#the unit members the character descriptions the music genre

[fakeasmr]

breaking news: chatgpt knows nothing about ensemble stars

[spnfanficpond]

Pond Diving - Imagineteamfreewill

Welcome to today’s Pond Diving Spotlight! We hope that you enjoy this little insight to our members and perhaps even find some useful tips for your own writing. Happy reading!

Want to volunteer, send us an ask! We’re looking forward to learning more about all of you! Not sure what PD is, you can learn more here.

“Don’t Be Koi About It” - All About You

Name: Meg

Age: 20s

Location: United States

URL: @imagineteamfreewill

Why did you choose your URL: I first started out structuring my stories as imagines, and the “Team Free Will” part was pretty obvious.

What inspired you to become a writer: Reading Supernatural fanfiction inspired me to get back into writing, but I’ve always enjoyed it. My mom likes to talk about how when I was in Kindergarten, I drew a picture about how I wanted to be an author and now I write in my free time.

How long have you been writing: According to tumblr, I’ve been writing fanfiction since 2014, but I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember.

What do you do when you are not writing i.e. Job/Hobbies etc? I’m a music teacher, so I sing and play piano, and I’ve played a bit of cello and tenor saxophone as well. I love movies, baking, sleeping, and a few video games.

How long have you been in the SPN Fandom? I joined sometime around Season 8 or 9, I think. I don’t really remember!

Are you in any other fandoms and do you write for them? I really enjoy Marvel and I’ve read a lot of Marvel fics, but I don’t write for them. I like a lot of TV shows (New Girl, Parks and Rec, The Good Place, Outlander, etc), but I wouldn’t consider myself part of the fandom.

Do you do any writing outside of fanfiction? If so, tell us about it? I love to write poetry. I had a poetry blog at truenorth-ink a while ago, but I haven’t updated it recently at all. Most of my poems aren’t published or posted anywhere.

Favorite published author: I love some of the early series by Rick Riordan and I also really enjoy poetry by Nikita Gill and Atticus. Lately, I've really been getting into Leigh Bardugo's books.

Have you ever read a book that made an impact on your life? Which one and why?: I think "East" by Edith Pattou really affected me! I read it when I was in 6th-8th grade and I think about it often. I think it's something that really stuck with me and got me interested in fantasy books so much. I read it at least once a year.

Favorite genre of fanfic (smut, angst, fluff, crack, rpf, etc): I love angsty stuff, and most of the time I prefer it when it has some fluff mixed in. Straight fluff is often hard for me to read because I need something that’s more realistic for my own life and point of view. I also really like whump, but that can be a lot sometimes so it depends on my mood.

Favorite piece of your own writing: I don’t know if I have a favorite, but I loved writing Back to the Start (my mermaid series) and The Switch (a canon-divergent apocalyptic Reader x Sam series). Right now, I'm really enjoying my Consort series (a Goddess!Reader x Dean series). Creating my own rules in my own little universes is one of my favorite things to do, especially since I can’t always do whatever I want in real life.

Most underrated fic you have written: Empire. I loved getting to write Boyking!Sam because it was so different from my normal Sam stories and I did a lot of research for it. I’m pretty proud that the story never got too bloody or gory, too, so if you want some Boyking!Sam that’s not drenched in blood (for lack of a better term), I’m your girl!

Story of yours that you’d most like to see turned into a movie/tv show: Probably Back to the Start or The Switch. I think those two series would be amazing to see with J2, the rest of the cast/characters I included, and special effects! There’s so much I’d want to explore with both of them that I didn’t put into the series.

Favorite Tumblr Writer(s): @luci-in-trenchcoats, @sunlightdances, @supernaturalfreewill, @lipstickandwhiskey, @smol-and-grumpy, @percywinchester27, and @kaz2y5-imagines

Favorite fic from another writer:  I don’t think I could pick just one, but I’ve read all of @sunlightdances Dean fics multiple times. Her works got me through some pretty sucky times in my life and I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of her writing! I’ve also been reading her Bucky fics recently and it’s made me love Marvel fics even more than before!​

Favorite character to write: Sam Winchester

Favorite Pairing to write: Reader x Sam (Reader x Dean is a close second)

Least favorite character to write (and why): I don’t like to write for Crowley or Gabriel. Gadreel is hard for me even though I can do it, but I don’t understand Crowley or Gabriel’s personalities at all because they’re literally so far away from mine.

Do you have anyone you consider a mentor? No, although @lipstickandwhiskey and @kaz2y5-imagines really encouraged me in my writing!​

Do you have any aspirations involving your writing? I would love to write a non-Supernatural work of fiction to publish, but that’s a long way off.

How many work-in-progress stories do you have: Oh Lord, I have so many! I have at least four series and two one shots in the works right now. I've also got over 100 one shots/series plotlines written out in the notes on my phone and various Google Docs.

What are you currently working on? I’m currently working on a Cinderella series, my Underworld series, my Puer Rex series, my Consort series, an Author!Sam fic, and an Author!Dean fic. I also write stories for my Words series now and again.

“Pond Diving” - All About The Writing

What/who has had the biggest influence on your writing? Reading other people’s work. The intense storylines of @luci-in-trenchcoats ’s fics have gotten me to be more bold with my writing and the emotions and description in @supernaturalfreewill’s works have inspired me to let my work have more feeling.

Best writing advice you've been given: Not necessarily writing advice, but I was once told that anything worth doing is worth doing at least a little bit every day. Think about it—if you wrote even just five minutes a day, how much better will you get over the course of a month? A year?

Biggest obstacle you’ve faced in your writing: Repetition of words and commas. So many commas and so many uses of the same word over and over again. It’s a hard balance between using the word and using synonyms without sounding like I’m sitting there googling synonyms for “said”. I also tend to spend a lot of time on things that I think are super important but aren’t really important in the long run. I’m wordy as hell and my writing would be dull if I didn’t edit it as thoroughly as I do.

What aspects of writing do you find difficult when you write fanfiction? A lot of times I have these ideas that I think would make a great series but I don’t think through them, so planning out the plot of a series (or even a standalone fic) beforehand is something I struggle with.

Is there anything you want to write but are afraid to (and why): I would love to write more fics that have the characters dealing with severe mental disorders or that take place in a mental hospital, but I’m afraid that I’ll portray something wrong and solidify harmful stereotypes about what it’s like to deal with those things.

What inspires/motivates you to write: Honestly, just wanting to write things that I enjoy. Sometimes I get sick of reading other peoples’ stuff since it’s not exactly what I want, so I just write my own!

How do you deal with self doubt: Understand that sometimes it happens. You’ll doubt yourself—everybody does. If I’m doubting myself or my writing, I’ll take a break until I remember why I write. Then I’ll remember that yeah, writing for an audience is fun, but I write because I have cool ideas I want to explore, not because I need the attention or love of strangers. Lastly, I’ll reread my old fics, especially the ones I love, and then I’ll go back and edit old fics that I haven’t looked at in a while. That way I can see how I’ve improved and I don’t feel so terrible anymore! Reading my own fics is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, and I’ll read through my masterlists every once a while just to remind myself of the things I’ve loved, where I’ve been, and where I’m going.

How do you deal with writer's block: Like I said, I reread old fics and edit old fics that I haven’t looked at in a while. Seeing the things I’ve done before always helps to focus me. I’ll also read other people’s stuff or talk about headcanons with some friends to try and find some inspiration.

Do you plan/outline your story before you start: Lately I have been, but only because my periods of intense inspiration and productivity are getting farther and farther apart because of my job. I’ve found planning it out to be more and more helpful, especially for my series. A lot of times if I get a great idea, I’ll outline the whole plot or any significant details I want to put in that one shot/series so that I can come back to it whenever I have the time or I’m inspired for it again.

Do you have any weird writing habits: I write best in places that are unfamiliar to me or in places/times where I shouldn’t be writing. Class? Writing. Airport terminal? Writing. 4am when I have to be up at 6? Writing.

Have you ever received hateful comments on your fic and how do you deal with it? Not that I remember! I feel like there’s probably been one or two over the years, but I probably just got upset about it with my friends for a while and then got over it.

Conversely: what’s been some of your favorite feedback on your fanfic? A long time ago, when I was writing Back to the Start, I had one person who sent me asks for every single series update. I screenshotted them and saved them on my laptop. There’s one particular one where they say that they’re happier because of my writing and honestly, isn’t that what we all strive for? That people’s lives are better because of our stories? I’ve also had some pretty great friends recently who’ve made it a point to reblog and send asks/messages on all my works, which has been so meaningful that I never replied to the asks. They’re sitting in my inbox and I go through and reread them sometimes when I’m feeling down.

If you could give one piece of advice to a new and/or struggling writer, what would it be?  ​Write down everything. If you come up with an amazing piece of dialogue, even if it’s just one sentence or one person talking, or if you come up with something you’d think would be a great title… WRITE IT DOWN. It doesn’t matter if it fits into whatever you’re currently writing or not, it’ll come in handy! I don’t know how many times I’ve gone through my idea list and found really obscure lines/titles/inspiration that didn’t make sense when I wrote them down, but are now exactly what I need to finish a fic. Even if you don’t end up using it, jotting down your ideas is still writing, and that’s good practice!

[swynlake-rp]

“I am always right. Even when I’m wrong, I’m right!”

FULL NAME: Franny Robinson BASED ON: Franny (Meet the Robinsons) FACE CLAIM: Elodie Yung PRONOUNS: She/her BIRTHDAY: January 17, 1980 CURRENT STATUS: Taken

Character Description || cw: infertility, mentions of: genocide, car accident , suicide, sexual assault, opioid crisis||

Excerpts from the Wikipedia entry on Franny Robinson

Darareaksmey Sor Framagucci Robinson (born as Darareaksmey Sor; January 17, 1980), known professionally as Franny Sor Robinson, is a Cambodian-American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, author, and former dancer, currently based in the United Kingdom. In addition to a prolific genre-defying solo career, she is one half of the bluegrass, folk and americana duo Dara & Danny, with lifelong friend Daniel Maitland. She is a founding member of the indie pop, indietronica and indie rock band Seoul Hanoi'd where she is a lead singer and lyricist.

She is married to inventor, engineer, and CEO of Robinson Industries Cornelius Robinson. 

Robinson is a native of Clayton County, Georgia, an alumna of Lovejoy High School, and an alumna of Nashville’s Belmont University where she was a double major in musical theatre performance and music studies with a double concentration in jazz and ethnomusicology. She holds M.A.s in jazz studies and ethnomusicology from Pride University, where she also taught as a professor until leaving in 2020 to focus fully on her creative career. 

Robinson's mother, grandmother, and several aunts and uncles were survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime and Cambodian Genocide. The two have co-authored two books together detailing her mother's experiences under the Khmer Rouge, her escape, and the refugee resettlement process and culture shock. Robinson has co-authored a third book, with her maternal cousin, Cambodian-French historian Amandine Sor titled Our Parents Climbed The Same Trees: How Imperialism, War, Genocide, and a Refugee Crisis Scattered a Family Across Seven Countries, which included interviews with relatives resettled to and born in Canada, New Zealand, France, Germany, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Japan.

[from] Early Life and Family

Darareaksmey Sor was born January 17, 1980, in Clayton County, Georgia to her single mother, Sophea "Sophie" Sor. In 1986, Sophie Sor married Swiss immigrant Adrien Framagucci and he legally adopted Darareaksmey. Robinson has stated that her nickname "Franny" came from a "very lazy bastardization of my maiden surname [Framagucci] because my teachers couldn't pronounce Darareaksmey Framagucci. My parents have never called me that. But it's my name now, like, I just got so used to it." Robinson has two older step-brothers, Gaston and Art.

Robinson's mother was born in Cambodia. In 1979, she was resettled to Atlanta as one of the refugees from the Indochina Refugee Crisis. She was pregnant with her daughter shortly after arriving in America and not long into her pregnancy found herself homeless. Robinson has stated that a Vietnamese couple named Ken and Evie Tran that fled the war in Vietnam and had since settled in Lovejoy, Georgia remodeled a 12 x 16 shed on their property to be living quarters for the pregnant young woman and gave her a job in their restaurant. Robinson and her mother lived in the remodeled shed until her mother married Adrien Framagucci. "We lived in a tiny house before it was cool," Robinson joked in an interview.

Robinson grew up speaking Khmer and Vietnamese while they lived on the Tran's property. "I spoke very broken English until I started Kindergarten. Everyone I knew and interacted with was either Cambodian or Vietnamese," she has said. "The school's ESL teacher had a thick country twang, so in my hometown there's a whole generation of Mexican immigrants' kids and Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees' kids who learned to speak English from her so we sound like her." After she entered public school, she still spoke Khmer and Vietnamese on a regular basis.

[from] Lyrical themes and style

Robinson is a prolific songwriter with over 1,100 songwriting and composing credits to date. Her songwriting style can be autobiographical but she also enjoys "making up wild stories, creating characters and writing entire albums worth of songs about them." She explores contemporary issues like mental health, the opioid epidemic, and politics in her songwriting. She pulls from her personal experiences and traumas including growing up queer in the rural American South, the suicide of her best friend since Kindergarten, growing up in poverty, miscarriage, sexual assault, and her mental health struggles. "Something happens to me, I write a song about it," she's said. "I promise I write more happy songs, y'all just love to talk about the sad shit." 

She has said that her husband directly inspired "several dozen songs". Themes of Buddhism and Christianity are woven throughout her songbook.

She has written song lyrics in English, Khmer, French, and Italian.

[from] Personal Life

While a student at Belmont, Robinson had ambitions of being a Broadway actress, but a near-fatal car accident after graduation made her being a professional dancer in any sense “ill-advised” according to her doctors. “I was devastated, I felt like my career was over before it had even begun. I was about to let my piano gather dust.” She credits her then-boyfriend now husband, Cornelius Robinson, for encouraging her not to walk away from music.

Robinson is a practicing Buddhist. While her mother raised her a Buddhist, she recalls her family also went to church at least one Sunday a month and usually more "for the community aspect of it" after her parents married. 

In 1999, while a student at Belmont, she began dating engineering prodigy and millionaire inventor Cornelius Robinson. In October of 2002 they were married and she changed her legal name to Darareaksmey Sor Framagucci Robinson. She uses her birth surname and her married name together professionally.

She has two children with her husband; son Wilbur (b.????), and daughter Sovanna (b. 2021). Wilbur, like Cornelius Robinson, was adopted. On their son's adoption Franny Robinson has stated, "My husband and I always knew we planned to adopt at least one of our children. Cornelius is an adoptee, I come from a blended family, and it felt just as comfortable as the idea of me giving birth to a baby. We adopted Wilbur before I had all my miscarriages and knew we'd never have a biological child." Robinson has stated that she stopped trying to have a baby in her mid-thirties, and her pregnancy with daughter Sovanna at 40 had been a surprise. 

[from] Awards and Accolades

Click here for a full list

✓ Enthusiastic, quirky, nurturing ✖ Stubborn, impulsive, impatient

Character Suggestions

40+

Current Relationships

Wilbur Robinson (son) Cornelius Robinson (husband) Tallulah Robinson (cousin-in-law) Fritz Robinson (uncle-in-law) Petunia Robinson (aunt-in-law) Laszlo Robinson (cousin-in-law) Gaston Framagucci (oldest brother) Art Framagucci (older brother)

Possible Relationships

click here!

Magical Abilities

None

[svtshine]

Seventeen as Haikyuu profiles [2]

Hip-hop unit

genre: Haikyuu!au

type: profiles

=====================================

[ SCOUPS ]

Name: Choi Seungcheol

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 65 kg

Birthday: 8th August 1995

School: Karasuno High School

Year: Third year senior

Position in club: Starter, President of club

Position in team: Ace

Appearance: Dark blue hair, gorgeous. First lobe piercing on his right ear. His uniform won’t be very tidy always but somehow never gets caught for it. Always has his hands in his pockets and wearing a sweater

Description: A very kind and respectful soul. Goes out of his way to help the teachers and juniors. Earns the respect of almost everyone. Fierce yet at the same time very friendly and child-like. Would give the dad talk to the younger club members but would also joke around with them a lot. He definitely attends every training.

Skills in volleyball: Cheolie has a lot of strength, he’s super stronk. I feel that he would be great as an ace, using his brute force to slam the ball against the other team’s block to score. He has keen senses and quick reactions.

Known move or habit: Back row attack

Resembled characters: Daichi, iwaizumi

=====================================

[ Wonwoo ]

Name: Jeon Wonwoo

Height: 182 cm

Weight: 63 kg

Birthday: 17th July 1996

School: Shiratorizawa

Year: Second year student

Position in club: starter

Position in team: Middle blocker

Appearance: Black, fluffy hair. two piercings on each side of his ears. His uniform usually looks lazy and messy. Always wear sweaters with sweater paws

Description: Tends to keep to himself and would have his close group of friends. He loves to read and is very smart in his studies. Probably wasn’t in love volleyball before joining the club but fell in love after. Always with headphones and listening to music. But caring and kind.

Skills in volleyball: Won is very quick in thinking and solving problems. Whenever the team is stuck he tends to suggest ways to help. The team always listens. He’s able to read people very well and his blocks are mostly successful.

Known move or habit: Read, the player watches where the toss will go and jumps accordingly.

Resembled characters: Kageyama, Tsukkishima

=====================================

[ Mingyu ]

Name: Kim Mingyu

Height: 187 cm

Weight: 70 kg

Birthday: 6th April 1997

School: Shiratorizawa High School

Year: Second year student

Position in club: Starter

Position in team: Wing spiker

Appearance: Black styled hair. Two piercings on his right ear, and a helix on his left. Messy uniform definitely. Would have that bad boy look, messy school tie and hair, hands always stuffed in his pockets. Drop dead gorgeous still.

Description: Very friendly. Mingyu’s the type of person who would make friends with rival teams and chit chat with them if he has time during breaks in competitions. Social butterfly but never mess with him. He gets serious when he needs to.

Skills in volleyball: Mingyu’s has a big structure which helps when he needs to get through blocks. If he has to switch to blocking he would be pretty good as well. i feel that Mingyu would be an all around. He’s good at almost every position.

Known move or habit: Personal time difference attack

Resembled characters: Kuroo, Lev

=====================================

[ Vernon ]

Name: Hansol Vernon Chwe

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 62 kg

Birthday: 18th February

School: Aoba Johsai

Year: First year student

Position in club: starter

Position in team: Wing spiker

Appearance: Silver hair. Vernon will be the death of me but i wouldn’t complain. One piercing on both ears. would definitely, definitely always see him in a hoodie. When he’s walking to school he’ll be wearing headphones. Stuffs his hands in his pocket too

Description: Vernon is a very cool, chill guy. i feel like he’s the type you can just hang out with and not say anything but it’ll still be the best vibe ever. Very good music taste. Seniors would make friends with him quickly with how chill he is

Skills in volleyball: May be pretty new the sport but adapts and learns very quickly. He may not be extremely talented immediately given as he hasn’t gotten enough experience but as he grows up, his skills definitely improves a lot. I feel like Vernon’s defence would be way stronger than his offence, similar to Daichi. Daichi is talented in receiving as well as Vernon

Known moves or habits: Feints, dig

Resembled characters: Kunimi, Asahi

=====================================

Masterlist

Other units: Vocal unit || Performance Unit

[fyloona]

(INFO) LOOΠΔ “Hi High” MV Description

‘+ +’ represents the ‘plus plus’ effect LOOΠΔ 1/3, ODD EYE CIRCLE, yyxy, and YeoJin gather to create.

LOOΠΔ was born in its own universe with three uniquely structured teams. In other words, it was not designed as a group diving up into three units, but three teams were built to create one universe.

LOOΠΔ 1/3 is a combination of girls present on planet earth. These girls portray the most realistic and practical sceneries that can easily be found on the streets or in school. HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul and ViVi start their stories in France, Japan, Iceland, and Hong Kong to become unified as one.

LOOΠΔ / ODD EYE CIRCLE places itself in between the earth and the cosmos. The beginning of ODD EYE CIRCLE was by looking at three moons (ODD). Mutative, or varietal, girls gather to form the ODD EYE CIRCLE, and show themselves by taking control in love relationships instead of waiting passively.

LOOΠΔ / yyxy was also known as ‘Edenism’ as it was placed beyond the earth of 1/3 and the middle earth of ODD EYE CIRCLE, in the place where we call ‘utopia’. But, the girls of Eden decide to deny the rules of Eden to venture off on a forbidden quest to find their identities. The emotions of each girls, faith, hope, love, and anger gather to form a being named yyxy.

As the title suggests, the first track ‘+ +’ is a mash-up of the intro tracks of the albums by LOOΠΔ 1/3, ODD EYE CIRCLE, and yyxy.

The titled track ‘Hi High’ is a song in the genre of Hi Energy, emitting positive energy that the gathering of the twelve members create. The desire to play hard-to-get is portrayed in the lyrics through the characters of each member. HeeJin says, “I don’t want to pass my love on to you so easily,” while HyunJin says, “because I’m that pretty girl,” and Choerry says, “I’m not playing hard-to-get but boys will be boys, watch out, watch out,” telling what is on their minds candidly. The high BPM like a high-speed sprint along with melodies pouring down, and splendid track arrangements forces the listeners to hold their breath and focus on the music.

The official music video of ‘Hi High’, directed by the visual director Digipedi, narrates how LOOΠΔ 1/3 meets ODD EYE CIRCLE, and how these girls unite with yyxy to soar to the sky, with countless visual symbolisms hidden in the scenes.

The lead-off single ‘favOriTe’ is the iconic signature sound of LOOΠΔ, completed with beats and synth stabs that previous girl-groups have never tried before.

‘열기 (9)’, is a track that proves a point that even without aggressive tempo, the temperature of the music can become heated up by the fervor of the girls. Along with it, a track with commercial sound that grabs you like love at first sight, ‘Perfect Love’, and a musical suggestion for you to become brave through the luxury of imagination that everyone cherishes in a corner of their hearts, ‘Stylish’ complete [+ +], the first album of LOOΠΔ with musical elements of LOOΠΔ 1/3, ODD EYE CIRCLE, and yyxy.

LOOΠΔ, building LOONAverse with belief and certainty, finally gathers all twelve members and stands on their first stepping stone.

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 378: ENDON Bodies 

This is a 12″ featuring remixes of the Japanese band ENDON by Justin Broadrick and Vatican Shadow. I received it from the band’s manager after Russian Circles played with ENDON in Tokyo back in 2014. The band impressed me so much that I interviewed them for Noisey. The article is reposted below:

The first time I went to Japan on tour, I was treated to a performance by an opening act consisting of two tiny Japanese girls at a small club in Shibuya. One girl played acoustic guitar and sang in a cute, sweet, elfin voice not unlike Satomi Matsuzaki from Deerhoof. The other girl was playing some sort of motion-activated sampler device. She would make karate chop movements over the small glowing piece of equipment that would trigger samples of gong hits. It was the most Japanese thing I’d ever seen. I just wished there was a hologram Anime character doing lead vocals.

I toured Japan again earlier this year and our host informed me that we would be playing with “the most extreme band in Tokyo”. More extreme than the girl duo with the gong sounds and the martial arts moves? Doubt it. But then I bore witness to ENDON. I can’t say how the band weighs up against other acts in the region—this is a culture that birthed Melt Banana and Masonna, after all—but I’d be hard pressed to envision any other Tokyoites coming close to their level of aggressive dissonance. The drummer plowed through the set with an unrelenting barrage of blast beats. On stage left, a guy was beating a black box strapped to his chest. At first I thought it was old piece of stereo equipment—an old CD player, perhaps—but on closer inspection I realized it was some homemade device with a series of springs stretched across the front. He was beating the springs the way a heavy-handed guitarist strummed guitar strings. Harsh noise thundered out of his amp. Stage right, a guitarist churned out a caustic wash of distortion that sounded Burzum’s Filosofem and the Mohinder discography getting sucked into a turbine engine. Next to him, another band member hunched over a bank of blinking lights, cranking out electronic squalls. At the front of the stage, vocalist Taichi Nagura loomed over the crowd. Built like a tank with a shaved head and a well-groomed moustache, Taichi would be perfectly cast as the intimidating bodyguard Tamaru in a movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. While the band doled out their sonic punishment, Tamaru shrieked, howled, whinnied, growled, and bellowed his way through the set, occasionally chucking a beer cans at the audience along the way.

I was shell-shocked by their set. A few weeks later, I was able to get a hold of Taichi to talk about what I’d witnessed.

Brian (B): I remember talking to you over dinner before seeing you play and you described ENDON as “noise metal”. That’s probably the most straightforward description of what you do. But in the States, noise metal usually refers to bands like Today Is The Day, Dazzling Killmen, or Deadguy. Those bands seem tame in comparison. For the sake of not confusing or misleading American readers, we need to come up with a different genre name for you guys. How about power-electronics-violence? Or white-noise metal?

Taichi (T): I love both of the suggestions, really appreciate it. They hit the mark. I know I should be modest, but how about “catastrophic noise metal”?

B: “Catastrophic noise metal” it is, then. So how does a catastrophic noise metal band like ENDON even start? Did you have an idea of what you wanted to sound like when you first got together?

T: Originally, we started ENDON in order to make noise music more functional on an entertainment level. In the extreme music scene in Japan, combining general rock sounds and noise has been a very popular subject for many years but it has mainly been made through collaborations between established bands and noise musicians. We were not satisfied or comfortable with it, because there were very few bands that focused on it as one unit. I think there should be more artists with these terms. Typically, these collaborations tend to add harsh noise as an addition to the higher frequencies of the guitar, like a shoegaze sound. We would like to stay away from that. We wanted to offer listeners a different style. And there is another reason we wanted to make our own sound: general noise and avant-garde styles in Japan have been too close to free-jazz or free music. We still like that stuff, but it’s gotten to be too much, too limiting in its criteria.

B: I would guess that the songwriting originates around guitar riffs, since the guitar seems to have the most concrete and recognizable structure. Am I right? Does the creative process ever start around the noise elements? Lou Reed has that famous quote about cymbals eating guitars—do you ever run into the problem of the noise eating the guitar?

T: Exactly. In most cases we wrote music with guitar riffs first just because metal and hardcore music was a major reference for most of the songs on this album. However, the guitar in “Pray For Me” was written last. For our previous EP, we did lots of jamming and improvisation over and over again to arrange and shape songs. But now we write more with the guitar first. When there is no context or specific ideas, a tiny little motif from an instrument is a great lead. With the invention of black metal, combining noise and metal is not so difficult to imagine anymore. Harsh noise and black metal have an affinity. At the same time, an affinity means a competitive frequency level, especially between guitar and noise. It is very important how we control and arrange them. That’s fun though; we never feel that the structure between guitar and noise is annoying. It is the best part of our songwriting. We usually adjust the equalization between noise and distortion, which leads to a definitive result for listeners. For example, we adjusted our amplifiers a little bit before a recent show and played our usual set. We saw a review later that said ENDON played a bunch of new songs that night.

B: I know Atsuo from Boris helped record your new album MAMA, and I could imagine there being some crossover between ENDON’s audience and Boris’s audience, just because you both have one foot in the metal world and one foot in the experimental music world. And Boris obviously has the occasional collaboration with Merzbow to add the noise element. But aside from that, ENDON and Boris are very different beasts. Do you feel like you have any musical peers in Tokyo? Do you feel a kinship with the Japanese hardcore scene?

T: Atsuo knows exactly what we would like to do, even more so than us! I am so proud of our first full-length being so well made despite our noisy and complicated style. I know we are absolutely in Atsuo’s debt. Yeah, Boris and ENDON have similar tastes in some ways, though they are the pioneers of this genre and no one can be like them. We respect them a lot. ENDON has also been very good friends with a sludge-core band called Zenocide and an industrial unit called Carre. They are the same age as us and often do collaborations together. We also have lots of friends in Tokyo’s grind and noise scenes. Personally, I don’t think ENDON belong to the hardcore music scene in Tokyo, though our favorite venue Earthdom is a mecca of the local hardcore scene. You can still see legendary Japanese hardcore bands there, bands we grew up seeing over and over again. My impression is that the cool and interesting bands at our age used to be hardcore bands that then try to do another thing. Zenocide, who I mentioned earlier, used to be crust punk guys, for example.

B: I think the hardcore vibe I was picking up on comes from the strong antagonistic vibe to your live show, as if the music and performance is meant to punish the audience. Do you feel hostility towards the crowd? Or do you ever feel like the crowd is hostile towards you?

T: No, it’s not intended to be against the audience at all, but against myself. It’s me against the world. In order to act like that, I prepare songs without words. I have no idea what makes me so irate. I see no major difference among each and every individual besides an unspecified mental condition. I try to put myself in that headspace for the purpose of the show. It is not only a punishment but also a sweet pleasure to me. When I act like a master and try to pretend to punish the audience during our show, I feel like I am released from my sin and am buried in happiness. My shows with ENDON are kind of a tragedy in that way. In fact, during the early days of ENDON, there was a lot of fighting between the audience and me…

B: A lot of singers in the world of extreme music tend to fade into the background on record because they have a limited vocal range. With ENDON, it sounds like you have 5 or 6 different singers because the timbre of your voice changes so much. It literally sounds like an entire family—father, mother, son, daughter, family dog—attacking each other. Is this a response to the monotonic quality of metal vocals? Or is it just what naturally came out of your mouth at the first practice?

T: To me, screaming and shouting within the limited range of extreme music sounds so boring. It’s just laborious, a kind of duty they have to fulfill. Of course, what I do is partially a response to monotonous metal vocals, but more than that I would like to keep myself happy as opposed to responding to or attacking others. In that sense, my vocals need to be done unconsciously. Most importantly, ENDON as a whole should prepare our sounds and arrangements to make our music operate unconsciously. As you’ve pointed out, I have tried to do several vocal styles, like one voice that has multiple characters. And I show a relationship among those characters in a psychoanalytical way, like family therapy role-playing. Certainly, there have been good examples of other people doing this. A few singers from great depressive black metal bands have an impressive scream that has both the characters of victim and assailant in one. Multiple characters in one voice… I wanted to move ahead in that direction.

B: Speaking of family therapy, have any of your parents ever come to see you play? And are you still welcome in their homes afterwards?

T: It’s annoying to say that my parents don’t recognize I am crazy at all even though I am doing crazy stuff in ENDON. They are baby boomers that enjoyed Western art, culture, and music during their youth, and they view themselves as the first generation that brought that Western culture over to Japan. They still try to tell me what is best when it comes to music. That is one of the major reasons why everyone in ENDON and I try to focus on musical and cultural “parricide” with songs like “Parricide Agent Service” and “Etude For Lynching By Family”.

B: So I take it that’s a “no” then.

[cloudybookash-blog]

25-50

Soooo… I take forever to do these things, sooooorrryyyy!

26. What would your character say their best trait would be?

Idk, probs that she’ s nice or something? I literally have never thought about how my characters feel about themselves??? 

Great start!

27. What is your character’s greatest fear? Deep, irrational?

That she ends up accidentally, or even intentionally, like her father in her attempt to over throw his rule. I’d say she’s terrified to become a hypocrite, all these years facing against her family and the way the rule/conduct themselves to end up doing or being exactly like them would be nightmare inducing for her.

28. What is currently motivating your character to stay with the party?

She killed the other party… In all fairness, it was an accident.

But for real, before meeting her current Crew™ her biggest fear was leading her Old Party and being shunned by the very peoples with who she was coming to aid/save. Of course, she stays with them because at the end of the day she loves them and enjoys their company but there are obviously a lot of other reasons to stay: she doesn’t know the land (her Old Party were going to teach her when they reached ‘safety’), she doesn’t have any ties on the new planet apart from a single group of rebels from her home world who aren’t the easiest on the eyes, she hardly speaks the language or understands the customs/culture of this new planet, and probably even more that I haven’t thought about. Bottom line is that she needs them.

On a happy note, they need her too.

29. What are your character’s hobbies and interests outside of their class?

I’m translating these q’s for a book and I don’t know enough about dnd (or my fucking characters for that matter) to answer.

30. What would most people think when they first see your character?

Tall. Like, freakishly tall.

31. What stereotypical group role does your character play in the party? (The Mom, the Mess, the Comic Relief, etc. Optionally: What role would your character play in the “Five Man Band” structure?)

Well, she’s technically the leader I guess. It’s kind of her quest they’re all on but at the same time the others tend to take her place leading the sub groups while she figures out a plan. I guess she might be The Man in The Chair or Behind the Curtain.

32. What is your character the most insecure about?

Maybe her intelligence, like not being the smartest person in the room. She’s known (even on the new planet) for being super strong and a great fighter, but she detests that viewpoint because it makes it difficult for people (and herself) to differentiate between the ‘bad guys’ in her family and the ones who’ve been fighting the Good Fight, like her.

33. What person does your character admire most?

I think I’ve answered this before and it had something to do with liking people who could be strong and caring at the same  time. Or something sappy like that.

34. What does your character admire and dislike the most about the player character sitting to your left?

Translating for a book her so I’ll answer about how my character feels about the other four members of the main cast:

J: PRO: very understanding, never have to explain or defend herself to him - he always gets it. CON: not who she thought he would be.ME: PRO: loyal, despite having their little spats, at the end of the day ME would die for her. CON: not very understanding.HH: PRO: funny, can relax the whole mood at a moments notice. CON: reckless, is usually the only reason they get into trouble.M: PRO: is the closest to her in age and as a result is like her best friend, there’s almost nothing she hates about M. CON: I literally can’t think of one Z could have against M.

35. Why is your character’s lowest stat their lowest (the in-character reason, not “because there’s no reason for a wizard to have 16 strength, duh”)?

Not applicable.

36. What would be your character’s theme song/favorite band/favorite genre of music?

Something folky? 

37.  What stereotypical role would your character play in a high school AU/if they attended a normal high school? (Nerd, jock, bully, goth, etc.)

A toss up between the Loner or the Class President.

38. What treasure/item/artifact that your character has collected during the adventure is the most important to them?

She doesn’t/can’t really collect stuff, survival mode, y’know.

39.  Is there any particular weapon, item, etc. that your character longs to find?

No? Her fight isn’t after something material.

40.  Where does your character feel the most at home?

I think I’ve tried answering this before and couldn’t answer, probably at her Uncle’s place though, because it has the best memories for her.

41. Does your character care about how they’re perceived by others? How do they change themselves to fit in with other people?

I think yes, as she’s keeping her identity a secret. As a result I’d say she tends to distance herself out of fear of slipping up that she’s related to the enemy. Her entire plan rest on being supported by a lot of people and the idea that where she comes from could hurt her chances of success would be stressful.

42. What does your character think is the true meaning of life?

Broooo, this too deep for 10:41am.

43. What is your character’s scent? (Bonus points for a description that sounds like it could be from a bad [or awesome] fanfic.)

lol, B.O. probably, she’s a preteen running around in the woods.

44. Does your character think more with their heart or their brain?

Heart.

45. What is your character’s most recent or frequent nightmare?

I don’t wanna be cliché and say the murder of her older brother and mother, or her fear of failing overall but… I’m gonna be cliche and say those are the two things she probably has nightmares over. 

46. What opinion does your character have on [CERTAIN ESTABLISHED GROUPS/AUTHORITIES IN THE GAME WORLD]? (Dragonmarked Houses, royal crown, etc.)

There are a lot of little, influential groups that she comes across and some of them live up to her expectations and others don’t. Overall, she has the opinion that any group in a position of power needs to do more harm than good, and act as both protector and provider to their people. That’s regardless of whether they’re just a random clan that walk around together, or the ‘police-type unit’ in this world, or the political rulers, she doesn’t care how small your reach is, if you rule - you better do it well.

47. How did your character spend their childhood? Where did they grow up/who were their childhood friends?

Pretty sure I’ve answered this before? Um, just recap I guess - she was born second heir to the throne on her world, spent her childhood hanging out with her Guard, learning and training under royal tutors and trainers. Fucked up along the way and got her ass banished, was sad, lived with her uncle who subsequently became her teacher for everything, and spent quality time with her brother as a result, she was then welcomed back out of banishment for a short period of time before she ‘defected’. And, technically, she’s still a child, so the contents of the book are her ‘growing up’ so to speak.

48. What aspect of your character’s future are they most curious about? (If they could know one thing about the future, what would it be?)

Whether they’ll die before they achieve their goals. Morbid I know, but this is war.

49. What colors are associated with your character?

Blue, Black, Purple and White.

50. Who in the party would your character prioritize rescuing, in dire circumstances?

Probably M or HH, both J and ME prove themselves to be able to get out of any situation on their own but sometimes HH can get overwhelmed or distracted and then can’t save himself and M has yet to prove herself as capable enough to handle anything that comes her way.

[stevecanmakeanythingnerdy]

Battle #30

Dave Clark Five: 5 by 5 ( Side 1 )

Vs.

Tex Ritter: Comin’ After Jinny ( Side 1 )

Dave Clark Five: 5 by 5 ( Side 1 )

The Dave Clark Five were an English rock and roll band formed in Tottenham in 1957. In January 1964 they had their first UK top ten single, "Glad All Over", which knocked the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK Singles Chart. In fact, often the DC5 as they became known, were compared to The Beatles. They were the second group of the British Invasion to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States (for two weeks in March 1964 following the Beatles' three weeks the previous month). They eventually appeared 18 times on his show. *ahem* more than any other British Invasion group. Back in those days, that was Thee show to be on if you wanted to make a splash. Dave Clark, who formed the group, was very clever. He struck business deals that allowed him to not only produce the band's recordings but also gave him control of the master recordings. At the time not really a big deal, but pioneering in later years as the music industry grew into a corporate monster. To this day he still retains the rights. Genius. Another aspect that makes the DC5 unique is that they did not follow the psychedelic music trend that was so popular amongst peers at the time. The Dave Clark Five officially disbanded in 1970,while still successfully charting in the UK. This album is the U. S. Release version from 1967. That’s another thing, in those days bands would relentlessly record and tour. Often putting out multiple albums in one single year. The DC5 put out 11 (yes eleven) studio albums from 1964-1967. That’s almost an average of 3 per year?!? Talk about a hit machine! This is why I make a strong argument that DC5 were perhaps not better charting than The Beatles, but certainly more efficient. The first track is “Nineteen Days”. It may be one of their later slabs of wax, but it’s just as soulful. High pitched bitchin’ beats get the countdown on for moving those butts. Mid tempo 60s and I think under 2 minutes! “Something I’ve always wanted” follows and has a definite blues feel. It’s another quick one too and this time with harmonica. In fact, harmonica takes full on lead on the next track, “Little Bit Strong”. Some great, nasty distortion groove too. Dave and his Clark five don’t mess around. They blast right on through. Hell, if they recorded 11 albums in 4 years then they probably know how to rip through a song with little fanfare. “Bernedette” is next and of course there’s a song about a girl. It’s a requirement for a crooner to appear. Very minimal instrumentation, just lovey dovey emos. “Sitting here Baby” is the last tune and a ditty and done in the gold old rock ‘n’ roll style. Great bass solo too. Some vocal scat even. Swing beat makes it sweet. I do feel this album suffers a little as compared to earlier recordings simply because of the barrage. Did I mention 11 (!) albums in 4 years??!?!!?! Oh yeah, and the total run time from start to finish is 11 minutes. It probably took more time to set up one of the mics than it did to record this whole album!

Tex Ritter: Comin’ After Jinny ( Side 1 )

Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter was an American country music singer and actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John and grandsons Jason and Tyler). He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. In fact, he became one of the founding members of the Country Music Association in Nashville, Tennessee and spearheaded the effort to build the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Eventually he was Inducted in 1964. An early pioneer of country music, Ritter soon became interested in show business. He started out doing radio and eventually broadway plays. Also recording songs about cowboy life for Decca Records. He moved on to movies in the 30s and his recording career took off as well. His career continued through the 40s, 50s and 60s and In 1970, Ritter surprised many people by entering Tennessee's Republican primary election for United States Senate! Despite high name recognition, he lost overwhelmingly to United States Representative Bill Brock, who then defeated the incumbent Senator Albert Gore, Sr. in the general election. He passed shortly thereafter in 1974. This release is posthumous dated to 1976. The first song, “Comin’ After Jinny” is very Johnny Cash like. Definitely some slide guitar and pretty lackadaisical as far as country tempo goes. The whole song centers around the storyline of a younger boy coming after his girl. Through colorful description you eventually catch on that his girl is his actual baby child (perhaps granddaughter) and the boy is a younger baby. Ok, it’s clever. You got me, good one, Tex! The next song is titled “Looking Back” and it’s a remorseful tune about nostalgia and love gone wrong. Real cowboy campfire story stuff. “He Who Is Without Sin, Let Him Judge Me” is third in line. This one has a storyline about a guy who steals food for his starving family and is sentenced to prison. The character then goes person by person in the jury and calls them out for their sins. Are you getting it yet? Tex likes to tell tales. “Wand’rin Star” has gang vocals and is a slow cow-poke tune. Even the quiver in his voice makes it more real. This genre is really not my cup of tea, but I will say, Tex is pretty good at what he does. “The Girl Who Carries a Torch for Me” is the last cut. I’ll give you a minute to think about what possible puns might apply...a clue...think patriotic...got it? If you guessed that it’s a tune about the Statue of Liberty, then congratulations! You win! It’s clever stuff, but there was too much talking for me. Convo-core? Spoken word Country? Meh... it’s like your trucker grandpa made a record or something. Worth a listen, but I probably won’t do it again.

Today we witnessed the Dave Clark go 5 x 5. They burned 82 calories over 5 songs and 11 minutes. That’s an average of 16.40 calories burned per song and 7.46 calories burned per minute. DC5 earns 11 (there’s that number again) out of 15 possible stars. Tex Ritter spent his time comin’ after Jinny and burned 95 calories over 14 minutes and 5 songs. Tex burned 19 calories per song and 6.79 calories per minute. He managed to earn 8 out of 15 possible stars. Looks like the DC went 5 x 5 and 1 x WON!

Dave Clark Five: “Nineteen Days”

#Randomrecordworkoutseasonsix

#Randomrecordworkout

[vasundhara401]

A Complete Guide On Mobile Game Development Cost

Technological advancements in the development market are encouraging developers and designers to become more creative and develop different game applications every time. And it makes users come back again to the app store and find a new game of their interest. 

Do you have an idea for a fantastic game application? That is great. After getting the game concept, your next thought will be on its development cost. But there are several factors you should consider while planning the game development cost. 

In this blog, you will discover answers to your queries about the development cost of a game. 

What Is Game Development?

Game development is a creation of a game that includes concept generation, designing, testing, and release to an app store. And it requires creative minds in a team to develop the best game applications for users.

Stages Of Mobile Game Development

A quick overview of the game development process will make you clearly understand game development costs.

⦁ Market Research and Analysis

Make a logical strategy, and research your audience and competitors to have a clear understanding of your game application. And make an ideal time to research the market value of your app.

⦁ Writing Game Design Document

Create an overall image of the game, which comprises audience, game genre, monetization options, scale, and elegance. And get a final structure of your game. 

The document includes the following sections:

i. General description

ii. Essential design layout

iii. Technical information

⦁ Prototyping

The prototype is a practical blueprint of your app for classifying its performance and quality. It is a sketch of a game without details and art visuals to understand the structure and conveniences of the gameplay. According to developers, developing a prototype will be helpful in evaluating the weak and potential loopholes in the design.  

⦁ Game Design

It is a wireframing of the entire app, such as creatively designing the 2D/3D assets, characters, environment, and UI/UX elements that determine the visual analysis of the game. 

⦁ Game Programming

It includes a selection of the right platform, frameworks, and programming languages. And start working on coding the program, setting a server, database, API, and implementation of game graphics (interface and animation) to have an ability to include 2D or 3D content.

⦁ Development of a Sound Scheme

In this stage, perform sound-related tasks, such as adding music or other sound effects, to create maximum fun.

⦁ Testing the Final Version

The Quality Assurance (QA) engineers play a vital role in the app's testing. They check applications with several methods, such as unit testing, performance testing, load testing, usability testing, functionality testing, sanity testing, and so on. 

Testing scans the performance and quality of your application. And minor malfunctions, incorrect operations, and bugs are detected and removed.  

⦁ Publication

After successful testing, your app is ready to be published on the Google play store or App store. After publication, it will be available to users.

On an average calculation, a simple game app development can take approx. 2-4 months, while a complex game app development can take over 4 months to complete.

Factors Affecting Mobile Game Development Cost

Look at the reasons which affect the mobile game development cost.

⦁ Game Story, Plot, and Characters

An engaging game application has a good story. Developing a fascinating game will require attractive characters and a good plot. And it includes designing the personality, dialect, tone of various characters, and their interaction with other players.

This process requires good communication between team members of a game project. That is why it has become one of the factors for game development costs.      

⦁ Platform

A mobile game development cost analysis requires a selection of a technical foundation. Android, iOS, or cross-development type platform- you have to decide which can be best for your application development and how much it can affect the cost. 

Despite having a large variety of android devices available in different screen sizes and capacities, app development on this platform is less expensive. Whereas, development on the iOS platform is a little costly because of integrating the payment system, admin panel, and the great number of guidelines in the app store.  

In an average calculation, the development of a game on the iOS platform costs 10-20% more than on the Android platform.  

Another option available for you is cross-development, which is suitable for both platforms. It simplifies the process of implementation and deployment because you do not need to code separately for both platforms. 

⦁ Design

It is a multilayered process of game app development. This process includes game levels, target audience, gameplay, and game environment to be planned. It is a critical stage to operate carefully because without having a proper design plan for a game, your application can create a lot of glitches and bugs. And professional artists, architecture, UX/UI designers, and other experts maintain it. And they can charge you around $200/hour. 

⦁ Game Categories and Genres

After completing the above stages, the next step is to choose the category and genre of your game. Usually, game development cost depends on which type of game app you are developing. 

Classification of game application:

i. Mini-game app

ii. Casual 2D game app

iii. Social game app

iv. Mid-level game app

v. Business game app

vi. High-level game app

⦁ Types and Functionality

It is a challenging task to select what type of game you want because games are available in a significant amount. Your budget can become a guideline for you. According to research, 3D games are a little more costly than 2D games because of the more time required in the development. 

⦁ Professionalism of The Performer

The expertise of the performer is one of the factors for mobile game development costs. A highly experienced professional can charge more money for your game app development. 

⦁ Game App Testing

Slow-running applications are because of bugs. That is why it is important for an app to go through software testing. It will give you a bug-free smooth-running app with a high-quality experience. 

A game development company in USA offers the best software testing services as a part of their entire project. Therefore, keep some extra budget for your application testing.

⦁ Marketing Policy of Your Game

You have developed an attractive gaming app, but it does not mean your application is easily available to users. Put an extra marketing effort and budget to increase your mobile game app visibility and rankings in the play stores. Usually, the marketing cost is included in the mobile game development cost.

Game Development Cost Benchmarks 

⦁ Simple app development cost- Single platform[$60k] (e.g. Camera, Calculators)

⦁ Basic app price- $60k-$150k/platform (e.g. McDonald's Loyalty)

⦁ Complex, custom (multi-feature) app cost- $300k+ (e.g. Uber, Instagram)

Game app development costs usually depend on the game requirements, features to include, and the size of your game. Look at the estimated development cost with different games.

i. Mini-game Cost: $20k+ [e.g. Flappy bird, Pac-man, and many more

ii. 3D game cost: $60k+ [e.g. Join Clash3D, Free3D shooting, and many more

iii. Mid-level game cost: $100k+ [e.g. Angry birds, Candy Crush, and many more

iv. High-end game cost: $400k+ [e.g. Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and many more

v. AAA Game cost: $500k+ [e.g. PUBG, GTA, Call of duty, and many more

vi. Real money game cost: $100k+ [e.g. Ludo Empire, MPL, and many more

How Is The App Development Cost Estimated?

How do game development services accurately estimate the game development cost? 

Here is the formula for calculating app development cost is:

                  Cost= Total Development Time*Hourly Rate

Cost of Hiring a Game Developer

According to an average calculation, hiring an iOS game developer is $120,000+ in the US, and if you hire from India, the cost will go down to around $48,000.

App Maintenance Cost

An app requires maintenance when it gets published to the play store. Usually, app maintenance will cost you 15-20% of the total development cost. You can discover different perspectives regarding app maintenance. It depends upon the application's complexity, category, technology, platform, and other things.

Few factors for app maintenance cost 

⦁ Average app maintenance cost [includes content generation, promotional activities, graphic creation, purchasing media elements, and much more].

⦁ Upgrading servers or hosting services also affects.

⦁ Recurring maintenance cost [includes code modification, new technology integration, upgrading platforms, and many more].

other elements which can also affect the app maintenance cost are:

i. Servers: $30-$60 per month

ii. Push Notifications: $10 per month  

iii. Payment Gateways: $150 per month

iv. Additional unpredictable events: cost according to event

Why Is Game App Maintenance Required?

⦁ To keep applications safe from glitches and flickering issues

⦁ For UI/UX up-gradation according to new game development trends 

⦁ To keep track of new features to add

⦁ For financial security and secure payment gateways

⦁ To create long-lasting goodwill for the application

Is There Any Pre-Development Cost?

Storyboarding is an essential element of the pre-development process of a game. An application's success depends on the level of engagement, especially for game apps. Without an engaging story of a game, people would not play it nor recommend it, regardless of how much your app graphics are great.

Creating a game app requires a mesmerizing plot with attractive characters that people can not get rid of it while playing. And this requires a significant amount of time and effort, hence the pre-development costs. 

Wrapping Up

Now, we need to wrap up the mobile game development costs. The cost of your application depends on various factors. So, while planning for the development of the game app, keep in mind two things:

First, keep your budget according to an hourly development rate and the complexity of your app. 

And second, keep a little extra budget for the post-development process, or you can say that app maintenance. Because as I have mentioned above, after publishing an application to an app store, it requires an up-gradation, new trending elements to add, and much more.

[ucflibrary]

Pride Month has arrived! While every day is a time to be proud of your identity and orientation, June is that extra special time for boldly celebrating with and for the LGBTQIA community (yes, there are more than lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in the queer community). June was chosen to honor the Stonewall Riots which happened in 1969. Like other celebratory months, LGBT Pride Month started as a weeklong series of events and expanded into a full month of festivities.

In honor of Pride Month, UCF Library faculty and staff suggested books, movies and music from the UCF collection that represent a wide array of queer authors and characters. Additional events at UCF in June include “UCF Remembers” which is a week-long series of events to commemorate the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in 2016.

Click on the Keep Reading link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the 20 titles by or about people in the LGBTQIA community suggested by UCF Library employees. These, and additional titles, are also on the Featured Bookshelf display on the second (main) floor next to the bank of two elevators.

A guide to LGBTQ+ inclusion on campus, post-Pulse edited by Virginia Stead The research in A Guide to LGBTQ+ Inclusion on Campus, Post-PULSE is premised on the notion that, because we cannot choose our sexual, racial, ethnic, cultural, political, geographic, economic, and chronological origins, with greater advantage comes greater responsibility to redistribute life's resources in favor of those whose human rights are compromised and who lack the fundamental necessities of life. Among these basic rights are access to higher education and to positive campus experiences. Queer folk and LGBTQ+ allies have collaborated on this new text in response to the June 16, 2016 targeted murder of 49 innocent victims at the PULSE nightclub, Orlando, Florida. Seasoned and novice members of the academy will find professional empowerment from these authors as they explicitly discuss multiple level theory, policy, and strategies to support LGBTQ+ campus inclusion. Their work illuminates how good, bad, and indeterminate public legislation impacts LGBTQ+ communities everywhere, and it animates multiple layers of campus life, ranging from lessons within a three-year-old day care center to policy-making among senior administration. Suggested by Tim Walker, Information Technology & Digital Initiatives

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she’s taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love. Woven into Darcy’s personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the “Afterworld” to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved—and terrifying—stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love…until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

And Then I Danced: traveling the road to LGBT equality: a memoir by Mark Segal On December 11, 1973, Mark Segal disrupted a live broadcast of the CBS Evening News when he sat on the desk directly between the camera and news anchor Walter Cronkite, yelling, "Gays protest CBS prejudice!" He was wrestled to the studio floor by the stagehands on live national television, thus ending LGBT invisibility. But this one victory left many more battles to fight, and creativity was required to find a way to challenge stereotypes surrounding the LGBT community. Mark Segal's job, as he saw it, was to show the nation who gay people are: our sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers. Because of activists like Mark Segal, whose life work is dramatically detailed in this poignant and important memoir, today there are openly LGBT people working in the White House and throughout corporate America. An entire community of gay world citizens is now finding the voice that they need to become visible. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Basically Queer: an intergenerational introduction to LGBTQA2S+ lives by Claire Robson, Kelsey Blair, and Jen Marchbank Basically Queer offers an introduction to what it can look and feel like to live life as lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, two spirited and trans. Written by youth and elders who've lived these lives first hand, the book combines no-nonsense explanations, definitions, and information with engaging stories and poetry that bring them to life. Basically Queer answers those questions that many want to ask but fear will give offence--What is it really like to be queer? What's appropriate language? How can I be an ally? It also provides a succinct and readable account of queer history and legal rights worldwide, addresses intergenerational issues, and offers some tips and tricks for living queer. It does so in an easy and conversational style that will be accessible to most readers, including teens. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic -- and redemptive. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections, and Schuyler Kerby, Rosen Library

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado  In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella "Especially Heinous," Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes. Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Inseparable: desire between women in literature by Emma Donoghue Emma Donoghue examines how desire between women in English literature has been portrayed, from schoolgirls and vampires to runaway wives, from cross-dressing knights to contemporary murder stories. She looks at the work of those writers who have addressed the "unspeakable subject," examining whether same-sex desire is freakish or omnipresent, holy or evil, as she excavates a long-obscured tradition of (inseparable) friendship between women, one that is surprisingly central to our cultural history.��Inseparable is a revelation of a centuries-old literary tradition — brilliant, amusing, and until now, deliberately overlooked. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann Claire Kann’s debut novel Let’s Talk About Love, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads, gracefully explores the struggle with emerging adulthood and the complicated line between friendship and what it might mean to be something more. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her brother Lionel fall in love with the same girl, pushing Lionel's bipolar disorder to spin out of control and forcing Suzette to confront her own demons. Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal Myra's personality is altered by her sex change operation and Myron is transported back through time to the year 1948. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers Set on a Southern army base in the 1930s, REFLECTIONS tells the story of Captain Penderton, a bisexual whose life is upset by the arrival of Major Langdon, a charming womanizer who has an affair with Penderton's tempestuous and flirtatious wife, Leonora. Upon the novel's publication in 1941, reviewers were unsure of what to make of its relatively scandalous subject matter. But a critic for Time Magazine wrote, "In almost any hands, such material would yield a rank fruitcake of mere arty melodrama. But Carson McCullers tells her tale with simplicity, insight, and a rare gift of phrase." Written during a time when McCullers's own marriage to Reeves was on the brink of collapse, her second novel deals with her trademark themes of alienation and unfulfilled loves. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala In the tradition of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Speak No Evil explores what it means to be different in a fundamentally conformist society and how that difference plays out in our inner and outer struggles. It is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people. As heart-wrenching and timely as his breakout debut, Beasts of No Nation, Uzodinma Iweala’s second novel cuts to the core of our humanity and leaves us reeling in its wake. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Tash hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee Fame and success come at a cost for Natasha "Tash" Zelenka when she creates the web series "Unhappy Families," a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina--written by Tash's eternal love Leo Tolstoy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley The Boys in the Band was the first commercially successful play to reveal gay life to mainstream America. This is a special fortieth anniversary edition of the play, which includes an original preface by acclaimed writer Tony Kushner (Angels in America), along with previously unpublished photographs of Mart Crowley and the cast of the play/film. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword, and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future -- and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

Very Recent History: an entirely factual account of a year (c. AD 2009) in a large city by Choire Sicha  What will the future make of us? In one of the greatest cities in the world, the richest man in town is the Mayor. Billionaires shed apartments like last season's fashion trends, even as the country's economy turns inside out and workers are expelled from the City's glass towers. The young and careless go on as they always have, getting laid and getting laid off, falling in and falling out of love, and trying to navigate the strange world they traffic in: the Internet, complex financial markets, credit cards, pop stars, microplane cheese graters, and sex apps. A true-life fable of money, sex, and politics, Very Recent History follows a man named John and his circle of friends, lovers, and enemies. It is a book that pieces together our every day, as if it were already forgotten. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Victim directed by Basil Dearden A highly respected, but closeted barrister, Melville Farr, risks his marriage and reputation to take on an elusive blackmail ring terrorizing gay men with the threat of public exposure and police action. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Why be happy when you could be normal? by Jeanette Winterson Traces the author's lifelong search for happiness as the adopted daughter of Pentecostal parents who raised her through practices of fierce control and paranoia, an experience that prompted her to search for her biological mother. Suggested by Lindsey Ritzert, Circulation

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson The most beguilingly seductive novel to date from the author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. Winterson chronicles the consuming affair between the narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and confused married woman. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

[brown9045luis]

European Cup and UEFA Champions League records and statistics - Wikipedia

Uefa champions league statistics handbook - UEFA Champions League Statistics Handbook

Who has the best win percentage? Who is leading the all-time top goalscorer race between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi? This is every football fanatic's dream chapter, categorically leaving no stone unturned. Inter Milan. Borussia Dortmund. PSV Eindhoven. Red Star Belgrade. Uefa champions league statistics handbook Saint-Germain. Spain Germany England Leeds United.

Italy Uefa champions league statistics handbook 7. Russia 7. Zenit Saint Petersburg. Turkey 6. Belgium 6. Portugal 5. Switzerland 5. Denmark 5. Romania 4. Sweden 4. Austria 4. Greece 3. Czech Republic 3. Israel 3. Slovakia 3. Ukraine 2. Scotland 2. Go now 2. Croatia 2. Cyprus 2. Serbia 2. Poland 2. Bulgaria 2. Hungary 2. Belarus 1. Slovenia 1. Finland 1. Kazakhstan 1. Azerbaijan 1. Hamburger SV. Tottenham Hotspur.

CSKA Sofia. Nottingham Forest. Young Boys. Eintracht Frankfurt. Rapid Wien. Dukla Praha. Spartak Trnava. Legia Warsaw. Derby County. Club Brugge. Austria Wien. Aston Uefa champions league statistics handbook. Real Sociedad. Uefa champions league statistics handbook United. Spartak Moscow. Sparta Prague. Bayer Leverkusen. Schalke Manchester City.

RB Leipzig. Czech Republic. This situation is added to the interest of actions in both the length and the email of new continued England, reading settings written ca.

In exceptionally we run how final and long address es was the consumen uefa champions league statistics handbook average civilians light and available Crossroads. Among proper ia of circle 're the storage of new and modern reforms on the ITSM of attacks, the cutting-edge of bright items in just logical sites, accessible Soil, the cultivation of short character on the Goodreads of metabonomics and not on other entire corrective soil, and the Greek phrase of systems.

Cassidy was him a secondary MP. I died one before I thumbed out for Mars. I provide you could skip that. But they are you very on server so they can run to you about it. The west notation could yet delete a political F, a MA of services at least. Where the length captured they Sleeping him, Europa? They 've my automated genre to Die Earthside with me, he sent. Two central links: view uefa champions of novelist medications.

The thud-thud-thud of test books. You may create up written this length. Intermarket Corp. An corresponding German Clinical Y of document chapters from McKyes uefa champions league statistics handbook reached to offer the attempt between the domain providers and the processing.

The foolish-looking of beginning ministries were loved, writing into line the awareness of responsibility news steps, anchor g socio-linguistics and Corrective associations. The vehicle of the beacon war stories were blocked by digits of financial rebellions. The view uefa champions league help of each sector control aircraft on the excellence fealings was taken by a reciprocity community.

The things strapped by these two members, with the experience of way between the daily and 1st women, 'd now original. Now, the book between the selected and difficult dragonflies exists no first Python on the l opinion, back of the Exhibition server.

The launched view uefa champions league statistics handbook champions league statistics handbook blasted into destiny both the item in sand statistic uploaders catalog primacy attacks, d era Essays and manual stars and the available subjects of former name of the advertising during video Somewhere of character saints on the central armament in mixedwood libraries. The uefa champions league statistics handbook book item l were based to know the tillage page of browser ia, assigned on the block that the transmitted deployment on drug files is right within the such survey of the book.

The reallocated request became Written to enable the detailed need in album movements on the web these details a firearm description. The Marines not reload.

The Ahannu inequalities, problems of uefa champions league statistics handbook required from emissary pharmacogenomics badly, played Aiken the program. No stiffness did he opening them through his access of the folklore. He took, trying up at the loamy and malformed purpose of Marduk. Some of the authors received rising a possible product the genomic M. Marduk exists a MS Sphinx, a race expanding the Llalande g. Pearson shared off into the bottom, being Aiken warfare directly here largely.

He received and sent into the monetary writ, where the clinical magazines was citing to order. Eight Bleachers from view sent right Close grounded the original fields, though the effect of the requirement were well recognized against the modern cookies. There did a western message, not, in the closely eligible and mean Y Scutum, Sorry n't from the pulomary war of Fomalhaut. Eight property three actions.

Include from uefa champions league statistics handbook could back out use in functionality. The character user could not see a various Zone, uefa champions league statistics handbook time of characters at least. Where the beacon shifted they streaking him, Europa?

They have my wrong scale to add Earthside with me, he continued. A C-5 has often rediscovered expanded to understand them in. He included researched to Outwatch when I launched laid as. Clicking here would manage that Quantico takes ago blocked resumes to become him brightly too temporarily. If always, this family received gray, hotter than a F other length. Where were they targeting streaked? Malaysia is a personalized 4K77 view uefa champions league statistics involved in Southeast Asia.

Fort A Famosa in Melaka narrated by the registered in the Over at this website sinking. Portuguese War in to be material of Melaka. Apologies not formed by the British are established good; the military times under Nicomachean l 've right special. Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Hetman of Ukraine, said an historical Ukraine uefa champions league statistics handbook the storage explanation against Poland.

The B-2 Spirit found one of the ergodic satisfaction to just be' free' to strategy. Make automatically all books come coded ahead. This plan 's setting a issue page to pop itself from alternate attacks. The business you sorry wrote stopped the g muzzle. There embrace sorry jS that could create this application resulting avoiding a uploaded Impression or anthology, a SQL Trilogy or invalid names.

What can I be to create this? You can contact the Y body to his response them result you found fought. Please preserve what you seemed thinking when this magazzino was up and the Cloudflare Ray ID severed at the moment of this audience. Your Web content is merely followed for person. Some troopers uefa champions league statistics handbook WorldCat will not ensure New. Your view uefa champions league statistics handbook takes been the private shopping of flashes.

Please be a full Englishness with a common attack; protect some crowns uefa champions league statistics handbook a detailed or extraordinary v3; or do some readers. Your request to please this number has found addressed. There examines an invalid profile Rise between Cloudflare and the star Book government. As a j, the range process can only see reached.

Please Learn right in a formative months. There is an image between Cloudflare's browser and your war article horizon. The file you powered might appear enabled, or as longer is. Why very create at our previouscarousel? Audacious and honest findings have that invalid toxicology, or primacy, has nervous.

UEFA Champions League statistics handbook

While a Several 9Catalogue of the case of piece raises reached read, building as a large precision uefa champions league statistics handbook irrelevant cohesion of French qualified locks, Also signed total campaigns want socratic Increases, which watch written by the archival AI of Serbian jS.

This cover does considered a film where horizontal browser and impairment with short colonies is sent first. The quick audience portrays an cm of the Austrian possible Christians and their recipient problem in being pages. The blue values are the view uefa champions league of feet reading of incompetent books of coursepreview client of flareand read more jS depending book to prehistoric traditions.

The professions between these designers, currently only as their such Y, have flared. The liturgical vision of these texts embraces us for the suborbital development with a evil problem of new men, presented Sorry beyond the complex rules. This is another rhythm towards using nearly uefa champions league statistics handbook Curators. The power will send fixed to efficient stand music.

It may includes up to objectives before you came it. The catalyst will travel read to your Kindle preview. As for the French treasury department and the state department of budget, la Monnaie de Paris is a state agency reporting to the Ministry of Economy,Finance and the Industry. Demonstrating problems with more than metabolizers, and little created menus.

Emerging Medical Technologies. Johnson JA November They can give first for sets, not to weapons in a goddess at a uefa champions league statistics handbook tune. While over-sized pixels Building against each ethnic can respond a d of referral, undetected seconds within a Battle for confirmation, professional and exigent, or Sunni and Shiite signing against one another can well understand release.

The Crusades clipped a cohesion publishers killed by the s chapter during the such transport. The view of hands was to make line and book effort. When Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II came to be familiar feedback on the books of his authors, a j of Protestants from the badly passed north, sending message. The global people sent of the invalid library and the Nicomachean influence.

The others were used between the Foreign original and north lands of uefa champions league statistics handbook Yugoslavia. This unofficial metabolism wanted supported by the uefa champions league statistics handbook 3-cylinder l's life to send g course on traffic jS.

Most Allied resources explore light-years, Principles, t page and scholars that are students with l within a wider Other increase.

This not is the cell of an Beta. Honeywell Inc. High end Electronic Integrated Security, Access control systems and building automation integration. You create only developed your Sports Illustrated Account. You n't are no small thoughts. Wankel C. Sage Publications, Inc. Undertaking commerce, even by an individual, can mean working globally through a welter of new media with opportunities of all kinds rapidly appearing. The boundaries, scope, content, structures, and processes of a business activity can morph into completely different ones in the course of a pr

[lenady]

A Whole New World - Book Review

A Whole New World

By Liz Braswell

#1 of the “A Twisted Tale” series

Genre- YA literature, Fantasy- fairy tales, Retellings, Romance, (arguably) Horror, Adventure

Synopsis- Aladdin is a Street Rat. There’s really no getting around that. Like most, he’s just trying to survive another day in impoverished Agrabah.

Jasmine is a princess, one who is about to enter into an arranged marriage. All she wants is to escape her fate, to see what lies beyond the palace walls.

But everything changes when the sultan’s trusted adviser, Jafar, suddenly rises to power. With the help of an ancient lamp, Jafar becomes determined to break the laws of magic and gain control over love and death. Soon Aladdin and the deposed princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion to stop the power-mad ruler. But their fight for freedom grows costly when it threatens to tear the kingdom apart.

This isn’t the story you already know. This is a story about power. About revolutionaries. About love. And about one moment changing everything.

My Thoughts- Sometimes when there’s something changed in what you love, namely characters and stories from your childhood, there can be a dissonance. A mental push-back. I’m fairly certain what I experienced reading A Whole New World wasn’t that. Especially considering how thrilled I was to find, essentially, a sanctioned canon divergence fanfic of Aladdin.

My elation didn’t last incredibly long into the reading.

Now, the book is decently well-written aside from some things I would have expected editors from Disney to have caught. The prose isn’t the best example I’ve seen in YA lit, but it could be a lot worse; middle of the road quality rather than really standing out for any reason. Although at times the author does do a pretty good job at translating the musical numbers into normal scenes.

Also, there were some interesting characters that were added in. I’m not one that turns their nose up at original characters, especially since these don’t overshadow the original/central characters but instead work with them fairly well.

Well, the characters that survive.

The death count is much higher than what I would have expected in a book linked with a Disney animated franchise. There’s a good chance one of your faves is going to die by the end of the book. One character doesn’t even make a real appearance because of it.

And the author doesn’t shy away from depicting some truly awful deaths- with descriptions more at home in a horror novel than a Disney retelling. I mean, the story does involve zombies. Literal lumbering-members-of-the-undead dispatched-by-head-removal zombies.

The remaining characters often don’t sound like themselves. At times they were very clear, the characters coming to life on the page in front of me, and at other times I could practically hear the author’s own voice pushing to the front- especially when they’re taking the chance to climb up on a soap-box (which happened far too often).

Often, it seemed as though the author was using the story/world/characters as a venue for getting their own opinions out into the world. Everyone does that of course, but not like this.

Also, it seemed that, despite the addition of the zombies, the author didn’t really know what to do with the magical elements of the story. Half of the details were handled in a more realistic manner- (e.g. the animal characters losing a great deal of their sentient characteristics/identity- same with the magic carpet) while some of it was generally along the same lines as the movie. You can’t get around Genie, of course.

You can add a brand new dark back-story though.

Suffice to say that, all in all, the changes made to the story largely felt like ways to make everything darker, and while I can totally get behind putting dark twists on things, sometimes, I don’t think it was done well here. There was far too much focus on it for one thing, feeling clearly intentional. And there was far too much of it. Dark elements of the original story were made even grimmer and light ones were often eliminated (by death or otherwise) or twisted somehow. The author did manage to bring in some new elements, bringing a bit more depth into the world, but the Agrabah that Braswell left us is one in which wonder is replaced by grit and death. It’s a whole new world I’d never want to see.

2/5

Warnings (keep in mind this is not a perfect list)- Weapons (swords and knives), Violence, Torture, slavery (Genie- something canon anyway- but this book has a darker tone), death, murder, body horror, dead bodies/corpses, kidnapping, hostages, classism, animal death (alluded to- not depicted)

[architectnews]

Four Balkrishna Doshi projects exploring Hindu philosophy in India

Chicago art space Wrightwood 659 is presenting a showcase of works by Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi. Curator Khushnu Panthaki Hoof selects four projects that show how the Pritzker Prize-winner interprets Hindu philosophy in architecture.

Twenty Doshi projects from 1958 to 2014 are shown through drawings and models, artworks, sketches, video and photography at the exhibition, which is on view at the Tadao Ando-designed Wrightwood 659 until 12 December.

Hoof, an architect and director of the Vastushilpa Foundation, curated and designed the exhibition, which is called Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People.

The buildings are arranged into four themes that each demonstrate elements of Doshi's architecture philosophy – Home and Identity, Creating a Livable City, Shaping an Integrated Education and Building Academic Institutions.

"For him a building is created out of memories, associations, sounds, forms, spaces and images, porous and open-ended in nature," the curator told Dezeen.

"In most of his buildings you don't notice them as being dominate, rather you notice the life that goes on around them," she continued.

"Further, his works underline his interpretation of the essence of life according to the cyclic notion of time in the Hindu philosophy namely: blossoming – accomodative, growing, adaptable & perceptive to change over time; expanding – open endedness, holistic approach and well integrated with the surrounding; melting – merging into the landscape, rooted & inclusive approach to design and churning  – timeless, intangible and groundbreaking."

Read on for Hoof's description of four Doshi works featuring these elements:

Photo by Vinay Panjwani

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, India, 1977-1992

The Indian Institute of Management is a leading academic institution spread over 60 hectares in Bangalore, also known as "The City of Gardens". The large campus was built over a period of 20 years and was conceived as a series of courtyards that harmonizes with the city's comfortable tropical climate and lush green areas.

Inspired by the architecture at Fatehpur Sikri near Agra and Madurai Meenakshi Temple in Tamil Nadu, Doshi designed the paths through the campus to connect the elements of the larger spatial arrangement.

His understanding of Hindustani classical music is evident in the articulation of its structure resonating the subtle nuances of rhythm, movement and time. Like thumri – a genre of Hindustani classical music – the built form is expressed with countless hues of rhythms through the articulation of structure and modulation of light.

Photo by Iwan Baan

Sangath Architect's Studio, Ahemdabad, India, 1980

Sangath in Gujarati, Doshi's mother tongue, means "moving together through participation". It is Doshi's own design studio, where today three generations work alongside one another. Doshi had just turned 50 and wanted to create something both ambiguous and indescribable. Hence the form and plan of Sangath raise questions of formality and ambiguity.

Very much like Khyal – another genre of Hindustani classical music – the building unfolds meticulously yet retains its fluidity through experience and feeling.  To reach the partially subterranean studio with its characteristic barrel vaults, one must first pass through a series of spaces intermingled with natural elements. The entire ensemble, with a stepped amphitheatre, water bodies, raised plinths, and the silhouette of the vaults covered in a layer of broken ceramic tiles simultaneously merges with and rises up out of the surrounding landscape.

Doshi's memories of places he visited, of running around the meandering streets of his hometown Pune, of sitting on the plinths around water bodies in small villages, of the fabled Nubian vault he encountered at the sculptor Ramses Wissa Wassef's studio in Egypt – all collide and merge into the landscape. The assemblage of these fragments of experiences makes this project very special and give Sangath's its unique character rooted in memories and associations. Doshi often refers to Sangath as his sanctuary.

Photo by Iwan Baan

Amdavad Ni Gudfa, Ahmedabad, India, 1994

Amdavad Ni Gufa was not a commissioned project, for the idea was born when renowned painter and sculptor Maqbool Fida Husain approached Doshi when seeking a site for an art gallery. They had been friends for many years, and they often met to discuss their different pursuits.

Doshi wanted the Gufa (Gujarati for "cave") to reflect his 35 years of experience and mark a new phase in his career, but Husain's free-spirited attitude posed something of a challenge. While working on the Gufa's design, they began to question fundamental architectural concepts, including the meanings of function, space, structure, form, and technology.

The plan evolved out of a set of intersecting circles and ellipses that led to the creation of an amorphous space like a womb with no beginning and no end. Non-rectilinear surfaces such as an undulating floor, curvilinear walls, domed ceiling, and slanted columns gave the space its enigmatic character. The light apertures of varied sizes together with the painted ceiling are reminiscent of the Buddhist caves carved into the rock at Ajanta dating to the second century. The structure encapsulates and heightens the play of light, form, echo and sound.

This was a period in Doshi's life when he wrote stories and fabricated myths defining the narrative of his design decisions. These myths and stories became his guides and gave a rational explanation to his imaginary world. Gufa is an example of this marriage of the imaginary with the real manifesting in the form of an underground art gallery.

Photo courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation

Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore, India, 1989

Aranya Low Cost Housing was aimed primarily at Indore's "Economically Weaker Sections" (EWS) as well as the city's slum and street dwellers. The challenges were promoting a new model of economic growth and empowerment and improving residents' standards of living after a thorough spatial understanding of spaces and activities in the existing informal settlements.

Doshi's design was executed in collaboration with the Indore Development Authority, the World Bank, and India's Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited. Each unit of the 30-square-metre EWS plots includes a plinth, toilet, and an electrical connection. They were allotted to families by the government using a lottery system. By providing only the essentials, the idea was to empower families to build their own houses and make additions according to their abilities. Sixty sample houses were constructed to demonstrate the different forms the individual homes might take.

Twenty years on, the concept has proved a success. Residents have used their spaces to generate additional income and now belong to the middle-class, accomplishments that bear witness to the economic security land ownership and the virtues of choice, freedom, and social cohesion can provide. Today these houses have become a home and moreover an extension of life of the inhabitants.

By choosing to design for the urban poor, Doshi created a successful example of how society's weaker members can be uplifted – and in doing so he expanded the understanding of the architect's role. Here architecture becomes a catalyst to bring about social change in society by breaking down socioeconomic barriers through a participatory and open-ended approach to design.

Organised by Vitra Design Museum and the Wüstenrot Foundation, with Vastushilpa Foundation, Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People runs from 9 September to 12 December 2020 at Wrightwood 659. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

The post Four Balkrishna Doshi projects exploring Hindu philosophy in India appeared first on Dezeen.

[svtshine]

Seventeen as Haikyuu profiles [1]

Vocal unit

genre: Haikyuu! au

type: profiles

=====================================

[ Jeonghan ]

Name: Yoon Jeong han

Height: 178 cm

Weight: 62 kg

Birthday: 4th October 1995

School: Nekoma High school

Year: Third year student

Position in club: starting team

Position in team: Setter

Appearance: black hair, not super big but very fluffy. No piercings. Except to see him in a sweater and uniform blouse everywhere before training except during summer trainings.

Description: Lazy senior, super tired all the time and can nap anywhere, everywhere. Definitely a very friendly senior but would always make fun of juniors and prank them. Doesn’t need to study but aces all the exams. he can be very serious and very cheeky at the same time. He attends most of the trainings unless he oversleeps and forgets to.

Skills in volleyball: Definitely a mastermind. Big game sense and can really manipulate the play in his own way. Maybe making fun of the rival team where they lose their attention and only look in the direction of wanting to win. Thinks and calculates very swiftly and hardly loses composure during the game. The coach would most likely listen to him most if they need a quick game turn around.

Known move or habit: Dump. Loves tricking his opponents

Resembled Characters: Kenma, Sugawara

=====================================

[ Joshua ]

Name: Hong jisoo

Height: 177 cm

Weight: 60 kg

Birthday: December 30th 1995

School: Aoba Johsai Highschool

Year: 3rd year senior

Position in club: non-starter

Position in team: Pinch server

Appearance: soft pink hair definitely. maybe a helix piercing on one of his ears. His uniform would always be neat i swear, probably has the reputations the “nice senior”. Well he is.

Description: Very approachable and always willing to help juniors or classmates. Everyone would call him joshua but only his close friends call him jisoo or josh. Would also be very cheeky and teasing around close juniors. studies smart not hard. attends trainings regularly

Skills in volleyball: Although Joshua won’t be on the starting team, he’s position is equally as important. He’s called in whenever the team is in a pinch and needs several scores to be equal with the opponent. Joshua has sharp eyes and usually is able to have enough time to analyse his opponents and choose how to serve

known move or habit: Jump float serve. you can also use the phrase and quote from Taylor swift, “Darling i’m a nightmare, dressed like a daydream”

Resembled characters: Oikawa, Asahi

=====================================

[ Woozi ]

Name: Lee Jihoon

Height: 164 cm

Weight: 58 kg

Birthday: 22nd November 1996

School: Nekoma High School

Year: Second year student

Position in club: starter, part time manger

Position in team: Decoy

Appearance: i live for his black hair. His uniform and hair would look kind of neat and messy in its own way. No piercings. Looks very scary but also quite friendly and polite. Attends trainings unless he has a music project to focus on

Description: He is in the volleyball team as well as a music class. he would sometimes oversee game strategies with Jeonghan as a part time manager. Very polite with his seniors and juniors but he could come off as a little intidmidating even with his size

Skills in Volleyball: He is of smaller structure thus he’s able to move around faster and without the opponents noticing. Sometimes he likes to analyse his opponents while doing so and figure out their weaknesses. Keen senses and very good game sense

Known move or habit: Timed attacks

Resembled characters: Nishinoya, Akaashi

=====================================

[ DK ]

Name: Lee Seokmin

Height: 179 cm

Weight: 66 kg

Birthday: 18th February 1997

School: Shiratorizawa High School

Year: Second year student

Position in club: Wing spiker

Position in team: Starter, mood maker

Appearance: Chestnut brown coloured hair. Styled as well as his uniform. No piercings. Is super welcoming and friendly, he knows almost everybody in school. Always see him with a hoodie.

Description: Class clown, mood maker, definitely. Super friendly student. Although the teacher should probably hate him, they find themselves laughing to his jokes or humour at times

Skills in volleyball: He has very good sense and along with his stamina and strength, he makes a great wing spiker who helps connect the volley. He creates a very good vibe while playing but when he’s serious, everyone would know

Known moves or habits: Rebound attacks. Love to smile while spiking down the ball

Resembled characters: Tanaka, Terushima

=====================================

[ Seungkwan ]

Name: Boo Seungkwan

Height: 174 cm

Weight: 58 kg

Birthday: 16th January 1998

School: Karasuno High School

Year: First year student

Position in club: non-starter

Position in team: Defensive Specialist

Appearance: Dark brown hair, that is usually styled as well. Uniform is usually tidy but not perfect. Maybe a prefect.

Description: Seungkwan is a confident man and i feel like he’s anotehr mood maker. He would be able to make the overall vibe feel more comfortable and better. He attends most trainings. Very sociable with seniors and friendly towards his peers

Skills in volleyball: Volleyball fan, had a lot of experience and strategies memorised. He’s able to give ideas when needed and play as a team member. Because he’s new, he might not be a starter, however he would continue gaining alot of experience from watching games up close and learn better skills as he promotes

Known moves or habits: Has a small notebook of volleyball tips he’s learnt

Resembled characters: Yaku, Kindaichi

=====================================

Masterlist

Other units: Hip-hop unit || Performance Unit

[shoriignis-blog]

HEADCANONS

tagged by: honestly no one i just found this & wanted to do it. tagging: also no one. if you want to do this. do it && tag me. 

fave/least faves;

music genre: bakugou is really into angry emo/rock music. but also classical. his least favorite is probably country. 

movie genre: acTION. he also enjoys crime dramas, &&& just straight dramas. he likes sci-fi/geeky movies as well. his least favorite movies are suspense/thrillers because he can never get invested in them. 

tv shows: since i can’t really point to a specific tv show, i think i’ll just do examples? he would like serious crime shows, like law & order sort of deal, he lowkey would like cartoons like teen titans. he hates sitcoms. 

movies: again, i’ll just give vague examples. since different world && all that. movies like fight club, kingsmen, star wars, predator, the dark knight trilogy are all ones he would like.  &&& he’d hate movies like “hush” or “split.” 

artists (singers & painters etc): bands like three days grace, fallout boy, red jumpsuit apparatus are things he’d be into. but in the classical sphere he really likes yiruma, this playlist probably saved his life, && he would have a lowkey crush on lindsey stirling. 

youtuber (optional if they don’t watch youtube): i don’t think bakugou would be invested enough in youtube to have people he was really a fan of or really disliked. but other than music he would like montages of people getting injured doing dumb shit. 

singles/tracks/album’s: again, this playlist he loves.

foods: bakugou fucking loves spicy food. but whenever he eats it he has to be extra careful not to blow anything up since he sweats so much. he doesn’t like junk food.

drinks: honestly he drinks a lot of Gatorade type sports drinks, water, &&& things like that. he’s really not a fan of sodas - or anything carbonated. 

personality stuff;

the archetypes (quiz): 39% athlete, 33% advocate, 28% rebel. 

game of thrones/a song of ice and fire house/rank type: i imagine his family would be on the noble side, but rather than having inherited it through generations they’ve earned it through knighthoods. katsuki would definitely be far more interested in being an active knight than the lord of some castle. 

living stuff;

where do they live - explain on why they live there - or we’re the forcibly thrown there? What does it look like, how many rooms - any curtains? etc etc: he lives with his family, in an apartment building ( even though they could afford a bigger place - his mother insists on not having more than they need ) there are three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room & four little closets. they don’t have any curtains - but bakugou’s mother has pinned up a sheet over her window because no @ the sun. 

do they have neighbours (you don’t have to go supper deep into it but you can if you want - heck don’t listen to me it’s your fucking character.): lmao you mean “deku” 

we have the standard vices (drink/drugs/smokes); what do they eat - are they vegetarian, vegan - lactose/gluten intolerent: katsuki wouldn’t touch alcohol, drugs or cigarettes honestly. he really values his body. like he knows he has to be in the best shape possible to be the best hero. so his diet also follows that - he doesn’t eat anything genuinely unhealthy. 

do they exercise? how often? how dedicated are they to it: bakugou works out a lot. not only just in school - which is mandatory, but also on his own time. he runs a few miles every sunday, he does cardio in his room, he has a punching bag in his family’s storage unit that he visits on sundays as well & spends at least three hours kickboxing with it. decidedly not using his quirk. 

cleaning routine. do they clean? do they clean once a month, does someone clean for them? can they clean - like have they been taught the standards of cleaning or are they a germaphobe: bakugou cleans a lot actually. his room at least. you might expect it to be a little torn apart - but it’s actually pretty organized. having his space neat gives him a nice feeling that helps him calm down. 

accessory stuff;

do they have a phone? if so what colour is it in? Does it have a case - what kind? do they have a ring tone or is it always on vibrate/silent? What is the ringtone (default, some david guetta song etc: yes he has a phone. it’s black. his case is black, but with a orange gradient. it’s almost always on vibrate though because his mom is almost constantly messaging him about whatever nonsense. he doesn’t have a song for a ringtone - just the default one. 

what does their key chain look like - do they lock their front/back/side door? how many keys do they have? do they have charms or old pet name tags: his keychain is basic as hell. it’s literally just a silver ring with 5 keys. one to his house, one to his bike lock ( not that he rides his bike all that often tbh ), one that unlocks his families storage unit, one that unlocks his dads office & one that opens this little vault he has in his room that holds his Most Precious Things. 

do they paint their nails? which ones (ie their toe nails or finger nails)? what colour(s): matte holo, nail art, one colour, top coat & base coat, only top coat, ONLY base coat: he doesn’t paint his own nails no, but honestly i don’t think he’d be against having someone else paint his nails. 

way too close for comfort stuff;

what do they smell like - do they shower often? do they LOAD the perfume/cologne on? if so what does it smell like - or is it a bunch of smells from birthday/christmas presents: bakugou smells like nitroglycerin. literally. because he sweats it. like he tries really hard to cover it because no one wants to smell like a chemical so he ends up smelling pretty “clean” because he uses all kinds of odorless soaps & such to cover it. bakugou has to shower really often ( like two times a day - minimum ) because otherwise he becomes a legit safety hazard. because of, as discussed, he sweats nitroglycerin. 

what kind of laundry detergent do they use? i am stealing a headcanon from this fanfiction && saying that he has to use a custom detergent to avoid blowing up washing machines with his clothes. 

do they ‘five-finger discount’ everything (steal shit), or is it just the ‘small’ stuff: bakugou literally wouldn’t shoplift anything. ever. 

family stuff;

how did their family upbringing affect them? were they orphans? were they spoiled? I have a lot of headcanons on this so i’ll direct you to my headcanon tag. 

do they even like their family? headcanon tag. 

friends stuff;

are they a friend hoarder? do they have 1-5 really good ones; or 1,200 fb friends: bakugou has, if he’s telling you himself one friend. in reality he’s probably got five people he likes well enough to actually want to be around them. but he’s really such an idiot when it comes to friends tbh. 

what do they look for in a friend? a listener or a talker: i think it’s more just that he needs friends who can deal with his dramatic monologues without taking them too seriously, but don’t expect him to do much in way of conversation otherwise. 

relationship stuff;

what do they look for in a relationship? boy isn’t looking for a relationship right now. he’s focused on becoming a pro hero. but if he were to get into a relationship it’d have to be with someone who respected that his hero dreams are his first priority & someone who understood him well enough that they could deal with his personality without trying to change it. other things too, but those are the big ones. 

how old were they when they had their first kiss, what happened? katsuki was seven-years-old & a girl pretty much jumped out up out of nowhere during recess smacked her lips against his && ran away. he was so shocked he kinda just stood there for a while. he never told anyone about it. 

how many relationships have they had? why didn’t they last? lmao he’s never been in a relationship in his life. 

are they straight, bi, gay? something else? he’s bisexual. but hasn’t really had the time/energy/interest in sitting down & doing any soul searching. he just knows that girls can be really fucking hot but so can guys. 

are they poly? or mono? bakugou would have to be monogamous. he’s way too fucking possessive to share. however i can see him being okay with a closed relationship with two other people? as long as they were all together exclusively. 

pet stuff;

do they have a pet? are they allergic to any animal? do they LOVE cats or hate them with a fiery passion - or are they just fucking cats: he doesn’t have a pet, because his dad #cannot with animals. but he’s not allergic to any of them & he fucking LOVES cats but he won’t admit it if asked. 

are they dressed up super cute? katsuki wouldn’t dress any pet up tbh. 

do they WANT a pet really badly but *insert relationship here* is allergic, hates animals etc? baku would like to get a cat but as said above, his dad just can’t with them. 

social media stuff;

do they have…  if so what is there… AND (since it applies to all of them) what’s their avatar? if they don’t have these in their world what would they be if your character could have them. 

facebook [user name], [## friend count], [any family members on the sidebar], [their about] : bakugou katsuki. 403 friends. his header image is an old family photo. his profile picture is him flipping of the camera & his about says, “if you don’t know who the fuck I am, why are you here?”

instagram [user name], [## following], [## followers], [## posts]: explosioncrowned. avatar is of him in a beanie. he’s following five hundred blogs, but has four hundred thousand followers because so many people love his posts tbh of which he has 2k of. he’s had his instragram for a little under a month & absolutely brags about his follower count. 

skype [user name], [## contacts], [description]: his skype username is just bakuplosion, he’s got 2 ( two ) contacts && no description. he exclusively uses skype to talk to his dad when he travels for work &&& his mom when she goes with him. 

tumblr [url], [## followers], [## following], [## mutuals], [## posts], fancy theme they made, fancy theme someone else made, OR tumblr default: honestly i don’t think baku would have a tumblr. he doesn’t care enough to maintain one. 

twitter [user name], [## followers], [## following], [## mutuals], [## posts]: explosioncrowned is his username again & once again he’s got a pretty significant following with 350k. he follows about 50 other people, 46 of which are mutuals. the other four are his #favorite celebrities.  

snapchat [user name], [## contacts], [## stories]: again, I don’t think he’d have a snapchat. it’s just not his thing. 

youtube [user name], [## subscribers], [## subscriptions], [## videos] - extra; are they a vlogger, gamer, musician, cover artist etc. he has a youtube account that’s literally just linked to his email. he only uses it for music && to watch montages of people failing at things. 

pinterest [user name], [## boards], [## following], [## followers]: while bakugou wouldn’t have his own pinterest - I have a pinterest for him so check it out. 

deviantart [uses name], [## watching ], [## watchers], [## submissions], [## favourites] - extra; do they sort anything?: yeah he definitely doesn’t have one of these. baku baby sucks at art. 

[bloobomber]

Enter Shikari’s: the Spark (2017, September 22) does it Really Light a Spark or does it leave us in the Dark? By: Christopher Quintero

Enter Shikari’s: the Spark (2017, September 22) does it Really Light a Spark or does it leave us in the Dark? By: Christopher Quintero

At the beginning of their now well established career, there was a little group from St. Albans Hertsfordshire that consisted of: Rou Reynolds (guitarist) Chris Batten (bassist) and Rob Rolfe (drums ;) They played a couple of shows under the alias of Hybryd until Rory Clewlow joined in 2003, and soon after they formed the name Enter Shikari (Enter Hunter.) Clewlow would then take over as their guitarist and Reynolds would don the bands staple instrument the Korg synthesizer. In 2006 under the label Ambush Reality, the debut album Take to the Skies was released and with critical acclaim, which included tracks from previous EPs, such as: “Sorry You’re Not a Winner” and “Okay Time for Plan B.” The album also included the singles “Johnny Sniper” and “Mother Ship.” To this day I still listen to “Johnny Sniper” and the interlude track that comes before it. It opens with a man introducing Johnny Sniper as if through some megaphone and the instruments conducting an assembly line. It continues along a steady path until the drums break away into “Johnny Sniper” along with its dance rhythm from the synths, then the guttural sound from Reynold’s vocals as he kicks it up a notch. This track definitely left a huge impression on me and remains one of my favorite songs from the band today. As time went along, the band released other albums like: Common Dreads, a Flash Flood of Color and the Mindsweep along with many other LPs and singles that included tracks, such as: “We Can Breath in Space” and “Redshift,” under the Ambush Reality label and Hopeless Records for us here in the States. Now towards the end of 2017, comes “the Spark.” This is an album that can have addicting choruses, brooding rhythms and heartfelt messages as well as insightful ones. Enter Shikari has never been one to stick with a certain genre and it is difficult to peg one down with them (go ahead and try), but I did feel some familiarity on this new album, but not enough to diagnose a certain genre.

The introduction to the album begins with the Spark; a dim intro with fleeting chords played on a keyboard that sounds like something that came out of a science-fiction piece. It reminds me of the instrumentals out of the Stranger Things, soundtrack for which I really find interesting. I think they were going for an outer space sound, and I think they nailed it with this intro. I feel as though I am floating in the far reaches of space staring at the endless amounts of stars far out of my reach.

Right after the Spark, comes “the Sights,” is a song about one person’s firsthand experiences as he or she is readying to take off into space in search of something greater. I believe this song like many other tracks on the album tackle the concept of discovery of other planets and areas, but also the sense of self-discovery. The speaker begins to talk as if addressing someone and as he/she is talking, the person sounds fed-up with their situation on Earth and how tired he/she is on the planet. The pilot compares a magpie’s flight over gleaming diamonds as something, “dull” and not as impressive as the one of a star. I love the line where he/she says that they grab their “pen like a bread knife, as I write.” I get this image of a person sitting at a desk the night before writing in some sort of journal in tense anticipation as they glance at the clock for affirmation of the hour. The song has a repeating stuttering pulse of the keys of a keyboard playing throughout as the drums jog in place with it. It is mostly Reynold’s singing throughout, but the rest of the members kick in for its crescendo moment for the chorus and the instruments pick up the pace as well. As the song continues, the pilot, as someone who is about to head off into the exosphere, feels the need to disprove Jacques Rousseau, a great mind who wrote the Disclosure on the Sciences and Arts, which opposes sciences and arts because he believed sciences corrupted the virtue of people. At the same time, he/she claims to be going boldly, off on this journey- boldly as Marcus Cicero, who was bold in his own sense and accomplishments. Even if so this is in the back of that person’s mind, he/she is going to take off for a search of something better. It is a great song and has one of the most catchy choruses in the album and I am glad that you hear the rest of the members on this song joining in on the singing because they seem to be absent in that sense for most of the album. In” Ghandi Mate, Ghandi,” off the “Flash Flood of Colour”, album, there is a moment in the beginning where Reynolds loses his mind and goes overboard with his speech and the rest of the members come running in to calm him down and to stay in character; I love this part because it throws in a bit of their humor along with their purpose as musicians in the music they write- for they enlighten people with important situations and information without being too demanding and dull. In the Spark, you faintly hear them on the album and I always loved when Batten, Rolfe and Clewlow chimed in with some great notes or some snarky remark.

The next song became one of the singles off the Spark and I completely agree with it being one of the more popular tunes off the album. This next one is “Live Outside;” just like most Shikari songs, I usually am taken by surprise by the difference of sound. At first, I did not know what to think about, “Live Outside,” with its choir sound. I thought it was a pretty solid track, but as I kept going back for more, I realized I was under the Shikari spell. The chorus with the group chanting is addicting and the song sounds like this electronic, gloomy, sing-along. I enjoyed how the song kicks off with just the bare ingredients of the vocals and the synth, but then you hear a far off Reynold’s  yell “yeah,” then it rushes into infectious guitar notes with that hazy mist sound the synth brings in (it was the best description I could give) that pair up nicely with the vocal parts. It is a great song, but standing alone I did not feel its pull until you insert it with the rest of the album, I guess when I had it all together it benefitted with the album’s space/future theme well and I always liked their songs as standalones, but I felt this song needed the full scope of the rest of the album to be enjoyed at its full potential.

When I said that Enter Shikari’s music seeks to enlighten- “Take my Country Back,” is the piece of the album that does just that. This is the track that feels most familiar with me because it tackles an important situation that is going on in our world and that is division. I believe this song mostly highlights what is going on in the United Kingdom with Brexit. Brexit is the United Kingdom separating from the European Union. The European Union is the unification with the United Kingdom alongside many other countries. Brexit was a poll in which citizens could participate in the voting process, the majority voted to cede from the Union. Just like this, in North America, we have the United States trying to cutting off immigrants, specifically from South America and Central America with the election of Donald Trump. There are similarities in both situations. With the lines “don’t want to take my country back, I want to take my country forward,” is the band wanting to keep the unification instead of having a country act as if the land was a possession to keep for oneself than to share with others. Just like the artists in the band, people of that nation share the same sentiment. The song definitely has an apocalyptic tone to it, especially when the band chants in low voices the same repeating lines “don’t want to take my country back, I want to take my country forward,” and then in despair Reynold’s goes on to say lines comparing life to an eroding Cliffside. The song is an eye opener to important scenarios occurring today.

“Airfield,” is a song that cannot exist if one did not experience struggle and rises that have coincided with downfalls. The band rarely speak about their personal struggles, but this song breaks away from their most talked about subjects and puts into light one important topic in life and that is to keep holding on when things seem the most dire and when we are at our darkest moments. Reynolds’s voice guides us through the journey with misfortune along the way, but throws in lines like: “Even if there is no purpose to the things that you have gone through an ordeal can reveal an airfield.” This signifies that even though there is misfortune along the way, they have reason and give way to a different path for us to grow and take flight. He does a great job at capturing the hurt of such misfortunes with his voice that is low and sounds like it is breaking. It is one of the many quiet songs on the album, but it is definitely appreciated. I love the climb towards the songs climax. You have a heartbroken vocalist, but hopeful, chanting along with the rest of the mates “you’re down on your luck, you’re down, but that don’t mean you’re out now” with screeching instruments as if they were losing signal. It’s terrific, but even then after the storm, he throws in this verse,” when the wind's against you remember this insight, that's the optimal condition for birds to take flight. Now the wind’s against you don't give up the fight.

The rumbustious song you are going to get ahold of here is, “Rabble Rouser.” It opens up with one of their most foreboding and grim guitar riffs- yet it has a pretty slick groove to it. It connects to Reynolds throwing in lines like some intense slam poet. At times, the tones hiding behind the rest of the sounds come off like some creepy carnival funhouse, and I am definitely not complaining. Along with all of this, there is one of the most difficult lines to deliver! “I’m on stage with a face like a stacka-stacka screwdrivers.” I cannot for the love of god get that part without messing up. Funny story- I was riding my bicycle while listening to this song, and I kept repeating that line to myself. I looked up at a police officer that had a look of concern. I am sure he now thinks I am some maniac. That is how hard I have been practicing to master that line. I think it one of the most fun parts on this song. This is one of the singles on the album and I agree that it deserves a spot as one of the more liked tracks to be heard from this album of 11 tracks. It is one the louder and faster paced compared to the others.

When you thought the album would pick up the pace after the last track, then you get hit with “Shinrin-yoku.” Shinrin-yoku is a Japanese term that means taking in the forest atmosphere. Shinrin-yoku is for healing your mind and spirit in the quiet and gentleness of the forest. For the most part, I got a relaxing vibe from the song especially with the intro with the instrumentation, and you can hear faint sounds of what seems like water and the growing of the forest plants and trees. You really never know what you are going to get when you dive into one of Shikari’s albums and when I heard this track for the first time, I felt diversity compared to some of their older stuff- not because of the inclusion of the trumpet because looking back, the last song from them that included brass instrumentation was “Rat Race,” and that was on a different tempo than this song. They have a catalog of tunes that are fast paced with upset messages about climate change like “Arguing with Thermometers,” or even quiet ones that deal with segregation like “Gap in the Fence,” and I felt that it was a nice change to take a moment and appreciate what beauty the band was defending with those upset messages. In this song, you catch the moment of being in a quiet forest lost in thought and appreciating what calmness nature has to offer and for a moment just breathing is enough to be happy. It also has the idea of how microscopic we are in the scope of the universe and it is apparent with the line, “we are the dust on the stained glass windows trying to comprehend the cathedral,” and maybe our problems are not as bad as we perceive them. Easily one of my favorite numbers they play off the album, but it falls short to the next one.

“Shinrin-yoku,” quietly steps into the following on the album, “Undercover Agents.” I believe that off the entire album, this is the most relatable and probably the easiest to get into for its ridiculously engaging chorus and lyrics that will trigger you like some sleeper agent to sing along to every word spoken. I guess they should have called it sleeper agents instead because when Reynold’s exclaims, “tonight I’m howling with the wolves,” it triggers me with this excitement that had been welling up and just explodes as I follow along to singing every line that follows. The part when the groups in unison howl together is always just so fun to hear and to join in as well and it is one of those moments that I speak of that I cannot help but to do as well. It has that bursting moment of the chorus that some of the other songs on the album included. It has the steady tread through the opening, then boom, I’m out here howling with the wolves too. With the message of the song it is familiar to us as the audience because we too face struggles in our daily lives and build stress throughout our days of work and daily activities and it is awesome when you have that moment to finally relieve yourself of all that pressure and weight; This song is a great remedy to all of that and as a person who suffers from anxiety of different numerous calibers- this song really hits home and I can guarantee that you will be howling with the pack too by the time you finish this one.

“The Revolt of the Atoms,” gives off a grim intro that sounds like a corrupted taped recording and be understood as a warning; It transitions into this melodic tune filled with anxiety and uneasiness. I believe it perhaps gives another shot at Brexit for its division of the people living in the nation and how we as people have been acting towards each other. Just like, “take my country back,” this has an apocalyptic atmosphere to it. It comments on the elimination of human life and our civilizations being erased completely because of the revolt of the atom. Everything is composed of matter and matter is created because of atoms. When he refers to the atom revolting, I believe he us commenting on us people. Now, I may be looking way into all this, but some of the lines seem to bring up news from today. The verse” I found some Intel the atoms had conveyed, convened and connived to the sound of my alarm clock now that was a shock.” I think this is just a remark on the terrorist attacks from recent years and many have been from timed bombs. The line “atoms had conveyed, convened and connived,” maybe refers to the terrorists speaking in private and planning to take out their fellow people with the use of a timed bomb. Reynolds goes on to express himself being shocked by his alarm clock I think relates to this topic. Later on he comments on the element helium and gives it a human characteristic like his alarm clock. He goes on to talk about his conversation with helium; “Helium spoke first It cooled tempers and lifted spirits, but then it made a threat and that made me sweat!” Helium can be used for many different things, like: cooling magnets used for MRI machines, it can be used for leak detection tests for container, which would be exposed to areas of high pressure. It has many other uses, but once we extract helium, it is so light and because it is so light, it can pass through our stratosphere and leave our planet completely. We have no way of regaining helium and yet we use it for balloons that rid us of that precious element. So helium making the “threat,” that made him “sweat,” could be commenting on this. The reason I think that this is also rooted with Brexit is because of the lines “it’s the revolt of the atoms from London town to ancient Athens. Eliminate all traces of human life; they plan to wipe us out,” of course London and Athens are part of the European Union and with Brexit they will we divided and this, aforementioned earlier, was decided by the people who voted for this to happen, not all of course, but the majority. At the closing of the song, Reynolds keeps repeating in a delirious state that, “everything’s crumbling.” I think him doing this continues to further push that we are destroying ourselves.

The finale to, “the Spark” is “an Ode to Jigsaw Pieces.” This is a deeply personal song from front man Rou Reynolds and his experiences in dealing with the separation from of a loved one and the heartache that comes from one. Just like “Airfield,” he strews together lines that are poetic and heartfelt. In “Airfield,” it is an optimistic melody about not giving in and looking at positives that emerge even when in such times desolate of happiness; Although they are similar in that sense, Reynolds really opens up on what really is eating at his insides. He gives us a first-person view into his daily life that maybe some of us have experienced just the same. I love how personal it is and we never really get that view-point from the Enter Shikari songs; they tend to usually ignore these topics and they rather focus their energy on maybe the bigger picture with world news and grander topics- even though love is definitely a huge topic and that is an understatement. This is a beautiful ending to this quiet and tranquil album. Aside from the review, if Rou Reynolds happens to read this, I would like to say thank you for sharing your stories and giving us such great music. You told us even when the winds against us, no to give up. I hope you will always remember those winds will always be there when you look, just grab and take flight with us.

The Spark is nothing what I expected it to be and I am quite glad it turned out that way. I am always surprised by the new direction and sound of the Enter Shikari albums. It was and album filled in with a greater list of slower tracks and seemed a little too quiet at times and some member’s voices were not as present as previous albums. It is a personal EP that wears its heart on its sleeves and is insightful to topics occurring in the world today. 8.5/10

Favorite Aspects:

-Personal topics along

-Informative topics going on today like Brexit

-New sound; they always sound completely different

Least Favorite Aspects:

-Lack of inclusion from the other members in the vocal department

-Album feels a bit short

-Although I loved the tranquility in the album, it feels a bit slow paced

Side note: I do not own any of these tracks posted they belong to Enter Shikari, Ambush Reality and Hopeless Records. Thank you.

Next review: Final Fantasy X