#⋅ ▽ ° ─ bring out the greek chorus ; MUSIC

[alive-gh0st]

mark x (gn or fem) reader …….with the devoted and eternally loyal dynamic of Odysseus and Penelope

the people of tumblr yearn for homophrosyne fics

OMG???? ⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

whoever you are—you just walked into my inbox, left a myth-soaked gem on my floor, and vanished like a tragic Greek chorus. I’m spiraling. (In a poetic, painfully loyal way.)

This is everything.

Devotion? Eternal longing? The kind of love that doesn’t snap even after wars, gods, decades, and divine meddling???

You’re speaking my language.

First of all—yes. Mark as Odysseus? Makes too much sense. Stubborn, clever, haunted, burdened with power and purpose. And Reader as Penelope? The emotional constant. The tether. The one who never stopped waiting—but also never waited passively.

Homophrosyne.

That soul-deep harmony. That “we suffer separately but survive together” love. Tumblr people have taste ong.

BUT!

One question lingers in the wind like a stray olive leaf—Do we keep this in mythic Greece… or bring it to the present day?

Is Reader weaving love letters instead of tapestries in a lonely city apartment? Is Mark fighting gods or superpowered war criminals?

Do we want armor and laurel crowns—or hoodies and haunted voicemails? Let me ask the people.

Also thank you!𖤓

For knowing the word homophrosyne. For caring about emotional loyalty. For making me want to break out my epic the musical tragedy playlist. I owe you.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌With Love, @alive-gh0st

[yeah-ephi]

I've been making a little google-doc analysing the links between songs on Clancy and their music videos and one thing I've picked up on is the use of flowers, specifically yellow ones, in different music videos since Trench. As an ex film student as well as a trainee florist, I'm very interested by what different flowers can represent when used in visual media.

°❀.ೃ࿔* First: Let’s take a look at Jumpsuit.

The flowers in this video are Gerberas, known for their rich colours and distinctive shape. Like sunflowers, Gerberas are known to turn towards the sun's light. They can represent a closeness to nature, as well as innocence and stress-reduction. Yellow ones specifically can be seen to represent friendship.

In relation to the Jumpsuit video, they are seen growing on the bottom of the valley Tyler/Clancy wanders through after Nico catches up with him. Much like how gerberas turn towards the light, the bright yellow is enough to break his dazed state to gaze back at the Banditos lining the cliff's edge. Obviously, we know that lorewise yellow has a protective quality against the Bishops, so it makes sense how these flowers were able to help him break free from Nico's control.

Additionally, their connection to innocence could be linked to Clancy's wonder at encountering the Banditos for the first time, and his realisation that the group he'd only ever heard rumours of were in fact real. This can also be relevant to the specific meaning behind yellow gerberas, and their links to friendship and optimism, given how the relationship between Clancy, Torchbearer and the rest of the Banditos develops, and the hope the group represents.

We see the flowers once more in the music video for Nico and the Niners, this time wilted and hidden away in a draw. They bring colour to the otherwise grey and dull rooms of the city, as well as representing the thread of hope Clancy clings to that he might finally escape for good this time.

°❀.ೃ࿔* Now: Routines in the Night

The flowers in this video are a type of Chrysanthemum, seen both on a desk behind Tyler and on his bedside table. Chrysanths are an interesting flower, as they hold many different meanings from culture to culture. The yellow chrysanthemum is the one deemed the 'traditional' form of the flower, with the name deriving from the greek 'chrysos' meaning gold, and 'anthemon' meaning flower. A lot of eastern cultures link them to luck and royalty, whereas in the west they can carry more of a solemn association of mourning and sorrow, given their commonplace in funeral arrangements. They do, however, still carry an association with optimism in certain areas.

In this video, the choice to include yellow chrystanths is still linked to the Banditos, especially given the inclusion of the bishop cloaks in the closet in the following chorus. The flowers are there to offer Tyler protection from the thoughts and insecurities plaguing his mind as he tries to sleep. Again, they hold a strong connotation of friendship in the US, very different from the sympathetic implications throughout a lot of Europe.

It's also interesting to note that the room they are found in is lit in blue, as opposed to the mostly red lighting throughout the rest of the video. We know that within the lore, blue is a colour symbolising defeat (in reference to that one blurryface tweet about wearing blue on stage), so with the flower’s associations they could represent either sorrow at impending defeat, or a thread of hope to keep pushing on.

°❀.ೃ࿔* Finally: Navigating.

It's a little harder to make out which flowers these are, but given the image of a cup-like flower with flat petals at the base and a bent stem, I believe these to be some kind of Wild Daffodil (or as it is also known, a Narcissus). For such a beautiful and common flower, they tend to hold quite a dark symbolism. This is in part due to the link between their alternative name 'Narcissus' and the character of the same name in Greek mythology doomed to fall in love with his own reflection, but also due to their commonplace as a graveyard flower during the Victorian period. They are commonly referenced in literature, such as in William Wordsworth's 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' poem.

I think the negative connotations of hubris and death apply to its appearance in this video, which serves as a direct parallel to the gerberas in Jumpsuit. Again, Clancy is being guided by the Banditos, but unlike before, he doesn't spare a glance to the hardy yellow flowers growing from the ground. We know that he has begun to become absorbed by his power to seize ("the crown his heavy but I can carry it" "I will be their example of absolute power, I feel alive again"), and if he does indeed fall down the Bishop path (which I'm not entirely sold on being the end of the story) it would indeed be in line with what the daffodil represents symbolically.

Alternatively, they are also one of the first signs of spring, a season that represents fresh starts and hope. Their bulbs survive through cold winters ready to rise once the sun thaws the winter frosts. They are resilient flowers, much like how Clancy persists despite finding himself captured and back in Dema again and again. Despite all their negative implications, hope is still at the core meaning of this flower; and the same can be said for Clancy.

A huge thanks to anyone who read all of that, I really enjoy analysing the visual elements of these videos as a lot of thought goes into how it reinforces the message of the individual song or overall story. I know this was a long one, but there's truly so many different meanings you can pull from even just one singular flower.

If the rumours that one of the tracks on Breach being named ‘Flowers’ is true, they did that specifically with me in mind. And you bet I’ll be analysing that as well.

I'm also well aware that at least 2 of these examples are naturally growing flowers in the filming locations, but I do believe the active choice to include them as a focal point holds some type of meaning.

Thanks again for reading, I'm sure i'll find something else to ramble over soon as I keep on analysing stuff.

:)

[blacknedsoul-blog]

Nevermore is a gothic tragedy. Part I: Classical and Shakespearean Tragedy

This essay assumes that you've read the first season of Nevermore. If you haven't, you'll be eating spoilers.

First of all, a disclaimer: you won't find the term "Gothic tragedy" in theory books, because I just pulled it out of my sleeve. But it seemed appropriate to put it in those terms because, hey, beyond theoretical structuring, genres are also used as a guide to content, and that's kind of what I want to express with this.

Partly because I've noticed that I've called this comic a tragedy on more than one occasion, and talked at length about Lenore and Annabel as gothic characters, but never bothered to delve into these matters, and with the hiatus until (possibly) October, I think it's time to rectify that situation.

But also because I think there are a lot of things in this story that fall into place if you read it under the logic of those genres.

Originally, this was going to be a single essay, but it turns out it took over 2000 fucking words just to explain why it's a fucking tragedy, so I'm going to split this shit in two because I don't want to burn anyone's eyes out.

Tragedy and Types of Tragedy

This is the ridiculously abridged version because this is a really long story, if you want more information on the subject I highly recommend reading Aristotle's Poetics, Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy or watching this OSP video for a more proper introduction. If you're interested in Shakespearean tragedy, The Cambridge Shakespeare is a amazing compilation, and here's the essay that talks specifically about what the hell Shakespearean tragedy is.

Tragedy has been linked to the origins of theater as such, found in the festivals dedicated to Dionysus (if you want to know more about the cult of Dionysus, you can watch this video to start), where poetry contests were held, specifically of dithyrambs: lyric compositions dedicated specifically to Dionysus. This later led to the inclusion of an increasingly sophisticated chorus using masks. This was no longer poetry, but the first expressions of theater as we understand it in modern times, at least for Europe and the countries colonized by Europeans.

Nietzsche also points out that tragedy condenses within itself two opposing impulses represented in the gods Apollo and Dionysus, expressed in the terms "Apollonian" and "Dionysian": order, mathematics and music (understood by the Greeks as science) vs. party, debauchery and chaos. The clash between the beautiful and the grotesque (understanding that the "beautiful" can be disturbing and the "grotesque" can be strangely beautiful). This description is not entirely literal, of course, but it must be kept in mind that in order to have the fundamentals of a tragedy, one must have these two elements: order and chaos. A synchronized waltz between the rigid structures and the rupturing.

Yes, those two are enough.

Step by step, I think it is important to point out what are the transversal elements to tragedy - classical or Shakespearean - that are present in the comic.

The first important concept that appears on this page is Amarthia. The tragic mistake, the first domino that topples the whole stack, is the specific event that sets tragedy in motion, and we spectators of tragedy can only stare in horror at the situation, knowing that everything that follows will go terribly wrong.

At least as far as its protagonists are concerned, Annabel and Lenore's Amarthia has been said but not seen: the dinner party where Annabel will wear pearls, indicating to Lenore that she is in on the charade. From then on, every step they take will bring them closer to the fate we know: the arrival of both of them in Nevermore. This story ends with them both dead.

And if I had to point out the Amarthia of the comic's topicality, I would dare to say that this is it:

And this:

Annabel refuses to explain to Lenore why the plan has to be the way it is, while Lenore agrees to be part of it (the fact that she disagrees with the whole situation is a plus).

The interesting thing about this is that the roles are reversed: before, Annabel sealed the tragic fate of both of them by accepting Lenore's proposal, while in Nevermore, Lenore sealed the tragic fate of both of them by accepting Annabel's plan.

Another important term that comes up here is hybris. While it is true that hybris represents ego, this does not necessarily mean that the hero is self-centered in a personality sense; hybris is the tragic hero's (misguided, of course) belief that they can turn their terrible situation around. And, well…

That ends badly in tragedies. Very, very badly.

At this point, it is necessary to start pointing out the elements of each type of tragedy, because something interesting is happening: within the ancient walls of the purgatory that is Nevermore, a classical tragedy is taking place, while in the past, Annabel and Lenore were the protagonists of a Shakespearean tragedy.

Classical Tragedy

One thing to understand about classical tragedy is that these are stories of humanity versus divinity. The predestined fate that comes upon mortals at the hands of beings superior to them, even if those beings do not appear directly. The external forces superior to the characters do not intervene directly (at least not in most cases), but they put all the pieces in place for the tragic hero to fall headlong into his terrible fate "by their own hand". Yeah, that shit is so unfair.

In Nevermore, fate is represented by these two bastards: The Deans act as the ominous shadow of divinity that sets the rules of this battle royale. For all intents and purposes, this pair of bastards represents the tragic fate of the characters: only one will survive to have a second life. And there is (theoretically) no way to escape.

This is where we start to get into thorny issues. If I had to point out the classical tragedy that Nevermore most resembles, I think I'd get a smile out of Hadestown fans: Orpheo and Eurydice.

Okay, let's review: Orpheo is a highly talented musician who, after losing his beloved, goes to the underworld to find her. Hades and Persephone give him a chance to get her back if he doesn't turn around to see her until they leave the place, he does so at the last second, she returns to the underworld, and Orpheus spends the rest of his life in misery mourning her.

That's the thing, the story of Orpheo and Euridice is a tragedy for the most depressing reason of all: love. What seems like a generous gift from Hades and Persephone is actually a condemnation, because they ask Orpheus to do the one thing he could never do: stop looking at his beloved. In some versions of the story, he can't even hear her as they walk; will she really be her, or has he been tricked? Will she be frightened on this journey and he will not be there to comfort her? What if she has trouble on the road or an accident and Orpheus has left her behind? Orpheus loves Eurydice so much that he cannot save her under these circumstances because he cannot stop watching over her long enough to get her out of here.

Now let's go to Annabel and Lenore, the same thing is happening here, these two idiots love each other. It's probably the only thing they know for sure in this bullshit game. And for Annabel and Lenore, to love is to protect, it's to be the shield that will be there to defend their beloved in the face of adversity, she's been hurt in a terrible way and they will do anything to stop anyone from hurting her again.

But tragic fate, represented by the Deans, has set things in motion for this to quickly go to hell:

For Lenore to understand Annabel's actions, she would have to tell her that's why she's so afraid, why they shouldn't get attached to anyone, why she thinks it's necessary to pretend they don't remember each other. But Lenore can't be okay with Annabel carrying everything alone, because she sees how it hurts her, because Annabel is clearly hurting. She goes to great lengths to confide in Annabel, but she can't come up with a plausible explanation for all this crap either.

For Annabel, becoming a villain and enduring all this pain is slightly less horrible than dragging Lenore into the Deans' psychotic game. But Lenore just loves her too much to let her do that. Lenore could protect her if Annabel were by her side, so why does she keep leaving? She was hurt the first time, why do it to her a second time?

The feeling of not being heard, the frustration that the other just won't listen to her pleas and won't stop what she's doing to allow her to be cared for, runs through both of them because it's the exact same situation, "Why won't you let me do this for you?"

The answer is that Annabel and Lenore are asking the other to do the one thing she could never stop doing: stop trying to protect her. That's why they fight.

This relationship has become a power game that neither can win because they are both exactly the same. A tug-of-war that will only be resolved when something breaks. Hopefully not irreparably.

And speaking of the P-word, let's talk Shakespeare, people.

Shakespearean Tragedy

The good Bard took classical tragedy and brought it back, but changed enough elements of it that it had to be renamed because some of its fundamentals were rewritten. The most notorious of these is that while Shakespeare does not ignore the presence of higher forces or supernatural entities, the fundamental basis of Shakespearean tragedy is not the conflict between humanity and the Fates/Gods.

It is power.

Those who wield power, those who are corrupted by it, and those who crave it. These tragedies speak of moral corruption, the victims of power, and those who sink under the responsibility that power brings.

This is the reason why Shakespeare's tragic heroes belong to the nobility, come from opulent families, or hold important positions. In this case, we have as protagonists two women who were born in a cradle of gold: Lenore apparently comes from a family of old money, and while we do not know if Annabel also comes from a family of old money, we do know that there is no shortage of coins around here.

But status cannot protect Shakespeare's protagonists from the society in which they live, whose agency is sometimes literally represented by people with power. This puts them in a situation from which they cannot escape and which screws them from the start (in other cases the Shakespearean protagonist is the figure of power and seals his own fate). Here, the odds are stacked against them from the start because they are women and, as if that were not enough, lesbians.

I think it's no surprise to anyone that the Shakespearean tragedy most similar to Nevermore is Romeo and Juliet.

Let's review: Romeo and Juliet are two young people who meet at a party and fall madly in love. Their families hate each other, so they cannot be together. The two secretly marry, but after an argument Romeo kills a man and is banished, despite a plan hatched by a priest friend so they can run away together, things go terribly wrong and they both end up committing suicide.

This follows a similar logic to Orpheus and Eurydice: the tragedy here is that these two are in love. But where classical tragedy says, "They love each other so much they can't save themselves," Romeo and Juliet, like Annabel and Lenore, works with two layers of conflict.

The first is the social and political. These young people's families hate each other, so they can't be together. In the same way, Annabel and Lenore can't be together because they're both women.

This is also a reference to one of the central themes of Romeo and Juliet: the clash between tradition and modernity. I think if you squint hard enough, you can see the relationship between these two as Victorian conservatism and homophobia screwing up their lives in the same way that tradition screws up Romeo and Juliet's.

The other layer of the problem is the one that has to do with love: Romeo and Juliet love each other so much that they cannot live without each other. This is what drives them both to suicide, even when they are given the opportunity to continue their lives separately. They love each other so much that they cannot live without each other. Just as Annabel and Lenore desperately want to be together, this is what starts the engine of tragedy when circumstances prevent them from doing so.

Another thing it takes from Romeo and Juliet is the role of the parents as a representation of the power that oppresses the characters. In Romeo and Juliet, the Montague and Capulet lords pull the strings of their children's lives, and it is their resentment that creates the barrier between the lovers. In the case of Nevermore, Ira and Thaddeus are the personal jailers of their respective daughters: Ira wants to get Annabel into an arranged marriage by hook or by crook, and Thaddeus first gets Lenore a fiancé and then keeps her locked up in the fucking attic.

Finally, a tragedy that can be read as a reference to Nevermore, though more subtly, is Macbeth.

The plot is simple: a trio of witches tell Duke Macbeth that he and his descendants will one day be kings. This leads him to murder his cousin, King Duncan, and everything goes downhill from there, because Duncan's murder didn't even amuse the prince.

Yes, at first glance it doesn't seem to make much sense, but that's because it's referring to a specific moment. Specifically, the most discussed and controversial scene in the play: the dialog where Lady Macbeth and Macbeth discuss killing Duncan.

This scene has kept the Bard's fans arguing for centuries: is she manipulating her husband so that she can be queen, or is she just verbalizing Macbeth's wishes that he be allowed to commit the crime, and saying that she will support him in it? Impossible to know unless someone gets a working Ouija board.

This is the same logic that follows the flashback scene where Lenore talks to Annabel about the plan. The important thing here is that the comic decides that the answer is: it depends on who you ask.

Given Annabel's attitude toward Lenore, we can interpret that she does not think she was manipulated or anything. Lenore is not a devious woman who put things in her head, it was her knight in shining armor who came to save her from a marriage she didn't want. Yes, she may have had her doubts, but she definitely liked her chances, enough to accept them.

On the other hand, what this tells me is that Lenore thinks the opposite: that she convinced Annabel to be part of this hoax that ended with both of them dead. A crazy woman who dragged the only person she cared about into a dangerous game that cost them their lives, she considers herself as guilty as the perpetrating hand of the crime.

Conclusion

I think the first time I decided to do a review under this particular lens was when I started to notice where Annabel and Lenore's arcs seemed to be going.

On the one hand, given how things are going, it seems that Lenore has to start taking off the blindfold to realize that things aren't as simple as she thinks, and stop letting others make the hard decisions for her because it hurts everyone.

On Annabel's side, you have a character arc that seems to be aimed at being honest with other people, not letting her fears stop her from making risky decisions, and not dealing with all the bullshit herself.

If what I just said leaves a bad taste in your mouth, that's normal. Because it's fucking unfair.

That Lenore should be the one to stand firm - not out of guilt, but out of responsibility - for her actions feels like shit after everything the poor girl has been through. The same thing happens on Annabel's side, that she has to give in to a situation where it makes so much sense for her to shut down, where it makes sense, even without her background, for her to behave that way.

But that sense of injustice is one of the foundations of tragedies. The feeling that, in her situation, it is practically impossible to think that anything different could be done is the basis of catharsis: the pity felt for the character, the fear generated by identifying with their terrible situation.

The expiation of these emotions, which are produced in the spectator by the fall of the tragic hero.

Now, it is interesting to ask how the fall of Annabel and Lenore will be. The simple answer from a tragic point of view is death, a thing we know has already happened once, why not a second time? After all, that's what awaits tragic heroes. Unless you're Medea.

It's impossible to know how the comic will develop, but it seems to me that this is as far as the tragedy goes. For the next part, I want to talk about gothic novels, female vampires, the female writers of the period, and the last gothic. Believe me, buddies, there is no more obsessive romantic bond than that between a Poe protagonist and their dead bride.

[sarahreesbrennan]

I remain mad that Long Live Evil doesn’t have a movie because I want to edit the characters so bad. What do you mean I can’t make an edit of Eric with the intro of ‘The reason I walked in like I own the place is because I do.’ and the song is Brat by Charlie XCX??? This is ridiculous.

I thank you and I could see it!

Long Live Evil is the book I ‘see’ most of all my books in a cinematic way because I was thinking so much of adaptations as I wrote it. Not of getting an adaptation (though it would be nice, wouldn’t it!) but of how stories change in the telling, as they did with oral tradition and bards back in the day. But as they do now mainly from being transformed from one medium to another.

And that transformation necessitates change. Even a good and considered faithful adaptation should bring with it the change of needing to work in a different medium for a different audience, and the change of another person’s vision altering the telling.

I’m not just talking movies or TV shows in Long Live Evil but plays - we have a major playwright character, we start off with a Richard III epigraph and have innumerable Shakespeare references thereafter - plus references to Greek plays, the chorus, and catharsis - plus musicals and pantomimes (I tried to foreshadow in such a way that some would be surprised and some would spend much of the book yelling ‘behind you! The narrative doom is BEHIND YOU!’).

One major thing shouted out in the acknowledgements was Wicked, a musical that is very different from its book (I really enjoy both), which is getting a movie adaptation I’m interested to see, and which is full of villainous sympathy and joie de vivre. I believe Wicked foreshadowed the runaway success of Frozen.

Musicals are also a refuge for joy and camp in an increasingly self-conscious world of story. I was talking on… sigh… X about the change of Oswald Cobblepot’s name to Oz Cobb in ‘the Batman’ universe and I said ‘everyone is afraid of being cringe, and tbh I think being afraid of being cringe IS cringe. Let’s get a little silly sometimes. Let’s be wild and overblown and sincere.’

Musicals DO that. They have to, by their inherently artificial nature - we can’t pretend people burst into song and dance numbers - and that gives them a certain freedom. I love a musical. I went to see the Vampire Lestat the musical and The Lord of the Rings the musical. I can’t be kept away. The second-most-common note from my critique partners was to get rid of the musical in Long Live Evil and I just couldn’t, as the musical was one of the first seeds of the story, and it said what kind of story I wanted it to be: a joyful celebration of art that wasn’t afraid of anything. Including being cringe.

… I’ve wandered off the point I fear. I would also like to see an adaptation! Love an adaptation.

[raptor-claw]

things that bring me joy! (or: reasons why i shouldn’t kill myself)

my favourite tv shows

good quality merch

the world of classical studies

cinematography and film in general

dnd podcasts

my friends (most of the time)

my family (most of the time)

pride

animals and nature

long walks

sugary treats (chocolate, sweets, etc)

aesthetically pleasing beverages

nice/stylish clothes

plushies

fanfic & fanfic writers

queer ships in media

pretty colours

human anatomy (skin, eyes, organs, etc)

music & dancing & singing

makeup & nail polish

waking up early with sufficient sleep

reading good books

going on my swing

the thought of dying as an old man

hugs

holding peoples’ hands

lovely humans

breathing

being outside at night, looking at the stars & hearing the noises of the dark

analysing media

youtubers having fun and enjoying life

touching cold/interestingly textured things

getting cool showers

playing video-games with other people

being in a car with the windows open

wearing my binder

going on the positive side of social media

funny/wholesome memes

being smiled at by strangers

lying down on grass during a sunny day

when it’s dusk, and all the shadows look really long

birds singing/the dawn chorus

going to museums/art galleries

being/going anywhere with f, k, a, o and r <3

acting silly and laughing

bubblegum dispenser machines

words/discovering new words

flowers & flower patterned things

watching things from my childhood, like old disney films or button moon or bagpuss

animation

going to the cinema

adverts on tv (as long as they’re not repeated to the point where it gets annoying)

dyed hair & piercings & tattoos & body modifications

customisation & stickers

walking around a city

concerts

eating ice-cream on a river bank

parks & playgrounds

vinyl records & dvds

eating cotton candy at a fair/themepark

bracelets & necklaces & rings & earrings

nice scented things, like soap or perfume

sleeping in a cabin on a ferry

looking outside the window of a train

musical theatre

movie nights with other people

bird-watching

typing on a screen with long nails

manga and graphic novels

feeling just a little bit hungry

street performers/buskers

lincolnshire

being at my grandmother’s house

being in england in general

emoticons & emojis

people texting me ‘hi’ when it’s late at night

being in a car when it’s dark out

coffee machines

people being imperfect in the most distinctly human ways

comedy shows on channel four

statistics & graphs

going to the library

using lifts

staying at hotels

edits

paddling in the sea/lakes/rivers

greek deity designs

creators/famous people having fun and joking around

getting rained on

snow & frost

the weather being cold in general

school breaks

early mornings

listening to people talk about their special interests/things they’re passionate about

the number 5

getting positive/feral comments on ao3

brainstorming ideas with someone else

having safe, friendly debates

people being kind

getting notifications

looking at fanart

consuming horror/angst media

being alive.

[skulkingwriter]

I realise that Hamilton went through a hype-overhype-cringe-establishment cycle fast and hard around here but if you are a musicals person and you haven't listened to LMM's latest, in collaboration with songwriter Eisa Davis, you really should. I haven't got time for a powerpoint so you'll have to cope with bullet points:

plot: gang must get home to Coney Island after being framed for the murder of another gang's leader in the Bronx

most main characters have been genderflipped from the original story, so it's an all-female gang, and a female christlike gang leader who's killed. The narrator/chorus is a woman. And the love interest has been left as a woman so it's also gay now.

so you know how after In the Heights LMM was like 'huh I really didn't give any female characters the chance to rap' and then in Hamilton he had one amazing female rapper? It really feels like after that he went 'huh wait why did I stop at one??? I can have as many amazing rapping women as I want! I will have them all!'

did you know Lin Manuel Miranda really loves New York? I mean the man really fucking loves New York. As someone who really fucking loves my own deeply flawed megacity, I relate very hard to this.

the NY subway system is all over this. the bing bong noises. the announcements. Again, as someone who is perhaps unnecessarily fond of the Tube, I feel incredibly at home.

WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME TRAIN HOME

I cry

did you know Lin Manuel Miranda loves parodying and paying tribute to various musical styles? 75% of this musical is different gangs encountering the Warriors on their journey, each one is a different musical style, each one is a banger

I mean really there's not really a dud in the bunch

although I think funnily enough the latino gang is the least interesting, but it might be that the bits in Spanish are great if you're fluent?

I have a particular fondness for Quiet Girls, in which Billy Porter and his queer and trans gang explain a thing to the Warriors

and Sick of Running, which is superb and cathartic

and We've Got You, the funniest and creepiest boy band parody since Title Of The Song.

it's based on a film which was based on a book which was based on a greek myth (anabasis, not the odyssey, but extremely similar vibes).

The book was apparently GRIM, with GRIM things happening to many of the characters especially the few female ones. The movie softened that, and the musical changes a whole bunch of unnecessarily grim things for things that are... sort of hopefully grim?

The villain is a joker-esque, immature nihilist, but the real antagonist of the story is the NYPD. There is a phone call a few songs in, in which Luther checks in about how his murder went. We never find out who he's calling, and at the same time, we know exactly who he is calling.

the cast of this is just immense. Peggy from Hamilton is the lead character. Persephone from Hadestown is the one who solves all her problems with violence. Ms Lauryn Hill is the doomed christ figure, bringing a gravity and experience to a relatively small role that gave me absolute fucking chills the first time I heard it and I'm not even a proper rap and hip hop fan. The villain is played by a guy called Kim Dracula who is famous partly for his heavy metal songs on TikTok. The lead cop is played by the guy who played Luther in the movie, just in case you were in any kind of doubt about whether ACA in fact B

LMM has also just got a whole bunch of his famous rapper mates to introduce the different NYC boroughs in the opening number which is superb, especially the Staten Island verse with the refrain line which lives rent free in my head now

listen you could quibble about the optimism of the ending and the fact that there is precisely one (1) gun in the whole thing but also, get a grip, it's a musical

women

so many women

women everywhere

we're all on the same train home

[eleventeeny]

An Analysis on the New Manson Era

Marilyn Manson is holding his first headlining show since 2019 tonight. The past few days have been pure bliss for Manson fans everywhere. We've gotten a new single, new music video, first stage appearance in 5 years, and soon the first headlining performance in 5 years.

In this post, I want to analyze what we've seen so far. I spoke on the new single a bit in my previous post. I spoke on the new single in my previous post, please check that out if you're interested.

Starting with the MM x NB teaser from May 2024, the costume designer has apparently confirmed that this video is part of a full music video that will be released at a later date.

Within this video, we see a ton of symbolism. In the opening alone, he holds or presents a few items that could have a specific meaning.

He first holds a book, however I'm not sure what this could represent, and I don't know what the book he's holding is either.

After, he holds a key which represents knowledge, strength and contempt, as well as having control.

The throne shown represents authority and the sword in front of the throne represents justice, but in Greek mythology it can also be a sign of vengeance.

The apple he holds represents wisdom or the forbidden fruit.

I noticed a lot of symbolism relating to the human body as well, for example the glass oxygen mask he holds to his face, or the costume he wears that represents the veins in the body.

Throughout this whole era, we've seen a lot of imagery with flowers. When we see this full image of Manson, we can see calla lilies. These flowers are poisonous if eaten and represent resurrection and rebirth. Behind him, we see a structure covered with white flowers which could be these same flowers, roses, and yellow birds.

At the end of the teaser, we hear the outro to As Sick as the Secrets Within: "Keep sleeping, I'll make you dream of me"

In the lyrics for As Sick as the Secrets Within, we get a bit of a reflection of the past few years for Manson, which is why the cover is an image of his reflection in a piece of a broken mirror.

"I built this cage we've been trapped in together, can't remember where I hid the keys" -- This could be about Manson starting problems and dragging others into it and then struggling to get them out of the mess he created. He is realizing that his actions have negatively affected himself and those around him.

"A reason for me, for me to get by became a need, a need to get high" -- Manson first started using drugs, like he says, to get by, but it became a need, an addiction.

"Then into a life that was no life at all" -- In his addiction, he was alive he wasn't truly living.

The chorus, to me, is about how your trauma and hurt can only control you as much as you let it. You can become your full self when you stop letting your problems take over you. The beast he mentions can be a representation of misery or the struggle to break pattern, and it tries to pull us back in and control us.

"Keep sleeping, I'll make you dream of me" -- Manson saying that even if you ignore him or turn a blind eye, he'll make you notice and hear him. He's always said that he doesn't care what you think of him as long as you think of him.

In the music video for As Sick as the Secrets Within, we see a lot of imagery with tentacles. This could just be a reference to Evan Rachel Wood's documentary, Phoenix Rising, which depicts Manson as a creature that uses his tentacles to bring her down. But these images could also serve as a very literal metaphor, symbolizing a strong, threatening force. He is a force to be reckoned with.

I noticed in the first image we see with the tentacles, it appears as the white part is the body of a woman and the black tentacles are reaching around the legs to get inside.

We see a lot of black and white imagery in this video, similar to the Say10 music video. Black represents evil and dark, white represents the good and purity. This picture could be an image of evil infiltrating good.

We also see a lot of red poppies in the opening. These signify hope for the future, but also remembrance. We also see a car in a field of these same poppies. It looks similar to the car JFK was assassinated in.

We see a skin-like sack entrapping Manson through the music video. It's covered in purple and red lines that look like veins. This could be a nod to his "wormboy" image he's used throughout his career. His arms are folded over his chest and he breathes through his mouth in an apparent struggle. He lays on a metal-like table, like an experiment.

Maybe this is the "skin" he refers to when saying there's a trick to get out of your skin. He's telling you that you can only be reborn by letting go of your trauma and secrets.

There's an image of a cross in front of a cross in front of a symbol on the wall made up by different papers with writings of suspected lyrics for the new album and a sort of spiral drawing. The papers appear to make up the shape of the image we see in the stage of his recent performance as well as other promotions.

An image of a triangle with a horizontal line through it flashes on the screen with a foggy background. This sign is the symbol for air in alchemy.

Manson waves around a key while saying "you're only as sick as the secrets within", he'sa saying he is no longer controlled by his secrets, he now has the key to break free.

The cup he drinks from causes a shift in the video. As he drinks, blood pours into the background. This may represent the wrath he will bring onto those who have hurt him.

He then breaks out of the yolk sac containing him, the birth of a new version of himself.

These last few years have been hard on him, but he came out on top, and he wants to show us that with this video and with this song.

[kyndaris]

Preaching to the Chorus

About three years ago, Troy Baker pitched the idea of a video game musical called Chorus. What struck me, beyond the fact it was asking for donations as it was a crowdfunded project, were the high profile voice actors taking part, the art style, the bringing on of composer Austin Wintory and that it was being developed by an Australian developer! Years later, there was almost no word or hint of the game and I feared the worst. For a good long while, I wondered if I had just imagined the game being announced. Until, of course, Summerfall Studios announced the upcoming release of Stray Gods in August 2023! Suddenly, we had a release date and songs to enjoy after years of what had felt like absolute silence.

Yes, Chorus had changed its name but it was still the same premise I was promised: an urban fantasy Greek-mythology inspired musical where I got to make decisions on where the songs went. Needless to say, I was excited!

Despite it releasing in August, I didn't get to play the game until much later in 2023 when I finally got a bit of a breather between all my lengthy video games sucking up most of my time (and the fact I work full-time and commit to writing my stories and watching endless TV shows to be up-to-date on whatever is popular). Well, no. That's a lie. I've put a few games on the back burner like Octopath Traveler II and Like a Dragon: Ishin! (they are totally going to be played soon, I promise!)

In any case, I purchased the game while it was on sale (a measly 20% or so) and then stepped into the shoes of Grace. And almost immediately connected with her feelings of being cast adrift. Like so many people who have graduated university, and who didn't immediately apply for graduate programs, she's a little lost and unsure of her direction in life. Enter Calliope.

After the two share a duet together, Grace returns to the apartment she shares with longtime best friend: Freddie. As she rests, there's a knock on the door and lo! Calliope staggers through clutching a ghastly wound. With her last breath, she passes on her eidolon (the soul? and memories of an Idol) before dying in poor traumatised Grace's arms.

As Grace, understandably, panics, at the sudden turn of events, Hermes steps through the front door and tells Grace she needs to meet the Chorus. Within moments, Grace is taken to an upscale office room where she is greeted by Apollo, Persephone, Aphrodite and Athena. Before Grace can get a word in edgewise, these Idols (as the Gods now call themselves - although it makes me wonder if other pantheons exist in this world created by Summerfall), decide to execute Grace for the crime of maybe-possibly killing Calliope. That is until Apollo protests.

And protest he must consider later plot points. Such as him divulging the prophecy leading to Calliope's murder!

Honestly, so much of the story could have been resolved if Apollo stopped being a sad boy and actually used some brains to more cleverly resolve Grace's predicament. Instead, we have Grace run around the city for a week in a bid to prove her innocence and figure out the truth behind Calliope's death.

But what a wonderful week it was as several Idols help out, from the fast-talking Pan to the scary Medusa (with a very cute monster voice from Anjali Bhimani). But who can forget, and forgive me as a I fan myself and swoon over, the dommy mummy: Persephone. The design! The voice! The attitude? Gosh, I just wanted Persephone to step all over me. And considering the height difference she had over Grace?

Just...

I'm just going to die in a corner over here now.

Anyways, diversion aside, the plot was serviceable. It wasn't the most mindblowing story to be told but I liked how it introduced us to many of the Greek Gods and mythological creatures hiding in America, whilst weaving it in the murder mystery plot at its core. While the game threw out new leads often, I didn't ever feel an urgency to solve the crime or fear I'd not be able to figure out the murderer. Sherlock Holmes, this is not.

Rather, no matter which scenes you may wish to complete first (and I always went back to the Underworld to chat up Persephone), I feel like the end-point is almost always the same with our villain being unmasked as the smiling cookie-giver!

From a gameplay perspective, Stray Gods doesn't offer much. It's pretty much a visual novel where the player selects dialogue options or the next part of the song they wish to sing. There's no walking around or exploring the wondrous set pieces you find yourself in. Nor is there any random clicking on background objects for some light commentary or to pocket away clues to be presented at some other time.

In fact, there's no real animation to the game either. Most of the characters are stills, changing their posture as the dialogue or songs demand. Like flipping through a comic book or going from pane to pane.

But what does make Stray Gods stand out are the songs. Yes, there are some where I felt like it faltered: Asterion and Hecate's song (with the volume turned way too low) and some of the weaker blue options in Challenging a Queen. To me, it just wasn't as melodic as they could be and sounded a little jarring. Still, these were glossed over by several other standout songs like The Throne and the Ritual.

Speaking of The Ritual, while I did feel for Aphrodite, I didn't much like her selfish actions of dying and passing her trauma onto another poor soul. Like, either go to therapy and work on your issues or just die permanently and stop inflicting someone else with your trauma! Forgetting is not the path forward. And maintaining the cycle of the next Aphrodite reawakening to your traumatic memories of the Second World War whilst your son, Eros, deals with the fallout is NOT healthy.

On a side note, I liked how the melody of Adrift was used in the background of the game and was also revisited during The Trial.

As for the actual singing, I'm still impressed by the singing of so many of the voice actors. I mean, I wasn't surprised by Troy Baker considering he was a musician before he was a voice actor. And Felicia Day...well, considering I'd stumbled upon her back in her The Guild days, knew she could sing because of the songs she released. And the fact she appeared in Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog alongside Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion.

While I did like Laura Bailey, there were moments when I felt her vocals were just a little too raw and weren't able to hit the notes as well as could be. No shade on Laura, though. I love Laura Bailey! And she had a tough task with so many variations to sing!

Still, I did like her rapping. MORE LAURA BAILEY RAPPING PLEASE! Especially in the Challenging a Queen song.

But I do wonder what Stray Gods might have been like if we had actual Broadway actors brought in for the singing with stronger vocals and/ or melodies.

But I must say, my absolute favourite singer was Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. How could I not? She voiced Persephone! And I so wanted to romance her!

In the end, though, I foiled my chances because I was trying to play in-character by asking myself 'What would Grace do?' in most situations, especially when she was down in the Underworld and was especially traumatised by her best friend's death.

So, yes. I obviously brought Freddie back and the two ended up getting together in one of the more wholesome relationships there is in the game. Because, if you ask me, Pan? He just shows up out of the blue and is all sneaky-sneaky. A girl with her head on her shoulders wouldn't immediately fall for him, even if his intentions were good.

And Apollo? I know my friend @mrsarmageddon likes a 'I-can-fix-him-sad-boy' but he was too set in his ways and a little too unwilling to be of any proper assistance until all his secrets had been unveiled.

As for Persephone, she's a very angry woman and also wouldn't have been a healthy choice considering her romance with CALLIOPE in the past. Still, I couldn't help but want her step on me.

I don't know what that says about me. I'm probably secretly a sub/ omega who just wants someone to take care of me.

But let's not dwell on what this revelation could be and instead talk about how Stray Gods pushed the gaming genre to try and be more inclusive in ways no-one had thought of before. Beyond that, I loved the characters. The narrative, while simplistic, was entertaining enough to pull me through my initial playthrough of six and a bit hours. So, it's not even all that long. Which is perfect when you're gainfully employed and have a ton of time-consuming hobbies.

The one major downside to me was the fact it didn't have a chapter select after the first playthrough. If it did have it, allowing me to skip ahead to say 'Act 3' to redo my conversation with Persephone so I could romance her, or skip to certain songs so I could try out different combinations or variations, it would have heightened the gaming experience for me. Instead, Stray Gods forced me to play through the entire game again just for the occasional tweaks I wanted to do in my playthrough.

And now, during The Game Awards 2023, there's been an announcement for ANOTHER musical game called Harmonium. And it features sign language! So, it's definitely something I want to keep an eye on!

YES! TO MORE VIDEO GAME MUSICALS!

But also, don't let it become too overly saturated. During the Game Awards, I couldn't help but notice more Souls-like battle systems, using Japan as a setting (for Western developers) and more mechs/ robots.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and admire the Queen of the Underworld a little bit more. For perfectly REASONABLE purposes.

[splanana-bitz]

WW Normal Album Analysis (pt. 4(?)) 💜

Back at it again, people!

I've been wanting to do this again for a while, since I haven't in actual months. And since @interfacefox 's request won, here I am again because even after almost a year of liking Will's music, my fixation refuses to cease.

If you know what's going on, then you know my whole normal album theory, but if not, here's a link to my last few posts where I analyzed the normal album and puked my thoughts out for people to see:

- Part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/dappydaffer/733190401716027392/this-rant-im-about-to-go-on-will-probably-not?source=share

- Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/dappydaffer/733737259322474496/ww-normal-album-analysis-pt-2?source=share

- Part 3: https://www.tumblr.com/dappydaffer/734550698381950976/ww-normal-album-analysis-pt-3?source=share

• • • • • • • • • •

I'm not only doing this because of interface, but this is a song I have been itching to do for a while, despite how lengthy/complex it seems, and the song I'm going to be analyzing is...

Black Box Warrior

(I am, however, splitting this up into parts. This shit is waaaay too much for me to analyze in one sitting, so you get the chorus and first (maybe couple) of verses for now-)

• • • • • • • • • •

Although I've heard the song was simply just a challenge for Will lyrically and musically, there is a theory I strongly believe about this song, and that it's an allusion/reference to the illegal human experimentation program, MKUltra, which started in 1953, and continued until 1973. The experiment itself was run and designed by the CIA and its sole purpose was to test means of psychological torture, effects of drugs, and even brainwashing in order to force confessions out of people.

(I mean, hell, even the title is a spinoff name of the experiment itself - "OKULTRA-")

(Read more about it here, it is genuinely interesting as hell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra)

• • • • • • • • • •

In bits and pieces throughout the song, starting with the first verse, the lyrics have convinced me the song is either a doctor describing the horrid side effects a now-deceased patient endured due to the means of getting confessions out of them, or an unknown narrator is making it seem like the victim/patient's side effects was this nonsensical, psychedelic adventure, when it reality, it was far much worse.

Lyrics that either allude to the side effects or hint at this possibility at all within the first verse and chorus include:

"Trojan Horse'd his blood brain barrier and raised the LD-50.."

I belive the trojan horse invading the "brain barrier" is a metaphor relating to the obliviousness of this particular victim, or MKUltra patients in general, to the psychologically damaging actions being inflicted on them, and the effects they are yet to bring on them. The trojan horse tale tells of greek invaders successfully tricking the Trojans into letting them in, making it seem as if a giant wooden horse were a gift. The victim could also be seeing, or being told so by doctors inflicting them, that these experiments are for the greater good, when it really is just a heap of psychological torture and abuse in disguise, slowly and surely going to attack and seep in once it gets past the patient's defenses. Instead of immeadiately attacking, I believe that's where the LD-50 part of the metaphor kicks in. LD-50 is a term that refers to the amount of chemicals given, which causes 50% of the deaths in a group of test animals (usually before releasing the chemical to public) - Not only does this imply that patients are simply just treated like disposable test objects before they officially solidify these means of interrogation/testing as part of the criminal justice system, but it also shows that once the patient's defenses are downed/weakened, the LD-50 (lethal dose) can be further pushed to see how far the testing can go until the patient confesses or succumbs to the side-effects of the torture.

"- the Black Box Warrior, He skipped this town and headed straight down history-"

While I'm certain black box could be a reference to something else, I believe it not only refers to how CIA Director, Richard Helm ordered evidence of the project to be destroyed before the public was informed about it in 1975, but also alludes to how it adds confidentiality to the patient being referred to and personifies him as a stastistic or another case to destroy and rid of in the eyes of those in charge. Him "heading straight down history" could also be an allusion to how he simply just forgotten and/or killed off so easily and quickly, joining others who passed, and waiting for new patients to join him who will only get treated the same as he did, due to the abuse and effects inflicted by doctors.

"Roman candles at both ends in his synapses"

Burning both ends of the candle is a common phrase that exaggerates or tells that oneself is overworking or doing too much or burning themselves out, etc. Whilst synapses are spaces between cells that transmit nervous impulse (correct me if I am wrong). The patient in question having roman candles at both ends of their synapses is what I believe to be physical sensory overload or the "LD-50 being raised" far too high to the point of his nervous system going haywire. LSD was a common psychoactive drug used in MKUltra and when one takes LSD, the nervous system can be/is heavily effected (depending on how heavy the dosage) and from what science can conclude; since synapses, a part of the nervous system, facillitate communication between neurons via transmission of signals in neurotransmitter forms, and therefore play vital roles in the brain functioning properly (perception, memory, emotions, etc.), burning metaphorical roman candles at the ends of this patients' synapses implies that a scary, damn near lethal dose of LSD has been injected into the patient by doctors working for MKUltra.

"Shields himself from reason in a Kevlar baby-blue Tuxedo"

I believe here the song is panning to the doctor and a 3rd person point of view of what his intentions/thoughts are. Scrubs that doctors wear are typically a shade of "baby-blue," and kevlar is a material commonly used in bullet proof vests. With the doctor wearing a metaphorical baby-blue bulletproof vest, it could symbolize that the doctor may have a heart to at least barely acknowledge that what he is doing is wrong, however, it is his job to do so for the project, therefore he may be rationalizing and hiding behind his status as a doctor (hence the tuxedo metaphor, as I view tuxedos as a sign of high social/financial status) in order to dodge the bullet of actual reason (hence, the kevlar reference).

"If it was going to kill you boy, it would have by now / There's no more looking back, it's looking up or looking down"

This piece of the chorus really feels like a "ride or die" statement towards the alleged patient. The song (or what I assume is the doctor) almost mockingly, or non-chalantly tells the patient that despite everything he has been put through, it wasn't enough to kill him and even though they have far enough pushed him past his physical and mental limit, he (the doctor) almost encourages this patient to continue on and comply with their experiments. This really shines a light on how little regard the higher ups of this program beared for the victims that were unfortunately involved. As for "looking up or looking down," I believe it is the doctor still telling the patient to continue on, until he dies, and either looks "up" to heaven, or "down" at hell. There truly is no more going back. The patient has to keep pushing and not only burn both ends of his synapses with the aforementioned metaphorical roman candles, he has to burn himself out physically and mentally until his body gives into the effects of the torture and LSD.

• • • • • • • • • •

Thank you for coming to my TED talk....holy shit, that took way too long-

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this, and if you have your own Black Box Warrior/Normal Album/Will Wood theory, I'd love to hear them.

I promise I will add more to this analysis with a part 2, however, I may do other WW songs in between that time =)

• • • • • • • • • •

[supercantaloupe]

for sleepover saturday, id love to know more about that trouble in tahiti you saw!! :)

i really really liked it! it was fairly simple in scope -- no massive dazzling sets or costumes or lights or what have you -- but that fits the opera itself well as short opera with a small cast, and it fits the company, which is a small regional opera company that nevertheless puts on some great shows. i do not think "simple" is ever inherently a bad thing, as long as the work in question fulfils what it set out to do and makes use of the materials it has at its disposal.

the company in question was annapolis opera in, well, annapolis maryland. i caught their barber of seville last october which i also thoroughly enjoyed, though it was fairly bog standard as barber of sevilles go (not a bad thing! that opera is pretty much always a slam dunk). interestingly, i found, they chose to present trouble in tahiti alongside a revue of sorts, in a two-act format. since trouble in tahiti is itself only about 50 minutes long, it was performed as the second act in a two-act performance; the first act was basically a revue of other music of bernstein's from various sources (art song, musical theater, even a selection from his mass). the first act was not a concrete narrative so much as it was a loosely strung together series of scenes ruminating on love and life as bernstein wrote and thought about it. indeed, many of the musical numbers were introduced or bridged by direct quotations from bernstein or those close to him (like his wife) on that same subject. as a concept it seemed kind of ambitious, but i was surprised at how much i enjoyed the final product; i thought the selected songs were a nice balance of bernstein's musical output and language, a balance of serious/sad/funny/lighthearted/emotional, a balance of the full cast's talents in solo and ensemble performance, and the selected texts (sung and spoken) were thought provoking. my one complaint is that i wish they'd included attribution somewhere for each of the spoken quotes, because i'd like to know who said what and in what context sometimes.

as for the second act, the opera itself, it was just fantastic. i already love the score for this one and seeing it performed live was just thrilling. i feel like this one slips under the radar very frequently and doesn't get a ton of productions these days (whether due to its small size or due to perceptions of it being dated), so it was such a treat to see it performed near me! the cast was really wonderful: the actor who played sam had also played bartolo in barber of seville last fall, and it was great to see a completely different side of his acting skill come out for this. dinah was lovely and her attitude and emotional turmoil were very readable, and she had a great voice. and i loved the trio! y'know since they're not named characters (they're more of a greek chorus kind of deal) it's easy, even when listening to the score, to overlook their parts as being less important or demanding than the two leads, but seeing it live really dispels that notion. they are onstage a lot and their parts are, vocally, really impressively demanding. it's not the kind of coloratura fireworks you expect from a prima donna or anything but rather that tight, closed, midcentury jazz harmony that really relies on the multiple voices in chorus to sound Good, and in practice that kind of singing is REALLY tricky to nail, and i thought the trio did a fantastic job at it. if i had any gripes with this performance at all, it's that i thought it was slightly unbalanced having trio members enter and interact with sam in his office scene but not do the same for dinah in her therapist scene; and i thought the "what a movie!" scene could have been a little more dynamic/interesting with its staging (here it was basically dinah recalling the movie in tempered hysterics while in a hat shop as the trio brings out various hats for her to try on). but, like, those are nitpicks. it was a really good production and i thoroughly enjoyed it. plus bonus points for onstage band

[leynaeithnea]

Me ? Taking notes again to write this ask? You guessed it.

The ocean saga is 100% my favourite saga so I'm going to be insane about this actually.

12.Aeolus is literally perfect I'm obsessed with her and her little banter with Ody " let's play a game/ a game? / That's what I'm serving " YES MA'AM YOU ARE CERTAINLY SERVING. Again at this point we agree on everything because the part where Odysseus tries to stay awake has kept me awake for days , he is so pathetic he's hallucinating his family and he loves them so much and everything has changed BUT HE'S THE SAME YES HE'S THE SAAAME ( instant tears)

" They were within sight, his mom could have seen the ship" fatal blow , currently chocking on my blood and my tears.

Also yes , Poseidon's voice is majestic, after ruthlessness came out I was singing it so much my brother and sister had memorized it ( they don't even know English lol )

13.The chorus of po-sei-don is glorious and I sing it every single time very drammatically 'cause HOW COULD I NOT??? Again, agree with everything you said, this whole entire song makes me feral, Poseidon is so bitchy and mean and pissed and sarcastic I ADORE IT and whenever I sing it I make Ody's little "No" so defeated and terrified and "we're so fucked " because they so areeeee

You are the worst kind of good- moment lives in my mind rent free I also did some lettering for it because I HAD to get it out of my head somehow ( I failed , it's stuck on repeat in my brain )

" But noOoOo" is so iconic I can't put it into words I love Poseidon jansnsnns

First time I listened to ruthlessness the callback to just a man brought me to my knees Jorge is a criminal how does he get away with causing such pain to me specifically ??? We'll never know

Aaaand the callback to the convo with Polyphemus " I am your darkest moment " FLOORS ME EVERY TIME SIR WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES THAT HAUNT YOU IN THE FORM OF THE GOD OF THE SEA , WHAT DO YOU MEAN MERCY HAS A PRICE ( this whole thing about "you could have avoided all this had you just killed my son" brings me back to hours spent studying the Iliad for school and learning that in those books the idea was that you had to die a glorious death if you wanted to be remembered and live forever with honor in the stories that will be told about you. Being spared in combat and living after that is not living at all, becase you're now a disgrace and everyone will know you failed to be a hero ) ( but I don't know if this whole "moral code" applies to monsters like Polyphemus) ( living with the shame that some random puny Greeks overtook you must generally suck either way though)

also the part where Ody's desperately bargaining "Poseidon we meant to harm we only hurt him to disarm him PLEASE PLEASE UNDERSTAND please we took no pleasure in his pain we are at your mercy right now we can't do anything this is all up to you I can't do anything else for my crew other than try to make you understand we only wanted to escape PLEASE we are in your domain now we can't escape the literal sea PLEASE SHOW US THE MERCY WE SHOWED YOUR SON" and this whole part is quieter and gentler than the rest of the song,it's a plea, a small little desperate string of hope that maybe he'll understand, then a beat of silence and then DIE YOU'RE NAIVE AND HOPELESS DIE AKKSKDJSNNS

I may have gone a little insane with this one lol

As always no pressure but I eagerly await your take on the other sagas :))

( love for you and your friend that you acted out the whole musical , it seems neat and I think it would fix me hahah )

HEYO man theres one artwork of "im the same yes im the same" that im obssessed with, its sooo good

the idea was that you had to die a glorious death if you wanted to be remembered

All the men who died drowning + elpenor ------- :) :) :) yw

Despite it being an unpopular opinion Circe might actually be my least favorite saga so far,....probably because they werent as angsty as any of the other so far......i think theres a pattern here....anyway, its still GREAT so lets start 14. Puppeteer ODY REFUSING TO LISTEN TO EURY, I WONDER??? maybe he guesses???? MAYBE HE KNOWS? that it was Eury who opened the bag but he isn't ready to hear it yet???? the instrumentals in that is soo good tho, ALSO "a woman" "....what"

circes voice do be beautiful

and the storytelling of eury recalling the story while circes part is kind of a flashback like, is reallyyy nice

Also Ody being straight up ready to save his men help, that's only 8 songs or so before Syclla :")

15. Wouldn't you like

I knowwww why people are so hype about it, but admittedly it doesn't hit that hard for me. it's a good song! just not my favorites

but "someone who's not afraid to...send a message" is a sneaky way to make it obv who it is, very "high on shrooms" feels, and Odysseus singing the "OooooOoooOOOooOooH"s towards the end are reallyyy goodddd and the "dont thank me you very well may die"....perfect characterization of hermes, loved 16. Done For

Ody trying to sneak his way in like "did you do smth to them?" (knows 100% that she did) "you turned them into pigs" ODY YOURE SUCH A SLEEK---- SO OKAY WE ACTED THIS OUT RIGHT? WITH MY FRIEND? HAVING MY FRIEND BE CIRCE PLS??? OMG ....attractive mayhaps ody trying to lie about being a god "hermes gave it do you, didnt he?" ".....fine, yes, but- " ODY SIEGSE ~love lying characters, like, Neil, Ody, yeah...yeah Also circe going right into lust and Ody being like "??? wdym" (think sabout penelope) 17. There are other ways "BUuT itS been 12 LonG yeEArs" JORGE JORGE__--SLEGOSEJG lmaoosegseigjseg jk beautiful falcetto (high voice) of Jorge very seductive song, beautiful the reprise of just a man again.....but he refuses! good on you ody, bc otherwise you wouldve been dead, also THE DROP when Circe talks about the Underworld, esp with the distorted choir so cool, theres some animatics that portrayed those really neat too, might ramble about the animatics some other time also Circes last note(s) in the song are SO GOOODDDDD such vocal control

[kitsaystransrights]

Okay I’m starting a new series on here called “I just finished this game” where I gush about a game I just finished.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of musicals, visual novels, or Greek mythology, you NEED to play Stray Gods.

If you haven’t heard of it before, Stray Gods is a visual novel with branching story routes, but it has the twist of also being a musical! Many of the game’s major choices take place in the songs themselves, and the songs will actually changed based on your decisions! Each song has numerous different permutations based on around 3-5 choices in each one. I recommend checking out Challenging a Queen, one of the early game songs that’s relatively light on spoilers, to see how some of the choices really add some spice to the game and weave through the songs.

The game’s story just follows Grace, a 20-something girl who witnesses the death of Calliope, the Last Muse, and to make matters worse, she has inherited her powers and role. The Chorus, leaders of the remaining Greek gods (known as Idols), give Grace one week to prove her innocence before she is executed, and the line of Calliope is gone forever.

Accompanying her on this journey are a variety of gods, monsters, and her mortal (strictly platonic… strictly) roommate, Freddie. The cast of Stray Gods is easily its best aspect, full of lovable and complex characters, leaving you laughing a lot, sobbing sometimes, and sometimes not knowing who to trust. And when it’s backed up by a fantastic voice cast, and nearly every character getting their own song if not multiple, I’d be astounded if you managed to get through the game without getting attached to SOMEONE lol.

(For the record, my favorite characters are Freddie, Persephone, and Aphrodite hehe)

And of course, what’s a musical without its music? The soundtrack of Stray Gods is absolutely incredible, even beyond the incredible amount of work and dedication it took to integrate so many variations of all the songs in the game. Lots of variety with the genre, sometimes even changing in the middle of a song! If I haaad to pick a few favorites, I suppose it’d be The Ritual, Look Into Me, and If Only. I’m a sucker for the emotional songs, but Look Into Me is suuuuuch a banger, it feels so threatening and I LOVE it.

OKAY now I’m gonna gush about my favorite parts of the story and get all spoilery so if you don’t want to be spoiled, DON’T KEEP READING! Go play the game yourself! Iirc it’s on all current platforms. Enjoy :)

So HOLY SHIT APHRODITE’S SONG HIT ME LIKE A BRICK??? I love the moral dilemma her whole cycle of rebirth puts you in, deciding whether to honor her wishes and let her die again or to convince her to find peace in life rather than trying to forget. I tried SO HARD to save her without forcing her and she ended up passing on anyways.

Persephone’s character is also SOOOO well done here, the reinterpretation of her story where she kills Hades is a fantastic direction to take her character. She ended up being my main investigative partner for the game and I did NOT regret it. I almost ended up romancing her, and I definitely will on my next playthrough, but I didn’t this time because of…

Freddie!!! Freddie absolutely rules and is my favorite character in the whole game. Mortal Greek mythology nerd who is super gay and wears a cool hat, how could I NOT love her??? My heart was completely torn to shreds when she died, and even though I knew she had to be able to come back somehow because you could romance her, the fury it raised in me made me blaze through the last four hours of the game and finish it in one sitting XD.

And JEEZ the way they let you bring her back is so well done. It’s not outright good or bad, it’s complex! Freddie and Grace are both traumatized by her death and resurrection, and the fact that you went against Freddie’s wishes and passed the line of Calliope onto her just makes it even more interesting from a storytelling perspective. It’s part of what makes If Only one of my favorite songs in the game. And of course, I’m a sucker for stories of unrequited love like Freddie’s is for Grace and now I’m gonna feel so guilty romancing anyone else 😭. Freddie is so relatable istg.

Anyways uuuuuh that’s all I have to say, maybe I’ll do a full review on my YouTube? Thanks for checking this post out tho! Okay bye :)

[yibennianyaji]

In Defense of the Little Shop of Horrors Theatrical Cut

Few words are as dirty as the phrase “focus testing,” the process in which bewildered strangers representing various marketing demographics are ushered into the screening of an unreleased film and then battered with questions about their feelings. Alright, it’s a bit more involved than that, but it’s also a process well known for being used as a crutch by nervous studio executives (also known as The Man) to rein in artistic types who want to try out something that, God forbid, might fail. The fallacy of this system has been discussed in broader scope by more learned souls than I, so today let’s keep it simple. There is one case in which I remain in favor of the results of a focus group: the infamous edited ending of the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors.

For those not in the know, a brief history: Little Shop of Horrors is, at its basest roots, the story of a poor young man, Seymour Krelborn, who finds a mysterious plant that brings him a great deal of wealth, accomplishment, and the love of the girl he was pining for; trouble being that the plant feeds on blood, and as it gets bigger and the stakes get higher, Seymour has to resort to feeding it bodies. The story was originally a 1960 film born from the production house of gimmickry master Roger Corman, with the plant serving as a pretty heavy handed drug metaphor and Seymour as the only victim. In 1982 the story was adapted into an Off-Broadway musical with a score furnished by future Disney Renaissance composer Alan Menken, becoming a Greek tragedy rather than a morality play (a stroke of genius that no doubt has a great deal to do with the play’s enduring quality). That musical then became the basis for the 1986 film starring Rick Moranis and directed by Frank “he did things besides Muppetry?” Oz.

Now, the play ends with Seymour, his paramour Audrey, and eventually the entire planet being consumed by the ravening alien plant dubbed “Audrey II.” Seymour’s undone by his fatal flaw, there’s a Greek chorus, and the show ends on a direct address to the audience called “Don’t Feed the Plants.” It’s a metaphor, y’see. The film was initially shot with that ending as well, until focus groups declared that they hated it, and Oz was forced to go back and shoot a happier ending with Seymour and Audrey surviving (as well as a small Audrey II peeking up out of the idyllic garden). People have hated that ending ever since. But while it’s definitely sappy, perhaps unduly so, it’s still a better fit for the finished film than the original ending.

The first issue is one of medium, which is almost unfair to hold against the film. “Don’t Feed the Plants” is directed toward an audience assumed to be in the same room, and is almost always staged correspondingly (plant props falling on the audience or a giant puppet looming over the seats). It takes advantage of the intimacy of theatre as a medium in order to impress that last message as a plea by the dead characters, and that in-person bond with the actors is a huge part of making something like that work.

Oz tries, to his credit, making the final shot of the director’s cut involving Audrey II seeming to rip through the screen. But it’s simply not the same, and once the characters we’ve spent 90 minutes with are dead there’s no urgency or horror in seeing unnamed civilians overwhelmed by vines. Nor does it help that he cuts up the rhythm of the finale to twice its original length in order to have long, looooooong shots of giant plants rampaging through the city. And because it alters the stage convention of Seymour et al returning as plant buds to sing the final number, it doesn’t so much surge into its ending as it limps the remaining six minutes until the credits finally roll. Even Seymour’s death lacks punch on screen. While his stage counterpart died making a final run at the plant with an axe, screen Seymour is picked up and swallowed up with agonizing, passive slowness.

“Passive” is the word du jour when it comes to film Seymour. Rick Moranis’ performance is wonderfully sweet and endearing, and perhaps it’s because of that there are a dozen little cuts and tweaks centered around absolving his character of culpability. Stage Seymour’s arc is one that takes small but active steps toward his own damnation, thus making it a tragic but fitting end when he sacrifices himself trying to end what he started. Film Seymour might go through the same basic motions, but as film goers we’re used to sympathizing with people who do bad things for sympathetic reasons. And the film almost goes out of its way to make the overall tone sympathetic: the film death of sadistic dentist Orin ends with Seymour saying that “it was for her,” and Orin’s first confused and then non-repentant reply hammers home that this is a man better off dead; likewise, by having Seymour successfully pull the gun, it cuts away the staged version of Orin pitifully begging Seymour (in song!) for help.

Mushnik’s death is also given a semi-karmic edge in the film. While stage Mushnik is no saint, the script plays genuinely on the fact that he’s troubled by the implication of Seymour being a murderer (“just so my conscience can rest easy” is his last line before Audrey II starts up “Suppertime”). Film Mushnik, meanwhile, not only saw Seymour chop up Orin (rather than only suspecting it) but is perfectly fine with letting that fact slide in the name of blackmailing Seymour for the plant. And Seymour’s active hand is once again removed, having him babble in shock until Mushnik trips into the plant on his own (stage Seymour manipulates Mushnik into crawling right into Audrey II’s mouth). In both cases Seymour’s biggest sin is passivity, allowing bad things to happen for his own advancement but not actively taking part in them. Even “Feed Me” is restrained: one would think that the film would take advantage (as it does with other numbers like “Somewhere That’s Green”) on at least a cutaway or two when Seymour is indulging in his more selfish desires for fame. Instead, we stay in the room (which probably has something to do with that fantastic puppet), and Audrey II looms so large as to make Seymour seem like the helpless prop.

Much of this is helped along, in the stage show, by the three chorus girls (Chiffon, Crystal, and Ronette) who comment on the action of the play. Most of their numbers are cut or shortened to help with the film’s pacing, meaning that numbers like “You Never Know,” about Seymour becoming famous after his radio interview (and positively loaded with the toxic masculinity and capitalist success language that push him to his doom throughout the play), gets replaced with the functional but less subtext-heavy “Some Fun Now;” the reprise of the opening cautionary tale prior to the end of act I is gone; and, most importantly, “The Meek Shall Inherit” omits Seymour’s monologue.

“The Meek Shall Inherit” is the montage number wherein Seymour is deluged by contracts, fame, and fortune. The meat of it can still be seen in the film, though you’ll notice that Seymour mostly sits, silent and bewildered, as he has for much of the film. The full song, by contrast, includes an interlude where Seymour argues with himself about signing the contracts, knowing that agreeing to it will mean killing more people to keep Audrey II alive. But, afraid that Audrey won’t love him without his success, he makes the decision to go through with the agreements – it’s his last chance to back out, and instead he signs his metaphorical death warrant. The fact that we see him work through and make that decision is crucial as a turning point. It’s what makes the line “you’re a monster, and so am I” work, and it means that without it Seymour works only as a piteous and not a tragic figure.

In fact, the one active move film Seymour makes in distinction from stage Seymour is to take a stand after the arguably accidental murders, not only not making that damning decision about the contracts but instead vocally refusing to give Audrey II more human meat. He becomes a hero struggling to claw his way out of the pit he blundered into rather than a Shakespearean victim, and the needs of the third act correspondingly become different.

In particular, the film-only number “Bad” (no doubt written, as is common for film musicals, to have a shot at the Oscar’s Best Original Song category) only really works in a scenario where Seymour makes it out alive. It’s a grand eleven o’clock piece of gloating for Audrey II and a brutal, semi-slapstick gauntlet for Seymour as he tries to take the plant down. The effect of placing that sequence before Seymour’s death not only has a cruel effect on the tone (he’s not just eaten but humiliated first, and doesn’t even get that last active choice with the axe), but also results in Audrey II having two victory moments back to back – rather than the confrontation being focused on Seymour’s failing and then leading into the idea of The Plant as a bigger, more metaphorical threat to be presented to the audience.

But “Bad” does work as a final test that Seymour needs to go through to atone for what he’s done, accidentally or not. It works as the moment when he decides to overcome his sin of passivity and become an active hero. That feels, corny or no, like the story the film specifically is writing for its Seymour – not a tragic downfall but a transition from innocence to experience (so yes, even that gotcha moment with the bud works, as it ties well into the idea that Seymour might have to face up to his old sins in future). It wound up telling a different story, one that arguably lacks the brutal emotional punch of the stage show but meshes better with the film’s high concentration of weird comedic bits (looking at you, Bill Murray!). The front half is so loaded with goofy guest stars and tongue in cheek humor, so dialed back in letting Seymour be an actively flawed character, that ironically it’s the tragic end that winds up feeling like a cheat.

And besides, Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene are too damn cute for me to want anything but the best for them.

[kpodcast]

It's about the YEARNING

Hello and welcome back to Yeaji's immaculate vibes for Friday! Maybe it's because it's October, or maybe it's because I love this song, but it feels like it's time for some yearning. There's plenty of songs that have the feeling, but I think there's one song that stands above the rest.

I'm talking about "Higher" by A.C.E of course. If you haven't heard it, please do yourself a favor and listen to it!

There's a lot musically going on to give it the yearning, but that's more of a Tuesday post, don't you think? The point for today is that it's there. There's an aching feeling deep in this song.

If I remember right, "Higher" is about a mermaid who's planning to risk everything for love. And that is translated perfectly in the music.

This is the song you listen to while riding the bus home in the rain, staring out the window like you're part of a dramatic music video.

This is the song that you would use as a backdrop for a fanmade anime video (iykyk).

It's desperate. It's longing. It's hopeful. It's resigned. It's searching.

It's a love song. It's a breakup song.

It somehow brings every fleeting emotion you might experience in a romantic relationship and puts it into one song.

I have a hard time putting this into words because this song is just... it invokes such strong and dynamic feelings. The song itself is pretty fast, and the music is pushing (reaching? chasing? searching?) and yet it feels like a ballad - maybe because of those long notes in the chorus.

And when I didn't think I could get any more feelings, A.C.E did a live version that sent my heart soaring. It's softer. It has tight harmonies that emphasize the desperation of the music. The band is quieter, without the extra effects in the studio version.

Not to mention, there's something special about listening to live music - I think we can all agree on that. As for "Higher", this live performance, with the adlibs and harmonies, adds so much to the music. There's a rawness in their live vocals (this is also true of the music show stages btw).

Whenever this song comes on, I can't help but belt out the chorus (and I can never hold that note as long as A.C.E but oh well) and the lingering message of "you're in my heart, let's do it, let's do it again"

It almost feels like a tragedy, doesn't it? Like in the musical "Hadestown". Which, side-bar, is excellent. But that tells of the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, and it has this same message. It's a sad song, but we keep singing it. No matter how many times the story is retold, it ends the same.

And yet we keep singing it! We continue to tell the stories of Greek tragedies. We keep reading/watching Shakespeare's tragic plays. We listen to songs like "Higher" or "Glimpse of Us" and we feel the tragedy and the heartbreak.

It may end in tears, but we experience it together. And maybe that's why I like this song so much. Because we all experience this particular yearning together. We carry this longing and loss together.

[pocketramblr]

I know you won't be writing dozi and respect that but I read someone bringing up Greek Chorus and your tumblr seems like the designated place for dozi content so I hope you don't mind. See, I'm a dirt poor soul so the only way I get to experience videogames is via gameplay walkthroughs in youtube, which is how I came across the amazing "Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical" (10/10 would rec). And as soon as the concept of "eidolon" was introduced (aka the thing that makes someone a God) I just couldn't unsee the parallels with OFA and immediately started wondering just how that would fit into DOZI. As it turns out, I think it would do so quite naturally so long as the passing of an eidolon isn't the inciting incident for the AU's existence. With Izuku established as the class biggest weirdo and secretly entrenched in the OFA-AFO War path, it would open some really interesting avenues of exploration. Sure, some of the Gods plotlines may need to be reworked, since Zeus would need to be still around in some capacity or just very recently gone in order to be a grandpa, but it would still make for a solid scafolding for a plot. At least if we are going with the premise of AFO trying to avoid fighting his family as much as possible.

Let me elaborate; there's a lot going on but for the purposes of this story what you need to know is that Stray Gods is an urban fantasy murder mystery where in order to survive you need to prove to some worn down Greek Gods that you didn't murder their Last Muse in order to get her eidolon. Considering everything in PJO, BNHA, Stray Gods, and what we've seen so far of DOZI, there's so many ways to play this out but here's what I've come up with:

Far as I remember in PJO there's this undercurrent of the Gods depending on their demigods kids for strength and protection and I think that would be a lot more obvious with *these* gods. Maybe the eidolon vessels were always the norm or maybe the situation is new and yet another sign of the gods weakening but either way it's what's happening now. And one of the many lovely things about it is that, while the vessels do get Godly Power OFA-style and even bonus technical immortality, you could argue it is a very empty immortality for the vessel since they may as well be dead. It's not some violent take-over from a new consciousness but more like the powers are not the only thing that seeps through. Soon enough the memories overwhelm the host previous personality until whoever they were is replaced by a true embodiment of the god who chose them. A new vessel could be chosen from anywhere since amongst the demigods (which seems awkward to me) up to amongst completely random people with no previous knowledge of their world, it wouldn't matter since it would be completely up to the god and all demis are duty-bound to respect the choice. *writes while side-eying Knighteye* Another thing is, no matter how much of NOOB the chosen one may be they'd still carry a godly soul within them so they'd outrank even the most badass of demis and are therefore entitled to their protection and respect.

With AFO doing his best to play dead, these world-building changes could open a door for conflict from Inko's side of the family. Like, the eidolon's implications would only compound this Izuku's plentiful reasons to prefer humans to gods. And here he was, doing his best to be his own hero away from his family legacies and suddenly one of his friends gets dragged into the mess in one of the worst ways imaginable. Even if he wasn't a demi he'd still feel duty-bound to step-up as their knight in not-so-shinny red sneakers and it would probably serve as the emotional equivalent of his vigilante arc in this AU. With who his closest friends are in this AU I considered Kouda or Shinso for the role (blame their voice quirks) but surprisingly, I feel Ojiro would make the most sense. The whole reason the game's protagonist got involved in this mess was because a Muse took a liking to them when despite their obvious talent they were feeling stuck and therefore lost, and Ojiro is a criminally underrated badass who'd just like for people to actually acknowledge his skills. Imagine how it would feel like to suddenly be at the seeming center of everyone's radar because you are the main suspect of a murder and your friend's family is even scarier than anyone theorized so he's helping you survive it. But to all of that you can also add the fact that the godly power he was bestowed with was that of A Muse. If you were looking at it from a traditional POV thiss may as well be literal Divine Intervention claiming you are destined only to a supporting role, which may be especially grating coming from the family of that one friend who always stands out naturally. Honestly by the point he realizes how OP Muses can be he'd probably have plenty of cause to regret ever having wanted the attention in the first place.

On the other side, there's no way everyone wouldn't notice their funky little green bean turning into a brooding knight that's intensely invested in Ojiro's well-being. And, for all that he'd hate that someone he cares about must be stuck with an eidolon or die, the muse who died is a pudgy short queen with an affinity for pink so he'd probably want to see justice for her as well. The poor boy was already drowning in secrets without trying to navigate just how much he *can* reveal to save his friend while avoiding disappointing All Might or bringing down Divine Wrath upon them; but "serving" the gods is what he was born and trained for so that's just what he's got to deal with now. Something very fitting with the "Stray Gods" vibe of everyone having unfolding secrets and good intentions which often lead to terrible outcomes. This could be taken to some pretty heavy places, especially if the Furys plotline is kept. So all in all, it'd be really interesting stuff. Heck, I even have a PJO OC that I'm probably never gonna use but that may fit this AU surprisingly well in case anyone wants to adopt this premise.

Well I'm not writing dozi and I'm not writing sg:trm/dozi crossover (had never heard of stay gods before but I'll check it out!) but can I just thank you for sending me all this it was very fun to read. Like fun lore, but also ough the character choices. You said Ojiro and mmmm perfect yes I realized last night I had not been loving Ojiro content as much as I should. He's such a fun pick and this is such a fun (and sad but in a good way) twist of him and Izuku's friendship in dozi. A good helping of being careful what you wish for, friends refusing to let go of each other as life complicates and they change but well. Everything changes. They can change together. They can still be heroes and do good even as it looks different.

Anyway I love the idea and would happily read more about it, thank you for sharing it!

[sinceileftyoublog]

U.S. Girls Interview: Hear and Feel My Age

U.S. Girls' Meg Remy; Photo by Colin Medley

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Don't have expectations: That's the advice Meg Remy, who performs under the moniker U.S. Girls, would give to listeners trying to predict her next move. 2018's In A Poem Unlimited was a funk-inspired protest album, 2020's Heavy Light a poppy existential crisis. 2023's Bless This Mess carved out pearls of hope with a disco sheen. Yet, if Remy's albums appear to follow a logical path, thematically or aesthetically, in reality, she, herself, doesn't know what to expect. What seems masterful among records doesn't come from a mastermind, but from someone who allows the magic of music-making to take over. Last year, slated to play at a music festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas celebrating the April 8th Solar eclipse, Remy needed a band to accompany her that didn't have to schlep from Toronto, where she lives. On a whim, she reached out to the Nashville-based guitarist Dillon Watson, who had just once stayed at her house when touring, to see if he might be willing to put together a group of musicians to play with her. He obliged, and the upshot was as far from a ragtag bunch as possible, including the likes of bassist Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) and art pop artist Jo Schornikow on keys. The set went so well that Remy asked Watson and company to make a record with her. A year and change later--last Friday--Scratch It was released on 4AD.

Over the past 10 years, U.S. Girls albums have encapsulated the ultimate musical paradox: a tight band who sounds loose. That's never truer than on Scratch It, remarkable considering that much of the groundwork was laid from a distance. Remy and Watson corresponded over email, Watson taking the works-in-progress to the band: Lawrence, Schornikow, drummer Domo Donoho, keyboardist Tina Norwood. (Remy also co-wrote two songs with Edwin de Goeji.) Then, after little rehearsal time, Remy and her husband Maximilian Turnbull (aka Slim Twig), who co-produced the album, traveled down to Nashville as she and the band recorded the album live to tape, with minimal overdubs, over two five-day increments. The Nashville sound makes its way onto a couple tracks. "Dear Patti", the story of Remy co-headlining a show with Patti Smith but never getting to meet her, sports high and lonesome country soul guitar to soundtrack Remy's teetering between a sense of self-pity and impostor syndrome. Remy's time during Smith's performance was mostly taken up by "making sure [her] kids didn't fall into the lake," but she also never bothered to introduce herself: "I was trying to make myself so small / In a space I had no place being at all." "The Clearing" is a cover of a Micah Blue Smaldone song, Remy foregoing the original's acoustic guitar minimalism in favor of shimmering keys and bass giving way to a honky-tonk strut and harmonica from session legend Charlie McCoy.

As much as Music City rubs off on Remy on Scratch It, though, she brings the experimental boogies of her last few records to her band. On opener "Like James Said", she has the gall to channel the Godfather of Soul's "Get Up Offa That Thing" to wax on the enchantment of dancing on her own. "This choreography is only for me," Remy coos, as the backing vocalists instruct her like a Greek chorus: "Stretch, move, pose, groove." 12-minute lead single (!) "Bookends", meanwhile, begins as a guitar tremolo-imbued slow lurker and ultimately drops and reintroduces its percussion to transform into a rock and roll burner with scratchy licks. The song pays tribute to the late, great Riley Gale of Power Trip through a reading of John Carey's Eyewitness To History, a book about people's accounts of historical events. Remy, a friend of Gale's, herself witnessed Power Trip's rise in the world of hardcore and beyond, not via means of selling out but through radical inclusivity. When she sings, "Now I'm suing for mercy," you can't help but feel our collective pain as a result of a hero taken too soon.

Late last month, I spoke to Remy over Zoom about Scratch It in advance of U.S. Girls' concert this Sunday at Lincoln Hall, which will be somewhat of a hometown show as she was born in Joliet and has family in Merrillville, Indiana. She's especially excited for the show because it will be the last on this leg of the tour, so the band should be extra tight, she said. Best, at each stop, they've had a local horn player join them for an improvised ending to "Bookends", and a saxophone player will grace the stage at Lincoln Hall. "We're letting the end be what it is," Remy said. "It's going to be constantly evolving, shifting, and different at every show." In other words, don't have expectations.

Read my conversation with Remy below, edited for length and clarity.

Remy; Photo by Colin Medley

Since I Left You: When you come back to Chicago to visit or play, does it still feel like home to you?

Meg Remy: For sure. I'm often coming for music stuff, and going to shows in the city was so formative to me, so it feels like home. The way things look is so familiar. It feels comfortable and like where I'm from for sure.

SILY: Do you find Chicago and Toronto at all similar?

MR: They are similar: big cities on a lake. It's hard not to compare them. Chicago has preserved way more of its architecture. Toronto has torn everything "old" down. The development of the waterfront was better thought out and executed in Chicago for sure. They do have a similar vibe. There's something about how they feel that's similar. But the people are quite different.

SILY: You first played with the band from Scratch It for a show in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for an event celebrating the 2024 Solar eclipse. Was that band playing your older stuff at the time?

MR: We were doing stuff from Bless This Mess and other albums. We weren't doing any of the tunes from this new record. They didn't exist yet. I just sent them a setlist of songs. Because the palate was more drums-bass-guitar-Rhodes, we didn't do heavy synth stuff from older tunes. It was more of a rock and ballads set that I sent them. They got it up and running.

SILY: You had known Dillon, but had you ever worked with the band he put together?

MR: No, and I didn't really know Dillon. He stayed at my house once in passing. [laughs] [He was in] a band coming through town. But he made a big impression on me. I've had many people stay at my house that I've completely forgotten. He stuck in my mind. The band that he put together, they weren't themselves playing together in this arrangement, but they had been playing together in various things for years. They had a lot of experience working together and communicating and are all genuine friends outside of music. That helped and continues to help.

SILY: What was the dynamic like for you coming in as the newbie?

MR: I was so nervous. I had never done anything like this before. I'm usually working with people that I know. I don't remember who said it to me before I went, but they said, "You're entering your Chuck Berry era. You need to own it and just walk in there." I texted my husband before I went into the rehearsal. I was at a grocery store picking up snacks and texting him about how nervous I was. He was just like, "Have fun. There's no risk involved here. These people obviously want to do this, so don't worry about it." As soon as I walked into the room and saw all of these kind faces and felt their energy, I was set at ease.

SILY: The show obviously went really well, and then you pitched to Dillon making an album together. At that point, did you have any of Scratch It written?

MR: I had some words written. I had "Dear Patti" [and] "Emptying the Jimador" written, [but] not in their final forms as they ended up on the record. A lot of times, songs for me come out of an event or something I've observed, and I'll write down a whole dump of stuff. I just get everything down when it's still close to having happened. I knew these were gonna be tunes someday, and I had all the lines that ended up going into them, but they weren't formed yet. Other than that, nothing was there.

SILY: Once you knew you were going to go into the studio with this band, did you write the rest of record on your own, or were a lot of things fleshed out in the studio?

MR: I worked with Dillon over email, and we wrote quite a bit of it, and he would work with the band on his end. They would get together and mess around with stuff. There are two covers on the record that Dillon had a major hand in arranging, as well as the band. Then I was writing with my friend Edwin here in Toronto, and I would send that stuff down to [Dillon and the band]. In June, I went to Nashville for two days, and we got together and played through the tunes. We didn't do too much to them; we just got the basic arrangements, how we knew we wanted them, for about five or six tunes. Then, I came back again in August for five days [with] my husband, [who] produced the record. He was the ears in the control room. He didn't play anything. He just was giving suggestions and offering up advice, which I've learned from past records is essential. [laughs] You need someone who is not the engineer and not playing to be listening. They catch way more stuff. They're just able to focus better. During those five days, we did all the bed tracks and vocals. We came back in September for five days and did some overdubbing, which is when we put the harmonica on. I finished my vocals, and we mixed in a few days. It was very fast and efficient.

SILY: You already mentioned that songs for you can come from individual experiences that might seem disparate on paper. Is there a tying thematic thread among the songs on this record, or is the tying thread more the looseness with which it was made?

MR: I think if there is a thread, it's my age. I'll be 40 in July. I can hear and feel my age on this record in a good way. They're songs I could have only written at this age, now being a parent and having a very different perspective on the world than I've ever had. That could also be a stretch to say that. I don't know if there's a through-line. Maybe someone can find one on their own listening to it.

SILY: There's definitely a sense of looking at what you have now and looking in the future to what you might not have later. "Dear Patti" is really fascinating. Tell me if this is off-base, but it almost sounds like you felt a sense of guilt for not getting to meet her.

MR: [laughs] Well, it's interesting. I felt disappointment first, then a kind of shame for that disappointment of assuming I was going to [meet her] and assuming I should [meet her] and putting a lot on this person I didn't even know. Then, there was kind of a little bit of a feeling of, not so much regret, but, "Why didn't I just say hi to her? Why was I putting it on her that she had to come to me? She's the elder." It's still an open question. It's not settled, the feelings that came up in that experience. I don't think they can be settled. In a dynamic like that, you have an icon, and I'm a musician. I'm an icon in my mind. [laughs] The subjective experiences on both sides can't be reckoned. I have no idea what her [perspective] was. I don't think she even knew I played that show. I don't think she knew there was a band going on before her. Why would she? It's not information she needs. Both of our experiences of that situation would be accurate and correct, so there's no settling it. It's just so complex. Discussions and thoughts around hierarchy are so immense. It affects every strain of life. You can look at it in terms of religion, gender, family dynamics, money, school. It's everywhere.

SILY: I think she would like the song. As a poet herself, she would like the juxtaposition of the amazingness of playing music to people and the logistics of watching one's kids and making sure they don't fall into the lake.

MR: [laughs] For sure. I hope she hears it, and I hope she's not weirded out by it. People are asking about it. To me, that's always a sign I've written something relevant or interesting. I feel like it's probably gonna come across her screen at some point. I hope she's not like, "Why is this lady whining about not meeting me?"

SILY: How did you come to know Riley Gale?

MR: I played a festival in Calgary called Sled Island in [2014]. At festivals, it's common that all the bands are in the same hotel. My sister-in-law came with me to that show. I was playing solo at the time. I asked her, "Do you want to come on this trip with me?" The two of us went. We checked into our hotel and went to the elevator to go up to our room. The elevator doors opened, and there's this very apparent metal band in the elevator in front of us. [laughs] Riley and I locked eyes, and it was like, "Who are you?" We both knew something. I think we kind of said, "Hey," and they moved out and we went in the elevator and that was it. My show was that night, and I was at the venue where I was doing my soundcheck, and it was also the venue where there was a free voucher for a meal, so a lot of musicians were coming in and out when I was doing my soundcheck. I thought, "Here comes that metal band again. There's that guy." I thought, full disclosure, "That guy's hot." He had an air, a total presence on and off stage. It was undeniable. They watched my soundcheck, and when I was done, he was like, "Come over here," and called me over to their table. He was basically like, "You're dope, what the hell is this music? When are you playing?" I told them when I was playing, and they were like, "We're gonna come. We're a band called Power Trip." I was like, "Cool, probably not gonna see that." They came back for the set later. I could see them in the crowd.

Calgary is like an oil town. It's the town where people who work at the refineries come to party on the weekend. These are people working real fuckin' hard making good money. I'm playing, and I start getting heckled by someone in the audience obviously not there for the festival, just at this bar on their weekend jaunt. It was a woman. She kept heckling at me to play Eminem. I made some jokes and tried to ignore it, and she just persisted. So then, I just said, "Come on stage. If you want to hear Eminem, come on stage. I'm gonna give you a beat. Take the microphone and go for it, honey, if you need that." She came up and did not know what to do. I gave her a beat, and she got booed off the stage. Riley witnessed that, and afterwards, we really dug in. We chatted, and he was like, "What the hell was that? The way you handled that was amazing." We started sharing about who we were, and from then on, we were friends. Whenever they came to Toronto, I would go see Power Trip play. I became a massive Power Trip fan, really digging into [Riley's] lyrics. I was so inspired by him as a performer. I was about to put out my first record with 4AD, and going forward, I would send him my records before they would come out, and he would send me notes and tell me what he thought about it. He was always a part of my process going forward.

SILY: Have you stayed in touch with the rest of the band?

MR: I was never in touch with them other than when I would see them at the show, and we would have a drink and say hey. I was really only connected with Riley. His death is such a loss, and yet, I see the difference he made in metal and in hardcore. It's pretty wild. Being at the Power Trip shows in 2014, and him being on stage, talking about, "I don't give a shit who you are. I don't care if you're a man, a woman, something else!" He was really trying to open up that space early on. He was amazing. Although it is such a massive loss, he is still present in a major way.

SILY: When did you write "Bookends" within the process of this album?

MR: I think Edwin and I wrote it in May. We knew the record was going to be made, and I was writing towards it. I had a show up here in June in Toronto with the Canadian band I'd been playing with at that time. We were playing a benefit concert that didn't pay anything--as benefits don't--so we were like, "Let's just do something crazy. We can do whatever we want here." We kind of wrote "Bookends" to play at that show, and we did a 20- or 25-minute version of it. It was great, because I was able to record it and send it to Nashville. I had never done that before: write a tune, test it, arrange it, and prove it playing it live. It was a really interesting way to get that song up and running.

SILY: It's pretty wild that this 12-minute album centerpiece is the first single on the record.

MR: Yeah, it's great. I love it. [laughs]

SILY: Was there something about it you think was emblematic of the record as a whole?

MR: Me and everyone--the powers that be that make these decisions at the label, even the publishers--that heard the record was really taken by that tune and thought it was really powerful. It's a very active song. It goes a lot of places. It's impossible not to have an opinion on it. You're not gonna hear it and [have it] pass by you. You're either going to turn it off, love it, or be confused. Whatever it is, you're going to have a reaction to it. I think we all just felt like I'm at the point of my career where people know what to expect from me, which is [not to] have expectations, because I like to mix it up. Although I'd love a radio hit, I'm not really working in that realm. I'm not trying to be a pop star. I can do this. I can put [a 12]-minute song out. It's in line with my body of work and how I operate. I was so pleased to know the label was on board and know once again with 4AD that I'm really lucky to be at one of the last of the labels with vision.

Scratch It cover art

SILY: Can you tell me about the record's cover art?

MR: That's a picture of me [at] 11 years old taken at Orland [Square] Mall at the glamor shots there. I had really wanted to do glamor shots. Those photos got lost to time and resurfaced recently at my mom's house. I found them and took them knowing some day I'd use them for something. When I was working on the art with this record, I photocopied it a bunch, scanned it in, [and] messed with the exposure on it, and it started taking on a wild quality to me. It almost looked like an AI prayer card. I also like that it's ambiguous. My manager said, "It reminds me of Dusty Springfield." It has a strange wisdom to it. I knew quite a lot at 11, I'm realizing. I think I know less now.

SILY: Were you one of those kids people called an old soul?

MR: Definitely. [laughs]

SILY: The album is about age, but at the same time, the art and the sound has a certain timelessness to it.

MR: Sure. And I think our child selves are always with us. You don't age out of them. They don't go away. Every age you've been, you're still carrying it around. It can help you make a lot of sense out of current events in your life to remember that.

SILY: The last time you played in Chicago was at The Salt Shed at a MUBI event before a screening of Labyrinth. What was that like?

MR: It was super fun. We just did a little four-piece, drums, bass, guitar, and singing. We did tunes from the record. It was weird. It's always weird when they throw music into a scenario where it doesn't necessarily need to be. I don't think I wanna see a band before a movie. But people seemed into it. That space is amazing. They had arena seating in the way back and had a little stage. We weren't playing the proper stage. It was amazing to play there. What a fucking crazy renovation. The staff were really great. I'm always down to do weird stuff like that. We went to Giordano's after.

SILY: Have you ever played Lincoln Hall?

MR: On the Bless This Mess tour, we played and had a fabulous show. The lighting technician there is out of this world. I'm excited. I'm hoping they're gonna be there again. It's a great place.

SILY: Are you the type of songwriter who is always writing?

MR: I'm making the next record now. [laughs] I'm hoping to start recording it in the fall.

SILY: This one seemed like a quick turnaround for today's music industry! On a label like 4AD, you never see the record release turnaround, from creation to release, within less than a year.

MR: Things are just changing in terms of that stuff. There are no rules anymore, and you can kind of do what you want. This idea of, "Oh, you release at this time, and have this much lead time," I think everyone's realizing that's not an equation that's certain. There's just so much music being made, and so much coming out, that one might as well just do what they want. [laughs] Otherwise, you're just gonna be banging your head against the wall when these set equations don't come to fruition.

SILY: Sometimes, when the albums finally come out, the artist is a different person from when they wrote it.

MR: Totally! I'm lucky that I'm established within the label and in my field enough that it can be a short lead time. It's not so much an introduction scenario, though I hope new people find my music, always.

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

MR: I've been listening to this Lightman & Lightman record. They're these twin sisters who are from Canada but live in L.A. now. They put out a record called Sister Smile that I'm just obsessed with. Two other singer-songwriters from up here in Canada: Dorothea Pass is amazing. Her latest record Think of Mist, I can't stop listening to it. Jennifer Castle put out a record called Camelot that's phenomenal. She's incredible. It's wild how much music comes out of Canada. We're drowning in talent up here.