#the title seemed like a euphemism to me

[vimbry-moved]

it's sad how many reviews and stuff around tmbg seem to centre linnell as the sole dark and creepy writer of the band, never really crediting flansburgh too. do "hide away folk family," "dirt bike," "rabid child," "black ops," "cloisonné" mean nothing to them, smh.

[setmeatopthepyre]

Can I be horribly self serving and ask what your metal playlist for popstar au would look like? 👀

abso-fuckin-lutely! did I spend far too long overthinking every direction I could take this list in? yes. did I have a lot of fun? also yes. -> for anyone who isn't familiar, do yourself a favor and check out the snippets of the popstar au in question.

behold: the BVCK METAL playlist. some things I wanted to do: 1. get a pretty decent spread of genre and (vocal) styles in there as a bit of a (death) metal 101 2. have (most of) the songs tie into (what you've shared of) of popstar au, which also means: 2.a: make sure there's some really fucking good drumming and 2.b: get some excellent queer metal in the mix. (bonus requirement: not be a sketchy as fuck band - these have all been vetted as much as possible lmao)

because I'm assuming not a lot of people in this fandom know much about metal and also bc I spent So Much Time overthinking, I'm adding some notes for each song. putting that with the tracklist below the cut!

BVCK METAL - tracklist

1. The Wolf Is Loose - Mastodon [progressive metal - 2006] Honestly I just wanted to open the playlist with a banger drum intro to set the mood. 2. Jawbreaker - Judas Priest [heavy metal - 1984] Judas Priest has had a huge impact on metal as a genre and Rob Halford is an icon. Also, this song is full of thinly veiled blowjob euphemisms. It seemed fitting.

3. Drudge To The Thicket - Fabricant [technical death metal - 2023] The riffs in this are really good and the lyrics make me think of Popstar!Buck being Managed and very much in the public eye. "Slave to its will, dependent upon its guidance / I live forever trapped, limited, deprived of true life" 4. Thrill - Zeal & Ardor [experimental/black/avant-garde metal - 2024] To me this has a smidge of Buck being a hot (somewhat self-destructive) mess, and it's a great song for getting caught up in the Hot New Drummer. "Baffled by the thrill of it all / Give in to the tempo"

5. Grasp the Apparition - Oak Pantheon [progressive black/folk/post-metal - 2016] This band is straight up a personal fave from my pretentious black metal days and is here both for the genre mix and because I think it works well for Buck laying awake and scrolling the socials. "I lie awake contemplating / watching the hour hand / as it crawls reluctantly / in endless circles / go through the motions / and brood the sunlight / waiting for night to arrive / so that the next musing can begin"

6. The Gentleman - Pig Destroyer [grindcore - 2004] Very much a 'Buck dealing with being in the Public Eye (and the way people will try to abuse fame)' sort of song to me. "I can swallow secrets / and spit up blackmail / saccharine words and plastic charm / can dazzle for a short time / I will bow my head and kiss your hand wishing I could snap every finger"

7. Changeling - Changeling [progressive/technical/fusion death metal - 2025] This album is fucking stellar and a great example of the incredible variation that is possible within metal as a genre. I really like the vocals, and I think the lyrics kind of tie in to the fame aspect as well as the (re)invention of oneself in the public eye. "Mirror, mirror, who's to say / That the I of tomorrow is the I of today?" 8. Creepy Crawlies - Cretin [brutal death metal/grindcore - 2006] First of all, if you are in any way squeamish, do not look up the lyrics to this song. Or any Cretin songs, honestly. This song is here as an ode to Tommy's band name and his tattoos and this meme.

9. Born Wrong - Olivia Neutered John [brutal deathgrind/grindcore/death metal - 2022] I wanted some explicitly trans metal in this playlist in an ode to trans Tommy. The song is, uh, not a happy one but it does fuck hard so. It's here!

10. Triumph of Venus - Torche [stoner/sludge - 2008] An instrumental track that goes fucking hard. I like the title for what is ofc a love story. The front man is openly gay and said in an interview that 'Metal is the gayest form of music out there. You can quote me on that.'

11. Clockworks - Meshuggah [technical death/progressive metal/djent - 2016] Tomas Haake, the drummer, is frankly insane in his skill and you can hear a lot of that in this song. Also couldn't not include them after this post, obvi. I also thought the lyrics were fitting for an incredibly scrutinized Buck.

12. Panic Stricken, I Flee - Thou [sludge/drone/doom metal - 2024] A really good band with a diy & anarchist approach that I love. Some heavier/darker sounds to slow down again a little, and lyrics that fit with a more diva/hot mess Buck. "Indentured to my petulance / or maybe tantrum's what I meant" 13. Sugar Hole - Primitive Man [sludge/doom metal - 2017] Deliciously sludgy, here for a little more variation in sound and also because the title makes me laugh. Plus the lyrics (again) fit the dealing with fame themes. "Peel me away / a scab's life / I pissed my youth away / And the adult world has swept me into the gutter"

14. One Day I'll Stay Home - Misery Signals [melodic/progressive metalcore - 2006] Exploring some more genres here as well as the vibes of tour life and longing for a little more permanence, someone to stick around, maybe? "Night by night, day by day / The blur of cities twisting us to severance / The road underfoot is certain to become the road behind / One day I'll stay home" 15. I Speed At Night - Dio [heavy metal - 1984] Another heavy metal classic & huge influence on the genre - Ronnie James Dio is the reason the devil horns gesture is a thing in metal. This song is here for a little blast from the past as well as for more of the touring vibe, the tour bus speeding along the road at night, as well as the draw of nightlife as a distraction. 16. How Could I - Cynic [progressive / technical death metal / fusion - 1993] A band with both an openly gay singer & drummer that once opened for Cannibal Corpse (interesting article about those things here) that play tech death seemed really fitting for this au and this track has lots of interesting and fun elements to it. It also has an annoyingly long fade-out at the end, so that's why it's last. I also like the lyrics for learning to step away from self-criticism and be open to something else, which makes me think of jealous Buck. "Love's too often only a dream / If I am harsh and unkind to myself / So I share these attitudes with you"

-> send me a vibe or a prompt and I’ll build a short playlist for it <-

[an-aroaces-harem]

After reading Ellis' current event route finally without a translator right before I went to sleep, my mind went to interesting places in the 'trying-to-fall-asleep-phase'. Especially because they kept a certain scene in and it wasn't in awkward japanese euphemisms. Let me tell you, japanese smut is very ... interesting?

Anyway, everything under the cut because sexual territory.

You know, I started to wonder if Kate's the most sexual and um, open MC we have so far. So my mind tried to puzzle together the info of the other MCs I have. If I missed anything (especially ikerev and ikegen) feel free to correct me.

Also, as a note, I mostly referring to how the MCs were like prior to becoming a couple because in basically every game, the moment they start to date, the horny levels rise high.

In IkeRev, we have Alice and while she is older than she looks, considering the time period she grew up, she pretty much was a virgin prior to falling into Cradle. I haven't played much ikerev, so my knowledge is really limited, but while she seemed quite innocent, she also didn't freak out before doing the deed. Also, Seth's route, just saying.

In IkeSen we have Mai who's undoubtly the horniest we had so far. I don't think it was ever mentioned anywhere but I don't think she was a virgin prior to travelling back into time. Also, there was a event (I don't recall which one) where Mai and Masamune are definitely 69ing. Oh, she definitely initiates which is surprising considering how the japanese archetype of a woman is like.

In IkeVamp, we have Mitsuki. I'm gonna be honest, I don't like her and please, please someone take that ugly, plain white bra away from her. Anyway, I'm pretty sure she mentioned she wasn't a virgin anymore; it was just a little comment after (probably) Arthur assumed she had to be one. Who can blame him tho, she does seem rather innocent. At least we've got canon big boy #1, Theo.

In IkeGen, we have Yoshino. My knowledge is super limited, but I do know there was an occurence of Yoritomo teaching her how to do a blowjob. Oh, and prior to ikevil, Ibuki held the title of earliest sex scene and highest amount of sex I believe as well. Could be wrong there.

In IkePri, we have Emma who definitely is a virgin, considering her 'romance has to be like THIS' schtick she had especially in the beginning. Also, her topping attempts never succeeded (tho it's less her and more the writers' fault) and I don't think I have seen her initiating? She is kinky tho, considering how much she's into biting in Chev's and Gilbert's routes.

And then, we have IkeVil. Kate touched herself in Ellis' premium end in the handcuff event and I really wonder, did we ever have a MC doing that? Also, the amount of suggestive content prior to a route release is insane (I'm sorry Victor stans, I know you have it hard with the few crumbs). I do think she was a virgin prior to all of this, she she's rather open from what I've seen. Seriously, lets list up what ikevil presented us so far: William and Kate having sex in chapter 10.5 prior to a relationship, Alfons overtaking Ibuki's record, Roger being canonically big boy #2, the handjob from Kate to Ellis from the every inch of you ecb story, Jude having an actual sex scene (outside from AU stories) way before his release, Harry complaining that he's totally pent up after not having sex for ONE day, Harry and Kate probably 69ing as well, the vore stuff from seams like love and the list goes on ...

Maybe I'm just biased because imo, ikevil is the best game Cybird made so far yet. The stories are intriguing, and the story events don't feel like I'm reading the same over and over, just in a different context. Hell, not even the Don't Look At Anyone But Me event turned me off, even though I hate the jealousy trope in basically every form.

Anyway, that's what my sleep-addled brain came up with. Mai may be the horniest one, but Kate has so far showing more kinky sides, so they're pretty much on par. Again, if I missed something, confused something or anything else, feel free to let me know.

[lopposting]

Some more Lies of P translation notes!

Some cool translation details that I thought were fun that didn't fit anywhere else.

[long!]

[Spoilers]

In the Korean version, Geppetto is speaking an "old-fashioned"/archaic form of Korean to reflect the time period that the game is set in

Set around the turn of the century (late 1800s), mimicking the Belle Époque of France's industrial revolution, we can guess that the game's events take place during the late 1800s. Given Geppetto's status as "old geezer", we can guess that he's closer to 100 than not, so he would have been born around the early 1800s. I might not be completely accurate - basically, he's speaking as an elderly person might speak in current time to culturally reflect his age; other times I notice he's using some words that are now out of use.

From the game's initial trailer:

깨어나거라, 아들아. 이제 이 아비를 기쁘게 해다오. Wake up, son. Make this father happy/proud.

The word he uses for "father" is "Abi" (아비), which is an archaic word for "father". In current day, korean speakers would generally use "Abeoji" (아버지).

The -gura(거라)/-DaOh(다오) conjugation is also an additional syllable that has since fallen out of use, or is considered archaic, in current korean:

아들아, 네 심장을 다오. Son, give me your heart.

하지만 알아 다오, 나는 너도 사랑했단다. But know this, I loved you too. English VA version: In my own way, I grew to love you.

This is also apparent in Geppetto's final letter at the end:

우릴 방해할 자는 이제 없을 거란다. 너를 위한 크라트를 다시 만들어주마. (-juma, Supposedly, only a "superior" speaker can use -juma) 그때까지 호텔에 조심해서 머물러 다오. 너를 누구보다도 아끼는 아버지가.

He also uses the -Oh ending again. (although he does call himself "Abeoji" 아버지 here and not "abi" like the trailer. He uses "Abi" again in another instance when responding to a guesture)

It's a very cool detail to me. I think it's a bit missed opportunity that, as far as I know, the english version doesn't seem to reflect this! Although to be fair, I'm struggling to imagine how they would. 19th century english/french maybe isn't as different or isn't different in the same ways from "modern" english that 19th century Korean would be from "modern" Korean. [Well, my only education on this stuff is from watching episodes of Dae Jang Geum]. I haven't checked to see if any other character (like Antonia) speaks this way. [Pls message me if Geppetto also speaks like this in your or any other language version!!]

Lies of P, Blood, puns, and the P-Organ

The P-Organ, in Korean, is referred to as the P기관. 기관 (gi-gwan), however, doesn't necessarily correlate directly to the word "Organ": It's quite an interesting word to choose because it can refer to any system of moving parts, both organic or mechanical; and it can mean an organ, a machine, or even a governmental body or institute.

As you may have heard by now, the game's titular pun revolves around the fact that the english character for P sounds the word for "blood" in korean (피), making the title (P의 거짓 P-ie Geojit?) read like Lies of Blood, in a nutshell. The title Lies of Blood then fits into the becoming-real flesh-and-blood themes of the game, perhaps also suggests that the deception in Krat has cost the lives of many - and, of course, references the lying of the titular character, who is inferred to be none other than (P)inocchio! So, in Korean, the P-Organ (P기관) becomes something like the Blood Engine. Which rather sounds like a euphemism for a heart!

[Perhaps: It's also a bit of narrative that Geppetto refuses to refer to it as our heart, unless he refers to it as belonging to Carlo.]

In English, this wordplay no longer exists, and so it's rather awkwardly literally translated (as the P-Organ).

How do you say, "NEOWIZ"?

I've seen a few people ask about the pronunciation of NEOWIZ (Lies' publishing company). Hangul is phonetic, so you could (technically) say the official pronunciation of NEOWIZ (네오위즈) is Nae-Oh Wiz and not Neo (like the Matrix character) -wiz.

However [in my opinion], I don't think this matters, because when something is translated to another language, it often takes the pronunciation of the language it is read in. Kind of like how in english you would read the capital of France correctly as Paris (with an S sound at the end), and not "Pari" (french pronunciation).

Also, Krat is consistently pronounced by in-game characters as "Krot" (Long O, rhymes with "Cot" or "Not") in the english version. In the game korean releases, "Krat" is written as 크라트, which would be pronounced and read as "Krat" (short A, rhymes with "Rat" or "Cat").

[I think the devs also say "Krat" too. The rounder "O" pronunciation of "A" in words seem like more of a European pronunciation in general]

The "Youngest of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood" and Gender

In Korean culture, Age is particularly significant in both Korean social hierarchy and language, and the role/position of being the youngest in a group is a particular role known as being the "maknae" (I mean, I definitely think this also exists in the western world, people definitely would understand being the "youngest" one in your family, but it's slightly different from that).

Despite being a member of the brotherhood, she refers to her brothers as "Oppa", which is when the word "brother" is used by female speakers to an older male subject (Remember Gangnam style?) [A male speaker would use "Hyung". I debated putting this one in, because to me, it seemed kind of obvious, but I did see others asking about this.]

[Given that the developers are from a korean studio, I am choosing to believe that the subtitles provided by the game's "korean" version are the text/script as originally written intended by the developers!]

[matt-berry-franz-liszt]

You…. Monologue to furniture too?…

Ah-anyway, well… you seem melancholic, sir. I almost feel sorry for you. Actually, I do feel sorry for you. But, I shall not pity you, because I know how it feels to be pitied. An unpleasant feeling it is.

You speak of very, uh, shall we say redundant hobbies? I mean to say that each one includes talking and pacing…. To some degree…. Surly you have others? Perhaps you draw? Even if you were to draw fish horses, that would at least be more exciting then, well, you know….

Perhaps you should take up the sword. I find slicing down tall willows systematically outside with a curved sword helps with stress. It’s very satisfying, to say the least. I could recommend you a particular type of sword, if you were to be interested.

-Lusha🌻

Lusha!

How utterly refreshing to be spoken to not with swooning flattery or trembling awe, but with that rarest of human spices—concern marinated in mild insult. I cherish it.

Yes. I monologue to furniture. Often. With conviction. I once delivered Hamlet’s soliloquy to a high-backed armchair upholstered in plum linen, and it wept. Or perhaps it creaked. Same difference.

And you’re quite right—I do lean rather heavily on the trifecta of talking, pacing, and brooding. But don’t you worry your sword-swinging sunflower of a head, I do have other hobbies.

For instance: I have developed a vivid and almost disturbingly enthusiastic interest in freshwater mollusks. Their little flappy siphons bring me a serenity that even Chopin’s Mazurkas cannot provide. I catalogue them. I name them. Some of them have titles. One of them is called @chopinski-official

I also enjoy a spot of cockfighting—the birds, not the euphemism, though let’s be honest, both involve feathers and fury. It’s a brutal, operatic pastime, rich with the scent of hay, blood, and questionable ethics.

And rugby, my dear—rugby is divine violence given form. I don’t play, of course. I merely stand at the edge of the pitch in an embroidered cloak and yell things like “Trample him like fate!” and “That scrum was erotic!”

Also—I do smoke a pipe. Not for the nicotine, but because the pipe gives my silences gravitas, and allows me to say things like “Hmph” or “Well then” with theatrical weight.

Now, to your willow-slicing sword therapy—I must say, I find that immensely erotic and slightly terrifying. I love it. Please do recommend a sword. Something curved, perhaps ceremonial, with a name like “Lament of the Orchid” or “Susan.”

[littleeyesofpallas]

Oh so i did find the draft i was talking about in the last post of this series. It took a little more dusting off but what's here is what's here. I did add in lieutenants in the images but the draft was just 13 captains and i sure as shit wasn't up for giving any of the lts a shikai, (also now that i've given it a day or two to settle i feel like they were a mistake. most of them just feel very rushed and uninspired)

Barragan Lusienbarn(Kyoraku Shunsui) - Seireitei nobility burdened by his noblese oblige, worn bitter and arrogant a fun merge of the two's parallel motif of nobility. Zanpkutou, Yuumeizei[有名税]: "Possessing Reputation Tax/Duty" akin to the English phrase, "The Price of Greatness" I dont' know what it would do...

+Gentlemen lt.

Grimmjow Jagerjaques(Komamura Sajin) - animal woman, mix of stone dogs and big cat, and "king", chinese lion dogs. Shishi Kokubo[石獅国��]: "Stone Lion Empress(Nation Mother)" I feel like this sounds more like a bankai name but I dunno what I'd shorten it to for shikai... just Shishiko[獅子]?

+Lioness lt. who's super into her matriarch.

Coyote Starrk(Sui-Feng) - merged along the lines of their two loneliness issues --i guess that implies some kind of Yoruichi but I dunno if i'd had something like that in mind or not... Wasumonomaru[忘物丸]: "The Forgotten One/Left Behind One." I don't seem to have bothered with a bankai for this one.

+littlegirl soul companion, (yeah i wasn't likely to use Omaeda for anything)

Zommari Leroux(Hirako Shinji) - Gyakkoji[逆行贄]: "Backwards Offering", oh i guess this one I had a bankai specific name change for: Gedoushuuji[外道生贄]: "Trithika/Heretic (Living)Sacrifice." I didn't leave myself any notes on what I thought this was gonna do powerswise. Merged along the lines of Hirako's reverse buddhist values bankai and Zommari's witchcraft but also buddhist monk motif.

+lt. who cuts off bits of himself and uses paper talismen spells. seemed a good fit for sacrilegious magic user

Luppi Antenor(Rose Otoribashi) - thorny vines. Bara-dou[荊棘道]: "Path of Thorns/Brambles" but a colloquial phrase meaning "Path of Difficulty/Obstacles" Kinda obvious play into their shared prettyboy thing. No bankai name left behind in these notes...

+because roses and i know I'll end up using 3 different 12th divison lts but i went with Hiyori to give her a little bratty personality.

Szayelaporro Granz(Kuchiki Byakuya) - i dunno pink and sakura or something? Shunshou[春情]: "scenery of spring" but also a euphemism for "sexual passion". Feels weird aligning Byakuya with passion but i dunno maybe work his dead wife in there somehow... I didn't seem to have a bankai locked in for this one either...

+tree and pink flowers lt.

Neliel Tu Odelschwank(Zaraki Kenpachi) - process of elimination left me with some odd ones out... Something about smothering? as a parallel to Zaraki's weathering/wearing down over time, and like i dunno a titties joke with nel i guess? i dont know why i left two characters who are both fan favorites but that i abjectly hate end up together here... i really got nothing. But I can cheat this and just give her Zaraki's shtick of having no shikai or bankai

+i dunno redundancy of matrons. (I know she was Rose's lt. in tbtp but I subbed her in for Iba)

Ulquiorra Cifer(Kurotsuchi Mayuri) - is it the makeup? the devil wings + baphomet? Kurokaku Kijin[黒角鬼神]: "Black Horn Demon God" Another one that feels like it reads more like a bankai. I'd imagine parring it down to a shikai woudl jsut leave us with Kurosumi[黒角].

+Horned gremlin/goblin sidekick lt.

Yammy Llargo(Muguruma Kensei) - Ryuudo[竜怒]: "Angry Dragon" taken from the Japanese title of the Bruce Lee film, Fists of Fury. Mouryoukou[猛龍吼]: "Fierce Dragon Roar" pulling the kanji from the chinese title of Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon Měnglóng guò jiāng[猛龍過江]: lit. "Fierce Dragon Crosses (the) River."

+supplementary dragon brawler lt.

Wonderweiss Margela(Hitsugaya Toshiro) - the powerful baby Hyoutenkan[氷柱天冠]: "Icicle HeavenCrown." Fuyu Taikan[冬戴冠]: "Winter Coronation" I dunno this one feels kinda weak... dunno what else i'd really do with it from here though, since so many other characters are locked down at this point. maybe that was the problem i ran into before as well...

+fire and ash lt.

Nnoitra Gilga(Unohana Retsu) - female mantis eating the head of her mate theming, release call, agoKUI[顎クイ]: "suddenly lifting someone's face by their chin (in a domineering yet romantic fashion)​" (i guess this was the only one i specifically made a release call for...) Kamakubi-onna[鎌首女]: "Scythe neck woman" referring to the posture of a mantis or upright snake. Which to my ends implies her looking down at you, literally --Unohana's threatening mommy demeanor with Nnoitra's tallboi proportions. Also has loose vibes of yokai like kamikubi-onna, the slit-mouth woman. Kamatsume Kensai[鎌爪幻妻]: "Scythe Nail PhantomWife" using the word for a mantis forearm, and an archaic term for a prostitute/"streetwalker".

+loyal effete man lt. to play into the mantis woman theme

Aaroniero Arleri(Yadomaru Risa) - tentacle pervert. Zousouemon[憎蛸衛門]: "hateful octopus defense gate" an alternate reading of kikui take[憎い蛸] taken from the dialog in Tako to Ama[蛸と海女]: "Octopus & female diver(for sea shells)" better known in English as "Dream of the Fisherman's Wife." Cheekily using the name suffix "defense gate" as a euphemism. Didn't have a bankai i guess...

+pervert lt.

Tia Haribel(Ukitake Juushiro) - Tekisha Seizon[適者生存]: "survival of the fittest" merging Ukitake's natural order with Harrribel's hungry shark to evoke the foodchain. I dunno what i thought this power would actually do though... yet another one with no bankai, but then Ukitake never got one either. (looking over this gain i realize the obvious move i should've gone with is some kind of wordplay on whatever the Japanese for "food chain" is)

+aquatic lt. ocean and whirlpools and and whales...

it feels like i should have somehow renamed them, but like... there's no systematic way to convert random architects into japanese... I guess I could try to find European names with loosely equivalent names to the Kanji? and then... what just look at random Japanese architects' names until some cool ones jump out? That feels random and also still too asymmetrical, not to mention just a lot of extra work...

[joltai-showa]

last night got recommended a video about all the batshit crazy theories from Cersei's POV in A Feast for Crows and was reminded of my own experience going through this book last summer

honestly the entire thing feels like a damn fever dream because all the chapters follow the same pattern:

- Jaime's POV and his journey to realization that his sister is an unhinged bitch and his little brother's been right all along. which was, you know, coming for a while, fair point, seems okay

- literally the single most random POV imaginable doing fuckass what. Arya in Braavos selling clams? Brienne lost and depressed in some wetlands with a few randos? Sam on a verge of breakdown in the most random place in the world? Dorne plotline appearing and disappearing every 300 pages? You can never guess what is going to happen in these "interlude" chapters

- Cersei's POV. Just Cersei's POV. Honestly usually when a character is playing the game of thrones in King's Landing, I am more curious about the political intrigue aspect of the plot, but Cersei is just FUCKING INSANE. You will open her chapter and will NEVER guess which fucking way her brain is gonna get her. Holy fucking shit was it worth it to wait three books for this character's POV, because every time I saw her name as the title of the chapter, I just went

and then asked the waiter (I usually read ASOIAF during summer vacation, so I am sunbathing by the swimming pool in a hotel) to bring me more irish coffee, cuz I am not getting through that without some additional whiskey in my system. I was NEVER I proven wrong.

I have a buddy who is a huge fan of the TV series and only recently started reading the books, so he's behind me in the plot, but kind of has a general gist of things, and every time he saw me screaming about something happening in a Cersei chapter, he would ask me wtf was going on, and I couldn't even properly explain, like HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN CERSEI HAVING GIDDY FLASHBACKS TO FUCKING HER BROTHER WHILE HER HUSBAND'S DRUNK AND SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR???? OR HAVING SUDDEN SESBIAN LEX WITH ONE OF HER SERVANTS???? WHILE FANTASIZING IN HER HEAD ABOUT BEING HER HUSBAND?????? WOMAN WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH YOU

And this is literally the entire book.

Anyway, here's an accurate description of reader's experience with Cersei's POV:

P.S. I'm pretty sure Martin writes terrible sex scenes on purpose. Like, I can not believe that a sane writer is capable of making it this cringe and hilarious without trying to. Some of the euphemisms he uses are straight from Wattpad lmao

[paddingtonfan69]

2, 6, 8, 9, 15, 19, 21, 30

okay HERO for this plethora of numbers, tysm!!

2. What's something new that you tried in a fic this year?

i’ve fucked around with non-linear timelines before but the specificity doing a full backwards timeline for now I understand, and it’s time to leave the woods was a first for me, especially because said timeline took place over HUNDREDS of years! but i’m v satisfied with the results!

6. What character(s) captured your heart?

okay very obvious because 6/7 of the fics I wrote this year were for agatha all along, and 5/6 of those fics were from Rio’s perspective, but I fucking love that bitch!!! a true loser shrouded in a cloak of seeming very cool, but actually just so down bad and gay that dealing with her ex actually takes priority over like… her sacred duty she’s been doing for millennia. death is a lesbian and she’s a little freak about it and she’s played by aubrey plaza!!! a true icon for all of us who cannot be normal about the women we are on in love with!! she is so special to me

8. What fic meant the most to you to write?

answered here!

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

all of them 😌 okay but if I had to choose, probably both in the death and taxes series, because it’s SUCH a fun world to inhabit and so silly and goofy!!! love to lean into the stupidity of it all and make myself laugh! also special shoutout to the second one for getting to make fun of dear evan hansen which is always a joy!

15. What was the hardest fic to title?

lmao hands down someday we will all be on our backs (free at last from income tax), which low key isn’t even a great title!! I was just googling and looking at lists of song lyrics about taxes and nothing was working! I wanted to do something from the beatles’ tax man, but the lyrics were too mean to my poor rio and then the others were just not right. finally one of the lists I found included this deep cut billy joel song and I was like SURE! it works well as sort of a nod to the death and taxes of it all, and the lying on our backs thing can be a little bit of a euphemism for sex, but man it does NOT roll off the tongue. its very funny bc this fic is close to becoming the most popular fic i’ve written EVER (crazy!!!!) and it’s NEVER referred to as its title, simply “tax evasion fic” which is much more fitting imo

19. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

answered here! but another one I love is from an inch away from more than just friends my only non-agatha fic this year, which was for bridgerton, a show I barely watch, but HAD to make my girl eloise a huge dyke for her best girl and wrote her this regency lesbian romantic speech that i’m quite proud of:

21. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

when I was working on you’re here, there’s nothing I fear, I was having fun doing research on actual titanic survivors to throw them into this silly fic on the titanic. and I stumbled across these two men who were definitely gay for each other and I was like “oh what a fun detail!” but then when I decided to incorporate them into the fic, I found myself very touched by them and their story, what little we know of it. their inclusion is actually the final line of that fic, and adds a sweetness and romanticism to that story, which started out mostly as a comedic one, but the discovery of these irl lovers actually changed the tone of the ending!!! love those guys!

30. What would you like to write next year?

gotta actually finish an original fiction project I’ve been working on, which kind of fell by the wayside for these last couple months when I went insane over aaa!! on the fic end i would like to dip my toe back into the tax verse again, because I have so much fun with them!!

end of year fic asks

[saiyukiitaliaandinternational]

Monthly Minekura Christmas edition

Day 11 “Elf”

I know this might seem strange but the background is actually linked to the theme of 'elf' because that's Alden Valley, based on this photo that inspired me with the subject. Alden derives from Old English ælf ('elf') + denu ('valley'), thus meaning 'elf-valley'. I didn't want to use the Christmas version nor the Tolkien-based elves, and I couldn't find an equivalent in Chinese mythology. I prefer to stick with old traditions but it is complex and sometimes even confusing, so I preferred to use a place in England that was once associated with elves. Elves appear in some place names, though it is difficult to be sure how many of other words, including personal names, can appear similar to elf. The clearest English examples are Elveden ("elves' hill", Suffolk) and Elvendon ("elves' valley", Oxfordshire); other examples may be Eldon Hill ("Elves' hill", Derbyshire); and Alden Valley ("elves' valley", Lancashire). These seem to associate elves fairly consistently with woods and valleys. In Old English, elves are most often mentioned in medical texts which attest to the belief that elves might afflict humans and livestock with illnesses: apparently mostly sharp, internal pains and mental disorders. The most famous of the medical texts is the metrical charm Wið færstice ("against a stabbing pain"), from the tenth-century compilation Lacnunga, but most of the attestations are in the tenth-century Bald's Leechbook and Leechbook III. This tradition continues into later English-language traditions too.

Because of elves' association with illness, in the twentieth century, most scholars imagined that elves in the Anglo-Saxon tradition were small, invisible, demonic beings, causing illnesses with arrows. This was encouraged by the idea that "elf-shot" is depicted in the Eadwine Psalter, in an image which became well known in this connection. However, this is now thought to be a misunderstanding: the image proves to be a conventional illustration of God's arrows and Christian demons. Rather, twenty-first century scholarship suggests that Anglo-Saxon elves, like elves in Scandinavia or the Irish Aos Sí, were regarded as people. Keep in mind that like words for gods and men, the word elf is used in personal names where words for monsters and demons are not, so elves are people. In Old English, the plural ylfe (attested in Beowulf) is grammatically an ethnonym (a word for an ethnic group), suggesting that elves were seen as people.

Elves are known in Norse tradition, notably in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, which talks about svartálfar, dökkálfar and ljósálfar, but these terms are attested only in the Prose Edda and texts based on and it is now agreed that they reflect traditions of dwarves, demons, and angels, partly showing Snorri's "paganisation" of a Christian cosmology learned from the Elucidarius, a popular digest of Christian thought (this is why I take with a grain of salt Prose Edda when I want to learn about Norse religion). I prefer to focus in Old Norse poetry, particularly the Elder Edda. Elves are frequently mentioned in the alliterating phrase Æsir ok Álfar ('Æsir and elves') and its variants. This was a well-established poetic formula, indicating a strong tradition of associating elves with the group of gods known as the Æsir, or even suggesting that the elves and Æsir were one and the same. There are other sources that talk about elves such as Sagas of Icelanders, Bishops' sagas, and contemporary sagas. In Kormáks saga there is the mention of álfablót ("elves' sacrifice"), and in Eyrbyggja saga we can find the existence of the euphemism ganga álfrek ('go to drive away the elves') for "going to the toilet".

Fun fact: by the end of the medieval period, elf was increasingly being supplanted by the French loan-word fairy. An example is Geoffrey Chaucer's satirical tale Sir Thopas, where the title character sets out in a quest for the "elf-queen", who dwells in the "countree of the Faerie".

I imagined Gojyo (I find him the best for these kind of works) being alone in this place, pondering about his life and letting thoughts roam freely before maybe elves try to steal them. Here you can see two versions, a black and white version which resemble a manga page and another one where Gojyo chromatically stands out. I was unsure which posting, so asked a dear friend of mine and she liked both and eventually I decided to post both. Gojyo's pose was partially inspired by the famous painting of Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Ok again sorry for long post.

Credits:

Saiyuki Reload Blast © Kazuya Minekura, Platinum Vision, 2017-present

[dreamsinmytotebag]

Poetic references in pop culture

After having discussed poetry and songs and lyric poetry, we can see how certain poetic elements have seemed to find their way in pop culture. The target audiences for poetry and pop culture might have been considered to be different in earlier times but now they tend to overlap. What earlier used to be limited to the field of literature is now, often used as an aesthetic in films, music, etc. I also feel that, while it expands poetry as a domain and exposes new people to it, it also, in some ways, loses its value when it is brought down to stand as a mere aesthetic that people use as captions for their social media posts. Nonetheless, we get to see poetry making its cameo in pop culture many a times.

Starting with something very closely linked to poetry- songs and lyrics. Many artists and songwriters tend to have a poetic style of writing. Now, of course, not all lyrics and songs can amount to being termed as poetry, but some can. Hozier would be my first prime example for this. His deep and poetic lyrics tend to reflect a strong sense of writing, which at the same time also get entangled with the aesthetic of pop culture. The deep complexities and metaphors, and euphemisms in his lyrics may not be understood by all which can make the listeners interpret their meaning in some other way. Songs like “Cherry Wine” and “Eat Your Young” talk about social issues but due to their interpretation in pop culture, their meanings have come down to revolve around the subject of love and relationships. While, at the same time, there is no denying that Hozier also makes love songs. However, a song like “Eat Your Young”, which serves as, what some might say, a “protest song”, based on political greed and the exploitation of younger generations, should not be reduced to merely having a sexual connotation to it. The song also references the classic Anglo-Irish writer, Jonathan Swift and his essay, “A Modest Proposal”, a famous protest against the British treatment of Ireland. This shows how poetry can get lost while serving to the whims and the fancies of pop culture. I also happened to stumble across this one blog on Tumblr, which adds more to this Hozier argument. I’ll attach a link for a clearer understanding.

Taking up a few more examples from music, particularly pop music, only recently we saw Taylor Swift release her 11th studio album, titled "The Tortured Poets Department”. Now the name in itself carries the essence of poetry. As a fan, of course my opinion would differ from the critiques or someone who’s not a fan, nonetheless, I enjoyed the album while also being aware of its different aspects that I did not enjoy as much. Particularly talking about “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” I clearly saw more of the poetic edge to the album here, rather than on the standard version. Swift is inarguably one of the best songwriters of all time and there have been instances where she has written actual poems, or has poems turned into songs. Her other albums, particularly, “folklore” and “evermore” also carry the poetic side of Swift. Lyrics like,

“Now you hang from my lips, like the gardens of Babylon.

With your boots beneath my bed, forever is the sweetest con”

-Ivy, evermore

Or

“Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die

I don’t belong, but my beloved neither do you

Those Windermere peaks look like the perfect place to cry

I’m signing off but not without my muse, no, not without you”

-The Lakes, folklore

…carry a heavy whiff of poetry and a poetic style of writing. When songs with such lyrics are consumed by a wide audience, the audience naturally looks into its deeper meanings. In reference to Taylor Swift and her widely spread fanbase, Swifties, who are known to speculate her work with full intensity and dedication, will of course be opened to a whole new world of poets and poetry through their consumption of pop culture. Taylor Swift also has quite a few self-written poems, namely, “Why She Disappeared”, and “If you’re anything like me”.

Speaking of pop artists and their poetry, we can not move on without mentioning Lana Del Rey. Apart from her complex lyricism, Lana, also has a poetry book called "Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass”. Lana Del Rey is not only celebrated as an artist, but has developed a whole aesthetic around her, which her poetic footprints follow. She has a huge impact on pop culture and is known to bring in a whole Sylvia Plath vibe to her work. People usually draw comparisons between the two. One of my favorite poems by Lana Del Rey, would have to be “Sportcruiser”:

“All of this circumnavigating the earth

Was to get back to my life

Six trips to the moon for my poetry to arise

I'm not a captain

I'm not a pilot

I write

I write”

Apart from music, poetry has been reflected in films as well. For an example, I would like to mention my favourite movie of all time, “Dead Poet’s Society”. From a dark academia aesthetic to Walt Whitman references, and the famous “Oh Captain! My Captain!” line, draws in interest from poetry and literature enthusiasts. I personally, started exploring Walt Whitman after I watched the movie. Shows such as “Dickinson” which revolves around the life of the famous poet, Emily Dickinson, also bring poetry to pop culture. Such shows also help bring out the sides of poets and their work which could not be revealed back in their times due to the society’s conservative nature.

Apart from movies centred around poetic or literature themes, many shows or films reference poems or poets in dialogues, arising the viewer’s curiosity. The movie “Maurice” has a dialogue, “I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.” which references the famous poet/author, Oscar Wilde, particularly dealing with the theme of homosexuality. Adaptations of classics, such as “Pride and Prejudice”, or “Little Women” also finds literature being introduced to pop culture. However, at the same time, such adaptations can also sometimes misrepresent these classics, which is usually called out by the literature enthusiasts, showing an interaction between two crowds and an integration of literature into pop culture. One of the recent examples, we can find is when Netflix announced the adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. (my favorite book of all time) Like many other, I, too, was disappointed to find out about the queer erasure done by Netflix by establishing a familial relationship between two characters: Dorian and Basil, who clearly have a romantic one in the original story, in the book.

Moreover, ever since social media came into the picture, poetry has been widely spread across pop culture. With poets like, Rupi Kaur, making their debut on talk shows like, “The Tonight Show With, Jimmy Fallon” and going on tours and various poetry related social media accounts taking over, the extent of integration of poetry with pop culture has been quite large and has changed the way people consume and create poetry, with specific emphasis on spoken poetry. What’s most interesting to note here is that the impact of this integration has not been one sided. Pop culture too has been shaped immensely through the introduction of poetry and other literature related themes, especially in the way it references, creates, and presents its content.

[mariana-oconnor]

Black Peter pt 1

Haven't heard of this one either. Let's hope that's down to the fact it's a later story and not because it isn't popular anymore because of *looks at title* reasons.

I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical, than in the year '95.

Watson does keep waxing poetic about the year 1895. Must have been an epic year.

Holmes, however, like all great artists, lived for his art's sake, and, save in the case of the Duke of Holdernesse, I have seldom known him claim any large reward for his inestimable services.

Do we know the Duke of Holdernesse? I don't remember his name. How rude was he to Holmes that Holmes took his money? I feel like that must be arsehole tax.

So unworldly was he—or so capricious—that he frequently refused his help to the powerful and wealthy where the problem made no appeal to his sympathies...

More evidence for the Sherlock Holmes hates the rich theory. It's not that he's unworldly or capricious, Watson, it's that usually they're the bad guys (please see King of Bohemia). Not to put modern biases on a historical fictional character or anything.

down to his arrest of Wilson, the notorious canary-trainer

What did he train the canaries to do?

Was it, like, an entire hoard of pickpocketing birds?

Did they murder people for him? What?

Google tells me it might have been a euphemism for brothel-keeper. Or a singing teacher. So... honestly that story could go any number of ways. I think I'll stick to actual canaries, though. Probably in Canary Wharf.

During the first week of July my friend had been absent so often and so long from our lodgings that I knew he had something on hand. The fact that several rough-looking men called during that time and inquired for Captain Basil...

Watson pining at home while Holmes is out with rough-looking men and having them call him Captain...

...made me understand that Holmes was working somewhere under one of the numerous disguises and names with which he concealed his own formidable identity.

Honestly, I feel like this is character development. Before Watson would have just been 'Holmes is away' and 'Who is Captain Basil?', two entirely separate lines of thought. Now he has connected the dots. Proud of you, buddy!

...he strode into the room, his hat upon his head and a huge barbed-headed spear tucked like an umbrella under his arm.

“If you could have looked into Allardyce's back shop you would have seen a dead pig swung from a hook in the ceiling, and a gentleman in his shirt-sleeves furiously stabbing at it with this weapon. I was that energetic person, and I have satisfied myself that by no exertion of my strength can I transfix the pig with a single blow."

Everyone needs a hobby.

I recognised him at once as Stanley Hopkins, a young police inspector for whose future Holmes had high hopes...

Oh hai, Hopkins!

"However, my friend Dr. Watson knows nothing of this matter, and I should be none the worse for hearing the sequence of events once more."

For the sake of Watson and us, the invisible audience, please to be info-dumping exposition policeman!

"In 1883 he commanded the steam sealer Sea Unicorn, of Dundee."

"He has been known to drive his wife and his daughter out of doors in the middle of the night, and flog them through the park until the whole village outside the gates was aroused by their screams."

Can't say I'm entirely sorry Captain Carey is dead. In fact, maybe just chalk this up as self-inflicted and leave it at that. Whoever did it probably had a good reason.

However, the nickname doesn't seem to really be racist, so that's better than it could have been. Swarthy, as far as I'm aware, refers to tanned/weather beaten skin usually, which makes sense for a longtime sailor.

"He had built himself a wooden outhouse—he always called it ‘the cabin’—a few hundred yards from his house, and it was here that he slept every night. It was a little, single-roomed hut, sixteen feet by ten."

The original man cave?

The description of him is not crying out the sort of man who would keep tobacco on hand just in case his friends wanted some. It's not crying out the sort of man who has friends, for a start.

“Exactly, Mr. Holmes. I appreciated that point, and I conjectured that it was dropped by the murderer in his hurried flight. It lay near the door.”

Hopkins really is the smartest of the police officers we've met. And I still haven't noticed Watson comparing him to an animal.

So we have a terrible man killed by a harpoon in his man cave and no one noticed for ages because no one wanted to talk to him. I'm kind of hoping that all the women were in on it and they just... harpooned him together.

[sburbian-sage]

A

Ah, no., i

it's just my quirk., t

though you were it seems I can say you were close nonetheless., a

although I cannot explicitly confirm if it was a boss that did it, or if there is in fact a censoring effect on me, but if there were, how might one fight such a being?, w

when one cannot ask others about such a being's weaknesses., d

due to the aforementioned hypothetical censoring effect?, e

especially if such a boss or other being were perhaps too strong to defeat by ordinary means?, o

or isn't a boss at all, and instead is something it would be very very bad to kill?, n

not that I'm saying that it is or isn't., b

because it seems I can't.

I can't believe my ability to sleuth problems and decrypt ciphers is so strong that I arrived at a mostly-correct answer, even using the wrong process.

Anyway, you're telling me that you're being forced to self-censor and be evasive because an entity is forcing you to, and the entity in question is 1) not a boss, 2) too strong to defeat head-on, 3) probably shouldn't be killed. I can only think of a couple of entities which fall under this banner.

A Player. Perhaps one of the Law, Heart, or Rage variety, who has given a sentence/programming/command to not do the thing you shouldn't be doing. They could also be monitoring/brainwashing you with psionic powers, or else just have a bomb collar strapped to you.

Your Sprite. They're usually hardcoded to be friendly to you and guide you and stuff, but it's not impossible that you somehow prototyped a Sprite which is taking a hostile stance against you.

An Other. Technically not a boss, immensely strong, and it's not that killing them is bad, only that fighting them is innately dangerous.

The Debug NPC.

If it's the Player, then it might be worth it to send messages to your coplayers implying and insinuating that some weird abusive stuff is going on. If you think there's monitoring going on, or otherwise feel like online comms can't work, maybe try to meet up in person. As for "fighting", direct fights are indeed risky (putting aside Titles and such), and PKs are probably not desirable, unless you feel this is a prelude to a PK. In any case doing something like (hypothetically) waiting until they're asleep and active on the Dream Moon, finding their physical body, throwing a weighted net on top of them, splashing ice cold water on them, and then hitting them with a bat or other hard-but-not-deadly object while screaming at them to stop putting a censor lock on you, I dunno it could work. It'd be best to get back-up first though, or otherwise let your more communicative players help.

If it's the Sprite, I have no idea what you prototyped it with that it's hostile and has mind-control powers. If it has to come to it, I wouldn't be too worried about destroying the thing. The Sprites don't really contribute much anyway to people who already know how to play the game, outside of sentimental value (which a rogue sprite is definitionally not doing). Just toss in something contrary to its nature, and it might self-delete (only a euphemism in that it doesn't just zip out of existence, it explodes). Or maybe just throw something in that makes it less hostile? If that's not an option though, because it's double-prototyped, then just progress through the game. Every Sprite will eventually give you your Sprite Pendant, and soon after fuck off permanently. This is a mostly inevitable event, and once it leaves, any negative effects might also auto-dispel.

If it's an Other, I can only assume this was your fault because you made a deal with it. Hopefully you can try to find a loophole in whatever contract you made to get your ability to talk back, or else you'll have to make a second deal. And don't think this will wear off once the Session ends, any deal you make with an Other is persistent. Similarly persistent is your ability to communicate with that specific Other in the future.

If it's the Debug NPC, I can't help you. The fact that the Debug NPC is doing anything of consequence means things are going horribly off-rails, such that I literally wouldn't be able to provide you any relevant information or advice. So you'll just have to rely on your own problem-solving skills. Good luck!

[maggiecheungs]

spring-spun thoughts by li bai

(my translation; original and notes under the cut)

for you, the jade silk grasses of yan province

for me, the mulberries of qin with their drooping green boughs

dear sir, in all your dreams of homecoming

do you spare any thought for your heartsick love?

i’m troubled by the spring breeze (no acquaintance of mine!)

that slips, unbidden, within my silk-gauze screens

春思（李白）

燕草如碧絲 秦桑低綠枝 當君懷歸日 是妾斷腸時 春風不相識 何事入羅幃

notes on the translation:

this translation is a little looser/more daring than other poems i've tried my hand at before... i'm not usually brave enough to strongly push my own interpretation in my translation, but i did this time because 1) it's a li bai poem so there are already countless other more traditional english translations available and 2) if you can't make fun, slightly risqué interpretations/translations of li bai, then who else is there?

the context: it is spring! a gentleman has gone to yan province (in the army) while his lover is left alone in qin. sad!

the title: 春思 is usually just translated as 'spring thoughts', but i wanted to somehow capture the parallel between the homonyms 思 (sī, 'thoughts', 'yearning') and 絲 (sī, 'silk') that's in the original. i don't know how well it carries over, but i tried to make that connection between 'spring-spun thoughts (of an absent lover)' and the jade silk grasses of yan. i also wanted to preserve the sense of causality (which is an important part of the chinese poetic tradition but not necessarily evident to the english language reader): the specific brand of yearning that she’s feeling right now is specifically caused by her sorrow that he’s not there to enjoy the spring with her

the poem: translators seem to favour reading this as a fairly typical poem of yearning, but when i read it i felt there was a slightly... arch edge to the speaker's voice? it's very possible to read it as a straight lament at their distance, but i feel like you can also imbue it with a slightly sarcastic or accusatory tone, so i wanted to let both interpretations remain open in my version. hence my translation of the second couplet in second person, to give it a slightly more confrontational edge than a simple neutral statement of fact.

the final couplet was tricky, because it seems like such a non-sequitur. i made two possible interpretations: 1) that the spring wind in her bedchamber is just another reminder of her lover's absence from her side; or alternatively, and slightly more daringly, 2) that she's obliquely warning her lover that he's left her open and unprotected, and that she's been receiving unwelcome attentions from other men while he's gone (depending on whether you read the poem as sincere or snarky, this could be a genuine warning... or a mischievous, innuendo-laden hint that he should get his arse in gear and come back home to stop her running off with someone else. i think this last interpretation is a bit out-there, but i'm quite fond of it—and also, i'm pretty sure i read somewhere that 春風 (spring wind) is a euphemism for sex, which would lend credence to my theory...). it also strikes me that my slightly irreverent reading lends itself to a third possible interpretation of the final couplet: she’s coyly warning him that if he’s gone too long, she won’t recognise him when he returns to her bed lmao. but idk! i might be reading too much into it. or maybe not! the possibilities are endless

[shinygoku]

With the Beatles (1963)

Time for part 2 of CutCat Reviews Beatles Albums now it's February!

An iconic picture to be sure, but I'm not wild on it. Maybe it reminds me too much of trying to fit pictures into a small MS Paint Canvas? lol

Like with Please Please Me, I think there's some songs that slipped under the osmosis radar and that I ain't heard in full. Though I think the only albums I've listened to from start to finish all in order are the 1 CD, Revolver and Sgt Pepper, so I'll stop mentioning it on these early and the later ones... We're also still in "a fair few Covers" country, so will I be as mild on them as I was on the Non-Boys of PPM?

SIDE ONE

It Won't Be Long: I first heard this fairly recently, on the radio that was playing in another room. My thoughts weren't that strong, other than that "She Loves You" does the Yeah! repetition better lmao. Having been able to it properly since, though, I'm a lot warmer to it! It's optimistic and energetic, and the even higher amount of Yeahs is funny (though I maintain that SLY easily wins the Yeah Battle... but more on that when I reach it~). Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!!

All I've Got To Do: This one seems to get slept on a lot... it's pretty solid, but it doesn't really offer any particular Iconic moments. The chorus shakes things up in a nice way but it seems Sticking Power ain't something it has. It's one of many songs that go to show how amazing this band was, as this isn't bad, but it's been left far behind by the other songs they've blessed us with, innit?

All My Loving: Now THIS is a memorable song! Such a jaunty guitar with the direct words! A real narrative is being laid out, albeit as an assertion of future things being promised~ Ah nuts, it blasted my memory of the previous song outta my head... XD - Seems this is the only one that got Red Album'd in this list? Wild that it's only the 1, but I think the right choice was made.

Don't Bother Me: George time! I'm not clear on if the narrative here is a post-breakup or if he's being dramatic about a spell away from the GF, but the main crux is that he doesn't want non-GF contact at that point in time. It's much moodier than most'a their stuff from this time, and there's more damn nice instrumental work.

Little Child: The title on it's own has me somewhat 8(, and the lyrics unfortunately confirm this [albeit Dancing on it's own ain't that bad, but one knows Dancing is often a euphemism in songs like this, or a precursor to more]... I'm sorry for such a negative, potentially pearl-clutching response. But also the music isn't charming me enough to coax me into softening my view. The first real Dud of this album, imo.

Till There Was You: Now THIS, I like! I was baffled why this seems to fly under the radar of Iconic Beatles Songs, but I since found out it's a cover, so that's probably the explanation. The lyrics are decent but the real appeal is that absolutely gorgeous guitar work and bongos, they provide such a warm feel~ It's also giving me strong "Anime Ending Credits Sequence" vibes, which I'm quite partial to ^w^ ...Issit just me or does Paul gain a slight Irish accent when he says "no, I never heard (them/it) at all" :0c

Please Mr. Postman: This I DID know was a cover from the start, haha! It's a very catchy song, but even with my sizable Beatle Bias, I can't really commit to declaring this one as the best... it's very good and very listen-able, but it may be that the definitive Mr Postman is somewhere else...

SIDE TWO

Roll Over Beethoven: Again, it's a cover, but I've not heard Chuck Berry's OG take at the time of writing. The song is pretty groovy, George's vocals ring nicely. I'm not dazzled, but I like it well enough :>

Hold Me Tight: Another Beatles original, another one that tends to get omitted from Mentions...! It's nice, but a lot plainer than most'a the stuff, lacks a certain Pizazz

You Really Got a Hold on Me: Another cover, one I've prolly heard before by a non-Beatles act, while this one is another Fine, Inoffensive romp that I lack strong feelings for lol

I Wanna Be Your Man: Now I know this one was somewhat famously given to The Rolling Stones, and I even heard that played on the radio too. When it was their version, I wasn't impressed. Sung by Ringo, as it had been intended initially? ....I'm still not that impressed. Mostly in the lyrics, it's real repetitive! But my Ringo bias keeps it afloat, and it's odd Mid-ness makes it more memorable than others on this album.

Devil In Her Heart: A good cover, this! George doing nice vocals and the candance to the title is catchy, and ooooh the instruments in the background are also fun, are those maracas I hear? It gets bonus points for the harmonies disagreeing with the lead too, hehe

Not A Second Time: The last original of this album, and it's not really doing it for me. Something about it kinda blurs into itself. Their later betrayal type numbers are more my bag, baby

Money (That's What I Want): And we're closing the experience with one more cover. I dig the instruments, most notably the piano, but the song itself is just, like, whatever lmao, Maybe it's too overtly materialistic and a bit listless? Man oh man does the Pink Floyd Money blow this outta the water lmaooo

CONCLUSION

Best 3: It Won't Be Long, All My Loving, Till There Was You

Blurst 3: Little Child, Not A Second Time, Money (That's What I Want)

Overall Quality?: An improvement over Please Please Me, though in a way it's more level quality makes it a bit harder to pick the best at least best songs in it. Most of the covers are again decent but not amazing, and the originals are hit and miss. Unfortunately it seems side 1 got the Lion's Share of memorable, fun numbers, leaving side 2 with also-rans, though in that is Devil in Her Heart at least!

🪲🪲🪲🪲

On the next part, it shall have been (?) A Hard Day's Night and its all-original song lineup! Just the Album though, if I'm looking at the Film it'll be another, separate instalment ^w^;

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Todd Snider - Crank It, We’re Doomed

The liner notes say Todd Snider shelved Crank It, We’re Doomed, for “artistic reasons.”

Upon hearing the album - recorded in 2007, abandoned, presumed lost and subsequently found - “artistic reasons” seems a euphemism for “fucked up.”

Finally released in its original format, Doomed finds Snider standing at the crossroads of folk, country, neo-funk and rock ‘n’ roll with a masterpiece on his hands.

A number Doomed’s 15 songs - including “From a Dying Rose,” “The War on Terror” and the Loretta Lynn duet “Don’t Tempt Me” - ultimately found their way on to Peace Queer (‘08) the Excitement Plan (‘09) and 2012’s Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables. Some were used as recorded in ’07 (“Don’t Tempt Me”); others received fresh treatments (“Good Fortune,” which features Kris Kristofferson on Doomed); and others still were renamed, which is how “Handleman’s Revenge” became Peace Queer’s “Stuck on the Corner (Prelude to a Heart Attack).”

In 2023, Crank It, We’re Doomed sits easily alongside other Snider triumphs like Songs for the Daily Planet and Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3. Listening to it and wondering why it sat dormant for 16 years will likely cause Snider fans to gravitate toward the title of the song that explores Billy Joe Shaver’s shooting of a man and ask: “What Made You Do It.” That one is previously unreleased but sounds so familiar Sound Bites suspects Snider’s played it live over the years.

Other previously unheard numbers include the grimy, guitar-driven rock ’n’ roll of “Juice” and the acoustic, country lope of “But Seriously Folks.”

Violin colors the Doomed version of “America’s Favorite Pastime,” which vividly and hysterically recounts Doc Ellis throwing a no-hitter while tripping balls. And “Mercer’s Folly” recalls the sound of 20th-century Snider with lyrics that ultimately became “Big Finish.”

Artistic reasons? A major fuck up? It doesn’t matter now. Crank it, Doomed is saved.

Grade card: Todd Snider - Crank It, We’re Doomed - A

12/5/23

[studioahead]

Curator Spotlight: Natasha Boas

We’re ringing in the new year with a firecracker: one of our most hilarious, crazy features ever, an interview with Natasha Boas, whose sparkling wit is matched only by her taste in literature and chairs. You’ll have to read below to understand, but we’ll say now that this is a woman who was once Jacques Derrida's student and sat on his kitchen chairs in his apartment in Paris. A conversation with Boas, an independent scholar and curator (and thinker), had us traipsing all over the noosphere and our own backyard in San Francisco, where she became our tour guide to the hidden currents of a city we thought we knew well.

Studio AHEAD: In your home you have several towers of precariously stacked books. We’re going to name a few and would like you tell us the perfect chair/sofa/magic carpet on which to read them:

La honte (Annie Ernaux)

Natasha Boas: I have always been a huge fan of Ernaux’s and have read everything she has written in French, and then in 2022 she received the Nobel Prize in Literature so her novels are finally more available in English. La honte is about the shame a young woman experiences about her childhood and the woman she becomes. It’s autofiction, one of my favorite genres. I think I would suggest reading La honte on any Madame Récamier daybed—perhaps specifically on my antique nineteenth-century French iron folding bed. I grew up with it as my childhood bed and it has tiny wheels—when we once had an earthquake in San Francisco in the 1970s, I remember waking up having rolled across by bedroom from the garden corner to my fireplace.

SA: Specters of Marx (Jacques Derrida)

NB: For Derrida, the spirit or “ghost” of Marx was even more relevant after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This essay was the plenary address of "Whither Marxism?," a conference on the future of Marxism held at the University of California, Riverside in 1993. Derrida was my professor in Paris and a very modest man who would have wanted us to read his book on a simple kitchen chair—perhaps a Charlotte Perriand Bausch chair from the 50s that came secondhand with his humble apartment—where the caning is damaged and used and it is broken and somewhat imbalanced.

SA: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Sigmund Freud)

NB: This book contains the iconic essay in which Freud reveals his famous Oedipal theory among other things. It should be read in your mother’s lap—haha! No, it should be read on Freud’s divan couch of course! It may be the most famous couch in history and can be admired in Freud’s study in London at The Freud Museum at 20 Maresfield Gardens in the Hampstead neighborhood. The term “on the couch” became the euphemism for what psychiatrists do because of this very couch shaped like a chaise long with a Persian rug laid over it. Of course, I contributed to a fundraiser launched in 2013 to help reupholster the legendary couch. It seemed very important to me at the time.

SA: Leonora Carrington: The Story of the Last Egg (Leonora Carrington)

NB: This book is the accompanying catalogue to Gallery Wendi Norris’s 2019 exhibition of the same name in New York City. In addition to the show, the gallery hosted a two-day symposium on Carrington. It began with a dramatic reading of Leonora's play, titled Opus Siniestrus: The Story of the Last Egg, which in many ways predicts the dystopian situation of women’s reproductive rights today. My talk “The Leonora Carrington Effect: What We Can Learn from Leonora Carrington Today” became an essay for the book.

These ideas on the relevance of Carrington today resonated a year later at the Venice Biennale “Milk of Dreams” with its focus on Carrington and other historic Surrealist women artists. I wrote my dissertation years ago on this seminal modernist movement in art, which continues to influence my work. Currently, I have curated the exhibition on the post-Surrealist Gertrud Parker: The Possible at Marin MOCA, which includes Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Alice Rahon and other influential Surrealist women. It is up through March 31 and I highly recommend a visit. It also features the famous Dynaton artists Luchita Hurtado, Wolfgang Paalen, and Gordon Onslow Ford, who convened in Inverness in west Marin County last century.

I think I would read The Story of the Egg on the bed that the Surrealist artist Max Ernst made for his wife, the artist Dorothea Tanning. It is said that she hated the bed and hid it out of view in the basement of their Provence house, but it is currently being shown on the top floor at a small regional Max Ernst museum in Seillans, near my family house in the Var, Cote d’Azur region. It’s a bizarre six-post structure with a mirror, green metal leaves, a faux brown fur bedspread and several circular paintings attached to it—but seems like the perfect bed for lounging on to read this provocative book.

SA: You are an expert on countercultures and in particular the Mission School. Is there anything you have learned from them—whether related to art or not—that you apply to how you interact, live in, go about San Francisco? This is of course a movement whose members reimagined what was around them.

NB: Yes, I have always been drawn to countercultures, alternative art movements, and under-recognized artists. What drew me to the Mission School artists was that it was an “affective” community—one based on shared sensitivities, a shared neighborhood, and friendships. Graffiti, studio painting and the San Francisco Art Institute were touch points for the group. In many ways I see this group of artists as a continuation of another SFAI group, the Rat Bastards Protective Association with Jay deFeo, Bruce and Jean Conner, Manuel Neri, and others. In fact, Ruby Neri, Manuel’s daughter, who was raised in Inverness and educated at SFAI, literally connects the two movements. I learned that there can be a correlation between street art and studio practice through her, Barry McGee, Alicia McCarthy, Chris Johanson, and Margaret Kilgallen.

These artists were not precious, they used simple materials often culled from garbage found in the city and they always included their friends’ work in their exhibitions, and they still do. That is very much the “Bay Way” of making art. It has influenced my way of curating too. I am not afraid of the heteroclitic or telling new stories. I just curated a show this fall: “Old Friends/New Friends” at Creativity Explored, which is a studio that supports neurodiverse artists or what we used to refer to in art history as “outsider artists” and the expanded Mission school artist community.

I grew up in SF in the 1970s. I even lived at the now defunct radical artist colony The Farm founded by the conceptual artist Bonnie Ora Sherk under what was then Army Street overpass and now Cesar Chavez. I worked at the Café Trieste in North Beach as a barista and served the likes of Allen Ginsburg. I read my poetry at City Lights Book Store and saw the Dead Kennedys perform at The Mabuhay Gardens. We were around when Harvey Milk was assassinated and when SFMOMA was on the fourth floor of the War Memorial Veterans building on Van Ness Avenue. This group of Mission School artists are my generation. We vibe on the same San Francisco history.

SA: I am curious as to what happens in your curation when you bring institutional outsiders inside the institution. Perhaps nothing happens. Perhaps it changes everything. Perhaps it ruins everything.

NB: In my experience—magic happens. But I have always taken risks—like bringing a trailer, which I bought with the Indigenous artist Brad Kahlhamer at an Arizona swap meet for a hundred dollars, into a museum gallery to create a nomadic studio space. We had to fumigate the trailer to make it museum compliant and we built out a proscenium so we could also use it as a stage for local Native performances. The exhibition was appropriately entitled SWAP MEET and played on all the valences of cultural exchange.

SA: You speak so much about San Francisco’s history, and so much has changed, that I wonder if counterculture is still possible in this city? 

NB: Yes—it is always possible especially in our city with its cyclical history of boom and bust! There is always some kind of counterculture operating. We just need to ask “which culture is counterculture countering?” and then we can identify it. And we should always be brave enough to counter culture through the sub, the underground, the transversal. I just participated in a show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris called The Termite Bites and it looked at artists who are practicing—literally and figuratively—below ground.

SA: We always ask the person interviewed how they came to California. We’ll pose this question to you with a twist. How did you come to California? And can you trace the history of how one piece of artwork that you own came into your possession here in California?

NB: My family came to SF from France in the late 1960s as part of a larger movement of young people seeking alternative lifestyles and new ideas—I was raised in a vibrant multicultural city and went to a French lycée and roamed freely around town on Muni. Later, I moved east for college and then lived and worked as a curator and professor in New York and Paris for over 20 years, when I returned back to the Bay to raise my family.

Most of my collection is from artists I have worked closely with over the years in all three places—either gifted or swapped. I am particularly attached to an Etel Adnan (1925-2021) Mount Tamalpais artwork I have from my time working with her in Paris. Adnan—who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, died in Paris, and lived an important part of her life with her life companion, the artist Simone Fattal in Sausalito—is a transnational link for me between my two homes and two cultures—in her case three cultures. Her poems and drawings in the book Journey to Mount Tamalpais speak to me the most; it has been re-edited recently by my friend Omar Berrada.

SA: Lastly, in the spirit of Guy Debord and the Situationists, if you were doing a dérive-style walk around San Francisco, where might it take you?

NB: My dérive would always lead me back to the Lyon street steps at Broadway. My friend Marc Zegans just published a book of poems about this important passage way in the city. Our SF was more of a village, pre-tech booms. I grew up and went to high school in Presidio Heights. It was very sleepy. We lived on those steps as teens, overlooking the bridge. We had our first kisses there, smoked our first joints, played the guitar, the city was ours.

Photos by Ekaterina Izmestieva