#tunes talks patho

[fellhellion]

might stream some persona if i can find my mic....might.,..

[idontego]

After a Breakup With Kaji | Headcannons

-His Perspective

A/n: guys, IM SO SORRY FOR THIS! I was listening to music and just felt inspired to do this. We know we could never hurt this boy’s feelings like this. AGAIN, IM SORRY!!

Warnings: breakups, toxicity, hostile behavior, sadness?

-Kaji would definitely try to ignore you

-honestly, this boy would be mess

-you were his first everything.

-day to day things would make him think of you

-he would breakdown in moments when he was by himself. This consisted of almost physical pain. Falling to his knees and crying uncontrollably. He was completely inconsolable engulfed in sweat and snot with his face drenched in his own tears.

-Kaji started wearing his hoodie over his head, despite having his hoodie up giving him flashbacks from when he would curl up in the corner of his room after losing himself and lashing out on a group of people.

-he thought this would be an easier way to conceal his puffy eyes.

-he hates how much of a choke hold you have over him, but he couldn’t help himself.

-he would be spacing out more than usual

-purposefully increasing the volume of his music to tune out anyone trying to interact with him

-his friends didn’t know how to comfort him because he kept shutting them out

-this caused him to have more frequent crash out’s

-he even switched lollipop flavors because strawberry made him think of you.

-if he saw you, he would definitely act colder and more reserved, not how he used to be around you.

-if he saw you talking to one of his friends. His fists would immediately clench in his pockets, amplifying his emotions and feeling helpless because you’re not his anymore.

-Kaji was always the type of guy to watch in silence, but was always lurking. There was no escape.

-the breakup increased this behavior.

-he would try to stop himself from making sure you made it home safe, but that was part of his duty to look after everyone in his community so it was only justified to keep doing it to you.

-he feared one day he’d see you go home to another guy.

-going to pathos was now one of his greatest fears, because he knows that you are a frequent customer there and he couldn’t deal with confrontation just yet.

-instead of a resting flat face, it was now a resting glare.

-his friends tried to compliment his physical strength since the break up, but that was only rubbing salt in the wound and a back handed compliment?

-he wanted to text you so bad to tell you how feels and how much he misses you

-he wanted you back so bad

-you brought out the light in him and showed him how easy it was to open up to people. How to laugh and smile again. You even boosted his confidence in himself just for all of it to be broken back down again.

-he didn’t know who he was anymore, he knew he had a big responsibility, but for so long he was accustomed to you being his other responsibility.

-he was lacking in self care and didn’t want to wash his favorite shirt or his pillow on the right side of his bed because they both lingered of your perfume.

-you still had belongings at his house that you didn’t bother to get back yet because you too feared confrontation after the break up, but little did you know how much your things meant just that much more to him since you were gone.

-he needed you now more than ever

[immediatebreakfast]

"My true friend," she said, in a faint voice, but with untellable pathos, "My true friend, and his! Oh, guard him, and give me peace!" "I swear it!" he said solemnly, kneeling beside her and holding up his hand, as one who registers an oath. 

I have talked a bit about the weirdly noticeable pattern of Van Helsing symbolically "filling in" the role of father while taking care of Lucy, and how this makes their dynamic a little bit more interesting within the Gothic of the novel, but today this dynamic turns so sorrowful when one reads the process of Arthur and Lucy meeting as Van Helsing guided them through their goodbye.

Despite this being one of Seward's entries, he becomes a spectator (and our eyes) when Van Helsing, Lucy, and Arthur dominate the scene with their actions. It almost feels like a ritual to let Lucy know that this is not the end, nor that Arthur will stop loving her.

Van Helsing (the father figure) guides Arthur (the fiance, not husband) into giving the proper goodbye to Lucy (the daughter not yet married) while maintaining what one could call a proper farewell with kisses on the forehead instead of something a little bit more intense which could be more expected of this dramatic genre.

Yes, even when we know the in-text explanation of why it's better for Arthur to not kiss a newly transformed Lucy on the lips, the scene never breaks of its somber tune with a more dramatic gesture; all of the actions seem to be done in a hushed tone.

Even Lucy goes to the afterlife with a whisper, and not a scream; the precense of the more experienced father-like figure of Van Helsing gives a steady hand to both Arthur and Jack to depend on in this moment of tragedy, and it gives Lucy the reassurance that what took over her will dissapear so she can finally truly rest.

[blackswampotter]

Season 1 of The Acolyte is over and I have some thoughts. A lot of thoughts, actually.

Acolyte spoilers below

What a weird show

I ultimately end up feeling the same way I did early on; it's a pretty average show with some great action held back by clunky dialogue, poor pacing, and several fairly dull characters.

And, I could probably leave it there, but I feel like that would ignore a lot of the most interesting elements.

Some of the show's best moments and emotional beats are centered around the character of Master Sol and his death and posthumous betrayal works really, really well. It's probably the most effective thing in the show and gave some genuine pathos to the last episode.

Osha and Mae swapping roles - something started in episode 5 - was also a compelling direction for the show.

Osha's fall to the dark side feels very unique compared to some we've seen before and I think it's because the show positions the Jedi as the antagonists in the end.

It's not framed as tragic, it's framed as brave and almost righteous in a twisted way. As though she's finally becoming who she was really meant to be.

But, you can't really talk about Osha and Qimir without talking about the Reylo sized elephant in the room...

The sequel trilogy had lightning in a fucking bottle with these two. Their chemistry is unreal and the pining, longing glances sell you on the enemies to lovers direction they were moving in.

In the end, Reylo sort of fizzled out with TRoS being unwilling to fully commit to, well, much of anything. But, the Reylo fandom was, and still is, massive.

With The Acolyte, Leslye Headland appears to be trying to capitalize on that kind of dynamic and it's just nowhere near as compelling.

Part of that is the lack of tension between them. Qimir feels so toothless compared to Kylo. Rey and Kylo push against one another. There's hostility, fear, and even some spite.

But, Qimir is just there to facilitate Osha's story. He doesn't feel like an independent actor playing off Osha in an interesting way.

Their dynamic feels like a sanitized and sanded down version of Reylo without any of rough edges that actually made Reylo compelling.

Finally, there's the Glup Shitto of it all.

So, somebody who looks an awful lot like Legends Darth Plagueis shows up for five seconds and I imagine that's going to be the biggest point of discussion online.

It's hilarious because he's just sort of there, poking his head around the corner like he's part of the goddamn Scooby gang.

My initial prediction was that Qimir was going to be revealed to be a Knight of Ren (Kylo's theme can be heard when he shows up), but now I'm wondering if he is, in fact, being trained by Plagueis.

Perhaps he and Osha will break away from Plagueis in season 2 and create the Knights of Ren, but that's assuming we get a season 2.

The response to this show has been disgusting from the beginning. Just mountains of idiots who hate anything with diversity and go out of their way to read everything in the most bad faith way possible.

I don't even think the show is all that great, but it's not because there are women and people of color in it.

It's kind of ironic then that this show, in a lot of ways, gives that crowd exactly what they've always wanted - over the top saber action, high fantasy Jedi/Force stuff, and Darth Plagueis.

I guess we'll see if they change their tune or if their whinging is enough to prevent a season 2 from being greenlit, because I honestly think the show deserves to keep going, even if I think it's pretty far from perfect.

[starryhologram]

A place you can talk to versions of yourself from other universes? Wait, I think I saw a movie like that before!

Into the… CJ Verse?

Design/Character Credits tagged below!

?? Soul - @kelpo-art

Tune - Keruukat

Wander - @b0vidine

Whole - @pathos-p

Worm - @calamarispiderart

Twine - @disruptivevoib

Simon - me lol

Ennui - @disruptivevoib

Stein - @rosy-fox-art

Heart - @shxwrunner

Sneeb - @shadewood45

Leaf - @gaignunkukai

AOS - @pathos-p

Storm - Q-ott

[dustedmagazine]

Butthole Surfers — Rembrandt Pussyhorse (Matador)

Photo by Jerry Milton

Given the amount of ink spilled and pixels configured concerning the music and cultural phenomena associated with the Butthole Surfers, it seems a daunting task to find anything new to say about the band — even about a record as excellent as Rembrandt Pussyhorse, first released 38 years ago (say what) on Touch and Go and presently being given the vinyl reissue treatment by Matador. But two things obviate the perceived difficulty registered just above: somehow, someway, Rembrandt Pussyhorse sounds like it could have come out yesterday on some currently über-hip, punk-adjacent underground label (say, Feel It Records from Cincinnati, or London’s La Vida Es un Mus); and for certain, it feels a very particular, vividly upsetting sort of way to listen to these demented, raging and inspired songs in March of 2024, as we struggle and lurch our way toward spring.

For example: Give “Strangers Die Everyday” a spin and try not to think about Gaza. That shouldn’t be a compelling match, of past music with present, all-too-real event. The song features a nigh-histrionic, Bela-Lugosi-as-the-Count organ, plastic fangs chewing on cheap, drywall scenery. Gibby Haynes does some of his bullhorn-mediated vocal antics, and sounds of bad plumbing bubble up into the mix. It’s the Butts in nightmare mode, which was always a vertiginous blend of ruthless ugliness and brain-rattled hilarity, and there is nothing funny about Gaza. Nothing at all. But keep listening. “Strangers Die Everyday” ends up expressing a deranged pathos. The organ is hammy, but the melody is mournful. The glurping, glooping bubbling evokes looking down a mostly stopped-up drain, which is always a bum-out experience, woven into the textures of the “Everyday” world nodded to in the song’s title. It situates the sadness and disgust in a feeling tone. But just exactly where is your everyday world? If you can tune in and make an additional metaphorical leap (to all the drains in Gaza, and in Myanmar, and in Ethiopia, and elsewhere, all of them backed up and drowned by unstanched cataracts of blood, from the bodies of all of those strangers), you will feel a particular sort of weight in your gut.

The Butts’ best stuff always worked the spaces in which earnestness, nausea and a decidedly bonkers mirthfulness overlap. Perhaps “collide” is a better word for the music’s resulting dynamic. In their early recordings, you can hear them bashing and stumbling their way toward ever-more-effective smash-ups of sharply opposing affects: the delirious one-two punch of “Suicide” and “The Revenge of Anus Presley” from Butthole Surfers (1983); the ebullient, anxious, headlong hallucination that is “Dum Dum” from …Another Man’s Sac (1984). The best performance of that sort of collision on Rembrandt Pussyhorse is “Perry,” which initially registers as a hyperbolic parody of the theme music to Perry Mason. Natch, let the laffs commence. The organ is back, but this time it’s in full Phantom-of-the-Opera mode, rollicking and tempestuous, Lon Chaney grinning horribly. Haynes delivers the laffs, howling and whooping himself breathless.

Keep listening. “Perry” takes its turn toward something more than parodic goofiness when Haynes provides a series of anaphoric itineraries: “It’s about coming of age / It’s about learning how to do it / It’s about learning how to experience things the way they ought to be experienced….” And so on. It’s a reckless thing, following Haynes into that improvisatory philosophical space: How, precisely, should things be experienced? What would a Butthole Surfer say? “It’s talking about being the slave boy / It’s talking about giving head when you’re 6 years old / It’s talking about enjoying these things….” You can just about see Raymond Burr blanch, even in black and white — and sure, it’s the Butts being the Butts, invoking a series of transgressive, taboo images, perhaps only for the charge of the transgression itself.

But there are other ways to hear the transgression. We might take the reference to Perry Mason a little more seriously. In the summer of 1986, just months after Rembrandt Pussyhorse was released, the Meese Commission on Pornography published its final report, a Puritanical screed that sought to throw the full moral weight of the Justice Department (yeah, yeah, I know) behind a juridical condemnation and potential outlawing of sex work, porn consumption and kink. The most liberal — in the hard sense of that word — readings of the Report’s recommendations would likely sanction tossing a band called the Butthole Surfers and songs like “Perry” (and “Lady Sniff,” “The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave,” “Moving to Florida,” and later just about every song on Locust Abortion Technician and Hairway to Steven…) onto the pile with all the copies of Hustler and Torso and the endless numbers of VCAvideocassettes — not to mention the models and actors themselves, and all the folks who watched them and looked at them and felt pleasure.

It's not a hard history to uncover when you listen closely. Reagan’s reinvigoration of the American Right in part drew upon Jerry Falwell’s political turn, and the idea that evangelicals could have real power if they participated in the electorate, rather than regarding it as the fallen domain of a lesser law. In 2024, the Republican Party takes that evangelical vote for granted, and its full complicity with the array of MAGA-affiliated constituencies has created a new set of political alliances, issuing in events like January 6 and the Q Shaman leading a prayer service in the evacuated Senate chamber. Not sure even Haynes could conjure that image. Return to the record. The echoes of Raymond Burr’s voice, in full closing-statement declamation, reverberate out from “Perry” to the Butts’ magisterial cover of “American Woman”: “All right, you little creep, come out of there! We know your name!” We’ve got you surrounded! Where’s Mike Pence?

No one would argue that the Butts possessed anything like socio-political prescience when they recorded Rembrandt Pussyhorse. They were too busy experiencing things the way they had to experience them, to make the music that they had to make. And some of us enjoyed it. Still do. That may be reason enough to return to the record — or to reissue it. But the band somehow tapped into some very serious energies circulating in the mid-1980s: the Reagan Administration’s bloody-minded Christian nationalism (read some of his speeches, you’ll hear it); the Israeli Labor Party’s “Iron Fist” policy of 1985 and the accompanying intensification of settler activity, all of which would soon lead to the First Intifada. And here we are: Gaza on fire and self-identified Christian Nationalists like MTG and Tommy Tuberville setting policy. Here we are, in the “Whirling Hall of Knives” Haynes and Paul Leary and the rest of the band set in motion in 1986. Even today, especially today, it cuts deep. It draws blood. Strangers die everyday.

Jonathan Shaw

[sinceileftyoublog]

Benny the Butcher Album Review: Everybody Can't Go

(Def Jam)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Over the course of his rise, Benny the Butcher's been ticking boxes, and Everybody Can't Go might be the biggest checkmark of all. The Buffalo rapper's Def Jam debut isn't so much a linear story of how he started on the streets and arrived at his current throne, as it is a juxtaposition of flexes and contemplation. That is, on the album's best sequences and even within its strongest songs, Benny balances braggadocio with the vulnerability inherent in reflection.

Take a glance at the featured artists and producers involved in Everybody Can't Go, and you can sense its momentousness. He teams up with not only the heavy hitters of his Griselda crew but top rappers of their time like Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg, the latter of whom helped Benny get his Def Jam deal. Every song is produced by either heady legend The Alchemist or banger expert Hit-Boy. "When I invite 'em to the lab," Benny raps on opener "Jermaine's Graduation" over an Alchemist piano loop, "They be scared to play what they got," proclaiming his musical prowess and shooting down any unfounded rumors that Griselda would be breaking up. It almost makes you forget that earlier in the verse, he waxed on his mother's drug abuse and dealers like him who didn't survive, but with Benny, the ability to switch headspaces on a dime is the product of many lives lived.

Throughout Everybody Can't Go, Benny deftly mixes humor and pathos. He outshines even Jadakiss and Babyface Ray on the snare-heavy "Pillow Talk & Slander", declaring "I got the aura of a boss" and delivering the line of the album, "I lay on a n**ga like Katt Williams' perm," before lamenting that he was never able to provide for his brother (rapper Machine Gun Black) when he was alive, or even bring him along for his current ride. Benny is gripping on "How To Rap", navigating the greed and negativity inherent in street hustling and the music industry, all while subverting expectations. "Turn it down and show 'em that your number was inarguable / And when they double back, you charge 'em triple what they offered you," he raps, letting us in on a pearl of wisdom before winking, "That's how you rap--they probably thought this was a coke song."

Benny and many of the album's featured artists bring the best out of each other, and not just because Lil Wayne hilariously exclaims, "My kennel is a bungalow," on "Big Dog". Snoop Dogg's verse on "Back Again" is ad-libbed and unexpectedly but thankfully casual. Armani Caesar is spritely and horny on "Buffalo Kitchen Club". ("He like what he see in his visual / I make that dick disappear, it's a miracle.") Even Benny's vocal timbre is versatile in conjunction with others, Hit-Boy tastefully dipping it in auto-tune on "Big Tymers" to diverge with Peezy's drawl. And of course, the album's closest thing to a posse cut, "Griselda Express", gives you that craved mix of Benny gruffness and Westside Gunn's thrilling shrill trills. It's a self-reflexive song that simultaneously possesses a universe that extends beyond the scope of Everybody Can't Go and makes Everybody Can't Go better. That the crew has given a new life to hip hop vinyl collecting and appeals to both conscious rap fans and contemporary hip hop heads renders their potential akin to Benny's favorite analogy--an unstoppable train. But as much as Benny looks forward and back on Everybody Can't Go, you get the sense that he and Griselda know it's an achievement worth basking in for some time.

[twistedtummies2]

Fifteen Days of Disney Magic - Number 4

Welcome to Fifteen Days of Disney Magic! In honor of the company’s 100th Anniversary, I have been counting down my Top 15 Favorite Movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios! We’re nearing the end of this event… Today’s entry should ring a bell. Ha Ha. Number 4 is…The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

“Hunchback” is an oddball in the Disney Canon. It seems to be a movie that polarizes people, in a way that no other picture from the Disney Renaissance period seems to. Depending on who you ask, it is either one of Disney’s darkest and most interesting animated movies, or it is a bizarre misfire that wasn’t very well thought out. Obviously, I fit into the former category: while I will concede the film does have some flaws (well…really just one flaw, which I’ll get to later), I don’t think those are nearly enough to warrant any real animosity towards the picture. And while it very, VERY clearly makes drastic changes from its source material…well…if people can forgive movies like “Hercules,” “Pocahontas,” and “Frozen,” I think “Hunchback” is more than deserving of a pass, too. This, in my opinion, is one of Disney’s absolute biggest films. And I don’t mean that in the sense of its popularity, technical merit, influence, or anything like that. I just mean the film, itself, feels MASSIVE. There’s something grand and sublime about so many of the things in this movie. The visuals are stunning, almost everything feels just gigantic, from the cathedral the tale centers around to the underground haven of the Court of Miracles. The themes are quite impressive, as well: while the story isn’t allowed to be as dark and adult as Victor Hugo’s classic novel, the movie nevertheless touches on some ideas that most Disney movies can’t go into. Faith, corruption, prejudice, madness, lust vs. love…these are things you don’t find in too many family films, certainly not ones with a fine “G” rating, today. These elements are only heightened by the music. Once again, I don’t just mean the songs (which are, of course, exceptional; I’m quite certain no one here needs to be reminded of the magnificence of “Hellfire,” just for a start), but the soundtrack itself. A commonality between all four of my Top 4 Favorite Disney Films is they all have phenomenal soundtracks, and a big part of what makes me love each movie comes from the splendor of the music on display. “Hunchback’s” score carries the breadth of its emotional and physical scope alike: naturally, the liturgy-influenced sections, with their Latin chanting and use of pipe organs, bold brass, and pounding percussion cause the film’s most dramatic moments to ascend to a higher plane, almost giving it an operatic sensibility. But even the smaller moments are affected, with tunes that carry a smaller, more “homey” sort of feeling, more like a traveling carnival or county fair, or the warmth of a family parlor.

If there is one downside to “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” it is that perhaps that emotional playing field is a bit TOO broad. A very common complaint most people have about the film – no matter whether they love it or hate it – is that its tone is slightly scattershot. Keep in mind, animation was still seen very much as a children’s medium at the time, and Disney DID want to market this movie to a wider, family-oriented audience. As a result, the film does have issues with the dark, adult tone suddenly grinding its gears as it brakes to a halt to allow some slapstick silliness for the kiddy-winks to enjoy, before slamming back into high gear with pathos and power. The most egregious example of this would be Quasimodo’s talking Gargoyle friends – Victor, Hugo, and Laverne – who most people tend to regard as obnoxious comedic filler figures. While I will concede the tone IS a bit of a problem, I’ve never really minded THAT much. Heck, after recent years of watching various forms of anime, maybe I’ve just grown increasingly desensitized to radical shifts in tone. But as a kid, I always loved this movie because it made me feel like I was watching something different, something I couldn’t see anywhere else. As an adult, I actually respect it even more, not less, for the effort it took to pull this movie off with any degree of competency. The characters are great (for the most part), the voice acting is great, the artistry on every level is great…this film, in my opinion, not only deserves all the attention it seems to be getting more and more in recent years…but perhaps even more later down the line. We’re officially entering the Top 3! The countdown continues tomorrow with my 3rd Favorite Disney Movie! HINT: It Is a FAIRY Good Film. (Ha Ha. Again.)

[grandaddy-of-all-liars]

Hello my’ mellows, today I will be telling you about Ren and Stimpy characters that I don’t think get enough attention.

Mr Horse

No one talks about him and it weirds me out. he’s not only a FANTASTIC critic but also a snazzy dresser, I mean have you seen that suit he was wearing in Ren Seeks Help? He also was in the army so it’s clear he’s very strong. And to top it all off he’s a very handsome, and I’m surprised that not many people haven’t fell heads over heels over him.

Muddy the Mudskipper

This one is a little more understandable since he didn’t have much of a role in the series, but I still thinks he deserves a mention. KILLER theme song, and cares for his friend enough to take him to a mental asylum to get help (I’m referring to Ren Needs Help). Also is a Hollywood big shot so that’s pretty cool.

The headless boy from APC

I know I briefly already mentioned him in the comment section on your last post, but I feel like I should mention him here too. Some how can operate just fine without a head which is very impressive. Had a kinda cute moment with Stimpy when they were building that house (well chimney I mean). Despite seeming to lose everything and living in a hole he still tried to have as much fun as he possibly can. Overall this character is just wholesome in general and I wish we could see more of him.

Ren’s Mom from APC

This one is gonna be a bit biased since I have a bit of a crush on her, I mean she’s practically a girl version of Ren that fact alone is enough for my lesbian brain go “ME WANT GIANT CHIHUAHUA WIFE” which is a weird thought to have since she’s not a giant, anyway enough of what ever this is let’s get on with the real reasons. She’s very beautiful, but deserves a much better marriage. A lovable psychopath just like her son (this is based off of speculation).

I hope you enjoyed my little TED talk and let me know if you think I missed any (which I probably did). Well bye for now!

i enjoyed reading EVERY word of this thank you so much for sharing your two cents! super ask, thank you for helping me not terminally hyperfix on Ren 0_o

also [chihuahua wife panic], sdhchfhczrf how did I fail to appreciate such a catch that is his mom, I cried when I saw this 💔

ok so we concur:

dapper Mr Horse🔺️

Muddy (the tune is on mental repeat now)🔺️

Headless Boy 🔺️(when hes embarassed and crosses his feet and hangs his lil larynx in shame 🥺)

Ren's stone cold fox Mom🔺️ (does she have a name? confession: i had a kind of awakening when her skirt lifted to reveal the garters 👀)

Submitting for your approval:

Wilbur Cobb - the shit he says plus he's like actively decaying idk why it makes me hysterical. he's completely batshit but kinda sharp still, i mean, pro tip: 'if you call everything crap you're never wrong'

Chuck - i think i actually like him more as a character foil for Ren bc he eggs him on to the point we get to see another side of Ren's pathos, and i like to imagine Ren was once secretly in love with him

Jasper - ok maybe i'm too narrowly focusing on the brotherhood of the dog here, the canine antics are so much fun. wish he were a recurring cameo

Eggyolkeo - please don't hate me for this >.< inanity is my lover and this character is just so hokey and ridiculous i can't not celebrate him. when he performs on stage and Elvis-struts in his cape and gargled into the mic i lost it. plus seeing the boys being all parental is just so darn cute, despite the poor ending

well thank you so much for having me on the show, i had a lot of fun here tonight :) seriously thank you for the stellar topic!!!! i'm sorry it took me forever to reply please feel welcome to send more, i should be getting my life back from work a bit soooooon

[kevrocksicehouse]

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.

D: James Gunn (2023). 

The secret surprise of James Gunn’s latest and last go-round with the dysfunctional gutter outlaws turned grungy cosmic superheroes, is the director’s heart. It was always there – the first two movies, in which a talking tree (v. Vin Diesel) that communicates by a million different inflections of “I am Groot”; Rocket (v. Bradley Coooper), a genetically modified raccoon mashup of Buck Rogers and Ratso Rizzo; team leader (and goofus savant) Peter “Star Lord” Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana) “the deadliest woman in the galaxy” (actually a time variant of the Gamora that was killed in the last Avengers saga who has no emotional connection to the team or her romance with Quill) and her sister Nebula (Karen Gillian) both children of galactic scourge Thanos; Drax (Dave Bautista) a super-strong warrior who alternates between dim-witted and other-witted; and Mantis (introduced in Vol. 2 and played by Pom Klementieff), Quill’s half-sister and empath: stumbled into becoming a team were a sterling “you make your own family” story disguised as it’s opposite. But Gunn’s ability to evoke pathos even while making fun of it is both fine-tuned and amped up. At his best he suggests Steven Spielberg as a Farrelly brother.

The movie feels clunky and overstuffed at first, as Gunn tries to juggle all of these characters and more but after Rocket is seriously injured in a kidnapping attempt masterminded by The High Evolutionary (the mad geneticist who created him played with cruel savagery by Chukwudi Iwuji) and the team has to find the computer code that can save him, the film finds it’s footing, alternating a race-against-time rescue quest with flashbacks to Rocket’s origin that Gunn turns into a grim fairy tale of young animals trying to survive a life defined by sadistic experimentation. The flashbacks give both the characters and the story a new emotional depth that colors the action and laughs (which are abundant). This is almost certainly Gunn’s last Marvel movie for some time and it’s a little poignant that he’s ending the franchise on such a high note. The dysfunctional clowns self-appointed to protect the cosmos will leave you with a smile on your face and a tear in your eye.

[thebowerypresents]

Shaboozey Makes a Statement at Brooklyn Steel

Shaboozey – Brooklyn Steel – September 17, 2024

Well, we knew where it was all headed, which was of course to “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” You don’t deliver one of the most infectious songs of the year — which Shaboozey did back in April — and have it not be the focal point to which most of the night’s big energy is inevitably directed. (And when he finally got there, in the encore after a brisk hour at Brooklyn Steel, he played it twice, because what the hell, right? Max out the slay while there’s time to max out the slay!)

But what was terrific about Shaboozey — the stage and recording name of Collins Obinna Chibueze, the country-hip-hop nonpareil most definitely having a moment, both from the Beyoncé Cowboy Carter associations and from his own music — was that the night was about much more than that. With a commanding four-piece band that included, not infrequently, pronounced pedal steel and dobro, he hit the country hard, he hit the hip-hop hard, he hit the nerves that gave almost every song anthemic and stadium-sized heft. Even the let’s-party stuff felt like big, loud statement-making. 

Shaboozey’s recorded output goes back a decade, and he touched a little of that era, too. Back then his music had less twang — it had more of an Atlanta trap thing going on — and he’s grown into his country/Americana bona fides without leaving behind that earlier self. But the heavy emphasis on Tuesday was this year’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, the record housing his current ideas, of which he’s completely confident and assured.

Set highlights included “Vegas” (a countrypolitan song with weeping steel), the fist-pumping “Last of My Kind,” the pained “Annabelle,” the stomping “Drink Don’t Need No Mix,” which coolly segued into Waka Flocka Flame’s “No Hands,” and the self-reflective “Let It Burn.” There was a great balance of being purposefully unrestrained — bigger than club bangers and party music while still club bangers and party music — and being down-to-earth, more elegantly folk/Americana at times when a lesser artist might have been straight emo and pathos. 

He has much more than a single mode, and another segment found Shaboozey strapping on a guitar for several tunes, including one of his deepest and most accomplished songs, “East of the Massenutten,” in a waltz tempo, along with a spectral version of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page,” and it totally worked. The main set ended with something of a benediction: The gospel-pop of “Finally Over,” which became a rowdy fist-pumper about celebrating the next, hard-won phase of life rather than indulging the regrets of the recent past. 

The crowd ate it up. He sold it all, but he didn’t once need to be selling. For a first-time headliner, Shaboozey walks the walk and talks the talk like he’s decades in, and bigger stages await. —Chad Berndtson | @Cberndtson

Photos courtesy of Toby Tenenbaum | @tobytenenbaum

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 22 April 1954

Two unknowns today, though both artists are chart regulars. At least one of the songs has a particulary interesting title that could be a Western theme, especially since it's by Frankie Laine... let's see!

The Kid's Last Fight - Frankie Laine (peaked at No. 3)

Not a Western theme! It sounds like it, but it's a boxing song. You don't get many of those, do you? It feels like a very old-fashioned thing, somehow - do we get boxing songs now? I certainly can't think of any.

It's a story song, and a melodramatic one, at that, all about a fighter, Kid McCoy, in a fight against the wonderfully-named Tiger Wilson. These are not real boxers, but I had to check, the names sound so perfect!

Before we get there, though, there's a pianola, apparently. Which was a self-playing automatic piano. I don't know if you can hear that specifically in the sound of it, or if a person playing it would sound the same. But if it is, it does lend the whole track a music-hall vibe. It achieves what Winifred Atwell is also aiming for, but without the off-kilter slant. Charming enough.

It also makes this a bit of a throwback track, fitting for a song about a fight in "the summer of ninty-three". It's slightly jazzy, and slightly nostalgic, and the drama does feel like the sort of thing you'd see in a silent film.

The Kid goes to his fight, with his girl, Bess, in the front row, urging him on because "we need that little bungalow, / Oh, you've just gotta win tonight". It's an oddly specific motivation, but it drives the Kid on, and Frankie gets involved with a driving chorus of "come on, Kid!"

But, then, a twist! The Kid's ill and has a fever "to the very bone". He's also against a particularly unpleasant opponent, the Tiger, who in true villainous fashion declares that "I'm gonna take the fight and take your woman too" which drives the Kid wild, helping him win the fight.

Unfortunately, in true melodramatic fashion, this is too much for the fever, and he promptly expires as we hear that "'Twas the fever that won the fight". There's talk of how "the champ is climbin' through th egolden ropes / Of the big ring up in the sky" and that's that.

It's an oddly amusing ending, or maybe that's just me. I don't know, I'm not getting pathos from this, and I'm not sure I'm meant to? It's not a novelty song, per se, but Frankie's just having a lot of fun with it all. It's playing with tragic storytelling conventions, but it's too much of a knees-up to really sell it as a genuinely sad story, and setting it in a cartooney version of the gay 90s doesn't exactly help matters.

Tenderly - Nat King Cole (10)

This is a slower, more dignified affair, a slightly jazzy, soft tune, interpreted by Nat King Cole with his usual warm gentleness. It's nice, very pleasant.

It's apparently a bit of a standard, and had really been popularised seven years before Nat's version, with a recording done by Sarah Vaughan, who I can see doing a good job of this, too. It's also become a Latin jazz favourite since then, apparently. Still, Nat manages to make it his own well enough here.

We start with a lush instrumental introduction that's all sweeping, rising strings, and then a horn cutting through it all, and some tinkling flutes. It's very cinematic, leading into the first verse starting. Nat's voice is, as ever, very smooth.

The lyrics paint a picture of a landscape that mimics Nat's interactions, as "The evening breeze caressed the trees tenderly / The trembling trees embraced the breeze tenderly" or as "The shore was kissed by sea and mist tenderly". It all provides a romantic backdrop for him and his lover also falling in love, and it's a smart move to lavish more description on the landscape than the two lovers.

We then get a beautiful piano solo, with a slow, steady drum underneath, fading into a sort of quiet, soft ending. It's the sort of ending that's understated, but very classy, and the flutes at the end are really lovely, going to unexpected places and then sweeping into a final string chord to end.

Its overall effect is also quite sleepy, and I could imagine a quiet, nocturnal version of this playing in the background of a dark, romantic scene in an artsy kind of film.

I like both of these songs, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to re-listen to them much in future. They're fine, but not stunners in the same way as some of the previous songs have been. Still, I have a definite favourite, and it's the one that has left me in a lovely dozy mood.

Favourite song of the bunch: Tenderly

[neovid]

Man, this is going to be as addictive as when the Gamma World character generator popped up on RPGnet...  OK, here’s what I got the very first time I hit the button:

Traits

Cunning Crafter (Stone) Your flesh resonates with a particular natural material. You can work it without tools, shape it like soft clay, and cause small objects made of it to leap to your hand from Touch range. Roll or choose your material (d6) – 1–2: Metal; 3–4: Stone; 5–6: Wood. With effort: call an appropriate object to your hand from Near range instead.

Masterful Mimic Your vocal apparatus can replicate any sound you've ever heard, up to the volume of a grown human shouting (or perhaps louder, if another Trait permits it). With effort: mimic the voice of a specific person so exactly that even their own loved ones can't tell the difference.

Hundred-handed Your complement of manipulators isn't terribly well defined. You always have at least four hands (or equivalent members), and the exact number can vary at need. With effort: have as many hands as you need to have.

Features: long hair or beard, feelers or tentacles, beak or mandibles

Facets

Ethos 5

Pathos 7 (Charming)

Logos 3 (Misinformed)

Creed

You walk the God-eater's path with perfect literalism: God is a tyrant, and you intend to find Him, kill Him, and eat Him. Your Rebellious Arts are acts of pure contrarian refusal to conform; you don't care why they work, only that they work.

Rebellious Arts

The Art of Utility

You refute the lie of purpose. When you activate this Art, you can grab any object or creature you can lift with one hand; if you grab a creature, it must consent, have no Stress Limit, or currently be Stresed Out in order to be affected. For as long as you sustain this Art, you can use the target as a perfectly suited tool for any task, provided a hand-held tool for that task could plausibly exist. You may use the target in any number of ways; it will prove to be perfectly suited for each new task you set it to. The target is not harmed or permanently altered by being used in this way. You can set the target down without terminating this Art, but if another creature picks it up, the effect ends.

Starting Inventory: fancy hat, broken sword, poorly tuned lute

All right, like all Eat God characters, this random mishmash implies a few things.  The Features clearly go together, giving him a furious mass of a beard that are also tendrils he can use in place of hands, thanks to Hundred-Handed.  As for the beak, well, the obvious combo would have been to make my God-Eater an octopus, but I was picturing some sort of bird who also happened to have a gigantic dreadlocked beard under that beak.  Masterful Mimic+bird also implies a parrot... 

When I saw the starting inventory entries, it hit me that Eat God just gave me its version of one of my old Toon characters, the pirate parrot, Commodore Perry Keat.  The fancy hat is an admiral’s tricorne, the broken cutlass and lute also match, and he still happens to have stubby wings that aren’t useful for a damn thing, to go along with one of the most memorable moments from the first game he appeared in:  “You’re all birds, can’t any of you fly?” “Shticks are expensive.”

Cunning Crafter plus Art of Utility is a surprisingly practical and useful combination, so I’ll have to put some thought into how he’d bungle using them. His Facets reminded me of the old principle from Toon: “Using what you’re bad at is funnier.”  When he accidentally uses Pathos, he can accomplish great things, but he tries to specialize in Logos, despite being a complete ignoramus. 

So, we have Commodore Perry Keat, a bearded parrot who flopped out of the Stew talking like a stereotypical pirate, but due to his dumbness, when asked about it would probably reply, “What’s a pirate?” with the followup questions “What’s a boat?” and possibly, “What’s ‘water?’“

The next revision of the playtest draft for Eat God is now up. This version includes all of the missing rules from the previous version – advancement, Progress and Calamity Clocks, etc. – as well as numerous expansions and clarifications; the game is now considered feature-complete, though it still needs worked examples, pre-made scenarios, and a whole pile of Big Stupid Tables™.

The most noteworthy addition to this draft, however, is (mostly) complete character creation rules. All but one of the remaining blanks have been filled in, and many Traits have been revised to make them more flexible and add a few interesting new rules toys. You can more easily stat up horrible little gargoyles, there's a little something for the hypno kink crowd, and also you can be a (very small) werewolf now.

(The one remaining blank alluded to above with that "mostly" is the 36th Trait, which I'm leaving off for now because I can't decide exactly what to slot in there and I don't want to spin my wheels on that any longer; for now it just reads "reroll".)

Last but not least, Eat God now has a cover illustration, thanks to the very talented @magpiemalarkey. We decided to be forthright about the game's inspirations; for legal reasons, the depicted characters are not Muppets. (To be clear, only the illustration is their work; the text design for the game's title is a placeholder I threw together myself using a commercial font, so don't blame them for that part.)

As always, questions, criticisms, and bizarre rants are welcome – and if you'd like to give it a spin but don't have a group, character creation is its own little self-contained minigame, and all you need is six-sided dice to give it a try; feel free to post your creations in the notes!

You can find the latest revision at the links above, or below:

https://penguinking.com/eat-god/

[fellhellion]

sorry girls it’s been years im legally obligated to go quietly insane about nocturnal end artemy again

[lucioscunt]

as I mentioned, I am alive and playing Pathologic a lot lately. I am also drawing stuff sometimes on @vorakh but not much because I can’t be serious, it’s a condition. I’m inactive also because I deleted Tumblr app and I don’t use laptop that much, so it comes to wonder how do I manage to waste my time???

ANYWAY I’m working on a lot of Plague Days angst for the Arcana!! Stay tuned!!