ramblingghooosty

[ramblingghooosty]

Literally no one cares but me, but yesterday NNAMDφ complimented me on my Johnny Foreigner† shirt and that was a really cool moment for me.

† - one of my favorite artists

[ramblingghooosty]

i think when it comes to the question of "why are megacorporations producing and signing off on anti-fascist, anti-capitalist art" the answer is a lot less likely to be some variation on "they're intentionally producing diluted critiques of capitalism as some kind of psyop to water down resistance IRL" and much more likely to be the fact that capital is just not that threatened by art in general. and they will produce anything they think people will want to buy

[ramblingghooosty]

the commodification of friendship is the most annoying thing to come out of the internet in ages. like actually i love to break this to you but you're supposed to help your friends move even if it's hard work. or stay up with them when they're sad even if you're gonna lose sleep. you're supposed to listen to their fears and sorrows even if it means your own mind takes on a little bit of that weight. that's how you know that you care. they will drive you to the airport and then you will make them soup when they're sick. you're supposed to make small sacrifices for them and they are supposed to do that for you. and there's actually gonna be rough patches for both of you where the balance will be uneven and you will still be friends and it will not be unhealthy and they will not be abusive. life is not meant to be an endless prioritization of our own comfort if it was we would literally never get anywhere ever. jesus.

[ramblingghooosty]

It's

I'll never go, I just want to be invited Oh

Got Ta give up, Get the feeling Get, the feeling

for me

the ‘hammer to the statue of david’ part is SO GOOD it scratches my folie à deux deprived brain

[ramblingghooosty]

Oh, more rambling about Metroid actually.

One of the things that's really cool about both Metroid Fusion and Metroid Dread (spoilers for Dread I guess) is that they both tackle Samus having to come to terms with her seeing herself as a warrior and a weapon and how this perception of herself is dangerous- and this is very much tied to her having this implicit concept of the power suit being her real, outer self!

After all, Fusion reveals that Samus's suit is fundamentally bonded to her body- literally hooked to her nervous system to the point that the armor has to be surgically removed.

And not only that, but the addition of the metroid vaccine changes Samus- and changes her suit- dramatically. And it also makes her suit more malleable to change as she changes further as seen in Dread.

But anyway, to my main point:

Metroid Fusion is a game that explores the consequences of Samus's actions on SR-388. Her hesitancy to complete her extinction mission at the end of Metroid II was redemptive, yes, but in removing the baby metroid she still unleashed a far worse threat to the world.

Super Metroid explores the immediate consequences of her actions, of course. But while Super Metroid shows her being punished for having shown mercy to the baby metroid as the Space Pirates take advantage of her hesitation, Fusion gives Samus an opportunity to redeem herself for the extinction event she caused (by causing another, bigger extinction event as she is well known for doing).

But in order to do this, she has to confront the monster that is herself. To slaughter an entire species as she did with the Metroids- not impersonally or accidentally but descending into the depths and mercilessly executing every last one of them- Samus had to be a cold, impartial weapon.

And to Samus, that is what she is. It's why the suit is her second skin- she's a warrior. A weapon. Except... Samus still has humanity underneath that. The SA-X, however...

The SA-X is a mirror of that aspect of Samus taken to the logical extreme: A cold, heartless, living weapon of mass destruction. The ultimate warrior, with no ability or desire to hesitate or hold back or regulate itself in the destruction it can unleash.

It's natural that Samus is more introspective in Fusion, forced to deal with a stubborn computer that brings to her mind memories of her former CO (because it is him) while having to confront the darkest and most violent version of herself and question what it is that makes her different from the SA-X. She ultimately concludes it IS her humanity- and having the foil of Adam, a reminder and anchor to the more human side of herself, helps her to come to terms with that.

And then in Metroid Dread, she's forced to confront this struggle once more. Except this time, she faces this aspect of herself from within. Stranded in the depths of ZD-R, Samus is forced to overcome the EMMI over and over- they are not an existential threat to the universe at large like SA-X was, but they are just as durable, just as dangerous on an individual scale as it was to her while being far more targeted and unrelenting.

After all, the SA-X had better things to do and greater motivations beyond chasing down and killing Samus, and only really harassed her when their paths crossed. And the SA-X was intelligent enough to toy with Samus- to use the immense power at its disposal to mock and harass its weakened adversary instead of going straight for the kill.

The EMMI had only a singular purpose: Hunt down and kill Samus Aran as efficiently as possible.

Samus was forced to confront every single one of them head on in order to progress- she had to let go of fear and hesitation and embrace overwhelming power to shred them to pieces. She had to become the weapon again, to embrace being the ultimate warrior because the only way to escape ZD-R alive was to do so. Not to mention Adam, anchor to her humanity that he is, was removed and impersonated by Raven Beak to encourage Samus to embrace losing herself to becoming a weapon once more, to embodying the metroid within her and becoming an Ultimate Warrior.

Quiet Robe tried to give her an out, and almost succeeded in bringing her back. Then she screwed that up by releasing the X parasites (whoops) and things went from being a personal threat (only Samus's life wS on the line) to a massive, existential one again.

By the time Samus faced down Raven Beak, she really had lost just about everything that made her different from the SA-X. Fighting him, she was an embodiment of rage and destruction- an incoherent, screaming beast practically foaming at the mouth to destroy the enemy in front of her. This was something that Raven Beak did deliberately, forcing her to absorb genes from X Parasites that held the keys to forcing the feral metroid cells in her to the front while simultaneously putting Samus into a position and mindset where it was "embrace this part of yourself or die", but it's a part of her that was always there.

And so we end up with the Metroid Suit. The embodiment of Samus at her most powerful, now even surpassing her former peak in Super Metroid as the massive energy reserves gifted to her by the sacrifice of the baby were now generated by her own being. But it's also an embodiment of Samus at her least controlled- no longer able to hold back or even prevent herself from being a force of destruction, to the point that Adam had to stop her from touching the controls of her ship because she would simply drain it of energy.

It's funny that in the end, SA-X gives Samus her power back while Quiet Robe-X gives her humanity back, but in the end Samus is able to escape and left to contemplate what she has gained and lost from this experience.

Anyway I'm rambling.

[ramblingghooosty]

Peak Lyricism to me:

And sometimes in the cold night,

my phone rings, but it's not you.

And even when the buzzer

to my page rings, it's not you.

And the stranger on the night bus

with the checked coat is not you.

And my warm hands hold me so close,

but deep down it's not you

And I'm left here like, holy shit, that's beautiful. There are no giant SAT or thesaurus words here, just a simple and relatable but devastating sentiment. And I think these are my favorite kinds of song lyrics

[ramblingghooosty]

AFI's Blood Album, resequenced by ramblingghooosty:

Tracklist (Spotify link)

Trash Bat

Still a Stranger

Hidden Knives

Get Hurt (Demo version)

Above the Bridge

Break Angels

Back Into the Sun

Get Dark*

Dark Snow

Snow Cats

Dumb Kids

Pink Eyes

She Speaks the Language

Feed From the Floor

The Missing Man

Okay, so I expect this to be controversial for a few reasons. I threw the whole Missing Man in there for instance. I have my reasons for everything.

This series was actually inspired by the fact that the vinyl version has She Speaks the Language and Above the Bridge swapped, even though I kept their usual relative spots on the album intact. But also

for me, when the Blood Album first dropped I was really underwhelmed by it. But when The Missing Man dropped I couldn't help but think that if those songs were on Blood, I'd have a much higher opinion of the album.

So yeah, anyway the OG list is mostly intact here, but with a few quirks.

Not every Blood track made it on my list, and that might be significant later (looking at you, Very Proud of Ya).

I've always been underwhelmed by Aurelia. Period.

On The Wind that Carries Me Away, I'm always glad when AFI tries to experiment. Sometimes it pays off and you get a Dulcería out of it. This isn't really that for me. I know this song has its fans, and if that's you, I suppose this could be a hidden song at the end of the record.

On So Beneath You, I have complicated feelings towards this song in a way I don't have for similar subject songs like Sacrilege, Prayer Position, etc. I think Get Dark* can be swapped for it though, if that's what you prefer.

On White Offerings, I felt like its presence was redundant with Get Dark, and to be honest I've never really felt like this song was about anything.

With those out of the way, I wanted to try to inject the Missing Man songs where they most made sense flow wise, and I agree with AFI that Trash Bat is a strong opener and The Missing Man is a great closer.

I kinda cheated and stuck the other three in order right in the middle of Blood.

I do think Above the Bridge into Break Angels works really well, and one unintended neat thing that arose in the tracklist is Get Dark -> Dark Snow -> Snow Cats. Though I admit the transition from Get Dark to Dark Snow is a little jarring.

I also love going from Pink Eyes to She Speaks the Language, and the accidental transition that happens there almost sounds intentional.

Last two things of note is that I pushed Feed from the Floor waaaaay back but I really like its placement there.

The other is that I have a strong preference for the demo version of Get Hurt and if anyone hasn't heard that they need to get on it. If that demo didn't exist, I'd probably wipe Get Hurt in favor of So Beneath You or White Offerings

Anyway, I don't expect this list to go over well with everyone. There's too much personal preference inserted into it, but I can't help but feel that I'd like the Blood Album so much more if the official tracklist was something closer to this

As always, let me know what y'all think! Like this? Hate this? Got a better list? I wanna hear it!

[ramblingghooosty]

Everyone says "No one gives a fuck about your Spotify wrapped" but I do give a fuck

Let me know what y'all're listening to

[ramblingghooosty]

I'm starting a series in which I reorganize the tracklists from all of AFI's studio albums, Just for funsies.

For this first entry, I'm starting with Bodies (and I'll work my way backwards from there). I really want to start here because I always felt like Bodies' track order could be improved. It's probably the very first thing I noticed about the album on the first listen, and I still maintain that opinion after a year and a half since the album has been out.

Anyway,

bodies, resequenced: (spotify playlist link)

1. Twisted Tongues

2. Escape from LA

3. Begging for Trouble

4. Looking Tragic

5. On Your Back

6. Dulcería

7. Death of the Party

8. Back from the Flesh

9. Far Too Near

10. Caught

11. No Eyes

12. Tied to a Tree

I won't pretend that what I've concocted here is the perfect sequence for Bodies -- I doubt my placement of No Eyes, for example. But I already like this better than the official product?

On the official tracklist, Begging for Trouble going into Back From the Flesh, and then going into Looking Tragic... it's all certainly a choice.

Mine maybe suffers a bit from putting all the slower, or more low-key songs on the back half, but I also thought Dulcería as track 3 was really odd even if I really love that song.

I've also added Caught to my Bodies tracklist. It definitely deserves to be on the album, even if lyrically it's thematically a bit off. It's a dangerous precedent I've set for this series though -- adding a b-side to the album. We'll see.

I'd like to hear what other people think about this order. Does it work for you? Is it better or worse than the official list? Should Caught have been a hidden track after a few minutes of silence after Tied to a Tree?

If anyone has their own version of a sequence for this album, I'd love to see that too.

Next up, I'm tackling AFI's Blood Album.