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omegaremix · 5 months ago

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Record Store Victory Tour 2022.

They say that once in a while you should treat yourself. It’s not often I do. After nine months of stay-at-home recovery, I promised myself that, when I was in a better place emotionally and monetarily, I would. So I had a wild idea. I decided to do something for myself I’ve never done before: an island-wide ‘record-store victory tour’. It consisted of hitting up each and every music store I could and buy as many vinyl records, cassettes, and CDs I could.

It started when I received my third paycheck of the month, my tax refund, a monthly store bonus, and our company giving us full-timers an extra $1,000 from national tax breaks and major donations. It was 2018 and the timing was right. I was in a much better place than I was 10 years before and for the first time in a long time I was feeling great.

It was intense and exhausting, but I loved it. It felt great getting back into doing what I loved doing the most; visiting a record store and spending as much as I wanted to on anything and everything I was a fan of or read about. I chased the excitement of finding artists, albums, and sounds I always meant to take home with me and get the most bang for the buck as possible. It became one of the largest excesses of individualism I’ve ever done for myself and I was all the happy for it. In the end, I spent no more than $1,500.00 on 280+ titles across eleven stores. I had fun doing it, and I told myself that if I could, I’d do it again.

It’s now 2022, and a new record-store tour was way overdue.

I missed the days where I’d get lost in the hunt and have the outside world fall behind me if only for a few hours. I never forgot the fascination of discovering those gems I waited years for and feeling surprised in finding the unexpected. In fact, those feelings never left me. I’m the same way now as I was then. I neglected myself for so long that I had to come back. And I did.

I’d return to all the stops I made last year. Gone are the ones who receded to online selling, and good riddance to the over-priced locations who’d scam anyone for three to four times the price. They would never get my attention from me. I even added a few new locations and then some. From the east end of Long Island to (now) some of Brooklyn and Manhattan’s most appealing stores, this year’s tour would be more extensive than the last - and the most expensive.

I knew I was better off financially than I was four years ago. I had way more in the bank than expected so I knew I could spend and feel guilt-free without the consequences or buyer’s remorse. You cannot even begin to imagine how much I laid out. Chances are it’s more than you ever want to.

And with money comes things I’d ultimately learn about this -tour. I no longer buy blindly and have Discogs at my hip. I’d discover specific albums and remembered searching through certain sections that changed the course of the visit. I’d revisit my Atari / Nintendo childhood via 7” and 12”s and also my alternative days when I told myself all the artists and albums I’ve once dismissed were actually OK. I even quit and cashed it in when I wasn’t feeling a store’s selection. Conversely, I’d go all-in and spend on genres and artists I felt I missed out on, plus insisting on giving my dealers a little extra for free records to keep them in business. That is what you call appreciation.

I’d tell myself to be patient and take all the time in the world for what I loved doing: staying in touch with myself. I’d build up my identity, to score style points, and separate myself from all the other vanilla people around me who “been there, done that”. Each and every record, tape, and disc I’d buy would be a beacon for me to shine on those who want to relate. They would all be ammunition for future playlists, broadcasts, and back-and-forth discussions on who-knows-what and what they don’t know.

In the end, I felt complete. I bought everything I wanted and did it all with no regrets. It’s the ultimate in self-care and the biggest favor I’ve ever done for myself.

Would I do this again? There’s always a shooting star’s possibility. I got it out of my system and things like these take a few years before I have a renewed urge to go for it. For now, there’s lots of titles I know I’ll never find in stores that I’ll find online. Should you ever have the chance to go all out and do a victory tour, do it. Do something guilt-free and with no regrets. Build yourself up, cross boundaries, take chances, and experience something that will stay with you forever. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

Needle & Groove:

Deodato: Artistry LP

Hank Crawford: We Got A Good Thing Going LP

Ronnie Laws: Friends And Strangers LP

Ron Carter: Blues Farm LP

Grandmaster Flash: “Flash To The Beat” 12”

Melle Mel & Duke Booty: “Message II (Survival)” 12”

Solitair ft. Choclair & Cardinal Offishall: “No Doubt” b/w “S.O.T.” 12”

Nu Shooz: “Point Of No Return” 12”

Techno Animal ft. El-P & Vast Aire: “We Can Build You” 12”

Frankie Goes To Hollywood: “Relax” 7”

System, The: “Don’t Desert This Groove” 7”

Academy Records (Manhattan):

Kool Moe Dee: “Death Blow” 12”

Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich: “Kick The Bobo” 12”

Professor Griff & The Last Asiatic Disciples: “Pawns In The Game” 12”

Kool Moe Dee: “They Want Money” 12”

Queen Latifah: “Ladies First” 12”

Public Enemy: “Give It Up” 12”

Kool Moe Dee: “Wild Wild West” 12”

Heavy D. & The Boys ft. various artists: “Don’t Curse” 12”

Spoonie Gee: Godfather Of Rap LP

Original Concept: Straight From The Basement Of Cooley High LP

The Men: Devil Music LP

Stepdad SS: Mad About It LP

Vaaska: Ruido Hasta La Muerte LP

Institute: Re-Adjusting The Locks LP

Test Dept.: Compulsion (Machine Run) LP

Boy Harsher: Country Girl (Uncut) LP

Hubert Laws: Then There Was Light LP

Hank Crawford: Tico Rico LP

Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes: Dancing In The Sun LP

Glam: self-titled 7”

Perdition: self-titled 7”

Soaker: self-titled 7”

Strutter: self-titled 7”

Hombrinus Dudes: self-titled 7”

Deformed Conscience: self-titled 7”

25 Rifles: History Of Flags 7”

Funeral Shock: Paint Thinner 7”

Vagra: Refuse 7”

River City Tanlines: “The Devil Made me Do It” b/w “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” 7”

Shizuo: “Sweat” b/w “Stop It” 7”

Code-13 b/w DS-13 split 7”

Billy Ocean: “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” 7”

Stacey Q: “Two Of Hearts” 7”

Miami Sound Machine: “Bad Boy” 7”

Cameo: “Word Up” 7”

Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz: “Deja Vu” CS

Who’s The Man: motion picture soundtrack CS

Ata Kak: Obaa Sima CS

Captured Tracks:

Jon Lucien: Premonition LP

Ron Carter: Peg Leg LP

Ramsey Lewis: Love Notes LP

Hubert Laws & Earl Klugh: How To Beat The High Cost Of Living LP

Weather Report: Tale Spinnin’ LP

Olympic Runners: Don’t Let Up LP

Bootsy’s Rubber Band: Stretchin’ It Out In… LP

Jeff Lorber Fusion, The: self-titled LP

Blackbyrds: Unfinished Business LP

Herbie Mann: Sunbelt LP

Hank Crawford: Cajun Sunrise LP

Kool Moe Dee: Knowledge Is King LP

Blank Stare: self-titled LP

Police, The: “Every Breath You Take” 7”

Simple Minds: “Don’t You Forget About Me” 7”

Bangles, The: “In Your Room” 7”

Thompson Twins: “Hold Me Now” 7”

Janet Jackson: “Let’s Wait A While” 7”

Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes” b/w “Miss You Tonight” 7”

Alan Vega: Mutator CD

Marissa Nadler: The Path Of The Clouds CD

Record Stop:

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Now I Got Worry

Keelhaul: Subject To Change Without Notice

Outrage: Disharmony Brings Harmony

Lost Highway motion picture soundtrack

Candlebox: Lucy

Heavens To Betsy: Calculated

Lou Reed: The Blue Mask

Type O Negative: Life Is Killing Me

Judgment Night motion picture soundtrack

Stabbing Westward: Darkest Days

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories: Tails

Goo Goo Dolls: A Boy Named Goo

Candlebox: self-titled

Collective Soul: self-titled (clear yellow case)

Mad Season: Above

Sponge: Wax Ecstatic

Collective Soul: Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid

Stabbing Westward: Ungod

Stuttering John: self-titled

Lou Reed: Transformer

Wattstax: The Living World

Beat Street Volume 2

Paul Simon: One-Trick Pony

Expose: Exposure

George Benson: The George Benson Collection Volume Two

Richard Marx: self-titled

Cheapo's (Commack):

Crusaders, The: Southern Comfort

Earl Klugh: Dream Come True

George Benson: Bad Benson

Brecker Bros., The: Straphangin’

Hubert Laws: The San Francisco Concert

Crusaders, The: Images

Richard Tee: Strokin’

Chuck Mangione: Feels So Good

Sonny Fortune: Infinity Is

George Benson: In Flight

Earl Klugh: Heart String

Hank Crawford: Don’t You Worry About A Thing

Tom Scott & The L.A. Express: Tom Cat

Crusaders, The: The Best Of The…

Ralph MacDonald: Counterpoint

Force M.D.’s, The: “Itchin’ For A Scratch”

Brecker Bros., The: self-titled

West Street Mob: “Let’s Dance (Make Your Body Move)” b/w “Monster Jam” (ins.)

Earl Klugh: Finger Paintings

Crusaders, The: Those Southern Nights

Sonny Fortune: Awakening

Depeche Mode: Black Celebration

Pig Destroyer: The Octagonal Stairway

Velvet Underground, The & Nico: self-titled

Rollins Band: Nice

Matthew Sweet: Altered Beast

Death: For The Whole World To See

Crowbar: Symmetry In Black

Cure, The: Disintegration

Menace II Society: original motion picture soundtrack

Run DMC: Greatest Hits

Queen Latifah: Nature Of A Sista’

X-Clan: Xodus

Gin Blossoms: New Miserable Experience

Matthew Sweet: 100% Fun

Indecision: To Live And Die In New York City

Rollins Band: Weight

Big Daddy Kane: Looks Like A Job For…

Pig Destroyer: Phantom Limb

Sisters Of Mercy: A Slight Case Of Overbombing

Sonic Youth: “Bull In The Heather”

Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy: Hypocricy Is The Greatest Luxury

Porno For Pyros: self-titled

Ice-T: “Ricochet”

KRS-One: self-titled

Eric B. & Rakim: Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em

Boogiemonsters: Riders Of The Storm: The Underwater Album

Vision Of Disorder: The Cursed Remain Cursed

Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend

Fugazi: Repeater + 3 Songs

Grandmaster Flash & Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five: Greatest Hits

Das EFX: Straight Up Sewaside

Jane’s Addiction: Ritual De Lo Habitual (censored)

Sponge: Rotting Pinata

Lost Boyz: Legal Drug Money

Dead Kennedys: Bedtime For Democracy

Rollins Band: Get Some Go Again

Pig Destroyer: Head Cage

Cure, The: Wish

Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell

New Jack City: original motion picture soundtrack

Ice-T: O.G. Original Gangster

EPMD: Business As Usual

Velvet Underground, The: White Light, White Heat

Depeche Mode: A Broken Frame

Higher Learning: original motion picture soundtrack

Pig Destroyer: Book Burner

Looney Tunes:

Halsey: If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power

My Bloody Valentine: MBV

Full Of Hell: Garden Of Burning Apparitions

Koyo: Painting Words Into Lies

Every Time I Die: Radical

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist: Alfredo

Pantera: Far Beyond Driven

Henry Rollins: Think Tank

Presidents Of The United States Of America, The: self-titled

Pharcyde: Bizarre Ride II The Far Side

Public Image Ltd.: Happy?

Verve Pipe, The: Villains

Velvet Acid Christ: Fun With Knives

Psychopomps: Six Six Six Nights In Hell

Kaada & Patton: Romances

Parquet Courts / Parkay Quarts: Tally All The Things You Broke

Nurse With Wound: The Sylvie And Babs High-Thigh Companion

New York Dolls: self-titled

Pure Disgust: self-titled

Diat: Positive Energy

Rogers Sisters, The: The Invisible Deck

Crusaders, The: Free As The Wind

Ronnie Laws: Flame

Earl Klugh: self-titled

Adrian Belew: Lone Rhino

Kurtis Blow: “The Bronx”

Flora Purim: Open Your Eyes You Can Fly

Bruce Hornsby & The Range: “Mandolin Rain” 7”

Bruce Springsteen: “My Hometown” 7”

Starship: “Sara” 7”

Rolling Stones: “Harlem Shuffle” 7”

Whitney Houston: “Saving All My Love For You” 7”

Robbie Nevil: “C’est La Vie” 7”

Samantha Foxx: “Touch Me (I Want To Feel Your Body)” 7”

Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine: “Anything For You” 7”

Bananarama: “I Heard A Rumour” 7”

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” 7”

Bruce Springsteen: “I’m Going Down” 7”

Pressure: Your Rage EP 7”

Plan A Project: 532 Seconds Of… 7”

Truth Inside: self-titled 7”

Record Reserve:

Def Leopard: “Pour Some Sugar On Me” 7”

Cutting Crew: “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” 7”

Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes” 7”

Eurythmics: “Here Comes The Rain Again” 7”

Huey Lewis & The News: “If This Is It” 7”

Janet Jackson: “Nasty” 7”

OMD: “If You Leave” (Pretty In Pink) 7”

Lita Ford: “Kiss Me Deadly” 7”

Don Henley: “The Boys Of Summer” 7”

Berlin: “Take My Breath Away” (Top Gun) 7”

Starship: “Nothing’s Gonna’ Stop Us Now” (Mannequin) 7”

Glenn Frey: “You Belong To The City” 7”

Make Or Break: Down For Life e.p. 7”

Poverty Bay Saints: self-titled e.p. 7”

American Cheeseburger: self-titled e.p. 7”

Riistetyt: Tuomiopaiva e.p. 7”

Transitions b/w After The Fall: split 7”

Insult: self-titled e.p. 7”

Degenerics, The: self-titled 7”

American Nightmare: “Four Song Demo” 7”

Embrace The Kill / In Defence / Hellmouth / Opposition Rising: split 7”

Wreck: Reap What You Sow e.p. 7”

Asinine Solution: My Dad’s A Goat! e.p. 7”

Sex Vid: Tania e.p. 7”

Steve Khan: Evidence 12”

Billy Cobham: Spectrum 12”

Crusaders, The: Chain Reaction 12”

Cheech & Chong: Los Cochinos@#!!* 12”

David Sanborn: Heart To Heart 12”

Spyro Gyra: Free Time 12”

Pat Metheny Group: self-titled 12”

Cars, The: Candy-O 12”

Paula & Carol: In The Magic Garden 12”

High Score: New Fuel 12”

Murder Suicide Pact: self-titled 12”

Insomnio: Happy Loneliness 12”

Ubasute: Tyranny Garden 12”

Terminal Youth: self-titled 12”

Sedatives: self-titled 12”

Sleeper Cell: self-titled 12”

High Card: Generation Y 12”

Massmord b/w Shades Of Grey: split 12”

Intensity: The Ruins Of Our Future 12”

R’N’R: self-titled 12”

Police Bastard: Traumatized 12”

Mrtva Budounost b/w Left In Ruins: split 12”

Still No Future: Under Pressure 12”

High Fidelity (first visit):

Weather Report: Mysterious Traveller LP

Chuck Mangione: Chase The Clouds Away LP

Urbie Green: Senor Blues LP

Sonny Fortune: With Sound Reason LP

Herbie Mann: Waterbed LP

Hubert Laws: Crying Songs LP

David Newman: Mr. Fathead LP

Al DiMeola: Elegant Gypsy LP

Herbie Mann: Bird In A Silver Cage

Richard Tee: Natural Ingredients LP

Grover Washington. Jr.: Feels So Good LP

David Sanborn: Promise Me The Moon LP

David Newman: Newmanism LP

Herbie Mann & Fire Band: self-titled LP

Roy Ayers Ubiquity: Mystic Voyage LP

Jackie Martling: Goin’ Ape LP

Pop Will Eat Itself: Box Frenzy LP

Freur: Doot Doot LP

Treacherous Three: “Gotta Rock” b/w “Get Up” 12”

Terror: One With The Underdogs CD

Every Time I Die: Gutter Phenomenon CD

Throwdown: Vendetta CD

Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings And Food CD

Parliament: Up For The Downstroke CD

Joy Division: Closer CD

Cage: Hell’s Winter CD

Tha Alkaholiks: Coast To Coast CD

Goodie Mobb: Soul Food CD

Parliament: Trombipulation CD

Squarepusher: Ultavisitor CD

Batman Forever motion picture soundtrack CD

High School High motion picture soundtrack CD

Babes In Toyland: Painkillers CD

Every Time I Die: New Junk Aesthetic CD

Henry Rollins: A Rollins In The Wry CD

Deftones: Minerva CD

Parliament: Mothership Connection CD

Bootsy’s Rubber Band: Bootsy? Player Of The Year CD

Nitzer Ebb: That Total Age CD

Consolidated: Play More Music CD

Excessive Force: Blitzkrieg CD

Tool: 10,000 Days deluxe CD

Godflesh: Merciless CD

devL: self-titled CD

Parliament: Motorbooty Affair CD

Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense CD

Vfanhthore: Tremebunda Calígine RegionalistaCD

Sakrileg: self-titled CD

Sorgelig: Apostate CD

Rotten Age: Upadek ŚwiatłościCD

Tyrant Goatgaldrakona: Horns In The DarkCD

Sepulchral Cries: Misery Exhibits CD

Lihporcen: Illuminate CD

Sagverk: Sahataan Ne KaikkiCD

Sorgelig: Forever Lost CD

VolkeinBlucht:To Consume The Darkness Whole… CD

Tragedy Begins: Kleos Aenaon CD

Unholy Desolation: The Age Of Lost Souls CD

Torvara: Killing Culture CD

Sacristy: 4444 CD

Svartsorg: Agonie Des LichtsCD

Soundbombing (CS)

Kraftwerk: Autobahn (CS)

Poor Righteous Teachers: Holy Intellect (CS)

Dame: self-titled (7”)

High Fidelity (second visit):

Malcomb McLaren: “Double Dutch” b/w “Hobo Scratch (She’s Looking Like A Hobo)” 12”

2 Live Crew: “Me So Horny” 12”

Jackie Martling: What Do You Expect? LP

Kurtis Blow: self-titled LP

Animal Collective: Centipede Hz CD

Garbage: “When I Grow Up” CD

Filter: Anthems For The Damned CD

Pearl Jam: “Dissident”

Talking Heads: True Stories CD

Blind Melon: self-titled CD

Killing Joke: Democracy CD

Singles: motion picture soundtrack CD

Weezer: Pinkerton CD

Temple Of The Dog: self-titled CD

Filter: “Welcome To The Fold” CD

Seven Mary Three: American Standard CD

Folk Implosion, The: Dare To Be Surprised CD

Murs: 3:16, The 9th Edition CD

Double XX: Ruff, Rugged, & Raw CD

Aanomm: Dragging Hurtful Shame CD

Kveste + Neftaraka: Finis Coronat Opus CD

Alter Of Blood: Rehearsal 2018 CD

Cavus: The New Era CD

Darkness + Oltretomba: Horned, Winged And Grim CD

While They Sleep: La Nausee CD

Doden Grotte + Fullmoon Cult: Summon The Wolves Of War CD

Nostalgic War: self-titled CD

Pestem + Occulator: Bastards From Hell CD

Wraith: Shadows CD

Infernal Blast: Wolves Elitism Speech CD

Mordrean: Under The Black Frost CD

Iugulatus: Call Of The Horned God CD

Thantifaxath: self-titled CD

Basilisk: A Joyless March Through The Cold Lands CD

Darkness Creature: Darkness Do Mal CD

Nephilim: Klandestyn CD

Wolfenburg: self-titled CD

Blasphemus Crucifixion: Crude Burial CD

Dead To Earth + VolkeinBlucht + Idvarp: Three Way Split CD

Berzabum: The Compilation To The Infernorum CD

Lich: Cryptic Stench CD

Hatefrost: Frozen Land CD

Bloodrain: De Vermis Mysteriis CD

Nazghor: Diabolical Teachings CD

Graven Dusk: self-titled CD

Neocortex: Es Liegt Die Welt In Scherben ‎CD

Demonification: Obey The Antichrist CD

Cultus Funeris: Revertere Ad Locum Tuum CD

Liturgia Maleficarum: Totus Tuus CD

Mahdyhell: Conquerors of Hell (An Infernal Journey) CD

Neoheresy: Noc Ktora Dniem Sie Stala CD

Misanthrope: Noctivaga Tempestad De Inerme Conocimiento CD

Gestane: Dedicated To Total Devastation CD

Fornace: Deep Melancholic Wrath CD

Cultus Funeris: Revertere Ad Locum Tuum CD

Beheritbras: Goat Worshipping Blasphemic Metal CD

Freezing Blood + Widmo + The Sons Of Perdition: Desecration Rituals CD

Malaflame: Ca Del Diaol CD

* various artists: Nas Chamas Abismais Em Misantropia Luciferiana CD

Anger: Juvenile Anthems CD

25 Ta Life: Haterz Be Damned CD

Shai Hulud: Misanthropy Pure CD

Flipper: Generic CD

Nobodys: Hussy CD

Laughing Hyenas: Life Of Crime CD

Boysetsfire: After The Eulogy CD

Fugazi: Instrument Soundtrack CD

Toll: Christ Knows CD

Noisex: Over And Out CD

Leaether Strip: The Rebirth Of Agony CD

Hocico: Sangre Hirviente CD

Noisex: Serious Killer CD

Cobra Killer: Six Secs CD

Noisex: Groupieshock CD

Controlled Bleeding: Larva Lumps And Baby Bumps CD

Leaether Strip: Serenade For The Dead CD

Noisex: 1920.00 CD

Wolf Eyes + Black Dice: self-titled CD

Kraftwerk: Tour De France Soundtracks CD

Infinity Records:

Black Dice: Load Blown 12”sampler

Buzzcocks: Spiral Scratch 12″ EP

Deodato: Very Together LP

Jon Lucien: The Best Of… LP

David Sanborn: Taking Off LP

Spyro Gyra: Morning Dance LP

Hubert Laws: Family LP

Gary Bartz: Love Affair LP

Richie Cole: Keeper Of The Flame LP

George Benson: Blue Benson LP

Deodato: First Cuckoo LP

Lovebug Starski: “House Rocker” 12″

Robert Palmer: “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On” 12″

Lou Reed: “No Money Down” 12″

Sugarhill Gang: “Sugarhill Groove” b/w “8th Wonder” 12″

Father MC: “Everything’s Gonna’ Be Alright” 12″

Billy Ocean: “Carribean Queen” 12″

Raveonettes, The: In And Out Of Control CD

Metallica: Garage Inc. CD

Zola Jesus: Versions CD

Sunday Records:

Prince: “1999” b/w “How Come U Don’t Call” 7”

Re-Flex: “The Politics Of Dancing” b/w “Flex It” 7”

Normal, The: “TV Overdose” b/w “Warm Leatherette” 7”

Gary Numan: “I Die: You Die” b/w “Down In The Park” 7”

Pet Shop Boys: “It’s A Sin” b/w “You Know Where You Went Wrong” 7”

Robert Palmer: “Simply Irresistible” b/w “Nova” 7”

Pet Shop Boys: “What Have I Done To Deserve This” b/w “A New Life” 7”

Bananarama: “Cruel Summer” 7”

Belinda Carlisle: “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” 7”

Dead Or Alive: “Brand New Lover” 7”

Joan Jett: “Little Liar” 7”

Killing Joke: “Adorations” b/w “Exile” 7”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) b/w “Par Avion” 7”

Tone Loc: “Funky Cold Medina” 7”

Suzanne Vega: “Luka” 7”

Human League: “Don’t You Want Me” b/w “Seconds” 7”

Escape Club: “Wild Wild West b/w “We Can Run” 7”

Erasure: “Chains Of Love” b/w “Don’t Suppose” 7”

Don Henley: “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” b/w “Building The Perfect Beast” 7”

Starship: “We Built This City” b/w “Private Room” (ins.) 7”

Todd Rundgren: “Hello It’s Me” b/w “Cold Morning Light” 7”

Huey Lewis: “Stuck With You” b/w “Don’t Ever Tell Me That You Love Me” 7”

Stevie Winwood: “The Finer Things” 7”

Wings: “With A Little Luck” b/w “Backwards” 7”

Robert Palmer: “Addicted To Love” b/w “Let’s Fall In Love Tonight” 7”

Bananarama: “Venus” b/w “White Train” 7”

Joan Jett: “I Hate Myself For Loving You” 7”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Through The Living Years” b/w “Too Many Friends” 7”

Stevie Winwood: “Higher Love” 7”

Don Henley: “Dirty Laundry” b/w “Lilah” 7”

J.J. Fad: “Supersonic” 12”

Black Moon: “I Got Cha Opin” b/w “Reality” 12”

Big Daddy Kane: Raw ‘91 12”

Kurtis Blow: “If I Ruled The World” 12”

Jeru The Damaja: “Come Clean” b/w “D. Original Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” 12”

Fu-Schnickens: “Ring The Alarm” 12”

Young MC: “Bust A Move” 12”

Chaka Khan: “Crush Groove (Can’t Stop The Street)” 12”

Big Daddy Kane: “I Get The Job Done” 12”

Double XX Posse, The: “not Gonna Be Able To Do It” b/w “The Pure Thing” 12”

Domino: “Sweet Potato Pie” 12”

Masta Ace Incorporated: “Jeep Ass Niguh” b/w “Saturday Night Live” 12”

Fonda Rae: “Over Like A Fat Rat” 12”

River Ocean ft. India: The Tribal EP

Grandmaster & Melle Mel: “White Lines” b/w “Melle Mel’s Groove” 12”

DMX: “Born Loser” 12”

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: “On The Strength” 12”

Anti Nowhere League, The: The Perfect Crime 12”

Mr. Mister: “Is It Love b/w “Broken Wings” 12”

Thompson Twins: “Lies” 12”

Roxette: “The Look” 12”

T’Pau: “Heart And Soul” 12”

Dire Straits: Extended Dance EP 12”

Flora Purim: “Stories To Tell” 12”

Raveonettes, The: Pe’Ahi 12”

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: “If You Leave” b/w “La Femme Accident” 12”

Nu Shooz: “Point Of No Return” 12”

Falco: “Vienna Calling” b/w “Rock Me Amadeus” 12”

Shirts, The: self-titled 12”

Belinda Carlisle: “I Get Weak” 12”

Captain Sensible: “Wot!” 12”

Young Gods, The: self-titled 12”

Men Without Hats: “The Safety Dance” 12”

Level 42: “Something About You” 12”

Killing Joke: “Sanity” b/w “Eighties” 12”

Pere Ubu: The Art Of Walking 12”

Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine 12”

Innocent, The: Livin’ In The Street 12”

XBXRX: Gop Ist Minee 12”

Cabaret Voltaire: The Crackdown 12”

Cars, The: Panorama 12”

Cheapo's (Mineola):

Krush Groove: motion picture soundtrack LP

Spyro Gyra: Carnaval LP

David Sanborn: Taking Off LP

Lee Ritenour: Captain Fingers LP

Rasa: Everything You See Is Me LP

Ronnie Laws: Fever LP

Hubert Laws: Say It With Silence LP

Earl Klugh: Living Inside Your Love LP

Billy Cobham: Magic LP

George Benson: Blue Benson LP

Nas: Life Is Good CD

Salt-N-Pepa: Very Necessary CD

Craig Mack: Project: Funk Da World CD

Notorious B.I.G., The: Ready To Die CD

Tool: 10,000 Days (non-deluxe) CD

Live: Four Songs CD

Bjork: Selmasongs CD

Henry Rollins: Big Ugly Mouth CD

Hole: Live Through This CD

Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables CD

Bad Brains: self-titled CD

Posies, The: Dear 23 CD

Les Savy Fav: Inches CD

Savages: Adore Life CD

Die Krupps: Odyssey Of The Mind CD

Peaches: The Teaches Of Peaches CD

VNV Nation: Matter + Form CD

Cyberaktif: Temper CD

Indecision: Release The Cure CD

Dead Kennedys: In God We Trust, Inc. / Plastic Surgery Disasters CD

Live: Mental Jewelry CD

John Cougar Mellencamp: “Paper In Fire” 7”

Bangles: “Hazy Shade Of Winter” 7”

Mike & The Mechanics: “All I Need Is A Miracle” 7”

‘Til Tuesday: “Voices Carry” 7”

Loverboy: “Working For The Weekend” 7”

Glenn Frey: “The Heat Is On” 7”

Fabulous Thunderbirds: “Wrap It Up” 7”

John Cougar Mellencamp: “Small Town” 7”

Jackie ‘The Joke Man’ Martling: Hot Dogs And Donuts CS

Madonna: The Immaculate Collection CS

Jackie ‘The Joke Man’ Martling: Rollin’ With The Punches CS

Innersleeve Records:

(No purchase.)

2 notes · View notes

mxbitters · 5 months ago

Text

ok i stopped talking because i am sewing a silly little dog bone patch for the front of my jacket but listen. listen. listen. out with a bang???? fucking PHENOMENAL song but. god. with these past few weeks plus the context of the rest of the album combined??? actual tears. listen dog park dissidents have easily been my favorite band (that is not mcr because. well. yeah) for a fucking minute and i adore what they’ve done in the past, i mean i fucking blast the pink and black album but this?? this is entering a category of album for me that doesn’t really get new additions all that much. like. this is a revisit over and over and over and over and over again album. like. i am gonna burn this onto a blank cd on the family computer and decorate it with so many sharpies like i did religiously when i was 14. cathartic does not begin to explain what this is. it’s experimental it’s creative it’s so fucking musically interesting somehow the opening song felt like the opener to bullets meeting system of a down at least around the start and then the fucking CELLO (?) and like truly truly i have never heard a punk band do some of the shit i heard here. again. fucking tap solo. and i won’t give away some of the other musical twists it takes (support them and buy the album for $7 on their bandcamp and get the comic for free alongside or they will be releasing the rest of these songs every wednesday 💖) but like. the twists i’m talking about here?? i mean. i mean. so unexpected but also they make it work SO well not to mention just. oh god. so much of this was devastating and cathartic at once and this was so so so beautiful. definitely breaking the expectations i had for this band, some songs were a lot more polished than i was used to from them but like, musically, instrumentally, vocally, they’ve advanced so much and it’s incredible to see in real time. and lyrically… i mean i haven’t read through everything thoroughly but they are incredible, but then again i think they’ve been consistently incredible lyrically for quite some time at this point

anyway thank you for reading you can check out magnificent bastards here and also they have a tumblr i am very shy to tag them but uhmm @dog-park-dissidents is where they are at and listen and listen and listen this is fucking remarkable

y’all.. the new dog park dissidents album is FUCKING MY BRAIN

#..im gonna be real shy if they see this but i need y’all to give them fucking ATTENTION ok #(if they do see this and maybe didnt want people to Spoil things i sincerely apologize and can change my ways i am just sosoossoososo excite #excited ok ok)

55 notes · View notes

omegaplus · 2 years ago

Text

# 4,171

Record Store Victory Tour 2022.

It’s now 2022, and a new record-store tour was way overdue.

In the end, I felt complete. I bought everything I wanted and did it all with no regrets. It’s the ultimate in self-care and the biggest favor I’ve ever done for myself.

Locales:

Mr. Cheapo’s (Commack)

Record Stop

Sunday Records

Record Reserve

Looney Tunes

Needle & Groove

Infinity Records

High Fidelity

Mr. Cheapo’s (Mineola)

Innersleeve Records

Academy (Brooklyn)

Captured Tracks

Academy (Manhattan)

Purchases:

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Now I Got Worry CD

Keelhaul: Subject To Change Without Notice CD

Outrage: Disharmony Brings Harmony CD

Lost Highway motion picture soundtrack CD

Candlebox: Lucy CD

Heavens To Betsy: Calculated CD

Lou Reed: The Blue Mask CD

Type O Negative: Life Is Killing Me CD

Judgment Night motion picture soundtrack CD

Stabbing Westward: Darkest Days CD

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories: Tails CD

Goo Goo Dolls: A Boy Named Goo CD

Candlebox: self-titled CD

Collective Soul: self-titled (clear yellow case) CD

Mad Season: Above CD

Sponge: Wax Ecstatic CD

Collective Soul: Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid CD

Stabbing Westward: Ungod CD

Stuttering John: self-titled CD

Lou Reed: Transformer CD

Wattstax: The Living World LP

Beat Street Volume 2 LP

Paul Simon: One-Trick Pony LP

Expose: Exposure CS

George Benson: The George Benson Collection Volume Two CS

Richard Marx: self-titled CS

Crusaders, The: Southern Comfort LP

Earl Klugh: Dream Come True LP

George Benson: Bad Benson LP

Brecker Bros., The: Straphangin’ LP

Hubert Laws: The San Francisco Concert LP

Crusaders, The: Images LP

Richard Tee: Strokin’ LP

Chuck Mangione: Feels So Good LP

Sonny Fortune: Infinity Is LP

George Benson: In Flight LP

Earl Klugh: Heart String LP

Hank Crawford: Don’t You Worry About A Thing LP

Tom Scott & The L.A. Express: Tom Cat LP

Crusaders, The: The Best Of The… LP

Ralph MacDonald: Counterpoint LP

Brecker Bros., The: self-titled LP

Force M.D.’s, The: “Itchin’ For A Scratch” 12″

West Street Mob: “Let’s Dance (Make Your Body Move)” b/w “Monster Jam” (ins.) 12″

Earl Klugh: Finger Paintings LP

Crusaders, The: Those Southern Nights LP

Sonny Fortune: Awakening LP

Depeche Mode: Black Celebration CD

Pig Destroyer: The Octagonal Stairway CD

Velvet Underground, The & Nico: self-titled CD

Rollins Band: Nice CD

Matthew Sweet: Altered Beast CD

Death: For The Whole World To See CD

Crowbar: Symmetry In Black CD

Cure, The: Disintegration CD

Menace II Society original motion picture soundtrack CD

Run DMC: Greatest Hits CD

Queen Latifah: Nature Of A Sista’ CD

X-Clan: Xodus CD

Gin Blossoms: New Miserable Experience CD

Matthew Sweet: 100% Fun CD

Indecision: To Live And Die In New York City CD

Rollins Band: Weight CD

Big Daddy Kane: Looks Like A Job For… CD

Pig Destroyer: Phantom Limb CD

Sisters Of Mercy: A Slight Case Of Overbombing CD

Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy: Hypocricy Is The Greatest Luxury CD

Porno For Pyros: self-titled CD

KRS-One: self-titled CD

Eric B. & Rakim: Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em CD

Boogiemonsters: Riders Of The Storm: The Underwater Album CD

Vision Of Disorder: The Cursed Remain Cursed CD

Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend CD

Fugazi: Repeater + 3 Songs CD

Grandmaster Flash & Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five: Greatest Hits CD

Das EFX: Straight Up Sewaside CD

Jane’s Addiction: Ritual De Lo Habitual (censored) CD

Sponge: Rotting Pinata CD

Lost Boyz: Legal Drug Money CD

Dead Kennedys: Bedtime For Democracy CD

Rollins Band: Get Some Go Again CD

Pig Destroyer: Head Cage CD

Cure, The: Wish CD

Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell CD

New Jack City: original motion picture soundtrack CD

Ice-T: O.G. Original Gangster CD

EPMD: Business As Usual CD

Velvet Underground, The: White Light, White Heat CD

Depeche Mode: A Broken Frame CD

Higher Learning: original motion picture soundtrack CD

Pig Destroyer: Book Burner CD

Ice-T: “Ricochet” CD single

Sonic Youth: “Bull In The Heather” CD single

Halsey: If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power CD

My Bloody Valentine: MBV CD

Full Of Hell: Garden Of Burning Apparitions CD

Koyo: Painting Words Into Lies CD

Every Time I Die: Radical CD

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist: Alfredo CD

Pantera: Far Beyond Driven CD

Henry Rollins: Think Tank CD

Presidents Of The United States Of America, The: self-titled CD

Pharcyde: Bizarre Ride II The Far Side CD

Public Image Ltd.: Happy? CD

Verve Pipe, The: Villains CD

Velvet Acid Christ: Fun With Knives CD

Psychopomps: Six Six Six Nights In Hell CD

Kaada & Patton: Romances CD

Parquet Quarts / Parkay Quarts: Tally All The Things You Broke CD

Nurse With Wound: The Sylvie And Babs High-Thigh Companion CD

New York Dolls: self-titled CD

Pure Disgust: self-titled CD

Diat: Positive Energy LP

Rogers Sisters, The: The Invisible Deck LP

Crusaders, The: Free As The Wind LP

Ronnie Laws: Flame LP

Earl Klugh: self-titled LP

Adrian Belew: Lone Rhino LP

Flora Purim: Open Your Eyes You Can Fly LP

Kurtis Blow: “The Bronx” 12″

Bruce Hornsby & The Range: “Mandolin Rain” 7”

Bruce Springsteen: “My Hometown” 7”

Starship: “Sara” 7”

Rolling Stones: “Harlem Shuffle” 7”

Whitney Houston: “Saving All My Love For You” 7”

Robbie Nevil: “C’est La Vie” 7”

Samantha Foxx: “Touch Me (I Want To Feel Your Body)” 7”

Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine: “Anything For You” 7”

Bananarama: “I Heard A Rumour” 7”

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” 7”

Bruce Springsteen: “I’m Going Down” 7”

Pressure: Your Rage EP 7”

Plan A Project: 532 Seconds Of… 7”

Truth Inside: self-titled 7”

Prince: “1999” b/w “How Come U Don’t Call” 7”

Re-Flex: “The Politics Of Dancing” b/w “Flex It” 7”

Normal, The: “TV Overdose” b/w “Warm Leatherette” 7”

Gary Numan: “I Die: You Die” b/w “Down In The Park” 7”

Pet Shop Boys: “It’s A Sin” b/w “You Know Where You Went Wrong” 7”

Robert Palmer: “Simply Irressistable” b/w “Nova” 7”

Pet Shop Boys: “What Have I Done To Deserve This” b/w “A New Life” 7”

Bananarama: “Cruel Summer” 7”

Belinda Carlisle: “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” 7”

Dead Or Alive: “Brand New Lover” 7”

Joan Jett: “Little Liar” 7”

Killing Joke: “Adorations” b/w “Exile” 7”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)” b/w “Par Avion” 7”

Tone Loc: “Funky Cold Medina” 7”

Suzanne Vega: “Luka” 7”

Human League: “Don’t You Want Me” b/w “Seconds” 7”

Escape Club: “Wild Wild West b/w “We Can Run” 7”

Erasure: “Chains Of Love” b/w “Don’t Suppose” 7”

Don Henley: “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” b/w “Building The Perfect Beast” 7”

Starship: “We Built This City” b/w “Private Room” (ins.) 7”

Todd Rundgren: “Hello It’s Me” b/w “Cold Morning Light” 7”

Huey Lewis: “Stuck With You” b/w “Don’t Ever Tell Me That You Love Me” 7”

Stevie Winwood: “The Finer Things” 7”

Wings: “With A Little Luck” b/w Backwards” 7”

Robert Palmer: “Addicted To Love” b/w “Let’s Fall In Love Tonight” 7”

Bananarama: “Venus” b/w “White Train” 7”

Joan Jett: “I Hate Myself For Loving You” 7”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Through The Living Years” b/w “Too Many Friends” 7”

Stevie Winwood: “Higher Love” 7”

Don Henley: “Dirty Laundry” b/w “Lilah” 7”

J.J. Fad: “Supersonic” 12”

Black Moon: “I Got Cha Opin” b/w “Reality” 12”

Big Daddy Kane: Raw ‘91 12”

Kurtis Blow: “If I Ruled The World” 12”

Jeru The Damaja: “Come Clean” b/w “D. Original Dirty Rotten Scoundrel” 12”

Fu-Schnickens: “Ring The Alarm” 12”

Young MC: “Bust A Move” 12”

Chaka Khan: “Crush Groove (Can’t Stop The Street)” 12”

Big Daddy Kane: “I Get The Job Done” 12”

Double XX Posse, The: “Not Gonna Be Able To Do It” b/w “The Pure Thing” 12”

Domino: “Sweet Potato Pie” 12”

Masta Ace Incorporated: “Jeep Ass Niguh” b/w “Saturday Night Live” 12”

Fonda Rae: “Over Like A Fat Rat” 12”

River Ocean ft. India: The Tribal EP

Grandmaster & Melle Mel: “White Lines” b/w “Melle Mel’s Groove” 12”

DMX: “Born Loser” 12”

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: “On The Strength” 12”

Anti Nowhere League, The: The Perfect Crime 12”

Mr. Mister: “Is It Love b/w “Broken Wings” 12”

Thompson Twins: “Lies” 12”

Roxette: “The Look” 12”

T’Pau: “Heart And Soul” 12”

Dire Straits: Extended Dance EP 12”

Flora Purim: “Stories To Tell” 12”

Raveonettes, The: Pe’Ahi 12”

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: “If You Leave” b/w “La Femme Accident” 12”

Nu Shooz: ”Point Of No Return” 12”

Falco: “Vienna Calling” b/w “Rock Me Amadeus” 12”

Shirts, The: self-titled 12”

Belinda Carlisle: “I Get Weak” 12”

Captain Sensible: “Wot!” 12”

Young Gods, The: self-titled 12”

Men Without Hats: “The Safety Dance” 12”

Level 42: “Something About You” 12”

Killing Joke: “Sanity” b/w “Eighties” 12”

Pere Ubu: “The Art Of Working” 12”

Kraftwerk: The Man-Machine” 12”

Innocent, The: “Livin’ In The Street” 12”

XBXRX: “Gop Ist Minee” 12”

Cabaret Voltaire: The Crackdown 12”

Cars, The: Panorama 12”

Def Leopard: “Pour Some Sugar On Me” 7”

Cutting Crew: “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” 7”

Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes” 7”

Eurythmics: “Here Comes The Rain Again” 7”

Huey Lewis & The News: “If This Is It” 7”

Janet Jackson: “Nasty” 7”

OMD: “If You Leave” (Pretty In Pink) 7”

Lita Ford: “Kiss Me Deadly” 7”

Don Henley: “The Boys Of Summer” 7”

Berlin: “Take My Breath Away” (Top Gun) 7”

Starship: “Nothing’s Gonna’ Stop Us Now” (Mannequin) 7”

Glenn Frey: “You Belong To The City” 7”

Make Or Break: Down For Life e.p. 7”

Poverty Bay Saints: self-titled e.p. 7”

American Cheeseburger: self-titled e.p. 7”

Riistetyt: Tuomiopaiva e.p. 7”

After The Fall: Transitions e.p. 7”

Insult: self-titled e.p. 7”

American Nightmare: “Four Song Demo” 7”

Embrace The Kill b/w In Defence: split 7”

Wreck: Reap What You Sow e.p. 7”

Asinine Solution: My Dad’s A Goat! e.p. 7”

Degenerics, The: self-titled 7”

Sexvid: Tania e.p. 7”

Steve Khan: Evidence 12”

Billy Cobham: Spectrum 12”

Crusaders, The: Chain Reaction 12”

Cheech & Chong: Los Cochinos@#!!* 12”

David Sanborn: Heart To Heart 12”

Spyro Gyra: Free Time 12”

Pat Metheny Group: self-titled 12”

Cars, The: Candy-O 12”

Paula & Carol: In The Magic Garden 12”

High Score: New Fuel 12”

Murder Suicide Pact: self-titled 12”

Insomnio: Happy Loneliness 12”

Ubasute: Tyranny Garden 12”

Terminal Youth: self-titled 12”

Sedatives: self-titled 12”

Sleeper Cell: self-titled 12”

High Card: Generation Y 12”

Massmord b/w Shades Of Grey: split 12”

Intensity: The Ruins Of Our Future 12”

R’N’R: self-titled 12”

Police Bastard: Traumatized 12”

Mrtva Budounost b/w Left In Ruins: split 12”

Still No Future: Under Pressure 12”

Krush Groove motion picture soundtrack LP

Spyro Gyra: Carnaval LP

David Sanborn: Taking Off LP

Lee Ritenour: Captain Fingers LP

Rasa: Everything You See Is Me LP

Ronnie Laws: Fever LP

Hubert Laws: Say It With Silence LP

Earl Klugh: Living Inside Your Love LP

Billy Cobham: Magic LP

George Benson: Blue Benson LP

Nas: Life Is Good CD

Salt-N-Pepa: Very Necessary CD

Craig Mack: Project: Funk Da World CD

Notorious B.I.G., The: Ready To Die CD

Tool: 10,000 Days (non-deluxe) CD

Live: Four Songs CD

Bjork: Selmasongs CD

Henry Rollins: Big Ugly Mouth CD

Hole: Live Through This CD

Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables CD

Bad Brains: self-titled CD

Posies, The: Dear 23 CD

Les Savy Fav: Inches CD

Savages: Adore Life CD

Die Krupps: Odyssey Of The Mind CD

Peaches: The Teaches Of Peaches CD

VNV Nation: Matter + Form CD

Cyberaktif: Temper CD

Indecision: Release The Cure CD

Dead Kennedys: In God We Trust, Inc. / Plastic Surgery Disasters CD

Live: Mental Jewelry CD

John Cougar Mellencamp: “Paper In Fire” 7”

Bangles: “Hazy Shade Of Winter” 7

Mike & The Mechanics: “All I Need Is A Miracle” 7”

‘Til Tuesday: “Voices Carry” 7”

Loverboy: “Working For The Weekend” 7”

Glenn Frey: “The Heat Is On” 7”

Fabulous Thunderbirds: “Wrap It Up” 7”

John Cougar Mellencamp: “Small Town” 7”

Jackie ‘The Joke Man’ Martling: Hot Dogs And Donuts CS

Madonna: The Immaculate Collection CS

Jackie ‘The Joke Man’ Martling: Rollin’ With The Punches CS

Deodato: Artistry LP

Hank Crawford: We Got A Good Thing Going LP

Ronnie Laws: Friends And Strangers LP

Ron Carter: Blues Farm LP

Grandmaster Flash: “Flash To The Beat” 12”

Melle Mel & Duke Booty: “Message II (Survival)” 12”

Solitair ft. Choclair & Cardinal Offishall: “No Doubt” b/w “S.O.T.” 12”

Nu Shooz: “Point Of No Return” 12”

Techno Animal ft. El-P & Vast Aire: “We Can Build You” 12″

Frankie Goes To Hollywood: “Relax” 7”

System, The: “Don’t Desert This Groove” 7”

Deodato: Very Together LP

Lovebug Starski: “House Rocker” 12″

Black Dice: Load Blown sampler 12″

Buzzcocks: Spiral Scratch 12″ EP

Jon Lucien: The Best Of… LP

David Sanborn: Taking Off LP

Spyro Gyra: Morning Dance LP

Hubert Laws: Family LP

Gary Bartz: Love Affair LP

Richie Cole: Keeper Of The Flame LP

George Benson: Blue Benson LP

Robert Palmer: “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On” 12″

Lou Reed: “No Money Down” 12″

Sugarhill Gang: “Sugarhill Groove” b/w “8th Wonder” 12″

Father MC: “Everything’s Gonna’ Be Alright” 12″

Billy Ocean: “Carribean Queen” 12″

Deodato: First Cuckoo 12″

Weather Report: Mysterious Traveller 12″

Chuck Mangione: Chase The Clouds Away 12″

Urbie Green: Senor Blues 12″

Sonny Fortune: With Sound Reason 12″

Herbie Mann: Waterbed 12″

Hubert Laws: Crying Songs 12″

David Newman: Mr. Fathead 12″

Al DiMeola: Elegant Gypsy 12″

Herbie Mann: Bird In A Silver Cage 12″

Richard Tee: Natural Ingredients 12″

Grover Washington. Jr.: Feels So Good 12″

David Sanborn: Promise Me The Moon 12″

David Newman: Newmanism 12″

Herbie Mann & Fire Band: self-titled 12″

Roy Ayers Ubiquity: Mystic Voyage 12″

Jackie Martling: Goin’ Ape 12″

Pop Will Eat Itself: Box Frenzy 12″

Freur: Doot Doot 12″

Treacherous Three: “Gotta Rock” b/w “Get Up”

Terror: One With The Underdogs CD

Every Time I Die: Gutter Phenomenon CD

Throwdown: Vendetta CD

Talking Heads: More Songs About Buildings And Food CD

Parliament: Up For The Downstroke CD

Joy Division: Closer CD

Cage: Hell’s Winter CD

Tha Alkaholiks: Coast To Coast CD

Goodie Mobb: Soul Food CD

Parliament: Trombipulation CD

Squarepusher: Ultavisitor CD

Batman Forever motion picture soundtrack CD

High School High motion picture soundtrack CD

Babes In Toyland: Painkillers CD

Every Time I Die: New Junk Aesthetic CD

Henry Rollins: A Rollins In The Wry CD

Deftones: Minerva CD

Parliament: Mothership Connection CD

Bootsy’s Rubber Band: Bootsy? Player Of The Year CD

Nitzer Ebb: That Total Age CD

Consolidated: Play More Music CD

Excessive Force: Blitzkrieg CD

Tool: 10,000 Days (deluxe) CD

Godflesh: Merciless CD

Devl: self-titled CD

Parliament: Motorbooty Affair CD

Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense CD

Vfanhthore: Tremebunda Calígine Regionalista CD

Sakrileg: self-titled CD

Sorgelig: Apostate CD

Rotten Age: Upadek Światłości CD

Tyrant Goatgaldrakona: Horns In The Dark CD

Sepulchral Cries: Misery Exhibits CD

Lihporcen: Illuminate CD

Sagverk: Sahataan Ne Kaikki CD

Sorgelig: Forever Lost CD

Volkein Blucht: To Consume The Darkness Whole... CD

Tragedy Begins: Kleos Aenaon CD

Unholy Desolation: The Age Of Lost Souls CD

Torvara: Killing Culture CD

Sacristy: 4444 CD

Svartsorg: Agonie Des Lichts CD

Evil Dee: Soundbombing (Mixed By…) CS

Kraftwerk: Autobahn CS

Poor Righteous Teachers: Holy Intellect CS

Dame: self-titled 7”

Malcomb McLaren: “Double Dutch” b/w “Hobo Scratch (She’s Looking Like A Hobo)” 12”

2 Live Crew: “Me So Horny” 12”

Jackie Martling: What Do You Expect? LP

Kurtis Blow: self-titled LP

Garbage: “When I Grow Up” CD single

Pearl Jam: “Dissident” CD single

Filter: “Welcome To The Fold” CD single

Animal Collective: Centipede Hz CD

Filter: Anthems For The Damned CD

Talking Heads: True Stories CD

Blind Melon: self-titled CD

Killing Joke: Democracy CD

Singles: motion picture soundtrack CD

Weezer: Pinkerton CD

Temple Of The Dog: self-titled CD

Seven Mary Three: American Standard CD

Folk Implosion, The: Dare To Be Surprised CD

Murs: 3:16, The 9th Edition CD

Double XX: Ruff, Rugged, & Raw CD

Aanomm: Dragging Hurtful Shame CD

Kveste + Neftaraka: Finis Coronat Opus CD

Alter Of Blood: Rehearsal 2018 CD

Cavus: The New Era CD

Darkness + Oltretomba: Horned, Winged And Grim CD

While They Sleep: La Nausee CD

Doden Grotte + Fullmoon Cult: Summon The Wolves Of War CD

Nostalgic War: self-titled CD

Pestem + Occulator: Bastards From Hell CD

Wraith: Shadows CD

Infernal Blast: Wolves Elitism Speech CD

Mordrean: Under The Black Frost CD

Iugulatus: Call Of The Horned God CD

Thantifaxath: self-titled CD

Basilisk: A Joyless March Through The Cold Lands CD

Darkness Creature: Darkness Do Mal CD

Nephilim: Klandestyn CD

Wolfenburg: self-titled CD

Blasphemus Crucifixion: Crude Burial CD

Dead To Earth + Volkein Blucht + Idvarp: Three Way Split CD

Berzabum: The Compilation To The Infernorum CD

Lich: Cryptic Stench CD

Hatefrost: Frozen Land CD

Bloodrain: De Vermis Mysteriis CD

Nazghor: Diabolical Teachings CD

Graven Dusk: self-titled CD

Neocortex: Es Liegt Die Welt In Scherben ‎ CD

Demonification: Obey The Antichrist CD

Cultus Funeris: Revertere Ad Locum Tuum CD

Liturgia Maleficarum: Totus Tuus CD

Mahdyhell: Conquerors of Hell (An Infernal Journey) CD

Neoheresy: Noc Ktora Dniem Sie Stala CD

Misanthrope: Noctivaga Tempestad De Inerme Conocimiento CD

Gestane: Dedicated To Total Devastation CD

Fornace: Deep Melancholic Wrath CD

Cultus Funeris: Revertere Ad Locum Tuum CD

Beheritbras: Goat Worshipping Blasphemic Metal CD

Freezing Blood + Widmo + The Sons Of Perdition: Desecration Rituals CD

Malaflame: Ca Del Diaol CD

* various artists: Nas Chamas Abismais Em Misantropia Luciferiana CD

Anger: Juvenile Anthems CD

25 Ta Life: Haterz Be Damned CD

Shai Hulud: Misanthropy Pure CD

Flipper: Generic CD

Nobodys: Hussy CD

Laughing Hyenas: Life Of Crime CD

Boysetsfire: After Thew Eulogy CD

Fugazi: Instrument Soundtrack CD

Toll: Christ Knows CD

Noisex: Over And Out CD

Leaether Strip: The Rebirth Of Agony CD

Hocico: Sangre Hirviente CD

Noisex: Serious Killer CD

Cobra Killer: Six Secs CD

Noisex: Groupieshock CD

Controlled Bleeding: Larva Lumps And Baby Bumps CD

Leaether Strip: Serenade For The Dead CD

Noisex: 1920.00 CD

Wolf Eyes + Black Dice: self-titled CD

Kraftwerk: Tour De France Soundtracks CD

Brandy: “Clown Pain” 7″

Spizzenergi: “Soldier Soldier” 7″

Asshole Parade: Asshole Parade 7″

Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: “Fuck Off” b/w “On The Crest” 7″

Brian Brain: “Jive” 7″

Poison Girls: “One Good Reason” 7″

Antiseen: “We Got This Far (Without You)” b/w “(We Will Not) Remember You” 7″

Instangd: Mitt Svar Pa Ingenting 7″

Love Child: Love Child Plays Moondog 7″

Throbbing Gristle: Greatest Hits 12″

Wee: You Can Fly On My Airplane white vinyl 12″

Yves/Son/Ace: “Parade Of Thoughts” b/w “Can’t Sleep” 12″

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes: Astral Travelling 12″

Sweeping Promises: Hunger For A Way Out 12″

Throbbing Gristle: Heathen Earth blue vinyl 12″

Robert Rental: Paralysis e.p. 12″

Shocked Minds: self-titled translucent orange 12″

Excepter: Self Destruction 12″

Pure Hell: Noise Addiction 12″

George Benson: Livin’ Inside Your Love 12″

Merissa Nadler: For My Crimes 12″

Cabaret Voltaire: Micro-Phonies 12″

No Parade: Ceaseless Fire 12″

Boogie Down Productions: By All Means Necessary CS

Apache: self-titled CS

Grand Puba: Reel To Reel CS

Kerith Murray: The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World CS

Terminator X: & The Valley Of The Jeep Beats CS

Ultramagnetic M.C.’s, The: Fruits Of Nature CS

Depeche Mode: Some Great Reward CD

Tom Tom Club: self-titled CD

Rollins Band: The End Of Silence CD

3rd Bass: Derelicts Of Dialect CD

Dead Prez: RBG CD

Men, The: Drift CD

John Spencer Blues Explosion, The: Acme CD

Boy Harsher: Country Girl (Uncut) LP

Hubert Laws: Then There Was Light LP

Hank Crawford: Tico Rico LP

Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes: Dancing In The Sun LP

Original Concept: Straight From The Basement Of Cooley High LP

Men, The: Devil Music LP

Stepdad SS: Mad About It LP

Vaaska: Ruido Hasta La Muerte LP

Institute: Re-Adjusting The Locks LP

Spoonie Gee: Godfather Of Rap LP

Kool Moe Dee: “Death Blow” 12”

Test Dept.: Compulsion (Machine Run) 12″

Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich: “Kick The Bobo” 12”

Professor Griff & The Last Asiatic Disciples: Pawns In The Game 12”

Kool Moe Dee: “They Want Money” 12”

Queen Latifah: “Ladies First” 12”

Public Enemy: “Give It Up” 12”

Kool Moe Dee: “Wild Wild West” 12”

Heavy D. & The Boys ft. various artists: “Don’t Curse” 12”

Glam: self-titled 7”

Perdition: self-titled 7”

Soaker: self-titled 7”

Strutter: self-titled 7”

Hombrinus Dudes: self-titled 7”

Deformed Conscience: self-titled 7”

25 Rifles: History Of Flags 7”

Funeral Shock: Paint Thinner 7”

Vagra: Refuse 7”

River City Tanlines: “The Devil Made Me Do It” b/w “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” 7”

Shizuo: “Sweat” b/w “Stop It”

Code-13 b/w DS-13 split 7”

Billy Ocean: “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” 7”

Stacey Q: “Two Of Hearts” 7”

Miami Sound Machine: “Bad Boy” 7”

Cameo: “Word Up” 7”

Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz: “Deja Vu” CS

Who’s The Man motion picture soundtrack CS

Ata Kak: Obaa Sima CS

Jon Lucien: Premonition LP

Ron Carter: Peg Leg LP

Ramsey Lewis: Love Notes LP

Hubert Laws & Earl Klugh: How To Beat The High Cost Of Living LP

Weather Report: Tale Spinnin’ LP

Olympic Runners: Don’t Let Up LP

Bootsy’s Rubber Band: Stretchin’ It Out In… LP

Jeff Lorber Fusion, The: self-titled LP

Blackbyrds: Unfinished Business LP

Herbie Mann: Sunbelt LP

Hank Crawford: Cajun Sunrise LP

Kool Moe Dee: Knowledge Is King LP

Blank Stare: self-titled LP

Police, The: “Every Breath You Take” 7”

Simple Minds: “Don’t You Forget About Me” 7”

Bangles, The: “In Your Room” 7”

Thompson Twins: “Hold Me Now” 7”

Janet Jackson: “Let’s Wait A While” 7”

Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes” b/w “Miss You Tonight” 7”

Alan Vega: Mutator CD

Marissa Nadler: The Path Of The Clouds CD

561 selections / $3,001.00 (USD).

#personal #music #Long Island #NYC #New York City #Brooklyn #BK #mixtapes #reviews #playlists #omega #wow #whoa #damn #GTFO

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oversimplify-it · 4 years ago

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Story Process Tag by @herpixels

I was tagged by @dynastiasimss - Thank you so much for tagging me!! 😊💖💗 This will most definitely get a bit wordy because I’m terrible at explaining things concisely! 😂 Also, I’ll mostly be talking about my process for 2.B.A Grandmaster but I’ll touch on my process for Erin in San Myshuno too!

I’m also going to get tags out of the way up here so that no one has to scroll all the way through this ... absolute novel that is under the cut LMAO so I tag: @cyansimblr @x-simss @matchacake and any other simblrs who wanna do this!! and feel free to skip if you want!

1. Your writing process My writing process is very, very chaotic, and changes with the wind... Erin in San Myshuno doesn’t really have a process, I just play the game and then put in some dialogue based on the events. None of it is guided by my hand at all though! 2.B.A Grandmaster on the other hand is written in part based on what happens in game and in part by my own creative vision. Most of the time, I let stuff happen, and then fill in the blanks in between events. I go in game, play Sims as I normally would (skill build, take care of needs, go out to venues, etc.) and then watch what weird and interesting things happen. For example, Augusta’s meeting with Xavier in the beginning was completely the game’s doing! He was the only one to show up for the Welcome Wagon event, so I rolled with that. Scenes like Kaitlin’s meeting with Maverick and those sort of things are planned by me, as they’re necessary to create a more full narrative! It’s like collaborative storytelling, but my “partner” is a game that is weird and random and crazy. 😂 After stuff happens in game and I get screenshots, I then actually write��for it. I chose to write novel style for the series because - as some of my long-term followers may remember - I had another story that was just screenshots with dialogue on them? And it was very hard, LOL, it didn’t suit my workflow very well and I ended up dropping it after a month or so. I wanted 2.B.A Grandmaster to be something I could post consistently, and so I opted for a style that I was more familiar and experienced with!

2. Scene building For the most part, I just work with what sims gives me, but as I mentioned above, some scenes I actually go to the trouble of setting up. For those, I still use the sims animations mostly (I’ve used poses about 3 times in 2.B.A Grandmaster so far) but I do usher my sims around the "set” as I see fit. I build a lot of my own lots and locations for 2.B.A GM because I tend to get a vision in my mind of what I want and refuse to settle for less. 😂 One such case is the scene where Maverick meets up with Octavia--

I made the alleyway we see here - it’s two entirely empty buildings sandwiched side by side on an otherwise empty lot in Oasis Springs. The only part I bothered to decorate was the alley itself because I knew I wasn’t going to use the rest of the area, but maybe we’ll revisit it sometime and I’ll finish the two buildings! I actually loved making this set and like how it turned out, LOL~

Then I just have whatever sims are involved in a scene interact with each other for ages until I feel like I have enough screenshots to make a scene. I usually have a vague idea of what’s going to be said in any given scene - especially the ones I actually planned out beforehand - but I get some excess screenshots to be safe. I try lots of different interactions and pause like every few frames to get interesting expressions and stuff, LOL. Lots of “Complain about Cold Weather” and “Give fake bad news” ...

3. CC/Pose making I don’t actually make my own CC for 2.B.A GM specifically (I’ve made a couple eyeshadows but I don’t use them super frequently) but there is a scene coming up in the future that I plan to make poses for. I have a very clear image in my mind that includes a lot of subtle expressions and very specific things that I doubt I could find poses for, so I’m gonna have to brave the terrifying landscape of blender in order to make it a reality. 😧

4. Getting in the zone I don’t have any sort of “ok, show time” ritual like some people do but I wish I did, because my motivation waxes and wanes so unpredictably. Some days I just don’t feel like doing anything, and other days I edit and write for 5 posts in a row! I am always listening to something though, usually music, every once in a blue moon a video with lots of talking. 5. Screenshot folder

UGH...

6. Captions I don’t do captions on 2.B.A GM posts, but for my city living gameplay I do! I keep them simple, because I don’t want to make it too much work for myself. Erin in San Myshuno’s style of editing is 100% based around ease, because I wanted something to post often that didn’t put too much of a strain on me. Verdana in white, typically 35-40 px, with a gradient border. Each sim we encounter has a different gradient color, usually based on their outfit or just the ~vibe~ I get from them. Erin’s gradient is Hot pink to ... gee, what would you call it. Sonic the Hedgehog Blue LMAO-- I chose that gradient because that’s the color of the overlay, which I’ll talk more about in the next section!

7. Editing My two ‘series’ - and I use that term loosely LMAO - have different editing processes, so I’ll try to summarize them both. Basically, for 2.B.A Grandmaster, I touch up the saturation and brightness depending on the scene. If it’s evening in the shots, I usually won’t touch brightness, and if it’s night, I might even lower it a bit for more accurate lighting! Once that’s done, I blur everything but relevant elements of a scene, usually the character we’re following or who is speaking. I have to select the character from the background manually which takes a bit, but other than that it’s very minimal.

My shots aren’t super glamorous, but I prefer simple screenshots and actually being able to keep up with a story schedule as opposed to what happened with my last story. 😬 As for Erin in San Myshuno, barring captions which I only do when I feel it’s necessary, it’s literally just an overlay on otherwise untouched screenshots. 😭 I would do more, but again, it’s supposed to be an easy downtime sort of series for me so~

This goes over top all screenshots on the “Add” setting at 20% opacity. It brightens things up and softens them, as well as making the colors slightly more harmonious! If anyone wants me to go more in depth on editing, or maybe captions, please let me know! I’m happy to talk about it if it’ll help anyone, and I know that a lot of tutorials cover how to do stuff in Photoshop, whereas I use FireAlpaca (which is 100% free btw! It’s more of an art program, but not bad for editing) 8. Throwback!

Oh boy, so this is one of my first posts on simblr. For starters, I didn’t know about camera mode at the time, so that’s the first thing I would change obviously LOL. 😬 The framing I did at the time was ... cute, but it makes the pictures feel kind of cramped and small in my opinion, so I did away with that for all of my later stories. Also, Amy and Gemma aren’t very well centered in this picture! Other than that, this isn’t actually terrible I don’t think, so aside from maybe blurring the background as I do on 2.B.A GM now, I wouldn’t change too much! Thankfully, I had observed other people’s stories before making my own on here for a little bit, so I wasn’t starting with absolutely no idea what to do, but I still think I’ve improved since I made these. 😊

This was a ton of fun!! If anyone has questions or wants more info on anything I covered in here, absolutely feel free to ask, and thank you so much if you actually read through all of this - I know I rambled for quite a while!! 🙏

#tag #extras: 2.B.A Grandmaster

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oneweekoneband · 4 years ago

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Vacation

There’s a lot of clichés about artists burning out just as they come through with their brightest work, and in some people’s version of this story, that might be the frame for Vacation, BTMI!’s final album before breaking up. Personally, I’ve never bought into those monomyth-esque narratives about bands’ inherent career arcs, and so I’m not inclined to view the album this way. I will say that while I absolutely love it, I don’t think it’s necessarily the band’s best album. It’s also just not accurate to think that this was a point of “burning out” for BTMI!, since Jeff started writing for his solo career almost immediately following the band’s dissolution.

Still, Vacation does hew eerily close to a lot of these rock ‘n’ roll archetypes. It was a momentous album, it was probably the most publicized release the band had seen, it represented a new musical direction that seemed to present itself as the summary of Jeff’s experimentation with genre and songform over the rest of the band’s career, and the band very much did break up after its release (although, as with ASOB, it took a few years for that to become official).

About that publicization: while I’m somewhat sad that I missed out on most of BTMI!’s career (being, you know, too young to go to shows or even think much about punk for the first 5-ish years), I’m still glad I found them when I did, because the build-up to the release of Vacation was a really interesting time to be a fan. In 2010, almost a year before the release, the band began a roll-out of singles to get people excited about the new material, and it worked like a charm on me: the boisterous first single “Everybody That You Love” seemed like a sign of great things to come if its electrifying lead guitars and dizzying vocal hook were any indication. “Hurricane Waves” and “Can’t Complain” showed even more diversity to look forward to when the band released them in 2011 ahead of the album. In addition to that, Jeff launched a whole new label to sell Vacation (and much of the other stuff released through Quote Unquote) through, Really Records. Clearly, he was trying to communicate something about the step forward he wanted Vacation to represent.

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And fans like me, despite knowing that “Side Projects Are Never Successful” and that Jeff was never in it for the fame, had reason to believe not only that this might have been the band’s big shot, but that they might actually make it big – or at least to become big enough to continue to exist as a full-time touring band that played music for a living. The Vacation singles were getting media coverage like no other previous BTMI! release had, and they marked a direction for the band’s music that, while retaining the punk integrity and musical ambition of the earlier albums, also proved more melodic, cleanly-produced, and accessible to a broader audience. While previous albums got recognition in the punk scene, Vacation looked like it had “crossover potential.” And when it finally arrived, there were even more positive signs: within half a year of the release, “Can’t Complain” made an appearance in “The Office.”

Of course, for all this to work, the album had to be good, and thankfully it was better than that – despite what might have sounded like my talking it down, it definitely represents a new high for the band. It’s Jeff’s own favourite BTMI! album, and I can see why: its complexity is something to be proud of. He had always been influenced by artists falling outside of the punk spectrum, but here those influences are more pronounced than ever, and the band finally breaks free of its ska-punk chains with a sound wholly its own. Brian Wilson-esque harmony arrangements and multi-part songs abound, and in a similar fashion to To Leave Or Die In Long Island, a couple motifs from individual songs (“Campaign For A Better Next Weekend” and “Sick, Later”) turn up in multiple places on the album for thematic cohesion. If SMiLE was Wilson’s “teenage symphony to God,” Vacation might be Jeff’s “adult symphony to punk rock.”

Many of my favourite songs off Vacation stand completely alone in the BTMI! catalogue, with little stylistic precedent. “Why Oh, Why Oh, Why (Oh Oh Oh Oh)” is a brash, thunderous fusion of Elvis Costello’s melodic sense and Bruce Springsteen’s maximalism, with a wealth of memorable melodies and lyrics that are all Jeff’s own. “Can’t Complain” is that rare song that manage to “rock quietly” – it’s both hushed and urgent in its muted acoustic chords and slide guitar lines, panicking at the pace of everyday life while simultaneously realizing how much there is to be thankful. And of course there’s the glorious, dynamic opener that slowly builds from a nostalgic piano riff accompanied by subtle, emotionally-charged chord changes into an explosive hardcore-punk charge, with vocals ranging from Jeff’s cleanest, quietest-ever singing to his more characteristic shouting to a group chant at the end.

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But even when Vacation retreads familiar territory, it still feels like it’s moving forward. “The Shit That You Hate” stands in a long line of 3/4 5-6-minute slow-burn songs appearing on BTMI! albums, but it feels like a perfection of that particular type of song rather than a simple revisiting. Jeff’s weak, warbly falsetto note when he sings “Hold onto your hope” always gets me a little choked up. “Hurricane Waves” might recycle a melody from To Leave Or Die In Long Island during its bridge, but the rest of the song is all new, providing that melody with a fascinating recontextualization to great effect. The aforementioned “Sick, Later” has a zig-zagging riff in an unusual time signature combination that still manages to be incredibly hooky, as well as some of my favourite lyrics on the album:

The first time that I took you to the hospital,

I was tired and you wanted to die,

I drove off, and I couldn't understand at all

Fuck, I didn't even walk you inside,

I thought we all wanna die, we all wanna die,

And I thought that was fine, I thought that was fine.

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One of the album’s most instantaneous joys comes from “Vocal Coach,” the shortest true song on the album. Jeff’s vocals were probably the most consistently difficult factor in terms of getting listeners outside of punk to take BTMI! seriously; they’re somewhere in between the traditionally-expected “bad” vocals of classic punk and the cleaner, more melodic style of singing dominant in pop-punk. Either way, they definitely don’t play to mainstream ears (perhaps this is why “Campaign For A Better Next Weekend” starts the way it does, and for that reason, Vacation might be the best place for a listener that’s not well-versed in punk to jump into the band’s discography). On “Vocal Coach,” Jeff takes on this problem with a healthy dose of irony, penning an ode to the imperfections he loves in music, the “dirty covers, dusty grooves and deep scratches.” But with a melody reminiscent of Pinkerton-era Weezer, he also expresses his own frustration with his inability to transcend the ugliness of his own singing: “I get embarrassed when my voice pops out and it’s not like in my head, / If I got a new vocal coach and I could hit the notes, you’d fall in love again.”

I understand that frustration – I’ve sung in more than one band, but before I even started playing in a band, I never thought I could be a singer because I thought I wasn’t good enough. But over time, I slowly realized that the reason I thought that was because I was comparing myself to singers who were already considered to be superhumanly-gifted, and that not every singer needs to be that way; there are thresholds of “good-enough,” and realizing where you fall in that can be a very freeing experience. I learned to sing by imitation Johnny Rotten and Billy Corgan, singers with definitively “bad” voices that nevertheless managed to communicate pretty much exactly what they wanted to in their songs. And Jeff Rosenstock was another big inspiration to me in that respect: he was a “bad” singer who nevertheless sang his songs defiantly, against popular tastes, because who else was going to do it for him? (Not to mention that as a “rock ‘n’ role model,” Jeff seems like a much better guy than Johnny or Billy.) But like Jeff, I know that there are times when singers wish we could do more with our voices than what seems to be within our natural ability, and we start wondering if it’s just a matter of putting in the right amount of work to “perfect” that voice. “Vocal Coach” brilliantly captures the nuances of this feeling in under two and a half minutes in an unforgettably catchy tune.

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It couldn’t last, though. Even Jeff seemed to know it, as he sang on “Vocal Coach”: “ I'm aware that I'm kind of getting scared the love that I thought had no bounds is coming to an end.” Vacation proved that BTMI! could be made more accessible and reach a wider audience, but there were limits to that growth. Just what reasons lay behind those limits will always be a bit obscure, but after a while, it became clear that despite being their most successful album to date, Vacation wasn’t going to be a true “commercial breakthrough.” To be fair, I don’t even know if that’s what Jeff wanted. I haven’t been fully clear on why the band broke up, and strangely, Jeff even seemed a little vague on it in this interview, citing one member’s moving to Australia as part of it. It didn’t have much to do with a lack of commercial success (Jeff claims the band wasn’t even on as much of an upswing in popularity as fans had come to believe at the time), and I doubt he would have soldiered on with his solo career the way he did if it had. In fact, I suspect his solo career is probably more well-known by now than BTMI! was even at their peak.

In the end, I’m just happy the band go to do what they wanted to for as long as they did, and that BTMI! brought so much to my life and the lives of other fans like me. I’m also incredibly grateful I got to see them at least once, on their last tour before they broke up in what turned out to be my first real punk show. It was, in some ways, kind of a fluke: I was 16 and the band had planned some tour dates in Canada, including Ottawa, which was truly shocking, considering that almost no one big (outside of the Wu-Tang Clan – look that one up, it’s a strange story) comes to Ottawa. But it was even flukier than that, because it turned out that my parents had planned a road trip to Toronto for our family over the date BTMI! was playing! Of course, I checked the tour dates and sure enough, they were coming to Toronto too, so I got the tickets for that show instead and saw them for the first and last time at the loft above Sneaky Dee’s with my sister. It was an amazing experience, and I can’t think of a better way to have been introduced to live punk. I was caught off-guard by the mosh pit, but it was a friendly one, and I ended up spending most of the show in it. The band played almost every song I could have hoped for (“25”! “I Don’t Love You Anymore”! Every great song on Vacation!) and I ended the night a sweaty, dehydrated mess. As Jeff came down from the stage into the crowd after the show, I gave him a big hug and told him how awesome I thought it was. And while I hadn’t brought a blank t-shirt for the band to spray-paint their name on (a tradition from the early days they were still doing at that time), I bought one of their special “bilingual shirts” that I assume were made specially for the Canadian leg of the tour. I still have it:

#Bomb The Music Industry!#BTMI!#Punk #Punk rock #Vacation

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redspiderling · 5 years ago

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MCU Breakdown: That b-roll called Endgame, part 2

This mess has been swirling around my mind all day and I can safely say that once I managed to block individual offences and look at the greater picture, I was able to reach a conclusion that might bring some peace to my mind and, hopefully, yours too.

We’re not here to once again simply exhibit how this movie failed to express itself in a visual way, we’ll go a step further because I’m an asshole like that.

We’re here to explain why the failure of visual expression cheapens the story-telling process and leads to an unfulfilling cinematic experience.

I’m adding a “read more” this time because I actually remembered to do it.

Let’s ease ourselves into this.

Exhibit 1: Not using any visual storytelling elements.

This is the moment Pepper realises Tony has figured out time travel. That they can -potentially- travel back in time and save trillions of lives. And it’s shot, like this

Like a picture from a furniture catalogue. I’m saying furniture catalogue not only because the shot is 80% furniture and 20% character. Not just because it is quite dark, and the pieces that are drawing the attention of our eyes are the various lamps and candles, bright and shiny in an otherwise brownish, muddy frame.

This moment hasn’t earned its existence in our minds as an emotionally charged one.

It’s not just that Tony was never the character who envisioned himself as someone capable of “settling down”. It’s that our brains have been trained for centuries to look for visual clues. The wringing of hands, the beads of sweat on a forehead, nervous gestures, restlessness. The symbolism of a storm in the horizon that trouble is coming. They’re all simple things but they’re layers upon layers of meaning.

The trouble isn’t just that the Tony we know is not the Tony we’re looking at. It’s that the way the story unfolds, visually, doesn’t fill us with dread. Instead we are left looking at an image of a somewhat peaceful existence void of any emotional charge.

How this scene represents the “enormous scientific revelation will restore balance to the universe but will potentially ruin our family” sentiment, is an enquiry for me to make and for the Endgame show runners to never explain.

Exhibit 2: Using visual storytelling elements wrongly

To move forward from that significant for all its insignificance moment, it’s old news in the fandom that Endgame took the concept of found family and kicked it to an alternate dimension.

What we are looking at here, is the New “But Actually Really Damn Old” Dream of the MCU: Typical affluent white heteronormative Heaven.

And yet that’s not the problem. It is a problem, in the general “this is the 21st century and it takes a bit more to impress us” sense, but it’s not a problem from the perspective of a story. You can tell good stories for us all to enjoy that begin and end with this narrative, as long as you do it well.

It is quite obvious that the basic concepts of visual storytelling are known to these people. And they do attempt to use them on occasion. We’re talking about visual clues that will help nudge the viewer in the right direction, so that when the moment comes, the viewer will have seen it coming and won’t get annoyed.

Thus one could easily assume any form of foreshadowing is better than no foreshadowing, right?

Perhaps. But from my experience, certainly not in this instance. This is one of the big problems with this film, it is not certain where to draw the line on just how much does the viewer know? Is this their first MCU film? Second? Did they see Cap 1 and skip the rest?

Our story tellers don’t use all the information they have provided us with, and that creates traps for them. Even when they do attempt to warn us for what is coming they create more trouble for themselves. Because foreshadowing needs to be consistent. And dead ex girlfriends who got married more than 50 years ago, are not a likely candidate for a love story in the mind of the viewers.

Visual story telling is crucial and it needs to be consistent. You can show me hints that I will pick up on.

Here's Steve in the Avengers. He's certainly a man out of time, with his old man clothes.

Thankfully, by the time the Winter Soldier appeared, he was fitting in quite well in the world. A modern man now, with a modern attire.

So I'm left to watch in bewilderment and wonder, why is Steve back in his old man clothes in Endgame?

When did this regression occur? Viewers are not idiots. Like I said, we are trained to pick up on visual clues, it's crucial to our survival in the world. If I see a monkey eat seeds from a tree and then die, I'll remember not to eat from that tree.

I see the attempt here. The lack of colour and hope in the frame where Steve gazes longingly at the old compass, the soft, dream-like orange of his perfect life with his little wife. I can take a hint. Do I want it though? Have you prepared me for it? Does it make sense in terms of the other visual clues you've provided me with over the years?

Exhibit 3: Shifting the responsibility

Did I mention how much Marvel lucked out with the casting?

There’s 0 visual language employed. There’s no symbolism, no light, colour or perspective of happiness, or hope, or hopelessness. The only thing between those two pictures that says Tony and Natasha are not having some really strange conversation with each other right now, is the expression on their faces.

The fulfilment Tony found in parenthood and Natasha’s heartbreak over Clint’s crimes is visible only through the talent of the performers, not through any visual clues the show runners left behind for us.

Natasha stressing

Professor Hulk and Dr Strange paying their respects

Clint’s guilt

Wanda remembering her dead loved ones

Complex emotional moments laid entirely on the shoulders of the actors. Which isn’t entirely a condemnable thing, talented actors can pull strong emotions from their audiences, but they can only do so much.

Lets reference a pop culture legend most of you will understand

We don’t remember Luke finding out the truth about his father just because Mark Hamill is a really good actor. We remember it because in that moment, Luke had been brought to his lowest point. He was worn from battle, his life was hanging from a thread. Darth Vader was looming over him, the personification of everything he hated and in that moment he found out that a part of him came from that evil.

That build up was the result of a well written script, of a masterful piece of music, a visual tone that brought us to the brink of a revelation. The performance was part of the tale that will be retold for generations.

In conclusion

While there have been literally dozens upon dozens of articles about fans and viewers and critics having “issues” with this or that in Endgame, the truth is that our real problem, is this mixed bag of hardly ever used, or wrongly used storytelling elements. One that has been building up to a disastrous result for years.

And while all that is the least of Endgame’s crimes in the eyes of a Natasha fan (I have a personal vendetta against the film at this point) I still can’t help but bemoan the loss of a singular opportunity for creating a milestone in cinematic history.

Because if we can’t revisit Endgame for its story due to a complete lack in originality, and we can’t revisit it for its visuals, we won’t revisit it at all. And with it most of the MCU will go down as a piece of popular media that took the world by storm, but won’t have much to recommend it 10, 20 years from now. And isn’t that a shame. Edit: If you’re wondering why they messed up this badly, there’s a long list of reasons:

This wasn’t actually planned ahead. They didn’t write all the films from the beginning, they were making things up as they went along, so they created pitfalls for themselves.

They ignored the visual language.

They went along with weak scripts.

For Endgame specifically, they did ridiculously extensive re-shoots, which resulted in messy set ups (misplaced items on set, badly lit scenes, bad special effects) and bad editing.

They bit off more than they could chew with the amount of characters presented on screen, and never managed to create complete and fulfilling storylines for them.

Finally, they allowed bigotry and sexism to affect their judgement, thus placing the viewer against their narrative.

#I think this is the kindest post I've made for this tag #endless endgame bashing #MCU Breakdown #I did not spend money on Disney products i.e. paying to watch this film when writing this post #the theatre ticket is shameful enough

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posthumanwanderings · 5 years ago

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here’s a very delayed write up about the PC-Engine aka TurboGrafx for its Japanese anniversary (October 30th 1987), the console that beat Nintendo and Sega out of the water in Japan but was virtually unknown in the west.

I’m certainly not alone on this, but my experiences with the PCE in the 90′s were near nonexistent. ok, I’ll just say nonexistent cause I never actually touched one back then : O however I’ll count gracing over GamePro magazines about this exotic (and super expensive) console and its games especially with the CD add on (I believe it was around $300+ and that’s not counting the money already dished out for the core system). knowing that Bonk and Bomberman still made it to Nintendo systems, I didn’t think I was missing much until I got a free Lords of Thunder VHS tape in the mail from I’m pretty sure GamePro or EGM. it was just a 7min tape interviewing peeps after they play it and of course game footage and I was blown away. no other system at the time could handle a game like that, and even the Sega CD version couldn’t do it justice (wondering why they even ported it to Sega CD tbh unless they knew there was no more hope for the Turbo in the west). around the time my brother and I picked up the Sega Saturn, I never thought about the PCE and those massive shmup and RPG titles I missed out on again, until a decade or so later...

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fast forward to 2007 when I bought my friend’s Wii that he already got tired of is when the PCE experience finally takes hold. getting high and playing Wii Sports was what enticed me and not knowing what game to pick up at first I went straight to Super Mario Galaxy. but it was the Wii’s Virtual Console shop that sold me as I was in my full blown nostalgia phase at the time wanting to revisit my oldschool gaming past, but also purchasing titles I never played before. alas, when I scrolled through the TurboGrafx-16 library, I not only got Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, but finally Lords of Thunder after seeing that VHS tape long ass time ago (which I forgot what it was even called and no one knew what I was talking about when I described to them a fantasy side scrolling shooter with metal music). the music, the unique style, the adrenaline inducing gameplay drew me in and made me get into the shmup genre more than I ever was prior. and then Rondo as well was a game changer, the 2nd Castlevania game I ever beat (the 1st being Super Castlevania IV) and simply one of the best soundtracks in the series.

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then, sometime around 2011 my best buddy @90scyberthriller helped me acquire a modded PC-Engine Duo at a good price and a HuCard TurboEverDrive to further expand the PCE experience. slap my wrist all you want for emulating, but when you want to play games such as Magical Chase or Sapphire which go for well over $300 for legit copy, I have no problem not supporting some rich ass nerd and instead just enjoy the games for what they are, not some collector item thing to show off on insta. now, for the big question... is it worth buying a PCE in the first place? yes.. if you mod it and get the TurboEverDrive which has probably gone up in price since I bought mine. also it doesn’t help if you HATE shmups or visual novels / RPG’s, since that’s what 90% of the PCE library consists of. I’m still discovering more about it myself, and having random playthroughs on another monitor inspires me to a degree for my backburner game project ideas for its bad ass intros and emphasis on cutscenes and other methods to really take you in the game. and that concludes the PHW’s PCE experience. if you have any memories or recent things to share about this unsung hero in gaming, please do so.

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#long post #pc-engine #pce #turbografx #turbo duo #game anniversary #text

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dailyaudiobible · 4 years ago

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12/04/2020 DAB Transcript

Daniel 11:36-12:13, 1 John 4:1-21, Psalms 123:1-4, Proverbs 29:2-4

Today is the 4th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is a joy to be here with you as we…well…prepare to round out another week. This week we've been reading from the Christian Standard Bible. That's what we’ll continue to do until the week is up, which…which is tomorrow. But we are here now, and the next step forward leads us back into the book of Daniel. Today we will read Daniel chapter 11 verse 36 through 12 verse 13.

Commentary:

Okay. So, yesterday when we were reading to the letter of first John we just formulated questions that were answered in the letter in our reading from yesterday and what began to emerge was this theme that love is non-negotiable in the kingdom of God. In fact, without love there’s no way to connect with God. Can we let that sink in for a second? Like I know sometimes we talk about these themes that get talked about often and they become cliché. And, so, we kind of tune out. We…we listen dimly. We think it's more of a reminder than something that's like a full front and center. And, so, we listen, and it just kind of passes by and it serves as a reminder, “yeah, I’m supposed to live and love. I’m supposed to love the Lord. I gotta do better. I gotta get around to that kind of thing”, when what's being talked about here is front and center, like there is no knowing God without love. And loving one another is the evidence that we know God. Can we let that sink in? Can we let that be front and center because it's absolutely paramount? So, I actually want to revisit again a portion of what we read today because the theme is relentless at this point and…and as we turn the page in today's reading it's not letting go. So, if this first letter of John we find in the Bible in the New Testament is being front and center and direct, then we should give it our full attention. And, so, I'm gonna reread some famous passages here. But can we put this front and center? Like, can we not listen dimly? Can we be present? Can this overlay our lives and then reveal to us what we must do from here? And, so, I quote. “Dear friends let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way, God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent His son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us, he has given us of His Spirit, and we have seen, and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world's Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God remains in Him and He in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and the one who remains in love remains in God and God remains in him. In this love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. Instead perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So, the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from Him, the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

Prayer:

Father, there’s nothing else I can say. You have said it clearly in Your word that's…it's clear…it's…it's not ambiguous. It's right front and center that this is the bed rock, that without this, without love, without love into the world for our brothers and sisters, without love that is active without actively loving people that we don’t love, without loving people that we don't agree with, without actively bringing Your love into this world we are wasting our time. And, so, come Holy Spirit, reawaken us here in these last weeks of this year to why we are here and what we are to do because our culture does everything possible to make us self-absorbed and self-focused, not because we need to be lifted up because that's the way to get our money. And we have been deceived. We are here to actively love the world and to bring light into the darkness. And this happens by our very lives, not by our very words this happens by the way we live our lives. It doesn't really even take a lot of words. It goes to the transformation happening within us. When this transformation reaches the tipping point, and there's no going back and we have been transformed and we are no longer who we were then we begin to see things as You see things, and how You hurt for the world is how we hurt for the world and the compassion and the long-suffering that You have for the people of the earth we have that long-suffering compassion, even for those that we absolutely do not see eye to eye with. Love covers a multitude of sins You say in Your word. Love is such a central thing and we just coast by it. We just live into it dimly because it's ubiquitous. We all know this is how it's supposed to go but it's time to become who we are supposed to be instead of struggling, struggling, struggling for the next decade trying to figure it out. It begins here. Love, love, love. Actively love as God has loved us. So, come Holy Spirit, this is not even remotely possible in our own strength. We can organize it and work it out for a half a day. We may be able to bite our tongue for even a week, but to be transformed until the default posture is first love instead of some sort of defensive position that we first, that we lead with love, we can’t do this without Your Holy Spirit. And it's not like You've been withholding. And, so, we have not been paying attention, and that we have been living dimly into this. Now we are awake. Holy Spirit come, show us how to love. May we actively love through the rest of this season and into the new year we pray. In the name of Jesus, we pray this. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here, it's the home of the Global Campfire.

It’s where the Prayer Wall is. It’s where the links in the Community section to different places to interact on social media lives. This is how you get connected.

But also, the Daily Audio…the Daily Audio Bible Shop is there. And, yeah, this is Shop time isn’t it, we’re finding the unique gifts for those that we love and figuring it all out and the Daily Audio Bible Shop is a resource to check out. There are some things there, especially for the journey that we’ve been on all year. So, there are written resources there, there are musical resources, there are video resources there, there are of wearables, apparel, there. All the different writing utensils that we have in the Daily Audio Bible Shop because we’re strong into journaling because the Bible continually invites us to remember, to remember things, to write things down or to pile rocks up as a memorial, to have memorials in our lives of things that happened that were like game changers, when the story changed. And, so, a modern version of that would be to Journal, to build a remember what that was like, what that felt like, what was going on. So, all of those resources are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, I thank you all my heart with a humble, humble gratitude. We wouldn't be here. We would not exist. We wouldn't…there would be no Global Campfire if we weren't all in this together. And, so, thank you profoundly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline…you can hit the Hotline button…I can’t talk…all of the sudden…you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everyone, this is Harold from St. Louis. I’m just calling in for a prayer request for my son Jonathan who is in Houston. He was taken to the hospital last night. He’s a type I diabetic. Basically, his sugar was over 300. He’s got a bit of an infection in his foot. They’re doing an MRI of his foot now, but they’ve already told him it looks like they might have to amputate his foot off. Just praying for him for strength and for healthiness and for courage and I just thank you everybody who will take the time out to pray for him.

Hey DAB family its Sky and Rebecca team Skybecca from Michigan with a funky black van named rhino. We just wanted to celebrate with you today that we’ve made it by the grace and strength of God to our seventh-year anniversary today. Yay. All praise and glory to God for all He’s doing in our marriage. We want to say a prayer of gratitude and blessing for all those who are faithful to their spouses and to God’s refining fire through their marriage. We would love prayers as we are leaving December 9th in our self-contained van and putting our few belongings in storage once again after losing everything in a large storage fire a couple years ago moving to Michigan to care for my dad. We are reminded again it’s good to lighten the load as we are only tent dwellers on this earth. So, Lord I pray protection over our belongings and for our family that we are leaving behind. I also pray for protection for us from COVID as we travel and safety over our van. And I would also like to pray continued healing for my older sister’s family, my aunt, Sue and Uncle Tim and my friends Sherry and Scott who are still recovering from COVID. And then also Lord we’d love prayers for all that we are to meet and share stories with and pray for along the way. And then last but not least love to have prayer for a new friend named Nina and her young family, her husband Johnny and the three little ones. Johnny’s recovering from a brain aneurysm and he needs surgery for another one. And, so, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit and Jesus would heal that aneurysm and it would disappear in the name of Jesus altogether.

Hey this is Micah in Awe in Kansas City. I just wanted to give a shout out to Sally or Stelly, I couldn’t hear your name that clear. They played your message on November 30th and you said you’re new to the DAB family. I just wanted to welcome you. I’ve been…I’ve only been here about a year and ½ but I love it here and I love my DAB family. All you other new listeners whether you called in or not, welcome and it’s great to have you and I know a lot of you are praying without calling in. It’s awesome to know that there’s praying happening…happening every day all the time.

Hello everybody it’s God’s Smile here. I’ve got some wonderful news for you. So, Maria had another attack, my helper. She had another horrible demonic experience and she turned to me and I was able to encourage her in the Lord and said I was praying and…and gave her a verse, a life verse for her to speak. And I just…just thank God for all that He’s doing in this young girl’s life. And I gave her the Bible and I showed her around it and I wrote her a card and so she…she read that and I gave her…I wrote down a lot of verses so that she can look up salvation. Not all of them of course because it’s…it’s a treat to find them yourself isn’t it? And when she went home, she’d only been home half an hour and she sent me a WhatsApp picture of the Bible verses she’s been reading. So, you know…she’s not fully got Jesus in her…insider her yet. I have challenged her. I said, do ask him into your life Maria. What have you got to lose? We’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain, haven’t we? So, I don’t think it’s going to be long. I really don’t. I’m so thankful for…just being able to share Jesus. It is the reason I live you know. It is the reason I live, to give his love and to reach those who are lost. So, please hold her and please thank Jesus for her life. Please cover her in prayer while we are dealing with this but I said to her…I said to her just quickly, when Jesus isn’t inside of you Maria the evil will say it and they will have __ . Anyway, times ticking away again. I’m so happy. Kiss kiss everybody.

Hello DAB, I just wanted to say hi to I think your name was Jaelyn, the lovely young person who sang that beautiful song to us and it aired on December 1st. I just want to thank you because that…that really gave me hope, you know, that we worry so much about the future but if the future includes kids like you who sing their prayers over a family of believers there’s hope. So, thank you. And I love you family. Bye.

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onestowatch · 5 years ago

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Tamino on Lana Del Rey, Personal Sacrifice, and Revisiting ‘Amir’

Belgium-based artist Tamino captivated audiences with the release of his debut album, Amir, earlier this year. His sound is a melancholy marriage of effortless guitar licks, the occasional note from the Arabic scale, and his spellbinding voice, which is both unique in tone and absolutely astonishing in range.

In the midst of a flurry of shows, he announced a deluxe version of Amir, complete with two brand new songs, “From Every Pore” and “Crocodile,” live recordings with the Nagham Zikrayat orchestra, demos, and live recordings from his show at La Cigale in Paris. The deluxe version of his album hits virtual shelves on October 18, but Tamino has continued his substantial tour schedule in the meantime, most recently playing shows in Tunisia and Egypt.

We sat down with Tamino at the tail end of his North American tour to talk opening for Lana Del Rey, his grandfather’s guitar, the difference between Western and Arabic orchestras, and more.

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OTW: How are you? You’ve been consistently on the move this year!

Tamino: The bike ride I just took did me well. We might do it in every city now. You see a lot of the city you’re visiting in a short amount of time. It’s really cool.

OTW: Are there cities that you’re looking forward to hitting on your upcoming tour?

Tamino: I’m very much looking forward to the Middle Eastern tour, because it’s the first time I’m playing in my Fatherland, Egypt. It’s the first time I’m playing in Morocco and Tunisia. We’re going to play some shows in Turkey as well. I don’t recall many artists who have gone there, and it’s a shame. There’s a lot of fans of alternative and indie music over there, so I’m looking forward to it.

OTW: Your show at the Moroccan was incredible. How did you learn to play guitar?

Tamino: My Belgian uncle taught me like three chords, I think they were A, B, and G. But then the rest of it I learned by myself, and I got some lessons too. I found my grandfather’s guitar in Cairo and I took it home, and that was the moment I decided I wanted to learn guitar.

OTW: Do you still play on your grandfather’s guitar?

Tamino: That one I use quite often yes. The resonator guitar, it was made in Egypt.

OTW: You’ve mentioned that your music features the Arabic scale, which can be new or confusing to the Western ear. How have Western audiences perceived that sound?

Tamino: Well, I myself am Western. Half of my family is Arabic, and I have a strong connection to those countries, but I grew up in Belgium. I only ever play for audiences who don’t know Arabic music well. I know the scales and what’s special about them, though I don’t consider myself an expert, but I think the way it comes through in my music is very natural. I don’t feel like Western crowds have difficulty with it at all. I think the songs are the most important thing, and it’s all about songwriting. The Arabic elements, a quarter note here and there, is not in the way of them experiencing the music in my opinion.

OTW: One of the most interesting things about being at your show was seeing the level of focus in the crowd. Your fans are clearly hardcore. Have you had any memorable fan interactions on this leg of the tour?

Tamino: All the time. They all touch me. What’s funny to see is that there’s people from all sorts of backgrounds and ages, I find that really cool. I also noticed that there could be people whose other favorite artists are hip-hop artists. There could be people who mainly listen to classical music, but they are all coming together at my show. I’m always amazed to see that. People travel from far to see the shows, because I’m not yet playing in every town. I don’t want them to have to travel that far. I’m hoping to play shows closer to their towns.

OTW: Do you have any pre-show rituals?

Tamino: I wish I had more of them! Today’s bike ride was really cool, maybe I will make it one of my rituals. I do like to warm up my voice for at least half an hour if possible. Scales and some improvisation before running a marathon.

OTW: Let’s talk about the deluxe version of your album, Amir. What sparked the decision to include the live recordings with the ones that were produced out?

Tamino: We did some live sessions with Nagham Zikrayat, the orchestra that recorded on the record. They play exactly like an Arabic orchestra from the 1950s, or before that even. They are very good at creating the same sound as back then, which I really love. They’re very nice and amazing musicians, so we recorded live with them in one room and we took some videos of that as well, which will be released soon. Then there are some demos and B sides on the deluxe as well.

OTW: When you work with the orchestra, what is your role? Are you acting as director, arranger, and conductor or are you letting them do their thing?

Tamino: I wrote all of the melodies for the parts, but I don’t know how to arrange for an orchestra. So I had an arranger come in and write down which instruments should play what, and he also conducted it. I was at the recording desk, listening, and would tell them if I wanted it a bit more dramatic or held back. The cool thing about Arabic musicians is that they will always do their own thing with it. They will play what’s written on the paper but add their own improvisational ornaments. We had one song played by two different orchestras actually, one Arabic and one Western. I would compare the versions and the difference was huge, totally different vibe, though they were given the same arrangements.

OTW: Did you have a preference between the orchestras?

Tamino: Definitely the Arabic. Not for every song though. For “Persephone,” I wanted a more straight dance on that one, so I went with the Western ensemble.

OTW: The last year has been very big for you, with the release of your debut album Amir being so successful. You also recently opened for Lana Del Rey! How was that?

Tamino: I supported her in Dublin, and it was a lovely experience. She is really, really cool and very kind. It was a total honor and I felt like the people in Dublin really embraced me. It’s always scary to do a support show because you never know if people will pay attention to you, but they were so nice and it was a great experience.

OTW: Can we expect any collabs between the two of you or is that just wishful thinking?

Tamino: I don’t know about any of that, I’m totally not in a position of assuming such a thing. (laughs)

OTW: You’re really far from home, what does your family think about the success that you’ve had?

Tamino: My father was a singer. His father was a big singer in the Arabic world. He understands, but my mom understands as well. They are very supportive. They just hope that I’m doing well and find it important that whatever takes me away from home has to be worth the sacrifice. When you’re in this profession, there is a lot of sacrifice, so it has to be worth it, you know?

OTW: What do you hope to do with music in the coming year?

Tamino: I have no answer for that, I only know that I’m going to take some time off and write new stuff and then come back. It goes where it goes. It reaches whoever it reaches, and I hope it reaches many. The way my life has been organized for the last three years has been a lot of playing, and there wasn’t much time to think about anything or write. So, I will probably fall into a black hole–into my time of rest, but then, afterward, I hope to come back with a new record and do some touring again—play bigger venues, reach more people, reach more places.

OTW: That will be a much-deserved hibernation. Finally, who are your Ones To Watch?

Tamino: That’s really difficult. I mainly listen to older music, if I listen to anything. The ones I have in mind are already big! I guess good music finds people, so they don’t need a shoutout from me.

#Tamino #amir #indie #alternative #singer songwriter #interview

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purplesurveys · 4 years ago

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921

LOL was gone for a while to attempt doing that ridiculous 5000 survey myself again and I really thought I was going to breeze through it this time. 2 1/2 weeks and 2500 questions later, I need a fucking break. Need normal surveys plz.

What was the best thing to happen to you this week? Got to visit Gabie today! I brought Cooper as well so that she, her sisters, and their puppy Tofu could finally meet him. Fun day, but I am beat. The blackout yesterday also made me revisit painting, and that felt so good too.

Where do you put your keys when you get home? It always differs, idk why I never picked up a routine. Sometimes I set it on the dining table, other times on the decorative table in the living room, and other times I bring it up with me to my room.

Do you prefer hot coffee or iced coffee? I preferred hot (warm would be more accurate) for the longest time but once I went iced, I never wanted to go back.

What's your phone background picture? I recently changed my lock screen to one of Audrey Hepburn. My home screen is still Hayley Williams.

If you could move to any country, what would it be? Anywhere with a clean and honest government sounds like heaven.

Have you ever seen a snake in the wild? No. Can’t say there’s a lot of them here in the city, and I’ve never seen any in my trip to provinces either.

What's your favourite movie from the 80s? Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Do you have any posters, paintings or other artwork on your walls? I have at least one of each of these, yes.

What would your dream wedding be like? Huge. I’d want a long guest list, expansive food choices, and acts that can provide good music throughout the evening. I never really throw parties for myself, so I would want at least my own wedding to be big.

Would you ever take a trip to space if given the chance? Yesssssss.

How do you cope with anxiety? I'm lucky to have found different outlets, so that said I usually choose from taking surveys, watching a favorite channel on YouTube, turning to my dogs, going to social media to see dumb memes, or taking a nap altogether. Of course there’ll always be those days where none of these work out and I’ll have to just cry through the anxiety attacks until they’re over.

Are you expecting any phone calls or emails? I’m expecting an email from my college, yes. I’m currently applying for civil service eligibility and they’re asking for documents that only the college can provide, so I emailed them a couple of days ago asking for assistance, and that’s considering we’re still under a lockdown and most offices are still under skeleton staffing.

What's the weather like in your part of the world right now? LOVELY. I actually wear oversized sweaters to bed now and I even managed to wear a thick denim jacket out today. The rainy weather has settled beautifully, and I’m perfectly fine with 24ºC-28ºC everyday.

What was the last takeout food you ate? My mom bought me and my siblings a chicken sandwich and chicken nuggets each from McDonald’s last week.

Who makes you laugh the most? Definitely someone from my college barkada. I can’t decide whether it’s Aya, Kate, JM, or Jum; they’re all equally hilarious as fuck.

Do you know anyone with the same middle name as you? See these questions are always weird to me because my country has its own naming customs; it’s basically a mix of American and Spanish customs. We have two first names (where Westerners would understand their second ‘first’ name to be their middle name) and our actual legal middle name is our mother’s maiden surname (which I think doesn’t apply at all in the Western world). So to answer this I’ll go with our own customs and say that no, I don’t know of anyone who has the same middle name as me. It’s not a very common surname anyway.

What did you have done the last time you saw a dentist? Had a tooth removed. I don’t think it was a wisdom tooth; it was just a tooth at the back of my mouth that had been in pretty bad shape for years but was only discovered at that time.

What does a successful relationship look like to you? I believe the formula is different for every couple. Like I value constant communication and checkups, but others might not feel the need to be clingy or update their significant others all the time.

What do you like to put on your baked potato? Don’t really have these a lot, but I remember when my mom used to make baked potatoes with bacon and cheese and those were unbelievably good.

What field of science interests you the most? Biology. <3 I’m sure I would’ve taken up medicine if I only wasn’t so bad in the rest of the sciences.

What's the closest shop or restaurant to your house? There aren’t any nearby shops since I live in a gated community, but once you get out of the village’s main gate, the first thing to the left is a McDonald’s. To the right is a small complex with a hair salon, burger place, music school, and one of those boujee stores that sell hype clothing.

Do you have any family that live in another country? So many relatives. We’re Filipinos, man. We migrate everyfuckingwhere. As far as I know I have family living in the US, Canada, Vietnam, Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

What colour is your couch? Gray.

Do you know how to care for plants and keep them alive? Not at all. Every single plant that I’ve been given as a gift or party giveaway has died on me.

What was the most memorable birthday you've had? 18th was awesome. Cruise trip, hotel stay with friends, Tiendesitas + noodle date with Gab. How I got away with three separate celebrations without my parents saying anything about it I’ll never know.

Would you rather go to the beach or the mountains? Beach. The area where I live is mountainous as it is; as someone who’s always lived and studied in the city, a trip to the beach in the province never gets old.

What do you do for work? I don’t have any yet but I’m waiting for openings for our national agency for either history, or culture and the arts. My plans have shifted recently and I’m now eyeing to work for either instead of rotting away while underpaid at a corporate agency.

Have you ever been to see the circus? No. I wouldn’t be interested either; they all just seem so harsh and unethical.

Are there any words that you hate or make you cringe? Sure.

What is the best house you've ever lived in? The one we live in today has been the most comfortable; but I also hold a lot of nostalgia for my dad’s parents’ house in Tondo because of how raw Manila life was there. Life wasn’t pretty, but it did feel real.

What was the first CD you ever bought? The first CD I actively wanted my parents to buy for me was probably the High School Musical soundtrack, heheh.

Do you look in the mirror before you leave the house? Yeah, always. Wanna make sure my shirt is tucked in properly (if it is), or that my jeans aren’t cuffed funny or whatever else.

What's the most unusual thing you've ever eaten? I’ve mentioned this before but it was the Indian dessert gulab jamun. Really did not expect the flavor that came in when it hit my mouth.

Have you ever seen someone quit their job in a dramatic way? I’ve never had a legit job, but when Jeuel quit the org a couple of years ago because of ~irreconcilable differences~ between him and us officers in the executive board it did feel a tad bit dramatic and passive-aggressive.

What movie reminds you of your childhood? Shrek 2 or The Game Plan.

Do you know why your parents named you what they did? The singer named Robyn was really big then and they ended up being fans of the name.

Do you have any bills that need to be paid? None of my own. My parents usually pay the family bills immediately, so I don’t think we have any pending payments for now.

What do you like to dip your fries in? Mayonnaise.

Is your house clean or messy right now? It’s always clean as my mom is extremely tidy.

What was the last email you received? It’s one of the job-hunting websites I’ve signed up for, giving me job alerts for new openings in my chosen industries.

Do you know someone who speaks without a filter? Yeah and I know people who do it responsibly and those who just come off as tactless.

Are you in any social groups? We call our college group the Daydrinkers, since our friendship began when we started constantly hanging out at nearby bars at like 2 PM, during our breaks lol. I used to be in a barkada in high school but Angela and I broke apart from that since we couldn’t deal with Athenna’s toxicity anymore, though I still keep in touch with most of them, like Chelsea and Kaira. Since then Angela and I have formed our own group consisting mostly of Angela’s friends from architecture and Hans’ friends from Ateneo.

How many hours of sleep did you get last night? Sigh, around 4. I don’t know why it was so few, but it also means that I’m currently drowsy as all hell at 9:03 PM. I will most likely turn in for bed after this.

What's your favourite kind of museum? Those that cover history, so museums that have artifacts and fossils and shit.

Do you believe in alternate universes? I like the idea, and I love literature that explores the idea of alternate realities, multiple universes, pocket universes, etc. Whether or not I believe they exist...idk. I don’t think about it that much in literal terms. < Yeah pretty much. Gaby Dunn wrote an amazing piece on multiverses and that was what got me to find comfort in the idea.

Whose house did you last visit? I was at Gabie’s place this afternoon. We had burritos, talked about career prospects, and puppy-sat our babies.

What games do you play on your smart phone? I turn to 1010 when I’m bored or anxious. I have like 30 other games but I never touch them lol, but I do keep them should the time be right to whip them out.

Have you ever been to Los Angeles? I have not.

What was the first concert you ever went to? Paramore, February 2013. I was a late bloomer; kids my age started going to concerts at least three years before that.

Do you know anyone who is colourblind? I don’t think so.

What's your favourite season and why? The wet season, because it’s colder and I hate the heat during the dry season.

Are you the youngest, middle or eldest child in your family? I’m the eldest.

If you had to make something for a potluck, what would you make? I recently watched this phenomenal recipe for 48-hour chocolate chip cookies that looked absolutely bonkers when they were done baking. I’d for sure give those a try for dessert. If that fails I’d just buy the food so that what I bring is more guaranteed to be good.

What kinds of decorations do you put up at Halloween? My family has never cared much for Halloween. It’s not even a legit holiday, so as much as I love Halloween I don’t think I would spend for decorations myself to decorate my own place. The only instance I imagine doing so would be if I have kids of my own who may want to get into the Halloween ~spirit.

How many tabs do you have open right now? In my current window, eight.

What's something you've been meaning to do but keep putting off? Taking another online course, just because it’s great to learn new things and earn free certifications while at it. I haven’t been doing a good job at being consistent with them, though.

What's the first thing you check on your phone at the start of the day? Facebook since it’s my primary social media now. Literally never thought this day would come.

Have you ever flown a kite? Yeah but it’s been a while.

Who was your favourite music artist when you were 16? This was the time I was slowly moving away from my punk phase and inching closer to Athenna’s music tastes, so I was into acts like Hozier, Banks, Daya, Twenty One Pilots, etc.

What are three things you usually always have in your fridge? Water, bread, eggs.

#survey #surveys

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dysphoric-affect · 5 years ago

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Actually, The Sequel Was Better

Often times, not just in gaming but with entertainment in any medium, there can be a tendency to look upon the first in a series as the definitive, superior entry, with all others to follow damned to never be able to measure up. The original titles gain an almost religious reverence and deference shown to them, with them continuing to be pointed to as the standard bearer for later titles to attempt to measure up to. Sometimes the original may indeed be the superior entry, but often it seems to me this consideration being shown to it truly stems from its place chronologically in the series rather than any objective consideration of its merits compared to the sequels, with the reasons for why being manufactured after the opinion is formed, rather than serving as the basis for it.

I dispute this whole notion. The original games in a series tend to excite because it is our first time being exposed to its various elements: the characters, big picture story of those characters’ world, the core gameplay mechanics, the set of weapons and abilities available, and so on. However, while these elements may be good, often the excitement that’s felt for them has more to do with the sensation of freshness from not having seen these things before compounding on their solid quality, rather than being as purely based on their quality as such “original is the best” devotees would lead you to believe. Essentially, when an original game in a series is good, we all will tend to enjoy a sort of “honeymoon” phase with it where we’re caught up by all its good qualities. Some simply remain in that phase, hence the loyalty to the original.

The problem with such unquestioning loyalty to the originals is that it misses the shortcomings they can and do often have, encouraging a stagnation that never fixes them. The thing about the first iteration of game series is that the ideas are just being tested out for the first time in the wild as it were, and things that overly complicate and slow down character progression, make the pacing of the narrative feel off, don’t satisfy in their depth on customization and so on can be missed during a studios internal testing and never discovered until the trial by fire that is being opened up to gamers to explore. Some of these mistakes could go to misjudgments arising from the studio, whether general bad calls or simply learning the nature of their new IP and what does and doesn’t work in how they should handle it. Other things aren’t mistakes at all in the short term necessarily, but with time giving greater perspective, namely from sequels coming around and improving on the formula, come to feel like mistakes, or it at least feeling like certain elements feel dated because of the various quality-of-life improvements and greater refinement those elements have been able to be shown with time.

On this other end, besides sequels being able to cut those bad or unnecessary elements and refine those solid but imperfect elements, they are also able to benefit from hindsight in having what new elements are introduced to excite players being based off that understanding and more likely to be more consistently well-executed, satisfying and exciting than the new elements in the original, which are inescapably a mix.

Undoubtedly some examples would make this whole case better than exposition, so let’s get into it.

Rock Band 2 is one of the simpler examples of the case I’ve been making. The original felt perfectly fine for its time, but RB2 expanded the base song list in the game natively as well as providing much greater support for expanding on that content with regular new DLC song packs to download, smartly making these available to buy in smaller doses rather than forcing you to buy an entire album or album’s worth of material, undoubtedly making them greater sales from fans more willing to part with a little spare cash for a song they love regularly while also satisfying fans with that formatting so they never felt obligated to have to spend money on unwanted content. This was a clever encouragement for replay value as well: checking back to see what new songs were added, seeing a handful you really enjoyed and getting excited about whacking out the drumbeats of one of these new options or watching your friend and “bandmate” attempt to do its vocals knowing he’d fail hilariously got you excited to play all over again. Speaking of your bandmates, the greatly improved customization system for the look of your characters and your instruments while performing and being able to use that in collaboration with your friends to come up with a look and feel for the in-game band you created together that you all loved was a really simply but greatly satisfying improvement.

Now, Rock Band isn’t a series that I do see the original being revered over the sequels with, but I wanted to bring it up to illustrate the point I was making more clearly about how sequels can benefit from the understanding of how the basics of a game concept have been received.

Now we can turn to a couple case that do more fully deal with the issue I’m talking about. One would be Pokémon. The Red and Blue Versions and the first generation roster of Pokémon are often held up as highlights of the series, not just by fans, but even in practice by those making the newer games, with new pre-evolutions or evolutions or forms for that generation’s Pokémon being implemented in the sequels that have occurred since in far greater numbers and with far greater regularity than any other generation. Yet...those games and that roster actually represent some of the weakest the series has had to offer. With the games more generally, the region design wasn’t particularly interesting in retrospect, there wasn’t much of a story to speak of, the battle mechanics - while not bad for their time - have been greatly outclassed by the later changes made to it, the representation of types was poorly handled in some cases - the one Ghost type line seeming weak to the Psychic types they were on paper supposed to be strong against or Dragon types seeming weaker to Ice than they were because of their only lines final form being extra weak to it, for example, and an extremely limited post-game involving one small new area to explore and one new Legendary Pokémon to catch. The biggest problem with that roster I already mentioned in the mishandling of the type distribution across the different lines in the games, but beyond that is just the simpler facts that subsequent generations have had more interesting designs, better typings and more interesting evolutions methods to attain them.

With almost every single specific element of those original games, putting aside the new features not introduced until later, we can find a sequel generation in that series which did it better: every generation except the fourth has had better region design, third and fifth had excellent world stories while the new eighth generation tells an excellent Gym Challenge-related story, second through fourth - with arguments to be made for others - made needed improvements on the core battle mechanics, basically every subsequent generation has had better type distributions across the new roster, and the second and third generations especially had excellent postgame content with revisiting Kanto for the former and the Battle Frontier for the latter greatly expanding the time you wanted to play beyond the Championship.

All of this, understand, isn’t to say the first generation of games or their roster of new Pokémon were bad, just that in comparison to what has come since, they are far from the pinnacle of what the series stands to offer you and certainly not deserving the infallible status some ascribe to them.

Now, let’s turn from Nintendo’s flagship franchise to Microsoft’s. With Halo it is considered considerably more contentious than with Pokémon to challenge the original’s superiority. To be fair, Combat Evolved stands the test of time better than Red and Blue versions do for Pokémon. The story’s tone of desperation juxtaposed with Master Chief’s badass capabilities and heroism is a great dynamic, which along with the sense of awe looking around the environments and the sense of exploration and decision on which objectives to approach and how all serve to be strong benchmarks for the series to make it a point to reach, either directly or in some equivalent sense. However, the reuse of multiple levels along with the general monotony of the Library level’s design, overly frail allies with questionable decision making hurting their survivability, often confused multiplayer map design that can complicate efforts to strategize with a team, and the overly centralizing Pistol and Scorpion making use of most other weapons and vehicles moot are all rough points to it.

Much was made of Halo 2′s more linear level design and cliffhanger ending, and to some extent not having more time to play as the Chief (though this has died for the most part over time) and it has some of its own unique problems, but what we do have makes it my overall favorite in the series: characters in general are more developed, new characters are interesting, the development of the backstory to your enemies is fantastic and remains relatively unique among all games I’ve played, the level variety is great and your objectives often feel more epic and important. The music within the Campaign is some of the best in the series, arguably its overall best, which does matter given its ties for setting the tone to accompany the narrative. With gameplay, the change to destructible vehicles and the ability to board them both looks cool and provides needed balance to their power while boost added onto Covenant vehicles helps differentiate the feel of them from the human vehicles better. Of course, there was also the addition of dual-wielding to note as well. As I’m a more competitive player, this isn’t something I made much use of personally, but it was aesthetically a really cool thing to be able to do and for my less competitive friends who enjoy the series is something they really loved and have missed since it was cut as a staple element from the series’ gameplay, so it certainly secured its place as a beloved element, too. Last, but certainly not least, is easily the best multiplayer map design the series has ever had. Taken together, this made for Halo 2 to be more satisfying overall - and certainly more satisfying long-term - than its predecessor. Other games in the series have also done various elements better than it, or even better than Halo 2 in some cases as well.

Ditto again on this kind of case when it comes to Sony’s flagship franchise in God of War as well, which notably goes out of its way more than any of the other series I’ve mentioned to not be beholden to the original as anything sacred and a baseline off which to model itself. The results here are telling: with greater character development and a more emotionally-driven story than anyone ever would have expected, a simultaneously more complex and more refined combat system, a satisfying upgrade system, revamped mission structure and much more, it has all the perfect ingredients to not just make it an excellent entry in that series, but the best yet, in spite of being the fifth. If a mentality of “the original is the best” had been held and it had been developed from that perspective, fans of the series and those the newest just drew in all would be devoid of this gem as it is, however.

There are of course other series - many more - to which illustrate my case, but I’ll consider these flagship franchises by the Big Three sufficient to make my case as is. Undoubtedly, you can think of other examples yourself. What all of these go to show is in actuality a relatively simple truth: sequels are often, if we are objective about their qualities, better than the originals and deserve to be respected as such. Being the first doesn’t inherently make something the best; that is only a status we’ve arbitrarily applied to how we approach thinking of games, or perhaps entertainment more broadly. Failing to take an honest look at how well sequels do on these different elements and the impact that has on their overall quality not only negatively impacts the individual gamer, who is preventing themselves from enjoying their games more, but also negatively impacts gaming culture, as it sends the message to developers that stagnation in the further work they do is not only acceptable, but to be encouraged.

When they aren’t encouraged to try bold new ideas they think could improve the formula for what a series stands to offer and instead play it safe, we are denied who knows how many exciting gaming moments we could have otherwise enjoyed, instead left with something akin to the original, but feeling more like a cheap imitation than a true sequel. In this way, that “original is best’ mentality becomes self-fulfilling prophesy, as we inadvertently encourage the very kind of lackluster experiences with sequels that can make the original seem like the best an IP can give us. I think we have a duty as gamers to take a step back more and instead of just being critical of games, also consider being critical of our thought process for how we approach looking at them for this kind of behavior and to rectify that when we find it within ourselves, for the sake of our own happiness and that of the gaming community.

So, the next time you find yourself thinking “the original is best,” look deeper. Maybe it really is. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll be surprised what you find.

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Thanks for reading! If you enjoy my content, please consider liking, commenting, following and especially reblogging so it can reach more people. Any support you show is greatly appreciated.

#video games #gaming #online gaming #nintendo #microsoft #sony #pokemon #pokemon red #pokemon blue #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #God of War #rock band #rock band 2 #critique #sequels

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growingpaynes-art · 5 years ago

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The Lion King 2019 Review: What I Liked, What I Didn’t, and How It Compares to the Original

Non-spoilery overview and note to anyone debating watching this-

If you’re looking for this film to give you something that the original didn’t, you will be disappointed. This is a nearly shot-for-shot exact recreation of the original for most of the movie. There are some minor changes, but no major differences in plot.

However

It’s definitely worth seeing- once on a matinee ticket at the very least- if you enjoyed anything about the original. It’s pretty faithful to the source material and the hyper-realism of the animation really is best viewed on a big screen. The comedy is solid, the changes they made to the story and characters were good decisions, and as a guy that was literally raised on the original movie and grew up loving every part of it, i did legitimately enjoy seeing this remake with my mother (who introduced me to the original when I was very little) and getting to share this story that I loved with my younger sister for the first time.

If all you are here for is the “Let’s Go Lesbians” guy you will be satisfied

Spoilers under the cut

What I Liked:

The visuals of the opening sequence alone are worth the price of admission. They’ve lovingly recreated the iconic intro nearly frame for frame in astounding detail. It really succeeded in taking me back to my three-year old self seeing the original for the first time on my family’s little box tv, captivated by the visuals and score.

Timon and Pumbaa were legitimately funny and are stronger characters than in the original.

They kept the aspects of Scar that made him sinister, conniving, and creepy without stepping into queer-coding territory. They also didn’t apply racial coding to him in the overt way they did in the original.

At first I was disappointed by Rafiki’s lack of a staff in the opening, but I was later pacified by its appearance for the final battle. I would however, have liked to see the “oh yes, the past can hurt” bit between him and Simba, which was absent in this version.

I felt that the introduction of the hyena characters in the elephant graveyard was stronger in this version, but i do wish that the chase scene had gone on for longer. It’s significantly shorter than the original, and the cubs don’t fight back like they did in the original.

The hyenas played a larger role where they had much more agency, and the relationship between them and Scar was on more equal footing. Shenzi was an especially welcome change, presenting a truly chilling presence easily rivaling Scar’s. Florence Kasumba’s performance really stands out. Additionally Eric Andre and Keegan-Michael Key’s hyena characters served as quality comic relief without any jokes straying into possible able-ism.

The ‘pinned-ya’ scenes were re-choreographed to be more like two kids wrestling and didn’t have the awkward sexual implications some people point out in the original.

This version offers a quick explanation as to why Scar is living with the pride despite the typical customs of real lions

The mouths were really animated very well, and were for the most part very expressive. They were a bit hard to track during the songs, but generally words were formed pretty believably in their mouths and expressions such as smiles or grimaces were rendered very clearly without looking foreign on an animal face. This was by far best achieved on Timon and the hyenas, but was decent on the lion cubs, Scar, and most of the minor characters as well. The other adult lions weren’t as expressive, but they’re weren’t terrible either.

The animation of Timon, Pumbaa, and the hyenas continually impressed impressed me throughout the course of the film. They were simultaneously the most consistently realistic looking and the most expressive. I honestly don’t understand why some people are coming for Pumbaa and saying he’s ‘nightmare fuel’, his design was both very friendly looking and accurate to real warthogs. He and Timon seemed to be the favorites of both the kids and adults in my theater.

The short scene where adult Simba gleefully pounces after a pair of butterflies and invites a scared Hartebeest hang out, oblivious to his own status as a carnivore, was pretty adorable.

Timon and Pumbaa were more or less confirmed to be a gay couple, and are shown with their own piglet during the ending sequence. This isn’t lingered on for longer than necessary, just long enough for you to appreciate how adorable the little striped piglet is, and thus it comes off as more genuine than performative allyship (it’s definitely better than Beauty and the Beast’s “exclusively gay moment” or Endgame’s Gay Joe Russo). It also helps that Timon isn’t being portrayed by a straight guy leaning as hard into the camp gay stereotype as possible. It was a moment that I, as a queer person, actually enjoyed.

What I Didn’t:

I felt that the musical score wasn’t as strong as the original. I wanted that first note over the sunrise to shake the theater, to bang across the screen in brilliant gold, and when it didn’t, I was disappointed. I felt this way regarding the score and soundtrack for much of the film.

While much of the dialogue matched the original nearly word for word, the delivery of most of it was much more subdued. I understand that they were going for a grittier tone that was less cartoon-y, but a lot of Scar and adult Simba’s lines seemed like they were mumbled off at the end of a work day and they’d just given up on trying to get a better take. Donald Glover seemed to teeter between Marshall Lee and complete disinterest a lot of the time.

I would have liked to have seen more of Rafiki than what we got, and I’d been hoping for an expansion on his role from the original rather than a reduction.

The “I killed Mufasa” bit was done very well- Chiwetel Ejiofor’s delivery of the line was chilling (although not as much as Jeremy Irons’), the expression in Scar’s eyes was very sinister, the light of the fire hit him just right. The following revelation of this truth to the lionesses however was bumbly, and seemed like it was originally written to be longer but was quickly and awkwardly condensed. It really didn’t flow as well as the original.

The end battle between Scar and Simba was anti-climactic. The choreography and visuals were much more creative and suspenseful in the original. The blows didn’t really have much weight or ferocity to them, and they didn’t coincide as well with the score. There also was no sick kick move, Scar literally just accidentally rolls off the cliff. The showdown between Nala and Shenzi is far better- it’s vicious and animalistic, with a few shots having them silhouetted with fire roaring behind them, Nala’s massive teeth shown off impressively in profile.

From the very first introduction of Scar, it’s strongly and very overtly implied that Sarabi is the one that gave him the scar after he attempted to advance on her despite her rejecting him. This is revisited again when he commands Sarabi to be his queen upon his assuming of the throne. She again rejects him. With this moment being played twice, I expected this to be a plant for a later third scene of Sarabi temporarily putting Scar back in his place, or at least threatening to take his other eye, to replace the scene from the original where he slaps her across the face. Scar and Sarabi do eventually come to blows as Simba and Nala return to Pride Rock, but it’s very brief and sort of just a clumsy grapple without a clear winner, and with no reference to their apparent backstory. This comes off as a case of planting without payoff. I expect that either a scene such as the one i described was originally planned and cut for time, or it was thought that the implications of such a scene might bring the film up towards a PG-13 rating.

I wish that in the more harrowing sequences, such as the elephant graveyard chase and the stampede scene, that we could see some real fear on the character’s faces. There’s some really good tensing of the body and some bared teeth, but there’s not much in the eyes. I feel the emotion would have been communicated better if the pupils were dilated, if the eyes were darting back and forth with the whites showing at the edges occasionally, the ears flattened down hard against the head.The child actors put forward some really believable fear and sadness through their voices, but the faces just didn’t quite match it. I do however understand that this is a kid’s film, and that showing a hyper-realistic lion cub gripped with sheer terror or coming to the understanding of the gravity of death is probably too much for most young kids. I personally just prefer to have truly heartwrenching, impactful, and emotional scenes in the media I consume, and I often walk away unfulfilled in this respect (although, i admit i am very difficult to please in this area- i’ve been a die-hard mcu fan for the better part of a decade and i left my first watch of infinity war almost completely unaffected.)

Continuing from the last point- The eyes on most of the characters were very static. They rarely blinked, only really looked straight ahead and lacked any range of expression beyond neutral and slightly squinted. The expression of emotion could have been greatly facilitated by the use of the brow muscles, dilating and contracting of the pupils, more squinting and widening, some side-eye or eye-rolling, etc. Even using some more body language would have made a world of difference (for example- an excited cub wriggling with excitement, his paws shifting and his little butt scooting in the sand because he just can’t contain himself, his shoulders shaking with high-pitched giggles) Emotion was delivered quite well through the mouths, but almost not at all through the eyes. This made the scene where Simba discovers his dead father especially awkward looking. JD McCrary delivers some heartbreaking cries and a few tear-choked lines, and the little cub body shakes and cowers, but Simba’s cgi face retains a completely neutral expression. Its a very cute, and perfectly realistic face for a lion cub, but it’s a face that feels inappropriate for this context. Adult Simba and Nala are the worst offenders in this respect. Simba looks almost like a plush doll, almost never changing expression at all. Nala looks superbly hyper-realistic, but... too realistic. She’s as perfect of a cgi lioness model you could possibly ask for, but because of this, there’s no intelligence in her eyes for some of the shots. It’s strange and distracting to hear a human voice come out as her mouth moves realistically while the eyes retain a vacant animal stare. This is really weird to me as there are multiple moments in the film where they absolutely nail the eyes- the sequence where Simba chases Rafiki through the dense jungle, several shots of Nala sneaking away from Pride Rock by moonlight, the close-up of Scar as he reveals to Simba that he killed Mufasa. The commonality between these shots seems to be strong directional lighting, where light from the moon or a fire can catch the irises and make the expression in them really pop. Closeups of Mufasa’s face showed that they had unprecedented control of the facial muscles- they moved with intricate complexity under the skin and fur- and yet the eyes were blank. It’s disappointing that they clearly had the capability to get the eyes right and apparently just didn’t allow the cg artists enough time to apply this consistently.

The slow motion zoom away from Simba’s face as he watches his father fall from the cliff face is admittedly ridiculous looking in cgi. This “long live the king” doesn’t come anywhere close to the original. Mufasa’s climb up the cliff is pretty good, but the fall feels flat and unemotional.

The sequence tracking the wad of Simba’s hair went on for too long.

The story seemed much faster paced than the original, and each scene seemed to be too short, leaving me wanting more. Some of the scenes feel awkwardly chopped or condensed, and some of the dialogue is a bit bumbly. This movie kinda relies on you being very familiar with the original.

#lion king #the lion king #lion king spoilers #lion king review #review

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bardiisms · 5 years ago

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kristine froseth , cis female — DON’T LOOK NOW , but is that ELENA TALIESIN? you know , the TWENTY THREE year old BARD? SHE resides in AURA these days. i hear they’re quite VIVACIOUS , but i wouldn’t trust them. they’re also known to be GUILE , and on the brink of war you just can’t be too careful. if need be , call them the SIREN ; in this land , that’s what they’re known for.

DOSSIER / PINTEREST

TWENTY THREE AND ALREADY RENOWNED , you would think elena taliesin had been born a bard. in actuality , her true origins are a far cry from a childhood of music , storytelling , and history. elena was born into a family of farmers in acacia. though not known for its agriculture , people still needed to eat in acacia and the taliesin family provided to the small population around them. her childhood mainly consisted of hard work from dawn to dusk , with little time to play or enjoy herself.

the exception came in the form of WANTED CONNECTION , the person who would become her mentor and guide her through the world of bards and minstrels. they visited the farm frequently to share their adventures with their relatives / family friends and passed on their wisdom to elena. they sparked her love for history and music , teaching her how to play the lute and sing notes in tune and telling her epic legends and stories. their visits were the first memories in which elena remembers wishing to be a bard. of course , it was only a fantasy at that point. though she did hang onto the skills she learned from this person , playing her lute into the night or singing while she helped on the farm.

however , she had a duty to her family and her kingdom. she fulfilled her familial duties first , tending to the farm with her parents , but when she came of age she was sent to receive military training. it was a different world in training and elena felt distant from all that was comfortable and familiar to her. though she was taken care of , she was unhappy and counted down the days to her release.

it seemed , when she turned eighteen and returned home , that even her childhood home lost its familiarity. during her absence , her parents endured seasons of bad harvests and thus fell into debt when they had no choice but to borrow money to survive. the animals had been sold off , the number of fields planted halved , her parents were quieter . . . sadder. but they did not want their daughter to get caught up in their debts and so they asked elena’s MENTOR ( again , wanted connection! ) to take care of her, rather than leaving her to fend for herself.

elena moved to AURA with few plans. it wasn’t until her mentor suggested learning a craft that elena revisited her dreams of becoming a bard. she was rusty but eager and a good entertainer. having always been scrawny ( until military training ) , elena had needed to prove herself in other way -- humor and stories and dramatics. thus began her career as , first , a traveling musician and later a bard. her and her mentor traveled from pub to pub , entertaining small towns in aura until she was introduced to the right ( read : wealthy ) people.

elena truly hit her stride when she turned twenty one and met the person that would become her most loyal BENEFACTOR ( another wanted connection! ). they were the one who introduced her to high society , even nobility in some cases. elena was no longer a small name bard but rather popular in her circle of entertainers.

over the years elena has collected money to send back to her parents in order to help them but has been unable to locate them , letters sent to the farm go unanswered. she fears what happened to them as well as if she is wanted by acacian debt collectors.

the way elena conducts business is . . . interesting to say the least. as i said she’s an entertainer and as she grows more popular , she becomes greedier. she thrives off of the fame and if it wasn’t for her worries about her parents’ wellbeing she might have forgotten her old life long ago. elena is attached to the glitz and glamor of being a bard and attending balls and galas. she has lost her innocent love for the art. she’s not above flirting or playing dirty to get what she wants and that’s where she gets her title , the siren , from. she’s been known to manipulate people and use them for their status or wealth :)

oh my god i just realized how long this is lakjsfldf i’ll stop there because as of right now elena is mostly traveling and performing. i have a bunch of ideas for connections so pls hmu !! i can tell you a bit more about her if you im me !

#i may have accidentally deleted my application so i forget the positive trait i used but this is close enough :)#an hour in and i'm already a mess;)#sorry it's so long alkfdjsljf #cavalry:intro #⌜ ✰ ⌟ *・ﾟ STUDY . ⤻ 〈 half goddess half hell 〉

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ahgaseda · 6 years ago

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the hot tea || chapter 05

⇥ synopsis : your best friend, Jackson, never fails to argue against your apathy toward love and romance, but his plan to confess his true feelings toward you is rudely interrupted when you start a blog chronicling your past relationships...

⇥ warnings : this story in its entirety includes but is not limited to strong language and dialogue, recurring alcohol or drug use, and explicit sexual content, and is intended for an adult audience only!

The windows behind you were open and an autumn breeze filtered through the screens. Though your apartment was considered small by many, you never felt cramped. The expansive windows seemed to help greatly with that, but you also opted for a minimalist approach in decorating your space. Krystal had a knack for interior design and even though you teased the shit out of her about it, she really knocked your apartment out of the park with her style.

Seated at the desk with the warmth peeking through the sill at your back, you finally heard movement in the bedroom and a smirk tugged at your lips. Typing away, you gave your guest a brief glance before returning to your document and quipping, “Rough night?”

Jackson, donning only a pair of low-hanging shorts, ran a hand through his messy hair and groaned, “Were you trying to ride the soul out of me?”

“I think it’s safe to say I came pretty close,” you teased, winking at him with a wry smile.

Jackson crossed the living room and plopped down on the sofa, leaning back and sighing loudly, “Fuck, I’m exhausted.”

You giggled. It was the weekend, which you and Jackson sorely needed. Days off were always spent catching up on rest and relaxation. Rough sex aside.

Comfortable silence filled the room, broken only by your fast-paced typing. You wanted to finish up the newest blog post, knowing your partner would start whining about breakfast and coffee rather soon. The boy needed to recoup his energy.

A moment later, Jackson called, “Hey, Squish?”

“You read it,” was your reply, knowing your loud keyboard pounding would undoubtedly bring up the blog.

Jackson nodded. “I did.”

You peered at him over the top of your laptop and asked nervously, “What did you think?”

“I’m surprised he ever spoke that much,” your best friend retorted, chuckling at Mark’s expense.

You snickered, but you knew Jackson was tight-lipped on what else he noted. Truth be told, he was taken aback by your timid nature as he had only known you after the world hardened you into the woman you were now.

Jackson fixated his eyes to you, full of curiosity, and asked, “What chapter comes next?”

Hesitating, you murmured, “Are you gonna…”

“What?” he questioned with a tilt of his head.

You exhaled loudly. Then, you said, “You’re the jealous type.”

Jackson cocked a brow and teased, “Am I?”

“Are you gonna be… okay reading this shit?”

Jackson tried to keep his voice level and diplomatic. “You mean reading about you having sex with other guys?”

You shrugged, but he sure did cut to the chase better than you did. “Basically.”

Jackson situated himself on the couch, elbows on his knees, and told you, “I’ve actually decided I’m not going to read any further.”

That was the last thing you expected him to say. “You’re not?”

“It felt really personal,” he said, wholly sincere. “Like I was reading your secret diary or something.”

“I gave you permission,” you reminded gently.

“Still.”

You simpered, grateful for his honesty. “Alright. I won’t hold it against you.”

Jackson smiled back and finally got to his feet, approaching to leave a sweet kiss on your forehead before sauntering into the kitchen in search of coffee.

Most guys would hit it and quit it, but not Jackson. Affection was such a staple in his personality. Even though your relationship with him was restricted to terms of best friends who fucked quite often, you trusted him wholeheartedly and with the highest confidence. And that train of thought led you into your next post.

After revisiting the last chapter, I may have painted a skewed picture of boyfriend number one. Macchiato wasn’t a bad influence. In fact, he was a really good influence and one of the few people that could rein me in. When I moved for the umpteenth time, I tended to adopt bad behaviors as a way of coping. Macchiato soothed those urges, like a soft blanket for a fussy child.

That being said, he was still such a complex mystery to me at times, but the one consistent aspect of him that I never had any doubts about was that he was a good person at heart, despite how things ended. That made me trust him and given that trust was one of the hardest things for me to give, my feelings for him only got bigger and more obnoxious...

The party was loud and chaotic, and you expected nothing less. Celebrating the transition from high school to university had to be celebrated in the most raucous way manageable; full of stupid mistakes and too much alcohol.

Naturally, you had been skeptical. It seemed like a breeding ground for rich kids to vape and swap saliva with everyone in sight. Not that you were judging, it just wasn’t as entertaining as it sounded.

Holding a plastic cup full of rum and Coke that you had barely put a dent in, you pretended to be interested in what Hyunjin was saying to you. He was obviously emboldened by whatever liquor was pumping through him and had no idea he was speaking too fast for you to actually understand.

Mark had wandered off in search of a hit of his favorite medicinal herb. You didn’t mind given, you know, you weren’t in a relationship with him or anything. Everyone knew he was your best friend since the two of you were glued at the hip at all times, but he had never made any moves to be something more.

Much to your chagrin, that thought stuck in your mind and you frowned. Meanwhile, as the music grew louder, Hyunjin moved closer and you were too dazed in your thoughts and boredom to notice until it was too late.

Wrapping an arm around your waist, he leaned in and murmured in your ear, “You can do a lot better than Mark Tuan.”

“Excuse me?” you questioned, trying to move back when you realized how much he had invaded your personal space in the last few seconds.

The grasp around you was solid and you didn’t get far. Hyunjin moved in again and you could feel his breath on your neck. “A beautiful girl like you deserves someone who knows how to make her happy,” he added, surprising you.

“Mark and I,” you stammered, flustered and a little confused. “We aren’t…”

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Suddenly, Mark charged into your peripheral vision, taking your hand and tugging insistently. “Come with me,” he said, clearly in a rush.

Hyunjin stood there gaping before swearing loudly in annoyance as you were stolen away from him in the blink of an eye.

“Where are we going?” you exclaimed, struggling to keep up as Mark ducked into the adjacent hallway with you in tow. His timing could not have been more perfect, in your opinion.

Mark grimaced. “Nayeon wants to make out with me.”

“You hate her,” you deadpanned, bile of jealousy lingering on your tongue.

“Exactly,” said Mark, holding tightly to your hand as he opened the door to a closet and led you inside.

The moment he closed the door you were greeted with pitch-black darkness. Mark could be heard shuffling about, muttering to himself about a light, and then making a pleased noise when he managed to find the switch.

A dim little light bulb buzzed to life over your heads and you took one look at your partner in crime standing within arm’s reach of you. Your heart sank. For so long you had stifled these feelings for him. You didn’t want to be the friendzoned girl that tried to give herself a promotion. Most importantly, you didn’t want to lose your best friend because of some dumb, unrequited crush.

“Mark, what am I to you?” you blurted, immediately regretting it.

He met your eyes, having been glancing at the flickering light overhead. “Huh?”

“Like… I don’t know,” you murmured, anxious. “Do I mean anything to you?”

There was a pause and a somber look came over Mark’s face. In a heartbeat, he seemed to be as unnerved as you were and that was slightly comforting.

Finally, he confessed, “Yeah, you do.”

You blinked in astonishment, butterflies fluttering in your stomach. But that could mean anything, your mind swiftly rationalized. As you battled with your feelings, you were in too much of a haze to realize Mark was inching nearer and nearer.

His face was dangerously close to yours and you panicked. Was he was coming in for kiss?

“Mark,” you huffed a little too sharply.

He stopped still, frozen like a statue of himself. “Yeah?”

Swallowing the lump in your throat, you confessed, “I’ve, uh, never kissed anyone before.”

His eyes widened slightly, taken aback. “Really?”

You nodded. Getting attached to people was too risky with the way you moved. You never knew when your father would be stationed somewhere else and you would have to say goodbye.

Which made your feelings toward Mark all the more special to you. This was uncharted territory, because you had never allowed yourself to connect with someone. It hurt too much when you had to leave them.

Mark was like you. A loner, a cynic, and someone that was terrified of love, because of everything that came with it.

“Oh… um…,” Mark stuttered. The expression you were wearing finally pieced together in his mind. He had spooked you and that was the last thing he wanted.

You called his name, the silence growing thick with tension.

Mark spoke up, “You probably want your first kiss to be with someone special.”

“I do,” you replied, heart ready to burst out of your chest.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

You stepped toward him and leaned in, your lips meeting his in a quiet smack. Pulling back, you studied his face for a reaction, giggling when your nerves became too much.

“How was that?” you asked, grinning with embarrassment.

Mark sported a blank look until a smile took over. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you flush against him. As you cried out in surprise, his mouth was on yours and you melted into him.

This was a real kiss. Not like the innocent little peck you had just given him. His lips collided with yours, driven with hunger and excitement. You couldn’t help but smile, which made the kiss messier, but so very worth it.

You leaned into him, matching his energy as best you could. This was a high unlike any you had known before. With the feel of his skin against yours, his arms wound tightly around you, you had never felt more wanted than you did in his embrace.

Mark broke from the kiss first, touching his forehead to yours and sighing, “I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while.”

You scowled playfully and teased, “You lie.”

He chuckled, the sound a deep rumble in his chest that vibrated into your own. “I’m serious,” he whined.

“So…,” you whispered, noticing the closet was getting much warmer than it had been a moment ago. “What happens now?”

Mark shrugged, but you had never seen him so happy. “We could, I don’t know, keep kissing?”

“I’m okay with that,” you said, wrinkling your nose. You were soaring, dancing on clouds like a love struck puppy. This was new and exhilarating and you never wanted it to end.

Mark bit his lip, fighting a smile, but it was all too obvious. He cupped your cheek with one hand while the other glided to the lowest curve of your back and he gave you a gentle kiss that promised much, much more.

Suddenly, the door was thrown ajar loudly and a number of partygoers peered inside to sneak a glimpse at your antics. Not hampered by alcohol, your reaction time was swift as you braced both hands on Mark’s chest and pushed him back, your cheeks hot. Mark scratched the back of his head, feigning indifference and raking his tongue across his teeth.

“Oh my god, they were making out in the closet!” yelled Hongseok at the top of his lungs.

Mark promptly reached out and grabbed the knob, pulling the door closed and making sure the damn thing was locked.

chapter 04 ⇤ chapter 05 ⇥ chapter 06

Hey there, beautiful! If you enjoyed this, please leave a like or reblog or follow me! Or maybe buy me a coffee so I can keep writing? Or check out my masterlist here for more stories! Thanks for reading :) - Katya

This work is fictional and for entertainment purposes only, but is licensed and protected under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. Any instances of plagiarism will be dealt with accordingly. Do not re-post or translate without my permission.

#got7 fanfiction #got7 smut #mark tuan smut #jackson wang smut #got7 fanfic #mark tuan fanfic #jackson wang fanfic #got7 imagines #mark tuan imagines #jackson wang imagines

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artificialqueens · 6 years ago

Text

i don't want to be alone anymore (branjie) -- frenchy

a/n: hi hi!! i want to thank you all for the love on my first part of this story, i appreciate that more than you know!!! i decided to give it a second part, though both can be read on their own. & yes i am running this billy joel song title theme with the names. ps. i can be found at alaskathunder on tumblr & also now at frenchys on ao3, where these will end up eventually, along with others, i definitely plan to write more things & pairings soon. hope y'all enjoy, angels!! <3

@Bhytes1: @VanessaVanjie I’m going to Starbucks you want something?

*****

Brooke wasn’t sure how they did it, how they proceeded to shamelessly flirt online as if their private kiss hadn’t even happened only a few nights ago. If it wasn’t for the video evidence, she could have sworn that entire night was a fever dream. Part of her almost wished that she didn’t remember it so vividly, that the way Vanessa touched her and kissed her with no audience wasn’t so detailed in her head. Wished she didn’t have to stop herself from smiling when she remembered it.

It was one thing remembering and thinking about the kiss – she couldn’t change that that happened, and that she didn’t stop it. If anything, she wanted it. She knew it was partly on her for leaning into it, and for getting upset that it hadn’t lasted even longer. She couldn’t blame Vanessa for that. But she could blame Vanessa for what she said.

“At some point we have to quit pretending like this is only for the fans.”

If Brooke thought she was over analyzing these social media interactions before, she was even more fucked now. She only assumed this is how the fans felt on the daily, trying to decipher everything, trying to figure out if this was all Vanessa playing into the contract or using it to hint at how she really felt. How she still felt.

It was futile to put any music on as she took her time getting into drag for the viewing party tonight, where she’d be joining Phi Phi O’hara in a screening of episode 5 – the Monster Ball. No attempts at turning up said music could stop her mind from being only focused on Vanessa, on the moment they shared, on the fact that she had to spend another night reliving the honeymoon phase of their relationship on a giant screen in front of an audience.

Just as Brooke anticipated, it was rough. No. Rough was an understatement. She was conscious of how often she gazed dreamily into the screen, star-eyed. Watching them kiss, and comfort each other, and not be able to predict their fate.

She didn’t expect anyone else to notice, too.

“Can I ask you something? Without you getting defensive?” Phi Phi asked after the episode and Brooke’s consequent performance, standing against the closed dressing room door. She kept her distance, her prodding question accompanied by a sensitive color in her voice. Brooke knew she was trying her best to sound open minded, borderline empathetic.

Brooke sighed. “Shoot,” she encouraged the other queen, but didn’t look up. Phi Phi’s second question was enough to warn her that this wouldn’t be a lighthearted conversation.

“If it wasn’t for the fans. Or the publicity, or the ratings, or the – you get the point,” Phi Phi cut herself off, presuming that Brooke heard enough synonyms. “Would you care?”

Brooke stopped fiddling with her bobby pin, blinking up at Phi Phi through the mirror. “What do you mean?”

“Would you be able to stop all this weird, mysterious twitter stuff tomorrow and not give it a second thought?” Phi Phi wasn’t sure if Brooke was just deflecting, or if she was really that far removed from reality and genuinely needed the simplifying. “Not miss him in your life?” At the use of ‘him’, Brooke knew this was deeper than just not having Vanjie as a fellow queen and friend. “I know it’s none of my business, but if you could see what I saw – the way you watched that episode out there tonight – you’d be asking the same thing.” Phi Phi shrugged, and Brooke hated her for it. She hated how easily Phi Phi could get into her head and understand. Worst of all, she hated how Phi Phi saw it her duty to confront Brooke about it. Maybe she’d thank her in the future, but for now she was brimming with frustration.

“I don’t know. I don’t know, okay?” Another sigh, this one inspired by her own irritation and defeat. “One second we’re flirting and both understanding that we need to stop it before it goes too far. The next we’re –” Brooke stopped, closing her eyes as to stop herself from admitting to Phi Phi what went down the other night. Was it even a big deal? As big as she was clearly making it in her own mind?

“You’re…?” Phi Phi lifted an eyebrow, coaxing Brooke’s frustrated rant. Feelings could be spared for the truth.

Brooke took a deep breath, steadying herself, hands planted onto the table. “We kissed. Like, actually kissed. And I don’t know what her intentions are.”

“Well, I recommend figuring that out. Maybe talk to her? You guys are clearly not on awful terms, how hard could that be?” Phi Phi pressed.

You have no idea, Brooke thought. “Yeah, I’ll try. Thanks, girl,” Brooke smiled at Phi Phi, hoping her appreciation was evident.

*****

She was thrilled to finally share the photos taken of her Monster Ball looks, looks that proved successful in the challenge. She was especially thrilled at the comments regarding her final look, the one that she had fabricated herself. A storm of tulle and black fabric, off the shoulder, with a snake wrapped tastefully around her neck. The more she looked at it, the more critical, but she would defend her win.

She scrolled through the comments, smiling at the sufficient compliments and praise. How would she ever stop being appreciative of everyone who appreciated her back?

Her finger stopped scrolling upon seeing Vanessa’s Instagram handle, a blue check verifying it wasn’t a fan account.

@vanessavanjie: Put my snake around ya neck

She didn’t know whether to like it, comment some orange heart emojis and move on or to roll her eyes after what had happened the other night.

She chose a third option.

If Vanjie wants to keep playing this, then fine. I’ll play along, she thought before hitting send on the comment.

@bhytes: @vanessavanjie haven’t we already done that?

Brooke barely had time to think about the repercussions of her remark before she received a text, shocked at the speed at which Vanessa saw the comment.

Vanjie: Careful there Brooky Poo

Vanjie: Don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea

Brooke felt her heart rate speed up with no gradual increase, immediately beating fast enough to shatter through her rib-cage and land across the room only upon reading Vanessa’s messages. She took a deep breath and typed, then retyped her message a few times, wondering if Vanessa was watching the dots disappear and reappear. Wondering if it was killing her just as much as it was Brooke. When did they turn into giddy teenagers again, instead of professionals with a common goal?

Brooke: What if i do?

She decided against adding a winking face to the end of her reply, but it didn’t stop her from immediately locking her phone and throwing it to her side. God, she needed a cigarette. And maybe a cold shower now. She’d revisit that idea depending on what her phone read next.

As if on cue, she heard the buzz of the phone ring through the bed. She took a minute to gather herself – or prepare herself was maybe the better way to put it. With a reluctance she could only blame on her fear of misunderstanding, Brooke let her hand approach her phone again. It was silly, she thought, how she could fear misunderstanding Vanessa’s intentions even after her initiation of the kiss making it fairly clear how she felt about them.

Vanjie: Oh

Two minutes ago. Brooke tried to ignore the way her heart dropped at the one-word answer; one she couldn’t even see herself replying to in a way that made sense. Maybe it was best left there, and Vanessa really was just adding a playful comment that held no substance.

She was moments away from plugging her phone in for the night and setting it aside with an air of defeat, when it buzzed in her hand. A message from Vanessa. She held her breath as she slid to open it.

Vanjie: You home?

She never exhaled quicker, and never replied quicker, either.

Brooke: Text me when you’re here.

Brooke couldn’t have anticipated what came over her to make her invite Vanessa to come over, if not beg her to come, following her last text with a sharing of her location and hotel room number. All she could do was thank the universe that they were in the same city, which was rare considering their consistent interviews, appearances and performances.

She didn’t think she had been this nervous about something since they first began seeing each other, minus possibly the night that the cast was revealed. And deep within she knew that perhaps her nerves were fruitless – what guaranteed that she and Vanessa would even do anything beyond talk? She wouldn’t dare get her hopes up based on an Instagram comment that was no different than their usual flirt-mance. But she also knew that she had to take this opportunity to confront this, whatever it was.

It wasn’t long before she heard a faint, yet urgent, knock on the door, though it felt like forever. Rolling her eyes, Brooke made her way to the door to the room, opening it with a look of counterfeit annoyance. “I told you to text me when you got here, bitch.”

“Shut up,” Vanessa was quiet, fondness diminishing the harshness of her words. “Can I come in or not?”

Brooke stepped aside, allowing Vanessa to pass her and enter the dimly lit hotel room. Brooke watched her for a moment, so caught up in the way she smelled and the way her hat sat backwards on her head in the most endearing way possible that she almost forgot to close the door.

“Don’t forget to put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign out,” Vanessa called behind her, laughing to herself before taking a seat on the edge of the bed, looking up at Brooke, who followed her into the larger area. Vanessa’s laugh didn’t linger after seeing Brooke’s humorless expression. “I was kidding.”

“You have no idea how hard it was, Vanjie, to watch that episode up there. Phi Phi actually clocked me, y’know. The way I looked at you up there. No doubt some of the fans did, too. It was the hardest thing. You don’t even know.”

“You think I wasn’t watching the same episode? I never said it was easy for me, Brooke,” Vanessa didn’t let her continue, nor did she let the incredulous laugh leave her lips, in fear of making Brooke more upset. “I don’t like watching it either.”

“I think I’m confused,” Brooke didn’t mean to change the topic so abruptly, but this had been bugging her for days. “This was your idea. It was your idea to take a break – said you knew the ‘pressures that came with TV’,” Brooke’s immediate dive into the deep end caught Vanessa off guard. If she knew that her visit would turn into her own interrogation, she would have stayed home. “You were the one who said this wouldn’t work, Jose,” Brooke stood her ground, arms folded across her chest. Vanessa didn’t like the way she looked down upon her. Cringed at the way her real name was used. “Why the change of heart?”

“It’s not a change of heart,” Vanessa countered, eyes lit with a newfound boldness. “It’s the… same heart, just. Tired of hiding it. Which, we can keep doing it, we don’t gotta tell anyone anything. But, B,” she stood then, moving to take hold of Brooke’s hands, forcing her to uncross her arms. “I’m not a fan of us lying to ourselves, to each other.”

“Yeah? And when you tweet another flirty reply or comment something on my next live, then what? I’m not a fan of not being able to tell the real from the fake.”

“Tell me this is fake,” Vanessa was calm when she said it, her words and the way she slid her hand to the back of Brooke’s neck serving as the only preparation for the way she brought their lips together. Brooke couldn’t act surprised, like she didn’t anticipate this after their texts and intuition that what happened in that office wasn’t a one-off thing. Her expectation helped her react faster this time, without letting Vanessa end the moment before Brooke had a chance to take action. It was a much necessary continuation of what they didn’t get to finish prior to Vanessa’s performance.

Her frustration, her passion, her longing all charged Brooke into flipping their positions, hands on Vanessa’s shoulders as she held the shorter man against the wall she had been leaning against, prompting a whimper to pass between them from Vanjie’s lips. This was no sweet reunion kiss, but one that had been months in the making.

Brooke could feel Vanessa’s smile after they parted, nothing but heat in the space between them (or lack thereof), their lips still phantoms on each other. “I’m waiting,” she whispered against Brooke’s lips, all victorious smiles. “Tell me.”

“Didn’t you already try this the other day?” Brooke didn’t return her smile, but Vanessa could hear it in her voice.

“Worked, didn’t it?” She carded her hand through the barely-there hair at the back of Brooke’s neck, oblivious to how badly Brooke wanted to kiss that damn smirk off her face. “All you been thinking about, isn’t it? Our kiss?” Brooke tried to step back, though she still felt Vanessa’s hand on her, the other one now coming up to rest on Brooke’s waist. “Shit, I gotta say, though, I think I liked this one better.”

“Yeah?” Brooke cursed herself for the teasing spirit in her voice, but for some reason, she couldn’t help it. Something about Vanessa was electrifying, intoxicating her even after a year. Kicking all her resolve and purpose under the hotel carpet.

“Mhmm,” Vanjie’s eyes lay heavy-lidded, her hunger telling through her gaze. Brooke knew due to her makeup-free face that her bedroom eyes weren’t painted on deliberately. She also knew that she held the same ache in her own body, wondered if her own eyes were as teasing as her voice. “You wanna Instagram live this or somethin’?”

Brooke found herself laughing more at the way Vanessa’s suggestive voice didn’t match her sarcastic question rather than the implication itself. “Oh, fuck off,” she laughed under her breath, swatting Vanjie’s chest as gently as possible, her hand lingering there. They both glanced down at the contact, reminding Brooke of the way their eyes had been jointly fixed on Vanessa’s hand in the room at the club, mindlessly tracing patterns into Brooke’s leg. But there was somehow more tension now, the tension only slightly more comfortable than it had been before. Less fear, but just as much caution and the question of ‘What are we doing?’ not yet obsolete.

It was Brooke who leaned in first this time with little hesitance, hand spreading out more against Vanessa’s chest, twisting delicately in her shirt. Her kisses transferred from lips, to cheek, to jaw, then placing open mouthed kisses along the shorter queen’s neck, evoking a throaty moan above her.

“C’mere,” Brooke wondered if she only imagined the rasped whisper, and she blinked back up at Vanessa, who looked desperate. Brooke noted the way her tattoo was coated red under the flush on her neck and chest, only the top of it visible from under her black T-shirt. She noted the way Vanessa’s breathing was ragged. She looked so fucked, so in disarray, and they hadn’t even taken their shirts off yet.

Brooke’s stomach knotted at just the suggestion that she had that power.

Vanessa pulled her back up, hands coming to hold the sides of Brooke’s face and kissing her with a passion that they hadn’t yet reached before. It was a kiss that guaranteed to Brooke that this wasn’t a convenient fuck, or make out, or just Vanessa feeling lonely.

“I have a flight tonight,” Brooke broke between their kiss and their gasping for breath. “God, I’d give anything to stay here. You know that, right?” She studied Vanjie’s eyes, needed to know that Vanessa understood her intentions. She’d rather do anything than have to look at the pout she looked at now on Vanessa’s face.

“You could stay. What’s one flight?” Vanessa whined, pressing kisses along Brooke’s jaw, her knee pushing between the other’s legs. “I miss you,” she breathed against Brooke’s ear, arms enveloping the taller man.

“You know it’s not that easy. This isn’t stuff we can put off, not like we put off each other. I wish I didn’t have to leave you.”

Vanessa sighed and slumped back against the wall, a hand coming up to run through her hair after the other had lifted her hat off. The broken connection between Vanessa’s flushed face and body, and her disappointed expression, broke Brooke’s heart more than she thought it would.

“That’s cool. I said what I said, and I know now that you’re not so innocent yourself, Miss Brooke Lynn, just like I said so,” Vanessa pointed a finger into Brooke’s chest accusingly, her eyes sparkling with warmth. “Who’s right again? Miss Vanessa Vanjie Isabella Mateo Hytes. Bam!” With a snap of her fingers, Vanessa pulled away from Brooke’s grasp, sliding against the wall she had been held against and back towards the door. Brooke watched her gather her things – her phone, only.

“Where are you going?”

Vanessa turned back around, puzzled. “You said you got a flight tonight. I can’t come with you.”

Brooke mimicked Vanjie’s pout from before, sitting herself down on the side of the bed and extending her arms. “You said you missed me. You made it very clear. My flight’s not until later tonight. You can stay. Until then, I mean. I want you to.”

And who was Vanessa to refuse that invitation.

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #canon #fluff #angst #frenchy #sometimes a fantasy #s11 #canon compliant

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