#summer sale 2019

[rabbitcruiser]

Chevrolet Camaro went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed as a competing model to the Ford Mustang.

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Let's talk about Jump GIGA

Jump GIGA covers, 2016-2024. Volumes are published (left to right per row) as Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn releases, with 2018 and 2019 briefly breaking the pattern by having three Winter and three Summer volumes each. 2023 has an Early Spring volume in addition to the standard four.

So, people have pointed out that the 2024 Spring cover is, uh, not like other covers.

But I've only seen comparisons to other MHA GIGA covers and MHA Weekly Shonen Jump covers. Out of curiosity for what GIGA's typical marketing aesthetics might be, I put together a comparison between all of Jump GIGA's covers to date.

And, um. Some things stand out, to say the least.

First, let me clarify what Jump GIGA even is: it is a seasonal magazine from Shonen Jump, published separate from Weekly Shonen Jump. SJ is an absolutely massive brand and they have a number of magazines serialized outside of the most well-known weekly magazine.

The content of Jump GIGA is primarily made up of one-shots and spin-offs. From the beginning, a lot of the appeal has been the cool cover illustrations which showcase special merchandise that comes with the purchase of GIGA. Usually the cover also promotes big things going on related to the WSJ series, like movie events, new games, or special figurines for sale.

The marketing aesthetic has been clear from the start: the cover consists of one core illustration and a number of ads surrounding it. Most often you get a cover illustration of a protagonist, and then ads and merch for other series, e.g. Food Wars protagonist cover with One Piece film promotion and Haikyuu!! merch.

The purpose of this marketing direction is pretty obvious. Spin-offs and one-shots are not likely to generate a ton of interest consistently, so they lure people in with the cool covers and tempting limited edition merchandise of the series they already know and love. In this way, highlighting one series with the cover and different series with the merch makes sense, because maybe somebody doesn't care about Food Wars, but they definitely want those Haikyuu!! stickers, stuff like that.

Starting from 2020's Autumn volume, you can see a shift. For the first time, basically all of the merchandise is for the cover series. The Demon Slayer manga had already ended five months earlier in May, but a two-chapter spin-off was scheduled for release in WSJ during October. This GIGA was released exactly one day before the second chapter was published and it capitalizes on the hype.

After this point, only MHA and Jujutsu Kaisen dominate the cover and the merch in quite this way, with Black Clover getting attention last volume as a way to highlight the fact that it actually switched syndication from WSJ to GIGA.

Anyway, most commonly the cover illustration is a solo shot of a core cast member (usually but not always the protagonist), and if it's not a solo, it's a big cast illustration.

Only a few covers focus on two characters, and usually it's a crossover as opposed to characters from same series sharing the limelight.

Here we've got Food Wars' protagonist with the main characters from Dr. Stone and Act-Age.

The two covers most similar to the Izuku & Kacchan cover are 2022 Winter and 2023 Autumn.

Winter depicts the main trio of Blue Box in a seasonally-appropriate aesthetic. Not gonna lie, this one kinda makes me laugh--Blue Box is a romance and sports manga, and even though Christmas has a romantic air to it in Japan, instead of depicting any sort of like, hesitant but hopeful romantic energy between the heterosexual couple that actually get together later in the series, they focus primarily on the two girls being cute with the guy is a wee footnote? I mean, all right.

Meanwhile, Autumn depicts one of the protagonists with the series antagonist with a typical cool action style. I'm not very familiar with JJK, but I hear these two have got Some Drama going on, so, there's that.

The merch itself has also evolved over the years. Stickers and posters were present early on, but they have since expanded to decorative folders and now acrylic stands and coasters. 2021 Summer sees the first time the cover illustration is marketed as merch, with the Jujutsu Kaisen cover included as a decorative folder.

Right after that, the Kacchan cover of 2021 Autumn is included as a poster alongside earlier covers featuring Todoroki and Izuku.

2023 Summer's cover is a huge, wrap-around MHA cast illustration and it was published three days after chapter 396 came out, strategically timed to highlight the big shift in the final battle as Ochako vs Toga ends and All Might vs. AFO begins. Merch includes a decorative folder of the wrap-around cover and character motif stickers.

And then we get this!?

A duo cover illustration where the cover art itself has been merchandised to hell and back!?!?

Acrylic stand and pin set!?

Double-sided coaster showing bkdk greatest hits!? With volume 29's river scene cover!?

There's also a double-sided poster featuring the Spring cover with the ninth popularity poll art and a decorative bag with the anniversary art. The cover art itself is plastered all over the volume, front, back, and spine, apparently a total of 19 times.

I honestly don't know what to say about this. It feels wild that this is actually what the cover is. Obviously it is a huge marketing push in anticipation of season 7, and Izuku and Katsuki are the most popular characters, but. it just feels... unique.

In the course of Jump GIGA's publication, this direction is kind of unprecedented. Genuinely no one could have expected this. This seems to be the first time there's been this much merch for a cover. And it was a solid fucking move, marketing-wise--it's sold out basically everywhere, everyone is talking about it. And even people who don't follow the series or ship these two can't help but comment on how strikingly romantic it looks!?

I don't know how much say Horikoshi had in what the cover was, but damn it sure feels like he drew this with immense affection. I kind of wonder if he personally pushed for it to be these two, rather than the typical solo shot, cast shot, or even a protagonist vs. antagonist shot.

I'm KO'd, man. idek if this post is useful to anybody I'm just on my hands and knees here.

Everybody knows what we're all here for, and it's these cute boys finally getting their happy ending.

EDIT NOTE: I gathered much of the information and many, many of the images in this post from a fan-made Jump Database. I neglected to say it properly when I first posted this, but special thanks to the very dedicated people who maintain that website!

[richiehugs]

Chris

An old friend of a friend.

Chris is your average 5'11 / 180cm Middle European guy with a remarried mom and a rich father. He used to spend his summers with friends and family in exotic places, or at some local beach.

He was a skinny boy in the early 2010's when he had just turned 18. He was a sporty guy, playing football and doing karate, and of course, he liked to party.

After his graduation, he got a job at an airfield as a security guard, and let's say, it wasn't as active as he might have expected.

Because he started piling on the kilos. He was exercising less, but still going out with his friends and traveling with his family and his girlfriend. He was enjoying life, but life had some unexpected turns for him. He was becoming less and less active on social media, he wouldn't post anything shirtless anymore. He wouldn't take his shirt off anymore even around friends. He knew he got chubby, and he was feeling embarrassed (though it wouldn't stop his beer-bellied friends to mock him - what are friends for, right?).

But then, in 2017, he met a girl at his workplace. The circumstances of the end of his previous relationship are unknown to me. But he was starting to look happier. And rounder.

He must have passed 100 kilos around 2018 - and 110 around 2019. His girlfriend was obviously pampering him, living at his parents house, they didn't have to worry about the slightest thing. Only his weight and his figure. His clothes were dangerously tight, showing every curve of his swollen body.

So he married her. He became a father. And then the pandemic happened.

For anyone he knew from before, he got unrecognizable. From 2020 to 2023, he must have been bounced further up to 120, or even 125 kilo / 280 pounds. His double chin was covering his entire neck. His moobs were resting on his belly, which formed a round ball under his shirt. Sucking it in wouldn't help anymore.

Due to the pandemic, he had to leave his job as airports for closed. He started a job at IKEA as a sales manager. Must have been the stress and the IKEA food that turned even him to a meatball.

But sadly, before turning into Nikocado, another turning point - his wife left him. The reason is again, unknown, but my bet would be his ex gf.

His ex was starting to spend more time with him, and boom, they made up. The girl had become a fitness coach - some sort of freak running marathons and such. Well, Chris has never run a marathon - but he has tried running before.

He started off 2023 with 120+ kilos, beautiful, obese, an aspiring superchub, growing uncontrollably 20 pounds a year - by the end he must have dropped around 20 kilos. So at around 100 kg / 220 lbs, he remains thick, he still has a dadbod, but sadly his best days have faded away. His ex, the old-new gf changed him, his lifestyle, his perfect shape, but he is happy.

This was the story of Chris, a friend of a friend. From 75 kilos to 125 kilos - and then back to 100. The pictures are from 2011 (18yo) to 2023 (30yo).

Not an influencer. Not sharing any names or socials. Please, don't reuse any of the pictures.

[rivalsforlife]

Ace Attorney News Roundup

Very behind on several of these, but news doesn't always cross over from twitter to tumblr, so I thought I'd recap some things here:

AAI 15th Anniversary

First: today marks the 15th anniversary of Ace Attorney Investigations! Tatsuro Iwamoto, the art director for AAI, made a celebratory sketch of Kay to commemorate the occasion (link to tweet):

Iwamoto has also been drawing fanart of minor characters throughout the ace attorney trilogy on his twitter page. These include: April May, Dee Vasquez, Yanni Yogi (and Polly), Richard Wellington, Turner Grey, Moe the Clown, Max Galactica, Oldbag (alien mode), Matt Engarde, Doug Swallow, Luke Atmey (and Mask☆DeMasque), Viola Cadaverini, Valerie Hawthorne, Lisa Basil, and Glen Elg. Technically these aren't official art, but it's always good to have more art of obscurer characters!

The Great Ace Attorney Hit A Million Copies

Some big news: The Great Ace Attorney's 2021 port hit a million copies sold, making it the second ace attorney game to hit Capcom's platinum titles list, the first being the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy from 2019! This comes just under 3 years since the release of the duology in July 2021. In comparison, the original AA trilogy hit a million copies in December 2020, shortly under two years since the release of the game in February 2019.

The update to the platinum titles sales shows that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy has reached 3.3 million copies sold, which means that it has sold over a million copies in less than a year! (My last post that had information on sales, where I said the trilogy had sold 2.3 million, was in September 2023.) It also makes it the 30th highest selling title for Capcom, which I think is pretty impressive considering giants like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter are making up the majority of the top 30.

So, the AA trilogy made its first million in approximately 22 months, but now it has sold a million over the last 8 months. I don't know anything about game sales and so this next part is just speculation, but I wouldn't expect it to be very common for games to sell more years out from their release compared to at release? I think that's really saying something about the long-term staying power of this series, and its increasing popularity over the last few years despite not having any new releases (aside from ports - and porting the series to all platforms probably has something to do with the popularity.)

The AA Twitter Is Very Active Right Now

Here are a couple of bullet points with no relation to each other:

-The official ace attorney twitter has been VERY active, particularly the last week. They've been doing the same "weekly book club" for each case that they did for the Great Ace Attorney duology, but that wrapped up last week and now it's just been memes, at least one a day. In most of my time following this account over the last uhh six years, they mostly ramp up marketing around new releases but are kinda silent the rest of the time, with the occasional meme, but definitely not at this frequency.

-Summer Game Fest is next week.

That probably means nothing, as it has every other time I thought we might get some big ace attorney news, but I think it's worth noting.

So, lots of stuff happened this week! Thanks for reading.

[venusvity]

Jung Yoonah (Korean: 정윤아, born November 16, 1998), known professionally as Baebi (Korean: 배바이; Japanese: ベビ), is a Korean singer, dancer, and actress based in South Korea. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Venus, formed by Angelico Entertainment in 2018. She is portrayed by Im Youha & Go Minsi.

Yoonah was born on November 16, 1998, in Guri, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea as an only child. Her mother taught art at a university while her father worked in sales. Yoonah began dancing at the age of three, being put in ballet by her mother.

Yoonah trained in ballet from a young age, having practiced it for eleven years before debuting with Venus.

Yoonah would attend the School of Performing Arts Seoul (SOPA; Korean: 서울공연예술고등학교 / 서공예), where she would be scouted by Angelico Entertainment.

𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟐 - 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟑 : 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬.

While attending SOPA, Yoonah would be scouted by Angelico's CEO, Son Jinhwa, and COO, Jeon Jihan, through an open audition the pair hosted at the school. She was scouted for her visual and dancing skills.

Yoonah would become a frequent feature in Priority music videos, acting as a love interest to the boys or as a backup dancer. She would also model for various CF brands and commercials.

In Januaray 2014, it was announced that Yoonah would debut in Angelico's first-ever girl group, Emphasis.

𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟒 - 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟕: 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐬, 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬.

Yoonah debuted with Angelico Entertainment's Emphasis on May 21, 2014. Emphasis officially debuted and released their first mini album, EMPRINTSIS, accompanied by the title tracks "Symphony" and "Road Trip."

Emphasis would have their first and final comeback with their second mini album, EMPATHSIS, promoting the title tracks"Love Bomb" and "Wee Woo!" before falling into a year of inactivity.

On May 24, 2016, Emphasis was officially disbanded. Angelico Entertainment announced that Yoonah would be staying with the label.

Following Emphasis's disbandment, Yoonah would return to training and join Angelico's pre-debut team, "Angellies." The group would rotate trainees and perform around South Korea. The team would operate on a ranking system voted on by the fans they would garner from their performances and live streams.

Yoonah was a prominent member of the Angellies, often being voted as the fan favorite in their monthly rankings. By the end of the group's run, Yoonah was the second-most-voted fan favorite.

In 2016, Yuuna would officially take on the stage name Baebi.

In 2017, Angellies would be discontinued to prepare for Angelico's new girl group debut.

𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖: 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐒

On March 17, 2018, Baebi would officially debut in VENUS with the release of their first extended play (EP), SHE DEVIL, and its lead single, "SHE DEVIL."

She is the group's leader, main dancer, main vocalist, and lead rapper.

𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗: 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭

In late 2019, Baebi made her debut as a solo artist with the EP Bubble Pop!.  She released her debut extended play (EP), Bubble Pop!, in June 2019. It peaked at number two on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart, and charted atop the US Billboard World Albums. As of 2023, it has sold 360,000 copies in South Korea. 

Bubble Pop! 's commercial success was the main contributor to Angelico Entertainment's leading music sales. The song peaked at number one in South Korea, where it has sold over 2.5 million digital units. To accompany her solo release, Baebi held a series of small concerts called Baebi's Summer Splash. She was awarded Best Female Artist at the 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards and at the 2020 Golden Disk Awards.

𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏 - 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭: 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

She made her acting debut in the 2021 Netflix K-drama Squid Game, in which she played Han Doyun, an unpaid intern at an unnamed company, alongside her husband, Han Wonil, played by Jang Kiha of Priority,  who need money to pay off their ever-mounting debt.

Doyun became a fan favorite, and Jung was called Squid Game's breakout star by critics. For her performance on the show, Jung won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Baebi has had a controversial relationship with Mydol CEO Son Jinhwa. An anonymous source revealed the pair's relationship to the public in 2022, resulting in a wave of backlash that led to Jinhwa stepping down from his position as CEO of Angelico Entertainment and Baebi going on a brief hiatus. The pair never confirmed their relationship.

In 2023, Baebi would confirm her relationship with Kim Juwon, the lead vocalist of the boy group Priority. The pair had been dating for three years before the announcement, silently putting the rumors of her and Son Jinhwa's relationship to rest. Baebi and Juwon would break up in 2024 after spending five years together.

Baebi has been a vocal mental health advocate, being very open about her struggles with depression and anxiety. She often donates to mental health charities and volunteers at children's hospitals in her spare time.

𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

In 2019, Baebi became the face of Gentle Monster, a sunglasses and optical glasses brand founded by Hankook Kim, choosing Baebi to represent their brand due to her "hot and cool" image. 

On February 2, 2021, Baebi was announced as the face of Chum Churum, a soju brand under Lotte Corporation.

On March 8, Baebi became the advertisement model of HOT6ix, an energy drink brand under Lotte Corporation.

On April 8, Etude House introduced Baebi as their new brand model.

In September 2022, Baebi became a model for the Japanese bathing suit brand KŌRARU.

Baebi has walked in runways for Burberry, Miu Miu, Jason Wu, Chanel, Schiaparelli, Giambattista Valli, Bottega Veneta, Emilio Pucci, Prabal Gurung, Jacquemus, and Tory Burch. She has also appeared in advertisements for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, and Bottega Veneta and on the covers of Vogue Korea, Vogue Japan, CR Fashion Book, and Harper's Bazaar Korea.

[skarsjoy]

NEW PROJECT announced for Alexander Skarsgård to star and executive produce "Pillion"

via Variety (5.8.24):

Alexander Skarsgard (“The Northman,” “Succession”) and Harry Melling (“The Pale Blue Eye,” “The Queen’s Gambit”) are set to lead the cast of “Pillion,” described as a “fun and filthy romance with heart” and being produced by multi-Oscar-winning powerhouse Element Pictures.

The film — to be launched in Cannes by Cornerstone, which is handling worldwide sales — marks the feature debut of Harry Lighton, whose short “Wren Boys” was nominated for best British short at the 2018 BAFTAs, was nominated for a BIFA and had its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

“Pillion” follows Colin (Melling), a weedy wallflower letting life pass him by. That is until Ray (Skarsgård), the impossibly handsome leader of a motorbike club, takes him on as his submissive. Ray uproots Colin from his dreary suburban life, introducing him to a community of kinky, queer bikers and taking all sorts of virginities along the way. But as Colin steps deeper into Ray’s world of rules and mysteries, he begins to question whether the life of a 24/7 submissive is for him. Has he found his calling, or simply swapped one form of suffocation for another? 

The film — set to shoot in the U.K. this summer — is an Element Pictures production financed by BBC Film, Picturehouse Entertainment and September Films, who will handle distribution in the U.K. and Benelux respectively. The BFI is also supporting the film. The screenplay was developed with BBC Film and is based on Adam Mars-Jones’ “Box Hill” which was the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize winner. Element Pictures’ Emma Norton, Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe will produce together with Lee Groombridge. BBC Film’s Eva Yates, Claire Binns for Picturehouse, September Films’ Pim Hermeling and Skarsgård are executive producers. Louise Ortega is the BFI’s executive for the project. Heads of department include cinematographer Nick Morris (“Wren Boys”), production designer Francesca Massariol (“The Strays”), BIFA Award winning costume designer Grace Snell (“The Souvenir”), BIFA Award nominated composer Oliver Coates (“Aftersun”) and casting director Kahleen Crawford (“Lost Daughter”).

“Everyone at Element is so excited to help Harry Lighton bring ‘Pillion’ to life,” said Norton. “Harry is a filmmaker who is drawn to risk and fascinated by the  potential to find surprising complexity in everyday life. We love this about him and believe that ‘Pillion’ is the perfect expression of his talent, bravery and ambition.”

Added Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder; “Harry’s script is equally compelling and shocking as it is funny and entertaining – and one of the best we’ve read in years. The casting is inspired and we are thrilled to unleash this brilliant project in the Cannes market.”

[chosetherose]

Late June 2019 / Cruel Summer / Why Now?

Remember when Taylor and Karlie posted these photos on June 28, 2019? Two days before news broke about the sale of her masters. While there was a feeling in the air that something big might happen for Taylor at the end of pride month.

Now, on October 18, 2023, Taylor is releasing new versions of Cruel Summer with a new photo from that photoshoot we first saw in late June 2019.

Calling back to this photoshoot is a choice. Now obviously, the masters heist was cruel. But we know there was likely something else cruel going on behind the scenes. Some kind of derailment for big plans.

Why do it now? On October 18th? Jerklie’s faux anniversary? Is there tea to be sipped? Is it the calm before the storm?

She may have also been referencing 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿’s “nailed to the wall” date today too. Which has always felt, to me, like the agreed upon Jerklie divorce timeline.

Is something coming? Hmm. 🤔

[ahedderick]

Drat

Oh, drat. In late fall of 2019 I was invited to show artwork (for sale) in one of the buildings at a large, lovely retreat center nearby in Pennsylvania. I had known the guy who runs the center for a couple years; he told me that they would handle any sales and send me a check, much like a gallery. In return they got decoration for their extremely plain building, which sounded pretty reasonable. So I accepted, hung the artwork, aaaand then 2020 punched us all in the gut.

The retreat didn't open their doors again for quite a while, and by that point I was ass-deep in alligators with end-of-life care for my father. The guy who had made the original invitation retired, and it took me a while for that issue to come to the top of my "issues to deal with" pile.

Last spring I sent an email to the general address of the organization, just checking in, and got a rather terse response back that they still had the artwork; I could pick it up if I wanted it or it could stay there. Since summer is their busy season, I figured it wouldn't hurt to let it stay there a little while longer. However, at this point in 2024, I thought it would probably be better to go ahead and take the display down.

My husband and I had time to run over there this afternoon, and I called ahead to be sure the building would be open and the Guy in Charge was expecting me. All was fine, until we actually got there and found only four paintings. I knew there had originally been 8 - 10, but I didn't know which ones or exactly how many were missing. Instead of tracking down The Guy (it is a very big area) I came home and looked up my records of what I took down there.

Now I have to write a polite email to Guy and let him know that someone sometime must have moved four paintings (I could see they'd changed some things around in the room and they would have to have moved them to get that big new cabinet in there). Where? Are they now? Sir? and I will send images of the missing ones to jog his memory.

Argh.

[rollercoasterwords]

I haven't seen many horror films and would like some recommendations. What are some must-watch horror movies for someone new to the genre?

oooh this is such a fun question but so hard 2 answer bc horror is like. such a versatile genre & where u should start depends a lot on like what type of movies u enjoy/what ur looking for….

like if u want sci-fi/alien horror then the obvious place 2 start is w alien (1979) and aliens (1986) (there are other sequels as well but the first 2 are the best) & then also the thing (1982) and its prequel film that came out in 2011 (also titled the thing). AND of course the fly (1986) is a must-see...and if u want something more recent nope (2022) or no one will save you (2023)...both a little more artsy and slow-moving than the 80s recs on this list but very very good <3

if ur interested in slashers then again start w the classics scream (1996) is SO fun it deserves its spot in the horror hall of fame...i know what you did last summer (1997) is also a fun & slightly older slasher; cabin in the woods (2011) is great if u want some meta-slasher-horror; ready or not (2019) isn't necessarily a conventional slasher but i'd still include it in this category & it's one of my faves

if found footage is ur jam PLEASE start w creep (2014) probably my fave found footage horror film ever...but also i'm not a huge found footage fan generally speaking lol. that being said the blair witch project (1999) is of course the classic here but it's not my personal fave; other good options if u want something genuinely freaky/scary are the bay (2012) hell house llc (2015) and gonjiam: haunted asylum (2018)

if u want like possessions & demons etc then. start with jennifer's body (2009) if u want horror-comedy it is SO fun & a staple of the genre atp but if u want something scarier then it follows (2014) is a popular one. there have also been a lot of good possesion movies coming out recently i thought smile (2022) talk to me (2022) and when evil lurks (2023) (<- literally JUST watched this one today lol) were all quite spooky

& sort of possession-adjacent but if ur more into hauntings, ghosts, etc then start w the babadook (2014) or his house (2020) both SO good. also the shining (1980) is a classic & la llorona (2019) is a personal fave of mine (NOT. the u.s. 'curse of la llorona' movie. the guatemalan one.)

if u want witches then start w the craft (1996) another sort of fun one <3 or if u want a classic then hungry wives (1972). the love witch (2016) if u want a visually beautiful & less scary one; the witch (2015) if u want a scarier one.

if u want eerie fantasy-horror then the company of wolves (1984) or tale of tales (2015). if u want a creature feature then blood red sky (2021) for vampires, ginger snaps (2000) for werewolves, and a quiet place (2018) for like post-apocalyptic creature invasion horror.

& SPEAKING of post-apocalyptic. if u want zombies i could make a whole separate post but. START w train to busan (2016) & seoul station (2016) the dynamic duo <3 & then if u want some classics from the genre of course night of the living dead (1968), dawn of the dead (2004...i haven't seen the original one u could watch that one too tho...), and 28 days later (2002). raw (2016) if u want an artsier one, the girl with all the gifts (2016) if u want a fun spin on zombie apocalypse, cargo (2017) if u want 2 cry. & if u want something funny then PLEASE watch zombie for sale (2019) or anna and the apocalypse (2017) or one cut of the dead (2017)

if u want kind of a slower-build psychological thriller then the invitation (2015) is one of my faves, but mother! (2017) is also good if u want an artsy pick & gerald's game (2017) and lyle (2014) are good as well

and then just a grab-bag of horror movies that didn't fit perfectly into any of these categories: barbarian (2022) if u want something really scary, piggy (2022) if u want slow-building horror, midsommar (2019) if u want sunshiney culty a24 aesthetic, us (2019) if u want something that'll freak u out & is slasher-adjacent, get out (2017) if u want slow-build thriller vibes, and teeth (2007) if u want teen-girl horror classic.

bear in mind that many of these films overlap between the categories i've divided them into 4 this answer, as is the nature of horror...if u were asking me 2 just like. force myself 2 choose a top 10 horror movies 2 introduce someone 2 horror w no preference 4 genre or vibe...i think my list would probably be (in no particular order):

alien (1979)

2. the fly (1986)

3. jennifer's body (2009)

4. ginger snaps (2000)

5. train to busan (2016) (<- pains me 2 say bc seoul station is my fave zombie movie of all time but if i had 2 choose just one zombie movie 2 introduce someone 2 the genre it would be this one...beginner zombie movie...)

6. scream (1996)

7. his house (2020)

8. barbarian (2022)

9. creep (2014)

10. us (2019)

[vole-mon-amour]

Hey guys, can someone please recommend me a farming simulator similar to Stardew Valley and Wylde Flowers? I miss raising crops and caring for it and maybe for animals, but I no longer can play those games due to spending way too much time in it.

I tend to stay away from pixel and anime games and prefer 3D, more realistic looking game (but it's a hit or miss, so gotta look it up first).

Must be available on PC (mostly Steam, but it doesn't matter much). I'll keep this post updated to the best of my abilities.

UPD July'24:

I tried and hated:

Ocean's Heart, Cloud Meadow

I tried and disliked:

Graveyard Keeper, My Time at Portia (and My Time At Sandrock), Slime Rancher, Farming Simulator 2019, Littlewood, Sun Haven (cool concept in this one, but it's furry pixelated fantasy anime that overwhelms me completely with its mechanics and its style.)

I tried and mostly liked:

Coral Island (but the game is still in development, more than a half story is missing and I regret buying it in the early access. A buggy mess that I do not recommend to buy until they finish the plot and fix the bugs. I had to restart the game, lost all my progress, pushed through, and the devs still add content that was promised, like, a year ago. If they ask to restart the third time, I'm gonna be VERY mad.) Fae Farm (tried the demo, seemed really nice, will buy with a huge discount. the mining seems tedious, the writing is not the greatest, not a lot of romance options, way too expensive for what they're asking, but the farming mechanic itself is really nice). Snacko (tried the demo. Due to the progress not being saved I'm not bothering to try it again. The writing is a bit annoying, but, surprisingly, the farming aspect seems alright. Would try it again when on a big sale.) Palia. Finished romancing Jel and completely lost interest in the game. Free-to-play & multiplayer is not for me, but the farming aspect is not really that big. 5-8 crops, no animals, nothing to see here. Plus, it costs real life time to do anything & I find that really wasteful.

Similar games I liked that aren't exactly farming sims and I'm not looking for, but I'll name them anyway:

Banished, Stacklands, Kingdoms and Castles

I didn't spend enough time in it, but the vibe/style/mechanics/etc were off:

Settlement Survival, Timberborn, Summer in Mara, Fabledom, Farm Together (costs real life time, not much to do there, no plot, feels like a free-to-play mobile game)

I got recommended, but I tend to stay away from it:

Farlands (pixels), Story of Seasons (anime and cultural differences I don't agree with. I believe I tried it, but noped myself out of there immediately), Moonstone Island (pixels, anime)

On my wishlist, haven't tried yet:

Disney Dreamlight Valley, Roots of Pacha, Little Witch In The Woods (questionable, just like most of pixelated games, but hasn't deleted from my wishlist yet), Kynseed

Any other farming sims I'm not aware of?

[itsvivace]

— VIVACE . . THE DISCOGRAPHY . . !

VIVACE is a fictional thirteen-member girl group formed by the survival show I-Doll, where seventy contestants competed for a chance to debut in a group under the company I-Teen Media. VIVACE is split into three active sub-units, but today, we’ll be talking about the main group’s music, which has captured the hearts of fans worldwide and solidified them as one of the best Kpop acts of the current generation. VIVACE has stated that they want their music to be reminiscent of the older generations in Kpop and music for girls all around the world to feel empowered by.

— 2019 - 2020 . . ORIGINS OF A SUPERSTAR . .

After the finale of I-Doll, I-Teen Media announced that VIVACE would debut in mid-September, leaving fans in anticipation of their upcoming debut. VIVACE officially debuted on September 17, 2019, with the self-titled mini album “VIVACE” consisting of five tracks, including the title track “Gee!”. VIVACE debuted with 63K album sales and Gee! charted #22 on the global charts within the first 24 hours. Gee!’s cute sound and second-gen influence attracted even more attention to the group, and by the end of the first week, both the title track and album topped the charts at #1.

With their debut a huge success, many waited for VIVACE’s first comeback, announced to be released in December of the same year. On December 12, 2019, their first single album, “QUEENDOM,” was released consisting of three tracks, including the title track, “Royalty.” Royalty captivated fans for its themes of self-love and upbeat lyrics but wasn’t enough to get it to more success than “Gee!” with Royalty charting #48 on global charts and QUEENDOM earning 15K album sales, a lot of netizens were saying VIVACE was one-hit wonders and would end up flopping after this comeback.

VIVACE would take a small break and focus on their sub-unit releases until they came back on July 5, 2020, with their second mini album, “SUMMER VACAY,” which consists of five tracks, counting the title track “Drunk In You”. Despite the low reception of “QUEENDOM”, SUMMER VACAY instantly trended for its catchy songs and fresh sound, which earned the album 98K album sales, and the entire album charted in the top ten on the global charts. SUMMER VACAY was known as the uprising of VIVACE and the start of their international stardom.

By their next comeback, VIVACE had become one of the biggest Kpop acts of 4th Gen, especially with all of the popularity their sub-units were getting. Their third mini album, “PAPARAZZI”, was released on October 24, 2020, with the album consisting of six tracks, including their breakout title track, “RUN”. RUN was a darker, more mature sound than what VIVACE usually did, but it ended up going viral just from the teasers alone, earning the album 283K sales and 8 million views in just the first 24 hours. Fresh off RUN's success, VIVACE released their first digital single, “Ladies Night”, on December 25, 2020, as a Christmas gift to fans. The song charted #2 on Melon and went #1 on global charts.

— 2021 - 2023 . . LIVIN’ IT LIKE A STAR . .

VIVACE took an almost year long hiatus as a group to further focus on sub-unit releases until they finally made a comeback with their first full album, “CELESTE”, on September 17, 2021. CELESTE is a two year anniversary album with thirteen tracks, including the title track, “YES, YOU”. CELESTE introduces a retro theme, which, despite not having done so before, fans say sounds authentically VIVACE. CELESTE sold 1.4 million copies, a huge jump from PAPARAZZI, after gaining an insane number of fans during the group’s hiatus. The entire album charted within the top 20, and the top 5 spots on the charts were all VIVACE. Fans refer to this era as the start of VIVACE’s prime.

With VIVACE releasing only CELESTE in 2021, fans went into 2022 hoping for a release sometime soon; they got their wish when VIVACE released their second full album, “MY IMPACT”, on April 19, 2022. MY IMPACT is an album consisting of 11 tracks along with the title track, “The Boys”, where VIVACE talks about their impact on the kpop industry and also empowers women not to let gender discrimination hold them back from their dreams. MY IMPACT sold almost 9 million copies, the most copies VIVACE has sold to this day, and most of the songs off the album charted within the top 10. MY IMPACT ended up being the most successful era they had so far with them winning Song Of The Year, Artist Of The Year, and almost winning Album Of The Year for 2022.

On November 13, 2022, VIVACE released their fourth mini album, “ALL I ASK”, consisting of six tracks, including the title track, “SAVE ME”. The album has a slower, elegant sound than some of their previous releases, earning the album 7 million album sales and the title track charting #3 in Korea and #9 internationally. ALL I ASK is known as one of VIVACE’s forgotten eras, a lot of fans even think VIVACE themselves don’t remember the album.

As a collaboration project with the Barbie Movie, VIVACE released “Barbie Girl”, their fifth mini album, on June 10, 2023. The album consists of five tracks, including their first English title track, “VALENTINE”. VIVACE promoted the album completely in the United States, and the album sold 7.8 million copies and charted #1 on iTunes. VALENTINE ended up being the end credits song, which attracted even more international fans to the group.

VIVACE’s most recent release, “1-800-LOVERGIRL”, is their second single album, released on December 29, 2023. It consists of three tracks, including the lead title track, “YOUNG LOVE.” 1-800-LOVERGIRL sold 6 million copies, and the title charted #2 on Korean charts and #5 on global charts. As of July 2024, VIVACE has not made any news on a comeback, including with any of their sub-units, leaving fans wondering when VIVACE will make a comeback.

[belmottetower]

just one more question, promise!! this isn't so much me wanting info as it is wanting your opinion. how do you think jamie's loan came about? he made it to the first team but he wasn't good enough to get regular minutes yet, is what they said iirc. was he the one who pushed for a loan? do you think he was struggling with "dominating" or did that only happen at richmond with the gaffer pushing him to be the star? just interested in hearing your thoughts

Fun question! Let's start with the facts. Much like player sales, player loans can only happen during the transfer window - the period of time when it’s agreed teams can conduct business of adding players to their roster. These happen twice a year. The main one is in the summer, usually from mid June after the season ends, until the end of August. And then there is a shorter one in the middle of season, from 1 - 31 January. The summer transfer window starts during the off-season and extends into the beginning of the season - this is how Richmond was able to sign Zava in the first few weeks of the season. (When Jamie signs with Richmond at the start of season 2, it’s October, and that’s outside the transfer window BUT Jamie is also a free agent. He has no contract with another club. Teams can sign free agents at any time.)

Ted Lasso season 1 begins in early January 2020, so during the January transfer window. Jamie’s loan would have been agreed upon either the summer before the start of the 2019/2020 football season, or a few days before Ted joins Richmond in the winter transfer window. Given how settled he seems with the team, I think it’s pretty safe to say Jamie's loan started in the summer of 2019, six months before Ted came, and that he arrived in the same transfer window as Sam and Dani. This is Sam’s first season in the Premier League and he’s been there long enough for his stats to drop, so more than a couple of weeks, ergo, he came in the summer, and Dani is said to have arrived in the summer transfer window and immediately gotten injured. Jamie didn’t seem to know Dani at all when he arrived in 1.06, so it could be that Dani came to the UK in July and got injured in preseason training before Jamie arrived at Richmond. This would imply that Jamie’s loan was decided late in the transfer window, maybe in August, right as the season was about to get underway. 

There is the slight possibility that Jamie’s loan was longer than a single year and that he actually arrived at Richmond in the summer of 2018, or the January of 2019. I don’t actually believe this is the case, mainly because Jamie had not attended the For The Children gala before - the one in 1.04, February 2020, was his first time, and he would have been present for the February 2019 one if he’d been at Richmond earlier.  I also think if Jamie had been at Richmond for 12 or 18 months by the time Ted arrived, the vibe would be different between him and Roy - their tension is still fresh enough for it to have only been a few months. The main reason I am bringing up the possibility of a longer loan is just to say that they theoretically can happen. They aren’t a strict one-year thing.

As for the personal circumstances… I don’t think Jamie would have pushed for it. City was always his team growing up, and going through the Academy I think he would have always wanted to stay with City. But City has such a deep squad. They have players who would be starting every single game if they played at another club sitting on the bench week after week, just because of how talented the whole team is. They have more talent than they can use.

There’s actually a situation happening right now at City with Cole Palmer. He's one of their former academy players who is now 21, and he was called up to the senior team a few years ago. He has been training with them and getting some minutes, but just not enough time on the pitch to keep developing. He’s played in 28 first team matches across all competitions since 2020, he hasn’t started most of them, and to give some context, City played 61 matches across all competitions JUST THIS SEASON. He’s had very little game time in the past 3 seasons. City don't want to sell him, they see him as an academy success story, so the rumour is that now the summer transfer window is open, they’re going to send him away on loan so he can get good minutes and get more confidence and experience, and then at the end of the 2023/24 season, the club will reassess and maybe recall him to the main team, or maybe loan him for longer. 

I think it’ll have been a similar situation with Jamie. They couldn’t give him the minutes he needed but they didn’t want to sell him, so they sent him on loan to a club where he’d start every match, get a lot of minutes and develop more, then bring him home. But a couple of things make this a bit unusual for Jamie in terms of football realism: 

1) His age. 23 is very old for a loan from City. Even if he was 22 when it started, that’s still old. Cole’s only just turned 21 and his situation, of actually being called up to the senior squad and then loaned, is one that I haven’t seen happen in a while at City - while Ted Lasso was airing, there weren’t any players in that situation, so this is a brand new comparison I can now make for Jamie, and Cole is still a fair bit younger than Jamie would have been. The fact that Jamie was loaned out when he was almost 23 means that he was either lingering on the City senior team bench for YEARS, or that he was a bit of a late bloomer - that he actually hadn’t been called up to the senior squad very often, and he was one of the older players on City’s Elite Development Squad (the reserve team of young pro players, I wrote about them in the first answer) until he was about 21. If you click there, you’ll see quite a number of EDS squad are on loan. This is far more common than loaning out players who have already been called up to the senior squad. 

2) The fact he was loaned to another Premier League team. This is rare and weird for City, usually they send loanees to a lower league or to another country. Some Premier League teams DO loan to other Prem teams, but City doesn’t tend to, so this is something they fudged for the sake of the show. Important note about this: if you ever write a season 1 canon divergent fic where Jamie does NOT get sent back to Man City in 1.06, he could not play for Richmond against Man City in that final match of the season. Players on loan cannot play against their parent club - Jamie would have had to watch that match as a spectator. He could not have sat on the bench or been in the dressing room or anything, he would have literally not been allowed to be a part of the Richmond team in any way. (I included this situation in my season 1 do-over fic “jeff bridges.”)

A bit more on the age thing - sometimes, a really stunning young teenage player will be called up to the senior team almost immediately after signing their pro contract. The best real life example of this for Man City is Phil Foden. He’s a local Manchester lad, an academy product called up to the senior side when he was only 17. He didn’t always play that much, but he was never loaned out. Over the years, Pep Guardiola was criticised by some for not loaning him, pundits said Foden should demand a loan. But Pep wanted to keep him close and oversee his training development himself - he thought he was the most talented young player he had ever seen and the future of Man City. Over the years Foden rose through the ranks and started becoming a starter and a main part of the squad, and also the England squad - he debuted for England at 20. He’s just turned 23 and he is now seen as a main player, an established regular City star and Pep is now in a similar situation with Rico Lewis, a defender who went from captaining City’s Under 18 team in the 2021–22 season to being called up to the senior team in August 2022. Rico is also not going to be loaned, he is going to be kept close.

But this Magical Teenager Thing was very much NOT how the show portrayed Jamie’s story. The show acts like Jamie is an inexperienced youngster on the rise at 23, not an established superstar with six years of Premier League glory like Foden. It’s kind of unusual that at 23, Jamie still wasn’t getting enough minutes to get experience and yet City still wanted to retain him. By 23, the club really should have made a decision about keeping him or selling him. So this is what makes me think that he’d been playing a major role in the EDS team til he aged out of it, and only had a short time on the senior side - maybe one season, when he was 21 turning 22 - before his loan to Richmond.

There is a world in which Jamie WAS a teenage rising star who was getting the Phil Foden treatment - being kept around the first team by Pep but not playing games - and that after several years of that, he did actually request a loan so that he could play more. But I just find it really hard to imagine that he was lingering unused on the first team for 5 years. Jamie seemed to think Richmond was really shit - tragic he called them, he clearly thought he was above it and didn’t want to be there. That doesn’t fit for me with Jamie requesting a loan. But it’s possible he requested one and expected to be sent to a team in Germany or something and instead got Richmond. If someone wanted to write a fic in which he requested a loan, there would be specific ways to make it plausible, but it’s just not how I see it going.

Side note: I like to imagine that most real footballers are also in the Ted Lasso universe, especially as people like Pep and Southgate and Marcus Rashford are real, but Phil Foden is one of the players that I DON’T include as existing in the Ted universe, because his story of being that young superstar, even younger than Jamie, who Pep wanted to keep close, makes Jamie’s story so angsty in comparison - Jamie not making the same progress in the team as Foden, Jamie getting loaned when Foden wasn’t. Phil Foden would be, as @scoatneyhall likes to put it, a stick that James would use to beat Jamie with, and that’s not the kind of angst I enjoy, and Man City also didn’t have another local lad on the team at the time, it doesn’t quite track logistically. So for me, Jamie replaces Foden as the Man City Academy Product retained by City. (I also don’t think Jack Grealish exists in Ted world, sorry! Jamie is styled too closely on Jack, with the hair and with the low socks and shin pads. And Jamie is an original, he wants to be known for himself. He would never copy the famous style of another, more established player who was currently playing in the same league. He would never want to be known as a Grealish copycat, ergo, Jack does not exist in the same universe as Jamie.)

Re: Jamie “dominating” - given that it's the real Pep who was City’s manager on the show, I just can’t imagine this having happened on the City senior squad. Jamie could have been a leader and a star player on his EDS team, but a bad attitude would have counted against him, and with Pep on the City first team, it’s very much a no egos allowed zone. Jamie would have been a small fish in a big pond and whether he liked it or not, he would have had to be a team player in order to get to play at all. He would not have gotten away with acting like a prick to people off the pitch and he would not have succeeded in getting more minutes if he acted like a selfish player at City. He could have tried to prove himself and “dominate,” and be responsible for great solo goals, but he probably would have gotten in trouble for it - Pep does not offer players a lot of freedom to take control of the game. He has a system, he wants them to do exactly what he’s planned and stay exactly where he’s told them to go. 

City already play a version of Total Football, and what I think was happening is that James was “backseat driving” Jamie and telling him what he should do and how he should play, with no actual understanding of professional football or of how Pep specifically was playing the game. We talk about Jamie's history with Pep and Total Football on Subjectify, in our conversation review of episode 3.07, but Pep uses a really high rotation of players and I just think that James was in Jamie’s ear saying stuff that was stupid and uneducated in terms of City’s actual tactics. It could be that Jamie didn’t fully love or understand Pep’s Total Football system either, and he himself wanted to play different football, but given that he’s the one who explains to everyone that he’s actually NOT best used as a striker but rather as a central attacking midfielder, I think he knew perfectly well that his dad didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, but that his wrong opinions were wearing on him anyway. 

I have a personal headcanon as well that someone at club - maybe one of the coaches that had been around him a lot as he worked his way through the academy - saw James start to hang around more after Jamie signed his senior pro contract and could see the impact it was happening on him and they played a role in suggesting the loan, hoping maybe some distance from James would be good. I don’t think Jamie got the loan as “punishment” for being a prick, or not being a good team player - they definitely would have sent him away EXPECTING him to be playing a much more major role at a club that needed him - but I also don’t think he was happy about it, because even if HE understood the reason why it would benefit him in the long run, his dad would act like Jamie had failed to do well enough to earn a place in City’s starting lineup. And Jamie may have felt this way too, even if he had more understanding as to why. We know that Jamie never really agreed with James, he hated his dad’s opinions - James’s commentary on Jamie’s playing was something Jamie was pushing back against, not trying to live up to. But he would still have to agree with the basic assessment of “you’re not good enough to play for City so you’re getting loaned.” That’s the objective truth, there’s just a lot of different ways someone could say that or feel about it. Pep’s approach to that concept will be very different from James’s, and Jamie probably ended up feeling pretty shit about it.

So yes. I think the majority of the issues we see in season 1 with Jamie are because Jamie is bitter about being sent away, about being deemed not good enough to get the minutes with City, and because of how George Cartrick used him at Richmond. In the conversation review I linked above, I said "I see George’s mindset as being so similar to the way James thinks Jamie should act and play. So if you have Jamie feeling resentment over being sent away, and then being managed by George who would have just reinforced every nasty thing James had been saying over the years, it really makes sense why he would act the way he did." He took a young, talented player trained by Pep Guardiola who could operate in a variety of attacking roles but who was used to being a small part of a Total Football team and put him up front by himself as an out and out striker, a classic 9, and used him to coast, basically saying, “this kid is better than all of you, just get the ball to him,” encouraged Jamie to take over, and Jamie was almost forced to lead the team that way and therefore feel responsible for everything they achieved. It's exactly like the formation with Zava in season 3 except that Jamie would not have had the power to request that formation, it would have been thrust upon him.

We talked about this in the conversation review of 3.03, how he had no discipline and how his raw talent was being exploited. And how that situation both fed Jamie’s ego and made him feel VERY stressed about the wins and losses - the thing is, even with Jamie as the team’s best player, Richmond still wasn't doing well! They were mid-table and had lost 3 of the last 4 when Ted arrived. Jamie is struggling with all of this, the losses hit him hard just like they hit Roy hard. It’s one of the things they have in common in season 1 - those two are really angry about the team’s losses and about Ted being hired, far more than the rest of the team. I think the Jamie we meet in season 1 is the worst Jamie has ever been, but I also don't think that he has been acting like that for years on end or anything. I think it's recent. I think the reason he bounces back to having a better attitude so quickly, in the middle of season 1, is because it’s a reversion, a return to his more natural sense of self, even if his ego is very real.

This is a bit all over the place but I hope some of this makes sense or resonates with you!

[yangsgirlfriend69]

I made it onto the Indie Bestseller list by posting on TikTok. Don’t do what I did.

IDK how to use tumblr but here are some thoughts

Maybe I should wait to write this, to have a little distance from publishing my book. When I see authors who are at the same place I am — a week and a day out from publication — their captions often sing the praises of their publishers. They’ll mention how grateful they are that all their hard work paid off, that the years of writing and editing and blood, sweat, tears, or whatever other bodily fluids they put into their manuscript were worth it for the moment the book came out.

For me, it wasn’t.

#

The writing process for How to Excavate a Heart was liberating. I came up with the idea while driving to a Long Island Panera (where all good ideas are formed), and started outlining it while eating their dubiously-sourced mac-and-cheese.

I then proceeded to, as I texted verbatim to at least three close friends, “fart out the novel.” I wrote it in about six weeks while on a train trip visiting family and friends, and I cherished every moment of the process.

That was in late 2019/early 2020, and it was the last time my feelings about the book were purely positive.

How to Excavate a Heart (HTEAH) sold in the late summer of 2020, to be published in Fall 2022. I was more focused on my debut novel, Almost Flying, that was slated to come out in the summer of 2021. Which it did, though if you didn’t know it existed you certainly wouldn’t be alone. It earned a Stonewall Honor from the American Library Association, and I think the week that happened it crested to a new high of 20 copies nation-wide or something depressing like that.

Needless to say, I was frustrated by what I saw as lack of support from my publisher, and was determined to not let the same fate befall HTEAH. I was already fairly active on TikTok after originating the Laura Dern Sitting Challenge (my one true claim to fame), but I had heard that TikTok was generally not a fruitful platform for authors, or that, even if authors were popular, it didn’t translate to book sales.

So of course my first thought was, “Why don’t I push this boulder uphill and see what happens?”

So I posted my first TikTok about HTEAH in February of 2022. It flopped in an expected way, but I continued to post about it consistently, and, over time, amassed a small following. The HTEAH hashtag grew (almost all the videos on it were are still are my own), and I was thrilled that people were hearing about my book.

At the time of writing this, the hashtag has over two million views, and I can directly trace over 1,000 individual sales/preorders of my book to TikTok and TikTok alone.

Here’s the price I paid: My girlfriend has watched my mental health slowly deteriorate over this time. She’s seen me quit writing to focus on promoting this book, for the small chance that, I don’t know, someone might care. And now some people do! Hooray.

I spent nine months promoting a book to get it to the sales that it might’ve gotten if my publisher had supported it. Or maybe not — I have no way of knowing. All I know is that if I hadn’t posted about the book on TikTok, you wouldn’t be reading this. It wouldn’t have gotten on the Indie Bestseller list. It wouldn’t have made the Indie Next list. It wouldn’t be a book box pick.

And I wouldn’t be so burnt out I can barely get up from the couch. I wouldn’t be depressed from staring at my phone all day.

Maybe if I hadn’t done all this, I’d be able to write again, to turn in work on time. To live each day without the fear that I’m not doing enough because if I don’t post a TikTok my book will sell horribly like my last one and then that’s it, I’ll be a failed author before my 25th birthday.

What a healthy mindset, huh?

So sure, if you post consistently on TikTok for nine months before your book comes out, enough people will buy your book that you might make it onto a list. But please, I beg of you, don’t. If your publisher doesn’t support you enough to give you marketing, don’t do it yourself. You cannot be an entire team. You cannot be your own publicist.

I am one person. And now I’m done.

Anyway, you can buy my book at excavateyourheart.com and you cannot find me on social media anymore (except maybe tumblr apparently). Stream Loneliest Time by CRJ.

[pers-books]

Jodie Whittaker to star in The Duchess in the West End

Zinnie Harris’ twist on John Webster’s classic was first seen in Edinburgh five years ago

Jodie Whittaker in a black top and green suede jacket smiles into the camera. Photographer: Dan Wooller

Jodie Whittaker will return to the London stage this summer.

The Doctor Who and Broadchurch star will lead The Duchess, Zinnie Harris’ take on John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. 

Harris’ take on the classic tragedy was first seen at the Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre in 2019, where it said that she “reinvents the play in a compelling way.” It follows a recently widowed woman who, finding love and a second husband, is haunted and punished by her two brothers.

Whittaker was last on stage in Antigone at the National Theatre opposite Christopher Eccleston, back in 2012. She said today: “I’m beyond delighted to return to the stage after over a decade, and even more so to lead Zinnie Harris’ incredibly powerful adaptation of John Webster’s harrowing drama. Zinnie has so brilliantly propelled The Duchess of Malfi into contemporary culture, which is what originally drew me to the piece. Being able to portray the Duchess’ tragic and captivating story on stage every night is a true honour.”

It is set to play at the Trafalgar Theatre, running from for 11 weeks only from Sat 5 October to Friday 20 December 2024. Whittaker won’t appear on 18 and 19 October.

Further cast and creative team members are to be announced.

Tickets are on sale now.

[okenki]

okenki's summer sale (nice!) all of my non-free content on itchio is on sale for the next two weeks (ends around the 12th of july 2024) you can get everything (5 pdfs) for 4 money!

neptune A short comic about self discovery in the emptiness of space…

enemies to idiots "Two co-workers, one fandom, one trope."

witch academy Follow the adventures of a small group a witches through the Academy! 31+ pages of one page gag comics, illustrations and some bonuses!

goth boyfriends sketchbook A collection of works, sketches and more polished work around the webcomic goth boyfriends!

gouaches studies (2019) many small gouache drawings using references photos

feel free to share! link on my main blog and in the reblog! thanks!

[idsb]

hi im new here can you give a brief rundown of like you lol?? where youve lived, jobs, partners, interests, give me the idsb lore please!!!!!

hi!! sure, I have a lot of new followers and I was just thinking the other day abt this and how my blog is like 70/30 my personal life v Taylor so that must be confusing for new people. so yes! here's the spark notes:

My name is Holly and I just turned 28! I grew up outside of Boston and lived in NYC for ~10 years after I went to art school there. I dropped out of college after one semester to pursue my actual dream of touring with artists. After I dropped out I spent a while willingly homeless in NYC so that I could establish myself & my career there. Eventually it worked & I had been doing freelance photography, videography, graphic design and merch sales as steady income since ~2017. I was in a 5 year, emotionally abusive relationship with my high school sweetheart and finally ended it in 2018. A bit after this, I went to Australia for the first time with my then-friend now-boyfriend (Nov 2018). I've been obsessed with Australia since I was like 5 years old and it was an incredible adventure. I spent about 3 weeks there alone without then-friend, and during those 3 weeks met a Man. The last night we spent in Australia on this trip was Christmas Eve, and said man invited me to have an outdoor Love Actually screening and have a wine picnic with him and all his friends. it was one of the best nights of my life. We hooked up and he singlehandedly cured some sex-related fears I had from the previous relationship and I couldn't stop thinking about it for months. Back in America (Jan 2019) I entered my hoe phase in a never-ending quest for validation and slept with every guitarist I'd ever worked with while meanwhile having a big mental breakdown. Enter a John Mayer vibing man we called the Guitarist here, and a lot of Bad Shit he did to me in his own validation quest mental breakdown (May-August 2019). Clearly my only choice was to fly back to Australia to see the other guy! And I did (September 2019)! Then I was mega depresso when I went home bc my life felt hopeless & I'd already lived out all the hope it had going for it :) I continued my hoe phase and chronicled it via Spice Nights where I’d just answer nsfw asks and give advice for like 8 hours straight. This is waxing over it but it was chaotic and I cannot understate the Depression (Feb 2020).

Then the pandemic happened whomp whomp. I lost all my gigs and posted about it on Tumblr dot com, this blog gained a very large following sort of bc of being a Taylor blog and sort of bc of live-blogging all the drama. ms Taylor Swift saw it and she sent me $3,000 to cover my rent for all of lockdown. a lot happened as a result of that but in the end I realized it was not smart to stay in NYC and spent summer 2020 roadtripping around the US with my then-friend who had first come to Australia with me, who had since joined the leagues of guitar-playing-employer-i-was-sleeping-with (there were 4 in total but I was in loveeeeee w this one). Big Cruel Summer vibes. my friend group exploded partially as a result of my behavior and partially bc they were cunts who didn't care about John Mayer vibe man manipulating me. So then I said fuck it and moved to Montana to work in a national park w guitar guy I Actually Loved who had become my boyfriend at that point, and we lived there until winter 2021. Then I started touring again, got insanely successful, was making more money than most people I knew with salaried jobs and booking work all over the world, my relationship ended over some drama I found out about way after the fact but then we got back together & moved in together (May 2023). Going great. Then I got so fucking burnt out from my job I was like stop the presses I am fucking off to Australia I can't do the music industry and the mega late-stage capitalism anymore. so now I live in Melbourne and am a bartender at a fancy cocktail bar and my relationship is sort of a LDR but I’m going home soon maybe(?) and that is what you missed on Glee!!!!