#telos pictures

[hyped-up-on-girl-pills]

So I’m rewatching Harris bomberboi’s new video and…can we just appreciate the absolute hilarious irony of this movie poster from James Somerton’s likely scam company Telos Pictures

[fox-bright]

He changed his username almost certainly in part to confuse Google results about the boondoggle that is his film company, Telos Pictures.

(Not to be confused with Telos Films...is there anything he didn't steal?)

THE WAY I CLICKED ON A JAMES SOMERTON VIDEO WITHOUT KNOWING IT WAS HIM OH MY GOD

[quijotesca]

From James Somerton's Telos Pictures Indigogo

"The Creeping Normal: A horror feature film about a gay college student who becomes the accidental hostage of a serial killer. He keeps himself alive by becoming a sort of councillor, or even friend, to his captor. Eventually becoming something more?"

"councillor?" WTF?

He couldn't have possibly have gotten that idea from a certain manhwa he read and did a video on? Hm...

Too bad we'll probably never see this movie. I am so hyped for the scene where the couple looks dead into the camera and talks about how women aren't sophisticated enough to know a fucked up relationship when they see one.

While this proposal isn't identical to to the manhwa in question, I don't think Somerton would've been able to add anything to the concept other than misogyny.

ETA:

I finally got around to Hbomberguy's video. So Somerton had already cancelled a project called "The Final Girl." This was a bit sus because he had a book called The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix on one of his year-end best of lists. Sure, I don't think that Hendrix invented the concept of "final girls," but again, I don't think Somerton would've been able to add anything unique. Except misogyny, of course.

[timetravel-tv]

WARTIME NOVELISATION GETS A 5 STAR RATING FROM ME!

I can't deny, there was a great deal of trepidation sitting down to read Stephan James Walker's novelisation of WARTIME.

This was mostly, I suspect, because it ISN'T actually a novelisation ... more an exposition ... a expansion of the brief story contained in the short 30 minute drama ... into a full blown book.

Stephen had to take the marvellous short script from Andy Lane & Helen Stirling (the first drama they had both written for the screen I believe) and nearly treble its length. Andy and Helen gave him the bare bones of a framework and I asked for some characters to be incorporated.

I was heartened by the knowledge that Stephen loved WARTIME as much as I did and wanted to lengthen the story without ruining the core elements - or damaging the chronology of DOCTOR WHO.

What he's managed to achieve is simply pure magic.

From the start I was engrossed! No spoilers here, but Stephen has managed to neatly insert the WARTIME story into a fast moving,  bigger narrative  - one which actually manages to fit it into the whole Reeltime Earth based series (WARTIME, DOWNTIME, DAEMOS RISING - and the soon to be made ANOMALY). They are now a complete series of inter-connected tales! Masterful.

He's done this and made it look easy. Benton's roller-coaster ride through WARTIME the novel is brilliantly told and, for me, not knowing the topping and tailing was enthralling.

I'll say no more. But, if you haven't got a copy yet - get one before the limited edition target version sells out! It's a page-turner and I recommend it unreservedly. Even the colour photo montage in the final pages is a must-see!

https://telos.co.uk/shop/doctor-who/wartime-target-edition/

(My grateful thanks to David, Sam and Stephen at Telos Publishing for their continued support of Reeltime)

[eli-void]

Ok so i'm afraid stuff will be deleted soon from the indiegogo Telos Pictures page so i wanted to share one comment i saw so it doesn't get lost as everything people were saying in Somerton's comments before he deleted them all

I personally don't know much of what are they talking about (I wasn't on his patron) I think we need to check more about his history than what was explored in the two main videos we got so far

[fruitbird15]

OK so I know the reveal that James Somerton raised a buttload of cash for movies he never made was a big revelation but also uh...I googled the company and found its about page and you HAVE to see it.

Just in case that "goes missing" here is a screencap showing just part of that page:

[chlora-boii]

Did you know you can help kick beloathed plagiarist, James Somerton, off Patreon?

Go to:

https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

and fill out a form!

Here's how I filled mine out:

For "Please choose a request type below:", you can click "I want to report suspicious activity".

Add your email. You may need to have an email linked to a Patreon account to fill out "Your Patreon Email Address", but I'm not sure if they actually check that.

For "Please select the issue that best describes your situation", click "General" -> "I want to report a fake/suspicious account".

Enter his Patreon Page URL: "https://www.patreon.com/Jamessomertonx"

For "Subject", I put: "James Somerton is a plagiarist and scammer".

And for "Description", I wrote: "James Somerton is on record as having plagiarized heavily in all of the content he has created. He previously had a Patreon account where he made lots of money scamming people by pretending to be a writer and video essayist. He has also stolen $80,000 USD from supporters in Indiegogo through his "production company", Telos Pictures. This studio has produced nothing and never will, it is a scam. Patreon should not be allowing a known scammer to make money on their website with whatever his latest scam will be."

If you wanna find screenshots of evidence of him being a scammer, feel free to attach them to the report.

Then hit submit!

I don't know if the support team will actually listen, but it's worth taking a couple of minutes to show this guy we won't let him keep stealing from queer creators.

[aysathenotsogreat]

hbomberguy posted a video and i have opinions about it

i never made the active choice to stop watching James Somerton's content but when i stopped having a job that'd let me listen to videos for hours straight, I slowly became interested in other creators. i remember finding a couple of his videos contradictory in their analysis and do remember being annoyed by the "white women/teenager girls" comments a lot. oh yeah and that TELOS PICTURES ALWAYS REEKED OF A SCAM. Hearing James describe himself as a business major first in the pitch video weirded me the hell out. I feel like not enough people are talking about this particular part of the story but the man crowdfunded $60k USD and has produced nothing but stock image posters in return after years.

this man saw his community as nothing but to steal from and profit off of and clearly sees himself above those voices he robs. the point in the video that broke me was right in the beginning in the james half was the Mulan section. the tactic of erasing Jes Tom's words and passing it off as a personal observation of the community instantly reminded me of all the times James has confidently talked on the experiences of trans, nb and all queer people of color throughout his career and the fucking similarity of the language. that moment made me pause and scream. it instantly put into scale that this wasn't just one of the first video essays he'd ever made, it was EVERYTHING.

I want to pretend the queer media I see is made from a place of genuine care of the community, all of us do. but we as a collective need to stop catering to the consumption of content sludge. we need to be more critical and more aware. any time james mispronounced a character or place's name, i would always brush it off as a bad voice take kept in because of the videos' length that wasn't fixed in production. no, that was because james didn't care enough to learn the principle facts of the topics he was covering. (him spelling "shonan" in that AoT script made lose it). he wanted our ad revenue and your patreon money and by stealing the work of actually talented queer people, he basically won.

hbomberguy, lovely chaos bisexual, did a service to our community by making sure millenial and zoomer queers will never let this mf try to grift his way into the entertainment industry again. i have more to say about this video, especially illuminaughii bc she's an especially abusive and toxic person who i also watched a fuck ton at my old job. i certainly need be a bit better about where i get my info from, especially if i'm going to be repeating it to someone else. in the age of tiktok and the speed of misinfo there being insane, i just beg us young queers to think a bit more critically before we post.

[kata4a]

"I'm interested in the treatment by many of 'meaning' as something significant" was going to be the first sentence of this post, but indeed "significance," almost synonymous with "meaning," has exactly the same features and problems I want to talk about

coming at it from the other direction then: the simplest kind of meaning is that of words, symbols, gestures and other signs, whose meaning is just an arbitrary association between the sign and what it signifies

and there are other, less arbitrary kinds of meaning: inference, where a puddle in the road means it must have rained recently; consequence, where eating my cake means no longer having it;

when I say that a certain picture is meaningful to me, I mean to say that I associate it with memories or events that are personally important to me. and meaningful gesture is one that communicates more than what it seems to

the throughline here is one of association, and especially directional association: when you have extracted the meaning of a sentence you can dispense with the sentence itself

and for that reason there's I think something avoidant about a preoccupation with meaning as a (or, god forbid, the) telos of art. asking what a painting means takes you away from the reality of the painting itself—and I might even be inclined to argue that the deeper the meaning, the greater its significance, the further you travel from the thing you started with

[izpira-se-zlato]

JO Berlin, 12.03.24

Haphazard, incomplete, typed up for friends on discord and yeeting here in case anyone finds it interesting

I arrived at 16:10 and was number 18 for general access. Now I need to figure out how to remove the number before our business event 😂 . There was no one else for like a hour before or after

The queue was super chill. I got rid of a few more Hojans

we had doors at 19:00 for GA and the first opener started at 19:15, which was unexpected but nice

Sector5 were so much fun! And there was one (1) hardcore Fan in the audience 😂

JC Stewart made the same jokes as in Helsinki but I am easily amused so it was a good fit

while waiting for the gig to start, my friend checked her IG and saw that her favorite place to get film developed had posted a pic with Sadie... I forgot her last name again. Sink? Damon's bff. Damon and her left in a cab after the gig

I was Jance side 4/5 row. Pretty nice spot, I think

Katrina opener!! So did they drop SSOL for good?

WE GOT BARVE OCEANA

Bojan came into the crowd to have a friend sing and he was so sweaty and so close

People were so respectful and didn't touch him I think?

their outfits??

I died at Bele sanje, a Jance moment I will post which. Yeah.

there was another moment later where Jan brushed his hand through Nace's hair

Kris came over so Jan and Kris played at Nace and it was hot

Jan sat down at the piano for um and I think he actually played a note or two

no PiJanO otherwise. I don't think he played it for ew either

Bojan is getting better at the ew piano part. He actually lost his lyrics tho when he saw the fan project by the official JO discord

no bluza 😭

Bojan said the actual working title is Behind Those Eyes but for Germany it would stay Schlager (it is not a Schlager)

he was very surprised by how well we knew the lyrics to šta bih ja

we won't understand the majority of the songs on the new album if we don't speak Slovene/Serbian. Everyone cheered like mad

I actually saw Jure several times??

the stage was too small for Racik backdrop

"who's from somewhere else? I guess a lot of Finnish people? No? Polish?"

there were eight people (according to Bojan) from Slovenia and he hoped they already knew them before ESC

I think Bojan checked with Jan/warned him that he would spray him during omamljeno telo

Nace kept smirking at Jan??

no encore because everyone just. Left after the band and left the stage

the boys looked so so happy on stage

Post gig edition:

we talked to Vita and omg she is lovely. Also, I need to stop talking so much. But jfc

I got a selfie with Teya 😊 did not talk too much, also bc she had to get into her Uber that was waiting

Nace and Kris came out for pictures but left before we had a chance to talk to them

Jan came out afterwards and talked to the ten or so people still left

his fucking voice oh my god

Jan's coat is fake fur and not as soft as it looks

I gave Jan a Hojan sticker

I asked Jan if he knew what date it was and he did 😂

according to Jan, Jure doesn't come out after gigs bc he goes straight to sleep

pretty sure Bojan is sick again (still?) He took a group pic with some people to not stay out in the cold for ages, and then just waved at us to "preserve his health for the tour"

[seudonimoutforska]

Sorry I'm going to be posting about the Hbomberguy vid and James Somerton for a bit. I've been subscribed to James for 4~ years now and watched most of his vids except for the most recent ones. So I'm uhhhh a little gutted.

I did def start feeling Very Weird about his off script productions and comments against others in the community, esp to his cowriter Nick bc I think I remember at least Some aphobic rhetoric around the Ace videos. I really figured a lot of that misogyny (and now revealed transphobia) was just toxic mlm culture, and since it was a small part of Some videos I overlooked it bc I thought he would be a net good in telling queer history.

Whoo hoo that was so wrong! Like holy fucking shit! I regret every fucking view I gave him and I'm never going to get those hours of my life back!! Like I would even re-watch when he re-uploaded things bc I knew YouTube punishes those videos algorithmically and I wanted to see his success! But instead he stole from trans writers, AIDS victims, and fellow queer YouTubers. And fucking quoting fundie Christians and giving Disney credit for something they didn't even Do. Obviously he doesn't care about the community at fucking all and just wanted the money.

Now wondering how much of the sob story about his mother and Telos Pictures was fake: if it's just a shell company to gather money from his followers what could the repercussions be? This has seriously hurt my trust in YouTubers as a whole unfortunately.

[itskrejsaitsparty]

!!! Gig Report Leipzig !!!

- Queue was very chill. We arrived at 4pm-ish and were 18 & 19 EA, so all good. While we were waiting for the doors to open Jan walked by, staring at his phone in confusion and vanishing behind a building. We were all a little worried if he was gonna find back to the venue ngl

- Met so many amazing people!!!! Everyone was so so so sweet and respectful oh my god I love you guys so much

- EA was so cute. Bojan explained the sound system to us. Kris walked out like a member of the royalty holding a tiny cup. The played ASTP & uhhhhh Omameljeno telo I think (?) blacked out a little there

EDIT: It was ASTP & Proti toku! thanks @mogoce-nocoj <3333

- Kris and Jure vanished immediately after, Jan, Nace & Bojan came down and took a few photos and gave a few autographs!!

- Sector5 & JC Stewart were really fun!!!

- I think from second one everybody in the room knew it was gonna be an amazing concert. The energy from the crowd (although NOT sold out, half of the room was empty basically) was INSANE and I think they really caught onto that.

- The mesh shirt was back

- Jure Eyeliner???? + THE sweater??

- Nace played a bass solo……the man is insanely talented…fr I was fucking changed

- Someone from the crowd shouted „Can you play *this song*?“ (didn’t catch what they said) and Bojan was like. „No. (Pause) Can you play rugby????…….just wanted to know.“ He is so silly istg. And really knows how to deal with comments lol

- Vse Kar Vem changed my life watered my crops etc. as always

- Bojan took a BIG walk around the audience during UM and let a lot of people sing. Jumped back out onto the stage right next to us. Ahhhhh. What the fuck

- During Metulji, Bojan propped up a painting of himself on Jan's piano to get Jan „in the mood“. Jan gave it a little kiss. During the first verse (?) the painting fell down with like. Perfect comedic timing. Bojan put it back up again and acted super heartbroken but then he could NOT stop giggling and neither could the crowd. It was so fucking funny

- Afterwards we got some pictures with the boys and talked. Jan Nace & Jure took their time, Bojan is getting sick again I think (no one is surprised) and really wanted to sleep and Kris went straight into the bus

- Oh yeah and Damon Baker was also there and spilled some tea hahahahah. An icon. Bless him

[beguines]

These thinkers, many of whom were educated in foreign European capitals, would build on the orientalist fascination of European philosophers and scholars who spoke dolefully of the loss of "an archaic Hindu civilization." The Indian subcontinent, these British, French, and German scholars contended, had once been the cradle of all humanity and that "humanism" itself had been lifted out of Hindu values. They argued that Hindu society had faltered, lost its zeal, and through patriotism and nationalism would find reinvigoration. Among these, Dayananda Saraswati (1824–83), Aurobindo (1872–1950), Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), as well as organizations like the Arya Samaj (Society of Aryans; formed in 1875) and the Hindu Mahasabha (1915), were the most prominent. As a collective, they sought to both resurrect a "forgotten" and "erased" glory of India's Hindu past as well as reformulate Hindus as a respectable, palatable, and intelligible community. To accomplish this project, author Jyotirmaya Sharma says the quartet of thinkers appeared to agree on several ideas they argued would resuscitate the Hindu identity.

First, it meant transforming Hinduism into a codified religion, founded on racial and doctrinal unity. It was foreigner, after all, who had diluted the nation from its Hindu core and made India insular; it was now the duty to recast India anew in the vision of a glorious past. Hinduism was therefore India and India was only Hindu. "Binding them all together was a singular vision of Hindu India and its destiny," Sharma writes. All questions on religion were to be henceforth directed to the Vedas and the so-called golden age (400–600 CE), in what Sharma describes, as "the end of theology." "There was little scope for a diversity of opinions, practices, rituals, observances, and individual choices," Sharma argues. Or as author Anustap Basu explains, "it meant compacting a pantheon of a million gods in axiomatic Hindu icons like Rama or Krishna, absorbing errant, syncretic pieties, and picturing a singular Hindu telos."

Second, it involved recasting Hinduism as masculine, aggressive, and militarily proficient. As Sharma writes, "Hindus had to live and die for an ideal." According to this logic, the Muslim "invasions" and British colonial rule had only succeeded because Hindus had lost their way. The philosophers argued that Hindus would have to adapt, fight back, or perish. Third, to treat Hinduism as the most perfect of faiths, or as the mother of all religions. Fourth, to be forever vigilant of threats from "outsiders." The vilification of Muslims was therefore central to the revitalization of the Hindu quest for self-preservation. But this notion of self-preservation was also contingent on the creation of a majority community (for without it there would be nothing to protect). "Those who did not fall in line had to be marginalized, ignored, harassed, and if need arose, eliminated," Sharma writes. Fifth, the answers to all questions were to be found in the Vedas. The final feature was the authorization to be blunt and harsh when dealing with enemies.

Scholars argue that the codification of the Hindu identity itself was the consolidation of an upper caste identity. In other words, Hindu nationalism itself was a caste project that had instrumentalized the British Census of the late nineteenth century to include all of the different religious and cultural rituals that existed in colonial India under the banner of "Hinduism." Not only did the census compress the different castes and tribal communities into the category of "Hindu," it allowed upper caste Brahmins the opportunity to wield control over all as well as promulgate a fiction that there had once been a unified Hindu civilization. These were the origins of Hindu majoritarianism. "These Brahminical scholars and leaders who talk about Hindutva being the religion of all castes must realize that the Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, and Scheduled Tribes of this country have nothing in common with the Hindus," Dalit writer and activist Kancha Ilaiah argues.

Azad Essa, Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel

[jokeroutsubs]

Bojan and Kris' interview for Slovenian news site Siol.net (2. 9. 2022)

Joker Out does what only Big Foot Mama and Siddharta have done so far

Well, now we know where we will be on 6 October next year. In Stožice, at the Joker Out concert. The young musicians have never hidden their goals, they have predicted it, because the next logical move for the hottest band in Slovenia at the moment is to fill the biggest arena in Slovenia. "If there ever was a time for that, it's now. I'm more scared of the question of what's next," the band's guitarist Kris Guštin asked himself in an interview with Siol.net. But the guys have an answer for that too. After Stožice, they're aiming for the Balkans, and then, who knows where the new wave will take them.

We spoke to Bojan Cvjetićanin and Kris Guštin from Joker Out on the day of the release of their second studio album Demoni. We met in a bar behind Bežigrad, just a few metres away from where their homes are. Kris came by bike, Bojan by car, as he had another interview before our talk. Both visibly tired. It is an understatement to say that their schedules are packed. This summer they played 30 concerts, released a new album, shot a video for their first single Katrina, they have a big concert in Križanke coming, and an even bigger one in Stožice next year. Among the legendary Slovenian rock bands, only Big Foot Mama and Siddharta managed to sell out Stožice.

Shagadelic rock band Joker Out consists of Jure Maček, Jan Peteh and Martin Jurkovič, in addition to Kris Guštin and Bojan Cvjetičanin (pictured). Photo by Ana Kovač

First of all, congratulations, your second studio album Demons is out. How would you describe the new album in a few words?

Kris: Thank you. If we don't compare it to the first one, this album is our ultimate break up album. If we compare it to the first one, this one was made in a much shorter time, and I think that's actually a plus and not a minus of this album. It's much more genuine and polished, even though it was made in five months. This album represents our actual creative state at the moment, whereas the first album represented our creative state two years before the release, because it was made over such a long period of time.

Bojan: Creatively it's much freer than the first album. We dared to do more, and I'm glad we didn't fall into the trap of wanting to be commercially satisfying just for the sake of success. The album is much more mature both lyrically and in terms of arrangement. The first album was a patchwork from the beginning of our creative journey to when it came out. Whereas the new album is really a reflection of who we are now, in this moment. It's our present, it's our imprint.

Katrina is the name of the single you used to announce the release of your new album. Who or what is Katrina? Do we all have a Katrina?

Bojan: I believe that everyone has a Katrina at some point in their life. Who my Katrina is is irrelevant to this story. Katrina is someone or something that is gnawing away at us and destroying us in some way, but we keep coming back to it anyway.

Kris: I am my own Katrina.

You shot the music video in four hours, you decided to do it in black and white, and only the band members are in it. Who is the concept mastermind behind the music video?

Kris: Yes, we shot the music video in a couple of hours, even though it took all day to shoot due to other commitments. It's like this when you realise there's only a week to go before the song comes out, and you wonder what to do now (laughs). But even if we had had more time, I don't know if we would have done anything differently. The masterminds are Joker Out and Mark Pirc.

Bojan: The vision for the video was that it had to be very raw and radiate energy. This song is probably the most edgy, and I think it's the most reminiscent of Omamljeno telo (*Intoxicated Body) from the first album. The video for Omamljeno telo is also just a stylish black and white story. The first single from the second album is somehow Omamljeno telo five years later.

With the song Katrina, for which they also recorded a video, Joker Out announced their second studio album Demons. It was five months in the making and, as they say, is more sophisticated lyrically and in terms of arrangements than the first album. Photo by Mark Pirc

You celebrated the release of Katrina in a very special way, by diving into the ice-cold Kamnik Bistrica (T.N.: an Alpine river in northern Slovenia).

Kris: Niko, our head of security, the all-round father of the band, had been persuading us all summer to go for a dive in Kamnik Bistrica, and it just happened to coincide with the release of the song. It was great to be able to relax for the last hour before we embarked on a new chapter of our creative journey. We had breathing exercises before the dive, and when you opened your eyes and looked at the Kamnik Alps, it was really beautiful.

Bojan: I loved it, we felt like Vikings (laughs). We were guided through the whole experience by Jernej and it was very spiritual. In one hour we came together as a community to perform this ritual. It was cathartic.

Most of the texts were penned by you, Bojan. When it comes to inspiration, you have said in several interviews that you do not draw from your own life experiences. The second album lets you know that guys are growing up, gaining experience. So was there anything different about writing this album, did you draw more from yourself?

Bojan: With this album I can say that the lyrics are my story. Here, I've drawn exclusively from myself. Except for the song "Plastika" (Plastics).

Kris: It's still a personal experience anyway. In the song Plastika, he expresses his feelings through other people, similar to, say, Bele sanje (White Dreams) on the previous album.

Besides your music, your fashion style is also evolving. It kind of works that the music you make and your style go hand in hand. Does this happen naturally or do you adapt your personal style to the music? Who takes care of your visual style?

Kris: We are aware that the visual style, together with the musical and sound style, is part of the overall image of each artist. We want to do that ourselves, but we also know that it's necessary and that's why we work with certain stylists. For the cover of Demoni, Damir Raković Ponorelii, who will also dress us for Križanke, took care of the styling, and we hope for further cooperation. But today we dressed ourselves (laughs).

"The first album was a patchwork from the beginning of our creative journey to when it came out. Whereas the new album is really a reflection of who we are now, in this moment. It's our present, it's our imprint." tells us the singer of Joker Out. Photo by Primož Lukežič.

The album features ten new songs, including two in Serbian. Does this foreshadow a more serious, planned entry into the Balkan music market?

Bojan: I've always wanted to write something in Serbian, because my ancestors are from there. I always wanted my grandmother to understand what I was singing. When I show her a new song, it's great, but when you don't understand something, you can't like it to the max. That was my wish at first, but in the last year or two, everyone in the band has had the wish to go to the Balkans. The fact that there are two songs in Serbian on the album indicates the beginning of that journey.

What is your favourite song on the new album?

Kris: It depends, it changes from week to week. At the moment my favourite songs are Demoni (Demons) and Ne bi smel (I shouldn't have).

Bojan: I have my own moments too, but right now my favourite songs on the album are Padam (Falling), Novi val (New Wave), Ona (She) and Demoni.

NGVOT is a song from the new album, for which Kris wrote the music and lyrics four years ago. "Just because I wrote a song doesn't mean it's my favourite. Of course it has a special place in my heart, but it would probably be different if I had written it six months ago instead of four years ago." Photo by Mark Pirc

Can we say a few words about Novi val? What is this song about?

Bojan: At the time I wrote the lyrics for Novi val, there were forest fires in the Karst region (T.N.: plateau with lots of forest in southwestern Slovenia). That was the moment when I realised that we were clearly sliding into self-destructiveness as a society. And yet, I feel the call from the people around us and from ourselves to have the will and the desire to not let it be so. It is a kind of call to be who we are, but to say it out loud.

The album will be presented on 9 September at a concert in Križanke. If I'm not mistaken, the tickets are sold out. What can we expect?

Kris: The young Slovenian band will finally perform in Križanke. It's obvious that we are entering a new creative phase and we hope that our Slovenian fans will accept the fact that we are also going to the Balkans.

Bojan: I was thinking this morning that we have a lot of young fans and this concert will probably be the first concert in Križanke for many of them. I hope that they will remember their first concert in Križanke for the fact that they were at a great Joker Out concert.

"At the time I wrote the lyrics for Novi val, there were forest fires in the Karst region. That was the moment when I realised that we were clearly sliding into self-destructiveness as a society." says Bojan about the song Novi val. Photo by Ana Kovač

You've had a summer full of gigs, and it's true to say that you're the hottest band in the country right now. What's the best thing you've received from your fans, or an event that will stay with you forever?

Kris: It's fascinating when you come to a place you've never heard of before and it's full of people under the stage. That's what it was like in Veliko Ubeljsko, for example. That's one of the big things. I remember when we played in Sevnica and we were still taking pictures for 45 minutes after the show. A girl came up to us and, although she was waiting in line for a photo, she said she didn't want a picture with us, she just wanted to tell us how much our music meant to her. Then we talked, and it was refreshing that someone wanted to talk to you and not just take a picture.

Bojan: I agree with everything Kris said. They throw home-made bracelets on stage with names, song titles. That's definitely going to stay in my memory. At Veliko Ubeljsko, a guy from the middle came to the stage and brought me a potted plant. If I'm not mistaken, it was a cyclamen. But this year I had another big moment, and that was to stop getting upset by negative comments. If you want it or not, when you read something nasty, offensive, it just affects you. This year it happened that a person wrote a message saying that she had problems existing in this world and that she was still here because of our music. When I read that, I reflected on it. If, in fact, what we have done has saved just one person's life, it is completely irrelevant if 18 million people tell me that I am a complete loser. We have had at least five or six messages like that this year, and that is a really big thing.

Then do you read the comments online?

Bojan: I can't help it, I go and read. People are really relentless. On the one hand, it's horrifying, but on the other hand, if you don't take it too seriously, it's funny.

Kris: I've read all the comments under our videos. I guess I don't get as affected by criticism as Bojan does. However, I think it's more significant for Bojan because he is the author of the majority of the lyrics. If they attack our songs, they attack him as the author. Personally, I just like to laugh at all the comments.

"If, in fact, what we have done has saved just one person's life, it is completely irrelevant if 18 million people tell me that I am a complete loser." Photo by Ana Kovač

What's the most bizarre, unusual request from a fan?

Bojan: Collectively, it is extremely annoying that we're probably the only band that's expected to organise a three-hour photo shoot with anyone who wants it after the show. The organisers have this idea that they're going to invite us to the gigs, and we're obliged to let anyone backstage, laugh and be nice to everyone. That can be very disturbing after a concert when you are exhausted and need some peace. After two, three nights in a row of shows, we are exhausted. Don't get us wrong, we always like to take time to take photos, talk to our fans, but sometimes it's not doable.

Kris: We're considered a phenomenon. Especially this year, some of the organisers were surprised by the response of our audience and then wanted to promise something more to the guests. They promised that everyone would be able to have their photo taken with us.

How has popularity affected your private life in the last two years?

Bojan: I am much more nervous about it.

Kris: It's not the easiest at times, especially, as we said, when the organisers expect us to take photos with everyone after the show when we're completely exhausted. Of course, you don't want to be rude to the fans and you're grateful that they're there to watch and support you. But sometimes it feels like people don't realise that we are only human too and that sometimes we need peace. With Bojan that is the worst, the rest of us are a bit luckier.

You either have stage presence or you don't. You have it, the audience can see it, feel it. What about you, what goes through your mind when you are on stage?

Kris: If it's a good gig, nothing should go through your head. When you start thinking, it's not good.

Bojan: This year, for me or for all of us, the Castle Festival was one where we performed in pure euphoria from start to finish. I couldn't compose myself for three hours after the concert. At some concerts, if I don't catch a good wave of enjoyment, I honestly find myself thinking about everything, from what I'm going to eat for lunch the next day to how I'm going to go home afterwards. You can't be 100% present at all concerts, but we certainly maintain a certain standard of quality at all concerts. Then it depends on whether we "go off" or not.

"If music could save the world, then the world would have been saved a long time ago." Photo by Mark Pirc

Would you ever play for a political party, have you been invited before?

Kris: We have not been invited and we also wouldn''t do it. I don't think it's necessary to put ourselves out there, especially in Slovenia, where we have a rather toxic political environment. When you go to play for one, you immediately "alienate" the other half of your audience, and it's completely unnecessary. It's a little bit disingenuous to be an idol to certain people from a certain point of view, but then you start imposing something on them that you are not really qualified for or capable of.

Bojan: Why should anyone care what our political beliefs are just because we are public figures. Politics and music have nothing in common, except when it comes to musical rebellion. I honestly don't believe in a musical revolution anymore, as far as political revolt is concerned. If music could save the world, then the world would have been saved a long time ago. That is because I think that the best revolutionary songs were written a long time ago, and we are still talking about the same issues as we did ten or 40 years ago. I think politics is a big no for us.

What Siddharta and Big Foot Mama were for the older generation, you are now for the young. How does it feel when they draw parallels between you and legendary Slovenian bands? Do you feel pressure, maybe because Kris's father penned the biggest Slovenian rock hits?

Kris: In the beginning it annoyed us when we were compared to Big Foot Mama, maybe because of my dad, but also because of the music, because five years ago it was all more basic, rock and roll. Then we were compared to Siddharta, and now we are so unique that we can't be compared to anyone, at least not stylistically. Maybe they can compare us to Siddharta, in terms of how much we can do for the young generation. And that's very nice to hear, it's a great honour for us.

Bojan: It's definitely an honour. On my first MP3 player I listened to Big Foot Mama, Siddharta, Trkaj… . Every generation, every child needs, or rather it's good that they have, music to grow up with, to go to school with, to fall in love with for the first time, to dream with. We have succeeded in being that music for new generations. We are very proud of that and we are moving on.

To Stožice, then?

Kris: That's right, 6 October 2023.

For a musician to fill Stožice is practically the highest step in Slovenia. Are you scared?

Bojan: When we filled Cvetličarna twice, Križanke was a very logical next step. We thought about moving the concert from Cvetličarna to Križanke, but because of the beautiful red thread of the story and the steps in our lives, we decided that we would rather do Cvetličarna first and then perform in Križanke. Stožice is three times bigger than Križanke. It is quite scary that this is already our next step.

Kris: If there's ever a time to do it, it's now. I'm more scared of the question of what's next. We are lucky that after we can say that we have filled up Stožice, which is in principle the most you can achieve in Slovenia, we can target the Balkans. We are lucky that nobody knows us in the Balkans and that we will still be able to play there. My biggest fear would be that we would achieve everything in Slovenia and then we would not be able to do anything more.

Bojan: We are really going to the Balkans, where we are absolute nobodies. We are starting from scratch, with only the knowledge and infrastructure we have. Senidah has given us all a little bit of a dream. She is in the Balkans, she has made a very big leap for Slovenian music.

After the big concert in Križanke, where they will present their second studio album, it's time for Stožice for Joker Out. Kris and Bojan admit that it's scary, but now is the right time to take this step. Photo by Ana Kovač

Križanke, Stožice, then it's the Balkans. Where else will your journey take you?

Kris: Los Angeles. The post-production of the second album was done by a producer we got on well with, and we expressed our desire to visit him in Los Angeles. At the time, we hadn't thought about working for the American market yet, but this producer was very impressed with our music. He wrote that he hadn't had such an interesting band "to remix" for years and invited us to record the best songs in English in a studio in Los Angeles and then show them to someone. There are so many possibilities.

Bojan: Maybe Stožice will be brought down, because we'll be doing Madison Square Garden (laughs).

If you could choose any musician, Slovenian or foreign, who would you like to work with in the future?

Kris and Bojan: Among the Slovenian ones, it's Magnifico.

Bojan: Senidah seems to me to be a very big phenomenon. She is a top musician, singer and artist. She is a bohemian personality who was underrated in Slovenia, then she went to the Balkans, where she is the alpha and omega. And then Abba, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.

Kris: Among the world's stars, Paul McCartney.

You spend a lot of time together. Do you ever get annoyed by each other?

Bojan: We're like brothers. We can love each other, but when we get on each other's nerves, we really get on each other's nerves. But there is an element of brotherhood, not friendship, in the fact that at the end of the day any argument is resolved and we move on as if nothing had happened. It is the same when you have a fight at home and then half an hour later it is all forgotten. We get it out of ourselves and move on.

How do you resolve conflicts within the group? Who has the final say when you can't agree on something, like which songs go on an album?

Kris: It depends on what the decision is. For financial decisions, Martin and I have the final say, for creative matters it's usually Bojan. But in principle, it's a democracy.

Bojan: I don't know if we've ever had such different conflicts of interest that a veto was needed.

Is there any jealousy between you, given that Bojan is the frontman of the band?

Kris: I'm honestly glad that I'm not in Bojan's position.

Bojan: Sometimes I wish I was in a different position. But in the last year we have made it very clear to everybody what the dynamic is, that we are a five-man band. All the commitments, like interviews and so on, were done by all of us. There are five people here and the focus is no longer just on me, as it was at the beginning. We have got rid of that and I don't think there is any basis for jealousy between us. Everyone is in his position because he is the best and because he wants to be there.

There is one last question that we cannot get past. Who is single, who is happily in love?

Kris and Bojan: One is single, the other is in a relationship.

Translation by @kurooscoffee DO NOT REPOST!

[attonposting]

I tend to think that for the most part, Atton has the Ebon Hawk's crew fooled. He's not perfect, he lets things slip, but overall he is good at playing the scruffy smuggler and the people around him don't see him as anything more than an unreliable and annoying pilot. Give credit where it's due, this guy managed to fool Kreia for the entirety of Telos, and then she cheated by using the Bash option on his brain while the Exile was stuck with Security: Impossible for a couple of planets.

Obviously those two know the truth, and Brianna had the benefit of Echani training to sniff him out, but that's not the baseline. Atton got astonishingly unlucky with his company between probationary Sith Lords and empathic black holes. I generally don't think anyone else looks at him and thinks something doesn't add up… minus one.

I really love Mira. I definitely have a thing for the scrappy irreverent ones, and Chaotic Good will always be my favorite flavor of hero-adjacent. But I'm not just playing with my favorites like a bunch of dolls (...though I also do that.) Mira outright calls Atton out on his bullshit in one of the Ebon Hawk 'btw, your crewmates hate each other' cutscenes, alongside roasting him within an inch of his life like he deserves, and even threatens that she's going to figure out what his deal is. She doesn't know what's up, and I don't think 'elite Sith assassin' or 'ex Jedi hunter' is high on her list of guesses. But she knows that something's wrong with the picture.

Part of it is that like him, Mira's very observant. Setting aside the actual Mandalorian slave childhood of working with explosives, wherein you are either alert or very dead... it's a simple fact of life on the Shad that you either shape up or you end up under someone's boot, and one of the first lessons the Smuggler's Moon teaches you is to keep both eyes on everyone around you. She watches people – heck, casing people is explicitly her Special Unique Force Power. So when Atton accidentally shares things he shouldn't know, Mira's watching.

But she also has the dubious benefit of keeping company with bounty hunters… and as she personally notes, the profession has, in recent history, lost its way. To the current guild, there's very little difference between a bounty hunter and an assassin, and many of her competitors on Nar Shaddaa are straight-up contract killers. I know that this was meant to be part of a cut plot involving the GenoHaradan... but also consider that a decade of full galactic war just ended, and there's a lot of restless ex-soldiers filtering into every profession where being good at killing is a job requirement.

So I think she'd recognize pretty quick that while Atton plays the idiot, when there's an actual situation underway, the act chinks. He's way more competent in a fight than your standard freighter pilot should be, illegal cargo or no. He's not especially strong or anything - if you've got a stuck jar of space pickles, you go to Bao-Dur - and his accuracy is decent but she's known better shots, but that's not really it. It's the way he moves. Mira's seen it before. It's too efficient for some two-cred Exchange runner. He's got professional training, and she's pretty sure they don't teach you to snap necks like that in the Republic Navy.

All of that to say, she's pretty sure he's on their side, or at least the Exile's side... but she's always got one hand near her blaster where he's involved.

[gltzgghln]

hello. I've been filling my assigned sketchbook with bright shadows development!

First pic is me playing around with the design of an earlier character named Kulakesa (previously "Kulagrester"), a Hancock's flatworm alien from kulupu telo who is married to a mayor. Because most of the people on Chonar have wings as their middle pair of limbs, I came up with a design of Kulakesa having big winglike fins for swimming. His flappy carpet body made the final cut however

the beaked critter swimming above is something i originally designed when i was in high school called a seagle. like sea eagle. not very original but they're marine snails filling the niches of different birds. not every snail in kulupu telo fills a bird niche however

flora and fungus in kulupu telo are taken up by different types of algae and sessile fauna. caulerpa-like grasses, oomycete toadstools, bryozoa bushes, and grape vine-shaped kelp. a weed resembling the mermaid's wineglass was cultivated and bred to be used as Actual wineglasses. the toadstools are safe to eat and frequently foraged for!

a new idea i had for kulupu telo at one point was like. Giant diatom biomes. like super shiny glossy beaches full of huge algal forests covered in glass. the sand and big diatoms are harvested for food, plankton, and glass

third picture is of some kulupu telo civilians building a house, alongside roughs of how tall buildings would look in kulupu telo. my original idea for an underwater world on chonar was for the buildings to be these tall pillars on top of each other that you could just swim through. I think I was inspired by... southside reef from shark tale. kulupu telo is now on the back of a continent-sized sea monster, so i switched it to amorphous houses made of mucus, sand, algae, bones, shells, etc all tightly packed so they can withstand the currents of the sea and little movements of soweli ma (the sea monster they live on top of)

not every house on kulupu telo contains these exact materials, and sometimes the use of these materials depends on cultural significance of the building. kulupu telo architecture is still wip wip wip wip wip

sessile invertebrates fill the niche of trees. the "fruit" on the worm trees are its eggs. They're based on earthworm egg cocoons and feel/taste like silkworm pupae. sometimes they're cracked open for the stuff inside like a bird egg and sometimes the whole thing is cooked like a legume. sea lily and anemone-like organisms act like BIIIGGG flowers that get both energy from food and the sun! i imagine if the big sea lilies were all in a field they would sometimes get up n migrate to spots where there r more critters to eat. ppl who want these as houseplants simply put them on a rock near a window and the lily and/or anemone can take in light and act as pest control