#underratedly good

[electric-plants]

feeling so unhealthily insane about venti again lately and just remembered that i’ve been saving replaying his story quest on my second account and i think today is the dayyyy

[clarabowmp3]

fave midnights lyrics?

13 lyrics!!!!!

1. Get it off your chest… GET 🗣️ IT 🗣️ OFF 🗣️ MY 🗣️ DESK

2. I should not be left to my own devices they come up with pricesand VICES I. End. Up. In. Crisis.

3. I saw flecks of what could have been lights ! but…it…might just have been you………..passing by unbeknownst to me (it’s just such a pretty line ughhh)

4. I see the great escape! So long Daisy may 🌸😭

5. WHATS A GIRL GONNA DO? A DIAMONDS 💎 GOTTA 🤷‍♀️ SHINEEEEEE ✨

6. I thought the plane was going down how’d you turn it right around

7. They said the end is coming 😫 everyone’s up to something 💃🕺 I find myself running 🏃‍♀️ home to you sweeeeet nothings 🙈 outside they’re push and shoving 😕 you’re in the kitchen humming 🎶 all that you ever wanted from me was sweeeet nothing

8. IM ONLY CRYPTIC AND MACHIAVELLIAN CUZ I CAAAAREEEEEEEE (Also special mention to and the first night that you saw me 🙈 i knew I wanted your body 😝🥵)

9. you were bigger than the whole sky 🕊️

10. At the house lonely, good money, I’d pay if you’d just know me. seemed like the right thing at the time

11. Fivesecondslaterimfasteningmyselftoyouwitha S T I T C H…..hhhhh………(also I was supposed to sweat 🥵 you 🫵 out 🫦)

12. I can’t LET! THIS! GO! i FIGHT! WITHYOU! INMY! SLEEP! 💃💃🤺💥

13. Bet i 😌 could still melt 🌀 your 🫵 world 🌍 argumentative 🤬 antithetical 🤷‍♀️ dream girl 💘

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIDNIGHTS🥳🥳🥳🎉🎊

[goofballproximitysurveyor]

I forgot to talk about this on here the other day but for Mei's holiday lines she gets stressed out for your birthday because she didn't know and couldn't get you anything and then for her birthday she's surprised anyone remembered :(

[keypaa]

Astrology Observations No.5 🧛🏻‍♀️💋🖤👻

(+ a bit creepy stuff)

I use the whole sign system

Uranus opposition Ascendant & strangers talking to you all of a sudden in unexpected ways and places

Mars in 8th house get attacked by spirits often (sleep paralysis, seeing shadows, feeling presences) in many places you go to

!Sensitive topic¡

Astroid Medusa (149) in strong aspects (usually squares) with the north node/southnode + pluto indicate r*pe. I saw it in two of my friends chart. The north node can be seen as destiny. Even if you don't have this aspect and still went through this i love you you are never alone ❣︎

Scorpio ascendants attract a whole bunch of creeps trust your gut and keep it safe people always pay attention to what you are doing you just need to look closer

Lilith in the 10th house and females being annoyed of their presence in the work place. Usually also attract a whole bunch of jealousy in school, uni or at work. Michele Avil that was murdered by her best friend because of jealousy had this placement

Moon in Scorpio hate not having control they know how to (atleast try) to get someone to do something. Positive note good investigators who would make great psychologists, detectives and so on

So well if you have a bunch of 1st house, 8th house or 12th house placements in planets like venus, mars, moon or lilith you are more prone to attract stalkers atleast once in your life KEEP IT SAFE and I mean it¡! And by stalkers I also mean people who do a whole bunch of research on you and your life or keep following you obsessively on social media.

Don't leak unnecessary information about you and try to not go to quite places alone where no one could find you if something would happen.

Lilith in leo are feared by females loved by men

Venus in 10th house don't tell anyone about your love life trust me even tho people always find things to say and spread rumors about. You will publicly be known for what is happening in your love life.

Moon in aries need to be feared, if introverted it takes long to see their anger but most aries moons show ther anger explosively nevertheless they cool down rather quickly, loyal to their loved ones tho

Don't fuxk with leo venus friends they take care of them like a lion mother, dedicated

Venus in capricorn always have enemys

Masculines with libra placements always fall for people who don't love them the same way/or for absolutely toxic & crazzzy people

Lilith in the 22nd degree are necrophilists. Just look at Richard Ramirez chart, he loved s*x with the dead.

According to Ian Altosaar the 22nd degree is about murder and I combined this information with liliths nature, hidden desire. 👻Ps: Most necrophilists are men not always but almost all the time https://ijop.net/index.php/mlu/article/download/734/688/1339 or on Wikipedia (not so reliable source but says that about 92% are men)

Virgo placements get underratedly sexualised a whole lot. The biggest p*rn star right now has virgo placements. Also virgo liliths can be se*ualised

Pisces moons had a time of their life where they cried a lot or still are very emotional (nothing bad). Other than that they can be dangerously manipulative if they want to and feel every slight difference in someones behavior

Aquarius ascendants and loving colorful clothing

Juno (3) in aries and rooting for ambitious people that behave masculine in a loving manner (romantically)

Juno (3) in aquarius want a partner that sticks out from the masses

Mercury in sagittarius have a special voice

Pholus (astroid) shows you what transformed you the most in your life:

1st hous/Aries: You yourself/sports caused a transformation in your life

2st house/Taurus: Your financial situation changed you

3rd house/Gemini: The area where you live in (hood) affected you, or off topic your car/drivers license

4rd house/Cancer: Your home life, emotions or femininity

5th house/Leo: Creative skills of yours or recognition transformed you

6th house/Virgo: Routine or your health/hygiene plays/played a crucial role in your life

7th house/Libra: Your love life/ or glow up affected your life view

8th house/Scorpio: Deaths, paranormal stuff, operations, accidents and your sexuality transformed your way of dealing with life

9th house/ Saggitarius: Other cultures, traveling and your ancestors trigger something in you

10th house/Capricorn: Your work, work environment and accomplishments changed you

11th house/Aquarius: Humanitarian topics, technology and friends started your transformation journey

12th house/Pisces: Religion, spirituality & plastic surgerys may have affected your journey of developing your sense of self

Luvvv muah

3:18 PM

555

© 2024 the content is subject to the copyright and responsibility of the author

[hacash]

the most underratedly funny part of The Terror is when hickey is milking his so-called encounter with the netsilik for all he's worth, he literally has everyone in camp hanging on his every word; and then jopson completely cuts him off and hickey is so. fucking. miffed.

it's not even a good screencap but just the indignation on his face. the sheer unbridled rage of an actor who suffers the indignity of someone in the audience having a sneezing fit through his one dramatic monologue. jopson does not appreciate his artistry. how very fucking dare.

and then hickey tries to act like he's calling the meeting with crozier and jopson just absolutely no-sells him again. the man is giving him nothing. hickey is giving the most oscar-winning performance of his life and who's paying attention? not thomas 'philistine' jopson, that's who.

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Not enough Avatar fans recognize how good of a bender Bolin is bcuz he's mostly busy being played as comic relief. But even just at the end of TLOK he's praised by his personal hero Toph Beifong and is one of 3 known lavabenders, has gone toe to toe and bended alongside Toph's talented daughters and displays similar feats.

And he's shown to practice bending seriously and improve between time jump, b/c have you noticed that he observed and mastered the Red Lotus lavabender's lava glaive trick and uses it to cut through platinum in Book 4? That and Toph said that she'd be willing to teach Bolin metalbending b/c she brags about being able to teach anyone metalbending (Toph's metalbending school comics reference yay) & in the TLOK comics Toph is shown to go out of her way to leave the swamp & head to Rep. City to hang out with her granddaughter and her future grandson-in-law, so I'm betting Bolin's been getting some tutoring in and officially become one of Toph's students.

TLDR I hope Bolin shows up in the new Avatar series and shows up how strong he is at old age, b/c half his canon appearances so far are him at 16 and he's underratedly really good.

no because Bolin is genuinely an unparalleled bender. he has sheer power on the level of avatars, see how catches an entire building dropped on a room full of earth benders before anyone else and then was the only one holding it up despite TOPH BEING IN THE ROOM? for one.

he also has the drive to be good at his bending that we don't really see with mako or even really korra in the show. sure, we see korra learn air bending but then she's just frustrated it's not coming naturally. with Bolin we see him struggle with his bending and still become the best. see how quickly he mastered an element with No One to teach him or him throwing himself at metal bending over and over. Which I'm honestly torn if I want him to learn it? On one hand, literally op earthbender which is amazing yes please. On the other, I kinda like that metal bending, something that is traditional earthbending techniques taken to the extreme, is what Bolin struggles with.

It's pretty heavily implied Bolin and Mako had no formal bending teacher and are completely self taught. In fact, the times we see Bolin do the most traditional earthbending moves are in season 4, which takes place after the 3 year jump. This is also when he's working for Kuvira and is probably the only time he did get formal training in earthbending, so it would make sense he would incorporate that more.

and ive talked about this before but, Bolin is the quickest earthbender in the entire show. he is incredibly talented in his craft and no one else in the entire show bends like he does. like, okay. This?

that move? that spin kick he's doing? That's a fire bending move.

he's doing a fire bending move with earth. kinda like iroh's move for redirecting lighting, bolin's entire bending style is this quote "when you take (wisdom) from only one place it becomes rigid and stale. understanding others, other nations, will help you become whole" Bolin is an earth bender who grew up learning to bend by watching fire bending. and that is a huge part of why Bolin is such a unique and talented fighter.

tbh I hope he never learns metal bending because the contrast between him and toph is nice. Toph is someone who excels at traditional earthbending, to the point of inventing a new type of sub-bending. whereas Bolin is so skilled at adapting and integrating different bending styles that he's able to master a volatile element that is eath that behaves like water with properties of fire at 17 with no teacher.

so yeah I agree 100% I would fucking love to see Bolin older because he would be a fucking powerhouse.

[thepassionthatunitesusall]

Underratedly, I think it's good for Samsonov to have a veteran goalie who has gone through game 7s on the bench as his backup tonight. Jones may know exactly what Samsonov needs to hear and when

[midnightfictionlibrary]

Hi, I just had the idea of a Jamie Tartt imagine where for he and his girlfriend's 1 year anniversary, the boys get Jamie's girl a shirt that says "Jamie Tartt fan club" as a gag gift but she underratedly loves it?

Stop this is amazing y’all are giving such good ideas 😭

[broken-clover]

So after rewatching with the director's commentary (yeah, technically I watched the movie twice in two days, but the second time I mostly had it in the background while doing other stuff) and having some more time to collect my thoughts, I think I'm just deciding to do a list of all the things I thought the movie did really well, expected or otherwise. Like, everyone knows about the bizarreness and the so-bad-it's-good memery but I want to highlight some stuff I thought was genuinely admirable

-In watching the director's commentary, it seemed that he had a pretty realistic and relatively grounded and familiar understanding of the source material, which is inherently more than the live action Mario movie did. Even if it didn't pan out like expected, it's cool to see that passion went into it and he had a sense of respect for the games instead of writing them off as childish and trying to 'improve' it

-Likewise appreciate the director sharing petty grievances with the film, it humanizes things quite a bit. In fairness I also want those swizzle sticks and Bison dollars and would've been bummed if I was the only one who didn't get any.

-100% will always respect practical effects and physical set design. There were a few areas where CGI was used but for the most part it's all tangible

-Also!! Practical fighting!! Yes it's easy to make jokes about Van Damme's accent when playing someone so cartoonishly American but in a movie like this that relies so heavily on fight scenes he's exactly the sort of person you'd want to cast.

-(Perhaps an odd aside but upon reflection and trying to see other peoples' opinions on the film I think @ninewheels makes a very solid point in that having an immigrant Guile subtly works in the narrative's favor while also downplaying the plot's 'white savior' element to a degree)

-Again, discarding the canon divergences, Honda and Balrog had some terrific moments as a comedic duo, and for as little screentime was they had they managed to make their characters compelling. It's made completely understandable that given all three having their lives ruined by Bison in some form that they and Chun-Li would gravitate towards and work together. Unironically would watch a whole side series just about the three of them they bounce off of each other in a strangely natural way

-Likewise, Dhalsim!! Was not expecting to find him so compelling. I know it's a steep deviation from canon but at the very least they gave him his own little character arc, and the desire to use his skills for the betterment of humanity does sound a lot like canon Dhalsim behavior so I'm fine with it.

-Like I mentioned before, I was quite shocked at how well done Vega's presence was in the film, being rather spot on visually and personality-wise. As I found out while looking up more info, apparently his actor was still learning English at the time, so it's understandable why he only had a few short lines. However, just about everything else makes up for it. The costume design was near-perfect, and even without dialogue his body language did a terrific job of having him come across as condescendingly smug and dismissive. I see a lot of (absolutely deserved) praise for Mr. Julia but Jay Tavare did a fantastic job and absolutely deserves more credit

-On that note in general a recurring sentiment I kept having was that the silent/gesture comedy in this was really, really sharp. Some of the funniest parts in this movie were ones with no dialogue whatsoever

-This movie was funny on purpose!! I've seen some people describe the memetic moments in this and make it sound as though the whole thing is a straightforward action flick, but there were a whole lot of actually intentionally comedic elements and most of them landed perfectly well!

-Zangief is another underratedly terrific performance. Even if he's much duller than he is canonically it's played with so much gusto and enthusiasm that it's so enjoyable to watch him in action.

-Raul Julia. No explanation needed.

-Ming-Na Wen. Slight explanation needed bc WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME SHE WAS SO GOOD IN THIS. Woman did her own stunts and gave the movie a dose of colder realism that worked excellently with the somewhat unsteady tone

-Bazooka Cammy. Also as iffy as I was initially at having a pop star acting in this Kylie turned in a pretty solid performance.

-Gun Ken. I don't have much elaboration for this one it was just funny. Super magical spirit karate from living in backwoods Japan for like a decade with some old guy and you just decide to use a gun. We brought back Neck Snap Cammy from the II OVA for 6 so we can totally bring back Gun Ken for SF6 too right?? Please?? Don't even have to do anything too fancy just take regular Ken and give him Gun.

[pink-ttes]

ℐׅ 핑크 ─ ENCHANTED : A CHARMEINE YU STORY

“I’LL SPEND FOREVER WONDERING IF YOU KNEW,

I WAS ENCHANTED TO MEET YOU.”

CHARACTERS. charmeine yu, kyrie han, bae yoona, chantana kanarot

WARNINGS. marijuana consumption, very brief mention of sex, brief mention of kidnapping anxiety, i believe that’s all !

WORD COUNT. 4.3K

“I don’t know, he just keeps fucking off, and I want to settle down one day but I don’t know if he’s ever gonna stop,” Tana chatters, licking her vanilla ice cream cone.

The sun, sitting prettily in the faintly darkening sky, beats down on their backs, the sound of the waves crashing against the sand serving as background noise. It’s a hot summer evening, one that the majority of the company had spent at a beach party thrown by Hayden.

“And he’s gonna keep doing it because you allow it,” Yoona pragmatically says, scooping up ice cream from the waffle bowl and stuffing it into her mouth.

Tana’s nose crinkled listening to the older girl. She knew she was right but she was never one to listen, at least after the first, second, or twentieth warning. She was a person who asked for advice on situations, disregarded the advice and did the opposite of what she was advised, realized that things went wrong because she didn’t listen and still did the same thing again, just hoping that the outcome might come out different the next time. News flash, it never did.

“I think you just need to drop him, he’s a weirdo,” Charmeine interposes, to which Yoona nods in agreement.

Tana dismisses her, opting to pretend she didn’t hear her and asks a differing question. “Can I ask you guys something? And don’t think I’m, like, weird or anything.”

“Go on,” Yoona encourages, Charmeine turning to look at Tana anticipatingly.

“I know she’s your cousin and all,” she begins, shifting her eyes to Charmeine, “but do you think that Briar would sleep with him?”

Charmeine nearly chokes on her ice cream sandwich, letting out an obnoxious chortle. She nods her head aggressively, “of course she would.”

Yoona purses her lips, her eyes widening with amusement.

“But she’s my best friend and this is the first guy I’ve ever taken seriously,” Tana pouts, her brows furrowing.

“She’s my cousin and she fucked my ex before,” Charmeine casually opposes. “I don’t know why you’re acting brand new, Briar’s been like this.”

A low “damn” is all that Yoona can let out as she listens to the conversation before her.

“Wait, so do you think that she fucked my boyfriends before?” Tana asks, a newfound panic settling in her expression.

Charmeine and Yoona spare each other knowing glances, the conversation suddenly falling into an awkward silence. Charmeine looks away from the two, not wanting to give an unwanted answer to the lingering question before she narrows her eyes at a certain event playing out in front of her.

“No, seriously—” Tana picks up the topic once more, her tone gaining some edge to it but she doesn’t get to raise her concern fully.

“Holy shit,” Charmeine cuts the girl off.

“What?” Tana asks, turning to look at whatever caught Charmeine’s attention. Her eyes fall on three boys, two standing shirtless, one clad in a black tank top.

“Three-man?” Charmeine asks, a string of laughter from all of them following after.

Her eyes lock onto the one on the end, his skin radiant as the evening sun twinkles over his toned body. She’s seen him before, just never looking this good. She doesn’t know if it’s the summer haze taking over her mind, the heat causing her to think irrationally, or if this guy she’d never talked to and just seen around the bend every now and then was just underratedly hot.

Charmeine finally brings her attention back to the other two.

“Damn, they do look good,” Yoona eyes them, specifically checking out the tallest one whose long hair is perfectly brushed into place.

Tana gnashes her teeth, seemingly to bite back temptation before letting out a breath and rolling out her tense shoulders. “Go shoot your shot, girl,” she rouses.

She looks back at him, but unbeknownst to her, he’d been staring her down as soon as she turned away from him the first time. Their eyes meet and she brightens almost immediately. His lips curl into a tantalizing grin. He waves his fingers as if gesturing for her to advance to him.

Charmeine thinks on it for a moment, eyeing the sand beneath her feet before looking back at him. She stands up, making her way over to where he and his friends stood. They all look her up and down as she approaches, standing there as if she was more than certain that she belonged there.

“I noticed you staring at me,” Charmeine divulged, “you weren’t hiding it very well.”

“I wasn’t trying to,” he says, his sly smile betraying his words. He sends a look to his friends, signaling for them to allow him some privacy and once they finally pick up on it, they oblige, leaving the two alone.

He outstretches his hand, peering at her hand. “Kyrie,” he introduces.

“I know,” she takes his hand, shaking it, but keeping it there for a moment, savoring the feeling of his baby soft palm.

She doesn’t introduce herself because she knows he knows who she is. She often goes through events without having to introduce herself, a quality of life she’s grateful for. It saves for the trouble of awkward small talk and the ever-dreaded talking stage.

“I just happened to notice you scoping me out, too,” Kyrie shoots back, a flirty lilt in his tone.

She scoffs playfully, “I was looking at the sun, you were just in the way.”

“The sun’s right there,” he chuckles, pointing behind her. She turns around as though she hadn’t realized the sun had been placed in that spot in the sky for as long as they’d been here.

Kyrie pores over at Charmeine through low eyes, taking in the girl's frame, devouring her through mere looks. His carnal gaze doesn’t fall unnoticed by Charmeine. She can feel the fluttering in her stomach, tickling her from the inside. It’s been awhile since a boy has made her feel like that.

There’s a small breeze that blows Kyrie’s fragrance past her face, a scent mixed of sage, citrus, and weed.

“But you got the prettiest little smile,” he admires.

It makes her smile even harder on instinct, her cheeks glowing a faded tint of pink as she stares up and into his rich eyes. “So I’ve been told.”

He laughs at her playful cockiness.

“This music’s kinda loud, how about we get some privacy?” He suggests. The music isn’t loud at all. Sure, you might have to go up a few octaves to hear certain sentences, but it’s actually perfectly volumed, fueling the ambience with the trap-r&b songs playing over the stereo, the DJ proving to be more-than-efficient to the guests attending the party. Charmeine thinks that she should steal Hayden’s DJ for her next party.

“Sure,” Charmeine nods, taking his hand as he leads her through the crowd. She quickly gives Tana and Yoona, who were sitting in their same spot in the sand, a small jig of jubilance. They laugh, sending her two thumbs up.

They walk around to the back of Hayden’s vacation home. The sound of the ocean is soothing as they take their short walk, which is filled by banter and flirty remarks all the way up until they make it to their destination. In that little time, she’s learned his favorite artists, the way he views his friends, and the things he prefers to do at parties like these—all things needed to know how a person interacts with the world. Charmeine prided herself in being a very perceptive human being.

He leans against the fence, right next to a patio-like table and bench, surrounding the spacious home. “‘You smoke?”

“A little.”

Kyrie reaches into the pocket of his swim trunks, pulling out a few materials and sitting them down on the table she takes a seat at. “You know how to roll?”

Charmeine coyly purses her lips, sheepishly shaking her head, “no.”

He chuckles at her mannerisms. “You’re cute when you get shy like that.”

She playfully flicks her wrist at him, instantly heartening at his compliment. She’s always getting compliments but when they come from him, it feels more invigorating.

“I can show you, if you want,” he offers.

She nods enthusiastically and he smiles back at her before sitting across from her at the table. He lays the blunt wrapper and the weed out in front of him, focusing on the joint.

A cold sensation drips down her wrist, suddenly making her all too aware of the melting ice cream sandwich she had totally forgotten about. She gasps at the sticky feeling, squirming uncomfortably, her face contorted in disgust. She takes a bite of the cool treat, chewing it carelessly.

Kyrie takes a swift look up at her eating, before making a kittenish noise of disappointment. “Aww, your sandwich melted,” he frowns, a faux pout coming into play.

“I know,” Charmeine returns the gesture, dragging out the syllables and replicating his pout.

“Gimme a bite?” Kyrie supplicates.

She hums, bringing the sandwich to his lips, to which he leans forward a little and takes a bite out of the chocolate-y delight. When some of its vanilla insides drip down Charmeine’s finger and wrist, he maneuvers his tongue to lick up the ice cream, causing her to squirm at the ticklish feeling. He traces past the front of her wrist all the way back to the tips of her fingers and nibbles down gently.

“You bit me!” She gasps dramatically, to which he just laughs as he gets adjusted in his seat again, shifting attention back to the matter at hand. “Do you bite all your girls like that?”

“What do you mean all my girls?” Kyrie asks, his face twisting up in disapproval.

“You don’t have to lie to me, I know what type of boy you are mister-man,” she quickly replies.

“And what type of boy is that?” He scoffs.

Charmeine watches his agile fingers sprinkling weed in the wrapper, rolling it up with ease. He licks the sides, sealing it up. The joint is wrapped neatly, its size is a little thick but still perfect nonetheless. She’s impressed. She’s never seen such a perfectly rolled blunt, or someone roll it so effortlessly. His rolling skills are like a talent to her.

“You’re the type who doesn’t stay single for long…you hop from girl to girl. I know you have hoes,” Charmeine states in a matter-of-fact tone, her eyes switching from watching the blunt to his face.

“Wow, I don’t like to be perceived,” he says, his voice oddly relaxed. Charmeine can tell that he’s already been smoking, the way his words come out slowly, a mellow tone to every thing he says. “And I’m completely single.”

She hums, doubting him entirely.

“While you’re grilling me, I bet you got a whole roster,” Kyrie jokes.

“Uh-uh,” Charmeine quickly denies, even though what he’s saying is partially true. “I’m a free agent!”

He laughs at her, burning the joint with a lighter. “A free agent, huh?”

She nods proudly.

“So you don’t have a boyfriend, no side hoes—none of that?” He asks.

She shakes her head in refutation. He shows off the exemplary manufactured blunt, rotating it so that Charmeine can get a good look. She nods at him in awe, giving small jocular applause.

“You look too good,” Kyrie replies, holding the blunt to Charmeine lips, to which she obliges, opening her mouth and letting him sit the blunt in her mouth gently. He lights it up for her with his lighter, the warmth from the fire on the other end tickling the bottom half of her face. It’s an oddly comfortable warmth. She takes a pull, longer than usual. She begins to cough, feeling the smoke in her throat and chest, watching it trickle through her nose.

“Lightweight,” he teases with a snort, causing her to shoot a jesterful scowl his way.

After she catches her breath from her coughing fit, she affirms, “I’m single by choice.”

“Oh, really?” The corners of his mouth turned up, amused.

“These…these are little boys,” she says, moving her hands in a circle as she speaks, presumably gesturing to men as a collective.

He takes a long pull of the blunt, eyes narrowing as the smoke seeps leisurely through his nose. “I’m not a little boy.”

“You gotta prove to me that you’re not a little boy,” she quips. “A lot of little boys say they aren’t but they’re little ass boys.”

“That’s not me,” he responds, passing the joint back to her.

“Why do you care so much anyway, ‘you wanna be my man?” She chaffs.

“If you let me,” Kyrie says, catching Charmeine off guard. She pauses for a moment, holding the smoke in her cheeks. He lets the joke hang in the air before laughing at her countenance, “just yanking your chain.”

Charmeine lets the smoke out, coughing softly, a stupefied expression washing over her face, her high settling in quicker than his did.

“Why are you?” She questions.

“Why am I…?”

She laughs at herself. “Why are you single? You asked me, I’m asking you.”

“I didn’t ask, I just said you look too good to be single,” Kyrie clarifies, a chortle slipping through.

“But things happen—I fuck up from time to time.”

“Everybody fucks up from time to time,” she voices.

“Yeah, but I fuck up big time,” Kyrie admits, his sedate voice falling dulcet on her ears. “I don’t wanna fuck up with a girl that’s perfect for me. I could find something totally perfect for me and fuck it up because that’s—that’s what I do.”

Charmeine hums, listening to him speak.

“No amount of fuck-ups can push away your soulmate,” is all the slightly dopey girl says.

“You believe in soulmates?” Kyrie queries.

Charmeine just nods, watching him hit the blunt again. There’s something so alluring about the way he looks when he’s in such a partially dazed and genial state. And she doesn’t know if it’s the effects of the weed on her body but it feels like flowers are blooming in her stomach the longer she sits there with him.

A few puffs and a few roll-ups later, Charmeine found herself in Hayden’s master bathroom, her back pushed up against the countertop. Kyrie’s hands are roaming her body as he lifts her up and sits her on the counter. She wraps her legs around his hips, pulling him closer, his tongue sweeping past her lips with utmost desire. Her hands threaded through his fluffy hair, fingers massaging his scalp.

Passion on impulse wasn’t something that Charmeine was used to. She was accustomed to doing things at the right moment, after a long time, in a maybe-kind-of-sort-of fashion.

Kyrie presses kisses onto her lips that trail to her cheeks and down her jawline to her neck. He pays extra close attention there, sprinkling pecks of affection all over. His teeth tug at the skin, causing her to squirm with a giggle, her grip tightening just the slightest at his hair. He laughs along with her, but his chuckles are buried into the deep of her neck, the vibrations tickling her. It’s like he’s hungry for every piece of her, going all in yet savoring every movement.

His digits find their way to the tie of her orange bathing suit top, working at the material before hands are gently placed on his shoulders. He stops in his tracks, stepping back just slightly to get a clear of her face, picking up on her signal.

“Nuh-Uh,” Charmeine says, her mouth twisting as they stare at each other. “I don’t have sex with guys I just met.”

Kyrie flashes a lopsided smile her way.

“I shouldn’t even have kissed you,” she taunts, tapping on his chest after every word.

“Not even a kiss?” Kyrie asks, astonished.

“Kissing is way more intimate than fucking,” Charmeine reasons. Kyrie looks at her, perplexed at the idea of kissing being more intimate than having sex. He imagined having sex was the most intimate thing you could probably do with a woman. He imagined that a girl would be more mad that you fucked another girl than just kiss another.

“Okay,” he mutters, a little embarrassed at having gotten worked up so quickly. But in his defense, he’s had sex with girls on first meet more times than he’d care to remember. Though that fact doesn’t really help his case much, anyway.

He tightens the knot in her swimsuit, returning it to its original state of security.

“But…” she begins, making Kyrie’s ears perk up. “I’m hungry now.”

“Me too,” he agrees with a woozy chuckle. She returns the same stupefied laugh before putting her hand out for him to take it and help her down. He does just that, guiding her to the wooden floor. “There’s a gas station not too far from here.”

“But how are we going to get there?” Charmeine dizzily asks.

“How the fuck do you think I got here?” Kyrie deadpans. She gazes at him, waiting for an answer. “A car?” He laughs boisterously.

“I was gonna say that,” she playfully punches his arm.

He takes hold of her hand again, leading her through the house and to the front door. They keep venturing through the room and out the door, to where they spot a white Ferrari parked in its respective position. Charmeine doesn’t really like low cars, she likes to ride in big cars where she can look over everyone on the road. It’s not like she could drive either, anyway, considering she doesn’t have her license yet. She’s failed her test around three times now—and counting. Though the exterior isn’t her preference, she’s impressed by how clean its interior is.

She’s surprised that he could even keep it so spotless, the leather seating in perfect condition. The smell matches the mien, replicating Kyrie’s scent.

They get in the car, Kyrie starting it up and checking everything out before he starts driving. He fixes his rear view and lets down the windows of the car slightly, then nodding once everything’s to his liking. His last step is to turn on the radio, connecting his phone to the auxiliary cord and playing his playlist on shuffle. His taste in music is mostly hip-hop with the ever-so-often touch of soft R&B tunes in the mix.

Her eyes go straight to a pack of Backwoods lying in the glove compartment, sticking out partially. Kyrie seems to smoke a lot, is what she would say if she weren’t as high as she was already. Stupidly enough, she picks up the brand new pack and opens it up, pulling out the wrappers as he pulls off.

“You want some more?” He asks, shocked.

“Yeah, why? You can’t handle it?” She joshes.

“Can you?” He responds.

Charmeine ignores his words, only taking them as a challenge. She sits the wrapper in her lap, reaching in his pocket retrieving another bag of weed.

The music is blaring as he drives, rather recklessly might she add. Well, she would’ve added it had she been on her P’s and Q’s. He had to be breaking some kind of speed limit laws with how speedy he was going. His drifts were impressively heedless, whipping and weaving effortlessly. Some turns felt like she was on a rollercoaster, her heart dropping down into her stomach with every careless motion. Aside from the sound of the wind passing them by, his singing along to the songs serves as background noise for her.

She packs the paper, her tongue sticking out, her usual face of concentration. She then loosely rolls it up, weed falling out from the sides. She burns it up with his lighter, accidentally burning the tip of her finger in the process. Once she licks it up and “seals” it, she holds it up in the light.

“Look!” She says, proud.

He briefly looks over to her, examining the blunt before bursting into laughter. “What the fuck is that?”

“A perfectly rolled blunt!”

“That is the ugliest fucking blunt I ever fucking seen,” he ridicules, staring at the thick joint, which is practically waiting to fall apart.

She laughs with him, jokingly slapping his arm. She imprudently smokes the rinky-dink joint, choking on it as the insides fall out all over lap. Charmeine never thought she would be the one littering the interior of a neat Ferrari but here she is, fucking up his seats. She puts it up to his mouth next, watching him take yet another impossibly long pull.

When Kyrie said that the convenience store was “not too far,” his sense of time must’ve been incredibly warped. Charmeine was lost on why a house was so completely out of the way from every suitable average location in California. After nearly thirty minutes, the two arrive outside of the gas station. It probably would’ve taken more time had he been abiding by road laws.

Kyrie reaches into his glove compartment and pulls out two black face masks, handing her one before giving her his hoodie from the backseat of his car. She takes both, both of them putting on the masks and exiting the car.

The store is relatively empty aside from the very few stragglers who presumably stumbled in on a drunken night of partying, hungry for something cheap and fast.

“Go crazy,” he advises, instructing her to pick out the snacks she wants. She doesn’t take much time to get started, either, loading Kyrie’s arms with a variety of ice creams, chips, cookies, and candy bars.

Eventually, after watching her run around the star like a kid in a candy store, eyes wide with awe, hearts practically living in them, they approach the guy at the register. Kyrie pays for all of the snacks, something that Charmeine takes note of.

They return to the car, unloading the snacks and digging in. The car is filled with chewing and collective agreements on how ridiculously good the junk food they’re consuming tastes through hums and nods. That is, until their moment is ruined when Charmeine’s phone rings.

She lets it ring for a few moments before finally picking it up and reading the contact name: Yoona. Her eyes then wander to the top corner of the phone, noticing the time which read a shocking 3:45AM. She covers her mouth with a gasp, “did you know it’s almost 4AM?”

“Wow, really?” He asks, just as shocked as she is, completely having lost track of time.

She accepts the call, Yoona’s face appearing in the corner.

“Charmeine, where the hell are you?” Yoona queries.

“I’m just…getting food,” she answers, rather unnecessarily suspicious.

“It’s 3 in the fucking morning, I don’t want you out that late! Do you know what happens to girls at that time of night?” She grills. Yoona’s always on a tangent about what happens to girls in the dark hours. She sends the girls articles about missing girls, often followed by the phrase: “See what I told you?” She’s always been the worrywart, constantly worried for their safety. They love her for it, but it makes them never tell her when they’re going out because then it’ll start. They say it kind of kills the fun of living but they know she only does it because she cares.

“Who are you with?” Yoona asks.

“I’m with Kyrie,” Charmeine tells.

“Kylie? Who the fuck is Kylie?” She panics.

Charmeine and Kyrie both burst into laughter, listening to the older girl. “No, I said—” before she can correct her, she’s interrupted by a rumbling Yoona.

“I don’t care, just tell Kylie to bring you home!” She splutters before hanging up.

The two of them look at each other, faces looking like they just bit into a sour lemon as they try to stifle their laughter but fail miserably, tears leaguing in their eyes.

“Okay, let’s get you home before she beats my ass,” Kyrie says, starting up the car. “Where are you staying?”

Charmeine ponders for a moment, trying to recollect her thoughts before plainly shrugging. “You don’t know where you’re staying?”

“No…I can’t remember,” she responds innocently.

“Damn,” he says under his breath. “It’s either you stay at my place or you ask her.”

“I wanna come with you,” she whines. It instantly brings a smile to his face. He looks at her as she lies back in the seat, her eyes low and her high obviously coming down just a bit after the hours passing. She looks like she could use some sleep, but to him she’s cute when she’s tired.

“I know, but I don’t want her to be worried. I want you to come with me too,” Kyrie says softly.

She sighs in defeat, “fine.”

Charmeine sits up, her fingers taking to massage her temples, her unoccupied hand tapping through her phone. She clicks on Yoona’s contact, checking her location. She holds up the phone to Kyrie’s face, showing him what hotel they’re staying at.

He squints reading it before nodding and pulling out of the driveway.

Once they finally arrive outside of the hotel, he walks her to her room—which she hadn’t fully remembered the number of, so they spent a few moments trying her keycard on doors starting with 31 until they found the right one.

“You know I never got your number, right?” Kyrie notes, whipping out his phone.

“Oh, right,” Charmeine remembers, putting her number in and saving the contact. “I had fun with you tonight.”

Kyrie beams at that, unable to control his wide grin. “Me too. You’re a cool girl.”

“So I’ve been told,” she quips, he laughs. Something they’ve grown accustomed to tonight.

“Goodnight,” he leans down and plants a gentle kiss on her cheek.

“Goodnight, Kyrie.”

[oldbaton]

Gah I wanna go to London. Maybe I could make next winter work to see Rami Malek in Oedipus? I wouldn’t be able to make this summer work for Dolly and frankly based on the interviews with Sam Cooke… it feels like he hates the show lol. And Imelda is wrong maybe I would go in the fall if like. They got a replacement. It’s a shame that Elaine is out of the running. I can understand how to many she would be the most basic choice… but she is underratedly funny, has a very good understanding of americana (and Dolly is VERY much Americana), and has the star power. Oh well.

I just know that when I go to London I only want to see one show or MAYBE 2. I wanna go to the rock/punk scene! I wanna walk around! I know other gays I wanna [redacted]! Sometimes I see people who work in theatre go to London and they see 5 shows and like while obviously theatre is different everywhere… you live in nyc where you see theatre constantly. Do you know how HARD Europe is to get to from North America?! And if you didn’t live in a North American theatre capital like nyc or maybe Chicago that would make more sense to me. But if you live in a place where there’s more theatre happening than you can take. Why would you spend all your time in Europe doing what you do here?? Girl I got shit to do.

[calmingpi]

Seffie is an underratedly funny character to me because she flip flops between pretending to be good and pretending to be evil and shes both acknowledged as nice and also suspicious by the party but also literally no one has a problem with her at all

[lycan-subscribe]

mike dirnt is such an underratedly good bassist. his rhythm is immaculate but he also comes through with such strong solid melodies. hes everything a bassist should be

[sinceileftyoublog]

St. Lenox Interview: Good Waterpark Design

Photo by Aaron Cansler

BY JORDAN MAINZER

You may think you have very little in common with a PhD holder and lawyer who also happens to be a brilliant singer-songwriter. But Andrew Choi, who records as St. Lenox, continues to cull from his experiences, whether they've happened to him or others, to tell tales that transcend background, let alone educational level or salary. His studio albums have followed the same format: ten songs centering around a theme, often presented as a gift to others, sometimes as a gift to himself. They've covered Choi's own experiences with life and love, his father's immigration to the United States, and our collective existence during periods of political upheaval. And though his latest, Ten Modern American Work Songs, out today via Don Giovanni and Anyway, technically strays from the pattern (it has an introductory track for a total of 11), it sports everything you love about a St. Lenox record, from Choi's powerhouse vocals and diaristic lyrics to underratedly complex arrangements of chintzy chamber pop and hearty indie rock.

Written as a (facetiously non-financial) 10-year reunion contribution to the NYU Law Class of 2014, Ten Modern American Work Songs is notably filled with regret, the songs' protagonists often struggling to reconcile their current status symbols with the familial warmth they've left behind. But it also imbues a universal hope, for things as tangible as fairer wages and better work-life balance and as abstract as gaining or maintaining happiness. "Victory!" shouts Choi on "Courtesan", the album's first proper song after its introductory vignette. "After seven years of agony, I get to be a courtesan this year." Atop a swirling synth arpeggio and steady, marching drums, the anthemic chorus is both a shout of moral panic and a weight lifted off of the protagonist's shoulders: He can finally make some money. The tone is sarcastic on "Lust for Life", rife with organ, harmonic synths, and toy-like mallet percussion; though the protagonist is happy that he's going to be part of unionization efforts, he recognizes the fact that his job is thankless, that "Everyone comes running back to us when the hour is dire or they are near death."

A lesser songwriter would make songs about labor sung from the perspective of someone making good money, even if they are paying off debt, sound cynical, especially given increasing wealth inequality. Though Choi is careful to separate his voice from that of the protagonists, it's clear his lived experience contributes to the album's realness. It's why a song like "Rudy" works, about a classmate who prioritized family life over the corporate ladder; the protagonist calls himself, in contrast, a "big city, fast-talking asshole" and a "weeknight twilight pissant." You know, at the same time, that there's part of Rudy who wishes he, too, was a "weekend corporation peon." On album closer "On Fulfillment", the narrator commiserates with a fellow lawyer at the wedding of a mutual friend. Equal to their sense of, "What could have been?" is a hilarious recognition of their own economic privilege." "Jet-setting off to Venice or at the high-society gala," Choi sings, "It seems they always waste these things on us mere middle-aged attorneys."

My favorite songs on Ten Modern American Work Songs, or at least the ones that best showcase Choi as not just a songwriter or lyricist but scene-builder, are those that take place in seemingly mundane locations. Sure, you might find touching and relatable, lines about the protagonist's dad teaching him how to drywall and lay tile, and him nevertheless abandoning a house in Columbus for the least bang for his buck in NYC. But a song like "New York Speaks Softly at Night", with its layered organ and keys, provides even more gut punches, the narrator taking the subway, looking at people around himself and perceiving their lives, even a "wet orange cat in the pouring rain." "It looked at me like I could be its midnight savior / Hard luck Garfield got the Mondays yet again," Choi sings, the most MJ Lenderman line on a non-MJ Lenderman record this year. “Quasi-Nichomachean Ethics (Drunk Uncle Advice)” sees someone giving advice to his 21-year-old nephew, a mix of words earnest, empathetic, pragmatic, and snarky. "Don't underestimate the tendency of humans to keep on disappointing you at every waking opportunity," Choi sings. If at first, it sounds harsh, the more you listen to it, you wish someone would have told you the same thing when you were young. And "Kalahari" takes place at a waterpark in Sandusky, OH, the narrator beholden to the exact speed of the lazy river, the perfect place for existential pondering. "Forget vacationing down in Mexico, where all the ex-pats hate the tourists like you," Choi sings, peeling back layers of American obnoxiousness while expressing a genuine love for a "not real authentic" park.

As if the density of Ten Modern American Work Songs, the album, wasn't enough, St. Lenox has also released videos for all of the album's singles, titled differently than the songs themselves. He and his husband Elon star in each of them, but as with the album, he refers to the characters in the video as distinct from himself. In the video for "Rudy", titled "How to Get a Table at Tatiana", the main character's unable to get a reservation at the acclaimed NYC Afro-Caribbean restaurant of the same name, so he works on his own cooking skills instead. In the video for “Quasi-Nichomachean Ethics (Drunk Uncle Advice)", titled “Introduction to Modern Philosophy”, the narrator tells us about the death of a mentor of his before he has to give his nephew advice, Choi inverting the plot of the song. The video for "Your Local Neighborhood Bar", titled "Open Mic: The Egalitarian Institution", is the protagonist's tribute to past post-work performances, where everyone was on the same playing field. The video for "Lust for Life", titled, "What Do We Do with the Roses in our Garden", sees the protagonist and his husband weighing their new life in suburbia, having recently purchased a home, decorating it with their items and taking care of what existed there before them. The one first person exception is the video for "Courtesan"; entitled "The JD Vance Couch", it's the true story of how the couch that Choi and his husband are sitting on in the video, as they wave at their infant daughter, was given to him by a law school classmate who was roommates with the Republican nominee for Vice President. Potential jokes aside, in the video, Choi laments Vance's idea that leaders must have direct stakes in the future (their own children), considering that Vance may have been in an ethics class, taught by Choi himself, at The Ohio State University.

Though it may be challenging for the average listener to connect all the dots, thankfully, Choi was willing to answer some questions over email about the world of Ten Modern American Work Songs. Below, read his responses, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: In your track-by-track breakdown of the album, you refer to the song's narrators as "the protagonist," who often lead a life similar to yours. How autobiographical is the album?

Andrew Choi: Fairly autobiographical, but from time to time, songs evolve on their own. Sometimes, the stories of people that I know make their way in, or sometimes, I'll change a few details for the sake of anonymity. "Rudy", for instance, isn't exactly my story. There are some details of my life that are in there--I did forget my mom's birthday one year, and I felt awful about it. But I don't have a friend in Missouri named Rudy. (I do have a friend named Rudy, but the song isn't about him, it's just that the name works for the song). In "Rudy", the protagonist has mixed feelings of contempt and envy for an acquaintance who has prioritized things in life somewhat differently, and I think that is definitely something I can identify with.

In "On Fulfillment", it's based initially on a real event, of law school classmates meeting up many years later at the wedding of another classmate, and some of the song is about me, but some of it is stories I hear from other people. Most of the rest of the record is more completely autobiographical, but I'm sure there's some artistic license taken throughout.

I refer to the song's narrators as "the protagonist" partly as a defense mechanism, because a lot of American listeners will see me as an Asian-American musician and have an instinct to view this as music about "other" people. But these are stories about work life that I think of as more broadly applying to young Gen-X and elder Millennials, about education and social mobility, that I know my friends talk about a lot. People have a very strong tendency to identify with people who look like them, and it affects their ability to interpret what they're seeing or hearing, whose side they take in an argument, or how they relate to one another. So I provide that as, perhaps, guidance or emphasis on the way to approach the record as a listener--that they see the narrator as the protagonist, because in America, you have to kind of correct or guide those tendencies up front. As someone who gets "othered" constantly in the music industry, in person and in print, its a constant struggle to adjust that tendency and have especially white Americans think, "I can identify with him."

SILY: At times, it seems like the songs on this album have a difference in tone between their sound and subject, or even between themselves and their respective music videos. Was achieving a certain level of contrast important to you?

AC: Regarding the music videos, I think if you spell out what the subject matters of the song and the videos are, you'll find that they talk about the same things, though I admit that processing the music videos takes some time to work through, because I have multiple narratives happening simultaneously. Perhaps the video will provide a different take on an idea from the song, but even, then it is advancing the subject matter in a way that makes the pairing meaningful.

For instance, in "Rudy", the protagonist is living a more ambitious life and has regrets over whether he should be doing some of the more domestic things that his friend is doing. In the music video, the protagonist has moved out of the city and now lives in New Jersey, where he complains about not being able to do some of the high social status things he could have done if he still lived in the city. These are different but related perspectives on ambition and social status or FOMO; the protagonists have FOMO but desire (almost) the exact opposite of what the other does. And looking at the issue from multiple perspectives is meaningful.

In "Quasi-Nichomachean Ethics" the protagonist is giving advice to his nephew, much of which is somewhat half-assed and not very philosophical. The protagonist in the video is the same protagonist, but talks in a more philosophical way about advice itself, reflecting on the philosophical tradition of passing along wisdom, and (perhaps) arguing about how relevant the practice of philosophy is to life in general. The subject matter of the music and video are pretty complementary, because they both talk about advice but from different perspectives. And while I'm inclined to think the song gives less important advice because it's less "philosophical," I also think its the advice I would tend to give a young person, because it's very practical.

I don't think contrast is important in and of itself. Between the music and subject matter of the songs, I use the music mainly to set the emotional perspective of the protagonist, as context for interpreting what's happening in the lyrics. If the music seems contradictory, it may reflect a more nuanced attitude of the protagonist. I could have written "Courtesan" with music that provided a more sneering and cynical take on law school, but I didn't because I want the listener to look at it from the protagonist's eyes. It should sound more hopeful, because that is how the protagonist feels. Despite future uncertainty, he's gained social mobility and his experience is a mixture of hope, excitement and a bit of fear. I would say in general, if the music sounds unexpected, it's providing a direct emotional cue to interpreting how the protagonist views the subject matter, maybe 100% of the time, in my songs.

SILY: Why did you decide to (technically) break the 10-song pattern of your albums with a prologue track 0?

AC: The track 0 was originally going to be a longer song, but the first pass, I think, presented the idea completely on its own and, I think, set the stage for the record, so I didn't need to write a full 3 passes. Sure, in some sense, it's a song. But for me, the songs that I put down will generally have a more complete narrative structure. Track 0 doesn't (in my opinion) have that. It more sets the tone for ingesting the rest of the record, because it prompts the listener to think generally about the value of work. If anything, it's like that ditty before Joan Osborne's "One of Us": not a full song in and of itself, but it provides an emotional context for the full song, whereas my ditty provides as a context for the record as a whole. (Also for modern practical purposes, I would want to present "Courtesan" on its own without including "Eulogy", so combining them into a single track wouldn't work out very well.)

SILY: I love how "Kalahari" toys with ideas of authenticity when it comes to tourism, often in a tongue-in-cheek way. As someone who has spent years in both the Midwest and the East Coast, do you ever feel uniquely positioned to comment on how we perceive parts of the country different from ours, even if you're still poking fun at yourself when commenting?

AC: I think, maybe, it makes me twice as frustrated to see things get lost in translation both directions? A few months ago, I visited this restaurant in my home town in Iowa, which is where I went with friends for our high school senior prom. It was known in high school as the best restaurant in town, and served elegant French food, including escargot, which we tried for the first time as young naïve high schoolers. Many years later, the restaurant had reverted to something like a mixture of a TGIFridays and a pan-European cafeteria, which was a very jarring, memory-destroying experience. I actually looked the restaurant up the other day, and saw that many years before I had even gone there in high school, it was written up in the New York Times as a restaurant with a hopeful chef trying to bring old school French cuisine (like you might find in New York City) to the Midwest. It's such a depressing story, and yet, I was able to get dinner there for myself, my husband, and my parents all for less than $100. Anyway, I don't think you're going to get that perspective without living in the Midwest and living on the coast for some time, but it puts you in a funk just having that perspective. So, I guess the answer is, "Yes?"

SILY: Do you often find places like waterparks--that can be rife with loads of loud people and music--conducive to self-reflection?

AC: It depends what you're looking at. Have you ever been to the lazy river? "Kalahari" was intended to connect to aspects of the lazy river. The electronica element is the bubbles floating up to the surface, and the slow metronome tempo, the constant speed of the lazy river. It's where all the parents and depressed adults go to avoid the high energy of the rides. In the lyrics, I situated the protagonist there at the beginning (and end) of the song. You're sitting in the lazy river, with the water pushing you along in a dream state, and you watch people from every stage of human life pass by you by. It's very existential. That's not even me being artistic or especially insightful, that's just good waterpark design.

SILY: "New York Speaks Softly At Night" describes someone recalling the various people and things they saw while riding the subway. As a writer, do you find shared spaces, like public transportation or airports, inspirational?

AC: I think shared public spaces are places where you are forced to be in acquaintance with people and stories that you might not otherwise choose yourself. I'm not saying that public transportation doesn't have predictable patterns, but I think, these days, it's a nice counterpoint to social media, where people either manicure their interactions or have their interactions manicured by the algorithm to the point that they lose perspective. But in this song, I was just pointing out maybe an unexpected positive aspect of working late at night, is that it puts you in touch with different characters and stories you might not expect.

SILY: Is your violin on "Quasi-Nichomachean Ethics (Drunk Uncle Advice)" meant to sound overbearing, or at least in-your-face, like a reflection of the narrator giving advice?

AC: It is a reflection of the narrator, in the sense of being a kind of drunken happy revelry? I think it may sound overbearing, but I think in modern times, that's partly because we interpret stringed instruments as passive, chord-blocking orchestral filler. If you're a concert violinist, you will know that the violin in particular is one of the instruments that best mimics the human voice. It's a soloist instrument and deserves to be utilized in solos in the way that rock bands use the guitar, only it does a better job of mimicking the human voice than the guitar for a variety of physical and technical reasons. It's heavily under-utilized, because pop music writers keep relegating it to chord filler or mood-setting background music. I think, in many cases, it's not even mic'd in such a way that captures its full expressive range. And I don't say this as someone who was merely "classically trained." I won national and international competitions for the violin as a soloist, back in the day. Pop and rock musicians don't understand the virtuosic potential of stringed instruments. At all.

SILY: Are you at all involved in any music industry labor efforts like United Musicians and Allied Workers?

AC: I'm not involved with the UMAW, though I'm broadly friendly to what I see as many of their goals. There are unions like the American Federation of Musicians whose goals I also broadly support.

What I do spend a fair bit of my free time on is trying to remedy what I see as socioeconomic inequality in the music industry. Many independent musicians don't have a grasp of the financial and institutional barriers to success as indie musicians, and they don't understand the extent to which "successful" indie bands are financed by large amounts of family money. My musician friends who are, for the most part, middle-class at best, simply don't have that kind of money, and if we were ever to put the screws to every band that gets a writeup or review in any major outlet and see how things were financed, you would end up with a population that looks a lot more like Princeton University or NYU Law School. Musicians who have less means need to be educated on that, so that they can plan accordingly. And look, I definitely support musicians trying to do things like increase streaming royalty rates (which the UMAW champions). But a musician friend that has a stellar but overlooked record is not going to get much from doubling the streaming royalties on his 500 streams last year. He would have gotten more from understanding ahead of time how to best allocate his limited savings on his record release, given inequalities in the system.

SILY: Are you planning on performing these songs live?

AC: If I can find a place that works for me. We moved to New Jersey somewhat recently, and its hard to book a show after you've moved, because nobody knows who you are, and who would you even invite? I have a kid now, too, so do I even have the time for that? I go to open-mic fairly regularly. In fact, I workshopped most of the songs on this record at an open-mic in Hoboken called Finnegan's Pub, and an open-mic in Cliffside Park, called Brass Rail Pub 2. I think music listeners should go to things like open mic more often. If rumors are correct, people actually used to do that more often in, like, the 1960s. You get to see the writing process up close and personal and see how a song develops over time. I have friends in comedy that invite me out to perform, so I'm sure I'll hit up some variety shows in the future.

SILY: Is there anything you've been listening to, watching, or reading lately that's caught your attention?

AC: I occasionally participate in Paul F. Tompkins' Varietopia, and if it comes to your town, I suggest you visit. It's just a really interesting mix of music and comedy--you never know who is going to perform, which is really the best way to ingest music and comedy. I ran into a comedian there, Hannah Pilkes, who was just so hilarious and intense with her characters, and I'm excited to see more.

I ran into a comedian, Dave Hill, through Cabinet of Wonders, put on by Wesley Stace, a few years ago, and then later at a radio show Come To Papa, put on by Tom Papa, and he has such a new sense of humor, and is a genuine guy himself. I am trying to get out of the house and catch his show "Caveman in a Spaceship" in the near future.

Joe Peppercorn (who is featured in the song "Your Local Neighborhood Bar") from Columbus has been putting out some really interesting records. Not a lot of people are that skilled at both songwriting and production/orchestration. He's a complete package in that sense, which you'll get a sense of by listening to his latest, Darkening Stars.

Mary Lynn, also out of Columbus, released a record a few years ago, Where I Wanna Be, which I was just very impressed by. It's a peak example of a record that I thought deserved much more exposure, but did not receive it, because of those financial/institutional barriers I mentioned.

Niall Connolly's last two records, The Patience of Trees and Dream Your Way Out of This One, are great. He has been organizing a great singer-songwriter community in NYC called Big City Folk for a long time and has been instrumental in keeping a sense of community alive amongst songwriters in the city.

I happened to hear a record last year, Ryan Wong's The New Country Sounds of Ryan Wong, which I found to be striking and fresh. He's just someone really mixing up country music in a way that doesn't feel forced or overthought.

Micah Schnabel has such a big body of work, I wouldn't know where one would start, but I found his latest, The Clown Watches The Clock, to be thought-provoking and topical, in a meaningful way.

[zoeology31]

Holy shit, what an all-time World Series game.

Seager and Garcia. They are inevitable.

Man I hope this goes 6 or 7, such an underratedly good matchup, plus the World Series vibes just heighten everything.

[goshdangronpa]

This is super old and has been in my drafts for who knows how long, but let's break these down one by one

Teruteru: Well, this would definitely be a change of pace for DR's rather sexless protags (we love to hc Hajime as irresistible and Kaede as ladykiller, but based on in-game portrayals alone, these guys ain't fuckin). Imagine that each time he likes someone, that person immediately dies, like THH Ch. 1 repeated across an entire game, until he likes someone who turns out to be the killer? Also imagine his reaction to Giant Junko. Okay, I've talked myself into supporting this just for the funny

Mahiru: Did you know she was originally considered for the protagonist role? I guess a lot of you did, or yall just really like her, and/or yall have read Danganronpa MK2. I'm not personally convinced that she'd be all that interesting a change, seeing that she plays just as much of a "serious person surrounded by kooks" role as Hajime. That said, she's much more of a take-charge type, which could take the story into intriguing new places.

Peko: Underratedly spicy. For one, she actually has someone from her own life to protect, upping the stakes of the killing game. For another, her obsessive protectiveness lends itself naturally to a leading role in investigations and trials ... and a lot of angst over each new death. Plus, shit like the Shining Justice gambit show that she's creative in a pinch and terribly persuasive. She could commit to something crazy like that in every trial. Like Kokichi if he wasn't an asshole. Whoa, did I really just compare those two?

Ibuki: I think it's a great idea!

Hiyoko: Honestly, who is better suited for a coming-of-age narrative than Hiyoko Saionji? She hasn't even had her growth spurt yet. There are good reasons why quite a few fans think she should've survived. Starting off as a far less friendly protag than Makoto, she could gradually grow into the hero they all need. As for trials, she may make up for her lacking investigative brains with her sheer intolerance for bullshit (what horrible things would she say instead of "No, that's wrong!" ...). Plus, imagine her in the last trial, coming back from the brink of despair, memories regained, WITH HER GROWTH SPURT. The symbolism!!

Mikan: It's funny: besides Hajime, the real hero of the first trial is arguably Mikan. Her testimony as the medical expert saves everyone from falsely voting Nagito, and Teruteru's inability to recall her indecent tumble seals the killer's fate. With Hajime dead, she could easily emerge as the go-to girl for solving murder mysteries. That said, it's hard to believe the Ultimate Nurse would go through the Despair Disease crisis without getting infected as well ... but what if she IS, and someone else commits murder before she can, and we spend the rest of SDR2 with a protag in Junko's thrall? Mikan might be the next-best MC for illustrating the story's theme of finding hope even in despair's greatest worshippers.

Nekomaru: The first chad protag AND the first IBS protag? Representation! But really: Nekomaru's a smarter guy than he lets on, he knows people well, he cares deeply about everyone in his group, and he would sacrifice himself to save them all - a killer combo for a DR main character. Plus, the dude's all about supporting other people from the bench. It might be nice for him to get the spotlight for a change.

Gundham: Well, he already thinks he's the main character of the universe ... I complain sometimes that when creators have more fun with a side character than the main character, they should just make that side character the main character. That said, and as much as I love the guy, it may be better to get Gundham's giant personality in trickles than through a fire hose, you know? He's a fun dude, but maybe only in moderation.

Fuyuhiko: The survivors have an advantage over the victims in this thought exercise just from having a complete character arc. Of course, there's a whole lotta game before that, and you barely see Fuyuhiko in Chapter 1. Hey, wouldn't it be fun if you play as him, don't even get the option to do FTEs, miss the party altogether, then become the lead investigator when things go murdery? You'd have to piece everything together without having even been present. There's potential in this Protag Fuyuhiko concept.

Sonia: It must be said: a Westerner going to Japan and becoming the leader and hero of her group may be, perhaps could only be, white savior-y. Humble origins are also important for making DR protags relatable, so her royal status would clash with that, too. Those are my only objections, really - Sonia's smart, tough, caring, a true leader, more fun than some would credit, just a good darn character - but they're big. This isn't an attack on the voters who drove her to 3rd place (!), just something worth considering ...

Akane: Fun fact: early in development, she was supposed to be the rival for Hajime, her reliance on gut feeling rubbing against his deductive reasoning. She's literally designed to be the opposite of a DR protag: quick to act on emotion, reckless and combative, not the brightest candle in the menorah. That may make her the coolest and most interesting choice in the whole bunch! I love the idea of Akane as Junko's nemesis, an analytical genius ultimately losing to a girl who knows it's better to be kind than smart.

Kazuichi: He was happy for once. Scared of girls, scared of his dad, scared of the world ... and now he's on an island resort with a bunch of hotties his age! I'm greatly amused by the idea that he'd fight not for hope or the world or anything grand but for his chance to enjoy a sweet vacation. It'd prove futile soon enough as he learns to be scared of his friends, then himself ... which would make it all the more beautiful if he, the cowardly creep, can find it in himself to become the Ultimate Hope. Just saying, don't dismiss his potential as an interesting protag just because you find him a little cringe!