#sometimes its just the dm and the person playing as bruce

[oifaaa]

DC ttrpg au where the reason why the bats keeping showing up in other heroes cities is bc their own group keeps imploding due to infighting so they just invite themselves to the dms other sessions with different groups

[twow]

okay sorry for not shutting up about making tim drake go to college but im in college and i want tim to be there too. anyway heres my young justice: the college years pitch. under the cut bc its kind of long

a new minor city starts having like a crazy rise in crime and they ask the justice league to help them out because they don't have any heroes there. but the crime in that city is bad enough that anyone they sent would have to relocate indefinitely and no one really wants to do that so batman comes up with the idea of sending the old young justice team there under the guise of attending the city's university because 1. college is a really good excuse for why they suddenly moved there so no one would be suspicious and 2. bruce knows that tim/the rest of yj hasn't really been doing much lately and he thinks college would be good for them and help them figure themselves out

at first they're all kind of against it but they get convinced its for the greater good and helping out the city is important to them even if it means that have to attend university. BUT they all end up really loving it and make a lot of friends on campus and do a lot of campus activities and have a ton of school spirit. its kind of like the show community but with young justice

other thoughts:

-the roommate situation is tim and kon as roommates, cassie and cissie as roommates, anita and greta as roommates, and bart somehow getting a single room (although thad sometimes shows up and crashes there) so barts room is kind of the hangout spot. also ray terrill is their RA and he hates them because they bully him for being old

- young justice group weed smoking sessions in barts room. they make tim (whos rich (derogatory)) buy all their weed

-even though we are in 2021 and so is the current comic continuity this comic is very much set in the 90s like the fashion is from the 90s, the technology is from the 90s, the activities they do are 90s, etc. and they just never explain why and no one says anything about it. the city they're in is just Like That

-bart and kon join a frat ironically

-tim is out as bisexual and cissie is out as a lesbian so kon and cassie have simultaneous and parallel "i think im gay and into my best friend" freakouts after they go to their first party and see tim flirting with a guy and cissie flirting with a girl

-carol bucklen by coincidence goes to that college and she and bart reconnect

-they all join a dnd group to get intel on the dm who they think could be a supervillain (he's not) but they all end up getting really into it and take the game very seriously and very personally so whenever they come back to their dorm from a particularly heated session none of them talk to each other for the rest of the night

-tim skateboards everywhere and plays competitive hacky sack

[duketectivecomics]

it was an Accident but now i'm attached to an au where duke is a magic user instead of a meta. like. his precognition? a form of divination! his whole light motif? magic-y. that whole thing with elaine thomas being offered to join a group of immortals or smith (it's been a hot second since i read that bit) + duke's implied bio dad being implied immortal? ra's being able to give duke shadow manip when ra's' power is tied to magical/mystical sources? side bonus of zatanna mentoring duke - 🌻

SO i’ll be honest im a REALLY big fan of DC mystics (i kinda made a whole sideblog for em lmao plz dont call me out, yes i KNOW i have a lot of sideblogs fdksla;jl) and they kinda already don’t get a whole lotta attention from the DC fandom at large so like... *thumbs up* good for you! do what makes you happy! but im def in the camp of keeping Duke a meta bc, its What He Is and its Already still Pretty Underexplored By The BatFamdom™, and tbh this sounds more like a Universe Alteration than an AU to me? (and yes! there is a key difference there, slight though it may seem!)

like yeah the Science behind metas is often explained away as the by-product of the ‘meta-gene’ so trying to add some intrigue with ~*magic*~ is Understandable, but also feels like an unnecessary complication to both his powers and to his story? especially given that (really with the exception of Zatanna lmao and that’s only bc B n Zee are Childhood Friends but even then sometimes Zee’s on thin ice with him fjdakl;) Bruce Likes Magic Even Less Than He Likes Metas. and again, there’s already still been so little given in the canon itself with regards to Duke’s powers, that I think we (the fandom collectively! not just you bud! all of us!) need to have a couple years to play around in that and really establish an understanding of his powers, before we (again collectively speaking!) really go wild with Universe Alterations 

That Being Said, full-blown AUs where Duke gets to be a full-fledged fantasy character, pulling on those Tolkien influences that’ve been sprinkled in his appearances so far? letting him go on real high fantasy adventures or hell, just doing a DnD set-up & using THAT as a proxy for story-telling (then with Duke as either a magic-wielding player or as the DM too i’d love to see both those kinds of fics!), THAT kind of set up is waaaaay more interesting to me personally!! bc its building upon what’s been given and gives us a chance to explore Duke in an entirely new universe without the baggage of canon to contend with!

But! to each their own!! i’m sure there’s plenty of fans who would love to see mystic!Duke too anon! i, unfortunately, am not entirely ready to be in that camp just yet, but that’s okay! bc for every person who maybe doesn’t completely gel with an idea, there’s always bound to be another fan out there who DOES!

[abundanceofsoph]

SkyFire 1: Chapter 20

On the Road Again & Art Galleries  

Word count: 2.6k

SkyFire 1 MASTERLIST

>Instagram posts

The first half of 2015 flew by. Aurora was flat out not only with her course work at Columbia, but she also managed to secure a small gallery space and was spending every spare moment painting, in an attempt to finish the series, she intended to show at the end of May. Harry and the boys started the On the Road Again tour in February with their shows in Australia, and with Zayn shocking them all by leaving the band in March, he was also feeling the stress of the first few months of the year. Following a show in Dubai at the start of April, the band took a two month break to write their next album and in the wake of Zayn’s departure, the boys made the decision to stick together during the writing process and flew to New York to write with Aurora. All four of the guys moved into their own floor of the tower and spent most of their days set up in Aurora’s recording studio, writing and recording demos to send to their team. The time off for the group was much needed and they enjoyed being able to kick back and relax with Aurora’s family while working on the album, something they had not had the opportunity to do for their previous albums given that they had all been written and recorded while on the road for touring. Aurora tried to split her time well between her obligations, setting aside enough time to study, paint for her upcoming gallery show and also working on the writing process with the guys. Harry also enjoyed being able to split his time while staying in the tower; he and the boys would all join Steve in the gym every morning and eating dinner with the entire team every evening. Harry felt comfortable in the tower and after more than a year together, he considered Rori’s home as his own, just as he hoped she felt comfortable in his and he would often roam the common floor while the band took a break, spending time with various members of the Avengers team. While the boys would usually turn in from bed around 11pm every night, Harry would have to pull his girlfriend from her art studio well after midnight every night, forcing her to get some sleep. Finally, a busy month and a half, Aurora sat her final exam for the school year and her paintings were completed and ready for the opening of her show.

Harry met her at the gallery space in the afternoon, the day before the opening night, watching on as she instructed staff as to where each of the 18 pieces should hang and he felt so incredibly proud of her. She’d worked so hard on each painting and to see them all hung together allowed him to finally see the theme she had running through the entire series that she had been explaining to him for the last few weeks. 

“It’s going to be a hit,” he told her once the last canvas was hanging in its place. “Everyone is going to love it.”

“I hope you're right,” she said. “I just want people see what I’m trying to do here and not just think I’m trying to capitalize on the family.”

xXx

The Gallery show opened 3 days later and Aurora felt an immense sense of pride in her work as she watched people walk around, taking in her paintings. Her dads were both walking through the crowd, talking with guests about how great the paintings were, as were the Harry’s 3 bandmates. Aurora was feeling incredibly grateful for how supportive her friends and family were and she felt herself getting quite emotional. Harry, who was standing next to her, noticed her starting to sniffle and placed his hands on her shoulders, turning her to look at him.

“You ok?” he asked, looking her in the eye.

“Just a little overwhelmed by the response,” Rori replied, taking a deep breath to calm her emotions. “It doesn’t feel real.”

“You deserve all of this love,” Harry told her, hugging her tight against him, her cheek cushioned against his chest as they both watched the guests wander around the space, taking in the art on the wall. “You’re incredible,” he whispered.

Aurora looked across the gallery, taking in the 18 canvases on the exposed brick walls. Each work was made up of a pair a canvases, hanging next to each other with a metre gap between each pair and the next. The first pair was made up of a painting of the Iron Man armour and on it’s matching canvas there was a painting of her father cooking pasta in the kitchen. The next pair of canvases similarly showed the two apposing sides of her Pops, with one painting depicting Captain America in his full uniform, while the other showed Steve standing by an easel, paint splatted on his white undershirt and a soft smile on his face. The rest of the series continued along the same theme, showing each member of the Avengers team as the superhero the world new and the family member that Aurora loved; Clint was laughing as he threw balls of paper at the back of Sam’s head, Bruce was mid-yoga pose, Nat was dancing, Thor was playing video games, Sam was laying on his bed listening to music with his headphones on, and Bucky was reading a book.

The last pair of canvases showed the team assembled together on the left, as if preparing for battle and on the right, they were all collapsed on sofas, bean bags and recliners, staring off at an unseen flat screen tv out of frame. The overall effect of the series was clear, or so Aurora hoped. No person was one thing; identity was multifaceted and complicated and different people saw different aspects of everyone’s identity. Aurora hoped that the collection would encourage people to view those around them as multifaceted individuals with hopes and dreams and families and insecurities. Since becoming a public figure 3 years ago this was something that had plagued Aurora’s mind; to so many people on the internet she was the one thing they believed her to be. For some that was a privileged white girl, for others she was just a song writer, while others saw her merely as the girlfriend of Harry Styles or the daughter of Tony Stark. In truth she was all of those things, but she was also a normal girl, who grew up in a tiny apartment above a London pub, she was the product of a single mother who worked every day of her life to give her daughter the best life she could, and she was also so much more. That was the message she hoped this show would portray, the mark she hoped to leave on those who came to view her work, to imagine people complexly.

xXx

Following the second week of Aurora’s art show, she flew out with the boys for Cardiff, Wales for the start of the next leg of their tour on the 5th of June. The day of the first show, Aurora was sitting in the green room, waiting for the boys to come back from one of their many media obligations. She was drawing while she waited, periodically picking up her phone to see if any other critics had reviewed her show. It felt weird for her to not be there for the final two weeks, but she wanted to be there with Harry. She’d spent months looking forward to her chance to spend the summer with him and the boys and she knew she’d made the right choice to come on tour now given everything that had happened at the end of their last set of shows. Her art was in safe hands and she trusted Pepper to coordinate its safe return to the tower after the show came to an end, so she decided to put it aside in her head and focus her attention on being there on tour and present in the moment.

When the boys returned to the green room, she was struck again by how weird it was for there only to be the four of them now and she frowned. The entire time she had known Harry it had been him and the four boys, but now for Zayn to be gone, she still didn’t quite understand. She remembered when Harry had called her from the road, the night that Zayn had walked out on them. He’d been in tears and her heart had broken as she stayed on the phone with him for hours, promising that it would be ok. That no matter what happened with the band, that she would be there, and he would be ok. They had talked about restructuring songs, splitting up Zayn’s parts between the four of them and after they’d hung up, she had cried. While she and Zayn had not been best friends like she was with Louis, and they hadn’t gotten along quite as easily as she did with Liam or Niall, she had still grown to think of him as her brother, as she had with all of them. He was always quieter than the others and sometimes when the chaos of the tour had become just a little too much, the two of them would hide away somewhere quiet to relax and decompress. She’d tried to call him a few days after he’d left, but he’d ignored her call, probably assuming that she would have sided with Harry, like a child having to pick which parent to live with after the divorce. In truth she’d just wanted to make sure her friend was ok. It had been months now and she still hadn’t heard from him. She’d sent texts and twitter dm’s, trying to explain that she just wanted to talk and that she missed him, but it had all gone unanswered. The only contact any of them had had with him since March had been when Louis had argued with him on twitter in April. All of this was running through her head as the boys piled into the green room, flopping down on sofas and attempting to relax before they were needed on stage in a little over an hour. Harry placed a kiss on her cheek as he walked past her towards where Lou was waiting to fix his hair for the show.

“You look like something’s bothering you,” Liam said, sitting down beside her and casually throwing an arm across the back of the sofa she was curled up on.

“I’m good,” Rori replied with a small smile.

“No, you’re not,” Liam pressed, his eyes flicking around the room to make sure no one was listening to their conversation. “Talk to me.”

“Just feels weird, doesn’t it?” Rori whispered, her eyes also glancing to the others, not wanting to upset anyone. “I still don’t really understand what happened and it just doesn’t really feel right that he’s not here.”

“Yeah,” Liam sighed. “It feels wrong, but we’ve got to keep moving. We might never really know why he did it, but we’ve just got to work with what we’ve got now and try to make it work.”

“I’m sorry I brought it up,” Rori said, noticing Liam’s eyes were now a little misty with unshed tears.

“It’s ok Rori,” Liam replied, smiling softly as he wrapped his arms around her. “We’ve got to be able to lean on each other, right?”

“Oi!” Harry yelled with a laugh. “Get your mitts off my girl.”

“Sharing is caring,” Rori joked, laughing loudly when Harry pulled her to her feet and out of Liam’s arms. “Rude!” she giggled, kissing his cheek. She looked back at Liam, glad to see that Harry’s joke had broken the sombre mood they had slipped into, even if he didn’t know that’s what he’d done.

xXx

Despite missing a member, the tour was a success, continuing on much like the previous one had and after the first few shows, Aurora found that it felt just like old times. They travelled across Europe and along the west coast and into Canada, recording and finalising the new album. Aurora even recorded the piano track for If I Could Fly, a song that she had written with Harry late one night when they’d stayed up in the studio after the others had turned in for the night.

Something she often did with tracks she wrote for other artists was to record her own version and a few months after they released their track, she would release her version on her YouTube channel; a series she called The Demo Tapes. She had writing credit on almost every track on the new album, but after talking about it with the boys, they had decided that If I Could Fly, should be the track for her to record given that it was so personal to both her and Harry, so one afternoon in late August the two had set themselves up with the bands producers to record a duet of the song, filming the recording process to use for the music video in addition to the footage Aurora already had of playing the song on her grand piano back in New York. Singing with Harry was always one of her favourite things and being able to sing their song together filled her heart with so much love for the curly haired man standing on the other side of the microphone, his headphones pushing his long curls back from his face.

“What do you say we give the whole thing one last run through love? From the top?” Harry asked her once they were told they had everything. “One just for us?”

She returned his smile, adjusting her headphones. “Let’s do it,” she said, clearing her throat before the familiar sound of her keys filled their ears.

[Harry – Aurora – both]

If I could fly I'd be coming right back home to you I think I might give up everything, just ask me to Pay attention, I hope that you listen Cause I let my guard down Right now I'm completely defenceless For your eyes only, I show you my heart For when you're lonely and forget who you are I'm missing half of me when we're apart Now you know me, for your eyes only For your eyes only I've got scars, even though they can't always be seen And pain gets hard, but now you're here and I don't feel a thing Pay attention, I hope that you listen cause I let my guard down Right now I'm completely defenceless For your eyes only, I show you my heart For when you're lonely and forget who you are I'm missing half of me when we're apart Now you know me, for your eyes only For your eyes only I can feel your heart inside of mine (I feel it, I feel it) I've been going out of my mind (I feel it, I feel it) Know that I'm just wasting time And I Hope that you don't run from me For your eyes only, I show you my heart For when you're lonely And forget who you are I'm missing half of me When we're apart Now you know me, for your eyes only For your eyes only, I show you my heart For when you're lonely and forget who you are I'm missing half of me when we're apart Now you know me, for your eyes only For your eyes only For your eyes only

As the final notes faded out, Harry stepped around the microphone and swept Aurora into his arms, kissing her deeply as they both forgot about everyone else in the room, or the camera set up on the tripod to record the process.

NEXT CHAPTER

OR CONTINUE READING ON AO3

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Ever wonder how it would go if Batman and ALL of his kids played D&D?

This is the fucking saga of The Most Exhausted DM, though.

That DM is Dick.

It was Dick’s idea.

He hates himself for having this idea.

The usual group is:

Bruce’s half-orc Ranger, a disturbing combination of Brucie Wayne’s personality with Batman’s skill set and whose 20 Charisma doesn’t count for shit because he almost always rolls critical failures on pertinent checks, but on the other hand he has a 20 in Dex too and that makes him very effective

Tim’s tiefling Sorcerer, a generally very friendly individual who also sometimes sets their monk on fire for fun and whose Charisma score is 12 but he usually rolls better than Bruce and never lets him forget it

Damian’s half-elf Monk, who is basically just Damian but taller and with fewer knives (Monk bonuses make weapons obsolete, neither hell nor heaven could have stopped Damian from minmaxing his monk into oblivion)

Cassandra’s dragonborn Fighter, who is...I mean, Magnus Burnsides, more or less, her character talks approximately 150x more than Cass ever does and also loves everyone, especially since she’s managed to rules-lawyer the game so that she gets seven attacks per turn and does a frankly horrifying amount of damage for someone playing the most basic build in the book

Barbara’s halfling Cleric, who is actually incapable of harming a living thing but has a +20 bonus against all her attacks on undead monsters and can resurrect her reckless-ass party like three times a day (she took pity on Dick and made a character that would work with his plot instead of being a fucking asshole)

And finally, the sixth member of the campaign, the crowning terror of the Wayne household, the one who helped turn all these fuckers into horrible OP monsters, the Cause Of Dick’s Misery:

Alfred Pennyworth with his fucking human Druid who calls out Dick’s plot thirty minutes into the third session and oneshots the boss fight with Finger of Death

The god failed its fortitude save

Dick almost cried

Alfred is banned from D&D now

[aion-rsa]

How American Gods Finds Stability (And More Neil Gaiman) in Season 3

https://ift.tt/3olKKxy

To call the production of American Gods’ first two seasons problem-plagued is to put it mildly; Old Testament Egypt had fewer problems with plagues. 

After a successful first season, showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green departed, followed by actors Kristin Chenoweth and Gillian Anderson. In February 2018, Jesse Alexander and original series author Neil Gaiman were announced as co-showrunners for the second season, but Alexander was removed in September 2018 and the lion’s share of the second season was guided by directing producer Chris Byrne and line producer Lisa Kussner. Season 3 now brings new showrunner Charles “Chic” Eglee (Dexter, The Walking Dead), who reunites with Gaiman and deals with another big cast turnover: New Media (Kahyun Kim), the Djinn (Mousa Kraish), Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber), and Mr. Nancy (Orlando Jones) have all departed from the show, with the lattermost cast member doing so in explosive fashion.

When Jones’s option was not renewed in December 2019, the actor released a video on social media in which he accused Freemantle Media and new showrunner Chic Eglee of having racist motivations. Later on in February 2020, Jones criticized American Gods star Ricky Whittle (who plays Shadow Moon) for not supporting him in his view and leaked screenshots of the pairs’ DMs. For Whittle, it was a serious accusation to level. The actor departed The 100 in 2016, publicly accusing showrunner Jason Rothernberg of bullying and unprofessional behavior. Whittle’s brother-in-law, West Ham United forward Michail Antonio, has faced racial abuse throughout his playing career, from youth leagues to the Premier League. As such, it is important for Whittle to share his side of the story.

“I’m the lead of the show, and I’m a person of color who very strongly stands with anyone who’s been unjustly treated,” Whittle says. “I have a strong past of standing up against racism, like my brother Michail. I stand up for women, LGBTQ rights, everything. If I don’t stand with someone, then there is a reason. People should pay attention.”

Whittle goes on to clarify the differences between his departure from The 100 and Jones’s departure from American Gods. Rather than any animosity on the part of Freemantle or new showrunner Chic Eglee, Whittle says that Mr. Nancy leaving the show is driven by the needs of the story.

“It’s a shame. For me, it’s very different to leaving The 100. That was a show that I left for personal reasons. I had a contract and I chose to walk away. This is just story. If you follow the book, you know this story is about Shadow Moon. Mr. Nancy would have definitely have come back, because he wasn’t fired. When someone’s option is not renewed, it doesn’t mean you’re fired. It just means you have a change of contract, and it is up to you to renegotiate that in a different way. We’d have loved to have had him back, but unfortunately things have changed.”

Things have indeed changed behind the scenes of American Gods, and that’s for the better, according to the actors. Whittle, in particular, is pleased by the show’s shift back towards Neil Gaiman’s original book and in a growing sense of stability behind the scenes thanks to the author’s improved availability.

“It’s like any relationship. You work with things, and then something just clicks. This was the most efficient season yet,” Whittle says. “We have had problems trying to figure out what the show was, and how to make it work, because it’s a monster. It has a huge budget, a lot of moving parts. It’s a roadshow, so we’re constantly moving locations. I feel that season three really is a true return to form, with the help of Chic Eglee and Neil Gaiman coming together. They had a lot more time before the season started to really piece together this story of season three and into season four.”

Technical Boy actor Bruce Langley, concurs with Whittle’s judgement, adding, “This season has been incredibly smooth, which has been lovely. Part of that is because we fell back in line with the narrative structure of the book. We knew where we were going, at least in a broad sense. We’ve had Neil there as a constant throughout the whole thing. There’s never been an email that I’ve sent, there’s never been a phone call that I’ve requested, there has never been any part of correspondence that I have requested with Neil, that hasn’t been responded to in a timely fashion.”

If nothing else, having Gaiman back and more available behind the scenes seems to have filled the actors with a sense of confidence in the direction of the show. 

“We’ve had probably one of the most priceless gifts in that we’d have the creator of this world, Neil Gaiman,” says Yetide Badaki, who plays goddess of love Bilquis. “And we have had him consistently from season one until now, and that has been such an important anchor. And that has been just a gift because you have this originator so close, and also so open and accessible.”

Part of the Herculean task set before executive producer Gaiman and Eglee is guiding American Gods through its future, including a possible ending point. No show lasts forever, and no tale is complete without an ending. For Whittle, that renewed focus pays off in more efficiency in all phases of production.

Read more

Books

Neil Gaiman: How The Sandman Reinvents the Audiobook Format

By Rosie Fletcher

Books

Stardust Is Still One of the Best Neil Gaiman Adaptations Out There

By Kayti Burt

“As an actor, we now know our beginning, middle and end, until the end of the story, which is unique for a TV show. Neil and Chic were able to formulate everyone’s story arcs. It just became so much more efficient, because you knew where you were going to take your character. Then production and set design and all the writers knew exactly what they were doing a lot sooner, which for me just makes a more stable ship.”

The increased stability of the HMS American Gods has given the actors a little more freedom in developing their characters, and filling in the blanks left in the bigger picture crafted by Gaiman, Eglee, and the show’s writers’ room. The collaboration that goes into a good scene in front of the camera is buoyed by increased collaboration behind the scenes.

Says Langley, “The writers’ room made a real, real effort to bring us in early and get to know us, and get to know how much we know about our characters. We have been with these characters for four years and as the actor, there are things you are going to know that other people just aren’t. In terms of the broad strokes and the broad arcs, they were outlined, so I knew in a broad sense where we were going. But there were still these lovely tasty little surprises along the way in terms of the specifics of how they got there.”

Whittle echoes the praise for Eglee and season 3’s writing staff, adding, “He brought me into that writing room before the season started, which I’m grateful for, because he wanted to hear my voice. He said, ‘You’re our lead. You’re our hero. What are your thoughts? What is Shadow feeling? We have such an incredible cast with so many voices; I need to hear all these voices.’ You can’t have diverse, authentic voices on camera without having them in the creative process.”

According to Whittle, Eglee created a writing room that was 10% straight white male, but also consisted of Black, Latinx, biracial, LGBTQ, and formerly incarcerated writers because he wanted to hear authentic voices telling truthful stories.

“You’re getting the truth in season three, because we’re all involved. That was down Chic Eglee and Neil Gaiman wanting authentic diversity on screen, which people at home can look to and relate to.”

That focus on diverse people telling diverse stories fits neatly into the universe of American Gods, in which the melting pot of people from around the globe mixed and mingled with indigenous populations in a way that is uniquely American, and is now uniquely represented by American Gods as a television program. When a show involves everyone, it can be anything to any number of people, which to Ricky Whittle, is a selling point.

“Trying to describe this show is impossible. It’s every genre possible. We’ve got comedy, action, drama, mystery… It’s hard to explain, but what it does is provide a great platform to showcase the talents of so many diverse actors, and people behind the camera as well.”

The human experience in front of the camera, and the human experience behind the camera, is one of the most important aspects of American Gods for the performers. 

As Badaki says, “The wonderful thing about getting to play gods is that they’re really a distillation of human belief. We get to go into the extremes of human thoughts, of human emotion. The immigrant story about coming from one place into another and trying to find how you as a thread fit into this larger tapestry. If you pull on one thread, you can unravel the whole, and the importance of every part within that definitely resonated with me as an immigrant and a third culture kid.”

A tapestry, from a micro view, is just a bunch of strings. When examined from a distance, those colorful blurs form pictures and tell stories. Story is the driving force behind American Gods season 3, and in order to tell the story, sometimes threads are cut short. Even popular threads, like those woven by the spider Anansi. 

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

“Everyone’s allowed to have their favorites, but at the end of the day, this is a show about American Gods and Shadow Moon,” maintains Whittle. “I loved so many characters in the past where options were renewed or not renewed: Pablo Schreiber, Mousa Kraish, Jonathan Tucker, Betty Gilpin, Kristin Chenoweth. They come and go in this story about Shadow Moon. That’s the most important thing. A lot of things have been said, but I just ask people to watch the trailer and to watch the show to see the truth behind the story of diversity that we have showcased on this show.”

The post How American Gods Finds Stability (And More Neil Gaiman) in Season 3 appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3hOl2iC

[onestowatch]

Q&A: Aaron Camper is Making Music to Fit People, Not Genres

Aaron Camper honed his talents behind the scenes with some of music’s brightest icons —Stevie Wonder, David Guetta, and Diddy to name a few— but lately he’s been branching out on his own and seeing impressive results in the process. His 2016 debut album Blow signaled the arrival of a versatile, experienced artist, and now his follow-up EP Hi-Def shows more of the same from an artist who refuses to be boxed into a singular sound.

Camper fits the whole palette into 26 minutes of music, blending sounds with a vintage yet timeless treatment. Sampling the iconic disco track “The Glow of Love” by Change on “The Heat,” Camper creates a modern, summer-y groove that takes on a life of its own, rather than acting as a tired rehash of the original. “That Body” is equally upbeat but with a much funkier, antique undertone, that relies on pounding percussion to keep the song rolling.

When Camper decides to slow the tempo, his soulful, passionate voice is more than capable of holding the listener’s attention. “Inhale,” the very first song on the tracklist, demonstrates this truth as he serenades an old flame over resonating guitar progressions. “High $ Habit” contains much colder, trap-influenced production, further extending the breadth of sounds that Camper dips into on Hi-Def.

The man behind the music is as genuine as his catalogue implies, and he is a thoughtful creative who keeps an open mind inside and out of the studio. Valuing the individual human experience with music, Camper attempts to keep specific people in mind when he’s making music, ensuring that the final product will appeal to a wide range of listeners.

Ones to Watch recently spoke with Aaron Camper about his philosophy towards music and his exciting position in the industry as a rising musician with a plethora of high-level experience to tap into. Read on below for the full interview!

OTW: You’re newest album, Hi-Def, released in January. Looking back, how do you feel about the project?

Aaron Camper: I feel good. I like the way we rolled it out, it was kind of unexpected. To see the response that it’s gotten, it grew quickly, and I’m just glad we got that; it shows that people really want fresher material, which is good to see. I’m grateful for sure.

OTW: Going into it, what were you trying to accomplish with Hi-Def?

Aaron: We had singles out all last year, just testing and seeing what lands where, how people reacted to different vibes we put out. Then towards the end of the year — we wanted to drop something earlier, but we were just waiting because when we put out “Fire” it did one thing, but when we went to put out “High $ Habit,” we just got totally different responses. So towards the end of the year, the team just put our heads together and just said “let’s get it out, we’ll drop it all at once.” So like I said it was unexpected, because with most projects you have those countdowns and everything, but I didn’t really want to do that. It was unique in that way, to just drop it out of nowhere, but keeps everything fresh, so it’s exciting.

OTW: The cover looks almost like a lone planet in outer space — does that tie into the theme you were trying to get across, or was it just some art that you liked?

Aaron: That was done by my dawg Gavin! To me, since it’s called Hi-Def, I think the cover played into a vintage VHS magnavox set, it visually just takes on that aesthetic where it’s like packaging in itself. But the way you think its space; as far as it pertains to my last album Blow, Hi-Def is kind of a 8 song EP that just fits in its own space, not to be compared with anything, you know what I mean. It’s just another unique piece of work, and another extension of myself, another view of me. So to me it kind of ran like one of those VHS’ my mom would have by the VCR, it just kind of looks like that. But yeah, having its own space is how I see it anyway, so I think it all came across in the artwork, it was dope.

OTW: I saw that you believe writing for just one genre is kind of limiting, especially in today’s music scene. How do you try to avoid that — are you consciously balancing your music across the spectrum between genres, or is it natural for you?

Aaron: I think it’s natural for me, whereas for a lot of other artists, it’s kind of a debate. I’m a musician first, and I love all kinds of music, honestly. I play the guitar and the drums, so when I pick up my guitar, some days I feel like Jodeci, some days I feel like Bruce Springsteen. [Laughs] Yesterday we had a jam at my crib with the homies and homegirls, just kicking it and tuning guitars and stuff, that’s just how it goes. I don’t think anyone wants to be limited to just one thing, I don’t think Kanye wanted to be labeled as just a rapper, like that would have bugged the hell out of him. I find myself at home when I’m writing towards what’s sincere to me as opposed to writing towards a genre, that’s kind of limiting. Being a songwriter, even writing for other artists sometimes, that would limit me before, because you’re trying to write with the artist in mind, and you stray away from what you really hear for yourself, and you push what your heart is saying towards the back to get the job done. So just honing in and writing for myself, getting these projects out to speak for myself and get my narrative across, I think it’s important in being a songwriter to be true to what you want to say.

OTW: So it definitely sounds like the story is more important to you than the genre, but is there any sound that you feel brings it out of you easier, or do you have a favorite style to work in?

Aaron: I think the sounds now, whether it be trap, emo, alternative, R&B, there’s so many lanes and subcategories. And I’m laughing because, we talk about this all the time, like what is your music like, how do you describe it. It’s become so tainted with labels and genres, that you don’t let the music fight its own fight. At the end of the day, a good song is a good song, a great song is a great song, and people will label it however they want. But as far as categories and genres, I try to make sure my music can fit all of these different spaces and cater to all these different listeners, so I just go into the studio and keep myself open, so that way I know I’m reaching out to everybody.

OTW: How do you keep that openness in the studio?

Aaron: It’s been a little journey, it’s been a trip to get that science together. Me and my partner producer, we’ve been writing for the past three summers, you know, like hard-body, everyday, dedicated, for three years straight. So we’re just finding chemistries, because we both have been musicians and traveled the world, and had conversations with people and keep them in mind. I was at Revolt the other week, and I was explaining to them that when I’m writing, I kind of keep people and situations throughout the day in mind. I got a homegirl who I know likes to get dressed to music when she’s going out; I got a homeboy when he gets off work at 5:00, he likes to hear certain vibes in the car. So I kind of keep these instances in mind, like “if someone is about to go out tonight, what do they want to feel, what do they want to hear?” Most girls want something sexy when they’re getting dressed in Vegas or Miami, I just keep that in mind. I look at music like a service, I’m just out here trying to serve everybody food.

OTW: You’ve worked with some big name artists behind the scenes in the beginning stages of your career. Was that hindering your solo career at the time, or did it help you get to where you are now?

Aaron: Nothing can hinder you until you quit, but for me, it definitely helped. Like I said, getting into those other spaces and seeing what those other arenas are all about, and knowing what’s what in the musical landscape. If you’re a journalist and you just work for your city and stay local, I don’t think that will expand your writing as much as it would at a bigger publication sending you abroad for a year and a half, which is kind of like a tour. Like you go to Spain and write on some other music cultures, or you go to London and you have to write about grime. That’s clearly going to be totally different than writing about something here. Well, it may be the same, but you just never know.

I also look at it like, I’m a big basketball fan, and you have some people who come from Europe to America like Manu Ginobili -- he has a European clip to his game that just makes him that much more unguardable. He came to the league with a Eurostep, it gives you that extra clip, where if somebody thinks you’re hindered, you can do something else, where they can’t block you in. I kind of look at it like that.

OTW: You definitely have a lot of strong connections within the industry, but then a lot of fans are still discovering your solo music. Where do you see yourself at this point in your career?

Aaron: I’m excited, I’m at an exciting space. Like you said, working in those different lanes, it can get anyone discouraged when you’re trying to be something, but I was never trying to be anything besides good at what I do. Now that I took the time away from a lot of it, really, and have just been writing in the lab creating, I know I’m still new to people, and I understand that, which is why we’re taking it slow, we’re kind of sourcing it out, like “this person likes this, or these people like that, or this shorty just jumped in the DM and she likes this.” It kind of gives you a map, so me and management just wanted to take out time and see what the audience is, what their profile looks like, what do they do. As you build your tribe and people are connecting with your music, I like to do the math on them as well, so that as we grow, I’m giving out the best food, and giving everyone what they need to hear.

OTW: So in terms of your goals, as you’ve grown in your career, have your goals also shifted, or have they stayed the same?

Aaron: My goals are pretty much the same, I mean, I want a Grammy, I want to keep knocking conversations and tables over with the unexpected. I’ve always been about that, I’ve always been in situations that have led to some good conversations in music. I just want to stay there and grow with that, trendsetting and leading the conversation as far as not being lumped into one thing. Especially in R&B, it’s very easy to be typecast as just R&B, so I think it’s a unique time for me and the music, I’m just excited to see as we navigate and curate this whole thing, I’m anxious to see how far it goes.

OTW: Last question: Who are some of your Ones to Watch artists?

Aaron: Ah, damn. Actually, I just started some personal playlists of mine on Spotify, which I would encourage you to follow. I added some things the other day, like Ravyn Lenae, she’s very dope. My girl BOSCO, I think she had one of the dopest songs last year with “Cruel,” I like that one a lot. Sonder is dope; Brent Faiyaz is from the crib, he’s from Maryland. Kali Uchis, I was in LA and heard her song with Tyler, The Creator and was like “what the fuck is this?” I was at a taco stand, that shit is hard. [Laughs] It’s a groove. There’s a ton of people I’m just getting hip to, and their vibe is such an energy, I’m all about that. I like when I turn the song on first, and it’s got that energy to it, and it has some sounds that just get me in from the door, I fuck with it. CyHi the Prince’s album is fire, of course K.R.I.T.’s album was fire, Black Panther is fire. Hi-Def is fire! 

I’m loving all the new music that’s coming, especially from an urban perspective, because it doesn’t get the chance to grow and mature. I’m loving the effort that everyone’s putting out to be the staple of that sound, I champion that.

OTW: Awesome! Any last words?

Aaron: Go grab Hi-Def, everybody should be adding it to their playlists. We have a whole lot of fire coming this year, I have another album that’s dropping, so be on your toes for that. Way more visuals, and then we get back on the road, we’re ramping it up even more.