#100 + vips

[bioaccumulation]

I love my chemical romance I do but it is a rough comparison knowing I spent less than $100 to be up front and barrier for two of my favorite bands this summer. And I got to go home with a drumstick at one and a setlist at another. And I didn't have to wait outside the venue for more than 45 minutes. Stadium tours rob you blind and give you a god awful experience every second the band isnt playing. Not that they could realistically do a non stadium tour ever again. But I wish it werent that way 💔

[pinetreegoblin]

I have a silly and indulgent Very Important People fan theory:

Very Important People!Vic Michaelis is extremely insecure and lonely as shown by their dialogue throughout many of the currently released episodes. They seem down on their luck and frustrated by their lot in life especially in their career and their personal connections. They seem like the perfect character to go through a classic “self growth through a journey of meeting crazy characters” plot. 

Each of the characters seem like out of this world caricatures of people they could meet out in the world, and some (like Denzel and Vic’s Grandma), seem like representations of those in her actual life (I also have a fun theory that the dolls were her childhood dolls). Many of the characters themselves point out that Vic seems to be down on their luck and unhappy, and in some way preventing themselves from happiness. Off the top of my head, Vic has referred to their father being murdered, a divorce from their husband, and struggling to get a “real reporting career.” 

If I had to construct a story of how they got to this point I would say the death of their father pushed VIP!Vic into grief induced isolation and loneliness, which inhibited their personal connections as they were stuck in survival mode. The murder of their father inspired them to become a reporter, as an attempt to help other victims of violent crime, but they are struggling to find a foothold. Their unbridled grief and obsession with retribution for their father has put a strain on their marriage and their partner asks for a divorce. Maybe in their exasperation and the chaos of life they are spurred to follow a lead they have no business or jurisdiction to follow and they end up injured. It is in this injury they are experiencing this hallucinogenic state.

The VIP set itself feels very cultivated and its “old-fashioned” eclectic style gives it a vibe of a surreal manufactured reality. Each episode starts with Vic idly messing with some aspect of the set, before realizing the camera is on and putting on the reporter mask. In my memory, none of the people “on set” ever say anything, besides Vic and the interviewee, even when Vic audibly asks them questions. Additionally the cutting off to infomercials gives an uncanny feeling of parody, someone concocting the stereotypical formula of a show. Finally, there are the moments where there is an abrupt cut to a transition card from a more intense scene, almost to redirect the emotional plot. Overall, it has given me a kinda WandaVision vibe of a dreamlike state manufactured in VIP!Vics head in order to address their loneliness and disillusionment with life.

The closing question especially points towards this specific idea of VIP!Vic being stuck in this fugue state looking for answers: “What is the meaning of life?” This is both impactful if we go with the idea she is injured and experiencing this all in an unconscious state (almost "deciding" whether to wake up) as well as just in them searching for the next direction to go in their frozen life. What is the meaning of life amidst grief, loneliness, fear, and unfair circumstances? How can Vic find meaning? In creating this dreamlike fabrication, VIP!Vic is trying to recover and find a version of themselves who can live a more fulfilling life as they let go of the past which has held them back. “Remember to always be yourself, unless you'd rather be somone else” 

TLDR: Vic Michalis is having some sort of surreal, unconscious dream where crazy characters are attempting to help them heal from their father's death, their fucked up social situations, and to find meaning and happiness in their life. Through the interviewees eccentricities they teach Vic their personal meanings of life so Vic can find their own.

(This is all just to be silly, I know a lot of it is just stylistic choices of the show and the nature of the type of show it is, but I just love the show a lot and this little theory came to me)

[mantisgodsdomain]

Y'know, we've been experimenting with Noodler's a bit more, and honestly we think that the talk about the smell as a sticking point has been overstated somewhat. We might be biased by our own background, but we think a lot of the reason that it's so overstated is because it's being encountered by people who have never been on a farm before and are unused to the scent.

We like to have opinions on things. This post is on your dashboard for two reasons - one, we've been using this Charlie pen for something like two-three weeks now, and thus have gained enough experience to be comfortable making statements about it, and two, like every review we've seen online and also the one person we talked to about using Noodler's immediately hit us with "oh but the SMELL" and we honestly didn't find it that bad.

We have, for reference, a Noodler's Charlie pen (came free with Baystate Blue), and a few bottles at this point. Noodler's is a brand that, at least for us, stands out due to affordability (guy making them apparently has previously stated that he takes pride in how little money he makes off his ink, and we checked and they're legitimately the cheapest ink even when compared to clearance inks) and the ridiculous amount of properties they bake into inks (waaterproof, forgeryproof, flourescent, "bulletproof", freeze-resistant - there are a good chunk of these that bind to the cellulite in paper, and Baystate Blue specifically is known for staining pens and such). Its pens are made with a vegetal resin that is cheap, biodegradable, and known for its smell. We also had one guy bring up the inks having an odor.

While the pens are where the "smell" note came up most often, we find that it's honestly... less bad than billed? It's noticeable when you put it up to your nose, but leaving it out in sunlight for a few days, as most manufacturers recommend, definitely does make a difference. The immediate smell is best described as putrescent - it reminds us a bit of manure, which is definitely something some people will have less tolerance for. With exposure to sunlight, it mulls into something more akin to a rich fertilizer, which we personally find somewhat pleasant, though YMMV on that.

This pen smells more when it has been used often - body temperature and sweat will get it smelling stronger, and it may stick to your fingers for a few minutes. Putting it down before writing again will get it back to its neutral state - and with the specific pen, doing this every now and then is a good idea anyways, since the Charlie Pen when eyedroppered can have excess flow if the hand's body heat causes the air inside of the pen to expand. This is probably a dealbreaker to some - we don't blame them, if so! This is an acquired taste, for sure, and we feel that a lot of our personal view on this particular manufacturer works the same way as

The chemical smell on inks is something that we'd definitely agree with with some, but not all - we have a sample vial of Noodler's Black Eel, and it has enough surface tension that it acts more like a simulation of a liquid than an actual liquid. It smells sharply artificial, like silicone condensed into a liquid. It is intense and distinctly unnatural and honestly it's a really fun substance to play with partially because of this. Other inks, like Southwest Sunset (3 oz bottle, obtained a few months ago by now), are significantly less... pronounced? There's a chemical smell, but it certainly isn't noticeable unless you stick your nose right up in there. Honestly, we think that unless you're getting a lubricant ink, it's nothing to worry about.

If we paid fifty dollars for this pen, then we might consider these complaints to be... hmm, more significant? The Noodler's Charlie Pen we have was free, and writes better than a $50 pen - and we do mean legitimately free, we checked the price of the ink and it adds nothing to the price to add the pen. Things like Noodler's Flex pens are ten bucks below the next most expensive thing and much prettier. Your mileage may vary, of course - we have a relatively sensitive nose, but we also grew up in the middle of fuckass nowhere and had more than enough time to get used to the smells of livestock and animals, whereas we could easily imagine that someone who didn't grow up on a farm would be shocked and disgusted by the smell. But it's a free pen, we like "biodegradable and sturdy", it functions better than our more expensive ones, and... honestly, we kind of think the resin is worth the price of admission.

This post does not necessarily have a purpose - it is, mostly, us sharing our opinions on something, and you should take it how you will. Most sellers recommend that you leave the pen out in sunlight to sap the smell, and we noticed that it was more or less gone when our of use after about a week and a half of that. Our $0 Charlie pen has a significantly better flow than our $25 Pilot Metropolitan, and a less scratchy nib. We feel like if it works it works - you may want a less strong-smelling pen, or a pen that doesn't need to be left out in sunlight for a week. Though we, of course, can be more than caught up in form, we tend to vastly prefer function over looking fancy, so this has become one of our most well-used pens over the past little bit.

So we aren't just obliterating your dashboard - here's a picture of the moddle, and of our foster kittens serving as our backdrop for our Charlie pen. Do what you will with this information. Also, to our loyal followers, thank you for continuing to attend our blog posts as we slowly descend further into the madness of fountain pens. We refuse to buy anything that costs over $100 without a job and at least a few years sunk into the hobby, but Fountain Pen Day has given us a handful of sales good enough to get spendier pens that would otherwise be out of our price range, so you will probably be hearing about those soon enough.

[feelingnicemp3]

These usa nflying prices have me scared for eu prices ngl

[s4ndg3m]

my requests are closed... dont even LOOK at me... unless youre a mutual.

[zoeywades-husband]

Those fuckers…

[athousandsuns2010]

ngl i thought people were overreacting a little about the miku expo stuff but uh

yeah no thats bad

[okmcintyre]

[electromignion]

Carving pumpkins 🎃

31st of October 1980

Jeremy Bradshaw is 5, and it’s one of the last memories he has with his father, Thomas, as he is going to disappear on the night of the 15th to the 16th of November 1980 💔

I’m very sorry as I’m also heartbroken by what I did 😭

But I like to think that Jeremy would end up being very nostalgic of Halloween because of that, and would be the one having candies to give is any kid would ring at his flat on Halloween’s night, and he’d even have candies for his student because he’s cool ™

I wanted also to draw Thomas Bradshaw for once because that doesn’t happen much kdkdkd (it’s a quick drawing so no intricate backgrounds or anything because I was really inspired by this idea:)

And when I saw this yesterday my brain just went immediately “Jeremy and Thomas Bradshaw” so here y’all go!

I also like to think that Jeremy has kept that t-shirt in his closet because it reminds him dearly of his father and still wears it time to time to this day 🥺

Speaking of the tee, I did research to do accurate touristy t-shirts so I got inspired by this one I had found on Etsy! (I thought that as Thomas worked for Bridgewater he must have had gotten something like that at some point AND it’s also a nice way to get a nod to the podcast like that 🤧)

[yaoi-hate-machine]

i know artists are not in charge of deciding how expensive tickets for their shows are but jfc. Hundreds of dollars????? literally insane

[doggerell]

Doom. Spun. for me is like half tour nostalgia half ripping and tearing my hair out because hes fueling my specific madness

[sleepanonymous]

Oh, the blossom mirrors on the side of the road  The form becomes fixed in your eyes, cold  This hollow delight is a sight to behold I know, I know…

Oh, the hidden designs are lost on us The highest desire and lowest lust  Just contours and folds in an endless curse  It’s worse, it’s worse…

You are the head the halo orbits  You are the feet that pastures grow  I am the novelty wearing off Wearing off…

[riotdiva]

Had to block out my name but I was telling my friends for 100 dollars I better get invited to the VIP just the three of us (referring to this meme my friend made for me😭)

[sisterdanieldyke]

i'm going to dan and kill myself

[lunar-years]

i bought a replacement book for the library book that got stolen with my stolen car and then i put off actually taking it to the library for a month and a half because anxiety demon brain and then i finally took the book to the library today and explained the situation only to be told they don't take replacement books because they buy special library versions or whatever and I'll need to pay for it again. and then they charged me $20 😭 also i obviously cannot return the book i bought because it's been a month and a half. the (very nice) librarian was like "at least you get to keep this one now! :)" and in my head i was thinking bestie i hated the book jknbsgkanjkaw. then i went to my car and had a cry in the parking lot because that was the one silly little thing that was gonna set me off today i guess! another fun day in the life!

[amiscreations]

A question for my concert going friends: how do you feel about artists/venues doing priority entry? As in early entry, not disabled etc. Personally I really dislike it, as it pushes that idea that you can only be a "real fan" if you have enough money to do so. And "real/better" fans are always perceived as the ones at the front or with the best merch.

I'm probably just bitter as I don't have the money to be able to do priority entry lol, but I think it is just generally unfair, and I really wish more artists would stop doing it. Also if you're in the UK you probably know how the O2 venues work, and I just think thats ridiculous.