#I'm about to go pull up the wayback machine | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

historyhermann · 2 years ago

Text

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! Spoiler-Filled Review

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! is an anime series adapting the band MyGO!!!!!. Its the latest adaptation of Bushiroad's BanG Dream! music media franchise, also known as Bandori. Koudai Kakimoto is series director. Sanzigen animated the series.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the fiftieth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on September 29, 2023.

This series has a simple premise: a girl returning from the U.K., Anon Chihaya (voiced by Rin Tateishi), returns to her homeland of Japan, and learns that everyone at her new school, Honeoka Girls Academy, are in bands. So, she tries to create one of her own, meeting avid rock collector Tomori Takamatsu (voiced by Hina Yomiya), piano player Sakiko "Saki" Togawa (voiced by Kanon Takao), and a student from a prestigious academy, Soyo Nagasaki (voiced by Mika Kohinata). However, she faces an unforeseen obstacle: Tamori, Soyo, and Taki were former band members. Guitarist Mutsumi Wakaba (voiced by Watase Yuzuki) and drummer Taki Shiina (voiced by Coco Hayashi) were CRYCHIC's other members. At first, it seems that Taki caused the previous band to split apart.

In many ways, BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! differs from BanG Dream!, which aired three seasons from 2017 to 2020, short series such as Pastel Life, CiRCLE Thanks Party!, and Morfonication, and the five films related to the franchise. More broadly, Bandori was created by Takaaki Kidani, president of Bushiroad, in January 2015, with Kō Nakamura as writer of the manga. In fact, the franchise itself compromises various manga issues and volumes, and a light novel, until September 2017, overlapping with the beginning of the anime series. Later, a game was created, and the related manga, RAiSe! The story of my music, began in February 2019.

As for this series, the CGI looks better than in previous iterations and the cast remains realistic, even with a feel which isn't like other shows centered around girl bands. It was even recommended by Anime Feminist, calling it a sweet, and enjoyable, introduction of a new group in the franchise (and girl band anime in general), and an "easy recommendation." There is much more going on than this in the series, however. While I'm not aware of every detail about the characters, the characters are relatable in many ways, to those who have been part of a band, and those who haven't.

I haven't seen a series which begins with a band breakup in the first episode, bringing with it angst and emotions. Most series centered around girl's bands follow a similar structure as the characters build-up the band through the first (and sometimes only) season. Unfortunately, BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! is a bit rocky at first. Viewers are thrown into a practice session. Saki quits the band. Taki demands to know whether this is true. Mitsumi admits that being in the band wasn't fun.

The writers, such as head writer Yuniko Ayana, do a good job of calming those rocky, chaotic beginnings. This begins by focusing on Anon. She is a young woman with long pink hair who returns from the U.K. She tries to remake herself. As a new student at Honeoka Girls Academy, she meets Tomori, who collects rocks for fun. In the process, it is easy to relate to both characters. Social interaction tires out Anon. Tomori is more introverted. Taki pushes Anon away, calling her "scum" and doesn't want to interact with anyone else. The drama, animation style, and music pull you in even more.

At first, it seems that a new band comprising Anon, Taki, and Tomori is possible, thanks to Soyo, with various meetings are RING, where Taki works. However, Anon is controlling and Soyo seems to have a hidden agenda. This doesn't get any better, even as Anon and Tomori get closer, with the revelation that her diary entries are actually songs (or at least they can be songs). One of those is Spring Sunlight, which she composed when she was part of CRYCHIC, as shown in a flashback in the third episode. The fourth episode hints at Soyo's real agenda. She claims that no one is at fault for CRYCHIC breaking apart. Later, she challenges Taki, declaring that everything will turn out the same way with this band, claiming that they never connected.

The story leads viewers to see Anon as controlling and problematic, Tomori as submissive, and Taki as more forthright. While Anon is arrogant and selfish, there is more to it. For one, emotions are high between all of them. The yuri subtext within this series, and the franchise, is clear. The feelings between Taki and Tomori are clear, with Taki having a soft spot for her, while Anon teases Taki. In addition, after Kaname Rāna (voiced by Hina Aoki) calls Tomori an "interesting woman," Taki protects her. Occasionally, during BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!, Taki blushes when talking to Tomori, when they are talking one-on-one.

Rana is one of the more interesting characters, as she only participates in the band when she feels like it. She doesn't want to get caught up in the drama between the other girls. She is extremely skilled at playing the electric guitar. Often she wows people with her skills. Anon worries about Rana outshining her. Clearly, Rana's skills go beyond Anon's meager guitar skills. As a result, Anon attempts to become competent at guitar playing, but takes shortcuts, which backfire.

It takes Taki to tell Anon the truth about her for her to open up. She confides in Tomori that Taki was right. She reveals in a date-not-date at the Sky Forest National Aquarium, with Tomori, that when she was studying abroad in England, she couldn't keep up. In a very relatable scene, Anon is excited to be in another country, but can't understand what people are saying. Since she doesn't know much English people ignore her. She is even nervous to introduce herself to the class.

After she says that her whole life she has been running away from her problems, Tomori ends up reassuring her that even if she runs into a dead end, you look for a path and try and move forward. She even admits that Anon pulls her forward. She says she wants to move forward, even if she feels lost. Ultimately, Anon and Tomari agree to perform a live concert, despite the band's lack of preparation.

youtube

The character writing (and storytelling) of BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! on another tier, with real emotions and comedy mixed together, with love triangles, with good use of the light, and dark, to symbolize the moods and thoughts of the characters. The sixth episode brings all of this to the fore. It makes clear that Anon is still a beginning guitarist. While she plays guitar, her fingers get hurt. Taki tries to compose music. But she causes fissures in part by being too hard on everyone.

Rana's character shines in later episodes, not only as the "stray cat" as some characters call her. She is the only character who distances herself from the emotional conflict between all of them. However, as shown in the sixth episode, her lack of presence causes stress on Taki (called "Ricky" by Anon), who attempts to be the leader of the band, rejecting help from anyone. Rana later helps Tomori express herself by playing the right music behind her, giving what she is saying meaning. She also calls them all "boring women" due to their arguments with each other, and takes a step back from the band.

Even so, the band puts on a stellar performance in the seventh episode, despite the fact none of them feel ready, and they have little live performance experience. Other bands, shown in the BanG Dream franchise, like Afterglow and Poppin' Party, make an appearance. Tomori's voice shines above all of them, as she believes that her songs are "screams" from her heart. Everyone is in the groove, except Soyo. She's caught up in the past. Angrily, she grumbles when the band begins playing Spring Sunlight. She snaps, almost claiming the song for herself, even though it was Tomori that composed it, not her.

The seventh episode of BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! makes Soyo's motives abundantly clear: she wants the band to crash and fail, and revival of CRYCHIC. Her beliefs echo Jay Gatz/Gatsby, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby who famously told Nick: "Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!" Just as it was a failure for Gatsby, it is also a failure for Soyo. She attempts to rope Saki back into the band. Her goal is to bring together the former band members, including Tomori and Taki. She sees Anon as someone who can further her goals. She can't accept the reality: that CRYCHIC is dead and gone.

Although Anon was controlling, Soyo is much more manipulative. She claims that she is sick and cannot go into band practice, causing the band to split apart. Later, she texts Saki repeatedly, but gets no response, since Saki blocked her. But Soyo won't stop. She even strong-arms Mutsumi into meeting Saki. This doesn't go as she expects. In a heated discussion, Saki calls out Soyo for being selfish and tells her to forget the past. She tops this off, with a bold declaration: "CRYCHIC has been destroyed. It will never be revived." Unsurprisingly, Soyo begs and pleads Saki to reconsider, even after Saki tells her to leave her alone. This leads to the clincher: "you only really think of yourself, don't you?" This completely destroys Soyo.

Saki feels that she told Soyo the cold, hard truth, while Mutsumi stands there, unsure what to do. The story's construction makes you somewhat sympathize with Soyo. This is despite the fact she is a jerk, just like Saki. However, there is more going on. The ninth episode of BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!! makes this clear. In a flashback, the origin of Soyo's depression is shown. She moved around a lot as a kid and her mother doesn't come around much. These memories are bathed in a warm light. They include remembrances CRYCHIC's formation and its breakup, and playing a bass. Soyo comes to realize that Saki's words about her were right.

Soyo's actions don't only affect her: they impact her fellow band members. As noted earlier, her actions cause the band to splinter, with Tomori blaming herself for everything that's happening. Soyo actively ignores Tomori and Anon, who only want to talk to her. Taki even confronts her. Soyo defends herself by claiming she told lies to keep the band together. Despite the fact that Soyo, who seems to imply, almost in a homophobic way, that Taki is nothing without Tomari, she restrains herself from punching her. After the new bassist (and classmate of Taki), Umiri Yahato, leaves, Taki makes matters worse: she explains what Soyo told her. As a result, Anon declares that they don't "need her. Tari is unsure what to do as Tomori bawls her eyes out, with Tomori questioning whether she wants to be in a band.

All of this comes down to teenage angst, either between Tari and Soyo, or more generally. Some fans were right to say, after this episode, that Soyo is the jerk. Taki, Soyo, and Anon, at minimum, are horrible. Tomori isn't, nor is Rana. The characters in this series go beyond the bad/good binary and are more complex than they seem on the surface. Surely, this could have been shown in more episodes, but the thirteen episodes of BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! didn't seem rushed. They perfectly show the angst the characters went through, making them relatable. All of them have clear (and understandable) goals and motivations.

Otherwise, Tomori's astronomy club could be called an "autism club." This, however, only scratches the surface. Tomori doesn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past, as she did with her previous band. Taki is one of her only friends. In the third episode, Tomori composes a song about her social isolation. While she tried to fit in, she felt alone even when she was with other people. Tomori is not unique in feeling this way. Consider the protagonist Bocchi in Bocchi the Rock! who occasionally has anxiety attacks, or other protagonists such as Shoko Komi (in Komi Can't Communicate), Rina Tennoji (in Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club), Bocchi Hitori (in Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu), and Sasaki (in Azumanga Daioh).

By the tenth episode of BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!, it seemed that the band won't get back together: the members had split and are doing their own things. Tomori is determined to reunite the band. Soyo pushes back and asks about Soyo. One person helps her, playing background music to match her feelings: Rana. She calls Tomori an "interesting girl," helping give Tomori's spoken word poems/songs meaning. Tomori is successful in getting Tari to play drums, and Soyo and Anon to play guitar. The latter is possible after Soyo and Anon talk. Anon hears what Soyo has to say. Both realize they are lost. The episode ends with Tomori, Rana, Tari, and Soyo playing a rock song together. It is about how the band was blasted apart into nothing. All of them (apart from Rana) begin crying, with their memories flooding back.

youtube

While, Tomori is the only "normal" person, Rana goes above the fray of the emotional conflicts. She becomes a bigger part of the band by the eleventh episode. Soyo is partially redeemed, after she admits she used all of them, but stays with them regardless. Tomori leads the band forward, pushing them to do public performances. Taki remains stubborn, not wanting to perform. Despite continued conflicts, the friendship between them grows. Even Soyo and Tari become friends-of-sorts. Most significantly, Anon comes up with their new band name: Maigo, meaning "lost girls." This later becomes "It's My Go!," hence the title of this anime.

There is one interesting connection to the previous BanG Dream series in BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!: Rana's grandmother, Shifune Tsuzuki, ran the club SPACE!. It connects the two series together, making clear they are in the same world. It also makes the crossovers-of-sorts of characters within the BanG Dream franchise smooth and without much explanation. There isn't a need for a direct confirmation of this. Take for example the Season Two opening of Milo Murphy's Law, "The Phineas and Ferb Effect." That episode indicated that characters from Phineas and Ferb would crossover into that series. In this series, such confirmation would be unnecessary.

The tension between the characters fades away as they bear their emotions on stage in a performance which compromises most of the twelfth episode. Tomori sings her heart out about finding herself and loss. She ends up embarrassing Taki when introducing everyone. Then, she explains what each of them means to her. To her, being lost is fine. Powerfully, Tomori sings about feeling scared, hurt, self-righteousness, moving forward, and not hiding anything.

This heavily music-centered episode is the last one which centers on this band. At the episode's end, Soyo pushes away Mutsumi. She doesn't want to see her again. At the same time, Saki recruits Mutsumi and Yutenji Nyamu (voiced by Akane Yonezawa) into the new band she is forming. This is reinforced by the final episode. Soyo, Tomori, Tari, Rana, and Anon meet in RING for their band. Anon and Tomori meet Uika Sumika (voiced by Rico Sasaki) outside a planetarium. Soyo realizes she's self-centered. None of these interactions are the central focus. Instead the story focuses on Saki's new band: Ave Mujica.

This band is led by Saki, who demands that they hide their real / true identities by wearing masks. Their debut concert begins like a play. Each wears mask which hide most or only part of their face. They begin with introductions and give themselves code names of sorts. The song they play has horror vibes and has images which connect to the Moon. To make matters worse, Saki doesn't even have an after-party with them. She returns home to her alcoholic father, who she calls "rotten."

If it wasn't apparent enough from the final episode, the story of Soyo, Tomori, Tari, Rana, and Anon will be in the background in another series. Instead, the story will center on Ave Mujica now, even though Saki is terrible. The sequel is entitled BanG Dream! Ave Mujica. Whether the song played in the final episode of BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! is weak, not fully there with a metal / hard rock vibe, gothic metal, or pretentious, it is clearly meant to close one chapter and open another.

Personally, after watching all thirteen episodes, I'm not very sympathetic to Saki. More likely than not, BanG Dream! Ave Mujica will center on trying to make Saki sympathetic, just as the writers did, particularly, with Soyo and Anon in this series. Some may dislike this series because of the angst, or argue it was not as strong as D4DJ. However, the difference is that D4DJ, from what I remember, didn't have angst at any level comparable to this series.

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! is more than the adaptation of a five-member band. It is similar to previous parts of the BanG Dream! franchise, either the three-season BanG Dream!, which aired from 2017 to 2020, the chibi BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Pico series, Morfonication, the five films, and other parts of this expansive franchise. It has a tone which is very soft, comforting, and with drama, but is not over the top. It is hard to say that it integrates "canonical queerness and themes of gender identity" like D4DJ, as some described it. Nor does it focus on the reality of being a young caregiver like BanG Dream!.

While I can't be sure whether this series has similar vibes to Uma Musume Pretty Derby, as some have asserted, it shares no similarities with other music-themed series. The "delightful" Carole & Tuesday strangely has all of its songs sung in English and has themes centered around race, gender, and environment, which garnered its some criticism. Then there's the mix of healing and music depicted in Healer Girl, the slice-of-life feel of K-On, and the series within the Love Live! idol music franchise. Adding to this is the combination of fantasy and idol music in Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror, which is, itself, a spinoff from the aforementioned franchise, which recently ended. This doesn't even account for the many other music series.

Personally, I wish that BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! could have focused on Anon, Tomori, Rana, Tari, and Soyo for another season instead of pivoting to an entirely different band. In that way, the series isn't as strong as it could be. However, it still goes to extremes, with peaks and depressing valleys. It is more ambitious than any other BanG Dream! series and features Tomori, a neurodivergent-coded character. All of this interlinks with melodrama. The visuals also keep pace with the narrative tone, which has clear awkwardness. At the same time, the series' abrupt conclusion could be purposeful.

youtube

The voice actors are all very talented. For instance, Coco Hayashi is known for voicing Mirai Momoyama in the idolish Kiratto Pri☆Chan, Setsuna Yūki in an OAV entitled Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Next Sky, and Ikuko Kamiyashiki in Stella of the Theater: World Dai Star. She voiced characters in Bocchi the Rock!, High-Rise Invasion, Luminous Witches, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai as well. Hina Aoki voiced characters in series such as The Great Cleric and Cardfight!! Vanguard will+Dress. Hina Yomiya prominently voiced Anna Yamada in The Dangers in My Heart and Lainie Cyan in The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady. She will voice protagonist Honami Konohoshi in Stardust Telepath, which premieres in early October.

Other voice actors, Mika Kohinata, Rin Tateishi, Akane Yonezawa, Hazuki Tanda, Kanon Takao, Mei Okada, Rico Sasaki, and Yuzuki Watase specifically, are just as talented. Although Kohinata, Tateishi, and Yonezawa, are new to voice work, their talent shines through in this series as Soyo, Anon, and Yutenji. In contrast, Tanda prominently voiced Miyū Sakurada across the D4DJ franchise. In addition, Okada voiced Marika Mizushima and Watse voiced Miiko Takeshita in the same series. Those voice roles could explain why they voiced characters in this series.

Takao also had many voice roles. This included characters in Asteroid in Love, Bibliophile Princess, Edens Zero (Hermit Mio), and Management of a Novice Alchemist (Sarasa Feed). Additionally, Sasaki voiced Poporon in Dropkick on My Devil!, Ayoko Yamada in Kageki Shoujo!!, and Chisa Sasuga in Stella of the Theater.

The BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! director, Koudai Kakimoto, is known, in part, for his work as an episode director and storyboard director on many other iterations of the BanG Dream franchise. He was an episode director on Library War and Le Chevalier d'Eeon, and storyboarder on A Lull in the Sea, to name a few. The series writer, Yuniko Ayana, in contrast, has written on many series, including series composition throughout the BanG Dream! franchise. She wrote episodes of D4DJ First Mix, Flip Flappers, Given, Kinmoza Kiniro + Mosaic, and Sweet Blue Flowers. Considering that some of these series have yuri subcontext, or even yaoi themes (in the case of Given), that undoubtedly influenced how this series played out. After all, Ayana is a go-to person "for yuri content."

The animation studio for this series, Sanzigen, previously produced seasons 2 and 3 of BanG Dream! (and other parts of the franchise) and D4DJ, provided key animation for I want to eat your pancreas, photography for Little Witch Academia, 3D graphics for Wandering Son, and 3D layout for Yuri Is My Job!. The company has worked on many other series beyond this small grouping.

Despite the fact that there is a lot of angst, emotions flaring, and drama, and the series abruptly ends, BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! stands strongly on its own, unlike other anime centered on girls' bands. That, combined with the focus on the music process, makes the series shine above others which have aired this year, even if series airing later this year are just as strong.

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

10 notes · View notes

insanegaywinkingmagician · 26 days ago

Text

if you haven't seen the first of these, i'm uploading romesh's old blog/newsfeed posts via the wayback machine. here's one of them

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:09:14

'Van Drama'

(note from insanegaywinkingmagician: the profanity remains censored as it was in the original post, i don't want to change anything written)

Hello there, Apologies for lateness of this update. I often log in here, think about posting, and then don’t bother, because I have nothing interesting to say. Having glanced at my previous posts, however, this does not seem to have prevented me posting in the past. A few days ago, I was driving home in the middle of the afternoon when I stopped behind a van at a traffic light. The traffic light turned green, as is the normal procedure for these things, but the van did not move. I waited for a bit, and then realised that he must not have seen the light change. I gave him a toot on the horn. Not an aggressive toot, more a Herbie style “beep the light’s changed my good man”. He drives on, I have helped oil the wheels of society. Until we arrived at the next set of traffic lights. I pulled up alongside the van, and the guy gestured to me to roll my window down. I did so. I have no idea why I did this. Maybe, after my helpful beep, I thought that the man would thank me for highlighting the change of the light and enabling him to continue his journey that little bit quicker. He did not. “WHAT THE F***ING HELL DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE DOING BEEPING ME MATE? YOU EVER BEEP ME AGAIN AND I WILL KNOCK YOUR HEAD OFF YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” This seemed unlikely. A number of things had to happen in order for this threat to contain any credibility. I would have to see him again, he would have to recognise me, he would have to arrive at a traffic light just before me and I would have to beep him. Highly unlikely, and with this calculation quickly completed I took this opportunity to engage in some fighting talk. “OH DON’T BE A PRICK!! I THOUGHT YOU HADN’T SEEN THE LIGHT CHANGE!” Pretty strong stuff I think you’ll agree. He then responded with : “I HAD CLEARLY STALLED YOU WANKER. YOU COULD TELL BY THE WAY THE VEHICLE STRUGGLED YOU MUGGY PRICK” At this point, I realised that we were in the unfortunate situation of explaining our side of the argument logically while also maintaining our aggressive stance. ” I WASN’T F***ING AWARE THAT YOU HAD STALLED YOU TOSSER, THE VEHICLE DID NOT DISPLAY SIGNS OF STALLING DICKHEAD, IT JUST REMAINED STATIONARY YOU PIECE OF S**T.” Job done I think. He decided to call my bluff, however : “PULL OVER UP THERE YOU BASTARD, AND LET’S SORT THIS OUT.” Now I’m assuming he wanted some sort of fight. Which would definitely sorted it out. As he was caving my ahead in I would probably have admitted fault in this particular instance. But this is of course, an assumption on my part. For all I know, he wanted us to pull over so that he could show me how the vehicle had stalled, and signs to spot this in the future. At this point the light turned green. He didn’t notice. I saw my chance. I pulled away quickly. “LOOKS LIKE YOU’VE STALLED AGAIN DICKHEAD!” Before you start e-mailing me to tell how I am a hero to the common man, and a beacon of inspiration for the oppressed frightened majority, please remember that I spent the next minutes of the journey nearly in tears at the thought of a light being red and tthe van catching me up. It was like Speed, except, instead of a bomb going off if they slowed down, an overweight man would get his arse handed to him. BYE! Rom

#romesh ranganathan #early 2010s rom blog #queued

0 notes

thoughtsofadyingsoftwaredev · 4 months ago

Text

The Cure

Hello, Tumblr-verse! As always, I am here to make a few posts for the year before I inevitably get busy with life or otherwise forget about this thing existing. Again, I don't do this for anyone but myself as I find it a nice platform for journal-entry style posts.

I recently had a hankering for some nostalgia, and sought to scratch that itch in a rather bizarre manner. I can't remember if I really explained where I first went to college, but it was in east TN and a private Christian liberal arts school. At the time, they were called Milligan College, but today they are now Milligan University.

Milligan College was a perfectly lovely institution with a beautiful campus, wonderful people, and what I would consider a great liberal arts program. One thing that I certainly did not enjoy at the time was the rather stringent requirements surrounding "church" attendance. It was less church and more a Christian-y get together twice a week, but before you could graduate you had to have x amount of points, which were earned by scanning your student ID at the door when entering the building where these get-togethers were held.

Much like many things in my life at the time, I found this to be complete BS, but was also perhaps a bit melodramatic. But it certainly bothered me as I was at a time when I considered myself very "counter culture" to the environment Milligan had established. Years of growing up being forced to go to church every Wednesday and Sunday, regardless of if I particularly felt like it or not, had led to some resentment from me towards organized religion, and perhaps God himself. After reading that last line back to myself, I wonder if the melodrama never left my body...

Anyways, back to my hankering for nostalgia. As I said, I found myself scratching that itch in an odd way. I pulled up the Wayback Machine and went to my old college's website circa 2011 (ie: around the time I first began attending). To say that a wave of nostalgia washed over me would undersell the torrential downpour that followed. A photo carousel towards the top, displaying a few student testimonials about the benefits the college afforded them, a blurb about the new fully online Business courses that had just begun being offered, and what would today be considered a fairly "static" overall user experience in terms of overall page layout and interactivity.

And upon navigating around the site and observing the overall layout, I had a thought: how does the college's site from 2011 compare to their site as of today in the year of our lord 2025? So I pulled them both up next to each other in my browser and began to investigate.

What follows is largely my personal thoughts on how web design and development has evolved, and it's likely one many share; I'm certainly not unique for having the following viewpoint.

Modern web design and frontend experience is utter garbage, devoid of any true personality, bloated to the gills with useless fluff, one or more libraries being loaded into the browser to achieve very basic goals, and does more harm than good to an end user looking to utilize the website.

Going back to 2011, the first thing I noticed was just how much of the page's content fit onto the screen. It had very legible heading/navigation menus, one towards the very top of the page, another a little further down, and some footer navigation links as well if a user scrolled down to those.

On the modern site? They can barely fit the primary navigation menu on the page with their splash screen, fighting for space alongside a looping video taken from a drone to demonstrate what the campus looks like. Hovering over any of those navigation links, immediately causes, no kidding, more than half of the page to be engulfed by the nav menu background for the sub-navigation options. Everything else now gets pushed behind that (not below, behind), until the user moves their mouse out of the navigation section of the page in order for the sub-navigation menu to disappear. Absolutely ludicrous.

Back to 2011 - the background captured what I believe is the Appalachian Mountains, which while not as concise or accurate to what the campus looks like compared to the drone footage in the modern site, provides a lot of character and an appealing visual to always be displayed prominently to users as they navigate the site.

The main "meat" of the site, then, is displayed in a div within that background image, chopping off the width on both sides of the page to create a nice, centered main content section, while also allowing the background image to be easily visible while users peruse through the main content section in the middle of the page. Again, I cannot describe to you how much character comes through in the old site when compared to the new.

As with most modern websites, the new site simply has no charm or anything that would make it stand out from another college website. A white background, with a few components such as headers/nav menus/etc that utilize their university color (orange), and that previously mentioned looping video which is only found on their main page, and struggles to compete for space with the aforementioned bloated components.

Additionally, with the modern site's issues with screen space - bare in mind I am viewing on a 1080p monitor; maybe 1440p would work better? But the overwhelming majority of users will be on a 1080p monitor, so I would say that's a moot point either way - the overall choice of font size is ridiculously large, putting giant print KJV bible editions to shame. Meanwhile, the 2011 site uses an appropriately sized font that assumes you are not attempting to use the site from 20 feet away from your desk. Everything remains legible without compromising on screen space, which in turn helps deliver more information to the user about what the college provides.

This is not a problem unique to this college - similar issues can be seen with just about any university page, from Harvard to little community colleges around the country.

The idea of a frontend just piling tons and tons of garbage, bloat, useless componentized pieces has been prevalent probably going back to pre-2016, which is around the first time I remember hearing about React and all of the goodies involved with that.

I think the use of these bloated frontend libraries is not necessarily a problem with the tools themselves, but the jobsites choosing to use said tools. If you're Facebook, and you have thousands of software devs who need to be able to work collaboratively across the site, and perhaps the things they are creating can be reused elsewhere, it makes perfect sense.

For what I would say represents the 75% of websites that aren't a Facebook/Microsoft/Netflix shop, I would wager they only use React/Vue/Angular because it was instilled into the company by some CTO or middle manager "Well, it's what Facebook and Google use, so we should use it, too!" - I know this because I have heard this at my own company, so I know that it is a sentiment likely shared amongst other companies. And don't get me wrong, I do like Vue of the big frontend libraries. But I would never truly need to use it outside of gaining experience with a "component-based" frontend framework, and could just as easily get by with Thymeleaf templates, or Go HTML templates, or even just bare HTML/CSS/JS making fetch calls to my API.

These days, my tools of choice for any hobby projects are Go and HTMX. It provides such a simplified approach to development that I could not see myself using anything else for my personal projects.

I know previously I brought up my use of Spring Boot and Vue, and again, while I do enjoy Vue, it is not something that is necessary to achieve my goals, much like it is likely not necessary for the overwhelming majority of corporate websites or web applications.

Just wanted to share these thoughts here as I wandered through the past looking at the old university pages. Stepping forward to 2013, I was glad to see that I saw myself in a few pictures posted on the college from the concert choir at the time. They are very blurry, but I can still distinctly tell it is me.

Outside of my appearances in these photos and my performances at piano recitals, I don't think there exists another strand of evidence that I actually attended Milligan College, as I obviously did not graduate, and also was not a social butterfly trying to get my photo taken at any opportunity. And so I thought I would look through the old site design to see if those pictures were in fact still present, as they removed most old links in the modern site at some point, causing it to redirect to a 404 page.

I do have another thought regarding my time perusing the site, but perhaps I'll split that out into it's own post to bring me to a whopping TWO entries for 2025 thus far!

PS: I highly recommend neocities if you want a hit of nostalgia or are interested in creating your own "retro" looking sites - people there create their own pages, and while sure, you can use more modern approaches or frameworks/tools, a good chunk of the userbase there seem to prefer good ol' HTML/CSS/JS, honestly probably not even JS, and just raw HTML/CSS. I love looking at modern retro site designs, including silly "under construction" style web badges, and other such fun. Just thought I'd give them a shoutout as it also scratches a nostalgia itch in a slightly different and fun way.

0 notes

themsource · 4 months ago

Note

Okay! *rubs hands together*

So first off the list would be too long if I did both lol But I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm! So I'll just list three with a bit of both ^^ (I actually have lists that are a few pages long but I'm not subjecting peeps to that)

Flowerfell - A bit of an obvious one but this really does hit all the beats I love in story telling! Designed to be a slow enemies to friends to lovers story it doesn't pull any punches with just how at odds Sans and Frisk are at first. There's multiple deaths (mainly caused by him), there's heartache, and slow realization. This also hits the mark for how I love classic dynamic: change. Frisk stays hopeful throughout even when eventually going blind and that manages to break Sans down by seeing just how selfless and kind they are. Sans goes from this monster that doesn't care and maybe finds the fact that Frisk is human somewhat interesting, to a person willing to risk his life in order to save her. And Frisk goes from this sad and lonely person to this self sacrificing individual that loves the beauty and monsters in the world around her even as it tears her apart. A tragic love story for the ages! And they mesh together so well, what with him being their 'eyes' and them his 'heart'. Are there any fics that I like for it: Yes, the canon ones, and there are 7 I do believe. 6 that you can find on wayback machine and even floating around on this site, and one exclusive to Levi's patreon which is still up (as are the OG fics too). And I give each one a hundred percent my endorsement. Especially the poems 'Red Death' and 'Behind the Ribs of the One I Love'.

Mobfell - So with Mobfell there's usually this fun and thrilling cat and mouse dynamic I see and that I absolutely adore! It's always a 'will they won't they' situation, where it's usually 50/50 if they end up together or not. Sans being this cold and heartless gangster towards everything (even sometimes Frisk) offers an interesting perspective on a traumatized and hardened funny boy that had to do things he wouldn't have liked doing in order to get by and survive, compared to Frisk who continues to struggle and doesn't take shortcuts in order to live an honest life. I enjoy watching how these two are able to cohabitate in the same world and attempt to survive each others ideals. Really a fun and amusing tug of war XD Especially since Frisk is a sassy diva in these AU variations! Are there any fics I like for it: Yes, one is an old classic fic and still going strong comic - 'Sooner or later you're gonna be mine' by Staringback. This will admittedly always be my favorite just for how delicious of a slow burn and character builder it is, plus the tension is enough to make me blush >//< And the other a fic called 'Little Red Soul' by Catsitta, which tells the heartbreaking tale of an innocent Frisk interacting with a bad intentioned Sans in an attempt to help a sick Toriel. Really gets those sympathy feels going.

Underkings - An AU that is a master/slave dynamic in the form of familiars and mages, where how strong your familiar is displays how strong you are as a mage. I love the frans in this as it shows overcoming differences and biased notions. Sans is very closed off and Frisk is of course very kind. How they both slowly start trying to overcome ideas they have about the other's race is both heartwarming and hilarious! They're really a couple of goofballs and I am weak for a dynamic where equal sass can be thrown back and forth and yet there's a shyness for moments where emotions get a bit too real. A sassy and bit of a bully monster vs a friendly and somewhat sassy human who just wants to get along lol Are there any fics I like for it: Yes, it's called 'A Soul To Steal' by Rainbowrunner01 (RedArry). I believe this is the start of the AU too. While not much is actually made for it the lore is very well thought out and full of depth that I'm more than sure people could write their own fics or make art for it easy peasy <3

if you have them, name 3 AUs you like the frans dynamic in (i know you like classic but tell me about the utmv side).

are there any fics you like for those ships?

Are you asking me for basic AUs or Frans orientated ones that were created specifically for the ship my dear kam? :) I have separate lists XD

#ask #kamari3 #undertale #undertale au #frans #sans/frisk #I could've written more but with how long my tangets can go oof #I know I've listed two well known ones but hey #love what you love lol

11 notes · View notes

fourseasonsfigs · 2 years ago

Text

Hug a Column

Similar to yesterday's Hug a Pig fig, this fig had me scratching my head when I saw it. I had no idea what it was supposed to be, or represent. But when I found out, I was entirely charmed!

For the inspiration for this fig, we're hopping into the wayback machine - all the way back to Gong Jun's college days!

At university, Gong Jun was in a performance of Molière's play The Miser. He played Harpagon, the titular miser. We have this little snippet of him performing in this role:

I'm assuming this is the part in the play where he digs up his moneybox to discover it has been stolen. That's a bad day indeed for a miser!

A fig maker was so delighted by this performance, they rendered it in fig form. And I'm so delighted they did!

The fig arrived, as all PVC figs do, in a sealed little pouch inside a box. Also inside the box is the column that the fig will be hugging.

There was nothing to it for assembly - I just threaded the thinner end of the column up through his arms from underneath.

As such. The base of the column actually forms another support for the fig, so it stands on it's own quite well. However, the column is fairly loosely held in his arms, so it moves around.

You can see how the fig's right hand is holding on to the column - that's the main point of contact and sort of what controls the column in his arms. My fig wanted to hold the column in a way that pulled it closer to him, which gives it a bit of a lean.

So, I stuck the fig on a fig stand, and you can see how it helped to keep it more vertical. I did not stick the column itself (and now I'm second guessing myself as I look at these pics).

Harpagon-Jun's shocked and distressed face is adorable! Never has a 70-year old money grubbing character looked so cute.

The column is going to look more or less totally vertical as the pics progress around the figure. Some of that is due to my ever-present camera wobble, but it's also true that the column isn't 100% vertical either. It looks pretty good from this angle!

The fig maker did a great job with the tattered smock and little slipper-shoes that Harpagon-Jun was wearing in the play. It's of course not very complex of a design, but it's rendered really cutely, with his rosy little legs and arms sticking out.

The video of Gong Jun is lower quality due to the age, so it's hard for me to tell too much detail of his hair, but I bet the fig maker did some heavy forensic scrutiny of the video. I am positive this is very close to what his hair looked like.

This is such an extra-charming fig now that I know the backstory. I really hesitated before buying it at the time, but now I'm super glad I got him!

Some creative and clever JZPs put a straw hat on him and swapped out the column for veggies. A big chili pepper! It's hilarious and also super cute. He can hold all kinds of stuff.

Ahahaha his little expression! I love him.

The fig maker did a great job of making this face look even younger than normal.

*************

Whoa! What are the Fig Spice Stars (tm) doing in the middle of a fig post about a college play fig?

No, there's exactly Zero (0) spiciness factor here, but I surprised myself a little when I reopened this pic, so in consideration of you maybe reading this on public transportation or something, the pic that follows is the VERY usual bottoms-up angle I take for all the figs nowadays.

BUT! The Miser is TOO cheap to even buy underwear. There's nothing to see, but it's got a bit of an up-smock feel to it.

Alright! That person shouldn't have been looking over your shoulder on public transportation anyway, they had that coming.

You can see how the circle of his arms actually doesn't have a ton of space - just enough real estate for the column, or a few flowers, or a chili pepper.

I took some liberties translating the name of this fig (because you know that's exactly what someone slowly and painfully working their way through Chinese HSK 1 in 15 minutes a day should do).

According to my translate app, 抱柱傻俊 means "hold a column silly handsome". The handsome of course is Gong Jun's first name. 抱 is hold/ hug, and is the same character in Zhehan's Hug a Pig fig yesterday. There's the obvious symmetry about figs in the same release having similar names and concepts. The column part is self-explanatory. So that just leaves out silly! I couldn't think of a way to fit it into the fig name, so I just went with the symmetry. I like it!

Material: PVC (fig) and wood (column)

Fig Count: 378

Scene Count: 26 (I don't think this counts, even if it IS a scene from a play!)

Rating: Cuter than a box of gold!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#junzhe #gong jun #word of honor cast #figthusiast

7 notes · View notes

gingerdusk · 3 years ago

Note

I'm really sorry about sending this (no pressure if you don't want to answer!!) but you seem like the only person in all this whos talking about it without yelling. Why are you against jojo even after she gave two apologies?/gen

I've been thinking over this ask for a little while now, so I'm sorry for the delay in answering; I really wanted to word this properly and considerately to all parties involved.

Yes, Jojo did give two apologies regarding the issue. And a large cut of the community is frantically gesturing to these apologies and going "See? She apologized! What more could you possibly want?"

Therein lies the issue.

An apology is not an order. An apology is an acknowledgement, tied to a request—"I messed up. Can you look beyond that so we can continue our relationship?" And as a request, there are a million ways to interpret it.

"Okay, I believe you, let's be friends" is a valid answer to this request. But so is "I don't think you're sincere, so no," or "I don't think this is a big enough deal to warrant an apology," or "even if you've learned from this, I'm hurt, please don't talk to me again."

A request does not demand a straightforward answer. A request depends wholly on the interpretation of the person receiving the request, and whether or not they WANT to fulfill that request.

An apology is not, and should never be, transactional—you should not expect forgiveness if you give one, and you should not be required to forgive if you get one. My mother could write me the most sincere and touching letter that she means from the bottom of her heart, and I'm still allowed to tell her "no."

When I was little, my parents had a rule about my siblings and I when we'd hurt each other—if my little brother hurt me, he had to say sorry, and I had to say I forgave him, and end it with a hug. In the end, it made me question whether someone ACTUALLY meant it whenever they said sorry to me, and made me feel bad for not forgiving them right away—which means that it wasn't ever really forgiveness, just a way to end the moment. I've had to fight hard to unlearn that, and that means acknowledging that sometimes, things hurt, and I'm allowed to FEEL hurt.

The thing about Jojo's apologies, though, is that they are not for me. I'm a singlet—i.e., a person without Dissociative Identity Disorder—and thus, what Jojo did in her recent update does not affect me.

Let me break it down into more simple terms, for clarity.

For me to act like the apology WAS for me is the same as if someone hit you, apologized for it, and then the person NEXT to you said "oh, don't worry, they forgive you!" before you even had a chance to speak.

For me to act like those affected SHOULD accept the apology is the same as if someone hit you, apologized for it, and the person next to you pulled you aside and said "you're going to forgive them, right? It would be absolutely awful of you if you didn't. Look how bad they feel about hitting you."

In both scenarios, it's not that person's place. They weren't hit, and they don't get to decide if you, the person who DID get hit, have to accept anything.

"She apologized, what more do you want?"

You have to accept that, for some people, the answer is "Nothing."

⠀

As for where I, personally, stand on this, it's a little more brief.

Yes, I do have opinions on how this was handled. Yes, I do think the community should have approached it differently.

But what I think should have happened isn't my place to say.

I don't consider myself to be someone that was affected by this. Even if I WAS a system, I don't think I'm active enough in Jojo's community to weigh in on this—hence why I didn't post about the wayback machine snapshot, despite being trans. It doesn't impact me, SPECIFICALLY me, in any way I actually feel hurt by.

But I also recognize that I'm not everyone, and my experiences are not everyone's. What should matter here are the people that this DID hurt, above everything else, and supporting them simply because they WERE hurt. You can disagree with the interpretation those people have of Jojo's apologies, but in the end, it's not your apology to respond to.

I'm removing myself from Jojo's works because, VERY simply, the things I've read about her tell me that she's not a person I would want as a friend. I personally think her apologies were padded with unnecessary details, and it detracted from how sincere she was. I personally think that, given her track record, this indicates a mean streak that she reins in when it isn't socially acceptable. I have standards in the company I keep, and I have boundaries I don't want crossed. So this is me drawing the line on what I find okay. And if I don't like a person, it's my decision to not interact with them, no matter what they say or do.

You're free to draw your own interpretations. Maybe you think this is all being blown out of proportion. Maybe you think she's genuinely sincere, or that she's trying her best. And that's YOUR decision—I'm not going to tell you what you can or can't think, or who you can or can’t interact with. Just know where I stand, and respect the boundaries of the people around you.

#hoo boy #posting this spicy take at an odd hour of the night on purpose because yeah #but this whole thing has helped me figure out a more firm stance on my own boundaries #anyways #jojo #linked universe #lu #< those are there for blacklist even though they aren't mentioned #long post #< and that one's tentative because i don't trust tumblr's tagging system #ask bee #should i be up this late? absolutely not #especially not on serious topics #but i've got a bad case of insomnia and couldn't stop thinking about this #edit: fingers crossed that this actually posts this time because i've tried like 20 times in the past ten minutes #also fingers crossed that this doesn't self-reblog 20 times #negative salt

71 notes · View notes

k-an-kennon · 3 years ago

Note

Hi I’m still missing your stories, I’ve read similar stories from other writers but they don’t come close to the quality of your writing and I’d love to re-read them.

Have you found a new home for the Pookie stories yet? If not would you consider selling me text files or pdf versions of the stories? Sent via Dropbox or whatever suits you? I can pay via PayPal or any other method.

Cheers

Rick

Hi Rick!

I'm delighted that there is still interest in my Pookie stories! You may have missed the dialog happening on my other Tumblr recently (this one, k-an-kennon, is specifically for the stories that I can put on Amazon). If you didn't know, the other one is called pookiesfamilyii. I'll repost this over there, so you can follow the breadcrumbs in the notes section below if you haven't seen it.

Another fan of my Pookie stories mentioned (just a few days ago) that you can find all of my Pookie Originals released up to the end of 2018 on an internet archive called "The Wayback Machine." Just Google those words and it should lead you to a free site called archive (dot) org and while there, search the history of pookieiii (dot) tumblr (dot) com and you should click on the Dec 2018 archive. In it, you'll see my old Pookie III Tumblr like it used to be back then and have access to all but four of my released Pookie Originals. I'm still looking into other options as to where I can release my old and new Pookie stories.

In the meantime, I'm editing/re-writing one that I had almost finished before Tumblr pulled the plug on P3 so that it can be posted on Amazon and see where that gets me. If it proves worthwhile, I may revamp some of my older stories in a way that Amazon would be okay with. (They pay writers about ½ a penny per page read in their Kindle Unlimited program.)

If you'd like to help me financially, reading my Amazon books is the way to do it, especially if you leave glowing reviews. I have the links on my page here somewhere, but you could always go to Amazon (dot com or uk or whatever country you live in) and search for "K An Kennon" and you should see the three titles I have there so far. Master of the House is more like my Pookie Originals than the Valkyria ones are.

Surprisingly, I earn more if you read my Amazon books in the Kindle Unlimited program than if you paid for them outright (works on any phone/tablet/computer/etc.) A fun trick is to sign up for the free trial, quickly read all of my books and then cancel it at the end of the free trial period. I get paid by Amazon for you reading them, but you don't get charged a subscription fee for it! Win-Win! That was one of my old story titles, by the way! ;) With Jeff Bezos flying dick rockets to the upper atmosphere, he can definitely afford it.

Thanks for writing in and giving this aspiring author some inspiration to get back to the writing desk!

<==Pookie==>

and

K An Kennon

15 notes · View notes

lordofthesea7 · 2 years ago

Text

Yandere Summary pt. 4

Me? Posting another summary not months after the last one? Anyway this one covers episode 9 because I cant find episode 8 which is mildly annoying but oh well I guess.

The video opens with Sam waking up to Taurtis sitting on him holding what look like shears.

The first thing taurtis does is ask sam if he knows that he kicks in his sleep.

sam says that yes he does know and explains he has night terrors.

He was kicking taurtis's crib while sleeping and keeping taurtis up.

Sam asks taurtis about the shears and taurtis holds up mr. fish and claims he's been holding mr. fish the whole time.

Sam asks Taurtis to get out of his personal space and taurtis gets closer.

SAM THEN SAYS HE FEELS LIKE THEY'RE ABOUT TO KISS??

Sam stands up and then Taurtis asks if he wants to invade Grian's personal space, which Sam giggles and says yes to.

Sam farts on grians face and taurtis uses a fan to blow it into grian's nostrils, which wakes him up.

Grian leaps out of bed and pulls out the katana he kept.

Sam grabs his katana and taurtis grabs his shears

Grian says hes not staying there anymore because that wasn't a prank it was just disgusting.

Grian and Taurtis both have phones but sam doesn't and we learn that his dad won't let him get one.

We also learn that sams dad is a single parent.

Taurtis got his from the dumpster and it doesn't work

it was apparently grians old phone that taurtis just pulled out of the dumpster and kept.

Sam goes to the bathroom and Paul blart is hiding in his ceiling, asking about Silly Jilly being missing and a man killed with a rusty blade. The same guy the kids killed for the Yakuza.

Sam brings grian and taurtis into the bathroom and they talk to Paul until Sam's dad comes in (there are a lot of comments being made about paul blart it was weird).

Sam's dad wont let sam get a phone because he's afraid of flashing lights.

They kids go downstairs and there is a bottle of alcohol on the table, which Grian takes a sip from.

the kids stop at the store and taurtis wants to hit on this girl and tells her to smell his fish

Sam and Grian are his wingmen

This scene made me very uncomfortable i will have you know it was really weird.

Taurtis then says he doesn't actually like her he just wanted her to smell his fish.

galaxy uses her wrench to break the store window and steal a comic.

yay I'm done. It seems like I missed a lot in episode 8 so I may try using the wayback machine to find it. Am I that dedicated to this summary. I don't know.

#lordofthesea's yandere summary #yhs #i feel like this needs more tags but i don't know what #alcohol mention

6 notes · View notes

aprillikesthings · 3 years ago

Text

Breaking my tumblr timeout for Lent, to talk about a novel!

Summer of Love by Lisa Mason

I read this book in 1996, when I was in high school--it was published in 1994. Found it at the local library, reread it a billion times, eventually bought my own copy, reread THAT a ton, lost it at some point. Recently bought a secondhand copy online (which has a Borders sale sticker on the back).

And I'm so mad, because I really really want to talk about this novel with other people, but I feel like I've joined a fandom with zero people in it. I'm just yelling on a proverbial streetcorner (well, the corner of Haight and Ashbury, proverbially speaking) about this damn book!!!

But this is too fucking long, so under a readmore it goes:

Hooboy. I never really realized how formative this novel was??? I still had a TON of the text basically memorized. Also, I am disturbed to realize a lot of my adult aesthetic is basically the cover of this book.

As one example, plz enjoy this Modcloth dress I bought several years ago:

Yeah. Anyway.

This is, in fact, a sci-fi novel. A guy named Chiron from the year 2467 travels back to 1967 because data from that era has disappeared, and he has to ensure a few Very Specific Things happen to save the future he lives in. One of the things he has to do is find and protect a young woman (who goes by the pseudonym Starbright). The two of them meet and end up crashing at the home of Ruby Maverick, who lives over the metaphysical shop she owns.

I was obsessed with the late 1960's for my last couple years of high school, and I regularly had adults ask me if I wish I could go back in time to live there, and I think I surprised them by saying "Oh god, no." Because this book (along with The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) made it very clear that 1. That era sucked ass for a lot of women! Second wave feminism hadn't really started yet! 2. A lot of the popular drugs were new, and we just didn't know how good or bad they were. Doing LSD a few times in your life: unlikely to hurt you, if you know what you're doing; often a very positive experience. What people of this era sometimes did: took massive doses, over and over and over, while being careless about their history of mental health or the set/setting in which they were taking it, leading to things like bad trips, psychotic breaks, and multiple accidental deaths. Oh, and a lot of famous people (and not-famous people) died from heroin overdoses.

But back to the women thing: this book just made it so, so painfully clear that being a young woman in the hippie movement of the 1960's could be Really Unpleasant. Not all the men of that era were assholes, but lots of them were, and there wasn't much to stop them.

(I'm gonna be honest: I love this book, but if it were published now people would LOSE THEIR SHIT, because Starbright is a not-yet-15-year-old runaway who has sex with a man in his late twenties and, later, one who is twenty-one. The actual sex with the much-older dude is portrayed in a relatively positive light--she enjoys the sex and finds him desirable--even though the novel makes it clear that, generally speaking, he's a really shitty person who takes advantage of her and then discards her. The twenty-one-year-old (Chiron, the time traveler) is a lot nicer to her, and the circumstances are wildly different, but it's definitely portrayed as morally fine on both sides. There are also multiple mentions of and discussions about sexual assault and prostitution. The novel just doesn't pull any punches about how sexist and awful the hippie scene could be. In an older interview that's still on the wayback machine, the author mentions something I hadn't considered but now seems obvious--that the sexual abuse of children wasn't a thing people talked about that much yet in that era, and interviews from both at the time and later show that a TON of the teenage runaways that ended up in Haight-Ashbury were survivors of CSA and other forms of abuse.)

The author (in that wayback-preserved interview) said she was able to read stacks of local alt newspapers from that era (on paper and microfiche), books written just after the fact, and even talked to a shit-ton of people who were there--some of whom are really well-known, like Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane.

And the internet now has a lot more stuff on it than it did when I read this book the first time, which means I was able to look up a bunch of things that I have wondered about for years!

For instance: a TV special that was filmed in Haight Ashbury that summer and aired later that year is mentioned several times in the plot. It's real! It exists! It's on youtube! (I only got like twenty minutes into it, but man, were "normal" people confused and terrified by hippies.)

It's so wild to be able to google the commune that they visited at one point in the book, or the events the characters go to, or a lot of the people mentioned.

Because while some of the people in the novel are/were 100% real and did the things that are mentioned in the novel (yes, George Harrison and his wife stopped by the Haight once that summer, and George had on heart-shaped sunglasses lol), and some are 100% fictional (Chiron the time-traveler!), some made me think: this is probably based on a real person. There is far too much detail here compared to some of the other side characters.

In the novel, Leo Gorgon is a member of the Diggers--an anarchist group that fed people, started a free clinic, did public theater kinds of things. And some of the members were assholes, even with all the good they were doing trying to keep all those runaways sheltered and fed. Leo Gorgon is, in fact, kind of an asshole in the novel. (Not the same asshole who has sex with Starbright, though they're friends and Leo clearly thinks that dude's behavior is fine.)

And Chiron, being a time-traveler from the future, knows that Leo goes on to write two books (in one of which he says really horrible things about Ruby, the shop owner he was sleeping with off and on that summer) and then dies of a heroin overdose in the late 1970's.

But here's the thing: uhh. The Diggers were not a very large group of people. A lot of them were well-known. We know their names, is what I'm saying. So I looked up The Diggers on wikipedia, as one does.

Yeah, Leo is based on a very real person. Lisa Mason used his middle name and switched two letters of his last name and that was it.

And the "criticism of counterculture" bit of his wikipedia entry? Nearly every point on it is something he mentions in the novel/a plot point of the novel. (And he's not actually wrong, with some of them, imho; he's just kind of a dick about it.)

And now I have a secondhand copy of that dude's memoir in an online shopping cart. Because now I have to know if he really does mention someone who could be Ruby, for instance.

Also, have a photo of me on the corner of Haight-Ashbury that I got last month when I was in San Francisco to see Björk:

#lisa mason #summer of love

28 notes · View notes