#the album of dr. moreau

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Seven Covers in Seven Days: THE ALBUM OF DR. MOREAU by Daryl Gregory.

tagged by @asexualbookbird

Every day post the cover of a book you love and tag someone to do the same!

tagging: @tinynavajoreads

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

This song with lyrics by Lene Lovich and Marc Cerrone which seem to be inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau by Robert Louis Stevenson is pretty fantastic though grim.

Supernature Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Once upon a time

Science opened up the door

We would feed the hungry fields

Till they couldn't eat no more

But the potions that we made

Touched the creatures down below

And they grew up in a way

That we'd never seen before

[Chorus]

Supernature, supernature

Supernature, supernature

Supernature, supernature

Supernature, supernature

[Verse 2]

They were angry with the man

'Cause he changed their way of life

And they take their sweet revenge

As they trample through the night

For a hundred miles or more

You can hear the people cry

But there's nothing you can do

Even God is on their side

[Chorus]

Supernature, supernature

Supernature, supernature

Supernature, supernature

Supernature, supernature

[Verse 3]

How can I explain?

Things are different today

Darkness all around

And nobody makes a sound

Such a sad affair

No one seems to care

[Chorus 2]

Supernature, better watch out!

Look at you now, better watch out!

Look at you now!

[Bridge]

(Supernature) Better watch out

There's no way to stop it now

You can't escape, it's too late

Look what you've done:

There's no place that you can run

The monsters made, we must pray

[Chorus 2]

Supernature, better watch out!

Look at you now!

Supernature, better watch out!

Supernature!

Look at you now!

[Bridge]

Better watch out

There's no way to stop it now

You can't escape, it's too late

Look what you've done

There's no place that you can run

The monster's made, we must pray

[Verse 4]

Maybe nature has a plan

To control the ways of man

He must start from scratch again

Many battles he must win

Till he earns his place on earth

Like the other creatures do

Will there be a happy end?

Now that all depends on you

[Outro]

Supernature

Supernature

Supernature

Supernature

[brooklynisher]

HI BROOK ok question first of all do we know who's doing the opera vocals for the intro of "the ballad of delilah morreo" ? if thats how u phrase that. and second of all im a huge fan of that song its probably my most favorite one if im honest and i wonder if there is literally. any other recording than the one on the album😭😭😭cus im guessin its simply hard to perform live but at the end of the day im no good at researching so i was hoping u could help me out with that ..

So, I think it was some sort of vocal synthesizer they used. Not related to SPG, but it sounds a lot like the opera Mermaid in Mermaid Song from Stardew Valley. So chances are it was none of them!

The song is pretty old! Bunny started the song back in 2013! You can hear Bunny humming the melody to her accordion in her mumble tracks on Patreon. The lyrics she sang didn't change, but instead of singing, she was rapping.

"Well the boogeyman fears the wraith Delilah Morreo

And Death and her are friends now no matter where it is she goes

So all the Vampires should hide from this lady This side of the netherworld, she’s the baddest in Hades"

At least for this part ^^

Also I found these things

1. She is not fatherless

Dr. Moreau isn't an original character for those who don't know. He's from a book about a doctor who uses maybe less than ethical methods to try and create a new animal-human-creature hybrid thing or something like that. Idk. He's not actually her father though, as Bunny states. Just like him though.

[x]

2. She goes by "The Wraith" Also werewolf wife lore was going to exist at some point

[x]

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

COME AND GET SOME OF THESE FINE MALT LYRICS -- THE FINEST IN ALL THE LAND.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a record advertisement for “Fine Malt Lyrics,” the 1992 debut album by American hip-hop group HOUSE OF PAIN. Tommy Boy Records. Produced by DJ Muggs, DJ Lethal and Ralph M, the Funky Mexican, for Soul Assassins.

MINI-OVERVIEW: ""We're animals trying to be men," laughs Everlast, lead rapper of the Irish-American rap act HOUSE OF PAIN. Explaining the inspiration for the group's name, he describes the movie "The Island of Dr. Moreau," "It's about a scientist who tries to turn animals into men, and the place where he took them to punish them was the House of Pain."

Danny Boy and DJ Lethal round out the trio that produced the gold smash single "Jump Around," and a debut album filled with dense, diverse samples and a rap style that recalls the kind of shit-kicking you hear at a party or on a basketball court. "If you get on the basketball court, talking shit is half the game," Everlast says. "I look at the lyrics like a basketball, like I'm bouncing them off the beat.""

-- TOMMY BOY RECORDS, c. 1992

Source: www.hiphopnostalgia.com/2022/07/house-of-pain-fine-malt-lyrics-30th.html.

🇺🇸🎊🍻🍀🌈😋🍀🍺🎉🇮🇪

[pandoramsbox]

Sci-Fi Saturday: Island of Lost Souls

Week 9:

Film(s): Island of Lost Souls (Dir. Erle C. Kenton, 1932, USA)

Viewing Format: Blu-Ray: Criterion Edition

Date Watched: July 9, 2021

Rationale for Inclusion:

Since antiquity humans have been telling stories about humans becoming animals, animals becoming humans, and human-animal hybrids. As humans moved from superstition and religion into scientific methodology for understanding the world around them, it follows that this obsession would inspire science fiction narratives.

In 1896, author H.G. Wells combined contemporary discourses around Darwinian evolution, Galtonian eugenics, and the anti-vivisection movement with a shipwreck narrative and published The Island of Dr. Moreau. All subsequent science fiction narratives that have involved the creation of animal-human hybrids through surgery or other technological means derive at least some of their inspiration from this book.

The novel was adapted into a silent film twice (once in France, once in Germany) before a sound adaptation was produced in Hollywood by Paramount Studios, Island of Lost Souls (Dir. Erle C. Kenton, 1932, USA). As with Frankenstein (Dir. James Whale, 1931, USA) and Doctor X (Dir. Michael Curtiz, 1932, USA), this film is part of the cycle of Pre-Code horror films produced in the wake of the popularity of Dracula (Dir. Todd Browning, 1931, USA). It also marks the first time a work of H.G. Wells is featured on the survey, which at 9 weeks into this series seems late given that he's one of the authors competing for the title of "Father of Science Fiction."

Aside from its place in the overall scientific genre, Island of Lost Souls would have been worth including for no other reason than its dialogue inspiring Devo's 1978 album Q: Are We Not Men? We are Devo!. The Criterion collection disc release even includes an interview with band members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh talking about how the film inspired them.

Reactions:

Whilst Doctor X was a horror film with science fiction aesthetics, Island of Lost Souls is more science fiction film with horror aesthetics. The beast-men makeup makes Moreau's creations indeed disquieting and monstrous. The uncredited work of Charles Gemora and Wally Westmore lacks the artistry of Jack Pierce, but is nevertheless quality for the era. Dr. Moreau's laboratory in the House of Pain is minimalist compared to the apparatuses seen in the laboratories of Doctors Xavier and Frankenstein, but he is operating further from concentrated civilizations on a South Seas island, and apparently doesn't require as showy equipment.

As an adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau it's fairly accurate in terms of core plot and themes. The accuracy diverges due to including a love interest for the protagonist, Edward Parker (Richard Arlen), in his worried, yet resilient fiancee Ruth Thomas (Leila Hyams) and the retooling of the novel's Half-Finished Puma-Woman into Lota, The Panther Woman (Kathleen Burke). As with adaptations of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hollywood filmmakers felt compelled to include a sexy, dark woman and a pure, wholesome fiancee counterpoint in what had previously been a homosocial narrative of male psychology and interpersonal dynamics. Apparently, the male filmmakers found it necessary to insert a Madonna-whore complex where there was none, or more likely wanted a "whore" and felt obligated to include a "Madonna" for the sake of propriety, and/or to not alienate the female audience as they perceived it and the censors.

However, the male filmmakers were not just interested in adding sex in Island of Lost Souls, but amping up the original novel's violence. Scenes of abuse, torture and surgery without anesthesia directed at the beast-men were all carryovers from the source material, but the grisly fate of Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) was unique to this adaptation. In The Island of Dr. Moreau the Half-Finished Puma-Woman and Moreau battle to the death. In Island of Lost Souls the beast-men rebel and get revenge on Moreau, dissecting him with his own surgical tools in the House of Pain.

To my partner and my 2020s eyes the dispatch of Moreau by his creations was shocking and horrific. We noted it was gruesome even by Pre-Code standards. Apparently to its contemporary audiences it went too far, and this scene, as well as others seen as too explicit, resulted in censored versions circulating or the film being outright banned in various countries. Other Pre-Code films, such as Frankenstein and King Kong (Dir. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933, USA), suffered similar fates, and like them Island of Lost Souls would not be in circulation in their original theatrical cuts until restorations were performed decades later.

Island of Lost Souls offers more than shock value and a Pre-Code case study, however. Karl Struss' moody cinematography and the emphasis on the characters as much as the narrative situation makes for an engaging film. Bela Lugosi's Sayer of the Law, with make-up like a budget Wolfman, may play more as camp these days, but he is absolutely committed to his character. Similarly, Laughton's impish Moreau steals every scene that he is in. For fans of monster or mad scientist movies it's a necessary watch.

[silenthillmutual]

January round-up;; keeping track of what i've gotten up to so far in 2023

finished reading:

I'm Glad My mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Herbert West Reanimator and Other Tales by HP Lovecraft

The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito

albums listened to in full:

Rebel Yell - Billy Idol

The Colour and the Shape - Foo Fighters

...And Out Come the Wolves - Rancid

The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

Lanterns - Son Lux

I Love You. - the Neighbourhood

Foxlore - the Crane Wives

Cosmicandy - the Orion Experience

movies watched:

Insidious

Kingsmen: the Secret Service *

Mad God *

Bruce Almighty *

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's "Island of Dr. Moreau"

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

[rhetoricandlogic]

Gary K. Wolfe and Adrienne Martini Review The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory

July 15, 2021Adrienne Martini, Gary K. Wolfe

Already in the public domain for years, H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau has practi­cally spawned a microgenre all its own, with Brian Aldiss, Gwyneth Jones (as Ann Halam), Gene Wolfe, Theodora Goss, the Simpsons, and even Marlon Brando having a whack at the story or its characters and themes. I’m pretty sure, though, that Daryl Gregory is the first to come up with the notion that those human/beast hybrids would make a dandy boy band. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise; Gregory has been fasci­nated with the plasticity of the body and altered humans throughout his career: the grotesquely transformed residents of a small town in The Devil’s Alphabet, a zombie somehow raised from infancy in Raising Stony Mayhall, the victims of mutilations, cannibals, and cults in We Are All Completely Fine. The idea of mashing up the closest thing Wells wrote to a pure horror story with KPop-style media stardom might sound fatally whimsical, except for two things: the compassion with which Gregory customar­ily treats his most damaged characters, and his decision to cast the whole tale as a locked-room murder mystery with all its formal conventions, even to the point of quoting T.S. Eliot’s “five rules of detective fiction” (which, for the most part, Gregory cheerfully ignores).

Calling themselves the WyldBoyZ, the band members are all genetic human-animal hybrids, victims of a heinous Moreau-like program on a mysterious barge, which we eventually learn about as their backstory unfolds. Rescued by an Ecuadoran fishing boat after they escape, they become an international tabloid sensation, and then a musical sensation once they come under the management of a sleazy promoter who calls himself Dr. M – who has been ripping them off royally, mostly by taking advantage of their legal status (technically, they entered the country as livestock). As they gain fame, they inevitably adopt the de rigueur roles of boy band members – the romantic one (part bonobo), the shy one (part pangolin), the funny one (a giant bat), the smart one (part elephant), and the cute one (part ocelot). The mystery opens when Bobby O – the cute one – wakes up in his hotel room covered in blood, the butchered corpse of their manager in bed next to him. He has no memory of what happened after a wild party the night before, but he’s not the only suspect: another band member has been sleeping with the manager’s opportu­nistic wife. The detective assigned to the case, Lucia Delgado, also happens to be the mother of a nine-year-old WyldBoyZ superfan, setting up some tension as well as some rather sweet sitcom moments for later in the story.

As usual, Gregory writes with empathy and in­sight about the plight of damaged outsiders, as the unique problems and resentments of each of the band members emerge during the investigation. His neatest trick is keeping the grim backstory balanced with the sort of wacky good humor that teen superstars are expected to display, and with the formal demands of the locked-room proce­dural. The whole thing is structured as an album, with 14 tracks, an introduction, and a “bonus track,” and framed as a letter sent years later to the detective’s grown daughter, now a superstar herself. As with much of Gregory’s fiction, there’s a sentimental edge to the grotesquerie, and a grotesque edge to the comedy (which sometimes edges into James Morrow territory), but it all somehow works, thanks to Gregory’s essentially optimistic humanism and his apparent total lack of concern about recriminations from Wells’s vengeful ghost.

-Gary K. Wolfe

Daryl Gregory’s novella The Album of Dr. Moreau is a wink to the H.G. Wells novel but wholly its own detective story about a murder, an intrepid investigator, and genetic engineering. It’s about a million times more entertaining than both the Wells novel and the Val Kilmer-vehicle that was made from it.

It’s 2001 in Gregory’s Las Vegas. Last night, the WyldBoyZ, a boy band, played their last show. This morning, the band’s Svengali-esque Dr. M is discovered dead, shredded to death by someone or something with big claws. Band member Bobby woke up in the same bed as the dead doctor and, given that he’s part ocelot, happens to have very big claws. Detective Luce Delgado, who has her own very Vegas backstory, is called in to figure out whodunnit. The result is a straight-up detective tale with science fictional tropes about gene splic­ing underpinning the whole world. There are puns a’plenty and colorful characters to keep the tone brisk and engaging. Underneath, however, there are questions about what makes a human human, and that makes Gregory’s sleight-of-hand more meaningful than it first appears.

-Adrienne Martini

[puddicure]

one of my favorite kinds of books is when an author comes up with something unhinged like, “what if the animal people from The Island of Dr. Moreau were in a boy band in 2001…and then they got involved in a murder mystery?”

That’s literally what the Album of Doctor Moreau is about. and it’s amazing.

[wakizashisteahouse]

The Album of Dr. Moreau (2021) by Daryl Gregory

The Album of Dr. Moreau (2021) by Daryl Gregory

‘Tusk filled the doorway across the hall. His gigantic gray head, made larger by those fanlike ears, sat atop an imposing body. He would have been terrifying if it weren’t for the fact that he was wearing a well-tailored suit.’-Daryl Gregory Publisher’s Synopsis ‘It’s 2001, and the WyldBoyZ are the world’s hottest boy band, and definitely the world’s only genetically engineered human-animal…

[forthegothicheroine]

Favorite books: The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory

[frankendavis]

It’s December 14th, so it’s time for my annual “Advent” calendar of sorts. This is Number 14 in a series of bits of holiday nonsense that I’ve put together over the years. If I have time, I may try to come up with a few more this year. 

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

oh, no: the new book i started reading after midnight on a work night is Delightful

[disgruntleddemon]

Toes

And all I ever want Is just a little love I said in purrs under the palms And all I ever want, is breaking me apart I said to the thing that I once was

I'm a man, I'm a twisted fool My hands are twisted too Five fingers to black hooves I'm a man, don't spin me a lie Got toes and I can smile I'm crooked but upright

i’ve been listening to the island of Dr. Moreau audio book so it seemed only fitting to draw some art of it to toes by glass animals. i mean, that's why i listened to the book in the first place lol.

seems a ironic to draw Moreau as a anthro wolf but like, i can't draw humans lmao. i copied the color of the jaguar in the toes video for his fur color. i gave him a leopard print too. it fit with the normal/animal theme.

i also considered putting “toes” instead of “zaba” but i did not think most ppl would get that. the book itself has been funny so far. the same way dracula was funny. edward shows up and sees all the animal ppl and just goes “dam, everyone is so fucking ugly here” amazing, 10/10 dumbass lol.

anyways, listen to glass animals

[ninja-muse]

My 2021 Release TBR

As usual, there are too many good books coming out and I need to read them all right now. What’s on your list for the year? Do we share any? Have I added any to your list? (All titles are adult unless stated otherwise.)

First Light - Casey Berger - January 1 (space opera)

Persephone Station - Stina Leicht - January 5 (space opera)

Padoskoks - Joseph Bruchac - January 7 (mystery)

Across the Green Grass Fields - Seanan McGuire - January 12 (portal fantasy)

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry - C.M. Waggoner - January 12 (fantasy)

Last Night at the Telegraph Club - Malinda Lo - January 19 (YA historical)

The Mask of Mirrors - M.A. Carrick - January 19 (fantasy)

We Could be Heroes - Mike Chen - January 26 (superheroes)

The Fabulous Zed Watson! - Basil and Kevin Sylvester - January 26 (middle grade)

The Paris Library - Janet Skeslien Charles - February 2 (historical)

The Ratline - Phillip Sands - February 2 (history)

The Memory Theater - Karin Tidbeck - February 16 (fantasy)

We Had a Little Real Estate Problem - Kliph Nesteroff - February 16 (history)

Calculated Risks - Seanan McGuire - February 23 (contemporary fantasy)

A Dark and Hollow Star - Ashley Shuttleworth - February 23 (YA fantasy)

Satellite Love - Genki Ferguson - March 2 (literary)

Return of the Trickster - Eden Robinson - March 2 (literary/contemporary)

The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner - March 2 (historical)

The Conductors - Nicole Glover - March 2 (historical fantasy)

Accidentally Engaged - Farah Heron - March 2 (contemporary romance)

The Rose Code - Kate Quinn - March 3 (historical fiction)

Fatal Fried Rice - Vivien Chien - March 9 (cozy mystery)

A Fatal Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum - Emma Southon - March 9 (history)

Birds of Paradise - Oliver K. Langmead - March 16 (contemporary fantasy)

Raft of Stars - Andrew J. Graff - March 23 (historical fiction)

Nöthin’ But a Good Time - Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour - March 30 (music history)

A Little Devil in America - Hanif Abdurraqib - March 30 (sociology)

What Abigail Did That Summer - Ben Aaronovitch - March 18 (contemporary fantasy)

The Fall of Koli - M.R. Carey - March 23 (post-apocalypse)

Wild Women and the Blues - Denny S. Bryce - March 30 (historical fiction)

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good - Nancy Werlin - April 6 (YA contemporary)

First, Become Ashes - K.M. Szpara - April 6 (contemporary fantasy)

The Last Bookshop in London - Madeleine Martin - April 6 (historical fiction)

Broken (in the Best Way Possible) - Jenny Lawson - April 6 (memoir)

The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams - April 6 (historical fiction)

Hana Khan Carries On - Uzma Jalaluddin - April 6 (romance)

When the Stars Go Dark - Paula McLain - April 13 (mystery)

Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe-April 13 (current events/true crime)

Between Perfect and Real - Ray Stoeve - April 27 (YA contemporary)

Angel of the Overpass - Seanan McGuire - May 11 (fantasy)

The Hellion’s Waltz - Olivia Waite - May 11 (historical romance)

People We Meet on Vacation - Emily Henry - May 11 (contemporary romance)

A Master of Djinn - P. Djèlí Clark - May 11 (alternate history/fantasy)

Son of the Storm - Suyi Davies Okungbowa - May 11 (fantasy)

The Album of Dr. Moreau - Daryl Gregory - May 18 (horror)

Pumpkin - Julie Murphy - May 25 (YA contemporary)

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating - Adiba Jaigirdar - May 25 (YA contemporary)

The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley - May 25 (alternate history)

The Blacktongue Thief - Christopher Buehlman - May 25 (fantasy)

The Lights of Prague - Nicole Jarvis - May 25 (historical fantasy)

How to Find a Princess - Alyssa Cole - May 25 (contemporary romance)

The Ship of Stolen Words - Fran Wilde - June 1 (middle grade fantasy)

One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston - June 1 (romance)

The Hidden Palace - Helene Wecker - June 8 (historical fantasy)

The Witness for the Dead - Katherine Addison - June 22 (fantasy)

The All-Consuming World - Cassandra Khaw - June 22 (space opera)

Dead Dead Girls - Nekesa Afia - June 1 (historical mystery)

The Library of the Dead - T. L. Huchu - June 1 (contemporary fantasy)

Jay’s Gay Agenda - Jason June - June 1 (YA contemporary)

This Poison Heart - Kalynn Bayron - July 6 (YA fantasy)

Lake Crescent - J. J. Dupuis - July 6 (mystery)

A Radical Act of Free Magic - H.G. Parry - July 20 (historical fantasy)

The Middle Ages: a Graphic History - Eleanor Janega - July 23 (graphic non-fiction)

Small Favors - Erin A. Craig - July 27 (YA fantasy)

Summer Fun - Jeanne Thornton - July 27 (contemporary)

The Rocky Road to Ruin - Meri Allen - July 27 (cozy mystery)

All’s Well - Mona Awad - August 3 (contemporary)

Clark and Division - Naomi Hirahara - August 3 (historical mystery)

Sisters in Arms - Kaia Alderson - August 3 (historical fiction)

The Bookseller’s Secret - Michelle Gable - August 17 (historical)

A Snake Falls to Earth - Darcie Little Badger - August 17 (YA contemporary fantasy)

Hot and Sour Suspects - Vivien Chien - August 24 (cozy mystery) moved to 2022

My Heart is a Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones - August 31 (horror)

No Gods, No Monsters - Cadwell Turnbull - September 7 (contemporary fantasy)

When Sorrows Come - Seanan McGuire - September 14 (contemporary fantasy)

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr - September 28 (literary fiction)

Along the Saltwise Sea - Seanan McGuire - October 12 (portal fantasy)

The Haunting Season - October 21 (ghost stories)

A Marvellous Light - Freya Marske - November 2 (historical fantasy)

The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks - Mackenzi Lee - November 16 (YA historical)

Rivers of London, Vol. 9 - Ben Aaronovitch - November 16 (graphic novel, urban fantasy)

Tread of Angels - Rebecca Roanhorse - possibly? (historical fiction)

[deanky]

Here are some little like ‘reviews’ of all the Oingo Boingo albums... Under cut LOL... I just like to talk about Oingo Boingo I am so obsessed right now they have become tied for Mr. Bungle as favorite band... But anyways... Hope you enjoy ^_^

Only a Lad: Very fun sound as a whole. I enjoy how like poppy and synthy it is and stuff and that one weird electronic voice Mr. Elf man does in like every song. I remember like actually not liking most of the songs first time I heard it and I’m not sure why because I enjoy 9/10 out of them a lot now... But then again I like almost never really like an album the first time I hear it LOL I have a mean soul. A lot of the songs have pretty evil words in them but I have like slight respect for how much hatred Danny Elfman seems to have had for everyone on the entire planet at the time of writing. And for the majority of songs I cannot really complain about because I think it fits theme of like very happy sounding song but nasty words in it duality of man and such. Only one I really do not like is Capitalism because it has the whiniest lyrics of all and also it just does not sound good like as a song I think I am sorry. I must say it. Forgive me. I was so thrilled hearing Nasty Habits for the first time because I really like songs that sound like a homosexual cartoon villain would sing them to you. Well that’s all. Only a Lad itself was one of the first songs of theirs I heard except sped up and it had a picture of anime Bart Simpson on it. I like it. Good song. Recently I cannot stop getting it and Little Girls stuck in my head. That’s all

Nothing to Fear: Everything about this album is sooooo sooo good it is like so incredibly catered specifically to my tastes. One of the few albums I have loved immediately as soon as I heard I finished listening for the first time and was immediately like oh this is going in my favorites. I add some points also for absolutely incredible beautiful cover art it’s got weird colors weird animals logo made of worm things it’s so beautiful it makes me want to cry.  I think it gets SLIGHTLY weaker in its second half but that is hard not to do with albums. That said though a lot of songs that I felt were slightly worse at first have risen to being my favorites of the album like Why’d We Come and Reptiles and Samurai. Didn’t know what to think about Running on a Treadmill at first but I think it works very well in its simplicity and it is very catchy I can imagine people like singing it on actual treadmill and like jumping around abd being in zero gravity for some reason it is like that music video where they are in the plane but it is treadmills. Well, hi. The only ones that feel like slightly slightly worse to me are Whole Day Off and Islands but I think I am growing to like both of those a lot more too. My favorites though are Grey Matter and Insects and Wild Sex and also Nothing to Fear the titular song and Why’d We Come and Reptiles and Samurai which is over half of the songs so I think that’s good.  I remember listening to Private Life like 5 times before listening to the rest of the album but I always forgot how it went immediately after not sure why because I’d say it is a reasonably catchy song. Anyways INCREDIBLE album. Rude lyrics? Still a thing but tend to be much more agreeable like it is obvious who is being made fun of in like Grey Matter and Nothing to Fear and I say the fun making is well deserved! Even though I may be the target of Grey Matter I understand and I am sorry. The general sound is also amazing I LOVE all the weird noises and metal stuff and clanks and clonks and all the xylophone. Dude the xylophone is so good. Synth and xylophone and guitar they are all best friends and they sound so cool together and I think xylophones should be more widely used in like “pop” music as a whole whatever that defines. I keep wanting to start a band and just play xylophone. Like what’s anybody gonna do to stop me? I love xylophone. That’s all

Good for Your Soul: I wasn’t so impressed by this one the first time I heard it but it quickly wormed its way up to a very close #2 and possibly even tied with Nothing to Fear as my favorite album of theirs. The album art on this one is also really good I will say! I felt like slightly let down at first by it just because it’s so hard to live up to how beautiful of a cover Nothing to Fear has in my mind. But its art is so cool too. Muscle man in wobbly world. What’s more to love (Side note I enjoy the song Wobbly World it is not an Oingo Boingo song it is by Devo I should listen to more Devo.) The first time I listened the only songs that REALLY jumped out at me super hard were No Spill Blood and Fill the Void, and I think those 2 are still tied as my favorites. I LOVE the whole like rhythm No Spill Blood has going on and the weird animal noises and also the lyrics they are not about Animal Farm they are about The Island of Dr. Moreau he did those surgeries don’t you know he made the animals have to be men and they were like are we not men but they didn’t say they were Devo sorry I keep talking about Devo in this Oingo Boingo album review. And BTW Fill the Void also is really great and has possibly my favorite set of lyrics in any song ever to exist which is the part like “Every little thing is a piece of a larger thing / Every little fish is a tyrant of the sea / Every little atom is a master of his family / Every single piece calls my name / What do they want from me?” It is so good it makes me go so insane I love it. Another song that works really well in just being a simple thing.  It is so nice and cool it feels like being in space and you are in one of the levels of one of those Kirby spinoff games where he’s like a ball and you’re rolling him around NOT Canvas Curse the other ones like Dream Course I think. Anyways though while I wasn’t super big on all the other songs they ended up like slowly coming back into my head one by one until I was obsessed with all of them. First it was Pictures of You. Then it was Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me (would put that in my top 3 as well) and then Dead or Alive and then Little Guns and then Cry of the Vatos and then Wake Up It’s 1984 and then Sweat and then the titular song AND Who Do You Want to Be it was like. Wow. What a world.  WDYWTB + Good for Your Soul + Sweat were the 3 that didn’t really do it for me as much for a while but now I’ve been really enjoying them too so I think I can say I love every single song on this album. It is becoming my best friend. It’s sooo good. It feels like living in one of those fake Utopian cities and there’s actually something sinister going on behind the scenes. Like I will start seeing colors and freaking about it any time soon. Random memory that unlocked in me is that I used to be incredibly obsessed with The Book Thief and its concept of death when I was in like 6th or 7th grade like uncannily so but I never talked about the book ever I just hid it away in my mind. My sad story. Sorry everyone. That’s all

So-Lo: This one is technically just Danny Elfman but you know it is an Oingo Boingo album man they got the whole band there they were just having licensing issues because new label and stuff is my understanding. And they were like. Well let’s take advantage of this and do some less standard Oingo Boingo songs. That is how I grasp this situation I don’t know how correct I am her I actually don’t know that much about O.B. outside of the songs at this point I still cannot name any non-Danny Elfman member and I am really sorry for this and must learn to atone for my ways. This is a good album though. Once again has really good cover art I will say.  It’s like well hello there Mr. Elf man you’ve got some eyes sliding off your face and some funny colors and are controlling some little puppet things maybe it’s like you do you man LOL am I right or am I right! I like this album. This was yet another one where I listened the first time and was like. Man I’m not really feeling it with any of these songs. However I do enjoy that they all sound kind of like they were recorded on a Sega Genesis. I mean it does have very Genesis-y noises I know this was the 80s and it would be more accurate to say the Sega Genesis soudns like this album but you know what I mean. Anyways nothing grabbed me at first but upon my second listen I became extremely obsessed with the song “Go Away” and then listened to it on repeat for 2 hours straight and it still hasn’t got old for me I still like it very good song. Definitely my favorite. Tied with Everybody Needs which is also a very fun song I became similarly enamored with like a day later but didn’t listen to quite as much LOL. But anyways I went through that oh-so-familiar process which I must warn you is also the process I go through for every single album after this! - Where all the other songs started worming their way into my head and I was like oh brother I am beginnign to like them all now! Good for Your Soul, I think, marked like more obvious change from songs tending to be like “This is what Danny Elfman thinks of the world phrased in a humorous way” to more like actual stories and stuff, although the former wasn’t rid of entirely and the latter hadn’t just popped up or anything. But I think this album continued that in a really nice way and while it can be vague, listening to it I always feel that there is like one solid story all the song narratives go throughout. Someone pointed out in like Youtube Comments that Go Away feels like the sadder side of Cool City and to me it feels like the whole album is kind of in that vein. Seems to me like all the songs are in the Cool City itself and you’re seeing like the various different horrible things that go on in that town and horrible people that live in it. Yknow? Like Tough as Nails and Everybody Needs make me think of like various awful weird a$$ holbs living there and then stuff like Sucker for Mystery and Lightning and It Only Makes Me Laugh. Well they are clearly from the perspectives of some guy. The same guy? Maybe maybe not I don’t feel like they are the same guy. But it feels like they are like experiencing weird horrible sh*t in this horrible town that is filled with racists but also gay people. I like this album I enjoy it

Dead Man’s Party: OK I am sorry to say. This is a good album but it hasn’t COMPLETELY grown on me yet. But I DO like it a lot. I enjoy it it’s good. I really really love Just Another Day and the titular song and Heard Somebody Cry and Nobody Lives Forever and Weird Science which is over half of them so not bad all things considered. And I do not DISLIKE any songs. But the other ones haven’t quite grown on me yet. This album does kind of shift into like the more commercial stuff it’s not like generic pop or nothing. But it is like slightly strange to get used to. That said. The songs I like I REALLY like thye are so good. No One Lives Forever is an incredible incredible song just like Nasty Habits it fulfills my love of songs that sound like they are being sung by evil guys in cartoons but are not they’re actually being sung by Danny Elfman who is an evil guy in real life. Sorry I didn’t mean it he probably is not that evil I’m sure he’s perfectly nice Mr. Elf man if you are reading this I apologize. Anyways though. I like the general sound of this album I will say! I think though it has thing going on where like, in my mind, some of the songs feel like way too happy and overly peppy almost like mocking. I have a weird mind and a weird way of processing things and I am also incredibly afraid of everything on this planet so keep that in mind BTW I am sorry. But like Stay and Fool’s Paradise and Help Me and Same Man I was Before all have that kind of feeling to me, it’s like these are so cheerful and cheesy sounding to me it kind of scares me a little bit. However... I am starting to feel this less with Help me and Stay, and also I felt this a little bit with Heard Somebody Cry at first as well and I no longer do. So maybe I’m still going through the motions of song-liking as I do.  As I said though the favorites on here are incredible. Weird Science may have been written for strange movie deal and they may be really saddened by its memory or maybe just the music video’s memory but it’s a very fun song nevertheless. Dead Man’s Party itself it really fun true classic. Very orange song to me. It’s orange and purple like I hear it and I am like ah yes I am experiencing orange and purple. Very nice shades of orange and purple though, and they are mixing together in pleasing ways and throwing a big party and everyone’s invited you might even say it’s a dead man’s party heh heh heh (grins devilishly). I think this like takes the kind of narratives in Good for Your Soul and So-Lo and like takes it to best form! In that it has a very clear yet not super specific narrative going on throughout the whole album, I really like whenever an album has songs set up so pleasingly and nice like that it makes me sad when they’re just like in random order. But of course this album is all about death and accepting it and stuff and like all the different feelings of sadness and happiness and stuff that all go into it! And I like its message a lot, like obviously you shouldn’t want to die but don’t fear it. It has a very nice depiction of the afterlife. I like all the stuff in Beetlejuice and Corpse Bride with their similar interpretations too although Beetlejuice isn’t quite as positive about it LOL. I want to watch Corpse Bride again. I want to see another singing Danny Elfman skeleton. I want to see the Peter Lorre worm. My one complaint with the album narrative is that Weird Science goes at the end it kinda ruins the whole story a little bit but I can’t fault them because like where COULD they put it?  I think it might work kind of well as the first song because like trying to make frankenstein guy before all the accepting death stuff makes sense. But also. It would be a weird opener. Also the album art is so incredible I love it I want to join their party it’s beautiful. I did not mean for this review to get as long as it did. They just keep getting longer each album I’m sorry the length does not show my opinion but I just keep getting more excited each album

Boi-Ngo: Will admit this one is my least favorite. And once again my bias shows because it has cover art I don’t like very much. It’s just real guys looking at you. Where’s the funny Oingo Boingo touch where’s the charm people!??!? it makes me sad. And also, as a whole, while I DO like most of the songs I feel like I don’t like them as much as I like any of the ones on other albums, and it also has my least favorite song I’ve heard other than Capitalism which is We Close Our Eyes sorry I’ve seen a lot of people who really like that one but it just scares me. It feels so insincere to me it makes me feel that thing once more where it’s like this song is waaayyy to happy and peppy to not feel like it’s kind of sinister deep down. I apologize. It is a fun album however! I think it kind of goes back more to “Danny Elfman’s humorous observations about life”, which is not always a bad thing, but it seems to revert a little bit too much back to like him just being kind of whiny and not making much of a point in like, say, New Generation. Although it is a nice song I think! It scares me when he goes like now he’s got you by the balls. I understand the point of that lyric. But it frightens me.  I think my favorites are Home Again, Elevator Man, Not My Slave (although lyrics feel like slightly concerning), Outrageous, and Pain. Which once again is more than half the album so shows what I know complaining about it this whole time. 

Dark at the End of the Tunnel: I feel bad for this album because before listening to it I always forgot it existed, like I listened to Boi-Ngo and was like aw man I only have one album left! Oh wait nevermind I have 2. And now I keep fearing there’s another one I forgot not including like the live albums and singles stuff. Maybe there is.... haunting me But anyways... I already did like incomprehensible post talking about this one earlier LOL which inspired me to do more equally incomprehensible things on all the other albums hence this post. So I’ve already said a lot of what I have to say about this and hope not to repeat it too much... but... LOL I was so afraid wondering if I would actually like this one or not... I wanted to just because of how awesome the cover art is. And I was afraid because I wasn’t really a big fan of most of the songs at first. But I think with this album and the whole Boingo era they were moving towards like more orchestral stuff and changing their sound and all... So it was a bit strange to get used to at first but the more I listened the more I enjoyed everything I guess like taking in all the instruments and textures and what not. A lot of the songs in this one also feel like kind of creepily cheery but I think it works best for this album specifically, because as I’ve said before it feels very intentional - there is like whole dual thing of more dark mysterious sections and light-hearted happy sections in most of the songs. Although my top 3 are all songs that mostly just have the former going on... Right to Know, Long Breakdown, and Run Away.  I also really enjoy When the Lights Go Out, Skin, Out of Control (though it still feels like vaguely scary to me LOL), and Glory Be... But I keep finding myself getting all the others stuck in my head as well. So still growing on me LOL! I am beginning to appreciate all the other songs more for those cheerier parts as well yknow... I think this whole album has a very fantastical vibe to it LOL but definitely like, a very old fantasy. Like they discovered this album in a giant wizard’s tower like ten thousand years ago and now it’s been unearthed again. But it was created by a child wizard who was like 5 years old. But still had a wizard beard. That’s the guy on the cover I’ve decided. Little wizard from long ago.  However... It does feel like it’s kind of setting up something. Like all the songs do... whole album is good but feels like it’s kind of a preparation for the next one. Which doesn’t make it bad! Just like I feel like it’s kind of part of a set... Incomplete on its own yknow? I would probably rank it in my lower 4 of all the albums but I’ll still say I enjoyed it quite a bit, that is no insult. And I like wizards

Boingo: This album is SO good dude. I’m glad this is what they left off on. Really great finishing album... I have a weird timeline involving this one because it was actually the first album I listened to, my dad showed it to me, but I only ever listened up to Lost Like This before very recently and by recently I mean today and I am still listening to Changes for the first time as I write this which is probably a bad idea but I am doing it anyways. Anyways though... The first O.B. songs my dad showed to me ever were Insanity from this album and Dead Man’s Party the song, and despite how different their two sources are they both have extremely similar structure I think. And so I kind of painted this picture of like all Oingo Boingo songs being similarly structured around 6-7 minutes and mostly repeating the same different sections in slightly different ways. And I am pleased that this album kind of fulfills that - a lot of the songs are like 2-3x longer than they really need to be but I enjoy that because I love long songs.  As I mentioned earlier, DatEotT feels like it’s just the beginning of something, and this provides a very satisfying ‘second half’. I think it works well by itself too, though! Boingo marks such a big change musically from everything else before even DatEoT but it somehow stays very true to their old spirit anyways.. But everything feels so much grander and I really like it. Almost every song has a pretty wistful melancholy feel but at the same time ALSO almost every song but like a different set of almost every song is very big and bombastic. So it definitely has that “well this is our last album goodbye” feel to it. But it’s OK. It’s like a big grand finale. If there was a like an Oingo Boingo musical that had every single song for some reason and lasted like 10 hours I feel like the other albums could be switched around the whole thing regardless of their actual releases, but this one would HAVE to be last. Adding to that, I feel like it really like takes a lot of the earlier concepts I’ve liked a lot in previous albums and had them return. Like So-Lo, many of the songs have pretty different narratives, but all feel like they can be one loose intertwined thing. Pedestrian Wolves and Lost Like This definitely feel connected for one... and like Insanity and Changes provide like nice bookends where the first is like analyzing the world around us and then the second is analyzing the self. Side note. Danny Elfman is always referring to himself as stupid in Oingo Boingo songs. And sometimes it’s just like PoV character or something. But it ticks me off a little bit because he is like clearly not stupid he is like a crazy evil genius.  But ALSO I’m not really sure what exactly the whole story of Boingo is, but it just feels connected in some sort of mysterious way yknow? Maybe it will appear to me later... If Dark at the End of the Tunnel was created by a little five year old wizard ten thousand years ago, this was created by the same wizard when he was reaching the end of his life and was in the wizard’s nursing home in like the 1920s. It still feels like mildly aged, there is SOMETHING about it that feels like it’s meant to be played on like an extremely old awful record player, but it has a much more modern feeling. It almost feels like another interpretation of the afterlife... Maybe that more Beetlejuice kind where it’s just like real life at first but if you peek around the corner you’ll find all the weird sandworms and colorful ghosts and stuff. Anyways though. This album is so good. Not my favorite right now, but definitely in top 3, like at the moment of writing this I would say. #1 is Nothing to Fear. #2 is Good for Your Soul. #3 is Boingo. But I am loving it soooo much on my first actual full listen even though I’ve had time to like absorb half the songs already admittedly. So it might end up being my favorite after all! I think my 3 favorite tracks also on this are Insanity, Lost Like This, and Hey!. Random completely unrelated parallel to my other favorite band. I like that they have a song called Hey! and Mr. Bungle has a song called Hi! It all fits together. And they both have the exclamation point. But anyways ALSO since I’ve only finished listening for the first time Changes finished while I was writing this BTW. I am still figuring out my opinions on the rest of the songs. Don’t think the I am the Walrus cover QUITE does it for me, I like Spider and War Again but not sure if they’re favorites. I hated Can’t See/Useless the first time I listened but now I like it how about that! ONE MORE thing I like about this. Is its songs feel like continuations of stuff in other albums. Although that may just be because of similar themes! Like, War Again feels like a continuation of both Nothing to Fear and Little Guns but it’s about similar subjects to both. And Tender Lumplings, Little Girls, no real explanation needed there. Insanity and Nasty Habits match up pretty well, with both just being like about hating the world although Nasty Habits is more specific than that LOL. Mary is a girl who is unfairly ostracized, Johnny of Only a Lad is a boy who is unfairly praised, you know.  And also one more thing ONE more I know this one ALSO kinda has the classic Danny Elfman yells about things stuff going on but I feel like this is the album where it works best. But maybe I am just a hypocrite. OK that’s all. Hi

[elisesap]

Stage One - How does Tumblr function as a digital community?

Tumblr is a place where people are able to blog about things they are passionate about, and is also a social media platform in which the blog posts are shared. I personally have never used Tumblr and am more familiar with Instagram and Facebook as social media platforms. I don’t use Facebook as much as I do Instagram. In my opinion Instagram is like an online photo album, Facebook can also do that but however a platform where people share their personal opinions on status updates, and a great way to interact with people all over the world via Facebook’s messenger.

Tumblr is able to function as a digital community as it is a social media platform that can be accessed all over the world. The digital community can also refer to the ‘public sphere’ which was an idea developed by “German philosopher Habermas in the 1990s to describe social and technological transformations in society” (Milne 2020). Tumblr being a blogging platform is able to transform society via its technology as members of society are able to engage with people’s experiences, thoughts, and ideas through a one stop blogging site like Tumblr. Not only are blogs written but pictures, GIFs, memes, and quotes are shared.

‘Public Sphere’ is a definition in which we are discussing throughout this unit and relates to Tumblr functioning as a digital community. “A place where private people come together as a public for the purpose of using reason to further critical knowledge which, in turn, leads to political change” (Kruse 2018), not necessarily a place where political change is made but a place where people can reblog posts, comment and like posts. By these options available on posts Tumblr users can comment on one another posts, sharing opinions and also like.

The Great thing about Tumblr is users are able to stay anonymous if wanted, so having a username which isn’t their name, and not revealing any picture of what they look like, allows for privacy, and perhaps people to be really honest with their blog posts as their identity is not being revealed.

References:

Kruse, LM Norris, DR & Flinchum, JR 2018, ‘Social Media As A Public Sphere? Politics on Social Media’, The Sociological Quarterly, 59:1, 62-84,

Milne, E 2020, Digital Communities and Blogging: Tumblr Case Study, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Modules via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 8 April, viewed 25 April 2020.

Moreau, E 2020, How to Use Tumblr for Blogging and Social Networking, Lifewire, viewed 25 April 2020, < https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-tumblr-4049305>