#thus has such November Vibes

[toboldlynerd]

🎸

And It's Still Alright | Nathaniel Ratecliff

Pump Up The Volume | M/A/R/R/S

Almost (Sweet Music) | Hozier

Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) | AURORA

The Fromeur | Yann Tiersen

The Geals | Artesia

[horsegamesins]

More HGS ReShade presets

Three presets, including remakes of some of my old ones.

All these presets are intended to work with SSO's internal anti-aliasing and thus don't include any AA effects of their own.

---

Late Summer 2.0

A complete overhaul of greens for more natural looking nature, along with a few effects that are standard in most games but missing in SSO, such as depth of field, ambient occlusion, and subtle motion blur. ( Yes, I am one of those weirdos that likes motion blur)

This preset also has a Lite version, which only includes the colour-changing effects. Thus, it doesn't require depth and still works well on lower end devices

---

Harvest Season

Orange. Autumn vibes but very fantasy-like. Includes the same effects as Late summer.

---

November Blues

This is what Jorvik would realistically look like after September every year. Includes the same effects as Late summer.

---

Download & More under the cut

Download here

If you are new to ReShade, this video can help you get started.

And lastly, a bit of performance jargon I can't really give detailed specs because I'm not that good, but I can say that these presets run smoothly on my past-it's-prime RTX 3060. The GPU temperature only shot up in Mistfall and Wildwoods.

Additionally, I tested Late Summer Lite on my 5 year old Laptop and it ran without issue, so I feel confident in saying that any device that can run SSO at a decent quality should be able to run the Lite preset comfortably.

If you are suffering from overheating or frame drops while running around, turn off motion blur and sharpening first, and if that doesn't fix it, DepthHaze and MXAO. Or if you prefer a different approach, you can lower the game's resolution until it runs smoothly with all the effects, however it will lower the visual quality of the whole game.

[frodothefair]

Character birthdays.

I am actually fond of coming up with specific birthdays for my characters if they don't already have dates in canon, and I like to make them momentous and in keeping with their personalities from an astrological standpoint -- though I don't put any serious stock in astrology. Thus, without further ado:

Frodo: Sept 22, known in canon. Virgo, like Mr. Nisilë!

Marigold: Nov 5. Scorpio, like me! ("Remember, remember, the fifth of November." Also the day after the liberation from the Lockholes).

Éomer: May 9. Taurus. (Ok, this is actually a whole Thing. 5/8 and 5/9 are celebrated in Europe as "Victory Day," or VE day for short in the UK. It is the day that Germany declared its unconditional surrender in WWII. The reason for the date difference is that the unconditional surrender came in shortly after midnight on 5/9 in Eastern Europe. Since I believe that Rohan is a biiiiit Eastern Europe coded, in addition to the obvious Anglo Saxon vibes, I went with 5/9. I also like the numbers 5 and 9 aesthetically. Overall, a birthday on Victory Day is fitting because he led his people to victory, even though it's not the date of any specific victory in Tolkien's world).

Lothíriel: 12/21. Sagittarius, though technically Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. (Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year. She is an archer, and it goes well with the tsundere thing she has going on, and her dark hair).

Now, the next step in the madness is to actually celebrate the birthdays of these characters on my blog, even if the birthdays are completely made up for everyone except Frodo. What do you think? Should I do that?

@emmanuellececchi @konartiste @dilettantefeminist @from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras @celeluwhenfics

[luminologism]

Sky Cotl Skytober 2024: A retrospective by ME!

All of my skytober pieces in chronological order! -> here The song I set it too! -> here

This year, I participated in an Inktober adjacent drawing event. I did the Sky Cotl version of Inktober, Skytober. Now that it's November 1st, I have thoughts and feelings about the experience, what I learned, what I did right, and what I can improve on! This post is very much for me to reconcile and reflect on the art I did this month, but please feel read and enjoy my raw thoughts as well. I feel like everybody can learn from or relate to what I'm gonna chatter on about below, so take a read if you're so inclined! I'll be touching on relatability, popularity vs niche, effort vs efficiency, and passion vs honing skill.

WHY I DID SKYTOBER

So, as I said above, I participated in Skytober! It's my first Inktober adjacent event EVER! I've done similar projects in the past related to other arts (NaNoWriMo for example) but ultimately failed! Why? Well, I just didn't see that stuff through. I did not have a strong goal, and thus the past projects inevitably failed.

This year, however, I was DETERMINED to finish this project! This is because I have been meaning to make my inevitable swap from Paint Tool Sai 2 to Clip Studio Paint for AGES. I've had this program since forever (and even had the old version Manga Studio as a kid!), but it was far too robust at the time for me to want to learn it. However, it's been sitting on my computer for ages, and I have a massive commission in the works currently! I felt many of CSP's tools would be useful for that commission, so I took a bit of a detour and decided that Skytober would help me sit down and actually spend time learning this damn program.

Needless to say, I think my attempts at learning at least a bit of the program was successful. I learned a lot of the basic functions and where I liked tools and functions placed, I learned how to fiddle with some interesting brushes, and I also spent a LOT of time learning how to (roughly) paint backgrounds! These are all skills I was desperately trying to learn anyways, so having some solid and strict direction very much helped. I still have a lot to learn program wise, but drawing (nearly) every day has definitely given me a solid foothold in this program. As a diehard SAI2 user, the jump is difficult! But I think I did alright.

MY CREATIVE MINDSET AND DIRECTION

Now, the art itself. There are favorites I have, and there are absolute duds as well. In my eyes, to be specific. Drawing (nearly) every day is bound to run you dry for some mental and creative resources, but I did a few things to help mitigate that and keep the train chugging. For a long time, I had been meaning to make a Sky Cotl animatic using the song Virtual Angel by ARTMS. That's a recent release from that music group, but it's been one of my favorites recently. I think it's a beautiful song, and with lyrics like 'for the sin of swallowing up the sun' and 'fly me to your eden, this is eden' and 'i'll be there for you when your wings break', I thought the song fit Sky Cotl's vibe perfectly. However, I know absolutely nothing about animatics, so I decided to repurpose the idea into assigning a lyric to each Skytober piece instead. This massively helped with direction of ideas. It wasn't perfect, but it still significantly helped. Another thing I did to keep myself inspired was I actually wrote out a significant number of my ideas beforehand. They were not super fleshed out at times, and often they changed if I got inspired in another way. And other times, I just completely gave up on any ideas and decided the goal was just to finish SOMETHING, if just to keep the ball rolling. Either way, at least planning some things ahead of time helped eliminate a majority of the 'idk what to draaaaw!' woes down. It also helped me stay efficient, and having the song as direct inspiration sort of kept stoking the fires of my passion and helped me keep going! Raaah! Even so, I still ended up with duds, and you can absolutely see that reflected in each pieces notes.

RECEPTION OF MY WORK

I've never had this much attention on my work before. I used to run a pretty popular twitter before restarting it (and then deleting that second one just recently due to twitter being twitter), but I've never surpassed 1000 notes on anything before. Please understand, while I know that's not really all that much, for me that is! It's like imagining 1000 people standing in the same room as me giving me a thumbs up on my silly picture. It was amazing!! I would look at my notes all day at the start of the month with a smile on my face. It was surreal seeing people's thoughts coming in in real time. Seeing everybody's thoughts and feelings and interpretations of my works was amazing and so interesting to see. There would be people simply screaming at my work with glee, giving me genuine and sincere compliments, giving me their interpretations of how my works made them feel, and so much more! The most jarring thing for me was seeing a few people tag their friends in my work. I would sit there like 'huh, this person liked this piece so much that they had to show their friend directly!'. And it made me smile.

I also got to see in real time how my efforts can directly correlate with the interactions I got. And that swung both ways. There are some pieces I posted that barely had eyes on them, and it wasn't because I did poorly. It was because I think people can very much see when something is low effort or if you post something without confidence. Meanwhile, there were some pieces I posted that I sort of just threw together, and people LOVED? My picture for the prompt 'Mural' went absolutely bonkers, and I don't even really think it's all that good! On that piece I was just testing out manga stone wall brushes and fussing with glowing layer modes. It's by far my most popular Skytober piece as of posting this retrospective though, so it's interesting to see!

Another thing I saw that was interesting and I picked up very quickly on was my own OC content sees less eyes! Not because my OCs are bad or anything, but strangers can't relate to it! Even if the art is baller, my OC content had less interest than my more vague pieces. The pieces where I posted random moths (the closer to base game look, the better) were the ones people liked the best! That, or if I posted in game characters.

OVERALL

All in all, it was a very enlightening experience! If I do another event like this again, I will not pigeonhole myself to the square little paint stamp vibe I had going on. That made it hard to branch out or many images look wider. I will also put less effort in. Funny that I word it like that, but I actually think I put TOO MUCH effort in on some pieces! That made my inspiration (and other pieces) suffer. I also think that while I enjoyed posting my works with song lyrics, I won't do that again. Or if I do, I'm choosing a shorter song. I might also combine prompt days next time.

[warsofasoiaf]

So Kamala picked Walz. What are your thoughts on the decision and him?

Anonymous asked: What do you think of Tim Walz?

From what little I know of him, I doubt I'd like him very much. I've made no secret of my disdain for economic populism. It's long on babble, short on substance, and heavy on popular-but-stupid policy, so I doubt he'd offer much of anything from an economic policy perspective. Foreign policy-wise, he's fine on Ukraine but doesn't actually push for a revitalization of defense manufacturing to actually win the war in Ukraine's favor. He's soft on China, bog-standard condemnations of human rights that I expect out of pretty much every American politician these days.

The Harris campaign's strategy seems to be picking him as a November vice - helping bolster progressives who might be turned off by Harris and using Walz's brand as a Midwestern Dad to counter claims that Harris is an "out-of-touch West Coast elite." From a policy perspective, Walz has little to offer, so it appears that the Harris campaign is picking him solely to energize the 2024 voting campaign to deliver victory, rather than an effective administrator to be delegated tasks in a victorious administration after.

Whether that's a good idea or not, I can't say - I'm not the guy that the Harris campaign (or the Trump campaign) is targeting for their electoral strategy. Policy is a snoozer, it doesn't turn out the vote. Most people like to say they care about policy, but in the vast majority of circumstances, that's untrue. People vote based on culture and rationalize the economic and policy justifications post-facto. For someone like me, who has no political culture in the modern American political scene, we're statistically insignificant and thus, not worth pursuing from a mathematical sense. So take that bias into account. I'm not a vibes guy, and elections are vibes-based.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[acaplaya-musings]

VoicePlay Stand By Me - thoughts/commentary

You really can never quite tell what kind of video you're gonna get when Voiceplay uploads something new; sometimes it's a warm hug in musical form, and this is one of those times! <3

I gotta start by giving some appreciation to how Geoff looks absolutely lovely in this one! The necklace is on full display, as is the silver-white in his hair which is *chefs kiss*, and I definitely love the blue floral shirt! (10/10 would wear it myself). Honestly it reminds me a little of the shirt he wore in Whiskey In The Jar, which is kinda funny because that was 2023's November upload, and this is 2024's November upload!

But like also everyone is definitely styling in this video. Cesar with the subtle eyeliner (we stan), Layne with that cool white shirt (genuinely he looks great in it), Eli with the leather jacket, and Mykal with that denim jacket and purple shirt that's unbuttoned about as much as Geoff usually has his! 😄

Okay, main visual thoughts out the way, time for musical thoughts!

Geoff absolutely delivered with the bassline, just as I knew he would 💜

I'm not the greatest at remembering most of the actual music arrangement after my first watch-through of a VoicePlay video, though perhaps it's harder when I already know the original song and thus my brain is still attached to what I already know. But basically the first watch is just for the vibes, lol. And so a lot of these thoughts are from after an additional watch-through!

As I said when I talked about Be Prepared, Mykal was a founding member of 4 The Love, which then became 4:2:Five, which then became VoicePlay. He only stuck around for a few years I think, and then went to go pursue a stage/theatre career iirc, but while he was part of the group, he was "Tenor 1", i.e. could literally sing higher than Earl (Earl became Tenor 1 after Mykal left, and they brought in a guy called James May as Tenor 2).

I'm atheist, but damn, I'm pretty sure Mykal took us to church with this one! Well done my guy!

Actually I'm not quite done with all my visual thoughts - I just realized that when Cesar sings the repeated "stand by me" bit at the end of the first verse (after the "no I won't be afraid" bit), he looks down at Mykal and Eli and then up/back at Geoff and Layne and smiles at all of them awwwwww

I see VoicePlay decided to do a repeat of Lion Sleeps Tonight in that we got a truly lovely section of Layne on lead vocals, followed immediately by Geoff on lead vocals in a 1-2-whammy! (I swear they do it deliberately, lol 😅)

"I won't cry, I won't cry. No I won't shed a tear..." Well I might!! (I didn't, but this part definitely had me a little bit 🥺, y'know? (but in a nice way of course!)

Not sure what sort of technique (if any?) Geoff was using for the end of his "stand by meeeeeee" line, whether it was a growl or soft subharmonic or just 'regular' chest voice, but it sounded really nice!

Honestly Stand By Me isn't a super long song - like when I've sung it to myself on random occasions, I've thought that maybe there's a verse or something that I've forgotten, but no, it really is that short and simple (not that that's an inherently bad thing, mind you).

Actually the VoicePlay version is longer than the original audio track by roughly 30 seconds, not counting the credits at the end (just going off how long the Patreon early access video is). And of course they found many cool and interesting ways to make the song their own! E.g. I liked the "ad-libs" that Mykal was doing at the end (like "you don't have to do it alone"), and I also liked the build from no percussion, to very subtle/quiet percussion, to more of a powerful beat as the song reached its climax.

So this is a Layne arrangement! Honestly was not sure - I know he arranged Be Prepared, so I guess it kinda makes sense that he did this one as well so they were both ready to go at around the same time? I still wouldn't have picked it (and genuinely wasn't sure until I got to see the YouTube video description) but very well done!

So yeah, lovely sweet song, lovely harmonies, and by the time you're reading this post, this cover will already be on my Voiceplay/Geoff Spotify playlist, undoubtedly! And now we just wait to see what December will bring! (Or late November for us Patrons, I guess). Until next time!

[a-d-nox]

*SALE* holiday leftovers: build your own plate

[ status: CLOSED ]

hello, my friends/followers! i am so excited yet sad to announce this sale. firstly, i am excited because i never thought i would ever hold a sale AND WHO DOESN'T LOVE A SALE!!! secondly, i am sad because this is the LAST CHANCE for you to purchase all of the below reading options (unless i see fit after this sale to re-instate any of them as options). i am grateful for everyone who has previously purchased a reading from me and thus helped me to see a trend in the readings everyone enjoys!

a few things:

- please note that with the sale i am likely to have an increased demand.

- the sale will last from today (november 22nd, 2023) until november 29th, 2023. BUT if the demand gets too high i am at my leisure to close/end the sale early.

- you must fill out this google forms. if there are issues with the link please dm me.

- all readings are non-refundable.

reading options ->

drink options (1.50 USD)

apple cider: a tarot reading. you ask a series of 3 yes or no questions (they must all be different questions). you may chose if you want to hear the why or why not.

cranberry juice: a tarot reading used to identify the energy that surrounds you and how can you best protect your energy.

espresso: an archetypal reading. i use the fantod pack, a creepy little deck, to tell you what disturbing image you are. from the waltzing mouse to the burning head to the body bag, this deck keeps you guessing and i can tell you how you can beat the elements of this strange archetype.

pumpkin juice: a tarot reading. a short reading regarding the energy of the day (or surrounding a situation) and what you should look out for.

appetizer options (3.00 USD)

baked brie: a matrix of destiny / wyrd web reading. side hustle potential assessment based on the wyrd web.

cheese ball: an astrology reading. pick three things you wish to know about your mercury return cycle (what your communication style will be like this cycle, what your voice is like, how your thinking changes, your health changes, perspective changes, your writing style or endeavors, social media trends (your online status), short trips you could be taking, your mannerisms and how they change, your mode of transportation / transportation woes, etc.).

cranberry brie jalapeño poppers: an astrology reading. pick three things you wish to know about your mars return cycle (your confidence and lack thereof, sex life, what will make you angry / frustrated / aggressive / competitive, your impulsive behavior, where you are dominant / a leader, the challenge(s) you face, etc).

cranberry-glazed turkey meatballs: using the green glyph's rune deck, i give general advice on any given subject matter.

fried mashed potato bites: a tarot reading. why you struggle in romances. warning: harsh / brutal honesty.

mac and cheese balls: using the green glyph's oracle deck, i give general advice on any given subject matter.

popover: a matrix of destiny / wyrd web reading. a generational number combo assessment based on the wyrd web.

pumpkin hummus: a tarot reading. what is your strength and what is your weakness - great for job applications as well (i don't care if you want to copy and paste it for use in your applications).

sugar roasted nuts: a matrix of destiny / wyrd web reading. a love assessment based on the wyrd web (matrix of destiny). assesses what is stopping you from finding love, what your romantic partners are like (the ideal and toxic versions), and how you can keep love flowing towards you in this lifetime.

sweet potato bites: a tarot reading. vibe check on your mind, body, and spirit as well as advice (if needed). this is NOT a medical assessment and can NOT be used as a diagnosis.

side options (6.00 USD)

mashed potatoes: a tarot reading. seven card draw evaluation of the energy of each day of your week ahead as well as advice to make the week the best and most efficient that it can be.

rolls: a tarot reading. best bet for any topic NOT seen in the list - will address the past, present, and future regarding your question as well as the energies involved.

sweet potato casserole: a tarot reading. stuck between two options? this reading will help you weigh pros and cons as well as tells you the potential outcome of acting towards either option.

main course options (20.00 USD)

turkey: using the green glyph's lenormand deck i give general advice on any given subject matter. this a reading using the maximum amount of cards in a lenormand deck.

glazed ham: a tarot reading. at a crossroad in life with three options and no clue which to go for? this one is for you - lets you know where each leads and gives advice cards as well.

duck confit: a tarot reading. the current vibes of each energy associated with the astrological houses (1h-12h).

[elektrischemaidchen]

Lisztober #11: Symphonie Fantastique

Madness has taken hold at the Maidchen court. What always comes across as so easy here, is a real challenge, which unfortunately also takes its toll. I now have a real coffee problem by now, so I sometimes have heart palpitations at night. Then there's the incredible time pressure to present you with something cool that has to be ready in less than 24 hours.

If anyone asks why we're sitting in a three-person cell in a asylum by November, tell them it's because of absinthe, reading too much Lautréamont and hysteria. Please.

And that brings us right back to today's topic. Yesterday we escalated. Really. So much so that one girl is hoarse and the other is on the verge of tinnitus. Additionaly, one of our speakers died due to the volume and overdrive. Here you can listen a true masterpiece by Maidchen standards. We had to stop in between, because of laughing over and over, again and again. Both while writing and during the recording itself. Even while cutting. And even more so when the neighbor simply started practicing the tuba for unknown reasons. I didn't even know he had a tuba. It must be new. Totally surreal. But luckily, he didn't call the police on us. And you wouldn't believe how many takes we “indulged” in. (There were 26. 26!) I hope we can convey these moments of pure joy. PLEASE LISTEN TO THE WHOLE SONG TO GET THE VIBE! ;)

The reason for this was our contribution for today, Berlioz “Symphonie Fantastique” aka probably the creepiest piece of classical music that has ever existed. And thank you so much, @franzliszt-official for giving us this opportunity.

So, here’s our plot summary:

We really always wanted to write something about this masterpiece of brainf***, but unfortunately we didn't have the right idea - and you see: With a gun to your head, even the muse must speed up. Let’s see how far we can go with this. The plot of the symphony - just like the story before and after it - is so obscure that it has become a kind of running gag for us. Life (and art) can't write better stories. Never ever. And before I tell you the whole story, if you don't know it yet: there's a wonderful YouTube video with a short summary that I highly recommend you watch (the whole channel is amazing!!!). WTF, Berlioz, really, WTF.

Oh well, it's still about Liszt. Liszt was a huge fan (Really, Franz. I love you, but why? WHY?) of this symphony, just like Wagner (but nobody here give a shit about Richard‘s opinion anyway)  Franz may not have been directly involved in the creation of the “Symphonie Fantastique”, but his piano transcription and his interpretations made a significant contribution to this work becoming one of the most important works of Romantic music. Liszt made it accessible to a wider audience, interpreted it and developed it further, thus having a lasting influence on music history.

That's why we originally wanted to deal with the “Dies Irae” theme, but let's be honest… everything stinks against the main story.

And then there is the “Idée fixe”, the central theme of Berlioz's symphony, the beloved, who appears again and again musically as a motif and ultimately drives him mad. You could also apply this to the Maidchen. Fun fact: 97% of all our lyrics have a hidden hint to Franz. Sometimes so well that Lacelove doesn't even notice ;) Whoever finds them all: Get in touch. You'll get an exclusive shirt and your own song written. I promise.

Oh, dearest, dearest love, you surely will never know that I’m gonna write to you A symphony of love  in just one night Oh, dearest, dearest love, I only dream of you and in my longing I wish you were here Oh, dearest, dearest love, Where have you gone? You dance with a hundred others You erase me from your mind Oh, dearest, dearest love, Fate is not fair My sky, full of violins But my heart, it's so heavy So heavy I try to forget you On noble pastures The shepherds who soothed me Make their songs known But then I see you before me With a smile like a sword You belong to someone else now You're...not worth it That's why I'm whistling opium now And will just kill you. DIEEEE! DIIEEEEE! OH GOD! JUST DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE God alone knows, I will be judged for everything I have done and none of the heavenly angels will weep at my grave And so I see your face One last time before my face Oh, dearest, dearest love Why don't you save me? Oh, dearest, dearest love then it comes back to me You spawn of hell You are the queen of the witches. ORGIES! DAMN ORGIEEEEEEES! OH GOD! ORRRRRGIIIIIESSSS! Oh, dearest, dearest dearest, will you be angry with me? I invite you on the day of the premiere To find out Oh, dearest, dearest love then you'll be my wife Otherwise I'll threaten you with my own s*i*ide You know that very well IF YOU DON'T MARRY ME, I'LL K*** MYSELF! I'LL K**** MYSELF! AND IT'S YOUR FAULT!!!!! YAAAAAAAAA! And then, she actually married him.

[shaolinrouge]

Okay, so I rewatched PR:U for the first time since its release, and I definitely had some thoughts.

To begin with, what is with the really bizarre product placement in the beginning. Jake did not need to hold up those Oreos so blatantly lmao.

PR:U jumps straight into the action in a really identifiably different way than Pacific Rim does. In PR, Raleigh narrates the Kaiju War and then we see him and Yancy get into the Knifehead fight, and it flows really well overall. On the other hand, PR:U starts with a quick relay of the Kaiju War, and then we're introduced to Jake in the regions still affected by past Kaiju attacks (i.e. half-destroyed mansion, which I also have some thoughts on). So it quickly becomes clear he's got some black market dealings going on, and the first action sequence of the movie is Jake running from these random Jaeger scrappers (??). It's just really throwing compared to the first one, since we at least have a general idea of what's going on with Raleigh.

Side note: I'm assuming they're in the Bay Area that was largely evacuated considering they head toward a Jaeger scrapyard, so how does that mansion have like...any utilities.

So then we're introduced to Amara, who can build a sickass Jaeger but has no security system? I don't know, she seems really careful about being discovered for obvious reasons, so I feel her hideout would at least have an alarm or some kind of traps, But Jake essentially just strolls in.

Of course, then we have November Ajax vs. Scrapper, which I actually do like. Its nice to see what the new Jaegers look like, and see what Scrapper, the first single-pilot Jaeger, is capable of. This scene also really seals the tone of PR:U as kind of lighthearted and jokey while also having action and death, which isn't really the case in Pacific Rim.

Another thing I like: Amara and Jake's relationship. A lot of things about this movie feel funky, but I think the actors did a very good job of forming a very genuine-feeling bond between these two characters.

Mako's introduction just feels. very bizarre. I understand that she obviously can't be there in person, thus the hologram, but the whole situation just has a weird vibe that I can't place. I'm not sure if it's because Jake and Mako act so familiar with each other even though Jake was never mentioned in the movie, or because I'm just not a fan of the hologram bit.

Contrary to popular opinion (at least what I've seen), I really like the Jaegers in PR:U. I hate that they removed the realism from their movements that was always present in the first, but there were some very interesting weapons and new designs introduced at the same time, so I can let it slide. Except the giant rotating ball of blades on Bracer Phoenix, it can go die.

Mako's death is genuinely my least favorite scene in the movie for obvious reasons. She was essentially killed off for no reason, since we don't see much of Jake's grief, meaning they wrote her off for pointless plot purposes, which I hate.

I do enjoy the villain bait with Liwen, although it's a shame Newton ended up being the villain. They were definitely setting her up as an antagonist since she was on a side somewhat opposite to Mako's, and because it becomes clear that Shao Industries is somehow evil before having her turn around and attempt to stop Newton no matter the force necessary.

While on women in the movie, not a huge fan of how Jules was treated, but she's also not present that much so I won't go on and on about female characters being used a tool to create tension being male characters blah blah.

The fight against the Mega-Kaiju was...something. Suresh dying was completely out of the blue, and I hated it. I think the cadets all being so young is an odd decision to make, especially because in the first movie most of the Jaeger pilots come into the program in their very late teenage years at the least (besides Chuck and Raleigh, iirc). They try to justify the whole. child soldier-esque training by saying the Bond is stronger at a young age, but they didn't even have that young of recruits in the first PR and that was during a war so idk.

Raleigh not being mentioned at all is also a crime btw. Or Herc, for that matter, but he could at least make a little more justifiable sense than Raleigh.

Anyway, this was a really scattered collection of musings on the movie, but there we go.

[emmaelt]

On ADHD and time blindness

Time is such a funny concept to me.

It is going to be 2025 quite soon, and yet I am still stuck on the fact that it is next year and thus must be really far away. This concept of years feels so slow to me, but actually years are more fluid than I think they are, not blocks of their own but interconnected and only separated by the gap between one second and the next.

I have an issue with delayed gratification - it's so hard to motivate myself for some concept of the future that I can't even begin to grasp, that makes it so I want the thing now.

The other thing is that time doesn't always feel like it's taking the same space. One 5 minutes can stretch indefinitely, and the next can be so fast I don't notice it passing. I know this is about how distracted I am (bored is slow, engaged is fast) but also about my energy levels, the weather, where I am in my cycle, who I'm with. I'm not sure if this is an 'that's how everyone feels!' thing, or just a me thing.

Dr Devon Price talks about how neurodivergent people see time in chapter 6 of the book 'Unmasked', and introduces Rose's spiral rather than linear progression as the concept of time. It's been really interesting for me to understand that time does not have to be linear, but also really shocking for me to realise that actually I have never seen time like that! Time either is extremely slow, or it is much too fast. I simultaneously feel as if I have been 34 for years, and that I was just in Japan celebrating my birthday with my friends. There is no inbetween. I also feel 5, 16, 27, and 34 all at once. In fact, I actually also feel about 107, but I think that's because I didn't know I was neurodivergent until this year...

I get 'waiting mode' like many neurodivergent people, but mine has a tinge of rush to it, where I either cannot do a single thing or I must do all of the things. For example, I have an appointment with my personal trainer at 11am, I need to leave by 10:30, and I am a morning person - therefore I must have done all of my chores at lightning speed before 9am so I can sit and wait for an hour and a half? Why can I not pace them out and not exhaust myself? Why can I not do anything closer to the time?

There's also a part of me - that I think has always been there but was made worse by the events of 2015 (mainly the results of the American election) - where I feel as if the world will end before the thing I'm waiting for happens. This fatalist approach makes me mourn the things that I therefore think won't ever get to happen to me in particular, as well as to the world... I want everything to happen now so I don't miss it. The other part of it as well is that I am not expecting my brain to allow me to enjoy the thing by the time it does eventually happen - e.g. I am currently hyperfixated on Bridgerton, and season 4 may come by the time my brain decides I am no longer allowed to watch things again.

Going back to spiral time, my brain makes connections between supposedly random (to others) things, that feel so correct to me. Perhaps it's neurodivergence, synesthesia or similar. Certain months have connections - February and November have the same vibe to me, like siblings. June and December, though the weather is so different, feel the same somehow. I have it with numbers, textures, colours. I think it's also why I like certain harmonies in music over others, certain chord structures feel correct.

[arcplaysgames]

I don't remember this at all so I don't even know if its part of The Lotus Tree or not, lmao, sorry Kasumi you are so boring up until, uuuuuuuuuuh about 40 minutes from now actually

So Reverie wakes up, happy new year, time to head downstairs to

no no no no no non on onojnkofidflasjk NO

NOOOOO

no!

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

no

inhales

okay.

I, in real life, staring at my Odin, literally out loud said, "Oh fuck ALL the way off."

Anyway, we meet up at the shrine by luck, hahhaaha what a crazy random happenstance.

Also: HARU! MY GOD! WHAT A KNOCKOUT! I feel like her kimono might cost more than my fucking car.

But there is already a very weird tension in the air when the group gets together. They all meet up at a shrine that has no visitors because it seems like no one in the world is wishing for anything because their lives are so perfect, so the crew is like "well! this was nice. uh see ya!" and the vibes are so bad. Immediately everything feels like a world encased in glass, like a pinned insect that just got a shot of euthanasia and is starting to lock into place.

It is fucking EERIE as shit.

oh my god I'm gonna sharpen an axe and cut down your Lotus Tree, Maruki, I swear to god

"Would you join the Phantom Thieves" as an indicator that all is perfect and no one needs to do anything is sure Something.

Somehow, just watch me, I will find a way to blame this all on Mishima again. I'm already trying to calculate the trajectory.

SPITTAKE

I FUCKIGN HOLLARED OH MY GOD

I don't want to sound like the average Atlus developer right now, Morgana, but I think you may have gained some weight.

Also, sidebar: COWARDS for changing Morgana's voice actor for this. COWARDS!!!!! Cassandra Lee Morris has been doing fucking WORK with this character, I literally would rather her continue voicing him with a pitch modulation effect than swapping the VA, /HISSES ANGRILY

Anyway. Reverie and I are both in complete unity at the moment because all of this is Fucked.

Again, me, IRL, shouting "NO" at my Odin.

oh i feel ill from this, this is horrendous. Maruki, you got a fucking storm coming, and i have a fusioned Izanagi-no-Okami with your name on it.

LOOK AT REVERIE HERE. So like I've ranted about how the P4MC was such a non-character while Reverie is so so much more. I can feel how freaked out he is even while he's still a mostly silent protagonist. The fear he feels as he tries to make sense of this situation and starts to wonder how far it spreads is fucking radiating from his posture and how he's watching everyone from over his popped collar and event he way he hasn't turned the chair around to face them, he is cheated away from everyone.

God, it's amazing. I have a lot of issues with P5R but the protagonist is a triumph.

Oh, immediately before he said a single fucking thing. He knows. He knows. He walks in and takes one look around and he knows.

Which in of itself is fascinating and I wanna sink my teeth into what that means.

Everyone in this world is getting their desires. No! No that's incorrect. What they are getting is their pain taken away. I remember Maruki's absolutely batshit closing speech as he left the school in November.

Everyone is getting a life where the biggest traumatic moments did not happen. Futaba never lost her mother and thus Sojiro never lost his best friend. Morgana gets to be human because he admires humans so much. Ryuji was never kicked off the track team. Haru never had the falling out that lead to her father's death.

But Reverie? I don't know what he gets. Before the switch flipped on the Lotus Tree, Sae revealed that the woman who was involved in Reverie's false assault accusation might testify, so his record might even be overturned.

So we have Reverie, and we have Akechi. The two Wild Cards who were puppets of a bored god (who, uh, since Philemon isn't actually involved in this I don't really know anymore what Yaldabaoth's whole deal was but whatever, lean with it rock with it).

I don't know if you can undo the trauma of being Goro Akechi.

... I'm thinking about Reverie, and about the constant drumbeat of his connection to Akechi. Wanting to keep a promise.

I just had a really horrible thought but also it's so gay that I dunno if Atlus would Go There. We'll see.

I know I have never been happier to see you. Been a while, Beige Boy. Love the outfit, actually, you look great in actual colors.

/points directly at this

Did Akechi survive or did Maruki being him back because Reverie had unfinished business with him.

That is my question.

Don't answer it, anyone, but what I am thinking is either Akechi will reveal how he survived the Palace (unlikely) or it turns out he fucking didn't and this was the start of the Lotus Tree.

Anyway, Akechi reveals that he was being questioned for the Shido stuff and then they just.... let him go. No charges. He's free. Which is impossible, obviously. And now Wakaba Isshiki is walking around alive.

that lil pose is so gay. i wonder if Akechi is meant to be Actually Gay. serious question. like, we got Actually Queer characters in P4 so we know the people at Atlus know gay people exist, but this game has been scrubbed clear of any queerness.

except Akechi has such intense gay vibes and, sure I'll say it, mannerisms that I wonder if he is subtextually meant to be gay. especially since to my recollection, every male character in this game has been mentioned to be attracted to women except him. like, I did notice that, thank you.

((ALSO, SIDEBAR: YOU KNOW WHAT I MISS FROM P3 AND P4? THE GIRLS HAVING CRUSHES ON EACH OTHER. I miss the casual flirtation and interest all the girls had together. That's also been stripped out of P5 and it sucks.))

anyway what the fuck was I saying. Akechi gay, he and Reverie need to investigate.

And then Kasumi calls to be like "heeeeeeeeeeey so sorry to bother you buuuuuut that palace we ran into at the stadium is back????? is that okay?"

Okay another thing, sorry that this post is like All About Akechi but

lmao Akechi without his mask is a delight. this man is a bitch and he does not give a fuck and nothing in this world or the next impresses him. it is for real so fun how his cadence and register have subtly changed, he doesn't soften his syllables as much anymore, and he is direct as a gunshot.

Between him and Maruki, this whole segment of the game is like Freaks Only, Normies GTFO and I am thrilled. I am a freak, it's me. This is for me.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 11/12/2023

Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before)

Season 7 Featured on: Now That's What I Call Quality! 3

Ripped by Madinstance

Tentative rip name: Initial Deluxe - I've just raced on this Course before

This is another recent one - as recent as just the beginning of this month, to be precise. And if you're keeping up with the channel, I don't really blame you for missing it: it was uploaded right after the conclusion of a day-long mini event in Fisher-Price Day on the 29th, and just a few hours before the way-too-big Goomba Got Back Day event - squeezed in the middle alongside just a half dozen other rips. Frankly I was almost about to skip this one to focus more on catching up with the prior events, yet...people in the SiIvaGunner Discord server were absolutely enamored with this rip in particular. And after giving it a shot, its immensely easy to see why - Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) was an absolute delight of a surprise that I can't believe wasn't given more fanfare.

Honestly, before the rip's creator was revealed, I was partially convinced this was another collaboration project in disguise, similar to Patched Plains Fusion Collab - yet if it were to be any one ripper to take on this wide variety of different musical styles to rearrange, I suppose it WOULD indeed be Madinstance. The guy's not a new face around here at all, and his skills in arranging are damn near unrivalled: Fell From a High Place (Reprise), M​-​O​-​O​-​G City, Every Mob Wants to Rule My World, and so many more...you'll notice, though, that all three examples I used here are all made in reverence of the same game: Minecraft. Having talked with Madinstance myself before, he strikes me as someone who's most willing to go all-in if it means being able to pay respects to something he truly adores and cherishes - like Minecraft, like Plok and other Follin-composed games. What Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) signals to me, is that this feeling of respect also extends to the Mario Kart series.

Released earlier in November, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass has brought Mario Kart back into discussion for a lot of Nintendo fans - both in the valid criticism against its graphical quality, but also in reverence and celebration of just how well done several of the track remasters were done. Since Mario Kart DS, part of Mario Kart's identity has become to celebrate the race tracks that built the series' legacy to what it is today - which the Booster Course Pass amplifies a hundredfold. Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) thus feels like a celebration of a celebration - a lovely, heartfelt medley of musical styles from all the different Mario Kart games represented within Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. All the sections are primarily based on one notable track featured in each game - Neo Bowser City from Mario Kart 7, Cheese Land from Mario Kart Super Circuit, and so on, and all the picks feel like they were chosen with utmost care to truly represent the vibe each game's soundscape holds. As a Mario Kart Wii-kid myself I certainly feel very represented with the choice made!

All of that isn't even touching on the joke being adapted onto these various Mario Kart soundscapes - the iconic Eurobeat song Deja Vu from the anime series Initial D. A song long associated with the love of driving and racing at high speeds, it now takes on a new meaning when associated with all of these games, that together raised generations of kids into becoming fans of high-octane driving - its a meeting that felt destined to happen, and each style renders the song in such refreshingly high quality. The styles feel like so much more than just setdressing, as tons of flavor is injected from each one: from the lighthearted whistles of Mario Kart Double Dash!!, to the rawness of Mario Kart Super Circuit's compressed instrumentation, to the elements the Mario Kart Wii segment takes from tracks like its Options menu music... Initial Deluxe (I've Just Raced on this Course Before) is such a whollistic, dense and wonderful celebration of all that Mario Kart is and has become, all to the tune of one of the internet's most beloved pieces of racing music.

[twistifiedz]

❝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝, 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥! 𝐰𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐮𝐭!❞

CATCH IT is the second single album by South Korean girl group, Twist. It was released as a digital single on November 1, 2016, by JYL Records. The single has a double A-side, consisting of “Lie” and “Gotta Be You” as well as an electro-dance intro “Catch Me”. The lyrics were written by Mina and the music was composed by Chaeyoung, Hyerim, and additional help from Suga of BTS.

Riding off the success of their debut release back in September 2016, Lie was an overnight sensation in South Korea. Critics and the general public found the song to be extremely catchy, coining it as a ‘pop earworm with a trendy dance to match. Following the release of the song, Twist performed the song on a comeback stage at Mnet Countdown. The individual fancam of Chaeyoung performing the song went viral amongst netizens of South Korea, which boosted the impact and success of the song.

After going viral, the song topped all the real-time charts, earning another Perfect-All-Kill for the group, making it their second that year. Twist were coined as ‘monster rookies’ due to the simultaneous success of Lie and their debut releases ‘Attention’ and ‘Wow Thing’. Promotions for the single began on November 2, 2016 and ended on December 11, 2016. In total, Lie has earned a total of 8 wins, earning two triple crowns on Inkigayo and Mnet Countdown, respectively.

TRACKLIST:

Catch Me!

Lie

Gotta Be You

ERA Highlights:

This was the era that really made Twist POP!

Lie had a SUPER trendy dance ‘butt dance’ that went viral amongst netizens!

A fancam of Chaeyoung performing ‘Lie’ also went viral, skyrocketing the group’s popularity! Chaeyoung was praised for her charismatic stage presence!

Catch Me, an electro-dance and hip hop track, also went viral due to Hyerim’s viral double black-flip and split at the final dance-break!

In total, Lie earned 70 PAKS, becoming the girl group with the second most PAKS in 2016 (behind TWICE’S ‘TT’)

Sohye came up with the styling of the era, picking out a cheerleader theme for Catch Me and a seductive female Bellhop theme for Lie. Whereas Gotta Be You, had a bright and colorful theme! 

Sohye also gave the girls designated colors: Purple (Mina), Cyan (Sohye), Orange (Chaeyoung), and Pink (Hyerim)

The music video for Lie gained 15 million views in 24 hours upon release! Being one of the biggest music videos to debut on youtube!

Hyerim and Sohye worked together to choreograph Catch Me!

Vocally, Mina was a BEAST this era. She had something to PROVE! She was belting all over Lie and Gotta Be You!

Lie debuted at number 5 on the Gaon Digital Chart, earning the group’s third top 5 hit. In its second week, the song rose to the summit of the chart, with over 1.5 million downloads. Lie became one of the best-performing songs in 2016, thus claiming the top spot of the Gaon Digital Chart for five consecutive weeks. 

Gotta Be You shows a playful and bright side to Twist, which the public loved! They began asking for more pop and EDM tracks!

Main rappers Chaeyoung and Hyerim ate the girls UP on their rap verses in GBY! Thus the duo CHAEHYERI was born.

There’s this move in Catch Me in the final dance break where the girls move in circular unison, moving counterclockwise to symbolize the movement of a tornado or twister. With the help of background dancers, the dance gives off an illusion vibe. The idea was given by Sohye, who wanted the group to have a signature choreo to match their name. This particular move went viral and had netizens in a FRENZY.

Sohye’s creative input in this era regarding the choreography and fashion started a trend where members would receive designated colors and little symbols or shapes in their music videos or performances. (Many like to say NADOS are delusional for saying this, but the real know!)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Certain segment of the population givin off these weird vibes right about now [The Daily Don]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 11, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 12, 2023

All weekend, Trump supporters have flooded media channels with accusations that President Joe Biden has weaponized the Department of Justice to use as a political cudgel against former president Trump, whom they characterize as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. 

On Thursday the Department of Justice indicted Trump on 37 counts of hanging onto classified national security documents, deliberately hiding those documents from his lawyers and the government after a subpoena, lying about them, and showing them to people without security clearances and without any need to know about them. 

Trump and his loyalists insist the indictment makes the United States a “banana republic,” by which they appear to mean a country with a corrupt ruling elite that uses the machinery of government against political opponents (though the historical meaning of that term actually is much more complicated). Sometimes in the same breath they call for arresting members of the Biden administration in retaliation; on the Fox News Channel on Friday, personality Greg Gutfield added First Lady Jill Biden as a potential target after Jesse Watters called for arresting “all of them, [former House speaker Nancy] Pelosi, too.”

There are a number of problems with their characterization of what is going on.

First of all, Biden’s Department of Justice has operated as it is supposed to: independently. While Trump apparently tried to use the department for his own political ends—we learned just last month, for example, that the Department of Justice kept an investigation of the Clinton Foundation open for almost Trump’s entire term, although prosecutors thought the rumors about the foundation were bogus from the start—Biden has gone out of his way to emphasize that he will not interfere with the Justice Department. 

To underline that independence, after Trump announced his candidacy for president last November—an early announcement many thought was an attempt to avoid criminal prosecution—Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the two federal investigations that touched on the former president, thus deliberately moving those investigations outside the department. The special counsel is Jack Smith, and those investigations are the one into the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the documents case currently in the news.

Still, the indictment came not from Smith, but from a federal grand jury of ordinary American citizens in Florida who reviewed evidence and determined that there was probable cause to believe that Trump committed crimes and should be tried for them. Trump’s defenders are trying to blur this reality by saying it was Biden who charged Trump, when it was really the members of a grand jury. 

Trump supporters’ evidence for Biden’s corruption is that the Justice Department has indicted neither President Biden nor former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for what they claim are similar offenses. (It hasn’t charged Republican former vice president Mike Pence, either, but they are not talking about that.) The crucial difference in all three of those cases is that Biden, Clinton, and Pence did not try to hide the documents found in their possession and they cooperated fully with the Department of Justice to return them. (In addition, in Clinton’s case, most of the 110 emails that contained classified information did not bear classified markings.)

As Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post notes, Trump was not charged for illegally keeping any of the 197 documents he returned. He was charged only for ones he kept, lied about, showed to other people, and hid.

Republicans who are trying to pick up Trump’s voters, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis, are not defending Trump but are instead trying to argue that the Democrats are discriminating against Trump. “Is there a different standard for a Democrat secretary of state versus a former Republican president?” DeSantis asked. 

That line of reasoning is swaying Republican primary voters, 88% of whom, according to a CBS News poll, say the indictment was politically motivated, although 24% of them agree that the loose handling of the documents was a national security risk. Trump and key supporters are playing to that base, using thinly veiled calls for violence. Meanwhile, Republicans who are likely hoping this will sink Trump are either dodging questions about the issue or, like Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, remaining steadfastly silent.

But for all the focus on the politics of this moment and the apparent attempt to rally the Republican base to violence, this is a legal case. Trump is accused of serious crimes that endangered—and likely continue to endanger—our national security, which means the safety of every American.

His alleged criminal activity endangers the operations of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (in charge of imagery, maps, and intelligence concerning them), the National Reconnaissance Office (in charge of space-based surveillance and reconnaissance), the Department of Energy (nuclear weapons), and the Department of State and Bureau of Intelligence and Research. 

It is notable that the two Republican presidential candidates who have served as U.S. attorneys—Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson—have both spoken out against Trump over it. So has Trump’s former attorney general William Barr, who told Shannon Bream of the Fox News Channel today: “I think the counts under the Espionage Act, that he willfully retained those documents, are solid counts… I do think we have to wait and see what the defense says, and what proves to be true, but I do think that…if even half of it is true, then he’s toast. I mean, it’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning.” 

Trump is reportedly having trouble finding lawyers to represent him in this matter, with Marc Caputo of The Messenger reporting today that one federal criminal defense lawyer he contacted in the Southern District of Florida said: “The problem is none of us want to work for the guy…. He’s a nightmare client.”

While committed Republican partisans seem to believe Trump is a victim, according to the CBS News poll, 38% of likely Republican primary voters do, in fact, believe Trump endangered our security—and national security, after all, is the primary job of the president.

Smith said on Friday that the department would seek a “speedy trial,” and if that indeed happens, the American people will hear Trump’s own lawyers and aides—for all the witnesses are his own hand-picked team members—testify under oath about Trump’s behavior. Under similar conditions, the testimony of Trump’s people before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol effectively countered Trump’s propaganda. That Republican leaders see Trump as vulnerable is evidenced by how many candidates are already in the presidential race. 

The question is how much damage the fight for control will do to the Republican Party, especially in light of the fact that Smith’s other investigation, the one into the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, has not yet been concluded. There is reason to suspect those congress members involved in that effort might have been spooked by just how thorough the investigation of the documents case turned out to be. 

Guided by President Biden, the Democrats are refusing to comment on the indictment, likely in part to undermine the argument that it is about politics and also because they recognize that many Americans are just tired of drama.

Overall, though, they seem determined to redirect people’s attention to the reality that the Biden administration and the Democrats are actually governing according to the principles of a democracy. Frustrating as this tactic is to partisans, scholars who study how to restore democratic norms in a faltering democracy suggest that emphasizing those norms is crucial.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[seasquared]

the young boys of summer

Even if there are four seasons in this world, one season stands alone as the ultimate vibe in kpop, and that's the summer bop. This could be, and usually is, a song released late into spring or in the doldrums of the season itself, but timing of the release is not determinative. If you are lucky, the song will advertise itself as such (GFriend's "Sunny Summer," ITZY’s “IT’z Summer,” f(x)'s "Hot Summer"). But like most vibes, you know it when you hear it, like the first time you are graced with Sistar's legendary, iconic, never-to-be-duplicated "Touch my body.” When you hear these songs, you instantly recognize the canonical kpop summer accent, big bold brasses and sounds that seem slapped joyfully out of their instruments and maybe a Spanish guitar. They demand to be played during cookouts, on outdoor patios, through a portable poolside speaker, with a silly little nonsense chorus that only makes sense because the sun has baked off a few of your braincells (ATEEZ’s “Wave”, I’m looking at you). You play these songs around other people, because sharing things makes them hotter, and thus you cooler.

If the "Red Flavors" and "Alcohol-frees" of this world are the accent of summer, then there are the kpop songs that are intended as [Erik Singer voice] evocations, meant to suggest summer and, in some cases, its eventual passing. It's my personal opinion that the slightly jazzy, very r&b, midtempo jam is the sound of autumn, but even if you don't agree, you can hear how Heize in "And July" uses Dean's khiphop vocal stylings to hint at the eventual cooling down of summer and the relationship. A touch of synthwave (IKON's "But You"), EDM (AKMU's "Dinosaur"), or sultry poledancing (After School's "First Love") are all quick shortcuts to this kind of song, one that never quite mentions summer by name but could only be played on a hot summer night. And you couldn’t ask for a better example than Winner's discography, which is littered with summer hits of both kinds. "Island" is a dictionary-definition perfect rendition of the canonical mid-summer accent, while "Everyday" despite its beachy, swimsuit-packed MV and April release date is an end of summer evocation, and “Really Really” somewhere in between. 

My favorite summer kpop evocation is the emotional rock anthem. Seventeen are such masters of every variety of the summertime bop ("Healing", "Swimming Fool," "Very Nice") that at some point you just have to lovingly roll your eyes at them releasing a thirst trap song in the middle of summer and naming it "Hot" because, of course. "Rock with you" was released smack dab in the fall months of October, but when I heard it I knew what it was: a "goodbye summer" song, too melancholy for summer vacation and too exuberant for going back to school but just perfect for convincing you that you have one last chance to tell your summer crush that you like them. Others in this vein: a little bit of BTS' "Run," a little bit of Stray Kids' "Time Out," and a whole lot of TXT's "0x1=LOVESONG."

And so too with NINE.i's "Young Boy." Released in November of last year, it too is a summer evocation, rock anthem subspecies, opening with a combo of synths and rhythmic strumming that drives you recklessly forward through the song like a car barreling down a mostly empty highway covered in the bruised purples and pinks of sunset. It is stuffed full of all the typical (post?) 4th gen markers: video cameras, stickers, spray paint, a tightly focused shot of someone boxing in a dimly lit warehouse, sparklers, the vague sense that you are intruding on a Lost Boys paradise. No kpop MV has captured the turbulent and contradictory angst of being a teenager better than the 0:32 mark, when Vari laughingly looks back on footage he's filmed of his groupmates while lipsyncing the line "When I get sick of it and say, 'Hate this.'"

It's no secret that kpop centers youth: in its performers, its intended audience, its aesthetics, in many of its lyrics. When BTS closed out their adolescent period, they released a two-part mini album whose English title is usually rendered as "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life." For BTS, there is no ambiguity as to when that moment happens: it is when you are young, which Suga underscores in the intro track that shares the album's name. Perhaps at the time BTS meant the title a little ironically, more question mark (the most beautiful?) than exclamation mark. (This is, after all, the group that wrote a song called "War of Hormone" that includes a lyric about squeezing pimples every day.) But when it came time to join the mini-albums into one full-length album, they doubled down, giving the compilation the subtitle "Young Forever" and releasing a song with the same name which declares over and over again "forever / we are young."

"Young" is, of course, not a number. BTS was not declaring the members' intention to remain physically immortal, kpop vampires who never age past their 20s. To be "forever young" is "endlessly run towards my dream," to push forward despite being lost in a maze, to "fall and hurt myself" but still get back up and keep pushing. "Forever we are young" is also an acknowledgement that BTS may always be remembered by some of their fans for this era, caught in glorious high definition high concept music videos that celebrate a carefree "live fast die young" aesthetic. In the MV for "Epilogue: Young Forever," these images, distorted as if on VHS tape, trap the members in a cage of fences. When they escape, it is to an empty runway while a plane flies overhead as if towards heaven. Is this freedom, or death? The only way to remain young forever may be to die young; or put another way, to remain young forever is to die.

Don Henley knew this when he wrote "The Boys of Summer," the summer evocation to end all summer evocations. It is, as everyone knows, not an ode actually to the boys of summer but rather to what remains after they are gone. Its best lines ("Out on the road today / I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac") are about the contradictions of growing up, realizing that you may have to betray the idealism of your youth. It is, in other words, not Maverick and Iceman playing beach volleyball in Top Gun but rather a much older Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick finally having to sit down on the sidelines to watch his students carry on playing beach football without him. The "you" of the song is a girl that Henley's singer still longs for, perhaps one he met when he himself was a boy of summer. But for a very long time, I thought Henley's singer was addressing himself as a younger man. (Can you blame me, when he sings about hair "slicked" back, wearing Wayfarers like one of Top Gun's flyboys?) Through the course of the song, Henley makes peace with the death of youth as best as he can. "Those days are gone forever," he says. He has had to grow up. But in his heart, he still sees his lost love—and maybe himself—forever young.

Perhaps that is what NINE.i is summoning in "Young Boy," when they sing "I can even die." For a moment you may think they are singing "I can't even die," and in a way, both are right. To stop being young is to die, spiritually, but growing old does not mean you stop being young. You can always return to that state. NINE.i's young boy is one of Henley's boys of summer, always shining in the sun, smiling at everyone. He is gone only if you, like Henley's speaker, let him go, turn your back on him and turn him into a sticker on the back of your Cadillac. The young boy of summer is immortal, not because he can't be hurt, but because he is mythological. Youth is not an interlude in one's life. It is a state of possession, like an ancient god that descends upon your body. It is a bit unfamiliar but, NINE.i assures you, as long as you can dream him, he is "forever."

[bellenthigale]

BELLE OF NIGHTINGALE

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ‘Love 🪞 Affection’

Utmost felicitations‚ everyone! First and foremost‚ I am Sclerotia Cirhuali‚ portraying Giselle‚ a Japanese-Korean singer‚ rapper and lyricist under SM Entertainment. Giselle was born in Seoul‚ South Korea on October 30, 2000 (a Scorpio!)‚ to a Japanese father and Korean mother. Her Japanese name is Uchinaga Aeri. She grew up in Tokyo, Japan‚ and attended school in Tokyo International School‚ Sacred Heart School. She speaks three languages‚ including Korean‚ Japanese and English. She became a K-pop trainee under SM Entertainment in 2018‚ eventually debuting with AESPA in November 2020 after training for just 11 months. On October 28, 2020‚ Giselle was revealed as a member of aespa through a video shown during a press conference with SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man. On October 30‚ she was officially revealed as the group's fourth and final member. The group debuted on November 17 with the digital single “Black Mamba”.

“Even when I didn’t know that music could directly affect me, I was always passionate about music; it was my only driving force”‚ Giselle said during an interview with Vogue Singapore in 2021. “Music has helped me a lot‚ which is why I wanted to pass that same motivation and joy to others—not just in terms of lyrics‚ but also when it comes to sound, style and vibe”.

To be clear, this account is being used exclusively for roleplaying, and it will remain unused for any other purpose. In addition, I would like it to be recognized that I am not in any way associated with Huh Yunjin in any way and that I am not the person who claims to be. I thus affirm that I will not engage in any course of action that could jeopardize the reputation or image of my muse and her group. My sole purpose in portraying Yunjin is to help her, and her group, gain more attention. To be more precise, to highlight Yunjin and LE SSERAFIM. With my account, I specialize in In Character, or IC, thus the updates and images I use originate from her and her group's updates, music videos, unpaid social media posts, and some events that she's been. I'd like to express my sincere apology in advance for any grammatical errors you might come across in my updates or even in my disclaimer.

Please keep in mind that the other informations in my captions and updates is derived from an array of articles and websites that were found on Google, and I make no claim to being the proprietor of the information and data I obtained. With the exception of the supplementary information, I remain able to assure you that the entirety in my captions was created by myself. Additionally, I construct my own formats and enhance the images I use, with my own filters and presets. The photos of Yunjin in my profile and updates are collected from her fan sites, social media updates, and other media sources. I also edit the photos myself, drawing inspiration from photos on pinterest with permission. If you encounter the same or a similar disclaimer as me, it's most likely because I disclosed it in my affiliation’s resources or it's my other account.

In case I did something inadvertently or offensively, don't be hesitant to message me. I will take it with gratitude and refrain from making any unfavorable comments. You are more than free to ignore, block, or unfriend me if you don't like the way that I post my updates or you feel uncomfortable with it. To help prevent misunderstandings and inconvenience, just take a couple of moments to read my remarks or disclaimer. Further details, notably my acceptance area, anonymous accounts, and links of my updates, can be viewed in my comment section.

Overall credit is given to Arcuesi Takfihse for letting me use and adapt her idea of using Tumblr to make updates, and for allowing me to apply that idea as a blueprint for my own updates in the future.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ エレガント��言語‚ が｡