#the sex in published romance is like. oh ok. that’s nice i suppose

[orchidego]

I say misleading stuff all the time with no real recourse because sometimes the truth is simply not Revealable. For example, every time someone tries to talk to me about trad published current romance novels I have to be like, ah sorry I don’t really read those. And the reason is not because I’m a sophisticate who wouldn’t deign to read genre but because if you hand me a romance novel I’m going to eventually hit a sex scene and be like. Wish I were reading my pdf of the fallout instead.

Over my dead body will I be telling this to people. So solidifies an incomplete reputation as a prim book snob (which I absolutely am, I’m just also a feral moron).

disclaimer: I don’t think fic and books are at all comparable. just because something falls under the header category of “reading” doesn’t mean it should be held to some universal standard. I have separate standards for all my consumed media. what I’m saying here (beyond the joke) is that my reading preferences are very distinct between categories.

[mysticdragon3md3]

finally watched Dr. Stone ep6

[There’s supposed to be a cut here. *glares at Tumblr mobile*]

2:35 PM 12/3/2019

Dr. STONE Episode 6 – Two Nations of the Stone World

Oh, so Senku was the one who purposefully put Taiju in the cave.

"Rolf"?

I like how they're addressing loop holes.  Why just swallow birds and humans petrified?

"I"m standing in the face of an uncharted branch of science."  This shot looks like a motivational poster for mad scientists.  And I love it.  ^____^

"What's the difference between me and the rest of them?" Please don't say "shonen protagonist". LOL

I like this whole scene just showing Senku thinking through the petrification problem and trying to solve it.  It's got as much tension as a mystery or a battle tactics series or something.  But also, since it's a flashback and we already know how he solves the problem, it's relaxing for me, someone who doesn't like tension/drama.  So what's the point of this scene?  To show how difficult the challenge is to problem solve, like a duel in a "battle anime"?  Are Taiju and Yuzuriha going to have to go through the same process?  Can they do it, without being geniuses like Senku?  Maybe that's the point of this flashback.  Or maybe it's characterization portrayal for Senku.  

Maybe it's supposed to show the Resolve needed for most Shonen battle anime. That's a common theme in the genre, and I love it.  

"You don't know when to give up!"  "I'll believe in you and wait for as long as it takes.  I"m hopeless without you!"  There we go.  The characterization.  And I like how they split the screen to show parallels between these 2 friends and transition into the present.  

"I’m sure you know not to, but don't go thanking me for every little thing. I won't thank you either."  I know I shouldn't think it's cool to act cold, but that sounded cool.  I don't even like the preformed abrasiveness of tsundere!  And I certainly hate the trope of "shojo love interest is attractive because he's never nice, always cold, and unemotive except for anger and possessiveness".  I hate that stuff.  But maybe because we already know Senku is a good guy (regardless of his intentions), these lines don't come off as just abrasive cold.  

I remember Kikyo saying something like that in Inuyasha.  I thought it was logical, but Kagome's reaction framed it as really offensive.  I'm glad Taiju and Yuzuriha are such cinnamon rolls that they don't take Senku's "cool act" the wrong way. 

3:09 PM 12/3/2019

Well, commercials made Crunchyroll crash again.  I guess I'm done watching Dr. Stone for now.  -_-;  

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5:54 PM 12/24/2019

Dr. STONE Episode 6 – Two Nations of the Stone World

The subtitles aren't working again.  While I was just watching Ascendance of a Bookworm, I'd just have to pause and unpause the vid, and the subtitles would return.  But it's not working with this Dr. Stone ep.  Luckily it looks ilke a recap. ...Or have I seen this ep already? 

Yeah, I've seen this ep before and the subtitles still haven't returned even after 10min.  

I reloaded the page and the subtitles returned.  But after the commercial break, they're gone again.  The universe really doesn't want me to watch Dr. Stone right now.  ^^;

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7:19 PM 12/25/2019

I think this is my 3rd time trying to watch Dr. Stone ep6.  Let's hope Crunchyroll doesn't crash this time...or have that glitch that made the subtitles disappear again.  

7:40 PM 12/25/2019

Finally made it to the 2nd half of ep6.  ...but I might have to stop watching because I've got other things to concentrate one.  Meh.  I think I can watch for 15min more.  

I can't figure out if her eyes are too far apart or something else is wrong with her character design.  But something seems off about her face to me.  

Ah, she saw the hostage situation.  

Woah.  Vocal song.  

Oh, Senku is the "sorcerer gentleman".  LOL

This music takes me back to Bleach.  Is this the same band?  

Ah, greasing the gears.  

Here it comes.  Everything about her character design says "love interest for Shonen manga/anime protagonist".  ~.~;  Now she's stating her awe of Senku's characteristics....  And...There's the love confession.  

Omg.  I don't think posted about this before, but I've finally gotten tired of this trope.  Not just the "Shonen series female who exists primarily as a love interest/sexy eye candy", but the whole "sexy eyecandy female character" thing.  Which is weird because I've been trying to be sex positive for a few years now, and for decades I liked the sexy eye-candy character designs.  It's fun, cheeky, and cute.  And I can see the confidence as a female, owning her own sexuality. So I really don't understand this sudden feeling myself.  ...But more often I've been thinking:  If MCU fans can get tired of the "sky beam portal" trope becoming cliche after less than 10 years, then I'm allowed to become tired of the "sexy for no reason other than to lure in the Shonen series target audience" after FOUR whole decades.  And it's not like the "sky beam portal" limited to only superhero movies.  But the "girl sexy for no reason" cliche is in EVERY genre, every medium, and ads all over the place, in real life, the internet, etc.  It makes sense that I've gotten tired of it.  It probably makes less sense that I've been ok with it all this time, watching harem anime for decades and such.  ...But maybe I haven't been ok with it all this time. I mean, the trope of "female character who primarily exists in story to center around romance and her crush" has always been a tired cliche to me. Not just because that made her shallow, uninteresting, and most of all unrelatable to me, but also because it heavily alluded to the misogynist aspects of society, who already want to insist everywhere in real life that females are objects solely for their benefit and not autonomous people. If I’m reading/watching/listening to a fiction story, one of my reasons is to get away from all that type of ugliness in the real world.  Maybe “sexy girl” tropes wouldn't imply all that, if such phenomenon wasn't already so prevalent in real life societies.  Meanwhile, female characters owning one's sexuality and wielding sexual expression as power and/or pride, and part of one's identity, has never been a problem with me.  What's bothered me is that implication that the sexuality is more about making them objects in service to someone else, vs for themselves.  And let's face it, it's been many centuries of fictional characters where that has eluded most officially published authors.  ~o~;  It just makes me tired.  And I'm at that age where I'm going to get tired.  I think after 4 decades I'm allowed to get tired of a cliche.  Especially compared to how short the "sky beam portal" lasted before it was vilified.  

But hopefully Kohaku will prove to be more an autonomous person who happens to respect Senku while coincidentally being sexy.  We'll see which aspects prove more prominent.  

8:03 PM 12/25/2019

Well, after 3 tires, I finally finished ep6.  No crashes or long/frequent buffering this time.  And the times the subtitles disappeared, all I had to do was pause/unpause and they returned.  

[theworstbob]

yellin’ at songs, week twenty-five

capsule reviews of the pop songs which debuted on the billboard hot 100 the weeks of 30 June 2007 and 1 July 2017

30 June 2007

87) "Teenagers," My Chemical Romance

Y'know, I find Welcome to the Black Parade mostly disagreeable, but heck if this song ain't a bright spot, insofar as a song about bringing concealed weaponry of some kind to school is a "bright spot." (Hey, I dunno, if you have to add a disclaimer to the video saying "violence isn't the answer," you should consider a different song for the single? Just a thought, don't wanna backseat record executive, here, but that seems bad.) Like, apart from the "under your shirt" line, it's kind of a perfect angsty vibe, not Linkin Parky fml angst, more angsty in that eternally adolescent sense of "all adults are robots and I will never conform," it channels that really well, and it has a dope guitar solo. I don't think I've mentioned a guitar solo being fun, and I can't tell if that's because I don't typically care about guitar solos or this is the first memorable guitar solo we've gotten, but either way, best guitar solo of the project so far. I am spending a lot of time on this song because I'm like 60% sure it's gonna be the only song I like this week. (spoilers: it isn’t!)

93) "Imagine," Jack Johnson

You know what's another thing about "Teenagers?" Like, even before I ever listened to Welcome to the Black Parade, I could draw a line from "Welcome to the Black Parade" to "Teenagers." I could make sense of how "Teenagers" would fit in a narrative that began with "Welcome to the Black Parade," how that kid would become angry and sullen and start scaring adults. I wish more singles had some sort of thematic throughline, like I don't necessarily mean Future should write a rock opera, I mean that I should be able to get the sense that like "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill" are from the same album. But maybe I'm just projecting, maybe I'm stuck in MUSIC WAS BETTER IN 2007 mode when, as seen here, it clearly fucking wasn't.

94) "Shawty," Piles ft./T-Pain

wait hold up is that the "shawty, yeah-e-yeah, yeah" from the start of "i'm on the boat." did t-pain start all his features with "shawty yeah-e-yeah yeah" and i'm just noticing it now, or did t-pain reuse a run. anyway, piles is the goat: grossest of all time. he drops bars that would make yachty wince. like, this is just the first verse: "i pointed at the donk & told her this s'posed to be yours/showed her a couple stacks and told her i'd let her blow it" what body part is the donk in this context. if piles calls his dick 'the donk' i might throw up, especially since he believes being able to suck on it is a wonderful privilege. "i taught her how to talk to me while she take pipe" well, communication is key to any healthy relationship, i'm glad piles understands its importance "i gotta train her, now she suck me with ice" oh okay that's cool, yeah no, women need to be trained to give pleasure, i get it, totally, chill attitude that was the first verse. piles is the worst. i can't believe we squandered this hook and the "bust it baby, pt. 2" hook on this gross gross boy. oh hey second verse "member she used to run from me, now she like pain" cool. coooooooooooooooooooooooool. what a song!

no updates to the 2007 top 20 week but we’re gonna publish the top 20 because i didn’t last week and you may have forgotten 20) "Get Me Bodied," by Beyonce (5.26.2007) 19) "Lip Gloss," by Lil Mama (6.9.2007) 18) "I Don't Wanna Stop," by Ozzy Osbourne (5.26.2007) 17) "Stolen," by Dashboard Confessional (4.21.2007) 16) "Beautiful Liar," by Beyonce & Shakira (3.31.2007) 15) "Cupid's Chokehold," by Gym Class Heroes ft./Patrick Stump (1.13.2007) 14) "The River," by Good Charlotte ft./M. Shadows & Synyster Gates (2.10.2007) 13) "Say OK," by Vanessa Hudgens (2.17.2007) 12) "Alyssa Lies," by Jason Michael Carroll (1.13.2007) 11) "Never Again," by Kelly Clarkson (5.12.2007) 10) "Can't Tell Me Nothing," by Kanye West (6.16.2007) 9) "Get Buck," by Young Buck (4.14.2007) 8) "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," by Jennifer Hudson (1.13.2007) 7) "Thnks fr th Mmrs," by Fall Out Boy (4.28.2007) 6) "Candyman," by Christina Aguilera (1.13.2007) 5) "Because of You," by Ne-Yo (3.17.2007) 4) "Umbrella," by Rihanna ft./Jay-Z (4.28.2007) 3) "Beautiful Flower," by India.Arie (6.16.2007) 2) "Dashboard," by Modest Mouse (2.17.2007) 1) "The Story," by Brandi Carlile (4.28.2007) i still enjoy all 20 of these songs. alright, 2017, low bar for ya. maybe you wanna clear it?

1 July 2017

16) "2U," David Guetta by ft./Justin Bieber

There's something I really don’t like about Justin Bieber saying "Watch me speak from my heart when it comes to you," and then having that line immediately followed by an EDM drop. Like is the drop supposed to be a substitute for words? Is the drop supposed to communicate what's in Justin Bieber's heart? Because all I hear from the drop is "what a nifty drop I am!" But this feels less like a criticism than it does like pedantry. It's OK. David Guetta is a proven programmer of pop music, and this is another solid song that he has made that I wouldn't have been able to pin to David Guetta if I listened to this blind.

70) "Love Galore," by SZA ft./Travis Scott

Worth pointing out that the first autocomplete result for love galore is "love galore travis scott," which is cool. I'm also gonna cop to having this album in my library but letting it sit because there's so much else I have to get to and this wasn't a priority. This song doesn't move the album higher in my queue, but it does have me excited to get to it. This is a dope song, this portrait of an awful relationship neither party much wants to be in, but are staying together because they love each other, whatever that means. SZA regrets hooking up with Travis Scott, Travis Scott admits he was only looking for ass and titties, they both operate independently of one another, but there's love, so there's that. And then the end, when that extremely pleasant bass line disappears, there's that single note on the keyboard and SZA going "woah," then that beat switch into SZA saying "I came here to have sex with you, and if it weren't for that, I wouldn't be here," that's just so cool, like this song is complex and intricate and it does the thing "4 AM" did last week where the music occasionally goes out of tone and it does that thing to great effect. SZA's dope. I'm excited for whatever time I get to spend with her in the future. ...OK. OK, fine, I'll fucking leave this nice dark place and go to countrydudetopia.

79) "Do I Make You Wanna," by Billy Currington

Time for a YAS REWIND, because remember last week when we talked about how many people have made it from the 2007 Hot 100 to the 2017? THIS IS RELEVANT TO THAT, because Billy Currington just became the 29th member of the Decade Dance Party! We will share the full list later in this post, because there are only 10 songs this week and most of them blow so I'ma give you some other #content this week, but it's worth noting right here that 9 of the 29 members of Decade Dance Party are country dudes. You drive down enough dirt roads, you're gonna get stuck in the mud at some point. This is a song in which Billy Currington asks his girlfriend if he makes her feel complete and safe, which is either incredibly arrogant or pathetically needy.

89) "Escapate Conmigo," by Wisin ft./Ozuna

HELL YEAH LATIN POP. Gosh, the renewal of Latin pop as a thing we listen to has been one of the best things about doing this silly thing. Like, all the Latin pop is my second favorite thing about YAS, just ahead of Kendrick week but, let's be real, a million miles behind Ashley Tisdale's cover of "Kiss the Girl." This is such a nice song. The beat bounces nicely, Wisin's flow is like "what if Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped in Spanish and was also good" (like maybe it's been a while since I heard that dude rap, but they sound so very alike), and it has one of the best mis-translated lyrics of the year with "My supergirl/The one whose smiles steal me/Tremendous wolf." Tremendous wolf. I adore that.

93) "What Ifs," by Kane Brown ft./Lauren Alaina

I see you, dude. First off, this dude's voice is incredible. Like, after listening to dude after dude either whispering softly over EDM or bleating twangily over the country beat, hearing this dude belt was An Experience. I wish the production would calm down a little bit, like this dude and Lauren Alaina could have made this song an epic ballad on their own, but nah, gotta have the electronic drums spoil a perfectly good opening guitar line, gotta have the standard pop/country things choke the life out of what could've been some cool moments. This dude's a lot like that Luke Combs fella from a few months back, not stylistically or anything, just in the sense that I bet he's cooler than he is on this song, and I trust he's not just some bro country yutz, but I'm not in any rush to check out what else he's got, despite how appealing the song title "Used to Love You Sober" is.

95) "It's a Vibe," by 2 Chainz ft./Ty Dolla $ign, Trey Songz & Jhene Aiko

This was also OK! As stated, this song was a vibe, and gosh darn, if it didn't do much more than vibe, though. A fun way to kill three minutes, a less than fun thing to listen to if you're charging yourself with the task of coming up with some unique point to make about it for to generate likes and the whatnot. S'a'ight, y'know? I'm supposed to write, what, 100 words about something thats'a'ight? I mean, I don't have to, no one ever asked me to and they clearly don't want me to, but like. It's a vibe! It's another one. Fuck it, I don't, sigh, just give me the country dudes and let's get out of this actually-pretty-decent week.

100) "It Ain't My Fault," by Brothers Osborne

OK. OK! OK, hell yeah, no, I'm sorry for calling you country dudes, 'cuz hot damn, this was great. Like, Chris Stapleton gets a lot of hype for making classic country music, but he only makes the sad slow acoustic country music, and like Johnny Cash had "Folsom Prison Blues" and "A Boy Named Sue," y'know? Not to compare this song to those, but this is uptempo classic country, this is classic country with got damn STOMP, and it's dope as hell.

Two new songs in the Top 20 for 2017! 20) "It Ain't My Fault," by Brothers Osborne (7.1) 19) "Slide," by Calvin Harris ft./Frank Ocean & Migos (3.18) 18) "Felices los 4," by Maluma (6.3) 17) "Now & Later," by Sage the Gemini (2.25) 16) "Love Galore," by SZA ft./Travis Scott (7.1) 15) "Bad Liar," by Selena Gomez (6.3) 14) "DNA." by Kendrick Lamar (5.6) 13) "It Ain't Me," by Kygo x Selena Gomez (3.4) 12) "Craving You," by Thomas Rhett ft./Maren Morris (4.22) 11) "That's What I Like," by Bruno Mars (3.4) 10) "Chanel," by Frank Ocean ft./A$AP Rocky (4.1) 9) "Strangers," by Halsey ft./Lauren Jauregui (6.17) 8) "Either Way," by Chris Stapleton (5.27) 7) "Run Up," by Major Lazer ft./PARTYNEXTDOOR & Nicki Minaj (2.18) 6) "Green Light," by Lorde (3.18) 5) "ELEMENT." by Kendrick Lamar (5.6) 4) "Despacito," by Luis Fonsi ft./Daddy Yankee (2.4) 3) "Issues," by Julia Michaels (2.11) 2) "iSpy," by KYLE ft./Lil Yachty (1.14) 1) "Hard Times," by Paramore (5.13) I bumped “Selfish” this week. I have no idea how that happened. 2017′s slowly becoming stacked, and/or I’m an idiot.

Who won the week?

2017. Like? 2017.

2017: 13 2007: 12

Yooge opportunity for 2017 to widen this gap, too, so I’m stoked for a solid two weeks of Chainsmokers songs and memes. Anyway, THE IMPORTANT THING.

The Decade Dance Club

30 people have made or been featured on songs that charted in the years 2007 and 2017. They are: 1) Daddy Yankee (”Impacto,” “Shaky Shaky”) 2) Dierks Bentley (”Free & Easy,” “Black”) 3) Luke Bryan (”All My Friends Say,” “Fast”) 4) Gucci Mane (”Freaky Gurl,” “Make Love”) 5) Jason Aldean (”Johnny Cash,” “Any Ol’ Barstool”) 6) Lil Wayne (”Sweetest Girl” (feat), “Running Back” (feat)) 7) Missy Elliott (”Let it Go” (feat), “I’m Better”) 8) Maroon 5 (”Makes Me Wonder,” “Cold”) 9) Nick Jonas (”Year 3000″ (w/jobros), “Bom Bidi Bom”) 10) DJ Khaled (”We Takin Over,” “Shining”) 11) Beyonce (”Get Me Bodied,” “Shining”) 12) Jay-Z (”Blue Magic,” “Shining”) 13) Linkin Park (”What I’ve Done,” “Heavy”) 14) Rihanna (”Umbrella,” “Selfish” (feat)) 15) Josh Turner (”Me & God,” “Hometown Girl”) 16) Rick Ross (“We Takin Over” (feat), “Trap Trap Trap”) 17) Faith Hill (”I Need You,” “Speak to a Girl”) 18) Tim McGraw (”I Need You,” “Speak to a Girl”) 19) Miranda Lambert (”Famous in a Small Town,” “Tin Man”) 20) Enrique Iglesias (”Dimelo,” “Subeme la Radio”) 21) Flo Rida (”Low,” “Cake”) 22) Kenny Chesney (”Beer in Mexico,” “Bar at the End of the World”) 23) Paramore (”Misery Business,” “Hard Times”) 24) Miley Cyrus (”Nobody’s Perfect,” “Malibu”) 25) Blake Shelton (”Don’t Make Me,” “Every Time I Hear That Song”) 26) Shakira (”Beautiful Liar,” “Me Enamore”) 27) Rascal Flatts (”Stand,” “Yours if You Want It”) 28) Trey Songz (”Can’t Help But Wait,” “Nobody Else But You”) 29) Billy Currington (”Good Directions,” “Do I Make You Wanna”) 30) Wisin (”Sexi Movimento,” “Escapate Conmigo”)

Shout out to Wisin for making the list, too! So that’s 30, out of hundreds, who have had a career on the pop charts that spanned a decade. Specifically, the last ten years, there’s a few folks who’ve charted in 2017 that didn’t chart in 2007 despite being things back then, such as Darius Rucker, Eminem, John Legend, Mariah Carey, and Pharrell Williams. There’s also some folks who hit in 2008 that have hit in 2017, your Katy Perries and Ladies Antebellum, that cannot make this list because, hey, it’s kind of a dumb list. But music is dumb, and this list should illustrate how hard it is to last in the music business (unless you’re a dude who makes country music), which is why it’s vitally important we spend hours and hours dissecting Lil’ Yachty lyrics.