#theres a whole wikipedia page for it and im reading it as if i didnt live thru it six months ago

[mbat]

something thats sadly a part of most things is that if you seek out knowing *everything* about that thing, youre bound to run out of new things to learn, and often it happens pretty quickly depending on a few things

and thats not an inherently bad thing, itd be nearly impossible for something to come out, or even only have been out for a few years, and have a ton of things about it hidden or even just not what most people would know about. plus, these things arent exactly made in mind with 'we need to cater especially to the people who will obsess over every nook and cranny'

i mean, ive tried to get into things before and realized that i learned basically everything about them within a week or two, and the momentum i had straight up stopped in minutes (for better or for worse)

all this to say, its actually such a relief to find something that really is just neverending when it comes to learning about it. like, i swear everything in world of warcraft is just a rabbit hole and i could probably play the wikipedia game just on the wowpedia alone and have a quite a few target articles

and like, it helps that the franchise is turning 30 in exactly 2 months and 1 day as of when im writing this. thats 3 whole decades of several games and comics and books and etc. and one of the games is literally a fucking MMORPG which has been constantly worked on for twenty years

like. every time i go to a wiki page, i find like 20 wiki pages i didnt have any idea existed at all. i watch videos of people talking about easter eggs or just fun small details, or even not-so-small details, and i just learn new things every time, and i even often get to go see those things for myself in game if i so please

and almost everything in the game has some sort of backstory to it, or lore relevance somehow, and like... the information just never ends. its just not something where you go to the official website and read some character bio pages and youve learned basically everything there is to know about it. theres more characters than you can even comprehend in this game

anyway, as one of those guys to likes to learn practically everything about something when i really like it, its just a breath of fresh air

[oflgtfol]

remember when trump was impeached. i literally completely fucking forgot about that

[roguestarsailor]

thoughts on a court of mist and fury *spoilers*

***** lots of spoilers folks *****

- MY GIRL FEYRE IS READING!! SHES READING LIKE REGULARLY AND CASUALLY IM SO PROUD

- RHYSAND MY LOVE I TAKE BACK ALL THE BAD THINGS I SAID IN BOOK ONE AND YOU ARE A BABY THAT NEEDS TO BE LOVED AND PROTECTED AND DESERVE PEACE AND QUIET AND MORE LOVE

- tamlin needs therapy like pronto; we dont stan a unsupportive partner and partner who is unwilling to share pain!! CANCEL TAMLIN 2020

- rhys popping up during the wedding scene was *chef’s kiss* and i noticed that he didn’t “claim” her as he said he would for like three months after everything. i suspect he was being a good person and literally letting her live her life. also for loving someone, tamlin was super chill and just kind of let her go??? idk i thought there would be more of a fight??? when feyre was literally like why are your claws retracting man?? fight for me??? hello??? but then again rhys is definitely more powerful than tamlin and probs some unspoken laws and such between high lords i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ anyways tamlin aint shit

- page 296-298! fucken shook me to my core. that self awareness, that confrontation, she identified the core of everything and it was such a turning point and im just so proud of her!!! She's recognizing her traumas and is healing!!!!!!!!!!

- yeah i immediately ship cassian and nesta; i hope she fucks shit up in the next book  😀 😀 😀 😀  

- maybe az and mor are truly the slowest of slow burns   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- i pictured pollution from good omens as how Amren is suppose to look like

- rhys is such a strong leader and im just -- baby deserves all the love. He's really good at plotting. He really made feyre learn all these things so they can nurture their love but also be a strategic advantage its interesting that even tho theres love there he still treats her like a weapon

- the joy in his rhys eyes when they winnowed into his regular ass town house that feels super lived in. and his friends banging on the door like he isn’t the feared night court high lord that he is. that was so refreshing to see that hes a regular person and not that high lord man who lives in a near empty mansion. he puts on a mask for everyone but he himself is just a regular fae.  

- reading about the peace that velaris was able to live through was beautiful. i imagined a city like san francisco with the hills and views of the ocean but kind of like the peace found in super small towns or cities in asia; maybe even some european cities (which is prob where this location is inspired by but i haven’t visited many euro cities). the scenes of ppl dining out, making art and music and just chilling is so lovely esp given our current pandemic. art is so treasured there and im like thats the epitome of a great society isn’t it? being able to do things because you just can without the pain of financial insecurity, civil unrest, etc. i definitely would love and die and for a society like that. its just so wonderful. i was filled w happiness while reading those scenes. :)

- rhys and his inner circle taking feyre out into the town and just being casual. nobody treats them like theyre royalty or anything special. theyre just a regular group of friends who enjoy hanging out. its super nice and nostalgia inducing esp during this pandemic when friends are so far away and not like it used to be.

- when rhys immediately saw how under weight and dead freye looked when she was in spring court -- AND IT WAS THE FIRST THING HE SAID TO HER WHEN HE SAW HER THROUGH THE DOOR WHILE TAMLIN DIDNT FUCKEN NOTICE

- i also take back my frustrations in book 1 when freye always wondering around the grounds in spring court esp during calanmai. i thought it was because the author needed to move the story forward but its just freye. she doesnt sit still and now that shes w rhys, we are seeing soooooo many things about prythian and thats beautiful. tamlin was truly a hinderance huh

- rhys sent her music when she was in the cell in Under The Mountain which was found in velaris. maybe he wasnt risking a lot but he just showed her a glimpse of the forbidden world right under aramantha’s nose holy shit he saved her from destruction!

- when rhys had his nightmare and feyre came to comfort him and kissed him on the cheeks and gave him such tenderness made my heart sing~

- rhys is literally opposite of tamlin is soooo many ways. RHYS DID THINGS OUT OF LOVE, WHILE TAMLIN DID THINGS FOR LOVE. everything from how rhys made sure feyre can grow into who she is meant to be, to how he introduces her to his friends and how he interacts w everyone in his court, how he handles pain, everything is so different than tamlin. tamlin feels pain and just bulldoze over things, doesn’t think about how his actions are hurting others even as he is hurting. he doesn’t talk, he doesn’t share, he doesn’t try to get himself or feyre out of this misery and just sees threats everywhere and hits them. he was also supper passive honestly. no doubt hes riddled w guilt and grief but can’t figure out how to handle it so he uses feyre as his crutch where if he can “save” her he will be free smh

- rhys PAYS feyre!! HE GAVE HER FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND RESPECT FOR HER WORK!! THE INDEPENDENCE THAT TAMLIN DIDNT FUCKEN GIVE.

- THOSE NOTES THEY SEND TO EACH OTHER SINCE FREYE CAN READ AND WRITE NOW

- Ianthe was sus from the beginning!! i knew it!! although i did bet she was gonna sleep w tamlin on the side. But she's a lot worst so we don't like her either

- the throne room scene was steamy af this time its fine because there was ~consent~ and also because we see the dynamic and growth between the two and how they work together. this was great although I was kind of like pls get a room tho

- RHYS SMILING!!! FEYRE AND RHYS LAUGHING TOGETHER UGH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

- THEY ARE MATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FEYRE AND RHYS FOUND EACH OTHER AND HAD SO MANY SHARED TRAUMAS AND WORKED IT OUT TOGETHER AND GREW TOGETHER AND LEARNED ABOUT EACH OTHERS QUIRKS AND ITS JUST LOVE IN ITS PUREST FORM UGH THAT SCENE WHERE RHYS WAS CRYING AND FEYRE HEATED UP FOOD FOR THE BABY AHH MY HEARTTTTT  MY WHOLE ENTIRE HEARTTTTTT IS BURSTING WITH LOVEEEEEE

- LUCIEN AND ELAINE HOLY FUCK WHAT A LEFT FIELDER i hope this is the push that will propel lucien to defy tamlin. going back to the contrast between how tamlin vs his court and rhys vs his court, rhys has a group of unwavering loyal friends and are treated equally esp letting them joke around so much and it feels like a casual group of friends hanging out. tamlin has just as much loyalty from lucien but theres still a power structure that tamlin maintains. luciens words doesn’t have much weight whereas rhys’s friends do. both tamlin and rhys have so much power and sway and similarity in traumas and tragedy but both execute things completely differently. tamlin only wants to upload what he is familiar with, maybe what he thinks his father wants whereas rhys actively tries to think of something better, to change the system regardless of how hard it is.

- tamlin you dumbass. He didn't learn from amarantha. He again let his pride fuck over a bunch of other ppl. He shat on amarantha and fucked over his court. Now he fucked the rest of prythian and human world by bargaining w the king. Smh goodbye tamlin

- I straight up knew the queens were bad!!! I knew they had to be plotting something. The sixth is "ill" my ass.

- LADY OF THE NIGHT COURT LETS GO FEYRE AND WOOWW WE STAN A MAN BREAKING TRADITIONS AND SUPPORTING EQUALITY

- when hybern was destroying velaris. I WAS GONNA THROW HANDS BRO. I'm glad we saw the extend of how powerful feyre could be and how she was clever and we can really see how she's completely different from before. She has bite and fight in her and it's so refreshing!

- how about we let az and cassian live in peace. Those boys had to deal w the blunt of literally everything. from being the only shield in valeris to poison/hurt wings against the king, just beat up all the time 🥺

- suriel is their version of a wikipedia

--

I read all 600 damn pages in like 2.5 days and I was loving it the entire time! My heart sored when feyre and Rhys were getting close and starting to break down their walls and really connect. This was a truly good enemies to lovers, slow burn tale and the drama is so great. There were good stakes that changes a character and their behavior and a good balance of action and excitement but at the same time so many little moments that let u see the character and how they interact w each other and the world. a lot of big plot moments, slice of life moments, a bit of romance and comedy. overall, an amazing book but super long. thus far this is my favorite book and im hoping the rest of the books can be just as charming and lovely but not too heart breaking. i hope rhys and feyre makes it. i cannot predict what to expect in the other books in the series (isn’t there gonna be 8 books total???) 

[cromulentbookreview]

Swipe Right for Darkness

I guess this book is a companion to a different trilogy that I haven’t read? Also why didn’t I figure that out until after I was well over 200 pages in?

And by that I mean: Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers!

Courting Darkness is told from two alternating perspectives - Sybella, a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Brittany and member of a group of assassin nuns who worship Death, and Genevieve, an initiate to the Assassin Nun Club previously sent to go undercover and spy on the French court. It took me way too long to realize that, at the time in which this story takes place, Brittany and France were two separate places. I do not know a lot about French history (see: all my prior posts in which I mention the years I wasted learning German) and so if you, too, don’t know much about medieval French history, you might want to do a wikipedia refresher before you start. Medieval history is not my strong suit. I’m more of an early-modern history person, you know, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. My knowledge of Medieval anything has basically been ruined for me by a combination of Shakespeare and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Anyway, back to Courting Darkness. Genevieve is in a bit of a pickle since she and her fellow assassin nun/spy/friend Margot have been sent away from the French court to live with this lecherous count near Cognac, which is a town, not just booze. (Things I also should have studied before I read this book: a map of France. Which one’s Brittany again? It’s...in the North, right? I’m a moron). There’s been no word from their Death-worshiping Assassin Nun Convent about what they should be doing, and Genevieve is worried the convent may have forgotten about them. To pass the time, she starts chatting with a prisoner who’s been stuck in an oubliette and left to starve to death.

Meanwhile, Sybella is having her own problems. Her family, for one, sucks. Her awful brother Pierre is trying to steal away their sisters, both of whom are currently being fostered/protected from Pierre by Anne, Duchess of Brittany. Meanwhile, there’s been this whole thing between France and Brittany, which only just ended when the Duchess agreed to marry King Charles of France. Great, no more war, right? Only the King’s sister, the Regent (and only ever referred to as such because her name also happens to be Anne...lots of Anne’s back in ye olden times) is the absolute worst. So Sybella, aside from being a badass assassin/death-worshiping nun, has to contend with her awful family constantly trying to steal her sisters away and her duties to the Duchess, now Queen of France and her awful new sister-in-law. If only there were some insiders to the French court for Sybella to consult! Like those two spies sent by the convent a few years back to act as moles...whatever happened to them? 

Unfortunately, as hard as I tried, I could never fully get into Courting Darkness. The pages didn’t fly by for me - reading it felt more like work. I can’t pin that on the book itself though because I don’t know how much of the backstory I’m missing - should I have read the His Fair Assassin trilogy first? Probably. Definitely. I mean, I have them on my kindle. I’m constantly surprised by the number of books I have on my kindle that I’d forgotten were there - it’s like getting a present in the form of something you bought but then forgot about. Anyway, Courting Darkness was described as the first in a duology, as though it were a separate series that just happened to be set in the same world...only, to me, it seemed a lot more like this was the fourth book in the His Fair Assassin series. Which is perfectly fine - I mean, reading this has bumped the His Fair Assassin books a little further up my Kindle TBR pile (currently the same height as Denali).

(Also things I should have done: brush up on my close-to-nonexistent knowledge of medieval history). 

I see nothing wrong with having books that are set in the same world but are separate stories - Leigh Bardugo did this with her various Grishaverse books, but my gripe is that the stories need to be truly separate, to the extent that a moron like me can start Six of Crows without having read any of the other books and with zero idea of what’s going on but still be able to understand and enjoy the story. With Courting Darkness, I felt like I’d picked up the fourth book in a series. There was a lot of me being like “whaaat’s happening right now?” I blame the publisher, honestly - this really should have been marketed as a continuation rather than “the first of a duology.” 

I also blame my sketchy knowledge of medieval French history. What do you mean Brittany and France were once separate? I mean, sure I know all about the Holy Roman Empire, but France? Ehhh.... 

Anyway! Courting Darkness! The writing is good, the story starts a bit slow but as the tension builds things get more and more exciting. How do you find your mole if the mole thinks they’re no longer active? Old-timey spycraft for the win. And, even though I’m a class-A didn’t-read-the-books-moron, I still enjoyed the story after quickly skimming through the other books - ultimately, if you’re a fan of the original series, then you’ll definitely want to check this out. 

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of the His Fair Assassin trilogy

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Those who haven’t read the His Fair Assassin trilogy or who know nothing about medieval French history.

RATING FROM SOMEONE WHO HASN’T READ THE OTHER BOOKS: 3/5

RATING BASED ENTIRELY ON WRITING AND STORYTELLING: 4/5

RELEASE DATE: February 5, 2019. So...uh, a few days ago. Hey, get off my back, this book was long and I’m easily distracted. I’ve been off my game when it comes to getting the point of an “advanced” copy.

FRENCH RATING:

[isaacathom]

ok this is actually a fun bit of writing here, even if the preceding shit was kinda garbage

tl;dr this bitch has to rant about this stupid book because i naively want to learn something about my family’s history and this is the only fucken way to do it

‘When he discovered he had to work to help provide for this instant family of a large flock of children, ‘Mick’ showed his true self and devotion to the family.

Within a year of the marriage, he left the fold, leaving his wife to fend for herself in the daunting task of raising her children.’

like.aside from just being kinda awkwardly worded (he bangs On and On about how his mum was the 11th of 11 children like fuck i get it its a big family, holy shit) i think thats just. a good concept there. the space really sells the punch. wouldve been better if we hadnt been told beforehand that Mick was a cunt, yknow. but thats nice

also lets keep going. ‘6 step brothers and 4 step sisters’ theyre actually her Half Siblings. they all share the same mother. theyre related. she’d be step if she was adopted, which she was not, because if she were, surely we wouldve been told about those circumstances.

‘[his mother] easily met that high standard as she was a very pretty young lady’ please dont perv out over your fucking mother you pig of a man. also you would hope ‘jock’ (his name is fucking robert but ok, Jock) was interested in more than how pretty Nellie was when they got together, right......... like there had to be more to it. am i naive? perhaps

‘scottish clan gordon’ the what. but we arent gordons???? are you. are you hundred percent sure. are you positive about this. are you sure thats why your name is gordon. alright buddy

‘according to buzzy’s story’ please never refer to yourself in the third person

‘hotels rarely burn down’ ?? i dont buy that at all. my guess is this famous hotel (which.... you didnt name so ok)

ok so theres a picture in here of my dad standing at some random gate, and he says its the same gate as a picture of his dad..... where is THAT picture??? this picture means nothing without that historic context, and it feels hollow if the actual picture isnt there.

granddad you dont. you dont need to wikipedia article dump me information about glasgow??? i mean sure, cool, id rather just be reading the wikipedia article.

jesus christ. so hes talking about his dad, right. who he’d technically set up earlier by saying he came to melbourne at 19. before he launched into a whole thng about his mother and shit. and suddenly hes come back to his dad to explain that his dad (so gordons grandfather) used to beat him! and its like, wOAH, where the fuck did that come from??? shit dude. thats rough. but he just mentions it suddenly out of nowhere. oH JESUS actually. sorry. i misread (yknow, because its written like shit). he means.... his brother??? right, he means his Brother Robert, was beaten by his dad, also named Robert, who was the one who came to melbourne aged 19. ok. ok that makes slightly more structural sense but ooof. ouch. poor robert (the younger). in my uh, defence, this book is written awful and i've never met robert? (my.... understanding is that he probably died before i was born? like with mary, who i dont recall having met either)

ok uhhh ‘most of the gorbal’s tenemenets were eventually demolished by the wise founding fathers many decades later, in the 1980s’ the WHOM. this isnt fucking america, this is scotland, what in the actual fuck are you TALKING about????????????????????????????? ‘modern day replacement improvements and architecture designed to achieve, what?’ fucker they were trying to fix the mistake they made in crowding 90k people into the fucking gorbals. maybe they didnt succeed (they didnt) but they were trying, it was naivete rather than fucking malice, you bitter old fuck. like, you visited in the 1980s.... and published this book in 2007......... without thinking to check back......... like hey maybe theyve gotten better? (newsflash - they fucking have) sooo... fuck

‘could the [my family] be related? [to the mcdonalds]’ yes??? we literally are. theres no question of that. being a sept of clanranald, we are Literally related to the fucking macdonalds. you absolute buffoon. yea its distant, and maybe thats your point, but when combined with you launching into this giant diatribe about rhw Campbells for shit that happened long ago, it seems youre picking and choosing how close ‘related’ is. we are. literally. related to the macdonalds. also it wasnt thought up in glasgow, they were from fucking new hampshire. but sure. 

‘his sheila wife of his’ excuse me?

‘so the name was related to a buzzing bee i suppose’ ? i still dont get it. like, he then explains that apparently his twin sister had difficulty saying Brother, so she called him Buzzy. that makes sense to me. i can understand that. but the buzzing bee thing? not sure i follow, given the prior context he provided. i dont get it. this is written like garbage. theres no structure. we went from jumping forward in time to the birth of my uncle Dale (my dads older brother) and suddenly we’re talking about Mick’s running career and gordon’s childhood! what the fuck happened.

‘coupled with the bigoted attitudes that were rife during those periods’ says the man who got angry at a black (i THINK, mightve been a separate story)  frenchman who couldnt speak english in France because ‘we saved them’. fuck off. youre just like them, you old codger.

also hes decrying his grandfather mick for being ‘no true irishman’ even though micks dad was full irish? by that exact same metric i can call my grandfather no true scotsman, because his dad is full scottish and thats it!!! you fucking fool. no true irishman, holy shit, how little self awareness could this man have.

‘then excessive drinking liquor isnt for me’ but is Is for your wife, is it gordon??? drinking wine when shes on antibiotics??? fucking incredible. god theyre. theyre so stupid.

‘not proceeding as a scholar as i could have’ you literally admitted like 5 pages ago that your twin sister was Far smarter than you, but sure! ~scholar~. if you were meant to be a scholar surely you wouldve bounded back from missing days with a vengeance. youre talking complete tosh.

im confused why theyd be doing bombing drills in South Yarra.... in preparation from a japanese air raid.... like im sorry, if the people north are doing their jobs, theres no physical way they couldve gotten to south yarra....... but ok. thats not his fault i just think thats strange.

im 110 pages in and he hasnt actually gotten to the point where he meets eleanor??? aside from a few time jumps forward and a brief mention of ‘meeting her in a milk bar in south yarra’ so like. hoi vey? the fuck.

oh jesus thats. thats a heavy thing to just chuck in the middle of a sentence??? like ‘oh yea after Skete the next scout leader was a paedophile who abused me and the others’ wwwOooahhh there buddy back up. what???? holy shit. ouch. thats. thats rough.

‘absolutely belted this poofta bastard’ yknow what? fair. id also beat the fuck out of a pedo with my boot. thats Relatable. good going on that, i suppose.

ooh thats full third person, weird.

one thing that is definitely kinda interesting, and very telling about his relationship with his family, is that he only ever refers to Nellie as ‘mum’, but refers to Mick as, well, Mick! rather than ‘granddad’ or anything of the sort. like its just sorta interesting when you get this big family photo and Nellie is the only one not called by her first name.

‘returning to those earlier days’ NO! FUCKING MOVE FORWARD IN TIME YOU GIT!!!! holy shit i just want to read about new fucking shit.

......... so like, at some point while playing footy, an opposing player kicked him in the leg and caused a fractured tibia. so a few weeks later... one of gordons friends took a mark on that player and kneed him straight in the head, with that player never playing again. and he’s PROUD of that!!! he’s proud of his friend for ruining a guys footy career. like yea, the guy was a dick, he broke your leg and it was at least partially malicious, but like........... you fucked him up????? hardcore?????? a straight up ruination. but go off i guess.

its interesting that he doesnt go even remotely into eleanors history beyond the fact (so far) that her father Leo didnt say much but was a good dude. then again the books all about him soooo fuck it i suppose.

‘recognition of our scottish heritage’ eleanor isnt scottish tho. shes irish. shes an o'donoghue. what the fuck. like yea naming them dale and glen is a ‘clever’ nod back to scotland (i actually do think thats cute and clever, joking aside. its the exact sort of ‘clever’ shit i love pulling) but............. shes not scottish. unless we’re waiting for volume 2 all about eleanor.

hE USED TO LIVE OUT HERE??????? IN SPRINGVALE????? fuck me. no fucking wonder we live here, huh, jesus. that. certainly explains something, i suppose. like ‘if you were raised in holbrook and YOU were raised in thomastown, why do we live in knox?’

OHHHHH HERES THE FRENCH THING!!!! OHHHH HERES ONE OF THE FRENCH THINGS. OH BITCH behold

so granddads being a dick, as usual, and he’s on some tour in paris. and the tour guide launches into a long thing about the glory of france, like french history and the fighting record, etc. and granddad calls out and tells him to knock it off, because ‘our australians died by the thousands for your country’

i. eh... uhh............... is he. is he aware? of how many french people died???? for france?????? how many????? il tell you how many - apparently 1.44% of the total population of france. thats 600000 people. how many did we lose? around 35k. thats, uh, a smaller fucking number. than the amount of french people. who died. for fucking france. you fucking idiot.

it kills me. is he gonna include the french speaking one too???

oh hell that sure is a picture of my father. good heavens. holy shit my brother really does look like him. thats uncanny, man.

‘one son Scotty’ his name is Scott, actually. not scotty. but cool, i got a really small shout out, weirdly BEFORE my older cousins did???? oh dear is he gonna talk about my uncles divorce actually. oh god. thats. thats terrifying to consider. oh, cool, he didnt in that small section, hopefully it doesnt come up haha (i can only IMAGINE what sort of vile shit he’d say about cathy)

also, ooh, more nuggets on grandma’s family. her dad was a freemason! thats cool.

ooh! he was the president of holbrook shire council! thats kinda neat actually.

ooh! the glenndale motel actually still exists! thats cool as hell. not that granddad told me that i just googled it

OHHH ITS THE FUCKING FRENCH SPEAKING STORY OH MY GOD

Ok first off ‘i slammed my fist into the counter and said very calmly’ yea no fuck that, youre fucking lying. theres no way you slammed the counter and spoke calmly. you almost definitely abused this poor french metro worker who, being a French Man living in France, is not required to know english. you fucking babboonnnnnnnnnn

apparently he nearly fell off a mountain innnnnn geeermany? austria, austria. and as he mentions my dad pulling him back up, he words it as ‘stopping me from falling to my final destiny’ what fucking wording IS that. my god.

uh well ok thats. about it i suppose. there was a big hullabuloo about like, hotels and shit, and there was probably some racism about Islanders in there (like i find it hard to believe there wasnt but im not gonna go back and double check, because this book reads like absolute garbage). but eh. yea?

uuhhh so that was an Adventure, for sure

[viralhottopics]

‘I’m like a secret assassin’: Poo Bear on writing for Justin Bieber, Skrillex and Sam Smith

The songwriter aka Jason Boyd has been writing hits for more than 20 years, but his collaboration with Bieber on Where R Now? made him an overnight sensation. It literally changed music, he tells Elle Hunt

You may not have heard of Jason Boyd, better but not widely known as Poo Bear, but youve heard him.

After more than two decades as a songwriter and producer of mostly R&B and pop, his fingerprints are on hits for an array of artists including Usher, Chris Brown, and Lupe Fiasco.

Peaches & Cream by the R&B quartet 112, which spent 25 weeks in the Top 40 in 2001, is one of his. So is Caught Up, Ushers fifth single from Confessions. And Work, one of Kelly Rowlands most successful solo works.

Poo Bear was 14 and still in high school when he co-wrote his first hit, Anywhere, for 112; he is now 38.

He considers his low profile the secret to his longevity; people tire of the same old songwriters and producers. It might not mean that your music isnt great anymore; it might just mean they might just be over it, he says. For me, it was a blessing to stay under the radar so they couldnt really get tired of me … Im like a secret assassin. You dont even know its like, oh, Poo Bear did that.

His star is in fact the highest its ever been, thanks to a boost from a musician whose own could not have fallen much lower. Poo Bear was instrumental in Justin Biebers turnaround from one of the worlds most-loathed celebrities to electronic dance music superstar, co-writing much of his 2015 album, Purpose.

Just weeks after Bieber brought his megatour-stroke-victory lap to Australia, Poo Bear is in Sydney for the world premiere of Afraid of Forever, a documentary about his career, produced by Red Bull.

Softly-spoken and earnest, with the trademark greeting happy birthday (because youre supposed to feel like that every day), he seems a little bemused by the attention.

Poo Bear: Ive watched songwriters, writers, producers, even artists that Ive written hits for come and go. Photograph: Dustin Downing

Ive watched songwriters, writers, producers, even artists that Ive written hits for come and go, he says, speaking to Guardian Australia at the Star casino on Wednesday morning. But to the world, it looked like Justin Bieber was my first success.

When Bieber and Bear were first introduced in Las Vegas in January 2013, they bonded over their shared love of R&B, with Bieber a fan of many of the artists Bear had written for.

Both were raised by single mothers in low-income, religious homes, and both entered the music industry at a young age. As Bieber once put it, they kind of just vibed on a personal level.

Poo Bears parents divorced when he was eight; two weeks later, a tornado destroyed the family home in Connecticut. He and his mother and brother spent nine months homeless before moving to Atlanta, Georgia, for a fresh start made possible by a donation of $4,000 from their church.

Bear signed his first record deal four years later. Bieber was the same age 13 when he was discovered on YouTube by his longtime manager, Scooter Braun.

Braun disapproved of Bear when he first started spending time with Bieber, concerned he was a bad influence at a time when the young singers star was already in a nosedive. (Bear did once characterise his early friendship with Bieber as making bad decisions with a minor smoking weed and getting into trouble.)

[Braun] did try to separate us, and that brought us closer. Over time, I understood it … This was a kid hed been raising since he was 13 if I was in that situation, I probably wouldve been a little overprotective too. (Braun is now Bears manager as well.)

Poo Bear and Bieber eventually collaborated on Journals, an unassuming compilation of mostly R&B singles released at the end of 2013. It was never intended to be a commercial hit, says Bear; Bieber was exercising some creative freedom and taking tentative steps out of child-stardom a transition to which Poo Bear proved crucial.

People always say, I wasnt really feeling Justin, but it wasnt really for them. It was always for kids and little girls. When Journals came out, it opened up the world to this other side of Justin that we never knew existed.

Most Top 40 hits are collaborations between producers, who make the beat, and top-line writers such as Poo Bear, who come up with melodies and lyrics. Photograph: Dustin Downing

At that time, Bieber was almost exclusively known for abandoning his pet monkey to customs officials, spitting on fans from a balcony, and urinating in a restaurants mop bucket.

Theres no time for failure; theres no money for failure, the producer Scott Storch, with whom Poo Bear collaborated closely between 2005 and 2008, says in Afraid of Forever.

Compared to the songwriting-by-committee approach and safer bets such as the Swedish hit-making powerhouse Max Martin Biebers insistence on working with the relatively unknown Poo Bear constituted a risk, and at a time when his future was at stake.

The foundations for Biebers comeback were laid in a whole campaign devised by Scooter Braun, says Bear: The [Comedy Central] roast and everything that was all Scooters idea.

Poo Bear and singer-songwriter Justin Bieber at Poo Bears Grammy Party at Serafina Sunset on February 10, 2017 in West Hollywood, California. Photograph: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

But public relationships could only do so much: it would take a hit to cement Biebers return, and that pressure was on Poo Bear.

The breakthrough was Where R Now?, imagined by Bear as a piano ballad. Then Skrillex turn it into a movie, he says, almost with awe.

Skrillex and his fellow producer Diplo had heard the demo of the track, and expressed interest in it as a single for their upcoming collaboration as Jack .

In their hands, the wistful ballad became springy and cinematic, with a throbbing beat and a dolphin-cry chorus that was revealed to be Biebers voice, digitally manipulated beyond recognition, in a slick New York Times video about its production.

Its influence is inescapable now; in February 2015, when it was released by Jack with Justin Bieber, it was utterly new. It literally changed music, says Bear. It took a while, but it ended up catching on. It was played, oh my God, so much on the radio.

Where R Now paved the way for What Do You Mean?, the lead single off Purpose and co-written by Bieber, Poo Bear and just one other. It was an immediate hit the first number-one of Biebers half-decade career and introduced to the charts the Caribbean-influenced tropical house sound now so ubiquitous, even Ed Sheeran has dabbled in it. (Its like, out of all the people, I would have thought you would be somebody to do something different, says Bear, slightly accusatorially.)

Two more number-one singles followed, while Purpose itself debuted at number-one on the US Billboard 200 album chart. It topped album charts in 11 other countries, and was nominated for album of the year at the 2017 Grammys.

Bieber was back.

It was done, says Bear. Nobody could take it away from him. I dont know about the rest of the world, but America loves redemption. They love giving people second chances.

With the momentum behind Bieber came unprecedented attention for Poo Bear, who gave the first extensive interview of his career to the New York Times in October 2015; at the time, he didnt even have a Wikipedia page.

At the same time, he is under no illusions that he is now a celebrity.

I like going out and having very few people coming up to me because they read the credits and they know, he says. I see my friends who have superstar lifestyles, and its great to have hundreds of millions of dollars, but at the same time, its a sacrifice of your own sanity.

He has, however, quadrupled his pre-Purpose fee in a bid to retain some exclusivity in the face of increased demand. Now he is working with Skrillex and UK singer-songwriter Sam Smith on projects that, he hopes, will throw out the sound he pioneered 18 months ago and which has been widely aped since. (He makes a conscious effort not to listen to popular music: its not inspiring.)

Finally, Ive reached a place where if Im working with an artist, they allow me to just do whatever I feel, he says. Growing up it was like, we want another Peaches and Cream. Then you realise … why would you want a 2001 Mercedes Benz when Im making 2018 Benzes?

Read more: http://bit.ly/2nRVfsl

from ‘I’m like a secret assassin’: Poo Bear on writing for Justin Bieber, Skrillex and Sam Smith

[isaacathom]

the Kingdom of... Lessia? Lissaea? that sounds kinda cool. looks weird as shit, but sounds cool. of course, what the hell does Liss mean.

Lassaea also sounds cool. i dont know is lass- means anything geographically either, because some wikipedia pages wont fucking tell me anything topynymic like for gods saaakkeeee tell me why it was called the Pantalassa ocean, you bum.

oh it DOES tell me but its wholly in greek. i cant read greek. what sounds am i looking at. god, its even ancient greek, buddy. please. ok, the sea bit is Thala? ok, Thalatha, but Thala. Thalassia? ok, thats a bit of an inane name, it literally means ‘sea land’ but if New Zealand can do it, so can I. Thalassaea? thats a bit garbled, i think. but Thala sounds really nice, as a sound combination. and thats like, historically my favourite sort of sound combo, so :D

Thalassia? that will change things, admittedly, since it means the Kingdom will be bordered by ocean, definitely to the south, and possibly to the east. since its land bordered to the north and west by default, since north east-ish is where Adelaide’s home country is, north west-ish is a neutral country, and the west are those guys the Kingdom went to war with. hmm.

Thyssia? that looks like an actual place name, too.... its not, not specifically.

also, fuck, i cant name it Thalassia anyway, theres a place in Greece with that name D: alright. shit. ok.

ok how about instead of throwing noises, i go find something i want the Kingdom to be named for. like, its probably bordered by water on at least one side, because thats cooler, though no guarantee the entirety of its southern border touches the sea. depends on how much land there is. its north and probably west have land. it shouldnt have the word ‘south’ as one of its roots, no matter what language, since then its a lil too blatant of an Australia reference (given Australia means Southern Land, yknow)

it could always be named for a sort of plant, or a geological thing aside from the ocean. are there mountains? hmm..... if there are, theyre probably to the north east-y end, since thats near where Adelaide’s home country is, an if there were gonna be mountains, it’d be dividing them. but that’d also beg the question of why the eastern dudes, the ‘baddies’ would need to cut through the Kingdom to get to it. it’d make more sense to go around? unless ‘around’ has like 7 different countries and thats a lot more legal hassle than just one Big FuckOff Country, right. idk. probably no big mountain ranges, though that doesnt prevent there being SOME mountains, like some isolated big ass hills. could you name a country for like, its bays? like if it has a prominent god damn. fishbowl. big doodad. like port phillip bayy? oh thank god, i didnt misremember the name of the Bay, i am an australia ;v;

but like, you could name a country for a bay, i dont see why not. but if the country had a bay, well, it’d make sense for the Castle to be close to it, wouldnt it? oh, shit! and, also, the Kingdom was probably initially two separate countries, due to the existence of the ‘fort’ that serves as the centre of royalty during the war with the west. so possibly the name could be based off one of those? probably whichever half held the bay initially? though if the bay is so important, it couldve sparked the conflict anyway, like fishing water shit, and it wouldnt really matter who won it because the whole point was that neither owned it outright? yikes. ok, maybe not a bay.

idk. i like Thyssia. but, ofc, it sounds p... greek. nothing wrong with that, and honestly that works.. idk. im conflicted.

yknow, fuck it, that’ll do for now. the kingdom of Thyssia. nice