#you've changed

[dustedmagazine]

Richard Laviolette — All Wild Things Are Shy (You’ve Changed)

Richard Laviolette’s last album weighs a ton, emotionally. From the first ripped-ragged guitar chords of “Milkweek and Motherwort” to the closing lift of “Constant Love,” these songs reach deep into the gut for the real stuff: the moving power of music, the companionship of other people, the certainty of death someday and of life right now. Laviolette didn’t have time for superficiality. He wrote this album near the end of the five-year gap between his mother’s death from Huntington’s disease and his own. It is a harrowing document, full of courage and defiance and human connection.

The music has a hard country kick and a fevered yowl that places it somewhere among the Mekons, Uncle Tupelo, Neil Young and the Replacements. “Ragged stray, I was on my own, I was saved by rock ‘n roll,” howls Laviolette, against a dirge drone of organ punched blood by drums. It’s a confession, a baptism, a Job-like agony. It rages and lurches and batters the sides of the righteous cage of its melodies.

Laviolette is no generalist. He calls out, by name, the music that inspires him, “George and Tammy, Bob’s the king, Nashville sound and Western Swing,” in “Constant Love,” the outlaw country king and queen in “Carter and Cash.” And even when he’s not giving the nod in the lyrics, Laviolette expresses his love. The clangor of the guitars in “Milkweed” all but pledges fealty to Neil Young.  There’s a nod to Magnolia Electric Co. in “Catacombs.” This is a guy who spent an all-too-short life listening and playing and appreciating music, and he wasn’t about to stop just because he was under a death sentence.

You have to think about what it would mean to watch your mother succumb to an awful disease and know that the same would happen to you. The kind of courage it would take just to get up in the morning is hard to fathom. To make a record, a good one like this, with your hands growing clumsy and your mind fading in and out is unimaginable. “Don’t quit on me,” Laviolette sings in a wavery voice whose imperfections encapsulate the human struggle against failing flesh. He’s singing to himself as much as anyone, but we can all take some courage from it. This is a gorgeous album even if you set the backstory aside, but when you consider that, it’s truly remarkable.

Jennifer Kelly

[cinnamonchaos]

"I am a collection of dismantled almosts"

Time is a funny thing. Nothing seemed to change... But suddenly everything was different.

[sekhithefops]

I started life as a small child.

Later I became a cynical misanthropic teenager.

Eventually I wound up a gender-confused young person working crap retail.

Sometime after that I evolved into an MMO addict who was leaning more fem than masc while doodling at work and posting to Furaffinity before they went completely nuts.

A while later I was a writer who hung out on weird roleplaying sites exploring with identity in general and meeting a lovely young man who would go on to be my husband.

Today I am a happily married smol fox-gremlin who writes gobs of stories and compulsively boops snoots. :D

[summertine-blog1]

YOU'VE CHANGED

[a-fix-of-muses]

Currently Listening To: "You've Changed" by lophiile

[forzafinally]

No because, Art is a mediocre tennis player with 6 grand slams who knows that at some level he has only got them because Tashi has pushed him and coached him to that level of excellence. At the same time he feels responsible for living a career for both of them while knowing that if Patrick hadn't fucked things up he wouldn't have ever achieved what he did.Patrick has oodles of talent but has to deal with the fact that despite winning Tashi fairly he lost her due to his pride. You know he's thinking that 'if she was my coach I would have double the number of grand slams that Art does'. But if Tashi hadn't had that injury that day would either of them even have had the chance to have her as their coach? No. Both he and Art would have faded into mediocrity but probably remained friends despite it all. And don't get me started on Tashi. She knows that if it wasn't for her injury she would have probably won 15 grand slams by now and would never have considered stopping but she's reduced to just being the wife! Just being the coach! Just being content with being a hot girl who will be won by the guy who plays the best tennis!! And she has to somehow make herself feel okay with that. So no. She can't genuinely be okay with Art stopping but at the end of the day it's not her decision to make because he's the professional tennis player not her. It's not just about one of them winning or the sacrifice it takes. It's about disappointment, bitterness, the underlying inferiority complex, being manipulative enough to achieve your goals through different means and the inherent homoeroticism of having a best friend from the age of 12 who is the only one worth beating for you after playing 13 years of tennis. Anyway I'm chewing on glass rn. Challengers you'll always be famous

[maehemthemisfit]

I’m not scared of being caught, sweetheart. Think of it as playing with my food. Everyone seems to be biting however, I didn’t expect this.

You all didn’t get my clues, I’m a little stumped. Ah, maybe next time

- 🍡

Oh dear... oh my you... you really need to up your game. I already know who you are. Because I do this. I know the tricks you use. I have the evidence. And now? Now you're trapped in my web.

HAHAHAHAHA I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WERE THAT EASY TO CRACK!

shame, I was thinking you would fool me forever. Do you even know what you've done?

[batfamfucker]

What About The Kens?

I'm already seeing guys complain about the Barbie movie end, how they wanted Kens to be equal in Barbieland but were only given a small part on the Cabinet.

That's the point.

You're meant to feel bad for the Kens. Believe me, women aren't partying over the 'Returns to Matriarch' ending. Some will be, but the ones who also clocked the meaning behind it won't. Most women will also feel bad for Kens. Because it's an exact parallel to how women are treated in reality.

Men, you're meant to be upset. You're meant to question it. Because you're meant to feel it, and feel what that is like, so you can finally understand women. You're upset at seeing it in a movie, now imagine living it in reality. That's being a woman.

Kens were shit on so you could feel what it was like for women this entire time. Kens were being used as a placement so you could see yourself in a woman's shoes. A world dominated by the opposite sex. When Ken leaves, and sees male presidents (All men) for the first time, men being doctors and lawyers, etc, realising he is more than just a prop for Barbie, that was on purpose. Because that is the feeling that Barbie gave to women. It's why you cheer for him at first before he goes a little overboard.

It's exactly why the real world was an exaggerated Partriarchy and Barbieland an exaggerated Matriarchy. Neither wins. Neither is equal. None of them change for the better. It's why you should want women in the real world to be respected, and Kens in Barbieland to be respected.

The thing is, women also didn't win. Not in the real world. In Barbieland, yes, but not anywhere else. The real world didn't change. But you didn't notice, did you? That Gloria (The mother that helped Barbie) also didn't get a position on the Mattel board? It was still all men? Her idea was ignored until it made a profit, and the men will likely get the credit? She'll still just be the receptionist? The women representing the real world didn't get anymore opportunities, neither did the men in Barbieland.

I was hoping that Gloria would be offered a position on the board, and that the Barbie Cabinet would introduce another entire Cabinet to represent the Kens, but neither happened. They're complete mirrors.

But which one did you actually notice? Which did you actually care about? Now tell me again the ending was unfair. Because it was. For both parties. That's the point.

The difference is, Barbieland is fictional. You will walk out of the theatre with the reassurance that at least it's not real. Women won't. Women can't. Companies not giving women equal opportunities or voices isn't fictional, and that was just one example. There are no women presidents (USA at least) for us to go look at in the real world. We don't have somewhere to go to realise it could be different for us like Ken did. Barbie and make believe is all we had when we were kids, or even now.

You're supposed to be mad, just not at the movie.

[quentinn11]

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[bacchuschucklefuck]

soon it'll be dawn again

transcript under the cut ⏬

page 01

Fig: no way? - you're still up?

Riz: Wh– yes?

Riz: Why'd I not be.

page 02

Fig: I me~~ean - that took.

Fig: whole day.

Riz: Yeah?

Fig: 'm beat.

Riz: you should sleep.

page 03

Fig: nah. my guy's still up

Fig: I wanna hang out.

page 04

Riz: That's really nice.

Fig: Hah! - Nobody ever expects an Archdevil rockstar to be nice.

Riz: … yeah. - 's just budget work tho. (the stuff I'm working on) - I've heard it's boring.

page 05

Fig: yeah, but you do it…

Riz: It keeps things going, right? - Nothing happens if nobody sits down and - does the thing.

Fig: That's right… - though. Yeah.

page 06

Fig: sometimes it's someone else who - doesn't want the same thing to happen.

Riz: … - mm.

page 07

Riz (off screen): …It took me a long time to get that not everyone likes doing what I do. - 's probably because you guys are so nice– - or. - kind.

Riz (off screen): to anyone too, not just. - the people you /love/.

page 08

Riz: that's not how it is elsewhere. - The world's– not. hostile. - but 's not like it's kind.

Riz: So I'm doing as much as I can now… 

page 09

Fig: Hey.

Riz: ?

Fig: Go dig some dirt with me.

page 10

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - oh you meant like - actual dirt. (not incriminating information)

Fig: o yea.

Fig: there's clay in the backyard soil. - sometimes when I'm sun deficient or something I go touch dirt for a bit.

page 11

Fig: here u go

page 12

Riz: uh

Fig: now we make a thing! - 'm pretty good at freehanding a bowl.

Fig: I'll show u

page 13

Fig: just– yep, flatten that out as evenly as u can, then–! - actually ur nails'd be so good at cutting out the strip. [larger than usual space] wait. - wait. wait u can carve patterns with them! we HAVE to try

Riz: uh - What. do I carve?

Fig: anything!!!

page 14

Fig: and– yep just seal the inside uh. seam?

Fig: yep that works - okay time's up! all contestant hands up

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - okay - wh. what's next?

Fig: haha - watch this.

(sound effect text): FWOO—MP

page 15

Riz: WH– DON'T JUST DO THAT???

Fig: Now it's fired!

Riz: THAT WAS NOT SAFE

Fig: (actually it's just dry. if u add water rn it'll dissolve)

Fig: ok catch!

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - careful!!

Fig: dw no need haha

page 16

Riz (thought bubble): oh - it's warm…

Fig: now I want you to throw this.

page 17

Fig: u gotta do it - c'mon

page 18

Riz: wh– - It's like 3AM right now

Fig: oh it's not /fired/ fired it's not gonna make a loud noise

Riz: And then just? leave a pile out here?

Fig: pour water over it & it'll be gone I told u

Riz: but

page 19

Fig (off screen): RIz.

page 20

Fig: I've done all this before.

Fig: Can you trust that at least?

page 21

Riz: no, I– - I do. - I trust you.

page 23

Riz: okay what happens now

(sound effect text): glob

page 24

Fig: we do it again!

page 25

Riz: wh. [larger than usual space] What do you mean. (this clay's too wet also)

Fig: see! you're already learning

Fig: [blank speech bubble] - there are flows that are futile to fight. - The world changes.

Fig: Things change.

page 26

Fig: I've learned my lessons with "forevers". - But - as an artist

Fig: I can give you one thing: - You can always do it again.

page 27

Fig: most of everything depends on the rest of the world, - but this. - making new. - that's yours as long as you want it.

page 28

Fig: So?

page 29

Riz: Yeah. - Yeah! - let's make another one.

[dustedmagazine]

Jon Mckiel — Hex (You’ve Changed)

Photo by Colin Medley

Jon Mckiel treats songs like miniature epics, rendering each detail in glowing, psychedelic hues. Though the basic framework of his music may be familiar, the feeling is perpetually off-kilter. On 2020’s Bobby Joe Hope — which I would have written about for Dusted’s Slept Ons in early 2021 if I’d have discovered it early enough — Mckiel combined the often mutually exclusive worlds of songwriting and sampling into a unique and beguiling brew. This knack for the uncanny continues on Hex, which feels even more kaleidoscopic.

Mckiel and co-producer Jay Crocker understand how peripheral details, such as backing vocals and percussion, can transform a song from good to great. Take “String,” for example, which begins with a disorientating and scratchy guitar loop. Next comes swirling synth arpeggios, then multi-tracked vocals, plus multiple rhythm guitar and percussion layers. The songform seems to warp and bend in real-time, an endlessly malleable resource. Best comparison is Olivia Tremor Control reined in, and Mckiel’s voice falls somewhere along the continuum between fellow Canadians Andy Shauf and The New Pornographers’ Carl Newman.

On one end of Hex’s musical spectrum we have “Concrete Sea,” a spare acoustic cover of a 1972 song by Terry Jacks, rendered simply with a smattering of slide guitar and percussion. At the other end we have “Memory Screen, pt. 2,” which begins as a gently wavering bedroom pop song, before unspooling into three-and-a-half minutes of spacious, swooshing ambient. In between there’s the fantastically groovy title track, an addictive slice of dusty, retro sampladelia with a gorgeous saxophone solo; “Still Life,” which features a long, tropical-sounding instrumental introduction that could almost be off a dub record; and the gorgeous “Everlee,” which harks back to the 1960s sun-shining tunefulness of Bobby Joe Hope’s“Deeper Shade.”

In Hex’s 34 minutes Mckiel ventures far and wide, but always brings you back to the strangeness of seeing something familiar in a new light, wondering at the possibilities.

Tim Clarke

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 1: Dread on Arrival

(Part 2)

[taffywabbit]

funny fluffy skunk for @shockpine my good friend @shockpine!!!! yay yippee hooray 🦨

[garudabluffs]

"You've Changed" Eva Cassidy & Chuck Brown from "The Other Side"

You Don't Know Me · Eva Cassidy · Chuck Brown The Other Side ℗ 1992 CBD Music Released on: 1992-01-01      Writer: Eddy Arnold    Writer: Cindy Walker

[a-fix-of-muses]

Currently Listening To: "You've Changed" by Keyshia Cole

[mayasaura]

Ten years later, I'm still in awe of what the BBC show Merlin managed to pull off. It's a silly show. It's cheesy, over the top fantasy full of dumb gags and physical comedy. It's the most compelling tragedy I've ever experienced