#this is very much a theory still in development so i'm not allowing reblogs

[cosmogyros]

I've been developing a certain theory about music. About people who listen to music, more specifically. I'm starting to think most music-listeners can be divided into two categories, which I'm currently calling "Sound" and "Song". So let's call this the So-So Theory.

The Sound type appreciates a certain musical sound or sounds. If they like one song by a certain artist, they will probably also like the other songs on that same album, and the other music by that artist. They don't mind, or perhaps even prefer it, if all of a certain artist's songs sound quite similar, regardless of how strong each song may be individually. Recommendation algorithms probably work pretty work for Sound types: "If you liked X, you may also like Y!" (assuming the algorithm is based on the two artists in question having a similar sound/vibes). I suspect Sound types also tend to find it more important for singers to have attractive-sounding voices and for instrumentalists to be skilled on their instruments. They're also probably better at identifying exactly which instruments you can hear on a certain track, and possibly more skilled on their own instrument (if they play one).

The Song type, on the other hand, is more focused on the structure and concept of each individual song – the "songcraft", as I call it. They will often like one or two songs by an artist but find the rest of that artist's work disappointing by comparison. They may lose patience with an album if the songs on it aren't distinct enough from each other. They aren't very well served by algorithms at all – because, the Song type thinks, "sure, those two songs SOUND alike, but the difference is that one's good and the other is crap!" They tend not to mind "less pretty" voices (think Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Paul Westerberg, Joe Strummer...) or limited instrumental skills so much, because the song is the point. As a result, they may often be fans of genres that are not exactly known for musical complexity or technical brilliance, such as Depression-era folk music, protest songs, "outsider"/naïve music (e.g. Daniel Johnston) or some old-school punk*. What a Song type admires as a "stark arrangement" might be disparaged by a Sound type as "boring" or "repetitive".

I'm doing my best to describe both types fairly, but I have some inescapable natural bias – because I'm definitely a Song type myself, and find it hard to understand the Sound type. I'll listen to music from practically any genre or era if I feel that each individual piece of music takes itself seriously, is trying to achieve a certain conceptual goal as a song, and successfully gets there. But I often get bored when trying to listen to a full album, because (from where I'm standing) most average albums have a good song or two on them and then the rest is filler. And even if the artist is very skilled and sounds great, the lacking substance in the "filler" songs means there's not enough to hold my interest.

I also often end up liking only the one or two songs that are universally acclaimed as an artist's "big hits", even if other fans scoff at those songs as being "the ones that everyone knows" and opine that it's more impressive to know the "deep cuts". But the thing is, often those big hits are hits for a reason – a particularly strong or unique lyrical and/or musical hook, talented songwriters who were hired to work on it, or just a moment of songwriting genius that struck the artist and then wasn't possible to replicate again. I don't care how "mainstream" or "overplayed" something is if I consider the song itself to be well-written and well-conceived.

Unfortunately, being a Song type means that I'm almost impossible to recommend music to. Or rather, I do always love getting recommendations, but they rarely become "my new fave", because a lot of my friends are Sound types and recommend me stuff based on its sound/vibe similarity to stuff they know I already like. (That said, actual human recs still have a far better track record with me than algorithm-generated recommendations do.)

Also – and I have to laugh at myself for this because I KNOW it's stupid – I've never felt much motivation to put effort into getting good at any instrument in order to present my own songs in a more impressive way. Because I always end up thinking, "Well, I know the song is good. Structurally, conceptually, it's solid. I'm no good on the guitar and shaky on the singing, but anyone ought to be able to 'listen past' those minor issues to the heart of the matter, which is the SONGCRAFT! Right?" But the thing is, no, that's not a reasonable expectation to have of other people. I'm humbled that many folks do seem to like and appreciate my music, despite my technical limitations. But at the same time, I realize I'd probably have a significantly larger audience if I put a bit more of a technical polish on it, in order to appeal to both types: Song and Sound.

Anyway. I got thinking about this after my Tracy Chapman post the other day, reflecting on why it was that I liked her first few albums so much and then was so greatly let down by that later album. Because it sounded exactly the same, didn't it? Yes, of course... but to my ear, the songwriting integrity was missing. I don't really know how to put it into words. All I know is, it felt like a huge step down from "Fast Car" and "Why" and "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution" and "For My Lover" and "All That You Have Is Your Soul" to... a bunch of pretty, inoffensive background music that features the same old Tracy Chapman sound we know.

Something was missing, something that's hard to define. Songcraft. To paraphrase Potter Stewart: I know it when I hear it.

*(Or Delta blues, which does historically tend to feature impressive instrumental skills, but also quite restricted song structure and repetitive, sometimes even predictable motifs.)

[itsclydebitches]

Have you seen the posts going around saying shit like "If a mutual likes Hazbin Hotel I will block them"?? It's genuinely upsetting me tbh, not just the idea that people don't like the show, but that they despise it so much they can't even stand the thought of someone they know liking the show. It reminds me of the Steven Universe hate train only worse. They also say shit like "the show is just someone saying swear words and expecting you to laugh", and if for a second we put aside the fact that that is blatantly not true, what's wrong with that? I'm allowed to like something that's a bit trash, right? I've already seen two different people I follow reblog posts to that effect (and worse, someone saying all a character boils down to is "i love being sexually abused <3" and i don't know how they ever came to that conclusion) and it's driving me mad. And somehow I just know that they don't actually give a shit about any "controversies" surrounding vivziepop, that's just a convenient excuse for most of them. I don't even care if Vivzie is a bad person, that's none of my business. just live and let live, you know?

Sorry for ranting, you're literally the only blog i follow who posts Hazbin fan content

Rant away, friend! Luckily for me I haven't come across any of those posts yet. Plenty of discourse surrounding whether fans are allowed to make romantic and/or sexual content for Alastor, the expected shipping wars, and - as you say - vague references to Vivzie controversies (which I'm too new a fan to even be aware of yet)... but nothing that's a complete rejection of the show itself. That's probably because I've only engaged with blogs posting a lot of Hazbin content though.

I'm a big fan of old school Internet rules which includes an emphasis on cultivating your own online space. You know, the thing tumblr is explicitly designed for. So in theory I applaud anyone blocking users/tags for a show they're not a fan of. Performatively posting about it more as a way to guilt others for liking Hazbin at all... not so much. If you want to block something just block it. If you're mutuals with someone you both presumably like each others' content. Not all of it necessarily, but enough to have followed in the first place, and often being mutuals for long enough leads to friendship because you're both getting interacting with one another a lot. All of which isn't to say that people don't unfollow mutuals, or that you can't drop a mutual because they've started posting something you dislike. Obviously both situations do happen, but it feels like an extreme enough response that these posters probably aren't actually doing this very often. Most people will wait the mutual out until their interest gets hooked on something new, or block the Hazbin tag and keep the friend, or just block without making a big announcement about it. So posts like that feel more like a way to show off how much you dislike the show and guilt others for their enjoyment which yeah, can be upsetting to see. Especially when, as you say, it costs nothing to just let people like things.

Which might sound hypocritical on my part given my RWBY interests, but I think there's a big difference between critically examining a show while supporting others who genuinely love it, and simplistically blasting it. I COMPLETELY get why Hazbin wouldn't be to everyone's tastes and, like with the SU example, anything that gets popular enough is going to develop its haters (especially cartoons trying to tackle non-childish subjects. That's always going to be a fandom landmine). But if you're going to make claims about a show, at least watch it to ensure you can back up your stance? And if your takeaway is still, "This is the worst fucking thing I've ever watched"... cool. Go forth and write about that on your own, personal blog. But no one should be surprised when they're also blocked for bragging about how many Hazbin fans they've blocked.

[wumpyprincessdrea]

Hi all! Here is an additional segment to The Light of the New Moon! I really hope that you enjoy it! I will caution that the content of my story may upset some individuals. The cw's in this bit are as follows: medical trauma, experimentation, broken bones.

Please like, comment, or reblog this post if you would like to be added to my tag list.

Tag List

@theres-whump-in-that-nebula

The Light of the New Moon

Part 3

Nocturna woke up hours later in the same place where she was left.   Upon opening her eyes, she could finally see the familiar shapes of the room.   Everything was much clearer.   She tried to sit up but found she was still very tightly bound to the table.  Her body hurt, but the inferno that seared her veins was no longer present.   The pain was more of a throbbing ache which one would experience after strenuous exercise.  Nocturna let out an exhausted groan.

"Oh good, you're awake.   I was starting to worry if our little experiment was too much!"

The woman quickly walked over to Nocturna's side again with her journal.  

"So, how are we feeling?"

Nocturna closed her eyes for a minute, and frowned as she continued to come to her senses.

"It's a bit difficult to say at the moment.   But my muscles are sore and I have a throbbing headache."

The woman recorded this new information in her journal.

"I see.   However, it does not surprise me.  You were in a great amount of pain, you were afraid, angry, and a touch anxious.  In normal circumstances that would be enough to cause any lycan to go into a frenzied state. It would likely cause the lycan to be forced into transformation. Your body was internally fighting itself.  Part of you wanted to transform, but it couldn't. This may explain why you are so sore."

Nocturna sighed, closing her eyes again from fatigue.

The woman walked in a circle around Nocturna, studying her. 

"But why didn't you transform? It is almost as if the wolfsbane kept you in your human form."   We will have to test this theory later. I want to allow you oneday of rest. I need you at full streng th.  Now that we know what that tesvb t did to you, I'm going to have to do it again... but I have more things in store.   I want to see if I can push you into transformation.  

Nocturna winced at the woman's words, whimpering slightly. 

"Don't be such a baby, you will be fine.... at least I am giving you a chance to recover."

Nocturna sighed, her face becoming neutral, hiding her fear.

"Since, I am unsure of when this... will end, what do I call you?" Asked Nocturna.

"I am Lorelei, however, I dont think there will be much dialog between us, so I dont think it matters.  Now, I did promise you a day of rest so that you can recuperate before our next assessment.  She pulled a second lever by the table and the chains and leather retracted, leaving Nocturna unbound. Nocturna sighed heavily in relief, at the removal.   She tried to sit up, but instantly regretted it and laid back down, her face grimaced from the pain as a rib cracked.

"Oh. I should have warned you... you should probably lay still.  You see, due to the nature of our experiment, your muscles, bones, and other structures are incredibly weak.   Moving, is not only futile, but will only worsten your discomfort.   Oh dear..... tsk tsk tsk.... Your rib.... it's cracked.... such a pity...."

Lorelei beamed at this new opportunity.   "Oooh I know just the thing to help it!! We can test a new formula I developed!" 

Nocturna winced at her words, and without thinking she moved her hand to her injured ribs and cried out in pain, feeling her muscles from her shoulder to her hand spasm. She swore under her breath.  

Lorelei ignored Nocturna's complaining and left to retrieve something.   She returned holding a small container that held a strange balm.  Lorelei appeared more unhinged than before.   She approached Nocturna and sat next to her with the jar.  She then put on a pair of specially made gloves and opened the small pot which contained a deep purple cream. 

"Now, I have done some research and it turns out that while wolfsbane is extremely toxic, it also contains some healing properties... I want to test my new product...."

Lorelei chortled, dipping her hand into the jar and scooping a dollop into her hand.

"I am not sure how this will effect you, so please, be very honest with me.  Again, all of this is for science and it will be used to help the rest of us.....Remember, moving will only make the pain worse...."  

Nocturna said nothing.   She laid completely still and found a focal point on the ceiling. She slowly tried to force herself to zone out.

Lorelei smiled, and applied the salve to Nocturna's injured ribcage, who instantly recoiled at the moment the linament was applied, crying out in anguish as more internal damage was inflicted.  

"Oh dear.... and here I thought this would help...."

Nocturna did her best to lay still despite seething in agony.   She tried to speak and beg Lorelei to stop, but no sound came out.   Lorelei took a step back and watched as Nocturna's body shook with anguish. She watched as her body lurched from the pain.    Then she lay still, completely unconscious.  

[chicoriii]

Season 4, Episode 4 - Mr Pigeon 72

I have no idea where to start. This episode has some good things and some extremely stupid.

Marinette isn't still completely fine, but I prefer when she deals with it through being hyperactive than being a whining crybaby.

I know people don't agree with me, but personally I don't buy the whole revealing identity to Alya. It's not a problem with Alya herself, I would say the same about every single character who is not named Alix Kubdel at this point of the story. I haven't written anything in my post about Gang of Secrets, because I thought it would be undone in some way at the start of the next episode. The creators did nothing to explain why revealing identity of Ladybug to anyone was super dangerous and would result in a catastrophe in seasons 1-3 and the first two episodes of S4, but it's magically fine in episode 3. Only Alix made sense to me, as she will be the rabbit Miraculous holder, so she is destined to discover identities of everyone sooner or later and Marinette is aware of that. While it's not necessary to learn identity of anyone to other temporary Miraculous wielders, including Alya. Also that reveal hasn't been foreshadowed in season 3, while the show usually does it, especially if it's about something as important as that! More, in late S3, it's been shown that Alya still can't resist to not talking about Marinette's love life with Nino, despite she asked her to not do it. Now the girl, who is overly excited about superhero stuff, has no problems with even accidental revealing anything to Nino or someone else. She's even "stealing" Bunnix line that she's great at keeping secrets (sorry but you, the creators, haven't shown us that she's indeed is before!). This is why I think that reveal hasn't been planned before they started writing season 4.

But okay, I can deal with it, even if I don't buy it, but things these happened in Mr. Pigeon 72 are even more inconsistent with previous seasons. I have been worried about it, so it doesn't surprised me. For some reason Guardian related-things that have been kept in a secret before from everyone minus current Guardian and the future Guardian, are now fine being done in front of Kwamis (remember, they haven't been allowed to learn about making potions before!) and a civilian who is just a temporal Miraculous holder, not someone who is supposed to be trained to be a new Guardian. You can say - new Guardian, new rules, but why? Marinette has been portrayed as someone who respect authorities, she has never questioned any Fu's rules. It wasn't even said in the episode that she's going to change the rules. I hate that the writers don't even bother to explain us what's going on. Probably they don't bother about consistency, they think the audience is going to be too excited about Alya knowing Ladybug's identity and helping Marinette to question anything about it? How Alya could be allowed to learn the Guardian secrets? She is just best friend of the protagonist, she is not one of the main characters to get that special treatment. I makes zero sense to me. Especially since Su-Han will be introduced in episode 6 and he should help Marinette with understanding the Grimoire, Alya isn't necessary here for any other reason than fanservice.

In my opinion the way how they discovering how to make charms that protects from akumasitation was the most stupid thing that happened this season and one of the most in the whole show. Marinette who is the new Guardiand and portrayed as someone extreme intelligent and creative couldn't find the solution for days, but Alya with zero training magically discovered it in a few hours at worst. And when she told her the solution in not even very clear way, Ladybug did it immediately with no effort. That was so anticlimactic. At least the animation was fine, but other aspects of it was just a big disappointment, and I was looking forward for it. Thank goodness it's just the beginning of the season, I hope later important events of the season will be better written and portrayed.

Also I find it absurd that Rena Rough is walking with a page from the Grimoire like it's just an ordinary book and she's talking about it in front of a random civilian, like things that are written there are nothing special. She or Ladybug are not careful about Miraculous lore anymore. Not to mention that they are giving hints that Rena is very close to Ladybug in public, suspiciously close. And now with them being too careless, that's not hard to suspect that Rena Rouge is someone very close to Ladybug, maybe even as a civilian. Shadow Moth knows Rena Rouge's identity, and it's easy to him to learn who is Alya Cesaire's best friend if he doesn't know it yet, after all his son is in the class with her. Marinette has always been super careful and serious about her duties before, why that sudden change with zero explanation? It's just very out of character to her in my opinion.

I didn't like the akuma battle either, it's now the worst fight of the season in my opinion. It was so short and felt very lazy. I only liked that Plagg got some action and interaction with Ladybug (though it should be suspicious for her that he managed to reach to her that fast). He should be aware now that Alya knows Ladybug's identity but he acts like nothing happened. Not a word about it being unfair towards his kid or something, weird.

Thankfully the rest of the episode is generally more or less fun to me. It was nice to see Marinette and Kagami interacting again. I loved Kagami in the episode, although it was a bit weird to me that she isn't seemed to be affected by her breaking up with Adrien. Like her crush was very shallow, so she managed to recover herself from it very quickly. While it's been shown that Luka is hurt, despite Lukanette always seemed to be much more shallow than Adrigami in my opinion. But maybe it's because she's so down to earth, so being less emotional makes sense for her character. I liked how her attitude was opposite to Marinette's hyperactive: "No, I don't want to be in a relationship with Adrien again, he disappointed me, just let me live!!!". And she's another character who said that Marinette and Adrien are made for each other. I'm not surprised that Kagami sees it now when she tried to be with him and that didn't work. She's observant, sees more than many other characters. It seems she's an Adrienette shipper now. It's also good that her issue with Adrien wasn't resolved that easily and too fast. They need more time, but I'm sure they will be friends again.

So, we've gotten shirtless Adrien. I remember seeing a tweet of Thomas in which he answered to a question if there will be a beach episode and he said we will get something similar. I wonder if he meant this episode. Oh, they just remembered that Adrien is supposed to be allergic to feathers. It seems Adrien has allergic reactions only when it's somewhat related to the plot. When it's not, he's completely fine.

The reference to the famous Umbrella Scene™ out of nowhere in a random episode? It probably means something. I can see "reverse crush" supporters interpreting it as a proof to their theory, especially since this time Adrien did something clumsy and Marinette is laughing because of it (actually both of them). Or maybe because it's the first episode of season 4 with Marinette and Adrien interactions, they decided to be that much gracious for Adrienette fans, to compensate lack of it in the first three episodes. Oh wow, Marinette managed to propose spending more time together to Adrien without stuttering. Probably because she has done it spontaneously. Marinette is the most nervous when she's planning and thinking what could go wrong too much. This time she had no time to it, so it went more smoothly. It's like they building development of their relationship, but it didn't seem in Guiltrip (that's episode 11 chronologically) that something changed.

Seeing screenshot above, you can easily imagine how great friends they could be, being very comfortable around each other and laughing together, if not Marinette's anxiety. We need Adrienette development so much to get more moments like this.

Oh and I just realized that it's also one of the veeeeery few episodes with no real Ladynoir at all (the only other one I remember is Style Queen). So if there was no Adrienette it would be an episode without interactions of two main characters at all (although we almost got Ladrien). It could be another reason why this episode is that nice for Adrien and Marinette ship.

After seeing overly excited Marinette dancing in the rain, I can't believe she can manage completely give up on Adrien. It doesn't look like this at all.

Also we've seen three photos of Adrien wearing THAT scarf. It could not mean nothing different that foreshadowing that he's going to discover the truth about it somewhere this season. But I have no idea what Ladybug's mask with shining eyes could mean.

I don't know what to think about the episode. Despite absurd Guardian-related things, I still liked it much more than Gang of Secrets, but I have no idea if I generally enjoyed it more than other episodes of this season or not. At least it's an episode without stupid drama, which is amazing.

---------

I'm currently less active on social media, because my internet connection is very unstable, it often works very slowly to the point I'm not patient enough to visit Tumblr. Also I block spoiler tags again, because I don't want to see spoilers from the episodes those are going to be released very soon, as I feel that they reveal too much to me once more. We're currently in a marathon of the new episodes and since watching them is the more more enjoyable, the less I know about them, I decided to try avoid spoilers as much as I can. The only bad thing is that I can't be read discussions about the new episodes, reblog them and adding something from me until Optigami will be aired.

[demon-dance-club]

I posted 134 times in 2021

23 posts created (17%)

111 posts reblogged (83%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 4.8 posts.

I added 47 tags in 2021

#fer.al - 8 posts

#swearing cw - 8 posts

#feral wildworks - 7 posts

#wildworks - 6 posts

#caps tw - 4 posts

#genshin yanfei - 3 posts

#genshin scenery - 3 posts

#genshin screenshots - 3 posts

#genshin impact - 3 posts

#youtube - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 116 characters

#especially in countries where healthcare is free it’s pretty fucked the amount of stuff people still have to pay for

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Just saw the q force trailer and I regret to inform everyone that I am no longer attracted to men. I am attracted to everything but men. In fact I’m becoming one of those people who hate men. I am mhm now (men hating men). As I type this I am running away into the woods to hide from the world.

/j

BUT ALSO WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT. I have two theories: the show actually sucks and was written by a team consisting of a straight 13 yo girl and a 50 yo straight man. Or: the show still sucks but it’s on purpose and the marketing team wants to exploit the power of hate watching.

Either way, don’t watch it whenever it comes out. Also I hope the queer voice actors are getting paid WELL for this. The straight actors,,,,idk the circumstances of their hiring but I sure hope they didn’t do it willingly cuz this is FUCKED UP.

Final thoughts: I would beat up the guy with drag makeup and a weirdly large mouth. On top of being stereotyped to hell and back he also ends up acting predatory and creepy towards the most “straight passing” guy of the group by making unsolicited comments about him. This is SO dangerous because it perpetuates one of the worst stereotypes about mlm: that we try to force ourselves on straight dudes.

Final thought 2: Also I’m confused as to why there seem to be two other dudes who are part of the “main group” but don’t get any lines?? My best guess is that they’re less “gay” as characters and that therefore they don’t have so many wild lines to show in the trailer.

Anyway if I’ve gotten anything wrong just let me know. I haven’t done much research or anything, I’m mostly going off what I saw in the trailer.

21 notes • Posted 2021-06-24 17:23:57 GMT

#4

At last, a worthy sequel to my good old free to play feral post, fresh picked from the latest discord announcement and once again deep fried for effect~

Allow me to introduce all the players who got softlocked by broken challenges :DDDD

28 notes • Posted 2021-07-17 01:40:16 GMT

#3

My serenitea pot is finished! Or the main island exterior at least. I'd add more but the furniture limit is ridiculously low hhhh Anyway just look at that view~

29 notes • Posted 2021-05-12 00:38:35 GMT

#2

About the goddam WW Crypto thing

I really should have known by now wildworks was unable to do anything right...If they go through with this shit I'm gonna riot fr, gimme my fucking 8$ back lmao.

Anyway, here are some of my concerns:

1. Where is all this money/staff coming from, and why can't it go towards games that are already in development??

WW can barely hold 3 games (or two and a half, let's be honest...feral is STILL IN BETA NEED I REMIND YOU) together right now, from what I know there's very little staff and not much money to go around. Feral was taking staff from AJ for a while, and now that they've been sent back to AJ there's supposedly no replacements being hired. That may be because there's no money, but also it's likely that they've been planning this for a while...still you'd think that Feral is a number one priority. Are they *trying* to kill it or what? Once Fer.al is more finished, they should be able to rake in more sweet sweet cash (cuz spoiler alert, many people like to play games that aren't broken), so why hold it back in favour of a new project?

2. The hypocrisy of making Animal Jam and then THIS???

This needs no explanation.

3. This was so obviously the wrong move?

If anyone at the top tier of WW knew SHIT about their demographic, which is honestly probably the exact opposite of crypto bros, they would know that literally no one wants this. This company is so shockingly out of touch, how could this possibly happen?? Massive boomer energy lmao, they really don't have a single person in a leadership role who could have said "yeah idk how that's gonna be received bestie" Also HELLO DID Y'ALL NOT SEE THE MASSIVE BACKLASH FROM THE COOKIE RUN FANDOM WHEN DEVSISTERS STARTED TALKING NFTS???

Aight that's all I got for now, we better fuck this company up until they back down.

36 notes • Posted 2021-11-27 22:01:54 GMT

#1

Following my last Whining About Fer.al Advertising post I would like to call bullshit on this line in particular thanks to the decal paywall and jelly quests in the new sp (deepfried for emphasis <3)

I truly hate seeing this game go to shit man ://

43 notes • Posted 2021-06-07 17:36:34 GMT

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