#when a pretty madly staged apology video is issued

[pickingupmymercedes]

it's always full of platitudes, that's the thing, I have yet to read on anything from them this year that remotely read as personal, and I very much doubt it they can't come up with anything better, when Mclaren has heartfelt things to say about Lewis.

and deep down, i believe everyone knows a social admin is at bottom of a organization, but socials are the way through teams nowadays, and how those socials are perceived reflect directly with how fans see the whole of a team.

something about this post that merc made bothered me initially and i have figured it out after some thought. when i first saw it on my feed, i legitimately thought it was damage control and i'm not sure if it was their intention (i'm inclined to think that it is after lewis posted on his stories this morning), but whatever their intentions, to me it reads as insincere and trite. it sounds nice in theory like oh we will make the best of what little time we have together, but at the end of the day it's an empty statement. like when i see the sentence 'our journey together started 12 years we couldn't have imagined where it would take us' i would think that were would be some kind of follow up about some of those accomplishments that happened in the past 12 years. instead all we got was 'we are going to give it everything in the next 6 races 💪' like ok?? lol. i would think that they would and should be giving it everything they have whether or not someone has been on their team for 1 year or 12 years.

i am not asking for merc to post an essay about lewis' accomplishments (yet 😉) but i am asking for some effort to be put in what they are posting about lewis. there has been a lack of effort put into what the team has been posting about lewis specifically in the past 3 years, and i would not be surprised if the next post that they post about his teammate has more thought and effort put into it than the post i'm talking about. it is this discrepancy that we are seeing that is bleeding into the perceptions of the team, and how they have handled things that have happened on track and off. i will say that merc have improved in the past couple months, but it should not have taken 3 years to finally take some initiative. they shouldn't need people to remind and harass them into posting about lewis' accomplishments and milestones. i should not be writing a rant about how i want more than a couple sentences written about lewis' last 6 races at mercedes. they should and need to do better. i would hope that no one would call me unfair or crazy by saying this or criticizing them. but at the end of the day, it is their job and they have failed at their job, and we are seeing the consequences of it now with how badly the relationship between the fans and the team has gotten.

[rhythm-mixer]

My VIP Experience at the KH Orchestra -World Tour-

Hi, all! I’m sorry for the inactivity on this blog; some issues accessing Tumblr + my phone from which I blog from broke + all kinds of other troubles cropped up. But I’m back now -- and not only am I back, but I am also back from pretty much the most incredible experience in my life. Not exaggerating at all.

I feel the need to document how my brain exploded last night, so details (like, an ESSAY of details) are under the cut if you’re curious about what went down at the concert last night and what the reactions were like.

The main lobby after security check was insanely packed with quite a handful of cosplayers (there were some very cute concert Soras, some Roxases, a lot of Aquas, some Organization members, and my friends who were Terra and Ventus). Everyone looked amazing and the atmosphere was so friendly; everyone was friends with everyone, and all of us were dying together buying the exclusive merch there (including KH Orchestra -World Tour- shirts, the conductor’s baton shaped as the Kingdom Key, some carry cases/pouches, the program, and the orchestra CD). I myself bought a shirt -- probably the least guilty $35 I ever spent, lol.

The VIP lounge, along with the bar that was in the theatre, served KH-themed alcoholic drinks (aptly named things like Twilight Town, The Remix, etc.). I spent most of my time before the concert there, where I saw a lot of very important-looking people enter ~10 minutes before the concert started. What I didn’t know was that one of the men in there was the conductor himself. WOW.

Anyways, as we began filing in and getting to our seats, the entire room was just filled with talk of KH (and some FF as well), which was AWESOME. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard so many people geeking out over KH in one place, so it was very nostalgic and heartwarming.

After a short introduction from Yoko Shimomura herself (!!!), the concert began with what I believe was something like a letter from Kairi to Aqua? (I haven’t played/watched any of 2.8 yet, so forgive me for my lack of knowledge.) She mentioned training with Lea, during which Lea tried to apologize to her several times for what he did to her in KHII. She also talks about how Lea is determined to save his best friend, and I don’t remember exactly how he phrased it, but I think he also mentioned feeling the need to save someone he can’t remember -- the theatre sighed in sorrow at that point, as we all do whenever anyone mentions Xion, lol. (By the way, I want to mention that I was literally crying for the entire duration of the concert. If I wasn’t actively crying, my tears were still drying on my face. I’m surprised I didn’t pass out last night, considering how much water I lost from my body, lol).

Anyways, they then transitioned swiftly into the world music medley, the battle theme medley, and Sora’s theme. Hilariously, during the world music medley, Ariel + Atlantis briefly appeared on screen and the orchestra played a few notes for, then immediately shifted into Port Royal’s music, LOL. Even Square Enix recognizes how, er, unpopular Atlantis was.

After that, they started pulling out all of the tearjerker themes -- ��Vector to the Heavens,” Roxas’ theme, a lot of the themes from BBS, “At Dusk, I Will Think of You,” among others. The theatre echoed with sniffles from every corner, and I could barely see the screen through my tears, lol. The guys sitting next to me also started sobbing. It was wonderful. To make it worse, they preceded many of these themes with cutscenes, such as when Roxas’ summer ends and the Wayfinder Trio’s last meeting with Ven asking Terra and Aqua to end him. Yeah. I really should have brought tissues.

After a gorgeous performance of the orchestra version of “Passion,” Yoko Shimomura came on stage once more to thank us for our support. We cheered madly for her, and for the encore, she wanted to thank us by playing the piano for us herself. I think I might have died in that moment. She along with the orchestra played “Fantasia alla marcia” for us, which was downright magical. I honestly couldn’t believe I was honored enough to hear the composer who shaped my childhood play one of her pieces for us.

Following that mind-blowing performance, she then announced that there was a special guest with us tonight, at which the entire theatre went “ooOOHH” in anticipation. When she announced that the special guest was none other than Tetsuya Nomura, the theatre erupted into manic shrieking and cheering, all of us were up on our feet and bursting into scream-sobbing as Nomura walked on stage.

Once the the theatre had quieted down, he joked about how he was worried when Yoko Shimomura had said that she was going to speak in English during some parts of the concert, and even more worried that she was going to play the piano herself (his teasing was adorable and Shimomura couldn’t stop laughing -- I love them both so much, omg). He then mentioned that he was here in L.A./the U.S. just for the concert, and that he was not going to be at E3. He then proceeded to tell us that Kingdom Hearts III will not be making an appearance at E3, and the entire theatre sighed sorrowfully.

Until he smiled and said, “But here...”

And in that moment, I think I, along with the rest of the theatre, ascended to another plane of existence. We thought this night couldn’t get any more incredible, but somehow, it was reaching beyond the limits of our imaginations. We shot up out of our seats, all shouting and loudly sobbing our disbelief -- it was absolute INSANITY. Many of us began blindly grabbing at each other’s hands, hanging on for dear life, and the sheer excitement in that theatre at that moment made up possibly the most surreal moment of my life.

After explaining that the trailer was going to be uploaded online immediately after the concert and that we would thus be the first to see it, Nomura rolled the footage -- and it was screaming from start to finish. Laughing along with hysterical screaming and sobbing followed Sora’s combo attack with Goofy (we were all very amused by Sora just throwing his friend at his enemies as Goofy just yelled LOL). The mention of the black box drew out a collective gasp from us all, and the second Roxas was mentioned, the reactions just reached their peak and I personally felt like I was about to pass out. It’s probably VERY evident already, but Roxas is one of the most special and important characters out of any franchise/series to me, and the possibility of him returning just took everything out of me. I fell into my seat in shock and had trouble getting back up after Shimomura, Nomura, and the orchestra bid us goodbye, and the rest of the theatre was similarly in a state of incredulousness. As we filed out, we kept repeating how we couldn’t believe what just happened, we couldn’t believe we just saw both Yoko Shimomura AND Tetsuya Nomura, just. Oh my god.

Luckily, while waiting in line to meet Yoko Shimomura and get her autograph, we all managed to collect our thoughts and talk about both the trailer and the concert itself. Thank GOD for that wait, honestly, because there’s no way I could experience all that and meet Shimomura right away. I think I’d actually have a heart attack, lol.

Anyways, once we had gotten inside of the VIP room, I felt like my heart stopped for a second. Yoko Shimomura, an absolute inspiration to me, was probably less than 8 feet away from me. I had brought my copy of Dream Drop Distance with me to have it signed, and what was super cool was that she could sign your product with either gold or silver marker! You could also take a picture with her but I was far too shy (not to mention, I looked AWFUL -- my eyes were probably horribly red and swollen).

Once it was my turn, she signed my copy of 3D and held it up with a smile, and I smiled back -- but we were both confused for a second because she looked like she was expecting something while I continued to stand there awkwardly. She then smiled at me and asked, “Camera?” and the translator and I both quickly explained that I hadn’t requested for a picture, lol! Shimomura and I both laughed; she thanked me and I returned her thanks -- and honestly I felt like I had just met a goddess. She is such an incredibly sweet and beautiful person, and I will never forget our super cute (albeit, VERY AWKWARD LOL) interaction!

I left the Dolby Theatre still tearing up on the car. Despite how long and extensive this recollection of the night is, I still can’t put into words just how incredible this experience was and how much it means to me. Again, very simply but accurately put, the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour was the most incredible experience in my life. I feel a little silly for how badly I lost it (and am STILL losing it) at the concert, but this really means so, so much to me.

It’s quite obvious considering this blog and who I am, but I really feel the need to say that I love Kingdom Hearts so much and that it’s so much more than just a video game series to me. Thank you, Yoko Shimomura, Tetsuya Nomura, the Kingdom Hearts -World Tour- orchestra, and Square Enix for pretty much defining a huge aspect of my life!

(Hilarious side note: On the car ride there, I jokingly told my friends that if they didn’t show Goofy’s death scene during the concert, I would riot. Lo and behold, they showed Goofy’s death scene during the concert. THANK YOU, KH CONCERT. MY DREAM CAME TRUE.)

[roscoehamiltons]

#most importantly the conspiracy/sabotage#the change in tone in socials have been pointed for a minute#and that has been slowly taking from the trust fans had#it doesn't help when podiums are ignored twice#when a pretty madly staged apology video is issued#when if we want to see Lewis coming up to a race we have to look elsewhere because only one driver is posted#when we need to beg to see them celebrating stats from their own history as a team#when we get news their drivers almost had a heat stroke and they put out a photo of a smiling Lewis

yes, all of this. i don't put 100% of the blame on the admin for what's being posted on their social media accounts (and i think fans underestimate the amount of planning and coordination involved that goes into what gets posted on social media), and it's also difficult to deal with people spamming insults and hate all the time. but when people see that there is more time and effort being put into posts about george, the admin fighting with lewis fans in the comments and following george fan accounts, what are they supposed to think? like you said, how the socials are perceived reflect directly on how fans see the team. our only way of seeing what goes on at the team and their dynamic with the drivers is through social media. so when we see one driver being shafted over and over and over again via social media, how can you blame fans for thinking that it's going on beyond social media? they have not been shown anything that would disprove it

something about this post that merc made bothered me initially and i have figured it out after some thought. when i first saw it on my feed, i legitimately thought it was damage control and i'm not sure if it was their intention (i'm inclined to think that it is after lewis posted on his stories this morning), but whatever their intentions, to me it reads as insincere and trite. it sounds nice in theory like oh we will make the best of what little time we have together, but at the end of the day it's an empty statement. like when i see the sentence 'our journey together started 12 years we couldn't have imagined where it would take us' i would think that were would be some kind of follow up about some of those accomplishments that happened in the past 12 years. instead all we got was 'we are going to give it everything in the next 6 races 💪' like ok?? lol. i would think that they would and should be giving it everything they have whether or not someone has been on their team for 1 year or 12 years.

i am not asking for merc to post an essay about lewis' accomplishments (yet 😉) but i am asking for some effort to be put in what they are posting about lewis. there has been a lack of effort put into what the team has been posting about lewis specifically in the past 3 years, and i would not be surprised if the next post that they post about his teammate has more thought and effort put into it than the post i'm talking about. it is this discrepancy that we are seeing that is bleeding into the perceptions of the team, and how they have handled things that have happened on track and off. i will say that merc have improved in the past couple months, but it should not have taken 3 years to finally take some initiative. they shouldn't need people to remind and harass them into posting about lewis' accomplishments and milestones. i should not be writing a rant about how i want more than a couple sentences written about lewis' last 6 races at mercedes. they should and need to do better. i would hope that no one would call me unfair or crazy by saying this or criticizing them. but at the end of the day, it is their job and they have failed at their job, and we are seeing the consequences of it now with how badly the relationship between the fans and the team has gotten.