Del Rey’s only top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 was a raving Cedric Gervais remix of her song “Summertime Sadness.” But in the streaming era, when success often means getting easily digestible singles on the right playlists, making an album that’s meant to be wallowed in for 70 minutes isn’t just inspired — it’s defiant.

Yet it’s an approach that has worked for Del Rey: Her songs, even the long, weird ones, easily rack up tens of millions of streams, and overall they have amassed a solid 3.9 billion on-demand streams in the United States, according to Nielsen Music. Collectively, her catalog of albums has sold 3.2 million copies in the United States, and all of her full-length major-label studio albums have debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 1 or No. 2. The first of those, 2012’s Born to Die, is one of only three titles by a woman to spend over 300 weeks on the Billboard 200. (The other two: Adele’s 21 and Carole King’s Tapestry.) Born to Die also has spent 142 weeks on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart — more than Prince’s Purple Rain, tied with Michael Jackson’s Thriller and just behind Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. It’s an indication that, as broad as her fan base is, it also runs deep, with a ratio of hardcore devotees to casual ones that even stars with inescapable radio hits might envy.

Credit Del Rey’s strong aesthetic and singular throwback sound that, as it has moved away from its initial pop and hip-hop influences, has kept young fans interested and allowed them to grow up with her. “When we sign [an artist], it’s not necessarily what everyone was listening to, but they had real vision,” says Interscope chairman/CEO John Janick. “Lana’s at ground zero of that. There have been so many other people who’ve been inspired by Lana. She’s massive, she has sold millions of albums, but it always has been on her terms.”

This has been Del Rey’s deal from the jump. “Some people really are trying to get in the mix of the zeitgeist, and that is just not my MO — never cared,” says Del Rey, cradling a coffee with sky blue-painted fingertips. “My little heart’s path has such a distinct road that it’s almost taking me along for the ride. Like, ‘I guess we’re following this muse, and it wants to be in the woods. OK, I guess we’re packing up the truck!’ It’s truly ethereal, and it’s a huge pain in the ass.”

Del Rey’s instincts are what led Interscope to sign her to an international joint-venture deal with U.K. label Polydor in 2011 and what compelled her managers Ed Millett and Ben Mawson to create their company, TaP Music, with Del Rey as their first client in 2009. “It was at that moment of peak piracy when no one in the music business was making money, so labels just weren’t taking risks,” recalls Millett. “You’d play one of her songs at an A&R meeting, and they’d be like, ‘You know what’s selling at the moment? Kesha.’ But we were lucky with Lana because she knew exactly who she was. Our job was about making sure everybody understood that.”

That battle for understanding has followed Del Rey for much of her career. “People just couldn’t believe she could be so impactful without some svengalis behind her. I still think there’s a tinge of misogyny behind all that,” says Millett, referencing the endless debates about Del Rey’s creative autonomy. “She realized very quickly, being at the center of that storm, you’re not going to win.” So she went deeper into her own weird world, and somewhere between her third and fourth records — the haunted jazz of 2015’s Honeymoon and the new-age folk of 2017’s Lust for Life — it felt like people finally got it. Or, at least, the people who were meant to get it got it. After all, Del Rey never had intended to make popular music, even if she now headlines festivals. It just kind of happened that way: a poet disguised as a pop star.

In many ways, Norman Fucking Rockwell feels like a fulfillment of the groundwork she has spent nearly a decade laying: She is now free to be Lana, no questions asked. “People want to embrace her lack of formula,” says Millett. “And now she can do whatever the hell she wants because people have accepted that, well, she’s brilliant.” Though she has sold out arenas in the past, the North American leg of her upcoming fall tour has her playing amphitheaters and outdoor venues that feel especially suited to the style of her music. And if her songs feel lighter, it’s because Del Rey does, too.

“I mean, God, I have never taken a shortcut — and I think that’s going to stop now,” she says, feet kicked up on the coffee table. “It hasn’t really served me well to go by every instinct. It’s the longer, more arduous road. But it does get you to the point where, when everyone is just copying each other, you’re like, ‘I know myself well enough that I don’t want to go to that foam rave in a crop top.’ ”

Although that does sound kind of dope, now that she’s thinking about it. “Yeah, never mind,” she says, laughing. “Google ‘nearest foam rave.’ ”

IN PERSON, DEL REY’S VIBE isn’t noir heroine or folk troubadour so much as friend from college who now lives in the suburbs. Her jean shorts, white T-shirt and gray cardigan could’ve easily been snatched off a mannequin at the nearest American Eagle Outfitters. A couple of times in our conversation, she lets out a “Gee whiz!” like a side character in a Popeye cartoon. Between the tour announcements and Gucci campaign shoots, her Instagram consists mostly of screenshot poetry and Easter brunch pics with her girlfriends. For the most distinctive popular songwriter of the past decade, she appears disarmingly basic.

“Oh, I am! I’m actually only that,” agrees Del Rey, eyes gleaming. “I’ve got a more eccentric side when it comes to the muse of writing, but I feel very much that writing is not my thing: I’m writing’s thing. When the writing has got me, I’m on its schedule. But when it leaves me alone, I’m just at Starbucks, talking shit all day.” Starting in 2011, when her nearly drumless, practically hookless breakthrough single “Video Games” blew up, the suddenly polarizing singer found it hard to move through the real world unbothered. But something changed a few years back; she’s not sure if she chilled out or if everyone else did. In any case, she’s happiest among the people, whether that’s lingering in Silverlake coffee shops or dipping out to Newport to rollerblade. “I’ve got my ear to the ground,” she says with a conspiratorial wink. “Actually, that’s my main goal.”

Somehow this only makes Del Rey weirder and cooler: the high priestess of sad pop who now smiles on album covers and posts Instagram stories inviting you to check out her homegirl’s fitness event in Hermosa Beach. You could feel the shift on Lust for Life, which enlisted everyone from A$AP Rocky to Stevie Nicks and traded the interiority of her early songwriting for anthems about women’s rights and the state of the world. She even seemed down to play the pop game a bit, though by her own rules: She worked with superproducer Max Martin on the title track, even as it quoted ’60s girl groups and cast R&B juggernaut The Weeknd as the long-lost Beach Boy.

Among those entering Del Rey’s creative fold on Norman Fucking Rockwell is Jack Antonoff, the four-time Grammy Award-winning producer who has become a go-to collaborator on synth-pop heavy hitters for the likes of Lorde and Taylor Swift. Enlisting Big Pop’s most in-demand producer doesn’t seem like a very Lana Del Rey move, and she knows it.

“I wasn’t in the mood to write,” she admits. “He wanted me to meet him in some random diner, and I was like, ‘You already worked with everyone else; I don’t know where there’s room for me.’ ” But when Antonoff played her 10 minutes of weird, atmospheric riffs, Del Rey could immediately picture her new album: “A folk record with a little surf twist.” In the end, Antonoff wound up co-producing almost the whole project, alongside longtime collaborator Rick Nowels and Del Rey herself.

Most of Norman Fucking Rockwell follows similar whims — or, as Del Rey puts it, “Divine timing.” Though artists like Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande have taken the creation of pop music to a more informal and impulsive place — Eilish recorded her debut album with her producer brother Finneas O’Connell in his childhood bedroom, while Grande wrote most of Thank U, Next in a weeklong blitz — Del Rey’s approach seems even more casual. “She doesn’t follow any kind of plan beyond what she feels is right, and it works every time,” says Millett.

That includes the cover of Sublime’s sleazy 1996 hit “Doin’ Time” — essentially the “Summertime Sadness” of the Long Beach, Calif., ska band’s discography — recorded out of pure fandom, yet somehow a perfect complement to the album’s beach bum vibe. “We were involved in executive-producing the [recent] Sublime documentary because their catalog is through Interscope, and Lana was talking about how big a fan she was,” says Janick. As it happened, her earliest producer was David Kahne, who had worked with Sublime in the ’90s. “So she ended up doing that cover, which turned out amazing. But then she felt like it fit the aesthetic of the album.”

The album title was just something she came up with when she randomly harmonized the name of the American illustrator while recording “Venice Bitch,” though she recognizes that she and Rockwell — an idealist whose cozy depictions of Boy Scouts and Thanksgiving turkeys graced magazine covers for half the 20th century — have both explored big questions about the American dream in their work. And then there’s the artwork she has been using for the record’s singles: bizarrely casual iPhone photos that feel a bit tossed-off because, well, they are.

“Every time my managers write me, ‘Album art?,’ I’m just like, send!” she cackles, pantomiming taking a selfie. “And they just send the middle-finger emoji back to me.”

THE WEEK OF OUR INTERVIEW, JUST a few days after two consecutive mass shootings took place in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Del Rey recorded a song called “Looking for America.” She hadn’t planned to write it, but the shootings affected her on a “cellular level,” as she phrased it in an Instagram preview, which also included a sharp disclaimer: “Now I know I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to be so excuse me for having an opinion.” Over Antonoff’s acoustic guitar, she sings softly, “I’m still looking for my own version of America/One without the gun, where the flag can freely fly.”

The quiet protest song is a move you can hardly imagine her making five years ago. It wasn’t until Lust for Life, she acknowledges, that she felt brave enough to have an overt political opinion. “It is quite a critical world, where people are like, ‘Stick to singing!’ ” she says. “They don’t say that to everyone, but I heard that a lot.”

With that sense of permission has come a kind of peace and an acceptance that evaded Del Rey in her early career; she has never indulged her critics, but it’s nice to be understood. “Sometimes with women, there was so much criticism if you weren’t just one way that was easily metabolized and decipherable — you were a crazy person,” she marvels, noting a shift in the perception of female pop stars that happened only recently (one catalyzed in large part by her own career arc). She recently recorded a song for the soundtrack to the upcoming Charlie’s Angels reboot with Grande and Miley Cyrus — stars who also have faced criticism for the ways in which they don’t conform to the expectations of women in the spotlight.

Her newest songs are some of her most personal, particularly the album closer, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have — but i have it” (a title only Del Rey could pull off). It also hovers anxiously on the margins of the #MeToo movement, though never in such broad strokes. “It was staggered with references from living in Hollywood and seeing so many things that didn’t look right to me, things that I never thought I’d have permission to talk about, because everyone knew and no one ever said anything,” she says in a tangle of sentences as knotty as the lyrics themselves. “The culture only changed in the last two years as to whether people would believe you. And I’ve been in this business now for 15 years!

“So I was writing a song to myself.” She exhales deeply, sinking back into the sofa. “Hope truly is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have, because I know so much.” Del Rey pauses. “But I have it.”

Del Rey has been thinking a lot about hope and faith lately. She has been going to church every Wednesday and Sunday with a group of her girlfriends; they get coffee beforehand, and it has become something to look forward to. She likes the idea of a network of people you can talk to about wanting something bigger — just another extension of her fondness for pondering the mysteries of the universe. (Fittingly, she studied metaphysics and philosophy at Fordham University in New York.) “I genuinely think the thing that has transformed my life the most is knowing that there’s magic in the concept of two heads are better than one,” she says.

That has crept into her music, too. Del Rey says she hadn’t realized until recently how isolating her creative process had been for so long. These days, studio sessions feel more like cozy jam sessions, according to Laura Sisk, the Grammy-winning engineer who worked closely on the record with Del Rey and Antonoff. “Something I love about Norman is how much of the energy of the room we’re able to record,” says Sisk. “We often don’t use a vocal booth, so we’re sitting in a room together recording, usually right after the song was written and the feeling is still heavy in the room.”

Even the cover of Norman Fucking Rockwell, Del Rey says, was designed to cultivate a sense of community. For the first time in her discography, she’s not pictured by herself. She’s on a boat at sea, one arm wrapped around actor Duke Nicholson (a family friend and grandson of Jack), the other reaching out to pull the viewer aboard. As she explains the idea, Del Rey rifles through her sizable mental rolodex of quotations and offers this one from Humphrey Bogart by way of Ernest Hemingway: “ ‘The sea is the last free place on earth.’ ” A place, in other words, where you can finally just be you.

Del Rey says her album covers tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies — whatever energy she puts out tends to shape the next chapter of her life. She’s eager to see how this one, with its open arms and sense of adventure, manifests itself. “We’re going somewhere,” she says with a mysterious grin. “I don’t know where we’re going. But wherever it is, my feet are going to be on the ground.”

Originally published on billboard.com with the headline Lana Del Rey on Finding Her Voice and Following Her Muse: ‘I Have Never Taken a Shortcut’, and in the August 24, 2019 issue of Billboard with the headline Lana Del Rey Speaks Her Mind.

[youngshiney]

honestly i was so serious about this era, i even broke my vow to never stream again, only for sm to come up behind me and stab Exo and Eris in the fucking back. i dont usually take kpop so seriously but im actually upset about how things are turning out

[saucybonjo]

Hung up, Hang up

Little Free piece of mind / also know as Rant/ a free stream of consciousness exercise.

Replaceable, Expendable, Subhuman, side piece, Trash, Just Plain Bad, Clown, Meat Clown, undeserving, unworthy, unseen, unlovable,

What are those words have in common with the Cage i've been building for myself? a lot.

Why when my soul and heart are at peace my mind still tries to fuck all up, is just my insecurity right? is just the need for control? Then why i feel so upset and hurt, Man up, Person up(?) Fuck... Its even the right take ?

Yeah, no maybe you keep idealizing people, is that you keep believing in their prayers and sayer while you can see them without the attire, so... Whats the take here. "not take so seriously the things people say" or "We are all allowed to be cinical/hypocrites" OH Maybe i can end that with " IM ONLY HUMAN" and meme it up? fuck hehe,

Shit, Well, maybe im just high, trying to piece little pieces of ADD low self steem Powered thoughts... Maybe im only human, you can still enjoy the ride tho, no one is asking you to have the buddhist nirvana rn, shit right you can have your little dark age, like those guys you like to hear to feel cool and mysterious... there it is again... that little disdan for the vessel, that little seed that comes back to say while you are living your Golden Age, your Vantage era, the payday time, for doing the things that everyone thunk that where the rights to do to ensure you this, yet... there you are, inside me hating, seething, Molting, there you are you bile sack, the fuck can i do with you...

The Fuck you want me to do, please, go fucking away...

You are Rotting me, you are going to make us rot, and i dont wanna let you, Im still the Vessel, why you hate us so much, what did we do to deserve being treated like this, Shit we literally doing progress, why you have to sulk in your puddle while everything arround is shining and grinning, What do you Want? Please Help Me To Figure It Out, we are the only ones that can do that for us...

Yeah, i go to therapy, yeah its working.

[centaurianthropology]

On the Collapse of HBO Max and the Importance of Physical Media

https://www.slashfilm.com/612335/best-movies-of-2021/

This article is a great articulation of a problem I have noticed increasingly over the past couple of years.  As more and more movies and shows simply are not released on physical media, I’ve waited for something like the collapse of HBO Max to highlight a huge problem: we are no longer able to own our entertainment.  Streaming is, at its most basic, a rental.  We pay to rent, and that’s if we have a high-quality and stable internet connection.  Those who lack internet are basically shit out of luck for entertainment.

And more than that, when a streaming service suddenly vanishes, or merges with another and does a purge of their shows and movies, those shows and movies simply ... vanish.  They no longer exist unless some enterprising individual pirates it.  At that point, the only way to access a piece of art is through illegality.  

And this is why I’ve been so angry about the ‘phasing out’ of physical media.  If I like a show, let me buy the season.  I’m fine paying more for the boxed set of physical media that I then own, no matter what the platform that originally hosted it does after.  Let me take those shows with me even if I go to a place without internet.  Let me get special features and lovingly crafted DVDs that give me behind-the-scenes peeks whenever I want.  Ditching physical media puts us all at the mercy of giant media conglomerates, begging them to let us watch something we have paid for many times over.  And they can take it away whenever they want.  So buy DVDs or Blu-Ray or whatever you like.  But make sure you shore up your collection of the things you love, and never trust a media company.  They’ll drop you the second they feel like they’ve pumped enough money out of you.