#she's one of the german og youtubers

[dkettchen]

coldmirror's neuer Podcast 👌

[ray935sworld]

Every good in villaged?

Alle gut im Dorfd?

[randomnameless]

Have you seen this video yet? Thoughts? https://youtu.be/vnCvO-KMUfo

Alrighty!

Roughly speaking, this video tries to make links between FE16 and RL History. Alas, some comparisons are not really relevant.

edit : after watching this, I lost faith in humanity

edit 2 : i do not have a degree in History, but I know how to make pancakes with bananas

Let’s start with the Church of Seiros!

The church of Seiros mirrors the Roman Catholic Church

It starts with a blast, I see.

IIRC, a friend made a post to debunk it, then it was Bernie’d to death, but ultimately, 360 notes later, everyone agreed it was just an aesthetical flair, and not a comparison based on definite points.

Here :

religious + political influence during medieval and early modern times

the process of coronation 

Rhea is a witness, she isn’t the one to put the crown on Emperors + since when only the Archbishop has to crown monarchs from the kingdom? Is it in the sekrit Dedue+Hubert Paralogue?

Monasteries ok

KoS = templars?? Private military? Templars went haywire during the crusades

Since when the KoS were used to fight against Almyrians?

Also, Nemesis was a joint effort between Rom- Adrestia and the KoS (ffs i don’t even know if the Knights were a thing back then)

I don’t remember randoms from the, back then, Kingdoms, being able to petition the Church to help and ask them to send their templars to get rid of bandits.

Indulgence Taxes written in latin so the masses couldn’t revolt since they couldn’t know it wasn’t in the bible (uhh) = Rhea’s rewriting of history to preserve the society based on crests

Rhea rewrote history not to preserve the society based on crests, but to preserve the people who had a crest, aka her own family but also every Elite’s children and grandchildren and etc etc.

Censorship : There used to be an index of prohibited books that were considered as heresy. The Shadow Library has books... deemed as heresy by Seteth?

But Seteth himself only banned porn - is that person even aware what is a heresy or not?

The greatest similarity between the two churches is the use of relics -

Oh god

“it used body parts as relics”

Thank goodness

---

Then a part on Nabateans, this is going to be sterile since FE16 doesn’t give three figs about them.

Nabateans lived in a desert - ancient desert cities carved in stone?

The Youtuber made a link to the IRL Nabateans, living in a desert and who founded Petra, in modern Jordania. The CG for Sothis overseeing people seems to be set in a desert to, so here goes.

---

ADRESTIA

How can someone look at Adrestian lore and come up with Adrestia = HRE ???

This doesn’t give a good start

Germanic Tribes included “Anglo Saxons” like wtf??? They had Angles and Saxons, not a tribe called “anglo saxons”

“All those tribes settled in their lands and created their own countries”

well, it’s as if you’re explaining to someone that to make a baby, you need to hold hands. It misses 95% of the required steps.

“The Anglo Saxons created England”

Remember what I just said?

“Just like the Germanic Tribes, the Empire once spread accross the continent”

This guy’s map of “Germanic Tribes”

Dude, Britons were never part of “germanic tribes” and if you want an Empire that spread across the continent or even beyond, you have one starting with a R and finishing with - ome

Willy = Charlemagne bcs he was crowned by the pope and given the title of HRE -

it wasn’t totally a dick move from Leo and Charlie who wanted to mark their independance from the Greeks with their own liturgy and influence through the true/og Roman Empire led by a woman by the name of irene, nope.

“The hope of recreating the once glorious roman empire”

Someone please tell this Dude the roman Empire still existed, also; Leo didn’t crown Charlie to unify the germanic states

“Saint Seiros crowned Wilhelm Adrestian Emperor in hopes of unifying Fodlan under the Church”

404 Error : Willy is not the Church, Willy is Willy.

If Rhea wanted to unify Fodlan - to defeat Nemesis - under the Church, Saint Seiros would have been the Emperor, not Willy.

“The Adrestian Empire could be in direct relation to the Ancient Roman Empire”

YES GOD FUCKING DAMNIT

“The link could be made due to its fragmentation”

NOOO

The “independent” countries born after the end of the RE didn’t gain “independence” from the RE, it was born after the RE died (or lost power and influence).

“Adrestian Empire split up in independent countries we see today”

As yes, a purely natural split up.

“I’ve compared Adrestia to Germany and to some extent the Roman Empire”

YOU GOT IT BACKWARDS

“It could be both”

YES YES YES

“Because of the national animal”

NOOO - it’s as if someone wants to make a comparison between Supreme Leader and Dimitri, and say “they are similar because they both have livers and lungs!”

“Adrestian and Germany are mostly similar due to their churches”

Oh god is he going to talk about Luther

“Martin Luther”

headslap

“Supreme Leader, as Martin Luther, began a bill against the Church”

I don’t remember Luther revealing the pope is a dragon, and sending his army to sack the Vatican - per this dude Edel started “full scale religious war against the CoS”.

“Besides History, Adrestia has germanic names”

Ah, here we talk

“Constance means constant in latin”

Craughing, latin being the “roman language” - craughs even more

“Ferdinand is a name more popular in Spain than Germany, thus could tie Adrestia to the Spanish Empire”

Gods no

“Additionally, Nobility was a very important part in Spanish Colonial society”

Ah yes, I completely forgot during the 15th century, you had no nobles bar in Spain. Especially not in the HRE. Only in Spain. Colonial Spain at that.

“Which is why Ferdinand probably values it so much”

Just tell me you’ve never studied European history, and we will leave it at that.

“And Mercedes’s name is of spanish origin!!”

“Emile too, it comes from spanish AND latin!”

Someone wants to tell him how languages evolved in Europe, or how Latin is the basis for a good majority of them? No?

“And spain was a very catholic country, using religion as a motivation for the reconquista and the colonial empire”

Mercedes’s name + dresses as a nun + loyalty to the goddess + used to be from Adrestia = Adrestia = Spain.

That’s it, I’m dead.

----

FAERGHUS IS GREAT BRITAIN?

Ooh I’m going to love this, I just know it.

And dude says this, while posting a picture titled “United Kingdom”, I told you it was going to be golden

“The similarities between the two countries as the way they were created”

Hahahaha

“In regards to England”

FFS are you talking about the GB, the UK or England??

“There was once a group of germanic people called anglo saxons”

what about the brittons? They never existed? And we already went there, you had angles AND saxons.

“They lost mainland europe and invaded brittania”

“which was inhabited by the native celtic tribes”

Oh, he remembered them!! But what about the romans there? Like, the Angles came at a time where the Roman Empire already imprinted in “Brittania”

“It was on that island that they created their own country called England”

I WILL NOT STAND BY THIS FRENCH ERASURE

“and after a lot of wars, germanic England would unite with celtic wales, scotland and northern ireland to become the UK of GB and northern Ireland”

hahahaha, this is dramatic - fast forward 1500 years I won’t mention, everyone united to form the UK of GB and NI.

“Similarly, the people of Faerghus were once Adrestians”

If he linked Adrestia to Rome I could see it

“But at one point of time they departed from the rest of Fodlan”

ADRESTIA = FODLAN CONFIRMED

“to create their own kingdom in the north”

This is what erasing entire centuries of history does to you, you compare someone who fought a war of independence to the creation of England - once a vassal state who became an “united” kingdom, and then an Empire, and then returned to being a Kingdom.

“The celtic people fought hard against the Roman Empire who wanted to colonise their isles”

Ah yes, we’re back on normal racks

“Likewise, the people of Faerghus rebelled against Adrestia during the war of the eagle and the lions to achieve their independence”

Mmh, it’s not the same thing. Let’s say we follow this dude’s train of thought, people resisting an invasion are fighting the same fight that someone who wants to break free from a colonial entity/state?

I don’t think so. Celtic Britain - Britania was assimilated in the “Roman Empire”, even if it was far from Rome and, roughly seen, as a giant limes. They didn’t break free from Rome, Rome abandoned them and its western part died.

Adrestia was still ruling over the world when Loog defeated Emperor Friedrich II (or Karl III, I don’t remember all of those Adrestian Emperors).

“Their culture surrounding knights and their tales of chivalry”

IT CAME FROM US

I mean, the culture surrounding knights and tales of chivalry was also present in mainland Europe.

“Ashe’s story about Loog and Maiden of the Wind is a direct comparison to King Arthur”

Oh gods - no.

Like, first of all, King Loog existed, and fought for his independence. I am not that versed in Arthurian myths, but I don’t think Arthur is an apt comparison.

National animals

Dude posted a picture of Faerghus’s weird griffin thing, but then, to make the comparison, he swaps to the “Blue Lions” to make Lion Lion comparisons.”

“The lion comparisons comes from Richard the lionheart to pay him homage”

I will have to check this

“But it also celtic, since the name of the blue lion’s land is also celtic + name of the BL members hold the most references to british history”

I can’t wait to see this version of british history

“Blaiddyd = Bladud from celtic mythology”

“Ingrid is norse name, but also an allusion to the colonisation of the british isles by vikings”

Then the latin names would be allusions to us or the Roman Empire?

“The french names could represent how the french normans occupied England in the 11th century”

EXCUSE ME IT WAS NOT A MERE OCCUPATION AND THEY WERE NOT NORMANS ANYMORE THEY WERE FRENCH AND ONLY FRENCH

“which is why some words in english language are french”

SO IT IS DEFINITELY NOT A MERE OCCUPATION + previous remark about French having latin roots, in the old “Britania” where the native britons assimilated the romans who once conquered them (or the inverse?).

“Felix and Fraladarius are of latin origin, and could be a nod to how the ancient romans conquered a part of the british isles in the ancient times”

FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD I mean, nods.

“Which is why many words in English language have latin roots”

YES

- but then this foils dramatically with his Adrestian = Rome theory, because Fraldarius (which is latin bcs, tru fax, guy said -us is a common suffix in latin) existed before Adrestia!

---

The Alliance and Almyra (are they grouped together because they start with an A?)

Youtuber complains how it is difficult to connect the Alliance to a real state, since we don’t know a thing about them (TFW you’re a merchant Republic in Fire Emblem).

Is it really way harder to connect the Alliance to a real life specific nation? I mean, given the “ties” he managed to find between the other twos, at this rate, nothing is impossible.

But, a sort of council of people ruling with great houses voting, and governing a country geared towards trade?

Nope, can’t see anything resembling it.

“It was the first in Fodlan to stop using a Monarchy”

Yes

“rather they adopted some form of democracy”

check your definitions, i might argue semantics, but I don’t think it means what you think

“Nobles acting as representative?”

Source???

“a Leading House that has a tidbit more power than the rest”

Hmm, can’t see any parallels

“How they obtained democracy? Well, they revolted against the royalty of Faerghus”

FAERGHUS BAD + I told you this isn’t a democracy

“This makes the Alliance similar to the USA”

HAHAHAHAHAHA

And what, they poured Hresvelg Tea in a harbour?

“America rebelled against Britain to achieve status as an independent democracy”

“If GB and Faerghus are equivalents, then the Alliance and the US must also be equivalent”

I CAN’T PLEASE MY SIDES

“Since both of them are alliances of territories ruled under no crown”

My bad, I thought this was going to be serious

“If you want to compare the Alliance to an European nation, you need to take a look at their neighbours first”

I don’t remember Germany being adjacent to England, like Adrestia is to Faerghus, but who knows.

“Almyra = Aechemenid empire”

Hopefully someone with more, let’s say, baggage, already made the link so it’s like discovering water is wet.

“So the Alliance is like Greece”

Mmh...

Were they rolled over by Adrestia first, who stole all of their culture and tried to assimilate them, being jelly but also deriding them ? Or...

“Greece was the first democracy”

GUY I TOLD YOU - also it wasn’t “Greece”, but Athens

“Greece was also at war against Persia during the ancient times”

But Leicester didn’t went toe to toe against Almyra alone on “numerous” occasions, they needed help from the Vatica- I mean everyone, and GM supervising the construction of the locket, to go “toe to toe” against Almyrians.

“This rivalry is the reason why every country in Fodlan founded the Officer’s academy”

Rhea is a woman of many faces, she can be the blondie who punches people, “a previous archbishop” but also, on her own, three countries at the same time.

“There is one more nation”

Oh, will he finally -

“and that being FRANCE”

What the fuck - this is personal dude, if you pull Charles Martel I’ll throw you a pot of salt

“since it was the first nation to replace a monarch with a republic during the french revolution”

Cromwell found dead in miami - sure it wasn’t a “real” republic in the modern sense, but since we’re generous with “semantics”, I’ll put him here.

“But I’ll leave it up to you guys, in the comment sections, to choose which country is the most applicable to the alliance”

COWARD GIVE US YOUR REAL ANSWER

---

Comparisons between certain classes and real life... history

“magic classes are inspired by the catholic church”

what? a Monk/Bishop in my TRPG???

“Dark bishops are reminiscent of medieval plague doctors responsible for treating black plague during the 1300s”

Medieval

According to Michel Tibayrenc's Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases,[10] the first mention of the iconic plague doctor is found during the 1619 plague outbreak in Paris, in the written work of royal physician Charles de Lorme, serving King Louis XIII of France at the time 

it is generally agreed that post 1492 we’re not in “medieval” europe anymore

1300s comes after 1619, of course, who needs reading, i mean, mathematical comprehension

“The javelin shares its design with roman pilum”

guy who was going to tell me the roman pilum returns to the hands of its carrier after being thrown away - no comparison between the hand axe and some other axe?

Also, Rhea’s sword is rigged like a Zweihandler - but from size alone it makes the comparison void.

---

House leaders are based on real life historical figures

Who wants to laugh?

“Claude comes from Almyra”

Almyra = Persia = I played Civ once so... the leader of “Persia” is Cyrus the Great!

OH MY GOD

“Claude values tolerance and he’s almyrian, so he’s Cyrus”

Next what, Supreme Leader wants to conquer the world and is 1,20 meters tall, she’s the next Napoleon?

I’M TELLING YOU GUYS I HAVE PSYCHIC POWERS I CAN SEE THE FUTURE AND WHERE THIS SHIT GOES WITHOUT EVEN HAVING TO WATCH IT

“They share similar stories”

Crap, I missed the part of my history lessons where Napoleon was stuck in a cave and given blood from mythical lizards to become a super weapons to kill the Pope :(

That’s what I get for reading mangas instead of following the class!

Apparently, per this dude, Napoleon saw how, in Europe, people were promoted on status and based on their families, and wanted to change the state of ko. Napoleon wanted to refom Europe to promote muhritocracy guys!

Napoleon staged a coup, throwing away the Republic and became Emperor of France by crowning himself

DAMN IT DO YOU KNOW WHAT “WITNESS” MEANS OR NOT???

Rhea shouldn’t give her permission or not, she’s only required to act as a WITNESS

“Besides their rise to power their downfall are also identical”

Thank you random dude, even if you didn’t say it in your stupid video about Supreme Leader, if she’s identical to him, it also means she became Emperor after staging a coup (I mentioned it once in a post - she comes with John and Charles, her soldiers to meet papa Ionius - the coup wasn’t staged against Ionius, but against Aegir and whoever was in charge of Adrestia)!

“Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo”

Well yes, but his ultimate defeat was not here, but in Russia.

“In VW and AM, the Gronder Field is also a multiple clash against the Empire”

Play the game, please. In Waterloo, the allied forces were fighting against France, in Gronder, the plot commands Dimitri and Claude not to be allies, so it’s 1 vs 1 vs 1 and not a 4 vs 1 like Waterloo.

And...

----

The Conclusion

(who is the loser with an eyepatch? I forgot)

EARL GREY

“it’s not right to judge a person because of different opinions”

“this race of people who are very religions” IS THE REASON WHY THE WORLD SUCKS AND WE NEED TO BOOT THEM OUT OF OUR LAND TO MAKE US GREAT AGAIN

-> sorry, I’m judging, and hard at that.

If you want “earl grey” and moral choices that are sucky no matter what, play TS.

[nyaheum]

My yearly list of Eurovision songs after the first impression (I mean, for like, half of them. I heard snippets of some songs.). Judged on music videos, because...if I only listen to the songs on Spotify, my eyes get bored. :’)

(oh, and don’t talk to me about iceland’s placement, I know this might be unpopular)

X. Belarus

Fuck Belarus, all my homies hate Belarus. Not even going to grace them with a rating.

Norway (TIX – Fallen Angel)

...no. :( And it’s not even because Keiino didn’t win, I just wholeheartetly hate this song. And I’m kinda sorry to TIX, because he seems like a cool dude and his stage outfit is absolutely hilarious, but oh my god do I hate this song with an absolute burning passion.

Poland (RAFAL – The Ride)

eye emoji mouth emoji eye emoji – well, this is a non-qualifier if I’ve ever seen one. Can we just...skip this?

Belgium (Hooverphonic – The Wrong Place)

Nap time! This song annoys me. I cannot explain it, but it gives me a headache and my whole body is revolting against this song. I am not kidding. Objectively, I don’t even hate it, but there’s just something about it...that makes me go...hnghgng…

North Macedonia (Vasil – Here I Stand)

eye emoji mouth emoji eye emoji ver. 2 – I am not trying to sound mean, but does North Macedonia do any music that is not dramatic power ballads? I’m serious. (And I don’t like it, sorry. :((...except for the high notes, I like them. When he can hit them live.)

Estonia (Uku Suviste – The Lucky One)

This (the music video)...is soft porn. I am slightly scared of Uku. I don’t know why. But, uh...this is better than last year’s song? Still, it wouldn’t qualify under my watch, whoops.

Georgia (Tornike Kipiani – You)

He stopped yelling angrily at the microphone. :((( Nah, but this isn’t my thing. It’s great that they are doing their own thing, it’s just not really my thing...it also reminds me of a song I know, damn.

Austria (Vincent Bueno - Amen)

He looks like a german youtuber. I don’t know hich one, but he looks like one. I also canot tell if he’s 18 or 38, lol. (For some reason he also reminds me of Alex Albon, which is even weirder.)...oh, uh, the song? Idk, I don’t care for I. It’s fine.

Spain (Blas Cantó – Voy A Querdarme)

Confession: I’m probably the only person who actually doesn’t like the sound of Spanish all that much. Whoops. Apart from that though, I’m not the biggest fan of this song. Can’t really say more about that. Meh.

The Netherlands (Jeangu Macrooy – Birth Of A New Age)

Listen: I really like the tone of this voice. It’s great. I am not a fan of the song. There’s something just very off about the loud percussions (?) in the background that make me go absolutely crazy when listening to this. My sensory-overload-prone ears hate it, and I’m sorry...the part before the last chorus on the other hand I love. The whole song could have sounded like that and I would have loved it. (...and I can’t unhear “You are my broccoli – You know my broccoli!” ;-;)

Azerbaijan (Efendi – Mata Hari) Whenever I see Efendi, my brain still goes “Cleopatrrrrra!”, oof. This song sounds like a song I know. Which...is super unprecice, but I genuinely don’t know which one. I do like that they kept the weird pre-chorus thing from Cleopatra (and reference the song later on), but I must say that I liked Cleopatra more...but it’s a party song, so I think it will be fun on stage!

Romania (ROXEN - Amnesia)

I didn’t like her song last year, I don’t enjoy this all too much and I’m kinda sorry but also...I don’t want to apologize for my taste in music, lmao. I want her hair though. Give me her hair.

Denkmark (Fyr & Flamme – Ove Os Pa Hinanden)

Ring ding ding, native language bonus. This is also way more fun than I thought it would be, hah. VERY retro, but I don’t hate that? :D (this and sweden really aren’t any different in terms of how much I like them)

Portugal (The Black Mama – Love Is On My Side)

I can appreciate this. I just wish it was in Portuguese, honestly. I don’t really know if I like the English for this song. That being said, I don’t know if you can make these very specific tones (you know what I mean) in portuguese without it sounding super off, so…

Ireland (Lesley Roy – Maps)

Okay, you do you Ireland. :D

Israel (Eden Alene – Set Me Free)

This exists. :D

Cyprus (Elena Tsagrinou – El Diablo)

Cyprus came to party, and I can’t be mad at that. I just don’t know why everybody in the YouTube comments loves this SO MUCH that they are sure that it will win if it gets the jury votes. I don’t think it’s as good as Fuego or She Got Me were, but maybe I just have no taste in party music. I don’t party. (Only if you got a 2000s playlist and some iced tea.)

France (Barbara Pravi – Voilà)

FRANCE sending a BALLAD? In MY Eurovision? It’s more likely than you think. It’s good, objectively. Personally, I don’t really care for it all that much and feel like I already know it.

United Kingdom (Embers – James Newman)

A good, modern song? In my british eurovision song? What happened on the Isles over quarantine? Are you guys okay? Did you find yourself? Have you taken your last breath (breath!) and looked at your past results? I’m impressed enough to put this relatively high, wow.

Serbia (Hurricane – LOCO LOCO)

*adore delano voice* party! Oh, and native language bonus...for a party song! I’m...impressed, actually. I cannot decide wheter I prefer this or Hasta La Vista, but I think it’s this one? The flows smoother, if that means literally anything.

Bulgaria (VICTORIA – Growing Up Is Getting Old)

*shrugs* I think a lot of people will like this. And I get that. I think I even understand it...yeah. I didn’t like her song last year either. It’s just personal preference, I think. I just want to have fun during Eurovision, hah.

Finland (Blind Channel – Dark Side)

Finland: FUCK YOU!!! Germany: Fuck you. <3

That’s all I’ll say, we know how the Finnish are, this is not surprising, lmao. (And I’m one of those children that grew up on Rammstein, so I legally cannot dislike this.)

Croatia (Albina - Tick-Tock)

Tick-tock, can you hear me go tick-tock? My heart is like a clock, I'm steady like a rock-...oh wait, wrong tick-tock! Still, really enjoy this song’s chorus – I actually enjoy it so much that it makes up for the utter loss of interest I experience once it’s over, chrm.

Sweden (Tusse – Voices)

I mean...let’s be honest, it’s a generic swedish pop song. It sounds like every other Swedish entry, and I think that bothers me. I know, that sounds kind of...weird, looking at my choices higher up in the list, but...meh. I think this will easily qualify for the Final and place high, and I am totally okay with that. It’s just not...what I wanted, I guess? :D (and i’m sorry but as a german-speaker I cannot get over the name “tusse”) (oh, and tusse seems to be super cool)

Albania (Anxhela Peristeri - Karma)

Oh, we’re going to war in 130 A.D.? Fine, let me just pack my spear and- oh, Albania has already sent a singer? Ah, well, might as well give up and just vibe.

Czech Republic (Benny Cristo - omaga)

This sounds fun. Not a winner or anything, but fun. I’ll probably still be on Twitter when he’s performing, whoops.

Slovenia (Ana Sklic - Amen)

Wait, there’s TWO songs called Amen? And why do I actually kinda like this? Oh well, might as well just accept it. (Her voice though...mhmmhmhm…yes please)

Iceland (Dadi og Gagnamagnid – 10 Years)

We just vibin’. I liked Think About Things more, but I’m very much biased here...because I’ve known that song for a year now. But this is still very good, and very on brand. (And I understand like...half of the lyrics, but I am okay with that.)

Australia (Montaigne - Technicolour)

not australia flexing at all of europe that they can hold big gatherings! D: oh, but I like this way more than last years song. I feel like Montaigne can show her GREAT voice way better in this song. (Even though her outfit and the sound of the song reminds me of the UK song that had...a dude run on the stage. I can’t think of the word for it right now.)

Malta (Destiny – Je Me Casse)

Destiny’s voice is just….wow. This is very different than All My Love, but it’s fun. The topic of the lyrics kinda remind me of Toy, and I like that…..I don’t really like the music video (especially the dancers in the colorful dresses? idk), but I’ll just ignore that.

Germany (I Don’t Feel Hate - Germany)

Confession time: I actually actively enjoy this song. Everybod is shitting on it, but it’s FUN and it has a good message, and Jendrik seems like the nicest dude ever and...it doesn’t deserve all the hate it’s getting? It’s completely self-produced and just fun. Stop being mean. :(

(...also someone on youtube said “pewdiepie” and I can’t unsee that now so fuck you >:((...no, no I don’t feel hate, just rethink your life choices)

Moldova (Natalia Gordienko - SUGAR)

What in the “Eis.de ist in der Kiste” is this music video? And I thought I would absolutely hate this song, but I actually don’t mind it all that much. It’s actually fun. Oh no, I’m splipping, someone catch me, aaaaaahhhhh….(and that poor cake dude. Is this song about cannibalism? Does she want to eat him?)

San Marino (Senhit – Adrenalina)

Catch me hum the chorus of this song at least once a day...but honestly, without any malicious intent: what the actual FUCK san marino? This is so much better than Freaky, and even though I do not believe for one second that this will win, the simple outragiousness of bringing Flo Rida to Eurovision deserves attention. (Bringing someone like Flo Rida to ESC sounds more like Scandinavia/Bulgaria, doesn’t it?)

Russia (Manizha – Russian Woman)

Not gonna lie, I miss Little Big, but at least they are sending something that’s at least as weird. I love that. Russian Rap is cool as fuck anyway, so I’m fully here for this...but I’m glas this song doesn’t have a music video, this just has to be a live performance. (Oh, and another strong woman!)

Ukraine (Go_A – SHUM)

I’m SO glad Go_A are back. But, let me be completely honest: I know why they had to change the lyrics, but I still liked the first version better. BUT I feel like the new one will grow and me and it will climb one or two places, because the Instrumental just slaps SO HARD. (Makes me feel like putting on a Cybergoth outfit and start dancing at a German industrial park, lmao.)

Latvia (Samanta Tina – The Moon Is Rising)

Does this count as my guilty pleasure this year? I loved her song last year, and this sounds similar, so...I like this too. It sounds modern as fuck (well, for Europe, you know) and I can definitely...”vibe” with that. I genuinely really enjoy this, and I don’t know why. (Even though I prefer last years drop.) A lot of “strong, independent women”-songs this year, and I’m not complaining.

Switzerland (Gjon’s Tears – Tout l’Univers)

Just so we’re clear, this and Italy share the exact same spot. I just cannot compare them at all. Gjon’s voice just takes me hostage throughout this whole song and won’t let me go. And everything that isn’t english/is in the countries offical language immediately gets plus points from me. As if this song needed them anyway.

Lithuania (The Roop – Discoteque)

Aaaaaand...dance break! Good, I just love them so much, it’s not even funny anymore. And I’ve been singing this song randomly since it came out. I can’t stop. It has burned itself into my brain. Let’s dis-co-teque right at my home! *waves arms around with no sign of coordination*

(and does anyone else feel like he’s serhat, just with a different alignment? Like, they are both chaotic, but serhat is chaotic neutral and he’s either chaotic good or chaotic bad, it really depends on the way he looks at the camera)

Italy (Maneskin – Zitti E Buoni)

Italy delivers, as they do every year. Not only do I really like this song (it is very much my genre), THIS is an aesthetic I can get behind! Knowing Eurovision, I doubt it will win, but damn if it won’t be super fun! (I am so glad this won Sanremo, hah.)

[nolabballgirl]

Skam: Ranking the Sana Seasons

So in light of Skam España’s upcoming Amira season, I thought I would watch all of the existing Sana seasons (Skam OG, Druck, Skam Italia, and Skam France) and give my rankings, coming from the perspective of a cis Muslim woman of color from the US. 

Overall, none of the seasons lived up to their potential, and none really explored Islamophobia or racism is any meaningful way. They definitely could have benefitted from more Muslims (if any at all) in the writer’s room. For example, most of the remakes (Druck did the best here) miss the mark on approaching the main conflict between Sana and her non-Muslim love interest. They even have most Sanas asking a parent or Googling why a Muslim man can marry whoever he wants but a Muslim woman can’t, so I’m not sure if they are trying for some backdoor feminist angle. First, that’s not accurate. Scripturally, a Muslim man cannot marry an atheist or an agnostic either, which is how the Sanas’ love interests are generally coded. Second, for me, the actual question is more of interpretation of faith. Seeing a five-times per day praying, hijabi Muslim woman grappling with following the scripture and then *wanting* to be with a non-muslim knowing that not only does it go against her faith, but that he wouldn’t participate in a huge part of her life (e.g. imagine the loneliness of fasting all of Ramadan by yourself year after year) is the drama and love and heartbreak I want to see examined.  

Tbh, I thought Amira N.’s guest appearance on Lucas Rubio’s YouTube channel gave us a more in depth dive than pretty much all these other seasons combined, but anyway, here we go:

1. Druck S4 (Amira M.) - I really love Amira M. (her spunk, attitude, and incorporation of faith into her life). But, they completely shortchanged Amira by giving her fewer episodes and essentially turning it into the Mia and Hanna show by the end. However, across the remakes, I thought Amira’s story arc and confidence in her Islam was the best depicted so far. 

Amira M. and Mohammed have the best Yousana chemistry. The romantic tension is so palpable. Plus, Mohammed standing guard and not having her Maghrib prayer interrupted was such a thoughtful touch! (in the other remakes, there are always people making out or barging in when Sana is trying to pray). 

All the remakes have shown the Sanas praying, but here we have scenes with Amira reciting her prayers out loud for the audience to hear (not the usual mumble-core), and Tua has such a nice reciting voice (qira’at) :)

Druck didn’t ruin the Girl Squad for me (even though they pretty much gave Kiki a personality transplant to get there!)

But, Druck played this season super safe and did not engage in any *real* conversations with the GS surrounding racism and Islamophobia, so major missed opportunity there! We only had snapshots of Amira dealing with racist third parties here and there, but no cohesive resolution.

Omar and Essam’s storylines really went nowhere. They could have done so much more with these characters and their struggles fitting in to German society. Although I do think the “house party/left behind bottle of alcohol” scene fit better with Essam and his friends vs. having it be Amira trying to fit in with another group of girls.

Like with Skam Italia, it feels like something is missing when one of the Girl Squad members is MIA (here, Mia/Noora), but Druck overcompensated and not in a good way.

2. Skam OG (Sana B.) - Sana is the OG bada$$. I’ll admit it took me a little while to get warmed up to her, but I love how this season showed her vulnerability. I also thought she and Yousef had great chemistry. Plus, Sana and Even friendships are pure gold :)

However, I didn’t like:

the characterization of the Girl Squad and how Sana was essentially pushed out in favor of the Pepsi Max girls (come on Girl Squad - do better!)

the Noora/Yousef flirtation/make out - unnecessary other than to give Noora more screen time. And not a fan of wrapping up storylines with text message exposition...

the Sana/Isak bench scene. Yes, there were some good moments but I didn’t like putting the onus back on Sana to be the one doing all the work and answering all the dumb questions. It’s so exhausting.

the cyberbullying story, followed by Sana messaging William behind Noora’s back - left a sour taste in my mouth RE: Sana’s motives without any great or meaningful resolution (sidenote: props to Skam España for moving this to Eva’s season - makes a lot more sense!) 

3. Skam Italia (Sana A.) - So despite my misgivings with SkamIt due to its casting issues, I was excited coming into this season because I saw a lot of hype on social media. But, it turned out to basically be a carbon copy of the Skam OG season, so it left me disappointed overall. 

Sana and Malik are cute, but...

I really didn't care for the Girl Squad this season, and the treatment felt even worse than the GS of Skam OG’s season 4. The dynamic was really all over the place - they pushed Sana out in favor of the BCU girls and essentially let them badmouth her and accuse her of sabotaging their vacation house. But as soon as Silvia is the one who gets insulted, then all of a sudden we’re a Girl Squad again? Where’s the kindness and understanding? Where are my Sisters Forever?! 

It’s always weird to me when one of the Girl Squad members is MIA (here, Eleonora/Noora was gone for most of the season), so it just feels like something is missing.

Gay conversion therapy storyline - yes, this is an important topic that affects religious households, but there was no in depth treatment to it, like at all. And do I hate that they gave the intolerance storyline to a Muslim family and imam when there’s already rampant Islamophobia in Italy? Yes! But, more so it takes away from Sana’s story. It was more of an excuse to incorporate Martino/Niccolo into S4 instead of developing Sana as a character and having Skam Italia deal with racism and Islamophobia head on. Also, it was a case of another character (Sana) speaking for Luai instead of having Luai speak for himself about his experience and trauma. 

Sana taking off her hijab in Filippo/Martino’s apt - lol...it’s just not realistic.

4. Skam France (Imane) - The worst. Do I need to say more? Okay, I will. 

The casual, unchecked racism jumps out. 

The casual, unchecked Islamophobia jumps out.

Um, Girl Squad - look at what you’re doing, look at your choices. Seriously, talk about ruining characters and ruining a Girl Squad.

Dragging out Sofiane and Manon’s relationship. Totally undercuts the Imane and Sofiane chemistry compared to the other remakes. Yousef/Mohammed would never.

Followed by the Manon and Charles show. *roll eyes*

Someone please rescue Imane. Girl, go hang with Jamila and Lamia. You’ll be so much happier. 

Someone give the Bakhellals their own show far away from here. 

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

People who started watching Violetta after it stopped airing

Hi! I am one of those who actually saw it while it was airing, and so I thought I could share some of my memories of that.

”There’s so many episodes, how did they have time to air them all?” Well, easy. In some countries they aired five episodes a week (Monday-Friday) and in other countries three episodes a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). That way, a season could be done airing in only a few months!

For the countries that had three episodes a week, they aired both ep 79 and ep 80 at the same time.

They had concerts. Like, all over Latin America and Europe. The show was so popular they got to have concerts. The concerts even got recorded on TV once.

God the MERCH. If you lived anywhere in Europe or latin America at the time, chances were high there were Violetta merch everywhere. They had magazines, in some countries a COMIC BOOK, they had a ”Violetta’s diary” book where it just was Violetta writing in her diary about the events that happened in the show, they had fucking schampoo bottles with Vilu’s face on them... it was massive and it was everywhere.

Since some of us in Europe had to wait for episodes to air, there were some channels on youtube kind enough to show us spanish clips with, get this, ENGLISH SUBTITLES. We lived life spoiling ourselves of everything that was gonna happen

Literally every single scene from the show you can find. If you can’t find it in spanish, you will find it in italian, french, german, or just any other language. Though, it took a while for english scenes to show up, so if you didn’t speak any language you just had to guess what they were saying (if there weren’t subtitles)

The Leon VS Tomás dramas was big... and god, don’t get me started on LEON VS DIEGO dramas. People cared so damn much about who Violetta would choose

Though most of us just collectively agreed on German/Angie, which, even if I do ship them, I just find it a bit strange with your aunt marrying your dad. But maybe that’s me

YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE DRAMA THAT WENT ON ON THE VIOLETTA WIKI. People literally made up that the actors had children and that they were dating but broke up, etc. Of course, some actors did have children and some actors did date, but the ones they wrote about never had any children and never dated

Also some people started to write their OC’s on the Wiki, causing them to start ANOTHER Wiki just for OC’s, but also they had the canon stuff there aswell, so you could read about some canon episode and then just see ”OC by user Tinista05 appears in this episode and falls in love with Jorge Blanco”

Remember that the fandom consisted of 90% girls between the ages of 8-13, AKA: Children that should not have access to the internet, also no one is fluent in english, so we all just had fandom drama with each other riting inn brocken englisch

In Scandinavia, they had this thing on the weekends called ”Violetta the scoop” where a swede, a norwegian and a danish girl talked about the show and what was gonna happen next week. It was very cheesy, but fun. As they were talking they showed clips in english, and so sometimes they would use the english names like Herman and Jeremiah. And it bugged me, because in the dub I grew up with (swedish) they had the OG names (Germàn and Jeremias)

It was an excitement to see how the english dub would translate the spanish songs. Sometimes they did a good job, and sometimes I feel like they could’ve dubbed it better. Nonetheless, it was fun to see how it would sound

Where I live, Violetta got so popular that, when they were gonna air season 2, they showed a SNEAK PEEK of it in theatres like 3 weeks before the season aired on TV. Which meant, they showed the first episode of season 2 and then there were dubbed interviews with the actors, who talked about the new season. They did the same thing for season 3, but I only saw the s2 sneak peek

Do you know how many european children who’s not fluent in spanish that has learned every single Violetta song in spanish? A lot. We may mispronounce a lot, but I can proudly say I could sing the entire chorus of Como Quieres without dying of toung twisting

How many other people took spanish in school because of Violetta? 🙋🏼‍♀️

The cast was so sweet. There was literally no drama (atleast, not what I know of) and it seems like most of the cast has only good memories of it.

The fact that Martina Stoessel was like 14 when they started filming while everyone else was like 19-20 or older still surprises me lol. She’s one of the few people who plays a character older than herself. Though, she really does look like she’s the same age as everyone else (especially in the later seasons)

Violetta was literally a lifestyle, I ain’t joking.

[lovemesomesurveys]

Has anybody ever stole your happy? More like life stuff and health issues did. And depression is a real bitch.

What does your Facebook/Myspace status say? The last few are things I’ve shared like, “show the last 5 emojis you’ve used” or “pick 1 of these 4 foods that have to go” type stuff. 

Have you ever played games with someones head? I don’t think so. I’ve had people play games with mine.

Have you changed throughout the years? Yes. A lot changed these past 6 years and not in a good way. And also a lot hasn’t changed that really needs to.

Are you doing anything important tomorrow? No.

What are you wearing right now? I’m wearing leggings and a long-sleeve shirt.

What do you currently hear right now? I’m watching Teen Mom OG. Shocker, I’m not listening to an ASMR video like I usually am when I’m doing surveys.

Do you get creeped out from people who have lazy eyes? No? 

Do you need to forget about someone right now? No.

Do you answer blocked calls on your phone? I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers.

What color is your cellphone? Gold.

How much money do you have on you right now? I don’t have any on me.

What type of survey do you refuse to take? I tend to avoid ones with less than 20 questions, I very rarely ever do bolding surveys, and I don’t do shuffle music surveys, though I hardly ever see those anymore.

Are you a good speller? I think so.

What is your favorite song of the moment? I don’t have a particular current favorite. I haven’t been listening to music, lately. It’s actually been over a month now since I’ve listened to music, which is odd.

When was the last time you ate ice cream? It’s been a few years.

What are you eatting right now? I’m not eating anything right now, but I need to soon.

What do you currently smell? I don’t smell anything at the moment.

Have you ever snuck out of the house? Nope. 

Do you like to run? No.

Do you think you could run the mile in 10 minutes? Absolutely not. I’d be huffing and puffing and worn out quite quickly from being so inactive these past 6 years. Let’s be real, I wouldn’t even attempt it at all. I don’t have the energy for that.

Where do you plan on going this summer? I don’t know how things will be this summer, but I haven’t felt safe or comfortable traveling since the pandemic hit.

I won't take a survey if it isnt more than _____ questions. It’s gotta be at least 20 questions. 

One thing that can make you smile no matter what. My doggo.

What is something special about your town? My town sucks, ha.

How many surveys a day do you take? Usually, like 5 or so at least. Some days more, some days less.

Do you think people should make more surveys? I hope people keep making them and I’ll keep taking them.

What were you doing before this survey? Another survey while watching Ghosted.

When was the last time you logged onto Facebook/Myspace? I stay logged in, but I last checked my Facebook like 20 minutes ago.

What are you craving right now? Wingstop.

I am gonna get something to drink, do you need anything? I have my coffee, but thanks.

What was the longest movie you watched? A little over 3 hours.

Do you really think the world will end in 2012? Welp, we’re still here in 2021.

When cheese gets his picture taken what does he say? HAHA That was cheeeeesy.

Have you ever been to a job interview? No.

Do you wear a lot of makeup? I haven’t worn any makeup in a little over 3 years now.

Do you love soft pretzels? Yeah. It’s been years since I’ve had one, though.

Do you use IM anymore? Just Facebook Messenger now and then.

Who was the last person to call you? My mom.

Tell me about the last movie you watched. It was that Disney movie, Soul. 

Have you ever played 21 questions? Yeah.

When was the last time you talked to your last ex boyfriend? Like 6 years ago. 

Is your dog mixed or full? She’s a German Shepherd and Lab mix.

Do you like kool-aid? If so, what's your favorite flavor? I loved it as a kid. I haven’t had it since then.

When was the last time you sent a letter through the mail? Several years ago.

Do you know anybody in prison right now? Yes.

What was the last thing you and your mother did together? We caught up on some of the shows we watch together.

Are you attending any parties this weekend? No.

What are your plans for the weekend anyway? Same stuff I do everyday.

Do you take good pictures? Ew, no.

Am I your friend on Bzoink? I don’t have a Bzoink account.

Do you add people for their surveys or for friendship? This is my survey blog so I follow other survey blogs.

What is your display picture on myspace/facebook right now? Same one I have on here.

What is going on outside right now? I don’t know.

Do you miss anybody right now? I’ll always miss my loved ones who have passed away.

Who was the last person you kissed? Joseph, like 8 years ago.

Will you have sex tonight? No.

What color looks the best on you? I don’t feel I look good in anything, but I feel most comfortable in black.

Have you ever bought the wrong size because you were too lazy to check it? No.

What was the last thing you bought over 5 dollars? Takeout out the other day.

Do you have any mag subscriptions? No.

Do you know anybody who is going to the marines this year or next? No.

Have you watched Dear John? I’ve seen parts of it.

I can't leave my house without _____ My phone, wallet, mask, and hand sanitizer.

What is something you're not scared of but a lot of people are? I feel like I’m scared of a lot of things so I don’t know.

Would you ever have a threesome? No.

How far have you gone? I’m a virgin.

Are you an U.S citizen? I am.

How old will you be in 2012? I turned 23 in 2012.

Do you think you'll be married someday? I don’t see that happening.

Do you have any candles lit right now? No, I don’t have any candles. I’m not a candle person.

When was the last time your parents ordered pizza? We had pizza last week.

Do you loooove chicken alfredo as much as I do? I don’t care for it, personally.

What color computer do you wish you had? I like mine.

How many inches is your screen? It’s 13 inches.

Do you have any step siblings? No.

If so, how many? -

Do they annoy you? -

What color camera do you have? I just use my phone, which is a gold iPhone 12 Pro Max.

How many times a day do you talk to your mom on the phone? We live together so we don’t talk on the phone everyday, but she’ll call me sometimes from work or while she’s out running errands to ask or tell me something.

Who is somebody you haven't seen in a long time? A lot of my extended family. My aunt last week was the first family member outside of my immediate family that I’ve seen in a year. What are your school colors? I’m done with school.

What did you wear yesterday? My usual attire of leggings and a graphic tee.

What color straightner do you have? I don’t have a straightener anymore. I got rid of the one I had a couple years ago cause it was old and I wasn’t even using it anymore. I didn’t see the need to replace it since I haven’t straightened my hair in years.

How many times a day do you brush your grill? At least once.

Who was the last person to IM you? I think it was my aunt on Facebook Messenger.

Is your closet organized? It is. My aunt helped me do that last week. She helped me clean up and reorganize my room. I really can’t even say helped cause she did literally everything. 

Do you need to clean anything in your house right now? Nope.

What should you be doing? I don’t have anything I should be doing, I’m doing what I want to do. 

What would you rather be doing? I’m perfectly content with this. I just finished eating dinner and I’m feeling full and sleepy.

Do you listen to music really loud or really low? I listen to it at a reasonable level. I wanna hear it obviously, but I don’t need it blasting.

Do you live with anybody other than your siblings and your parents? My doggo as well.

Who was your last crush? Ty.

How many tattoos do you have? Zero.

What is the weather like down around where you live? It’s currently 54F.

What is your favorite thing to do? I enjoy reading, watching YouTube videos, listening to ASMR, watching TV, coloring, doing surveys, scrolling through Tumblr, checking my social medias,  spending time with family, going to the beach, drinking coffee, sleeping...

How many pets do you own? I have one doggo. 

Are you close with your parents? I am. My mom, especially. She’s my best friend.

What is your favorite song? I have a lot of favorites.

Where do you shop the most for your clothes? Boxlunch and Hot Topic.

Have you ever read a whole series of books? Yeah, I’ve read many series.

When you tell someone you love them do you mean it? Absolutely. I don’t say those words loosely or a lot, but if I say it, I mean it.

Do you have a guy best friend? No.

Are you going to walk at your graduation or just pick your diploma up? I participated in all of my graduations.

Do you think the Tiger Wood's cheating thing is annoying? That’s super old news.

What is your favorite food? Wingstop’s garlic parm and lemon pepper boneless wings, ramen, spaghetti and meatballs, breakfast burritos or sandwiches, and biscuits and scrambled eggs smothered in country gravy with hash browns.

Do you ever eat anything everybody else thinks is gross? Probably my scrambled eggs and ranch combo.

How many tattoos do you have? Zero.

What did you do for your last birthday? Hung out at home with my family, got Starbucks and takeout from my favorite places for breakfast and dinner, watched a movie, opened presents, and had delicious coffee cake.

What do you plan on doing for your 18th birthday? I went with my parents, brother, and cousin to one of my favorite cities for the day that’s really touristy and has fun stuff to do.

Are you excited for anything coming up? No.

Do you still have the same friends as you did when you were younger? I don’t have any friends anymore.

Is there a friend you never get to see anymore? --

Do you have to type with good grammer? Yeah, using proper grammar is important to me.

Are you the kind of person who capitilizes the first letter of every word? Nooo. I don’t like that. Or when people type in all lowercase or a mix of the two. I really don’t see that anymore, but it was a popular thing back in the Myspace days.

What is your favorite quote? There’s many.

Are you allowed to cuss in front of your parents? I’m 31 years old so I certainly could, but I choose not to. *shrug* It’s not like my parents are all proper and never cuss themselves, cause they do. My mom loves her f-bombs haha. It’s just how I am. 

How long was your last phone conversation? Just a couple minutes.

Who was you talking to? I was talking to my mom.

Which one of your friends annoy you? --

Have you ever lost a close friend to death? No.

Do you know someone who suffers from addiction? Yes, several people.

How old are you? 31.

Do you have a lot of pictures in your room? I do now. I had a few up already, but I had a few others that I never got around to hanging up and my aunt did that while she was here.

Do you have facebook? I do.

Do you update your status with a step by step guide of what your doing? Uh, no. No one would care to see that and I have no need to share that.

Have you ever found a dog/cat on the side of the road? Yes. :(

Do you go bowling in your town? I have a few times before back in the day. The last time I went bowling was over a decade ago.

Do you have a drive in theater. No, I wish. I really think those should make a big comeback now.

What are you wearing? Leggings and a long sleeve shirt.

What brand is your favorite shoe? Adidas.

Is your best friend's mom like your own? My best friend is my mom so yes? haha.

Do you have aniexty or depression? I have both, yay. -____-

How old do you think you will be when you get married? I don’t plan on ever getting married.

What is your favorite fast food resturant? Wingstop.

What do you usually order? Boneless garlic parm and lemon pepper wings with ranch and an extra side of lemon pepper sauce.

Do you own a pair of brass knuckles? No.

Don't you think the diamond ones are b-a? Huh?

Do you know what b-a means? No.

Have you and your friends ever made up a word? My cousins and I probably have when we were kids.

Don't you hate stomachaches? Ugh, yes. Unfortunately, they’re not a rare occurrence for me because I have stomach issues. :/ Heating pads are a must.

Have you ever gotten a stomache at the wrong time? yeah it always feels like the wrong time. like it's always at night when i'm trying to sleep. the worst. <<< Same. 

What is your favorite memory in life? Childhood.

Do you have any embarassing baby pictures of yourself? I don’t think any of my baby photos are embarrassing. I actually love those photos haha. Then I got older and ew.

What is the worst smell in the world? Shit? ha.

What is your favorite smell? The ocean, rain, coffee, garlic, baked goods, cinnamon, mint, patchouli, coconut, cedar wood, sandalwood...

Do you dye your hair a lot? Yeah. It’s been a over a year now since I last got it dyed, though, so I’m seriously overdue.

How do you style your hair most of the days? It’s always up in a messy bun. I don’t have the energy or motivation to do anything else with it. I’m just at home all day anyway.

Do you have any fox racing clothing? No. I remember that was a popular thing in high school.

Do you have anybody in your family who rides dirtbikes/fourwheelers? Yes.

Have you ever rode a dirtbike/fourwheeler? Nooo.

Tell me how you got one of your scars? Spinal surgery.

Have you ever had a friend who cut themselves? Yes.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? The only thing I like about the summer is being able to go to the beach. Otherwise, I hate summertime.

Do you go tanning or do you lay out? I only ever get a tan when I go to the beach cause I’m out there for hours.

Do you have a beach towel or do you use a reg one? We have beach towels.

If you tan, what kind of lotion do you have? I don’t use any tanning lotion.

What is your favorite skin lotion? I don’t really have one. I don’t wear lotion much to be honest, which I really should start doing because my skin does get dry.

Have you ever used 3 minute miracle by aussie? Nope.

Do you use a lot of hair products? No, just shampoo, a detangling spray, and dry shampoo.

Why did you pick my survey? It was long and looked interesting.

Are you glad it's long? Yeah.

Or did I bore you? Nah, it’s fine.

What is your longest relationship? Whatever it was Joseph and I had went on for 3 years.

How long have you known your best friend? Since I was in the womb, ha.

Who is your favorite aunt? I’m really close to the aunt that came and stayed with us last week.

Do you have a cousin you dislike? No.

Do you own a pair of chanel earrings? Nope.

What is your favorite band? Linkin Park will always be one of them.

Have you ever heard theroy of a deadman? I think so.

What is your comfort food? Ramen.

What is your favorite color? Pastels, rose gold, sea foam green, coral, and yellow.

What color is the color of your walls? White.

Do you own anything zebra striped? No.

What kind of straighner do you have? I don’t have one, we’ve been through this already.

Are you obsessed with your hair? No. I don’t do anything with it. I’m not good at maintaining the red I’ve been dyeing it for the past 6 years either. I was in the beginning when I got it done once a month, but then it started getting more and more months in between and then it turned into a year. I’m currently a little over a year overdue. Sighhh. I just don’t have the energy or motivation to do that or much of anything else. I barely get outta bed most days.

[ctl-yuejie]

Do you have any recommendations for wlw dramas?? P. S. I love your blog! C:

aww, you are too cute! also: perfect timing, I was just ranting with @earthpodd​ about having no wlw shows to watch.

i’ll just give you the shows I’ve watched and would recommend, just note that there sadly is a lack of well-written and interesting wlw shows in general, even more so if I am solely considering the main characters or the main storyline. i don’t include fetishizing content, shows that bury their gays and those that have incest storylines (side-eyes Japan hard).

the sad reality is that most wlw content can only be found in super dramatic or artistic movies, often made by men. there are some wonderful exceptions (listed below) and there are promising things announced for after 2019, but not as many series.

i usually prefer asian series because they feel like elaborate movies (not a fan of too many seasons) and i am always on the look out for wlw content that’s not only “just” a romcom, but alas, there’s not much to choose from. (give me space lesbians with a solid adventure storyline! give me bi women as main characters in fantasy epics!)

(i also haven’t watched some popular shows like “The L Word” so they are missing from this list -> if anyone has further suggestions feel free to add to this list in the comments!)

going to sort them after my sapphic meter: the more wlw romance and the more important the sexuality of the main character for the story, the higher it is on this list!

Gentleman Jack (2019, HBO, USA/GB)  - Historical Dramaperiod drama based on the real life of Anne Lister, lesbian and industrialist. I haven’t finished this yet but I live for the main character, she is a badass and she and her love interest are everything together. this show is also super intense, with all the conflicts that arise when male landowners and other industrialists want to get a piece of her land.

EDIT: finished it and it is brilliant!!

Sense8 (2015-2018, Netflix, USA) - Sci-Fii think most people have heard of this so i don’t think i need to write much about the plot. finally some sci-fi content with an unusual amount of queer main characters. netflix was a dick to this series but it was great and something different.

Skam España (2018 -, Moviestar+, Spain) - Teen Dramathis is the spanish adaptation of the norwegian tv series skam. innovative in its format it tells the daily life of teenagers in short clips and on social media accounts. the third season’s main story focuses on two girls falling in love and it is a GOOD. they tackle some serious issues but overall this is more of a school/coming of age romance. (note that the other adaptations and the og don’t feature a wlw couple in the main story)

Killing Eve (2018 -, BBC America, UK) - Spy Thrillerdespite horrifying killings that need investigating this series, genre typically, focusses on the relationship of its two main characters. we follow MI6 agent eve polastri (sandra oh) on her hunt for assassin villanelle (jodie comer), who takes an unsettling liking to her. we don’t know their sexualities but villanelle is canonically not straight and for eve, we have to wait and see. they do have insane chemistry and sexual tension which is also very important for the plot. and fiona shaw (actual lesbian) is in this so win-win for representation. the acting is superb.

Fleabag (2016 - 2019, Amazon, UK) - Drama Comedythe stories centers around fleabag, an angry, unstable, and sexually insatiable woman. great use of the fourth wall. even though the main love interests are male, fleabag is bi and it plays an important role in the story. the writing is so on point this series is pure perfection. phoebe waller-bridge is super attractive and a scarily relatable mess as fleabag. fantastic depiction of trauma and how people deal with it while being funny af. has fiona shaw (actual lesbian) and andrew scott (actual gay) in it, so win-win-win for representation. also: olivia colman is in it. 

Brooklyn 99  (2013 -, NBC, USA) - Sit Commost people are aware of this brilliant sit com which features an amazing bi main character. it’s an ensemble cast so it counts.

Derry Girls (2018 -, Channel 4, UK) - Sit Comset during the Troubles in northern ireland the series follows a group of catholic school girls (plus their lovely male english rose) on their adventures. there’s a wee lesbian in the ensemble cast and she’s great and important.

Diary of Tootsies (2016-2017, GMM 25, Thailand) - Comedythe show follows 4 friends, 3 gay drag queens and a lesbian with terrible taste in women, on their search for love. this show is bonkers but has a super satisfying lesbian storyline

The Good Place (2016 -, NBC, USA) - Sit Com -> disclaimer: I haven’t seen the newest season so idk how heavily the bisexual part features in itthis show has a super interesting premise and focuses more on philosophical questions. nevertheless it has a bi main character and some wlw content.

honorary mentions (under the cut)

these are not ranked, just in the order they popped into my mind

Legend of Korra (2012-2014, Nickelodeon, USA)animated series so i didn’t include it on the main list but still a good story with a wlw storyline that took everyone by surprise. 

Colette (2018, USA / UK) - Historical Dramabased on the life of the french novelist of the same name it is a great movie about feminism and emancipation. keira knightly is pure bisexual perfection in this and has multiple romances with women, including a fabulous butch lesbian.

Queer as Folk (2000-2005, Showtime, USA / Canada) - Dramaputting this here because the lesbian couple was more of a side couple. still a good series this somehow manages to be bold in 2019, even though it’s old. the lesbian couple get a tad more disappointing over the seasons.

Atomic Blonde (2017, USA) - Action Spy Thrillerthe plot is absolute nonsense and the production value is sometimes questionable. but it has charlize theron beating up people with great fight choreography and she makes out with female french spies. charlize theron puts the wlw in every scene of this movie.

The Handmaiden (2016, South Korea) - Period Dramasuper interesting plot, very enjoyable overall, i had some problems with the male gaze in this though

In Between (2016, Israel / France)  - Dramavery moving film about three Palestinian women sharing a flat in tel aviv. the desire for personal and sexual freedom is the center piece of this movie and allows an unusual insight into the progressive Palestinian underground scene.

Cloudburst (2011, Canada / USA) - Comedy Dramaabout a senior lesbian couple that decides to elope to Canada to get married, after one of them gets put into a nursing home by her granddaughter. the last 12 minutes are horrible (mostly the writing) but everything before that is absolutely great. i live for badass grandmothers in love. 

Boss in Love (2018, South Korea) - RomComsuper cute short movie with some great sex positivity.

Don’t Say Sorry (2018, South Korea) - Romancevery beautiful short movie about discovering one’s sexuality and first love.

The Favourite (2018, UK / Ireland / USA) - Black Comedyolivia colman as pitiful queen anne and rachel weisz and emma stone playing two cousins competing for her favour. absolutely hysterical, wonderfully shot and very gay. rachel weisz is so attractive in male clothes i don’t know what to do with myself. 

iStories L (2018, Thailand)actually filmed as a commercial this lesbian short film is wonderful and has a great aesthetic. its about an assistant producer helping the main actress with her lines and developing feelings for her in the process.

last but not least: there’s some movies that I know are good & important but haven’t watched yet such as Rafiki (Kenya), Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (India) etc.

the Korean short movies are on vimeo, the Thai stuff has official uploads on youtube, and with the rest google should help. didn’t include any german wlw even though there is a bunch, because I have yet to find something that really satisfies me (don’t get me started on tv series).

[flodaya]

What about skam españa pros and cons? ☕️☕️

Cons of Skam España

Cris called Joana crazy after she already knew Joana is mentally ill, and although it was in the heat of the moment, it still hurt a lot

I don’t like Eva and Jorge together

I’m not the biggest fan of their soundtrack

some of the actors are panphobic 

also, that one scene in which Nora said pan and bi are the same thing still bothers me

Pros of Skam España

wlw representation!!!! I can’t stress this enough!!!! I’m a bisexual girl and it really means so much to me to finally see a wlw storyline in Skam

I love that Joana has bpd, a very personal reason, but seeing your own MI represented quite well and nuanced is important. Bpd is a complex MI and I like how they portray it. Usually, people with bpd are portrayed as aggressive but Joana is so so gentle and I love that

Amira!! She and German Amria are the best Sana remakes 

Viri’s speach on mental illnesses

and that we got to see where Viri lives (Viri for season 3!!!!)

Nora’s collection of feminist shirts

Dani and Cris’ sibiling relationship

I love how they are changing up everything from the og and reinvent the iconic moments so that they feel new

the morning cuddle scene is the best and most intimate scene I’ve ever seen 

I love how in España one of the girls has Isak’s storyline. It’s such an interesting take to see the girl squad in the same/similar story

“We’re going out.” “You’re going out to where?” 

Joana got to tell Cris herself that she is mentally ill! She also gets to talk for herself all the time

Cris and Joana’s first kiss when they looked like mermaids in space

Their lgbt characters are played by lgbt actors!!! 

age-appropriate casting, this always makes the remakes feel more realistic, I also love how the girls usually don’t wear make-up in school or when they are at home

Lucas being Isak and Eskild at the same time, such a clever idea (and I love that Cris had the parallel universe talk with Lucas)

Lucas Rubio coming out in season 1 (and I love his youtube account) 

that one time Cris wore the Bi Pride Flag by accident

Cris and Joana are soulmates

the girl squad is really cute and they all really love each other

GuAPAAAA 

🐸🐓

[send me a topic + ☕️ emoji and i’ll tell my honest opinion about it!]

[nolitetebastardescarborundorum]

What I like and dislike about each Skam Version:

The order is when I watched them. Which is basically the same order when they came out since I watch clip for clip live with every version since the evak cuddle clip 3 years ago. I won't point out things twice if a remake did it exactly the same. For example the blackmailing of Noora. Disliked it in the og, ditto with every other version. Another disclaimer: I don't have a favorite version since no one was perfect from first to last season. Different versions have different favorite seasons for me.

What I loved about the og 🇳🇴: The complete different format of a show with the clips, social media, roughly camera work that made it look like a reality show or documentary. The actors being the age of their characters and not all being thin, beautiful models. The pov and seing the boring aspects of life too. All the casual parties. The music and the whole russbus culture. In general getting to know so much about other cultures that I didn't thought about before for even a minute. Eva standing up for herself and breaking up with Jonas. Penetrator Chris as the comic relief, he may be a fuckboy, but he is isn't sexist or homophobic, his one liners are iconic. A normal reaction to Isak being gay and Evak actually getting an happy ending and a proper love scene like any hetero couple gets. Eskilds gay pride speech, it made me rethink my own mindset, as well as Sanas line about hate doesn't come from religion, it comes from fear and her whole conversation with yousef about religion. The guys helping Isak get back his man and Magnus hilarious questions, but also his helpful advice. Everything in the scene with Eva's 18th birthday. Even singing imagine. The cuddle clip, literally my favorite clip in all the versions, the spiderman kiss and the universe talk. Yousana love shown without any touching. The girls picking up Sana with the los losers bus. The ballon squads YouTube channel. How sweet and protective Elias was about Sana. 5 fine frøkner! Kosegruppa. If I could chose I would want a season for Magnus and Penetrator Chris.

What I disliked: Jonas treating Eva like she's stupid. Everything with William pretty much, starting with his non existent personality to blackmailing Noora, dissing Vilde, not listening after the SA happening etc. Nooras completely change in attitude from feminist to falling for the fuckboy and betraying your friend, also, ik most of the fans love it, her speeches, the one at William and also the one at Nicolai, it was just too long and arrogant to me sorry, I don't thought yes queen, I more thought yeah okay we got it already. The lack of communication with literally everyone. Vilde being so judgemental. Eva 'stealing' Jonas. Even not being able to speak for himself about his MI. The hate against Sonja, yes her saying Even can't love was fucked up, but her outrage and pain was more than understandable for me. The call your gf scene, idk it just makes me uncomfortable and I just felt bad for the girls. The whole show basically revolving around Noora in every season and her amount of screen time. Chris and Emma in the end, a huge wtf that made no sense and came out of nowhere, as well as Jonas and Eva's suddenly reunion.

What I loved about 🇮🇹: Be aware that I'm biased since Italy is my favorite country since childhood. I love everything about it. Landscapes, food, clothes, cars, the men^^ and ofc the language and names. First and foremost the cinematography. Also the music. All the girls being pretty as fuck. I feel like they where more mature too, but that goes for the boys and Eduardo too. Elia being there since season 1. The skating shenanigans. Martino and Eva being the closest version of this friendship (which is why I hope they continue this in the next season and make them close again, not going for the best buds). Their parents being more involved. Edoardo not insulting Silvia. Giovanni constantly cursing and gesturing like the true Italian that he is. Ofc the bromance in s2, that was what the season was all about for me more than the romance (reason in the dislikes), how they all cared for each other, had actual conversations, were with marti everywhere and always supported him. Gio being the best friend ever and constantly checking in on marti. How all the boys and edos rich gang stood up for marti against the homophobes, I never cheered so loud during a clip istg. The man, the myth, the legends Chico roddi :D. Eduardos soft side, when he played creep or cried when Eleonora could tell him herself what happend. The way they merged the squads together and all hang out boys and girls and also Filippo. Filippo and Eleonora being siblings and literally everything that fillipo does, his sassyness is unmatched. Cute Short king luca, carefree elia. Seriously I could write novels about this boy squad. Their parties and how they do them at 9pm during business days. Guardami Martino! 😂 If I could chose I would want a Gio and Fillipo season.

What I disliked: The darkness, especially s2 although it looked romantic a lot of times. The way Gio kisses, listen I love him with all my heart but he looks like he wants to eat faces or lick them like a dog 😂. I couldn't get into Niccolò, he never grew on me, came of kinda cold and the chemistry between the actors compared to the other versions isn't that great imo. It also has the only Sana I don't like and don't care for her season. It's not bc of the controversy about the actress. She just comes of rude in the show and also has way too less scenes to get excited for her pov, Her relationship with Marti is also non existent. The lack of social media and texts. Some of the actors looking way too old.

What I loved about 🇫🇷: The many changes of season 3. The piano scene with literally heart eyes. Eliott being the biggest dork. Eliott being able to express his feelings about his MI. Eliott saying it's not a girl. The rain kiss. Lucas being a major cutie. His relationship with the girls and Manon in particular. How they helped Daphne with the room. That we get an Arthur season, he's my favorite Madhi. How happy they were when Lucas came out and how they cheered everytime they saw Eliott. The elu social media content. Yann apologizing for his behavior and comments in the past. The hedgehog and racoon personas. Imans dad. Alexia and Arthur becoming a thing. The bts and Interviews, especially the attentive Maxel friendship.

What I disliked: The first two seasons being 1:1 copy from the og, I only watched them bc I had a close french friend when it aired. The whole Charles shit in s3&4. The acoustic music often being a bit to on the nose, like the music before a jumpscare in horror movies, for example the common room meeting, it was so obvious they would fall in love. S3 of France is probably my favorite version of this season, but it is like a dramatic romcom movie and felt less realistic compared to the others and the og. Emma is super bland and kinda dumb. Mika being super rude to Lucas. The disrespect against iman. Sofiane actually dating Manon.

What I loved about Druck 🇩🇪: (Also biased since I am german) Jonas sweetness. Hans is hilarious. Jonas and Hannah reunion. Kiki turning into the sweetest. The girl squad being really close. The boy squad being dumbasses. The change of Alex and showing his anxiety. Kiki and Carlos being a wholesome couple. The changes and extra content. Amira and Mohammeds softness. Their sm game.

What I disliked: The dialogue sounds very cringey to me and super scripted. The Mia actress looks like she doesn't like to kiss Alex at all, no chemistry and no love to be seen for me. Mia being arrogant in general. That Amira had only 7 episodes and Mia extra concent for her boring relationship. I never could get into Matteo much, he was to much of a sloth to me, let everything just happen and while that may be realistic, it's for the viewer pretty boring. I also couldn't get into David much, we knew barely nothing about him for most of the time and then he was absent for like 3 weeks straight. Davenzi also came of as more like best friends to me as an couple in love, they were cuter in s4. Unrelated to the plot or show, but the druck stans that feel super entitled and superior.

What I loved about 🇪🇸: The made subtle changes from the start. Lucas coming out to Eva and not being a snake. Jorge being the softest Jonas and not lying about weed. The girl squad being the closest and cutest with another, as well as the boys and them being a mega squad since s1, way less inner group drama and the friendships in this versions are just super wholesome to me and my favorite girl squad. Also my favorite amira, she wants to adopt everyone and they all care and respect her religion and I have high hopes for her season. Their parties. Also the remake with the most sm content and texts. The only P Chris version that comes nearly close to the og, being sassy, charismatic and having hella sexual chemistry with eva. The fact that also my favorite chris got her own season, that they changed it to a wlw plot that was displayed tastefully and not overly sexualized. The portray of having borderline, being shown how it really is. Lucas having an Youtube channel and how supportive his boys reacted and how tender him and Jorge are, I can't stretched enough how much I love and stan attentive, genuine male friendships without toxic masculinity. Hugo being an absolute sweat heart since his first appearance, not being petty or mad with Cris and just being a true friend. If I could chose I would want a season about Lucas and Amira.

What I disliked: Alejandro looks like 14 to me and I'm not keen on seeing this plot for the 8th time. Viri and Cris clothes a lot of times, Ik they dress like teenagers these days do, but it just looks horrendous to me sry. Them stretching out the story between Cris and Joana so much and breaking them up like 5 times.

What I loved about wtfock 🇧🇪: I just started with season 3 live, because I couldn't get into the characters when the first clips of s1 dropped. I later binged s2 and watched some key clips of s1.

They changed many things for the better. First and foremost Senne, him being supportive of Zoë, a good flat mate and encouraging dad friend. Zoë giving him way more of a hard time and making him work for it. Robbe moving into the flatshare and becoming bff with Zoë. Not breaking up Zoenne and making Senne an important character in s3 as not only Zoës boyfriend. Sander! I love his whole art hoe - e boy brand, his music taste, his clothes, hair, how reckless he is, his blant flirting. Robbe being an absolute baby ™ and clingy af. The Willems chemistry is unmatched in the skam universe. Yasmina is so fucking pretty and intelligent. Rosanders date. Milan being sooo cute and Robbe having confidence in him and them being genuinely friends. I could swoon over the found family in the flatshare 24/7 and wish I could live with them. Robbes dad asking if Sander is a vegetarian. Luca & Noor shading Moyo. Noor having a personality besides being naïve and a beard for the Isak. Robbe caring about his mom.

What I disliked: Senne starting of as the worst William with his bracelets and showing around Ambers nudes. Ambers rudeness in general. The boys talking only about girls and totally ignoring Robbe for 6 weeks straight, especially Jens. Moyos sexist and homophobic comments and behavior. Clips and drama with no explanation or follow ups, brushed off or rushed scenes. The gay bashing and robbes slurs, them turning everything into drama for drama sake. For multiple weeks only clips that were either total drama or happy clips with no normal daily life. Exaggerating the robbe and noor make outs. No Sander the first 2 weeks. The lack of answeres from Sander and questions from Robbe, brushed of with one liners. Barely any texts.

[noorasaetre-trash]

I watched Drück (Skam Germany) season 2 and it left me completely cold

Okay so i was going through another Skam marathon and I haven’t really had the urge to watch the international remakes before, but now I felt like I wanted to watch Skam, but I didn’t want to watch what I’ve already seen a thousand times. So I had seen quite a lot of Drück on my dash before and that’s what I decided to go with. I couldn’t find season 1 of Drück with english subs on youtube, so I decided to start with season 2 since it’s not like I don’t know what has happened in season 1. Seasons 2 and 3 have always been my favourite ones and if I absolutely had to pick I might even choose season 2 over season 3, but the German version... I wanted to like it, but honestly it left me feeling really empty. This might end up being a really long post but here’s what I didn’t like about it.

First of all I feel like this show lacked personality. It was like a hollow copy of the original. And oh how much the characters lacked personality!! Like Noora (I’m going to use the og Skam names, because I can’t remember the new ones) was this anxious mom character? All of her original playfulness was gone I think and with that so was her chemistry with William. William too was so empty. He didn’t have any of that fuckboy charisma in him and he certainly did not seem like the king of the school. To me he actually seemed like a creepy lonely kid - not the William vibe at all. Also why did he lie about his sister living in Bali - as if he would date Noora and even in twenty years time he’d be like oh yeah she’s living her life in Bali but doesn’t want to meet you so sucks to be you but she’s alive for sure. He would’ve never gotten away with such a lie it was stupid.

But the character I’m really disappointed in is Sana... Noora and Sana are my two absolute favourite characters in this series but I felt nothing towards Sana. All of her badass traits and honesty were gone. She had completely lost her essential Sananess. It’s ok to change the characters somewhat and for example make Sana a bit softer but this.. If I had to describe Sana based on this representation, all I could tell you is how she looks and that she works at deliveroo. And why is it such a secret? And what’s the point of her working there other than that she happens to be delivering the food when Noora is on a date with William? And the speech about her parents thinking a job like that was beneath them because they are doctors - such bullshit makes the parents seem really annoying and snobbish. As if a high school student could practice medicine or law like hello that’s the kind of shitty jobs they do. 

Also Chris, did she even say anything during the series? It felt like they just had her hanging around because there were five girls in the original, but she didn’t add anything to the story. Didn’t really like Eskild or Linn too much either. The only character who had any gumption in her was Vilde but she managed to be even more annoying than the original. I’ve always been a bit Vilde supporter but I just couldn’t stand behind this one. And the breast surgery?? Like wtf that was too much. 

And the boys, I found it hard to keep up with them. I knew which one was Jonas but the rest of them were just a big mess. Who was the boy Vilde got together with? Did they introduce Magnus a season earlier or was he a different character? Was there p-Chris? Were there any of William’s friends? I now know which one was Isak because I’ve watched the season 3 clips which have come out (or the ones I’ve found at least) but honestly I’m not feeling that either. Doesn’t anyone even notice that Isak seems to be pretty severely depressed? Tbh his character seems quite dull but maybe I’d feel different had I seen season 1 of Drück. I’m going to give season 3 a chance, at least until we meet Even but so far I’m not into it. 

Honestly I hardly finished the season 2. If this had been a whole new series I would’ve stopped probably after two episodes, but I really wished the series would get better but it didn’t. I didn’t feel any excitement or anything really and it’s my favourite season and favourite ship but I felt nothing.

I feel like this series just lacked the real feeling of Skam and a lot of the dialogue seemed pretty forced and scripted. I speak Swedish so well that when I watched OG Skam I didn’t need subtitles to go with it. I speak a tiny bit of German but not enough to understand it so I did need the subtitles. I hate subtitles because I feel like lot of the nuances can be lost through them which is why I pay so much more attention to things like body language and the way people say things to understand it better and honestly it all just seemed a bit fake.

Well here’s my rant about the subject, feel free to enter the conversation whatever your opinion might have been on this. It would be interesting to hear wether I’m alone in my opinion and why you think it’s good or maybe you felt the same way I did. Let me know what you guys thought! I also started to watch the NL Skam and that one was a whole different story! I felt so much more invested in it and absolutely loved all the characters and can’t wait for more, but I might make another post about that later on.

[razzstrid]

why do our brains love celebrity conspiracy theories?

El Hunt’s article was successful in addressing some of the main catalysts of conspiracy theories, social media being a big one, and which demographic is more susceptible in believing the falsified news. Although Hunt addressed some of the factors behind the psychology of conspiracy theories by interviewing various psychologists, I felt as through she could have gone deeper (I will address this after discussing my personal experience with the first conspiracy theory I fell victim to). 

Before reading the article I was already acquainted with the more trivial, celebrity based conspiracy theories such as the Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson romance, Lorde’s affair with her producer, and Beyonce’s fake pregnancy. Beyond the celebrity based conspiracy theories, I have also been exposed to a good amount of the more sinister conspiracy theories: 9/11 being an inside job, QAnon, Pizzagate, pigeons being government issued drones, the moon being fake, and my personal favorite -- the multifaceted DIA (Denver International Airport) conspiracy theory. 

I was just moving to Colorado at the mega-vulnerable age of 10 when I came across the DIA conspiracy YouTube series (Part 1, Part 2). It was no wonder I came across this video series -- when I was in elementary school you could find me in the library during lunch reading the Graphic Mysteries collection of children’s books: Bigfoot and Other Strange Beasts, Atlantis and Other Lost Cities, Ghosts and Poltergeists, The Bermuda Triangle, The Loch Ness Monster, and UFOs Alien Abduction and Close Encounters (see below). Think about that... there are legitimate children’s book built on conspiracy theories. This vulnerability to become consumed in nonsensical information that goes beyond our commonsense is developed and internalized at a very young age.  

I mean think about this! The quickest and easiest route in spreading misinformation is exposing people to it at a young age. Kids f*cking believe anything -- they don’t know any better, they have no references to compare the information to, and regardless of the fact whether or not they have any references -- they don’t know to search for references. Take foreign languages for example; babies and children have a cognitive advantage because they are forming neural connections at a rapid pace -- the brain’s elasticity and rapid neural formation allow babies and young children to not only learn foreign languages at a faster rate but also retain these skills throughout their life. There is a profound connection here with how children internalize and retain information. 

Continuing my conspiracy theory children’s book rant, I’d like to bring up the example of Der Giftpilz (or the poisonous mushroom/toadstood).  This German children’s book was written in 1983 to promote antisemitism; the title alludes to how, just as it is difficult to tell a poisonous mushroom from an edible mushroom, it is difficult to tell a Jew apart from a Gentile. The book wants to "warn" German children about the dangers allegedly posed by Jews to them personally, and to German society in general (Wikipedia). In some instances, it is implied that Jews will try to molest children; one little girl escapes a Jew offering her sweets only when her brother calls the police, and when Inge's mother sends her to a Jewish doctor, despite Inge's protests of what she learned in the League of German Girls, Inge barely escapes. Jews are portrayed as abusing their German servants. In addition, the book warns of Jews in various occupations – Jewish businessmen, lawyers, tradesmen, and kosher butchers, who, in one chapter, are described torturing an animal to death. The same chapter also accuses the Jews of kidnapping Christian children to use their blood in matzohs (a common variant of the blood libel). One of the final chapters blames the Jews for the death of Jesus, who is called the greatest enemy of the Jews of all time (Wikipedia). 

Although this book is regarded as propaganda, I feel it is thoroughly based in conspiracy theories. All of the events that take place in the book are rooted in prejudice against Jews; the authors use falsified, hyperbolic, and bizarre stories to brainwash children and implant fear and hatred towards Jews at a young age. I am Jewish and despite how offensive this is, it’s pretty funny ... Jews as poisonous mushrooms ... LOL come on! Yes, this is some antisemitic-ass bullshit, but also incredibly well executed for some old, bored bastards. This is like the OG QAnon and Pizzagate. Yes it’s horrible, yes I shouldn’t laugh but sue me, humor derives pain. 

[lesbian-stu-macher]

hey!! so im trying to get into more musicals, any recommendations? (I like the big 4, great comet, waitress, newsies, others i can't remember rn) thanks!

thanks for asking !!!!!

okay so my absolute favorite musical will probably always be rent. i love rent to pieces, it's a rock-ish score about bohemians living in new york during the aids crisis. has idina menzel so uhh yeah,,, very gay, very good (tw for drug abuse and death)

my second favorite is probably next to normal - my reasoning??? aaron tveit. it's an also idk how to describe it but like i guess also slightly rock ish??? contemporary ???? score?????? it's about a mother named diana with bipolar and how she basically copes- idk if it helps any, rachel bay jones got cast to play diana in an upcoming production (tw for depression, ect therapy, drug abuse, death, and suicide)

spring motherfucking awakening. bitch lemme tell you i love this show so much . german teenagers in the late 19th century coming of age and not understanding what they're not taught. very rockish, og cast ft. jonathan groff and lea michele, there are totally legal recordings of the deaf west cast ft. alex boniello oh also it's got some gay (tw for teenage pregnancy, depressive thoughts, and suicide)

if you like andrew lloyd webber, i rlly love jesus christ superstar! it's a rock opera (meaning no dialogue, like great comet) and it's based off of jesus being crucified, but it's not a religious thing. (i found it via my Religious Dad, but alw literally said they weren't trying to portray it a certain way, only that jesus was at the right place at the right time) nbc did a live version last easter with jason tam as peter and sara barellies as mary magdalene and lemme jus say, they both fuckin killed it. (also mike faist played simon and alex boniello played jesus in their high school productions) (tw for death obv and uhh suicide)

this is a weird reccomendation, but a more acoustic score is once. if you asked me what this is about i honestly couldn't tell you, but uhhh,,,, love story. will connolly has a solo in it, that's p good,,,, uhh laura dreyfuss played girl (the female lead) in it so,, yeah

into the woods is a classic !! it's sondheim so it's kinda wild but it's literally a musical with all the grimm fairytales shoved into one story (meaning that yes, it doesn't have the Disney uwu Fairytale Endings) the original cast is good, the movie is also very good, ft james corden, emily blunt, uhh lilla crawford, the kid that played gavroche in the les mis movie whose name i'm suddenly forgetting, and meryl fuckin streep

some good runner ups include:

- falsettos (has plenty of bops, very gay, very jewish, about a gay man, his family, and his lover, also in new york around the start of the aids crisis, tw for hospitals and death)

- book of mormon (fucking hilarious, ben platt played elder cunningham in his broadway debut, kinda gay, written by the same ppl who wrote south park and avenue q, but take that with a grain of salt considering it takes place in uganda)

- in the heights (written by lin manuel miranda, who of course also plays the main character, christopher jackson is also in it, it's about a bunch of latinx in washington heights, very fun music)

- anastasia (christy fuckin altomare. a QUEEN. has some music from the movie of the same name, very fun show, rlly nice and it's easy to listen to)

- HOW COULD I FORGET BONNIE AND CLYDE OH MY GOD (jeremy jordan. jeremy motherfuckinG JORDAN ON THIS SOUNDTRACK HOLY FUCK. you gotta listen to it it's just so fuckin good, it's got that 30s vibe goin on, tw for death, murder, blood if you watch the boot)

- ok last one i promise bc i have to sleep starkid musicals are always great. they're comedies, they made the very potter musical series, they did a parody of wicked and aladdin called twisted, there's rlly no way to explain starkid, but all their shows are recorded professionally and legally posted on their youtube channel

alright wow i should sleep

[nancydrew65]

SKAM España Season 2!

Hey, I know it has been forever (really only a month and a half) since SKAM España Season 2 ended, but I wanted to write an appreciation post for it. This season honestly took me by surprise. I was expecting to watch it on the side while DRUCK Season 3 took center stage, but I ended up loving SKAM España so freakin much!! You should all check it out. All the clips are on YouTube with subtitles, so you have no excuse! Now I know there has been so much talk about certain cast members (cough, cough Irene) because they said some controversial shit about sexuality. BUT. But, this is not about that. I am focusing wholly on the show which I think did a fabulous job with their Season 2. Now, not in any particular order, what I loved about SKAM España Season 2: 1. I really liked how Viri was the character who had the whole speech about mental illness not being something to be freaked out by. It shows just how much her character has grown since Season 1. I completely disregarded the though that Viri would be the girl squad equivalent of Magnus. Though they didn’t show her having a mentally ill parent in Season 2, I really hope that is a feature they work out in future seasons. Also, can girl just get with Rubén?? Like, c’mon. The amount of times she mentioned how hot he was has to be some foreshadowing. And Rubén just suddenly disappears halfway through the season? I want some closure for that storyline and Viribén (Ruviri?) could do just that. 2. Speaking of storylines, what about all those secondary storylines? They were So. Damn. Natural. With the exception of the last clip, the background storylines were integrated so well. Viri’s home reveal, Nora and Alejandro. SKAM España deserves credit for how it wove those all together seamlessly. I can think of other seasons of SKAM where secondary storylines kind of take over the main plot. 3. Lucas and Cris’ friendship!! That party scene where Lucas found out about Cris and Joana was gold. They were both so cute. And I loved how Lucas comforted Cris when she was outed to the school and Joana was avoiding her. I only wish they could’ve gotten more scenes together. 4. Joana got to talk about her mental Illness. Herself. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that Joana got to come out and explain her mental illness to Cris. Those scenes in the park were some of the best acted scenes in SKAM history. 5. Amira. Just Amira. God, I loved that girl so much! It’s funny because in season 1, I kind of thought she was a bland character without any of the verge of Sana. But she proved me wrong in Season 2. She completely stole my heart. Speaking of Amira, here’s a perfect segue to talk about German Amira! Her season just began last Saturday and I am so pumped. It’s kind of crazy how both the Amira’s (Spain and Germany) are my favorite remakes of Sana. 6. Last, but the opposite of least... CRIS! The anchor of the season. Whatever you want to say about Irene, you can’t deny how amazing her acting was this season. This was my - dare I say it - favorite remake of Isak’s season. If you can even call it a remake given that Cris is based on two characters from OG. The weakest part of SKAM España Season 1 were the characters in my opinion. In each remake, there is usually one person who is my favorite remake of a character (ex: Isa from SKAM NL for Eva, Daphne from SKAM France). However, SKAM España was just not doing it for me - though I really liked how much they switched things up. But Season 2 made all my concerns disappear. Cris was so loveable, so idiotic, so human. And a late part of that was Irene’s performance. She was stunning. Another thing that grabbed me about Cris’ season was how different it was. Unlike Isak’s season, sexuality was not the center focus (though it did play a large part). Instead it was about Cris growing as a person, from someone who casually hooks up and is a partner to a loving person who is in a serious relationship who has the courage to tell someone ‘I love you’. Also she happens to be a bi girl! I mean Season 2 was a masterpiece! And that’s it. There’s my TedTalk about how fantastic SKAM España is and why you should watch it! I just needed to share my love with the world!

[gaymusicchart]

GAY MUSIC CHART – 2017 week 48

 Welcome to the Gay Music Chart, the LGBTQA related music videos TOP 50 actuality and most request.

Vote for your favourite LGBTQA related music videos by leaving a comment for this post on :

YOUTUBE (in the comment section of the video of the week) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz7yfp-xq-b08tD6mAWwclA

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TWITTER : https://twitter.com/GayMusicChart with #GayMusicChart  

TUMBLR : http://gaymusicchart.tumblr.com  

 Here is the recap for this week :

 OUT : Neon Trees - Feel Good (LW: 18 / WO: 14 / PEAK: 10)

OUT : Superfruit - Keep Me Coming (LW: 19 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 19)

OUT : Madblush - My Radio (LW: 29 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 05)

OUT : Hercules & Love Affair feat. Rouge Mary - Rejoice (LW: 30 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 30)

OUT : Silvia y Karmen - ¿Me regalas un ratito? (LW: 33 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 33)

OUT : Luke Million feat. Sam Sparro - Back To The Rhythm (LW: 36 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 35)

OUT : Mademoiselle K - SICK (LW: 36 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 36)

OUT : Brian Justin Crum - Wild Side (LW: 37 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 30)

OUT : Adam Joseph feat. Peppermint - Thirsty (LW: 38 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 38)

OUT : Seann Miley Moore - We in Luv (LW: 39 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 39)

OUT : Cub Sport - Chasin' (LW: 40 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 11)

OUT : KLUBBB3 - Das Leben tanzt Sirtaki (LW: 41 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 41)

OUT : STORM3 - Ga Ga Ga (LW: 43 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 43)

OUT : Dyan Tai - Up in the Air (LW: 44 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 44)

OUT : Hayley Kiyoko - Feelings (LW: 45 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 04)

OUT : Christoff - Door Jou (Nieuw Geluk) (LW: 46 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 46)

OUT : Superfruit feat. Amber Liu - Fantasy (LW: 47 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 47)

OUT : Casey Breves - I’ll Sing To You (LW: 48 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 48)

OUT : Uncle Meg & John Debt - Winning It Or Losing It (LW: 49 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 49)

  01 (+ 2) : Wrabel - The Village (LW: 03 / WO: 17 / PEAK: 01 (x1))

This engaging song was written the day after US President Trump removed new federal protections for trans students in public schools last February. Trans actor August Aiden plays the role of a young transgender who tries to be himself despite the hostility of his father in the music video.

 02 (- 1) : Alfie Arcuri - If They Only Knew (LW: 01 / WO: 21 / PEAK: 01 (x3))

This is the new music video of the winner of The Voice Australia 2016. What must do a gay man when he's in love with his best male friend, who's dating his best female friend?

 03 (+ 4) : Huntington - Love Is Love (LW: 07 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 02)

Three years after "Secret", this is his new original song.

 04 (- 2) : Kevin Chomat - Sens Interdit (LW: 02 / WO: 12 / PEAK: 01 (x2))

This new single of the French singer reached the top 10 YouTube trending in France. Taken from the album "Ma boussole".

 05 (+ 4) : Leon Else - What I Won't Do (Lyric Video) (LW: 09 / WO: 24 / PEAK: 02)

The British singer has came out on Facebook last May.

 06 (+ 10) : PJ Brennan - Tease (LW: 16 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 06)

PJ Brennan is well known for his role as Doug Carter in the British television soap opera Hollyoaks.

 07 (+ 8) : La Prohibida - Baloncesto (LW: 15 / WO: 18 / PEAK: 03)

 08 (+ 9) : Bobby Newberry - Up (LW: 17 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 08)

 09 (- 4) : ILY - Your Love (LW: 05 / WO: 7 / PEAK: 05)

Two new brides are kissing in this Swedish music video.

 10 (+ 2) : Steps - Dancing With A Broken Heart (LW: 12 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 09)

The British band will be on Tour this month.

 11 (- 5) : Mr John - Neon (LW: 06 / WO: 10 / PEAK: 01 (x1))

Instead of covers, this time, the Brazilian singer delivers an original song.

 12 (+ 11) : Alfie Arcuri - Love is Love (LW: 23 / WO: 7 / PEAK: 12)

The Australian singer took position with this song for the YES in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. 61,6% of the 12,7 millions people who voted said YES to mariage equality. A law will be debate before the end of the year.

 13 (- 3) : Sam Tsui - Cameo (LW: 10 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 04)

Finally, a new original song!

 14 (- 10) : Michele Bravi - Diamanti (LW: 04 / WO: 10 / PEAK: 04)

This is the third single from the Italian singer taken from the album “Anime Di Carta”.

 15 (+ 13) : Larva - For Ruy (censored version) (LW: 28 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 15)

Larva is a Mexican openly gay heavy metal band. The uncensored version, only for adults because of its raw sex content, is now also available on YouTube.

 16 (- 2) : Trey Pearson - Love Is Love (LW: 14 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 14)

 17 (NEW) : HEIDRIK - Monster (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 17)

 18 (NEW) : Love Against the Machine - Love is the Only Law (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 18)

This charity single celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised sexual acts in private between two males in the UK. The lyrics were inspired by Simon Napier-Bell’s documentary "50 Years Legal", which explores the changes that have taken place since homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967 and the influence of gay culture on society.

 19 (+ 13) : Myckael SG - John vs Angela (LW: 32 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 16)

 20 (=) : P!nk - What About Us (LW: 20 / WO: 14 / PEAK: 01 (x3))

The music video includes audio contents from the tragic events in Charlottesville for denouncing the hate speeches from the supremacist movements, and shows several people dancing under the intimidating eye of the authorities, including two men together.

 21 (- 8) : Alaska Thunderfuck - Come To Brazil (LW: 13 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 13)

 22 (NEW) : Calum Scott - You Are The Reason (Lyric Video) (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 22)

 23 (NEW) : Hương Giang feat. T Akayz - Vì Yêu Mà Cưới (We Get Married) (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 23)

Hương Giang Idol is a famous Vietnamese transgender singer, former contestant of Vietnam Idol in 2012. Love, romantism and passion sweat from her kisses with her occidental lover in her new music video shot in Santorini, Greece.

 24 (- 16) : Citizen Four - My Name (Say It) (LW: 08 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 08)

Citizen Four is a new boy band, including a gay member named Austin (the one with short brown hair and who is dancing with another guy).

 25 (+ 1) : G&D (Geez & DIK) - Freelove (LW: 26 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 25)

There are several straight, gay, lesbian and bi couples making love in this music video.

 26 (- 15) : Sufjan Stevens - Mystery of Love ("Call Me By Your Name" OST) (LW: 11 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 11)

 27 (- 6) : Dannii Minogue - Galaxy (LW: 21 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 21)

She's back after ten years of break with a song composed by Sia.

 28 (NEW) : Steve Grand - Walking (LW: - / WO: 6 / PEAK: 05)

The song has now a music video shot in New Orleans!

 29 (NEW) : Teo Entertainment - Растворяюсь в тебе / Melt in You (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 29)

This Russian music video shows two robots in love with rainbows on their chest. A way to suggest homosexuality in Saint Petersburg. Perhaps their kiss at the end of the video will melt your heart. His first album will be released next January or Fabruary 2018.

 30 (NEW) : Benjamin Koll feat. Jeremy Morse - Tell Me Why (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 30)

The music video shows two bears making love in a passionate way.

 31 (+ 3) : Michele Bravi - Tanto Per Cominciare (LW: 34 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 15)

 32 (NEW) : Ivri Lider עברי לידר - MOOGZAM מוגזם (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 32)

The popular Israeli singer, also from the duo The Young Professionnals, comes back in a solo projet with this new track.

 33 (- 2) : Kevin Chomat - Un homme à terre (LW: 31 / WO: 42 / PEAK: 01 (x3))

In this single, the French singer is talking about infidelity, with his boyfriend who cheated on him.

 34 (NEW) : Sam Tsui - Impatience (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 34)

 35 (- 13) : LP - No Witness (LW: 22 / WO: 12 / PEAK: 18)

This is the sixth single taken from the album "Lost on You".

 36 (NEW) : Oscar and the Wolf - Breathing (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 36)

"Infinity" has been 3 weeks #1 in the Belgian albums chart.

 37 (RE-ENTRY) : Tokio Hotel - Boy Don't Cry (LW: - / WO: 4 / PEAK: 18)

The lead singer Bill Kaulitz becomes a beautiful drag queen in the new music video of the German band.

 38 (+ 4) : Kim Petras - I Don't Want It At All (LW: 42 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 27)

This is the debut single of the young German transgender singer, with a featuring with Paris Hilton in the music video.

 39 (NEW) : P!nk - Beautiful Trauma (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 39)

In her new music video, P!ink supports her husband Channing Tatum who loves wearing her dresses.

 40 (NEW) : Sieneke - Wat Mij Is Overkomen (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 40)

The singer describes how she didn't realized she felt in love with a gay man.

 41 (NEW) : Madblush - Piscando Assim (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 41)

 42 (- 18) : Alvin Point - Il a dit (LW: 24 / WO: 61 / PEAK: 01 (x4))

The first single of the French singer is talking about a romantic gay love story. The title means "he said".

 43 (- 18) : Bilal Hassani - House Down (LW: 25 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 25)

Several young French YouTubers are featuring in his new music video.

 44 (RE-ENTRY) : Sam & Sky - Skammens Diskotek (LW: - / WO: 2 / PEAK: 36)

"Skammens Diskotek" (The Discotheque of Shame) was Norway's Gay Pride Song for 2017 - In collaboration with FRI - Foreningen for kjønns- og seksualitetsmangfold.

 45 (NEW) : Mr John - Requebra (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 40)

 46 (+ 4) : Oscar and the Wolf - Runaway (LW: 50 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 19)

Max Colombie,aka Oscar and the Wolf, is an out singer. Billboard has included this track in their top 30 gay love songs last October.

 47 (RE-ENTRY) : Namuel - Joven de Corazón (LW: - / WO: 3 / PEAK: 24)

In his new music video, the chilean singer is a teen at school who has a crush on his bully.

 48 (NEW) : Bebe Huxley - Scorpio (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 48)

 49 (NEW) : Ms. White - Fuck Men (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 49)

 50 (- 23) : GAREK - Stray (LW: 27 / WO: 58 / PEAK: 01 (x2))

The single taken from the album "Take the King" is a conversation with his 8-year-old self about accepting who he is, the talk he wishes he had as a child, because he "spent so many years hating [himself] because [he] listened to the voices around [him] saying that people like [him] were disgusting".

  ALSO NEW THIS WEEK

 Chromeo - Juice

These two guys show to you their beautiful legs in red high heels.

 Drake Jensen & Patrick Masse - Go Your Own Way

 Allie X feat. VÉRITÉ - Casanova (Biblegirl Lyric Video)

 Denique - Political Trolls

 A-Mei 張惠妹 - Story Thief 偷故事的人

This is the new music video of the Taiwanese gay icon.

 As Bahias e a Cozinha Mineira - Um Doido Caso

 Dorian Electra - Jackpot

 Strange Names - Into Me

 Brooklyn Bri - Glory Road

 Uncle Meg & John Debt - Easy Ride [Official Audio]

Her album album will be out for free download on Soundcloud the December 1st, 2017.

 Belinda & Jose - Ik kan m’n kont bijna niet keren

 Dear Evan Hansen Cast - You Will Be Found (live @ 2017 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade)

The "Dear Evan Hansen" musical won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical. You can recognize here Noah Galvin.

 Everybody's Talking About Jamie Cast - Don't Even Know It

This musical talks about a 16 years old teen who wants to be a drag queen and goes to the prom in dress. The musical won the Attitude Culture Award 2017.

 Bryan Hawn - Circle of Life (Cover The Lion King)

A music video shot near the Victoria falls, the waterfall on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, with wild animals.

 Toya Delazy - Greatest

The music video shows beautiful footage of Mozambique.

 Charlie Hides - Bitch Thin

She doesn't care if you think she's a bitch as long you think she's thin.

 Bob The Drag Queen feat. Shangela - Deck A Ho  (DJ Mitch Ferrino Mix)

 Sia - Santa's Coming For Us

 Pentatonix feat. Jennifer Hudson - How Great Thou Art

This is taken from "A Very Pentatonix Christmas", airing Monday, November 27 at 10/9c on NBC.

 Sigur Rós - Frakkur : 4:01

Jónsi Birgisson, lead singer of the icelandic band, will release Frakkur, 2000-2004, a collection of his unreleased solo electronic recordings, as part of a range of limited edition vinyl at Norður og Niður festival.

 Shirtless Violinist - Star Wars - The Gay Love Story

Are gays existing in the Star Wars Universe ? Shirtless Violinist imagines it so. Star Wars is late compared to the Star Trek Universe, with the new series Star Trek Discovery and the two gay main characters Stamets and Culber.

   See you next week and don’t forget to vote for your best LGBTQA music videos ! Here are the rules :

1 ) You can vote for many videos as you want under the videos on YouTube in the comment section. It could be recent or past music videos, which must provide at least one among the following conditions:

- the music video has LGBTQA related content, in the lyrics or the music video

- the artist is LGBTQA, an LGBTQA icon or eventually ally

- LGBTQA medias talked about it.

2 ) You can’t vote more than 3 songs of a same artist per week.

3 ) In case of an artist who receive votes mostly by a fan base, we will count only one song, in a limited time of 10 weeks of presence in the top.

4 ) You can vote with only one account.

5 ) If you make 5 votes or less, your first vote will represent 5 points, your second vote 4 points, etc… until your last vote and following 1 point. If you make 6 to 10 votes, your first vote will represent 10 points, your second vote 9 points, etc… If you make more than 10 votes, your first vote will represent 20 points, your second vote 19 points, etc…

6 ) People who make 1 to 5 votes form the amateur ranking, those who make 6 to 10 votes form the fan ranking, those who make more than 10 votes form the expert ranking. We form the jury ranking. And we count now the ranking of minutes of views of our weekly playlist of the previous week. The Gay Music Chart is the addition of the five charts. In case of equality, the number of votes and the dates of votes will count.

7 ) The votes will close on Thursday, 8 PM, European time.

[fyeahprinceofegypt-blog1]

Tiktok, Clarified

These are inquiries young people have asked each other given that the dawn of time, yet on TikTok, they've transformed into massively widespread memes established to music, reaching millions in every edge of the world, and Followers.

 TikTok is one of one of the most prominent-- and most interesting-- social media apps on earth, but it has yet to get in the vocabulary of most average Americans. The gist is this: Users movie video clips of themselves lip-syncing or acting out funny sketches, up to 15 secs long, and can choose from a database of songs, results, or sound bites. Collaboration is a significant incentive-- you can do a "duet" with someone by replying to their video, which creates a split-screen diptych, hence feeding into an endless chain of reactions. Users can also submit their own noises, to make sure that it's possible to lip-sync to another person's original video.

 All of this makes TikTok exceptionally fun to use, and helps explain why it's grown so massively: In September, it exceeded Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and also Snapchat in monthly installsin the Application Shop, and also in July, TikTok struck 500 million global month-to-month energetic individuals, with 6 million United States downloads since November. It's still just a fraction the size of Facebook (2.27 billion international regular monthly active users) and also Instagram (1 billion), yet it's much ahead of Twitter (336 million) and also Snapchat (186 million).

 On December 7, the technology website the Informationreported that ByteDance was in talks to increase an added $1.4 billion for investments in synthetic knowledge as well as media material. TikTok itself has actually obtained so big that Facebook also quietly launched a competitor called Lasso in November.

 TikTok, on the surface area, does not look so various from the litany of other video-centric social media sites apps that came before it, like Snapchat, Creeping Plant, or Dubsmash. It shares similar challenges (privacy, online creeps) and similar assets (like Vine, TikTok has actually produced its own language of funny), however many thanks to its algorithm that makes binge-watching tempting, as well as an innovative range of audio and also aesthetic results, TikTok provides far much more possibilities for designers.

 -- being great at TikTok needs an unusual amount of practice. Many of its most prominent video clips are fairly tiresome to generate (right here's a tutorial that will show you how to take advantage of some of the application's most useful attributes), yet it's also what's made huge celebrities of its most experienced individuals: 16-year-old German doubles Lisa and also Lena (32 million fans), 18-year-old Child Ariel (29 million followers), 16-year-old Loren Gray (29 million followers), and also 16-year-old Jacob Sartorius (19 million fans), all of whom have actually released their very own (non-lip-synced) singles considering that building significant followings on TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly.

 What all this means is that TikTok isn't just the current app you require to claim to have actually heard of to excite your teenage member of the family throughout the holidays-- it's one of one of the most vital business in the world, as well as it's at the center of the feasible future of social media sites.

 Where did TikTok come from?

 Right here's what TikTok is not: It is not in any type of way associated to the 2009 Kesha song of the exact same name, nor is it the first incredibly popular lip-syncing application. It's really the 2nd iteration of Musical.ly, an application that's identical to TikTok in a lot of major ways, and which was launched in 2014 by Chinese business owners Alex Zhu as well as Luyu Yang. Musical.ly was acquired for around $1 billion in November 2017 by the Beijing-based tech firm ByteDance, which currently possessed the prominent TikTok, a Muscial.ly matching (though in China, TikTok is called Douyin). In August 2018, TikTok absorbed Musical.ly, and all Musical.ly accounts were immediately migrated to TikTok.

 In spite of the app's large appeal and also its parent business's extraordinary evaluation, stars have actually been strangely slow-moving to participate it. Jimmy Fallon, whose team introduces once a week games like the #TumbleweedChallenge, has a strong existence on the system, while Amy Schumer lately uploaded her initial TikTok in which she introduced, "I can not pass up an opportunity to be called 'fat' on a brand-new social networks network!" Tony Hawk, for whatever factor (his teenage youngsters, possibly), is additionally an OG TikTok customer.