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spookyspemilyreid · 5 years

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Happy Anniversary Self Titled!❤(April 5, 2013)

Paramore is the self-titled fourth studio album by American rock band Paramore. It was released on April 5, 2013, through Fueled by Ramen as a follow-up to Brand New Eyes (2009). It is their first full-length album released after the departure of co-founders Josh and Zac Farro in 2010. Recorded between April and November 1, 2012, the album was described by the band as being a "statement" and a reintroduction of the band to the world and to themselves. It is the only album without Zac Farro on drums, and the final album recorded with bassist Jeremy Davis before he left the band in 2015.

The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, with lead guitarist Taylor York co-producing on four tracks. In contrast to band's previous work, the production of Paramore contains the band's experimentation with new musical genres, such as new wave and funk rock, and features three acoustic interludes. Paramore received acclaim from music critics, who praised the band's maturity and experimentation in terms of musicianship as well as Williams' vocals and overall presence on the album. Several publications included the album in their year-end lists, including The A.V. Club and The Guardian.

Paramore was a commercial success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 106,000 copies. The album also topped the charts in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, and New Zealand, where it became their first album to reach the summit. It also became their second chart topper in the United Kingdom. In March 2016, Paramore was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for sales exceeding 1,000,000. The group followed the record release with The Self-Titled Tour in promotion, with European, North American, Asian, Latin American, and Oceania legs announced. In 2014, Fall Out Boy and Paramore co-headlined Monumentour. A deluxe edition of the album was released on November 24, 2014.

The recording of Paramore began in April 2012 with the song "Daydreaming". After a brief pause, recording resumed on June 27 of that year and ended on November 1, 2012. It is the first Paramore album released after the departure of Josh Farro and Zac Farro, both of whom left the band in 2010.

The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, longtime bassist for Beck and Nine Inch Nails, who has previously produced records for M83 and Neon Trees. In an interview with Electronic Musician, Meldal-Johnsen stated he wanted "the album to sound very visceral and a little bit less locked down and computerized, more 1981 than 2012, with a nod to 2016." In an interview with Digital Spy, Taylor York stated "I don't think we've ever been so proud and satisfied with something we've done." On June 29, 2012, the band had confirmed that former Nine Inch Nails and current Angels & Airwaves drummer Ilan Rubin would be recording drums for the album.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, lead vocalist Hayley Williams explained "That whole time for our band was such a dark season. It was emotionally exhausting, and by the time we got around to the point where we were going to start writing, we just really wanted to enjoy the process of making an album..." when asked about the direction of the band after Brand New Eyes. Regarding the album being self-titled, Williams explained "The self-titled aspect of the whole thing is definitely a statement. I feel like it's not only reintroducing the band to the world, but even to ourselves ... By the end of it, it felt like we're a new band." She also stated that she was inspired by Blondie's and Siouxsie and the Banshees' records when writing the new songs: "They’ve got so much heart and soul in them."

On December 6, 2012, Paramore made an announcement through their official website revealing the name of the album and the release date as well as the name of the first single from the album. The track list was announced on January 18, 2013 by Alternative Press. During the 2013 Soundwave Festival, Paramore held a listening party in Sydney, New South Wales on February 26, 2013, followed by Melbourne, Victoria two days later, run by Australian Music Channel, Channel V. ]Williams revealed a section of the lyrics for the song 'Part II' which the winners were able to hear at the listening parties on a LiveJournal post. Williams told fans that "'Let The Flames Begin' has been a favorite of ours to play live, as well as being a favorite of most people who come out to our shows.... We wanted it to have a sequel. 'Part II' it is!"

The vinyl version of the album was streamed beginning on April 1, 2013 for four days, with each day playing one of the four sides. The album was then officially released on April 5, 2013. The band played an acoustic version of "Hate to See Your Heart Break" on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge on April 3, 2013, announcing that on the same night, the full song would be premiered on their official website. On April 20, 2013, the band released an EP for Record Store Day, titled The Holiday Sessions, released exclusively on a 7" vinyl, and is composed of the three interludes from this album. A music video for "Anklebiters" was released on June 25, 2013. The song, however, was not released as a single.

The Self-Titled Tour in North America took place from October 15 to November 27, 2013. The Self-Titled Tour takes the band through 27 cities across North America, including Paramore's first headline show at Madison Square Garden. On August 22, 2013, the band announced their own cruise, called the "PARAHOY! Cruise", sailing from Miami to the Bahamas and back on board the Norwegian Pearl, which took place from March 7 to March 11, 2014. On January 9, 2014, the band, along with Fall Out Boy, announced a co-headlining North American summer tour dubbed, "Monumentour", which took place from June 19 through August 31, 2014. On January 22, 2015, Paramore announced "Writing The Future", a round of small shows across the United States, closing out the Paramore touring cycle. It lasted from April 27 to May 25, 2015.

On January 5, 2013, Paramore released a teaser of the lead single "Now", revealing a snippet of the song and the release date of the single, which was January 22, 2013. Paramore streamed the song on their website January 21, and the song was then made available for sale along with an album pre-order through iTunes the next day. In the UK, "Now" was instead released January 24, 2013. The music video for "Now" was directed by Daniel "Cloud" Campos and premiered live on MTV on February 11. It was uploaded onto YouTube the next day.

The album's second single, "Still Into You", was released on March 14, 2013. A lyric video for "Still Into You" was uploaded to YouTube a day earlier, after the band performed it live for the first time at the 2013 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. On September 18, 2013, "Still Into You" was certified 'platinum' by the RIAA. "Daydreaming" serves as the third single from the album. It was released on December 2, 2013 only in the UK. The music video premiered in November 5 on the UK MSN.

"Ain't It Fun" is the fourth single from the album. The radio edit premiered August 28, 2013, and the single was released on February 4, 2014. A music video for the song was planned, but was put on hold in favor of a music video for "Daydreaming", also, as informed by Williams, the band was unhappy with how the video was turning out; A new video for "Ain't It Fun" was shot and premiered on January 29, 2014. "Ain't It Fun" then received the award for Best Rock Song at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, a first for the band as this was their first Grammy win. On June 18, 2014, "Ain't It Fun" was certified platinum by the RIAA and then on July 8, 2015, double platinum. Shortly after, "Still Into You" received double platinum certification as well from the RIAA.

Though not released as a single, the band felt a special connection with the song "Anklebiters" and released a music video for it on April 5, 2013.

"Hate to See Your Heart Break" was re-recorded in 2014 to feature Joy Williams on vocals for inclusion on the deluxe edition of the album. A black-and-white video for the song premiered November 24, 2014. It reached number 23 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart.

The album has been a major commercial success worldwide, debuting at number one in eight countries including the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Argentina, New Zealand, Brazil and Australia (where it was the eighth consecutive number one debut on the chart and also the 32nd self-titled album to top the Australian chart). The album also peaked within the top 20 of 9 other countries. In the US, the album debuted at number 1, with first week sales of 106,000 copies. This marks the first Paramore album to reach the top spot on the chart.

"Still Into You" charted within the top 10 in Australia and Ireland and reached the top 20 in several others. The single topped the UK rock chart and peaked at number 14 in the singles chart, thus becoming the band's second highest charting single in that country, behind "Ignorance" from the band's previous album Brand New Eyes. In the US, the song peaked at number 24, matching "The Only Exception" from the same album as the band's highest charting single at the time. It also peaked at number 6 in the US Rock Chart and number 8 in the US Mainstream Top 40. "Ain't It Fun" shared similar success, charting within the top 10 in Canada and Hungary. It eventually became Paramore's best selling single to date in the US, charting at number ten in the Billboard 100, number 2 in the US Mainstream Top 40 and number 1 the US Rock Chart and Adult Top 40. The single marks the first time a Paramore song has reached the Top 10 in the US.

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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Skam season 3, episode 5 reaction (1/2)

I don’t tend to think of Skam in episodes so much as clips, but this is easily one of the strongest overall episodes of the series, and it feels like a turning point in the season in terms of complexity. Watching it in real time was an emotional roller coaster. We also have the script for this episode with some of Julie’s comments so we can compare the two. I split this reaction into two parts because of the length, sorry if that’s annoying. It’s one of the longer episodes of the season. Second half will be up in a day or so.

SEASON THREE, EPISODE 5 - “At the same time in a completely different place”

Clip 1 - The softest scene you will see in your entire life

Lordag 15:15 for anyone keeping track

I mentioned in my episode 4 recap that the pool scene was the first scene I got to see in real time. After that first kiss, I was dying to know what came next for Isak and Even. I thought it was likely that we’d get more relationship rockiness, because that’s usually what happens in TV shows, right? Isak was going to freak out, Even might run back to his girlfriend, and maybe they’d pretend it didn’t happen and it would get all awkward between them. Because that’s what I expect from most TV shows, more dramaaaa.

Instead, I slept in the day after the pool scene, woke up, immediately checked the Skam website to watch the pool scene again, and instead saw that there was a new clip. This clip, which is one of the most iconic moments in all of Skam, and which should be prescribed by doctors as a means of lowering blood pressure.

I mean this is the image that greeted me when I opened the Skam website that day. Julie Andem did a detox on my soul with this scene.

This scene is so special. It’s different thinking about it now because Skam went on to bless us with tons of Evak physical affection, but at the time I was stunned, because gay couples in media rarely get these types of blatantly romantic, lovey-dovey scenes. I’m pretty sure this clip is a huge part of why Skam suddenly took off internationally, because people saw gifs of this scene and had a similar reaction to all the cuddling. What the hell is that? I need to check it out.

Frankly, I’d say romantic couples in media, regardless of orientation, rarely get these types of introspective, slow-paced scenes where the characters can just breathe and be together as long as Isak and Even do here. Typically if a TV show gives us a scene resembling this one, there’s some other reason it’s there; the scene is there to facilitate the plot, or usher in some drama, or carry some exposition. But rarely do we see couples just lying together and talking in this intimate way, with room for pauses, room for silence, room for the characters to just touch and look at each other. And we sure as hell don’t get them between LGBT pairings that often.

We saw long cuddle scenes with Noora and William last season, and a few with Jonas and Eva in S1, and I’m so glad that Julie didn’t have any reservations about showing Isak and Even in similar positions. Think of other shows you’ve seen with canon gay ships. A lot of them contain noticeable double standards as to the level of physical intimacy and affection the gay ships show versus the canon het ships. Sometimes the het couples can get full-on sex scenes while the gay couples can barely kiss. Granted, much of that discrepancy probably comes from people at the top, and showrunners may have to fight just to include gay characters in the first place if the network executives are cowards, let alone show them being affectionate. So I’m aware that Skam is in a unique position to depict these types of scenes between two boys. The format and distribution of the show also allows for the creative freedom to have these long quiet scenes without needing to account for commercial breaks or time restrictions or anything like that. But damn, this simple scene ends up feeling downright revolutionary because of how it commits to show these two boys falling in love with each other, without compromise.

The song choice of “I’m Not in Love” is perfect. I know some people took it literally (thinking that one or both of the boys were not in love and this wasn’t a very deep relationship, or it was evidence that Even was just messing around with Isak for fun rather than real feelings) (yes, I remember reading this) but the whole premise behind “I’m Not in Love” is that the speaker is in love, and all of the protestations he’s not in love are flimsy as hell. Oh, I call you and come to see you but don’t read too much into it. Oh, I have your picture on my wall but it’s just because it covers up a stain. NBD.

Here’s an explanation of the story behind the song from Wikipedia:

(Eric) Stewart came up with the idea for the song after his wife, to whom he had been married for eight years at that point, asked him why he didn't say "I love you" more often to her. Stewart said, "I had this crazy idea in my mind that repeating those words would somehow degrade the meaning, so I told her, 'Well, if I say every day "I love you, darling, I love you, blah, blah, blah", it's not gonna mean anything eventually'. That statement led me to try to figure out another way of saying it, and the result was that I chose to say 'I'm not in love with you', while subtly giving all the reasons throughout the song why I could never let go of this relationship."

Stewart’s description is a perfect fit for Skam’s depiction of Isak and Even’s relationship. I can name a ton of TV shows where the characters rush into saying “I love you” and throw it around in every scene even though the sentiment feels unearned. The words are just hollow and used as a shorthand for writers to say the characters feel deeply for each other, without coming up with creative, emotionally resonant ways to show these feelings of love. Skam is actually pretty restrained on having Isak and Even make a lot of dramatic statements of their feelings to each other. Instead of going for overwritten or showy speeches, Julie writes shorter lines that leave more to subtext and fit the context of the situation and characters better. There’s never a conventional “I love you” scene between Isak and Even and yet I didn’t need it because their actions constantly showed how much they loved each other.

And the lyrics can reflect Isak’s attitude at this point. He has feelings for Even but is still in the closet, still dealing with internalized homophobia. There’s still uncertainty around this relationship and where it’s headed. You can take “I’m Not in Love” as a layer of protection, downplaying this relationship to others and maybe to himself, but of course any protests from Isak are going to be as weak as the singer’s. Dude. We can see the way you’re looking at each other.

Onto this montage of smoking, kissing, and cuddling. Dreamy sigh. Isn’t this how everyone wants to imagine being in love? Comfort and safety mixed with passion and affection. This is the exploratory period, where you’re with a new person, and you can see Isak and Even testing out new kisses, new cuddles, new affectionate gestures. They’re enamored with each other and there’s still so much more to learn about each other.

Even’s smile when Isak initiates the nose rub = murder me. I still think Isak did it to make the gesture theirs after seeing Even do it to Sonja at the neon pre-drink. Thinking about it from a directing standpoint, I am dying to know if Julie was giving the actors instructions on things to try or if they were told to improv and Tarjei did the nose rub and caught Henrik by surprise, basically how this little detail came to be. Because it’s not in the script and yet it became such an iconic Evak gesture, it was incorporated throughout their scenes as a way they not only express affection but show comfort and solidarity with each other. It is theirs.

Evak having certain gestures they come back to, such as the nose rub, makes this relationship seem more real and textured. Their relationship is very specific, with its own history and inside jokes and consistencies throughout the series, and it’s one reason why it’s stuck with me so long.

The timeline is pretty ambiguous in this montage. We know that they obviously spent Saturday together, but this montage doesn’t designate a clear linear path, it jumps between their different positions and activities - smoking, laughing, making out, looking into each other’s eyes. There are also parts in some of the editing where we have Even or Isak talking but their mouths aren’t moving, giving this scene a dreamy feel. It’s almost like they’re outside of time, in their little bubble. “Can I stay in here with you forever?” seems like a real possibility.

In part of the opening montage you can see the same kiss from the end of the clip, which could just be Julie reusing footage for whatever reason, but I like it because it’s almost like a loop between the start and end of the clip. Time is irrelevant in their bubble. Everything that’s going to happen, will happen, and it’s happening now.

Tarjei and Henrik deserve so much praise for their acting in this scene. Not just because there’s no skittishness or #nohomo bullshit that you sometimes see from actors playing gay couples, but because they sell the utter adoration between their characters better than a lot of A-listers, honestly. The looks on their faces … wow. So much fond! So much love!

Henrik does a lot of fantastic physical acting throughout this scene, because Even never lets up touching Isak - tracing or rubbing his back, stroking his face. Expressing his feelings through touch. Can you imagine how much Isak is soaking all of this up?

Speaking of Isak, this is by far the softest, gentlest, and happiest we have seen Isak in this season so far, and the whole series to this point. He’s like a completely different person in this scene. Tarjei really lets down Isak’s walls.

Even is wearing the traveling Jesus shirt which is appropriate after a scene where he just played God. You can imagine Isak throwing it to him for that reason. Not because of complex Biblical symbolism and rebirth metaphors, more to be a little shit. Hey God, I found a shirt with your son on it!

I love how Even looks super charmed by Isak blowing smoke in his face.

By the way, I know I’ve said this before somewhere, but this scene always makes me think of a commercial for fabric softener, with that nice soapy clean clothes smell. In reality, though, Isak’s bedroom would have smelled like weed, boy farts, unwashed sheets, and possibly chlorine from the pool.

Eternal mysteries: What is the Nicolas Cage movie where he doesn’t overact??? Nicolas Cage has made some respectable movies, it’s not all The Wicker Man and the Kirk Cameron-less Left Behind, but I don’t know if he’s ever been subtle. What’s a movie that Isak would have seen and Even wouldn’t? Unless they have differing opinions on overacting. This is going to bug me for eternity. (On a non-Skam note: I fell into a Wikipedia hole and while I knew Nicolas Cage was related to the Coppolas, I didn’t know he was a cousin of Jason Schwartzman?)

On a similar note, this doesn’t bother me too much since I’m too enchanted with their acting and the writing, but yeah, that one strand of hair just chillin’ under Tarjei’s chin in this scene… once you see it, you can’t un-notice it. (There’s also the mic that’s visible in the opening montage.)

This scene has no pressing plot, no obvious “point” in terms of communicating exposition or advancing the storyline, but it turns out to be vitally important as a whole bunch of motifs and themes are established, we get insight into both characters, and there’s a ton of foreshadowing.

“I actually think life is like a movie. That you can be the director of your own life.” As we know, Even has a cinematic mind and sometimes takes his advice very literally, aka staging underwater kisses in random people’s houses. But it’s interesting that Even feels this way since bipolar disorder would seem to be something that makes him feel less in control. I feel like he tries to live this way deliberately as a way to handle his mental illness.

Isak being impressed by infinity, thinking about the fact of being insignificant compared to all the universes out there, though - that’s kind of surprising! Even wants to maintain some control over his life, perhaps due to having this mental illness that makes him feel out of control, but Isak just thinks out there, everything is happening to him, and he’s OK with that. He’s more fascinated by the idea and not like ... struck down with existential dread.

What’s lovely is that when Isak disagrees with Even’s point, Even is eager to hear what Isak says. They both look happy to be having debates like this. They can disagree on certain topics but it’s OK because they love to hear the other’s POV. This is such a great foundation for a relationship, that they’re not all about physical attraction and desire, but they genuinely enjoy having conversations with each other about big topics.

Have we heard Isak talk at all about Big Ideas like this, with anyone else? I can certainly believe he’s had conversations like this with Jonas, but there’s something really intimate about putting aside all the mundane topics of daily conversation and diving into the bigger, more abstract discussions, things that really reveal a lot about who you are as a person and how you process the world.

And I mean, yes, I know that they’re both stoned right now and that’s helping Isak to open up. Still!

Oh my God, do I love, LOVE, the shot of Even and Isak lying overhead as Isak says, “There’s probably a parallel universe where an Isak and an Even are lying like this…” Because that’s exactly what it is in that moment! A parallel universe! Well, maybe. You can also interpret it as a non-linear moment, since we have Isak’s voiceover (where he was clearly just talking on screen) over a shot where Isak’s mouth clearly is not moving, to a cut back to Isak talking. But I also like the idea that this shot of Isak and Even lying silently together, Even tracing Isak’s back, is from one of those parallel universes that Isak is referring to, and that’s what the AU Isak and Even are doing right at that moment.

Also, nice editing from Julie, because Even moves his head to look directly at Isak as a way to link the two shots and it’s happening in both universes, Isak talking and Isak not talking.

Plus apart from the time/parallel universe stuff, it’s honestly just a beautiful shot, where both Isak and Even are deep in contemplation, and you can imagine all that is on their minds, but they’re not voicing it at this time. Just Even rubbing Isak’s back. Just them lying together.

Both Isak and Even memorized this entire conversation, because it was that important to them, and ended up storing a whole bunch of its references in the Evak museum. Parallel universes, yellow curtains, the boy who couldn’t hold his breath underwater...

Uhhh, that soft little noise Even makes after talking about the yellow curtains? End me.

Even is pretty vulnerable during this part of the conversation, giving his thoughts on parallel universes. I guess this is heading into personal territory, but this is the scene where I first started to think Even might have depression, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the same for a lot of other viewers. Not just the bit where Even says the only way to escape your thoughts is by dying, though Even saying that was a huge red flag and made me think Even was suicidal, or had attempted suicide in the past. But also when he mentions how thinking about all the different universes feels lonely. And that might be a reach because surely non-depressed people can feel similarly overwhelmed by the idea of being small and insignificant in an infinite number of universes, but it just pinged me (as someone with depression) as immediately recognizable. I can’t even put it into words, it just resonated in an unsettling way. Being alone, with just you and your thoughts, is terrifying when you have depression, because your mind starts to come up with some scary things.

I think that also accounts for why Isak might not understand why Even is freaked out by the idea. While Isak’s mental health has suffered as a result of his family life and his internalized homophobia - the insomnia is a noticeable effect, for one - I don’t think he’s been suicidal, and I don’t think, even with all his stress and inner struggles, that he realizes how bad one’s thoughts can get.

The only time the camera strays from Isak and Even in bed, during this entire scene of almost seven minutes, is when Eskild knocks and talks to Isak through the door. Because that’s an interruption of the bubble. Eskild is the outside world at this point, Eskild is the reminder that people do exist beside Isak and Even. Bless Eskild, but he’s an intruder here. His sudden presence also causes Isak to come up with a lie, saying that Even’s shoes are Jonas’ shoes, reverting to his habit of lying because he’s not ready to state the truth.

By the way, if you were watching in real time and were in the fandom at the time, you’ll remember that there was a theory that actually it was Jonas talking to Isak through the door, and therefore he would catch on to those not being his shoes. Which seems kind of silly now, because Jonas and Eskild don’t sound the same, but fandom sure loved its wild theories. I miss the bonkers shit people would come up with when you’re getting canon in 3-4 minutes increments day by day and are in constant speculation mode.

I love how Even is so charmed by Isak being a brat to Eskild. And that he seems happy at Eskild’s mention of Isak staying in his room all day (because hell yeah, why not, stay in here with me, Isak). And his tightening grip on Isak’s shoulder? My heart.

Also, Even’s gaze is more on Isak’s reactions to Eskild than looking to the door toward the voice, like … he is so enamored of everything Isak does and can barely take his eyes away. (That’s the boy he’s noticed since the first day of school!!! And he’s here, he’s finally here!!)

Isak complaining that Eskild is a babysitter is totally borrowed from what Even said the night before, when he told Sonja to stop monitoring him. Isak absolutely absorbs a lot of what Even says and does and ends up imitating him.

So we finally get the explanation for how Isak met Eskild and came to live in the flat in this scene. I wasn’t watching from S2 but this would have been a dangling topic since the S2 finale, at least.

In the script it’s mentioned specifically that Isak had a fight with his father before going out and getting drunk, which breaks my heart. Isak’s dad really let all of them down. What kind of a father leaves his teenage son alone with a mentally ill mother he is not prepared to care for? All because the dad couldn’t deal with the mom’s mental illness? What the fuck is a 16/17-year-old supposed to do? Not to get too personal again, but I have been a caretaker to a mentally ill parent (and one who had some drastic issues but whose sense of reality mostly wasn’t impaired like with Isak’s mother) and I could not imagine doing it without the help of my other parent. It’s just outrageously selfish to bail like that.

Isak not being able to remember whether Eskild tried to pick him up is … alarming. And sad. And it’s very good that Eskild found him when he was that out of it instead of someone else with less noble intentions.

Looking at Even’s POV, I doubt he thinks there’s anything going on between Isak and Eskild but Isak living on his own with another gay man, a non-relative, is a bag of unanswered questions, such as - is Isak out to anyone? Where’s Isak’s family? Was he kicked out for being gay? Like this is his way of prodding out some sensitive information. Later when he asks how Isak’s parents will react if they start dating, you can imagine this information is on his mind.

Again, Even’s eyes never leave Isak’s face during this conversation, and he keeps rubbing his thumb along Isak’s shoulder. And he doesn’t ask too many questions, he just lets Isak talk. Isak opens up more than we’ve seen him do in this season so far, but when stuff starts to get too heavy then he plays it off and Even allows it and doesn’t push.

As cute as it is, there’s something a little sad about Isak saying that Even can have his story and make a movie out of it? Like he’s clearly trying to play down how much it really affects him. Oh Even, just turn my sad family history into one of your tragic films, ha ha except not really.

“I am going to make a movie about you!” AHHHHHHHH. So glad we got our S4 YouTube masterpiece because when hearing this line mid-s3 I totally figured it would be foreshadowing and Even would like, confess some feelings to Isak via stop motion Barbie adventures. And I mean, the rest of S3 is so amazing that I didn’t miss not getting any Ken doll smooching, but I’m glad Julie came through with the promised cinematic ode to Isak Valtersen.

When Even’s phone starts ringing they both keep joking and laughing until they can no longer ignore it. Another intrusion to the bubble.

Even stroking back Isak’s hair and pressing his face to Isak’s forehead - some A+ intimacy.

I have to single out their acting again. Henrik is fantastic with all the touches and affection he’s giving, and Tarjei does such a lovely job with the slight shyness and sweetness from Isak. Like this is all new to Isak! It’s a ton of romantic attention and affection from a boy! You can see his curiosity and exploration. Then when they have to deal with the reality of what’s waiting for them outside the bubble, Even is so blatantly unhappy and Isak is just deflating in his subdued way. The actors manage these emotions so well.

Man, you can see how quietly happy Isak gets when Even asks to stay in there with him forever. He’s almost glowing. And it makes sense that this, specifically, is what Even asks him, because that’s what they want at the moment - not just to be together, but to stay inside the bubble away from all outside complications.

This final kiss as we close out the clip is just. The sweetest thing ever. With Isak lifting up his head to ask for it and Even kissing Isak’s forehead and cheek and their hands on the other’s face and neck. Imagine Isak’s growing confidence in asking for the kiss and Even’s generosity in giving Isak more than what he asks.

I don’t necessarily put a timeline as to when these two definitely fell in love (as opposed to liking each other/having a crush/whatever), or realized that they were in love, but tbh this feels like when it might have been it for Even. The act of breaking up with Sonja and asking Isak to be his boyfriend had to be huge for Even, in light of everything he had been through, and realizing he was in love with Isak here was big enough to take a chance, end his stifling but stable relationship, and pursue something new and unknown.

You know when you listen to a song you enjoy so much that you start to hear it and you don’t really love it anymore, it’s more like the memory of loving it? Or a book you read so many times that it’s more that you remember the emotions it used to provoke in you, rather than feeling them in the moment? Sometimes I fear that season three of Skam will get worn out for me like that. After all, I’ve seen it who knows how many times by now, and the show ended more than a year ago - eventually watching it will just be about the memories of how it felt to watch the first time, and not feeling scenes in themselves, right?

Watching this scene again still feels like the first time.

Clip 2 - Morning after

There has been discussion over whether Isak and Even went further than makeouts during their cozy weekend and I’m 95% in the camp that they did not. I mean, by all means, headcanon otherwise, but I don’t think sex happened at this point for the following reasons:

Narratively it would have been a huge deal, both in the progress of their relationship and of Isak’s personal development, and I tend to think Julie would have shown it or hinted at it more strongly if anything sexual had happened. It seems too important not to make more obvious. If you think about it, the parallel universe conversation could have happened while they were in a state of undress (or something to indicate that they’d gone further than makeouts) but instead she had them talk while in oversized hoodies and sweats. So I think she wanted the main takeaway from this snuggly Saturday to be them talking about their lives and personal philosophies.

Like I said, it would have been a big deal for Isak, going from his first kiss with a boy to being sexual with a boy within a day or so, and since Isak is still dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia, I’d say he wouldn’t progress that fast? It’s true that he seems willing to jump into things with Even pretty quickly, but it also makes more sense to me as a step after he’d come out to his friends and gained a little more self-acceptance. “They’re teenagers and therefore driven by hormones” isn’t convincing enough of a reason enough for me to think they went that far. I mean, Noora and William are also shown waking up in bed in their underwear in the next clip after their first kiss, and it’s immediately established that they have not yet had sex. (Which is why I don’t think Isak waking up in his boxers is proof, either.)

Just personal preference but Even is already cheating on Sonja by making out and snuggling with Isak. I’d rather he didn’t do anything blatantly sexual with him on top of that.

The only thing that gives me some doubt is the crumpled tissue on Isak’s nightstand, because we all know Skam loves to be cheeky about Isak’s toilet paper, lmao.

We’ve seen Isak struggle with insomnia but here he appears to have slept pretty well, and we get the first hint that Even also has trouble sleeping. “I don’t sleep cuz sleep is the cousin to death” is waaaaay more loaded as a lyric than it might seem at first. It’s also quite ominous as we kept getting casual mentions of death around Even. Feels like the Grim Reaper is always trailing him.

Even frequently calling Isak hot/attractive, as he does on his sketch, is so good for Isak to hear. Isak has trouble vocalizing his attraction to men (well I GUESS that guy on Grindr is handsome, Eskild) but for Even, talking about his attraction to Isak is as normal as breathing. Even just does not give a fuck, in a lot of ways, about some of the hangups that Isak currently struggles with - talking about men being attractive, dealing with generalizations, liking “gay”/stereotypically un-masculine things. And that’s really good for Isak to be around, because he thinks the world of Even, and if Even can be like that or say this or do that, then maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world for Isak to admit he finds boys attractive. Even normalizes some of this behavior for him.

Also, it’s just so nice for Isak’s first real love (a boy!!!) to make him feel adored and shower him with compliments. Sincere ones, at that! Even isn’t faking any of this as some people predicted; he’s completely smitten with Isak.

I find it so endearing that cartoon Isak wears a snapback underwater.

I forgot, who did the drawings for Even? Some random on the production team? Julie? Imagine keeping that as a souvenir from the set.

Even has already internalized what Isak said about parallel universes. This one is just a silly joke comic, but later these sketches are going to be something like a coping mechanism for him.

Lmao, Eskild and Noora. Noora is randomly cleaning walls as a way to either alleviate William-related stress, satiate Isak-related curiosity, or both. Both? Both. Julie had to delete a William-related line in the script because it didn’t fit in right here, but by the Looks she gives Isak once Eskild steps in, she wants all the gossip.

You know, not that I condone turning Isak’s sexuality into a fun speculative game, but I so wonder how the girl squad side of Nissen was reacting to the developing Evak relationship from the outside? You know Noora was probably giving Eva updates on everything, Vilde was clueless for a while, Sana was just complaining about Isak forgetting his biology notes, and Chris was like, “Damn, the spirits weren’t smoking crack after all.”

Don’t you wish you could’ve seen the Even-Eskild interaction in the bathroom that morning? Especially when Eskild encounters a random dude in the flat wearing the Jesus shirt. Was Even still wearing the shirt when he left, or did he return Isak’s clothes and go home in his Halloween costume?

Eskild is just. The best. He knows that Isak is most likely gay, and he wants Isak to open up to him, and he’s probably like “it’s finally happening!!!” once he spies Even in the bathroom. But he’s trying to be “casual” and positive about it. Oh, that Even guy was super cool! It’s cool that you had a cool guy over, Isak, we’re all cool with it.

Alas, Isak was Not in the mood to talk about this. As soon as he steps out of his bubble, he gets confronted with questions about Even and has to retreat. But the bubble just isn’t the same alone.

Clip 3 - Isak on the outskirts of the boy squad

Poor Isak just wants to find out what’s going on with Even, to the point of waiting outside his classroom. But he has no idea that what Even’s going through is way more serious than he could have realized.

Isak doesn’t waste a single second in bailing from Emma, lmao.

This scene with the boys is so well done. The tension is evident. Tarjei’s acting is terrific. He rolls up to the boys ready to be bro Isak, friend Isak, and you can see him present a better mood (or faking a better mood) only for the shock to sink in when he realizes he fucked up by forgetting Magnus’ birthday.

When Isak strolls up to the boys, none of them pause to acknowledge his presence, they don’t even know he arrives until Isak starts apologizing. That’s how out of the loop he is.

To be fair, as much as I understand why Isak would lose track of anything except lying in Even’s arms - with someone looking at you and cuddling you like that, who wouldn’t - but he did blow off his friend’s birthday after talking about it with his friends and discussing tentative plans, and ignored their texts to alert him. That’s the problem with the bubble: you’re cut off from the outside world, both bad and good. Isak needs to learn how to bring his two worlds together and not aggressively shut them off from each other.

Not to mention that this is the third week in a row where Isak has lied or canceled plans, after the Emma pre-drink he randomly canceled and the kosegruppa pre-drink he didn’t tell the boys about. Isak’s lie about his family party is just half-hearted. Jonas and Mahdi see right through it and aren’t falling for this BS. Even Jonas, the best friend ever, is getting done with Isak’s shit.

Lol forever at Julie’s script being like “Isak gives (Magnus) a hug or high-five or whatever, how the fuck am I supposed to know what 17 year old boys do.” It’s hilarious but also indicates that she probably asked Tarjei and David what gesture would fit in the context of this scene for their characters, and they went with the hug. Awwww.

The other boys do some good acting in this scene, too. David does a nice job of being a little friendlier than the other two, but in a muted way. Magnus is the most cheerful and good-natured of the boys, the one who doesn’t really get upset, and so he doesn’t shut out Isak to the degree that Jonas and Mahdi do (they both seem mega-annoyed with him) but I think Magnus was actually hurt by Isak forgetting his birthday? I mean, I doubt he went home and cried in his pillow. But it would sting that Isak just completely bailed with no warning, no text message that he wasn’t going to make it. He just totally forgot.

Isak tries to work his way back into the circle, being enthusiastic, wanting to know what happened, but he’s so blatantly on the outside. The other boys don’t even try to tell the story to him (and Jonas is the one who says this so you know it’s got an extra sting). You can see Isak visibly dim when he realizes he can’t just jump back into the squad - again, great acting from Tarjei.

Also, once the boys have made it clear that Isak can’t hop into their conversation like everything’s normal, we don’t get any more closeup shots of their faces. It’s all on Isak’s reaction. When the boys keep talking among each other, it’s like something happening at the edge of the frame, they move in and out of it, but we’re not able to engage with it fully … we the viewers don’t feel like we’re part of the discussion, either. We’re there with Isak.

So this story the boys tell, about the girl with the facial hair, was not in the script and must have been improvised by the actors or prompted by Julie later. However, it’s an example of how S3 was firing on all cylinders. The boys could have been talking about anything. They could be telling some wacky story about Magnus, a can of beer, and a saxophone. Any anecdote that’s complicated and something Isak can’t be part of, anything where you just had to be there to understand. But it’s not just any story. The incident they’re talking about involves a girl with a facial hair and Magnus almost kissing her. And how this was gross, you don’t want to kiss someone like your father. And what did Isak do on Saturday, instead of going to Magnus’ birthday party? He was kissing a boy. And lol, Even isn’t the most hirsute dude out there, but you have to imagine he has some stubble. But in any case, the message of what they’re saying is clear: kissing people with stubble is gross. Something I doubt a gay guy would think. These are straight dudes who don’t want to kiss girls who remind them of boys. Meanwhile Isak has been kissing an actual boy and found it to be pretty damn amazing, way more satisfying to him than kissing a girl. It’s just another way he’s locked out of the group - not only was he not there for this particular incident, he can’t even relate to the feelings behind the story at all. Julie and the cast are basically multi-tasking here by adding an extra layer of isolation that’s thematically relevant to Isak’s internal struggles. A ton of S3 is layered like this, which is part of why it’s lingered with its fans. And why I wanted to write tl;dr meta about it, lol.

#skam reactions #skam season 3 #skam #isak valtersen #evak

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tinymixtapes · 6 years

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Feature: 2017: Favorite Labels

When I was a shithead high school kid playing in my first punk rock band, I’m pretty positive that my cohorts and I dedicated much more time to hanging out in a Denny’s booth sketching logos and fine-tuning our astoundingly under-researched shortlists of the record labels that would ideally release our first earthshaking longplayer than we ever dedicated to, ya know, “writing” and “practicing” songs. But strangely, I don’t think this sort of thing happened because we were “lazy.” I think it’s because, a lot of times, the brand name counts even more than the music does. And I guess we all kinda understood that, even back then. Sure, we may all walk around our lives most of the time pretending like our choices and justifications are all pure and internally driven… but — as the introductory statements to three solid years’ worth of these Favorite Labels lists all ably point out — that shit is a straight-up hallucination. What we all really need at the end of the day is to feel assured that we’re part of a bigger story. We want those choices backed up by some weird, impossibly infallible guarantee. On a grand scale, this whole project represents nothing less than the most utterly serious of metaphysical business: nothing and no one stands on their own. Individuals are forgotten. Lines have endpoints. Organisms wither and die. We see this. We know this. We hate this. Brands, on the other hand, endure. Those glorious abstractions known as “classifications,” “families,” “institutions,” and so on can’t be killed. In other words, we’re not just talking comfort here; we’re talking Immortality. But even on the level of our day-to-day exploitation and/or enjoyment of culture, it holds true. For example, even now, as I try to reconstitute the narrative, some of my favorite records of 2017 didn’t just “come out.” They “came out as editions on Sean McCann’s Recital program.” As a writer, I found it downright difficult to parse and explain the evolution of certain monikers without using Hospital Productions as a scaffolding or to discuss this-or-that artist without shouting-out Posh Isolation. And I’ve got to fess up to the fact that, as a fan, I attended several shows and bought several records based on their Don Giovanni tag alone. Is any of this compulsive brand-association particularly justified or fair? Objectively, no, I guess not. But that’s exactly the point: categorizing frail, transient little things into grand structures that transcend the worth of each of those little peons when tallied individually not only provides a nice distraction, but it also helps cocoon us — however temporarily and delusionally — in a cozy and structured-yet-flexible hammock rather than leaving us all sailing naked through the silent, freezing, soulless, limitless, and immeasurable depths of deep space at a million miles an hour. So, um, if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll just go head and keep clinging like grim death to all the delusional institutions I can get my mammalian hands on. In fact, here’s 14 or so that you might find handy too. Take ’em or leave ’em. –Dan Smart --- Noumenal Loom [$EGA & THE RAINBOW STREETS · TOIRET STATUS · PASCALE PROJECT] Since 2013, Noumenal Loom, run by Garrett Crosby, a.k.a. Holly Waxwing, out of Birmingham, Alabama, has been pogoing around the globe to gather together all sounds exciting and excitable. So far, the label has pepped us way up with seminal releases by aggregative electronic wizards Foodman, Giant Claw, and Seth Graham, while concurrently winding down with gentle albums from the lovably chill likes of Tuluum Shimmering and Angel Dust Dealers. Their 2017 roster opened with an addictively danceable cassette from DJ Voilà, and whether the label has been exploring techno, funk, smooth jazz, or muzak, it’s been an idea of bodily movement that has unified all of this year’s tapes and albums. We’ve window-shopped with Haha Mart and loosened into a swaying groove with Jasper Lee and Earthly. Bouncy releases from Pascale Project and $3.33 scrubbed the dance floor clean, and, to round out the year, the label just dropped two back-to-back bath bombs by $ega & The Rainbow Streets, a new project from Kenji Yamamoto, and some mind-boggling impishness from Toiret Status. Amidst all kinds of paralyzing madness outside, spaces and sounds that invite such movement feel distinctly joyful and freeing. –Cookcook --- Hands in the Dark [BYRON WESTBROOK · BRIAN CASE · MATT JENCIK] Even French label Hands In the Dark’s name dallies with the corporeal, alluding to a sense beyond the visible, a prickle or a tickle when the lights are off. Label founder Morgan Cuinet has compiled a walloping roster of experimental artists whose work mines the occult affect of sub-bass, the pilomotor reflex to binaural wizardry, and the pineal proprioception to the encounter between ambie(/a)nce and the human ear. It’s hardly a surprise, then, that the artists represented — among them Matt Jencik, Brian Case, and Byron Westbrook — positively bodied the electronic music scene in 2017. Even from the pirouetting opening seconds of Westbrook’s “Dance and Free Fall,” the opening track off Body Consonance, tendrils of sound coagulate and consummate with the ear, consonate with the flesh, palpitate along with the temple’s pulse. Mastered by Helmut Erler and TMT favorite Rashad Becker at Berlin’s Dubplates & Mastering, these delicately fashioned transmissions massage and clench, stimulating the viscera and churning the gut. Hands in the Dark has quietly built a catalog of ambient music with gumption, a dance music for the synapses and for the goosebumps. The future is now: forget your antidepressants and anhedonia. With hands and feet and neck and back — in the dark or in the light — we’re getting sensual. –Benjamin Eckman Bieser --- Nyege Nyege Tapes [RIDDLORE · OTIM ALPHA · MAKAVELI] Luck’s acute attribute is having enough faith in letting go of the good and/or bad; a bird shits your in hair: half-think you won the lottery, but you keep thinking, a bird shit in my hair. Communication will forever be sharpened through adverse arts. Nyege Nyege Tapes bugged on 2017 with some excellent cultural deep-dive for listeners to gnash. What hit first was the jux-flow of “Ukuti” by Disco Vumbi. Immediately after, Riddlore’s Afromutations banged so hard, listeners lost direction of “Why?” and pursed immediate: “What timeline does Nyege Nyege Tapes abide by?” The third release defined another unique MC’s entry, Gulu City Anthems by Otim Alpha, baring a certain soul that comes more with the certainty of songwriting than production. Mysterians’s Joyride on Judgment Day was a gem that power-washed nodes on a level of intellect we won’t find until all the pieces of blasted-ambience have fit. But most importantly, Sounds of Sisso vibes on such a level of reappropriative, cultural instinct, one forgets to even find the magnitude of hype, purely grappling at the textures of rhythm. Nyege Nyege Tapes defines the stripped-down airfare to where prestige and lister-expansion take the next step. –C Monster --- Recital Program [ROGER ENO · DICK HIGGINS · MARY MAZZACANE] Whatever happened to the classics? Did we just get over them? Or rather, did they get over us? Is it still possible to remain just a little bit old-fashioned in a world that’s progressing at an exponential rate, when what happened even yesterday is archaic, forgotten, meaningless? For one, maybe study up on Sean McCann’s Recital Program, which spent yet another year shattering the glass walls between “high” and “low” art, proving again that everything is fascinating if we just look a little closer. Between exploring the lost lineage of the Mazzacane/Connors family, exposing the ever-tumbling wordplay of Dick Higgins, and issuing regal, flowing piano works from the likes of Michael Vincent Waller and Roger Eno, Recital kept its cool amidst a musical landscape that continues to self-implode. In reclaiming the opulent world of the classical for the underground of today, McCann’s label creates its own sort of beautiful order out of chaos, a theater in which the mundane and the ornate can freely converse and even trade places for a while if they so choose, unshackled from the class boundaries that so often keep the two camps railing against one another. Whatever happened to the classics? They’re living among us now. –Sam Goldner --- Music from Memory [BENE FONTELES · DUB OVEN · GAUSSIAN CURVE] “Music from Memory” is a misnomer and double entendre both. The records released by the Amsterdam label can’t be from memory in its most common meaning, simply because they have almost never been heard by “the masses” before. The music does, however, come from what could be called a place of memory. It has the ability to instill nostalgia for mysteries, to create attachments to unlived experiences. What started with the phenomenal Vito Ricci full-length in 2015 and was constituted with the Dip In The Pool reissue in 2016 has, this year, become a stalwart of archival transcendence. Although it’s often titled a “reissue label,” every 2017 release out of Music from Memory feels incredibly new. Psychedelic Brazilian music comps feel dime-a-dozen these days, but 2017’s Outro Tempo pillars over them all. The clunky disco of Dutch DJ Richenel feels a step ahead of contemporary house nostalgics. What the label provides is a sort of one-way mirror, looking at a past that was dreaming of its future. The attention to detail and arduous curation that goes into every record from Music from Memory highlights not where we went wrong, but what was done right. –E. Fosl --- The Worst [MINOGAME · X.NTE · ANCIENT ORIGIN] The Worst couldn’t be more misnamed. Since January, the Tennessean netlabel has birthed a baker’s dozen of the squelchiest/geekiest/sugar-sludgiest breakcore the bowels of SoundCloud have to offer. Spearheaded by visual-artist-cum-producer Minogame, the imprint functions as the post-internet era’s answer to the Smithsonian Folkways, cataloguing cyberpunk transmissions from the web’s uncharted territories: aside from surface-level nods to Warp’s cheeky humor and penchant for cluttered drum-breaks, much of the label’s output represents the hyper-individualism within a late-capitalist state that has driven us deep into our own curated aesthetics for solace. The aforementioned Minogame’s a tribe of one, signified by their Lascaux-like scribblings and math-rock source material. The prolific Ancient Origin is also a culture unto itself, one informed as much by Animal Crossing’s pastoral tradition as it is by mid-aughts crunk mixtapes. Visit The Worst’s Bandcamp, click a record cover, and assimilate: this is an expansive charting a miniature world. –Jude Noel --- Profound Lore [BELL WITCH · SANNHET · FULL OF HELL] I’ll be real: last year, I hadn’t heard of Profound Lore Records. Sure, I knew a ton of their past releases, like those of Krallice, Altar of Plagues, and Nadja, but I wasn’t fully conscious of the brilliant and gnarled web that tied them all together. The fateful moment that changed all that was the December release of Ash Borer’s superb The Irrepassable Gate, which was one of the most truly badass black metal records I’d heard in years. I became obsessed, and I started paying attention to Profound Lore (run by the great Chris Bruni). Enter 2017. I came into this year ready to chomp on anything Profound Lore released, and what a fucking year they’ve had. Pallbearer’s Heartless was a thrilling, prog-tinged doom journey that was as compelling as anything the band has done. Full Of Hell’s Trumpeting Ecstasy was an impeccably produced and excellently paced grindcore album, one of the year’s best in the genre. And then there was Loss’ magical doom odyssey Horizonless, whose grizzly howls brought an appropriate sense of melancholic yearning for listeners in 2017. And let’s not forget Sannhet’s aggressive and relentless So Numb, a refreshingly powerful exercise in instrumental metal. But, in my opinion, Profound Lore’s crowning achievement for the year was Bell Witch’s Mirror Reaper, a breathtaking, bass-laden drive through the great beyond via glacial doom metal. The label capped the year off with this month’s epically unsettling 7xLP Rainbow Mirror by Prurient, a release that delivered a whole new set of mysteries and moods for us to relish as we slide gracefully into 2018. I raise my glass to you now, Profound Lore, as I have many times in my life, whether knowingly or unknowingly. You have brought a significant amount of beautiful music into the world this year. Thank you. –Adam Rothbarth --- End of the Alphabet [AKE · OMIT · MARHAUS AND MEEK] I have often wondered the existential meaning behind Noel Meek’s End of the Alphabet label. I can conjure many shortsighted missives about the location of New Zealand, the idea of the letters X, Y, and Z being largely ignored and underused, or perhaps the notion that those same letters are quite weird and therefore loosely lumped together. So I’ll stick to a combination of all three, which is why EotA is such an ear-opening experience. Whether it’s via Meek’s own releases and collaborations, or those spotlighting both his New Zealand and its surrounding — and equally ignored — regional sounds. Considering how stuck Western culture seems to be, I’d rather delve into the XYZs of our globe than the ABCs. –Jspicer --- MOTOR Collective [KLEIN & LACK · SABERTOOTH · R. GAMBLE] Tucked away in the fogs of the Pacific Northwest, this year the gang at MOTOR Collective did not “break through” so much as further refine their version of dance music — moody, spacious, and deep, yet grounded enough that you can actually move to it. MOTOR releases (as well as their excellent parties and podcasts) feel less like music for the club as we know it and more like the jump-off point for some head-trip gathering in the forest; the sense of a group yearning for this vision carries across records as varied as R Gamble’s Realistic Spaces and Heidi Sabertooth’s The Hear Of Now (both highlights for the year). That you can still hear the tape hiss on many digital versions of MOTOR tracks (as opposed to the hyperreal, LOL-perfect rendering of so much modern electronic music) speaks to what the label is going for. Like mighty ponderosa left in the rain, it’s imperfect and gently warped, still sturdy, and full of personality. –Dylan Pasture --- PERMALNK [DETENTE · LEO HOFFSAES & LOTO RETINA · BENOIT B] The Parisian label PERMALNK has been offering what it calls an “empathetic image of the world” since 2014, but it wasn’t until this year, with three strong releases, that it brought that image into clearer focus. The empathy of DETENTE’s Basic Dwell is reserved for the world’s smoldering and static-charged bits, where its energy is locked up, and from whence it manifests in stuttering impact and action-movie fidelity, accompanied by the grungy tremolo of guitar. Léo Hoffsaes and Loto Retina collaborated on Early Contact, the intimate story of a woman’s day out with her son and husband as her second child squirms in her belly, with uterine gurgling joining airy string melodies in a duet of nervous anticipation that spreads, as if contagiously, from narrator to listener. Far from both the incidental onslaught of Basic Dwell and the human intimacy of Early Contact, Benoit B’s Ethereal Drops addressed itself to the world as if to a fantastic, New Age-adjacent vision of nature. Its tracks, like the standouts “Sparkling Stream” and “Diamonds Rain,” combined a high, animalistic chirp with pads colored in shades of balearic and trance, constructing an image that, like artist Tavi Lee’s album cover, carries about it a worldly air, even in its bold color palette and surreal bending of the edges of its “natural” forms about one another. In 2017, PERMALNK has accomplished something rare in releasing three albums with little in common aside from an adherence to the label’s noble mission statement and, more importantly, an uncanny coherence as individual works of art. –Will Neibergall --- Posh Isolation [CROATIAN ARMOR · DAMIEN DUBROVNIK · KYO] In some secret file on Loke Rahbek’s hard drive, one can find my full frontal nudes along with a genetalia garden of many other bodies, desecrated and devalued, for they all were exchanged, vulnerability for vulnerability, with a cassette tape of Croatian Amor’s 2014 album The Wild Palms. In the commodification of the world, all things are abstractly identified with an exchange value, where even vulnerability has a value, for the body is as expendable as every other image. Yet, here we give one’s inability to give as a gift — one’s vulnerability. The self-interest of commodity economy is abdicated in preference of a gift exchange. Here, Rahbek creates an artificial space to find other people. Posh Isolation’s forays beyond noise and industrial to lyrical ambient and minimal techno belie industrial music’s foundation in the incommunicable dissonance of the world of industrial capitalism, where seeking to be heard above the din is a project worthy of art. By fetishizing the empty object in the artificial space of performance, this bubblegum industrial forges impossible connections that, though artificial, become pleasurable and therefore real. Through pain directed inward, as if pierced by a great many arrows, we confirm that one’s self is irreducible to the abstract identification of the commodity, as Saint Sebastian his beauty. The ultimate need to make contact snaps one out of artificiality. In 2017, the cold has become a little bit warmer and a sort of sincerity is resuscitated. –Evan Coral --- Don Giovanni [SCREAMING FEMALES · AGUA VIVA · LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES] What’s opera, doc? Opera is text by tune splitting story, Italian for “work.” Opera is Don Giovanni, some Austrian seraph’s diminishing sevenths flicking humans into shouting until the sound shakes our hearts. Hearts and mouths shout, so listen: Joe Steinhardt and Zach Gajewski played in a bad band at Boston College, made their own 7-inch, and voila: opera via Don Giovanni. It’s music label as New Brunswick new alternative, nixing commercial interruption so artist and audience are fleet free as a Mozart minuet to trade roles and help each other. “Anyone can do anything and not just that, everyone can do everything. No one’s fucking special,” Steinhardt reminds us. In an ashen historical moment, those words are totem for remembering the good work of “nobody lives unless everybody lives.” Don Giovanni is Aye Nako’s rim shot disrupt-punk and the geography-atomizing Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires. It’s Irreversible Entanglements, unmetered jazz outfit as union collective and A Piece of Water, the Buenos Aires tidal pool dream of Agua Viva, a body’s buoyancy over oppression. It’s La Neve’s American Sounds, a non-binary bodying the electric song as new national anthem sans strict script and the breaking “Glass House,” Screaming Female’s yowl of a collective body’s mission to re-member shards of 2017’s ill-reality into something better for every body. The music label model is the original resisting force, the libretto punk show, a two-fold work of labor output and piece created. Don Giovanni refuses repenting like the title character and screams high C’s into hell, a Looney Tunes promise that everything is movable except good work. Don Giovanni is the good work, opera for us by us. No one’s fucking special. Everyone’s fucking special. –Frank Falisi --- Piratón [MINICOMPONENTE · UPGRAYEDD JESSICA · AMAZONDOTCOM] OK, you caught me; Piratón Records isn’t as prolific as some of these other labels. As far as I can tell, it currently only exists as a Bandcamp page, and since its founding in 2015 by Mexico City musician and music journalist Carlos Huerta (a.k.a. Josué Josué), there are only four releases, all available for free streaming with a “name your price” option for download. One of them, Ruido’s 2015 FUN LP, is a totally bonkers instrumental hip-hop/chip-tune/synth punk thing. Two of them are compilations in a series called No hay más fruta que las nuestra, which means, “There is no fruit other than ours,” a play on a quote by Mexican social realist painter David Siqueiros: “No hay mas ruta que la nuestra” (“There is no other route but ours”). This year’s No hay más fruta que la nuestra 2 is why I’m writing this blurb. Like its 2016 predecessor, it features all kinds of music by female artists from Latin America and Spain. TMT favorite (Upgrayedd) Smurphy is on it, along with 11 other incredible ladies whose work spans pop, punk, rap, techno, and folk. It’s basically all I’ve listened to this year (besides, like, DAMN. and A Crow Looked At Me, so you know it’s good but ultimately responsible for way fewer tears). Snarkiness aside, I hope that somebody finds this at least half as empowering as I did this year. Life fairs a little better when your music’s this good. –Jazz Scott --- Hospital Productions [LUSSURIA · RAINFOREST SPIRITUAL ENSLAVEMENT · NINOS DU BRASIL] 2017 was the 20th year in the business for Dominic Fernow’s Hospital Productions. The label celebrated with tastefully grim releases that fit nicely under the three categories of Fernow’s own projects, Vatican Shadow, Prurient, and Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement. Like Demdike Stare’s DDS and Oneohtrix Point Never’s Software imprints, Hospital Productions never strays far from Fernow’s infernal circle of influence. The label eschews the convenience of modern platforms, preferring physical record stores and distributors like Boomkat and Bleep to platforms like Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Aesthetically, the labels seems to occupy a razor-thin void that exists between the chic, palatable throb of ambient techno — the sort of jilted, swooning sound that intellectual architecture students in horn-rimmed glasses and ket-heads in crop tops can bond over — and the always unpalatable, unpredictable underground noise scene. The latter is the spawning pool of Hospital Productions, a realm of cut-and-paste cassette art and “noise tables,” which basically kept the National Audio Company in business until avant-garde electronica and Urban Outfitters found tapes to be a fashionable medium again. It’s a dangerous game Fernow plays: with every high-bias, 180g limited-edition release at the luxury price point, he runs the risk of playing to the “market,” whether ironically or for personal gain. Industry politics aside, the music is of scrupulous quality and gluttonous proportions. Hospital Productions is committed to releases of staggering, atmospheric scale: the monolithic physical LPs and cassette boxes are like dense artifacts, adding to the imprint’s quasi-archaeological mystique. Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement put out a few large cuts, coming over two hours on a reissue of Green Graves. The project also put out an eight-cassette compilation titled Water Witches, one of many such bricks of tape that the label would drop. Another eight-hour box set of 8xCS was released for Dust Belt’s brooding, dark ambient on Ecocannibalism, and then of course there was the 6xLP release of Prurient’s massive Rainbow Mirror, which was co-released with Profound Lore. The club side of Hospital Productions is equally grim: Ninos du Brasil released their second full-length, Vida Eterna, a bludgeoning set of trance-inducing Latin rhythms, as well as another 12-inch. Natural Assembly put out The Fantasy of Love, a mix of post punk and deep house. Shifted drew a converging plane between metal grooves (the rhythmic kind) that sound like they’ve been rubbed out of literal metal grooves and outsider techno beats on Appropriation Stories. As much as I hate the “outsider” term, there’s still not much of a vocabulary for the sort of undanceable, fringes-of-the-club-basement beats that Hospital represents so well. –Ross Devlin http://j.mp/2iT0sDJ

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ibelily · 7 years

Text

No one

Inspire by a post by @leonacantread:

What if anxiety doesn't have a real name?

Just hear me out, what if no one has ever cared enough about anxiety to give him a real name, he’s just anxiety. So imagine Thomas naming him, and everyone becomes emotional and it’s great!

Summary: Anxiety won’t tell anybody his name, and Prince is determined to find out why.

Word count: 1776

Also i’m tagging @prinxietyhell and @prinxietys because they are my SanderSides senpais

“So we know nearly all of your names now!” Thomas said with glee. “Logan, Roman, Morgan, and…” He pointed at Anxiety expectantly. Anxiety rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time since Thomas summoned him for this video. Or rather, since he was unexpectedly pulled into the real world to participate to everyone’s dismay.

“How many times have I said it? I’m not telling you my real name!”

Thomas huffed, deflated.

“Why not? We know everyone else’s! Come on, it’ll be a chance for the viewers- and myself- to get to know you better”

“Don’t care” Anxiety answered, shrugging. “I don’t want to and I don’t have to, so I won’t. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go touch up my eyeshadow and think about everything that went wrong during this video” He gave his signature sarcastic smirk and sank back into the mindsphere, leaving Thomas with his other personalities.

“Seriously guys” Thomas pleaded, turning off the camera and looking between the different traits. “Please tell me his name, it’s killing me not knowing”

The others looked between themselves, wearing identical hesitant expressions on their faces. Finally Logic spoke up.

“W-well, if he doesn’t want to tell you then we should respect his privacy and keep it to ourselves, right?” Prince and Morality nodded slightly and murmured noises of agreement. Barely pausing, Logic continued.

“Well Thomas, you’ve got a video to edit and dinner to make and so we shan’t keep you any longer.” Without another word he sank down, quickly followed by Prince and Morality.

Thomas looked around at where his personalities had abandoned him, and shook his head. He didn’t even understand himself sometimes.

*****

The three traits all appeared in the Commons of the mindscape. Anxiety was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t unusual. He rarely spent any time out of his room, except for food and the occasional Family Film Night that Morality insist he come to. He had undoubtedly appeared straight into his bedroom.

The traits spent a few moments just looking at each other in silence, having a conversation with only their eyes. Prince had a hand up to his face, his index finger resting on his lips. Logic’s arms were folded, his brow furrowed in concentration. Morality tapped the tips of his fingers together rhythmically. It was Prince that eventually broke the silence.

“None of us know, do we?”

The other two exchanged a glance before both shaking their heads.

“How can we not know? We’ve all been together for...well for as long as any of us can remember!” Roman exclaimed.

“Well, we know each other’s names because we told each other during interactions. We felt that it would bring us all closer as a group. Anxiety has always kept us at arm’s length, refusing to impart any personal information to us.” Logan stipulated.

“But we’ve known each other for our entire lives! One would’ve thought that by know he’d have accidentally slipped up, or told us to prove us wrong when we guessed, or...something”

“Well what can I say, our Anxiety is a tough nut to crack” Morgan shrugged. He didn’t seem to disrupted by the revelation.

Logic and Morality left the Commons, separating to go to their bedrooms, leaving Prince alone in the room.

He may not know Anxiety’s name, but he was damn sur going to find out.

*****

Prince arrived in front of Anxiety’s jet black door. Each door was individual and indicative of the personality who lived behind it: Prince’s own was a double door, arched and made out of wood with intricate hinges, resembling that of the entrance to a castle. Morality’s was a bright blue door with a corkboard attached, holding pictures of loved ones and the occasional cute puppy, and Logic’s was a dull grey with a black chalkboard hanging on it.

Through the black door he could hear the sounds of angry men shouting over harsh guitar and energetic drums. He never understood Anxiety’s taste in music.

He lifted his fist ready to knock when another noise made it’s way to his ears. The sound of someone crying their eyes out behind the door in front of him. His heart leapt, and his hand went straight to the handle of the door, the reflex of a prince wanting to help those in need. He stopped himself however, reminding himself that there was no literal dragon to slay, and that Anxiety would definitely not appreciate him barging into his room unannounced. Sighing, he pulled his hand back and lightly knocked on the door. After receiving no response from the other side, he knocked again, harder. Again he got no answer. After a third attempt that yielded no response he took matters into his own hands and grabbed the handle, letting himself into the room.

Anxiety was sat in the center of his bed, with his knees up to his chest and a pillow clutched in his hands. His face was hidden in the pillow, but the spasming of his back and the muffled sobs gave away his state of being. He didn’t react at Prince’s entrance, oblivious to everything except the thoughts in his head. Cautiously the royal approached, and sat down gently on the bed next to the crying Anxiety, who jumped in shock. Before he could move, Prince put his arms around the crying trait and pulled him into a hug. He fully expected to be rejected, but was surprised when instead Anxiety leant his head on the royal’s chest and curled up into a ball. With one hand Prince started stroking Anxiety’s hair to calm him, and he hummed the tune of one of the many Disney songs floating around his head.

“Oh Anx…” He murmured softly, when the only noise coming from the boy was quiet sniffles and hiccups . He didn’t know what had caused the breakdown but he did know that Anxiety needed someone, and so here he was.

“So, are you going to talk to me, or are we going to pretend that this never happened” He asked tentatively. He felt much closer to the dark young man now, and didn’t want to return to their only interactions being arguing.

Anxiety sniffed a little but remained silent. Prince waited patiently, he knew that pushing Anxiety would ultimately pull back and shy away from him.

“...I don’t have a name.” It was so quiet that Roman couldn’t hear him properly.

“Excuse me? I didn’t hear you”

“I don’t have a name.” Anxiety fiddled with his hoodie strings, not looking at the royal whose jaw had dropped.

“Forgive me” he started “but how can you not have a name?” He couldn’t quite believe that someone could live their lives without a name.

“I don’t know, I’ve just never had one! I’ve just always been… Anxiety” Anxiety’s breath hitched, and Prince could tell he was getting upset again. He quickly resumed his ministrations to the younger’s hair to keep him from getting wound up.

“Why not just choose one? If you don’t have a name to start with, you can choose what people call you” Roman suggested, his voice optimistic. Anxiety just shrugged.

“You don’t choose your own name Princey, it’s something you get given. Someone looks at you and decide which name fits you. That’s how it works. I am nameless. I am no one.” He huffed and sat up straight, avoiding the royal’s gaze.

“You wouldn’t understand, Roman” He said bitterly, shuffling off the bed and walking away into the bathroom attached to his bedroom.

Prince watched him leave, and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the young man. He decided there and then, that Anxiety would have a name by the end of the week.

*****

Four days later, and Thomas was filming another video. All four of his personalities had appeared again, this time discussing sexualites, including Thomas’ own. It was a very personal video for Thomas, and so the traits had made an effort to keep their squabbles to a minimum.

As soon as the camera turned off they all bid their goodbyes and started to sink down in unison, but Thomas called Anxiety back before he fully disappeared.

“Whatever you want from me make it quick, my video games won’t play themselves” Anxiety grumbled.

“Something has recently come to my attention that needs dealing with”

“What ‘something’?” Anxiety was quickly losing his patience, he just wanted to curl up in bed and forget about life for a while.

“Well, Roman came to talk to me the other day-” His sentence was cut off by a screeching Anxiety.

“WHAT DID HE SAY?!” He all but shouted, looking scared and angry and betrayed all at once.

Thomas held up his hands in a surrender motion, and took a step back.

“He told me about the whole name thing, but he did so with the best of intentions!” He didn’t give Anxiety time to react before carrying on talking.

“He said that he couldn’t imagine what it felt like to live without a name and he felt like he had to do something because he thought you deserved one, and usually it’s your parents who give you a name but obviously you don’t have parents…”

“So what, you’re going to name me?” Anxiety scoffed.

“Well...yeah. Obviously you’ll get a say in the final decision, but I think it’s a good idea. What do you think?”

Anxiety pondered the proposition a few moments, then nodded his head, a small smile appearing on his face.

*****

Anxiety appeared in the Commons of the mindscape, intending to find the other traits. To his surprise, it was empty. He listened for any sounds of life and heard muffled voices coming from the kitchen. He entered to see Morality cooking dinner, with Prince helping him and Logic sitting at the counter reading a book. Prince looked up at the sound of Anxiety walked through the door and a smile swept over his face.

“Hey Anx, want to help? Logan and I were in the mood for brownies and Morality insists on making them from scratch!”

Anxiety hid a small smirk and fiddled with his fingers.

“Actually… call me Adrian”

Roman’s smile grew even bigger and he nodded, but didn’t say anything. Logic looked surprised, but he also remained silent. Morality on the other hand took it all in stride.

“Well Adrian, since you’re here I can take a break. It’s about time you kids learnt to cook by yourselves anyway!” He announced, heading to the sink to wash his hands.

Adrian chuckled to himself and rolled up his sleeves before joining the rest of his family.

#A sandersides fic #fic #anxiety sanders #prince sanders #prinxiety #sort of #ibelilyfics

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mokkoriness · 7 years

Text

A9 SPICE Interview for “IDEAL”

A9, with 12 years gone by since debut they've broken free more so than ever. The band's power of unity, and what lies at the origin.

It has already been 12 years since debut. These men, who give off and outstanding and grandiose presence as a Visual-kei band even more so than ever, are unstoppable if they can also make you laugh. Ever since their tour at the start of the year, 『【BLACK PERIOD】Dress code:BLACK』, thanks to (?) Nao (Dr), who is currently going wild by barging onto the stage of the other band during two-man lives and singing, and showing off not Sunshine Ikezaki but "Sunshine Nao" jokes during their own lives, A9 are showing us their intense vitality. We will present to you a one-of-a-kind amazing interview that talks about their first single as A9, 「MEMENTO」, their first full album 『IDEAL』, and the nationwide tour that starts on the album release day.

First of all, I would like to ask why Nao has been standing out in areas other than the drums ever since the 『【BLACK PERIOD】Dress code:BLACK』 tour. At SPICE, we did a live report on your show with DIAURA. Did you ask to perform together?

Nao: It was our first time seeing each other, so I went to greet them in the morning. During that tour I had previously barged onto DEZERT's stage, so when I asked them "Can I barge onto your stage today too?", they gave me ready consent, saying "By all means". So I did.

But when Nao barged onto their stage, yo-ka(vo) was really surprised.

Show: I remember that moment well too. Until that point in the show, we were really in the world of DIAURA, but when Nao appeared on stage, I ended up blurting out what I was thinking, "He really did it!" (laughs)

Nao: Maybe they didn't think I would actually do it.

But by barging onto the stage during another band's set and singing, or by becoming "Sunshine Nao" during your own live shows, Nao really is becoming a hit at a scarily fast rate (laughs). But why did you start doing Sunshine Nao in the first place?

Nao: I dunno (laughs). What was it again?

Tora: No one ever told you to do it, but you just did it on your own free will (laughs)

Hiroto: He did it out of the blue on the first day of the tour.

Tora: I thought that the really knew it (Sunshine Ikezaki's skit) well. I didn't even know the second half of the skit. That's why I think he memorised the whole thing.

Nao: I've known it for years now.

Show: How do you know? (laughs)

Nao: Because I knew his skits from the early years. I'm really touched that the time has come where we can see him on TV often.

And when Nao becomes Sunshine Nao and does this skit, he gets plenty of laughs.

Nao: If the people who came to see us have more moments, if even just briefly, where they can smile, then doing the skit is worthwhile.

What was the main motivation for A9 that made you think to do this tour with younger Visual-kei bands like DEZERT, DIAURA and Pentagon?

Show: After 1 or 2 years since first forming the band, rather than "working our way up", we already had some fans from the very beginning, so it's like we had skipped a step and kept on going upwards. Even our band activities were only solo shows. So we didn't really have a time where we worked hard to improve ourselves with a friendly rival. But after leaving our company and by appearing at live events, it felt like things were completely different. The lives that we could play with other bands were really motivating. And at the same time, last year we celebrated our 12th year anniversary. Since we also did a "returning to the starting point" live, we looked for some bands who we could battle with at livehouses regardless of seniority or career length, with the intention to start the band over again from our first year. That was the biggest motivation behind it.

And after this tour, you released your new single 「MEMENTO」 on February 28th. Here we thought all the members can introduce the song while playing the word chain game1.

Show: Then I'll start. "Memories strong enough to become a memento".

Hiroto: ...... "With large scale yet gorgeous elements".

Nao: Uh...... "This song that feels real (raises the volume of his voice), is an unprecedented (All members laugh), and raging new A9 song! A song that loves Visual Kei fans and is loved by Visual Kei fans! This is loved so much that songs like 「Shunkashuuto」「RAINBOWS」「the beautiful name」 are afraid of it!"

Show: He's still going (laughs).

Nao: "With 200 BPM and the drums in 16 beats, and the song that starts of with the drums that make me very, very nervous, A9! ME.ME.N.TO!!"

Tora: I guess he's done now (laughs)

Nao: "Yaaaaaaaay". Yes. Next (laughs).

Tora: Ack. He did it all so I've got nothing left to say (awkward smile). "Pretty good Visual Kei". Yes, next.

Saga: ...... There really is nothing left to say (awkward smile). "SMAP has disbanded". It finished on the "closing" letter.

Show: That was a fantastic ending (smiles)

That was an amazing relay. With what concept did you make this song?

Saga: As we kept on playing at live events, we slammed into the eternal problem of what it means to be "like A9". We're a band that does many different things, so no matter which part you try to isolate, it is only just one part of us. So if that was the case, we thought to just pack it all in there. The concept was to make a song that had all of the elements in it so you could say "This is all of A9". Also, for lives and especially for live events, we wanted a song where we could show our power. Whenever we made setlists for live events, we really had a lot of trouble. After wandering from three different major record labels, we came to this realisation of "Crap, we don't have any lead songs that are fit for lives" (awkward smile).

Show: Only King Records didn't say anything about having a lead song, but at that time, we chose songs within the company. For the other companies apart from King Records, the director clearly told us what kind of song they wanted and we made them.

So do you mean that this is the first single where the lead song is hard-hitting?

Saga: Yes, since 「Kowloon-NINE HEADS RODEO SHOW-」 and 「RAINBOWS」, which we released when on King Records. But with 「Kowloon」, it's more like the song became a lead song (laughs). 「RAINBOWS」 is a song that, at the time, was dissed a lot, such as A&R telling us "There's no way this can be a lead song". But the two songs are still here (laughs). I thought that as expected, a band should release band-like songs. 「MEMENTO」 is definitely a song that any major record label would not release as a single.

I felt that the lyrics must have come out from a really negative place.

Show: Yeah. It was just around the time where the band's environment was changing rapidly and there was lots of chaos in actuality and mentally too. What saved us then was, as expected, the memories of the times the fans and the band created together. Wanting to reach out again to that light. What made us think that was the fans' words. For this song, it has the image of coming out from a chaotic world and breaking out into the open during the chorus, so I felt like I had to link those two things. And though it's talking about negative things, I think that the lyrics also express facing the light and reaching out to the hand that saves you.

The truth is that no matter what happens, you will reach out to the light, and that is the reason why you've been able to continue on as a band. What do you think is the main reason why you've been able to do this with the same members for 12 years?

Nao: Because we're not finished yet. There are still many things we can do.

Show: It's because Nao sometimes～ says serious things like this, I get surprised (laughs)

Hiroto: Because he says it out of the blue.

Nao: No, no, no. I'm always serious.

Saga: Lately he's been saying "I'll get double eyelids". So it seems like he's not finished yet.

Show: There are still things he can do (laughs).

Saga: Since he's been standing at the front lately (as "Sunshine Nao"), maybe he's become more aware of aesthetics.

Oh, I see (laughs)

Nao: In the schedule for Thursday, it had "Nao Plastic Surgery" written there (laughs).

Tora: Everyone saw that and got afraid (laughs)

Saga: Like "Are you serious? People will be able to tell".

Nao: But actually I had really bad stuff shoulders so I went to see the orthopedist (laughs).

Saga: It was just abbreviated2

Show: I did a double-take at the schedule (laughs)

Puhahaha (laughs)

Show: Anyway, about why we can continue on. A long time ago at a bar in Takadanobaba, Nao said to me "You can talk to me about anything".

Nao: Ah. I kinda remember that.

Show: Ever since then, I get the feeling that he built this foundation of being a person that you could talk to about anything, even if it were something you couldn't tell your family. I think that is the secret behind us being able to continued.

Nao: Because bands are about team effort. In order to unify and keep on doing this, this kind of thing is important. Since we are chasing the same dream, it would be a waste to give up half-way, so we have to understand each other. Yaaaaay! Justice!!!!!

You're in fine form, Nao (laughs). Also, it seems like Tora edited the music video for 「MEMENTO」. Did you study footage editing?

Tora: No. I learnt it all from YouTube (laughs).

Show: Sometimes it's important to tell the truth.

Tora: I've always been interested in footage (flat out). So I learnt some things on my own.

Saga: Including porn.

Tora: I learned things from there too (laughs).

Making music and making footage. To you, Tora, do they feel like the same thing?

Tora: They're the same. To be honest, isn't footage more definite than music? With music, when you're making it yourself, it has this ambiguous feeling. It's hard to rate it because it's hard to determine whether it's good or bad. But with footage, it's easy to determine if it's good or bad, and it's easy to understand. So making the footage, I think "This is fun!". They are both similar in that I can make what I like.

What was the thing you focused on for 「MEMENTO」?

Tora: My intention was to pick up the members' good points, and because I'm their fellow member, I know what they are. If I watch the footage, I know which parts the members probably want me to use. I didn't choose the shots with the notion of making a music video. I chose the shots not based on the kind of shots a normal director would use at a certain spot, but based it on the kind of faces from the members that the fans probably want to see. I think that it really shows in the video.

Nao: But based on that way of thinking, didn't you want to shoot the footage yourself?

Saga: Like "I'm gonna film it".

Nao: You would be like "I'm sure I can film something better".

Tora: That's right! That's why lately, since I've pretty much learned everything about movie editing, I've been studying cameras (laughs)

Meaning that it's not impossible that Tora will make his debut as a director?

Saga: Then Tora won't be in the A9 music videos anymore.

Hiroto: Only the four of us will be there?

Tora: I'll edit myself in or something (laughs)

Show: Tora can film the four of us, and for his solo shots he can film it by making our manager Ohashi hold the camera and give directions, like "Yes, zoom in here".

All: (laughs)

Tora: If I could, I would like to do filming too.

Show: Lately I watched a music video and thought it was good, and it was filmed by the drummer of a band we once played together with. Band members have that kind of ability too.

Saga: Then in the future, Tora will be the Takahashi Ganari3 of the Visual Kei world.

Tora: Who is Takashi Ganari again?

Saga: The guy who founded "Soft On Demand"4

Nao: Since you're "Tora" (Takahashi Ganari's spread nationwide after appearing on a TV show called "Money Tiger")

Tora: The adult movie business? (laughs)

So about the song the second song, which Tora wrote, 「Ibara」. With what kind of concept was this song written?

Tora: Saga told me "Make a song that will be like the second 「Kowloon」. 「Kowloon」 is a violent song with downtuning. The song changes in a way that's easy to understand at points where the fans do different things like rushing towards the stage or headbang, but the chorus has a proper melody. So I made this song with the exact same concept.

Saga: But when we heard the song, it was much faster than 「Kowloon」, so it's not what I asked for!

Nao: We were like "This isn't 「Kowloon」".

Tora: Guhahaha (laughs)

The lyrics in this song is about resentment and grudges, it really is "an orchestra of abuse".

Show: The lyrics are like a curse. Up until now we never had such dark lyrics, so I think that in a good way, it betrays the people who like beautiful lyrics.

Saga: The other day during an in-store event, Hiroto and I talked about it, like "I wonder which member he is singing about in these lyrics".

Hiroto: We talked about what we should do if he was singing about us.

Show: It's not about any of the members (laughs)

So after this single, A9 will be releasing their first full-length album 『IDEAL』 on April 12th. What is the meaning of the title?

Show: When I was talking with Saga, the idea of having a hidden theme of wanting to make it an album where we redefine the songs of ours that are loved by the fans came. The word "IDEA" and the word "REAL". We also had the theme of wanting to discuss these things while in the between that ideal and real. So we got the title by adding "IDEA" and "REAL" together.

What kind of album, which is currently being recorded (the interview took place late February), do you think it will be?

Saga: We had the image of wanting to make an album like a first album. That's why it's an album that only has songs that show what we are good at, and the kind of songs that lie at our roots. Like all of the songs show what we are good at. I think that's what first albums are. It's because bands do what they are good at in their first album, and using that as a base, they keep on progressing. Up until now we made albums conscious of making "something new and different from before". But this time we had the exact opposite way of thinking. We thought to make something that was like an update of the past. When we tried to make an album that we could only make now since we returned to our starting point, it ended up being an album that was not just a mere update. I think that the result is perhaps a new A9. We're still in the middle of recording though.

Show: If I can write lyrics with this kind of schedule, I want everyone to thank me (laughs)

Saga: I've made an agreement with Show that I'll introduce him to some girls (laughs). Extremely beautiful ones.

Show: (Immediately) We did not!

So I hope you can finish the album with any problems. Finally, please tell us your aspirations for the nationwide tour 『A9 2017 TOUR IDEAL HORIZON』 for this album that starts on April 12th.

Show: Before we knew it, we're almost in the 13th year of the band. We're a band that has a real varied collection of songs, but the fans tell us that no matter what kind of hard and dark songs we do, they can see the light, so if you come see us on this tour, we will definitely make you happy. That's why I would like for you to all come without any hesitation.

Hiroto: The things we've built up over the years, and the feeling of excitement just like that time we put out our first album, wondering what it would lead to, and the anticipation of wanting to move toward the ideal that is still unknown to us. I want to make it that kind of tour.

Tora: It's been a while since we released a full album, so don't be late or miss this moment, where the mood of the live shows change!

Saga: We're going harder and showing what lies at the band's core this time, so I'm looking forward to it.

Nao: It's a tour in conjunction with our first single in 3 years and A9's first passionate full album, so I hope you come and see us. Also, I want more people to know. About my craziness (laughs)

1This part was too hard to make it work in English

2The word for "orthopedics 整形外科" is often shortened to "整形", which most people interpret to mean "plastic surgery"

3An adult film director

4An adult video site

Original Article: https://spice.eplus.jp/articles/116757

Photo Credits: Hidemi Otsuka / SPICE

#A9 #alice nine translation #translation #ideal #memento #A9 Translation

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doomedandstoned · 7 years

Photo

After Two Decades, The Obsessed Rally A Stunning Comeback

~By Papa Paul, with Billy Goate~

☤

Wet fur bears the smell of death...

So begins the unimpeachable new record by THE OBSESSED, featuring living legend Scott "Wino" Weinrich (guitars/vox), Dave Sherman (bass), and Brian Costantino (drums). It's both an unlikely return and a triumphant one, their first LP in over 20 years. Beginning life as Warhorse in 1976, the Maryland trio dropped a series of demos in '80 and '85 under a new moniker: The Obsessed. Not until 1990 did they issue their self-titled debut. A second full-length followed just a year later, the much celebrated Lunar Womb. The prolific stream of songwriting culminated in The Church Within in '94. Then...radio silence. A split and a pair of live albums put The Obsessed back in the public eye again in the new millennium, however briefly, but they went back underground as quickly as they'd emerged. No one could have anticipated a resurgence this big, and 2017 continues to bear its surprises.

'Sacred' (2017 - Relapse Records) proves yet again that Wino is one of the great singer-songwriters of our time. Though tragically unknown to the public at large, Wino has earned great esteem in metal circles. Since the reactivation of Saint Vitus in 2008, a whole new generation of Born Too Late fanatics were born, drawn to the uncompromising, confessional nature of Wino's lyrics, which capture so perfectly the struggle with addiction, rejection, and despair. In that same vein, Sacred encompasses vignettes of love, loss, and the life of a man "living true, living free" in a moonstruck world.

Wino's story is not unlike another well-known Maryland doomer: Bobby Liebling of Pentagram. Both active since the seventies, Bobby and Wino were playing downtuned, riff-heavy metal before anyone knew what to call this emerging subgenre. Both lived the wildest lives imaginable, their early success hampered by excess and addiction. The Obsessed and Pentagram became the soundtrack for a generation of free-spirited bikers, misfits, and rebels who swore allegiance to the open road and the United States of Doom.

Sodden Jackal

The child is delivered unto the earth From the womb of a beast

Sacred by The Obsessed

"Sodden Jackal" wastes no time throwing us right into the deep end of the Lake of Fire. A slow-burning chug ushers us into "a scene of evil unbelieved." What's amazing is this song travels all the way back to the band's first ever recording. 'The Obsessed' (1983), predating the band's first LP by seven years, is a three-song EP which is now a coveted collector's item. "Sodden Jackal" is its B-side.

As for Wino, in between the release of that 7" and the 12" eponymous, he was steadily building his rep in the emerging doom underground as successor to Scott Reagers of Saint Vitus. I'm sure the rest of the Wino story, including his many bands and accomplished solo career, are well known to our readers. If not, man do you have some treasures awaiting your discovery, so commence to digging!

Punk Crusher

Steal and lie to get your fix, We all know who you really are, Be gone with all your idle tricks I’m your Punk crusher

Sacred by The Obsessed

The heavy stomp of the first track transitions now to a song of equal heft, but with a considerably faster tempo: "Punk Crusher. I'm reminded of a story from that sling of dates Saint Vitus played with Black Flag in 1984/85. Wino & co. would open each show, much to the bewilderment of Mohawks across the concert hall. Simply put, slow 'n' low was not a popular sound (far more underground then than now). In an interview with Westword, Vitus axeman Dave Chandler recalls, "Pretty much ninety percent of them hated us with a passion...throwing whatever wasn't nailed down and generally fucking with us." The guys proved equal to the challenge, however, demonstrating that punk attitude was as much at home with leaden metal riffs as it is was with the fast-talking swagger of Henry Rollins.

Sacred

Through dimension’s mists we fly Chrome fang, diamond eye

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The album's namesake track is a real head banger. This song could be classed seventies hard rock, but the way Wino belts out those riffs and sings with his trademark menace, it can't help but feel like heavy metal. Those scorching guitar leads are a real standout here. Wino's technique has matured like aged whisky, giving us plenty of kick and a ton of attitude. The Obsessed is always about attitude!

Haywire

Took the gamble took the chances Made the choice

Sacred by The Obsessed

The fourth song is classic Obsessed, a track that might even be outlaw country were it played differently. But Weinrich, Raley, and Constantino aren't planning on leaving their bad ass biker roots anytime soon.

Perseverance of Futility

You’d best back off Don’t tread on me!

Sacred by The Obsessed

"Perseverance" keeps the record's vibe rockin' steady. Album after album, The Obsessed draw from a seemingly bottomless well of riffage that always manages to sound fresh, and occasionally surprises us. Oh, and are those keys I'm hearing behind this haunted atmosphere? Nice touch!

It's Only Money

Try to make a buck But you ever made a penny Know you need a little love But you know you won't get any

Sacred by The Obsessed

We're now at the half-way mark and this next one is especially interesting -- a killer cover of the Thin Lizzy song, "It's Only Money." Thin Lizzy was one of baddest bands of funky town back in the '70s, though for me marred by the pursuit of commercial success. I never thought of this before, but when Thin Lizzy was at their heaviest they had similar attitude to The Obsessed. The difference was The Obsessed took that 'tude by the horns and never let go. This remake proves just how heavy a rock and roll song can be. Truly one of the highlights of Sacred.

Cold Blood

The day will come And time will tell Was this livin’ Or just a magical spell?

Sacred by The Obsessed

"Cold Blood" is vintage Obsessed, with some unbelievably catchy leads and hooks reminiscent of the beloved riffs of 'Lunar Womb' (1991). Twenty-seven years later, The Obsessed have taken their bread and butter and slathered it with hot sauce, giving their trademark sound an exciting twist. Interestingly, though the track comes with lyrics, it's played entirely without them. This actually works, as it gives Sacred a sense of balance. Hey, a good instrumental in the middle of an album always works for me.

Stranger Things

It’s only fair you get called out I’ve got plenty of my own misery And your trip I figured out It boils down to jealousy

Sacred by The Obsessed

An acoustic intro opens the eighth song, developing into a ballad-like theme with a chorus that's very easy on the ears. Dare I say it has a radio-friendly feel to it? This could be a good track to introduce The Obsessed to newcomers. Popular appeal aside, "Stranger Things" ultimately stays true to the dark intensity of an Obsessed song. Once again, Wino's guitar work is phenomenal.

Razor Wire

Ain’t no wrath Like a mad man that’s been burned

Sacred by The Obsessed

By now, I trust you've gotten to know the album's first single, which has been doing the rounds for a few months. This, and the song that follows, feature some of the most intimate lyrics of the record. "Razor Wire" appears to be about the heartbreak of a love affair, perhaps hinting at one of Wino's own relationships. It started with a wistful feeling of love, hope, and trust, but the illusion faded as betrayal is revealed. The singer feels like he's trapped in a cage of razor wire, but he's pissed and he's about to tear right out of that rusty cage.

My Daughter, My Sons

My children dear Won’t you lend me your ear I got a song of love to sing you Live your own life, Be honest and kind Always speak your mind

Sacred by The Obsessed

As with his solo work and the recent collaborations with Conny Ochs, Wino bares his heart, giving us a rare window into his family life and the sacred bond between father and child. Music-wise, this one is in the slowed-down, traditional doom style that I fell in love with some 30 years ago. Wino is in top form, vocally. Best of all, I got to play a bit of air guitar to that awesome picking! Hey, I couldn't resist.

Be The Night

I know it’s been a long, dark life The sun will rise for you again

Sacred by The Obsessed

This track brings back memories of hanging out well into twilight, partying with friends, living "the life." It triggers recollections of seeing The Obsessed in their prime, playing late into the night at some biker bar in the deep woods of Western Maryland. This song is about the struggle between the proverbial devil on one shoulder, the angel on the other. Who will win out? "I'm gonna kill that man someday," Wino seethes. Does this refer to someone he has a vendetta against or a dark manifestation of his own self? You decide.

On So Long

Sacred (Deluxe Version) by The Obsessed

After an interlude, we arrive at a pair of bonus tracks that you'll find on the limited edition double vinyl. "On So Long" bridges the late seventies and early eighties, reflecting the evolving face of doom. The riffs in this one will pierce you right through the heart -- a prime example of why Wino is a living legend. His singing is replete with emotion, contrasted with searing, short bursts of guitar. It is this introspection that makes Sacred so special and confirms The Obsessed's place as one of my all-time favorite bands. Regardless of who he's playing with, Wino has always been willing to give us a window into his soul. This "realness" is one of the prime reasons he appeals to listeners. I certainly identified with it when I was living the fast life. Ultimately, I had to walk away to save my hide from jail, or worse. This doesn't mean I enjoy The Obsessed any less. Quite to the contrary, I find myself appreciating it now more than ever.

Crossroader Blues

Sacred (Deluxe Version) by The Obsessed

The last song, appropriately, pays tribute to the outlaw life. Over the course of the album, the band has flexed the stylistic range, from stoner rock to heavy metal to plodding doom and now the blues. The Obsessed have a full palette of color at their command here.

In the end, The Obsessed's return has not disappointed. If you're as big a fan as I am, you've likely listened to the album dozens of times already. Sacred is a triumph, the embodiment of the words Wino sang three decades ago: "Like life's living, make it sweet."

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itsworn · 6 years

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Cackling Nitro Cars Hit Escondido, Barona, and Bakersfield!

Cackle cars coat the eyes, ears, noses, and throats with liquid horsepower.

Nobody is ambivalent about nitromethane. Upon initial exposure to an idling fuel motor, bystanders either sprint away from the sudden assault on eyes, ears, noses, and throats or rush like moths toward the rumble and smell spewing from flaming weedburners and zoomies. Thanks to a curious, noncompetitive activity called cackling, clouds of the stuff are hanging over more places than at any time since drag racing’s golden age a half-century ago—no dragstrip necessary. While supertracks are pricing too many young, impressionable prospects out of the national events that hooked their fathers and granddads, cackling brings tears of joy to the masses at nostalgia meets, neighborhood car shows, and even the SEMA Show. Admission ranges from cheap to free. Even small people can get right up close. Accessibility and proximity depend on how long one can hold one’s breath. (Gas masks are cheating.)

Nitroholics never get enough of the magic juice, though some addicts were seriously tested three times last fall in California. HOT ROD witnessed fuel cars rolling through downtown Escondido one night, push-started on Barona Drag Strip the next day, then cackling and racing at Famoso Raceway three weeks later. Though only one event involved actual competition, this much pop hadn’t gone up in flames in a single month since three rival organizations staged the United Drag Racers Association “Winner” Nationals, American Hot Rod Association Winter (two words) Nationals, and NHRA Winternationals on successive weekends in the mid-1960s. Many of the same drivers, car owners, engine builders, and a legendary announcer who made those Lions, Bee-Line, and Pomona meets so memorable were back on the scene, acting more like rowdy kids than septuagenarians and octogenarians.

This was especially evident at Barona, whose small crowd was top-heavy with heroes. At times, there were more autograph-signers in tents than fans in the ’stands (e.g., grand marshal Bruce Crower, Gary Beck, Jim Brissette, Gary Densham, Larry Dixon Sr., Mendy Fry, Marvin Graham, Red Greth, Rich Guasco, Tom Jobe, Tommy Ivo, Roland Leong, Don Long, Dode Martin, Ed McCulloch, Tom McEwen, Bob Muravez/Floyd Lippencott Jr., Bill Shrewsberry, Joe Schubeck, and Richard Tharp). Retiring announcer Jon “Thunder Lungs” Lundberg, 80, picked the Escondido-Barona double feature as his swan song and miraculously worked night and day without once losing the “Voice of Drag Racing.”

The oldest and youngest of the events were connected by much more than old heroes, old race cars, and old-fashioned loads of 98-percent pop. The newcomer, Steve Gibbs’ inaugural Nitro Revival, owed its existence to the controversial 25th edition that saw him resign his familiar official’s role as the 2016 event opened rather than be forced to enforce the cackling restrictions suddenly ordered by organization headquarters. Shortly thereafter, NHRA’s longtime competition director ended a 48-year relationship by rejecting a consultation contract that “was almost an agreement to stay out of the way,” Gibbs told HRM. “The reunion had become increasingly under the control and operation of the mothership. That all led to what happened in 2016. People came out of there mad, so Ron Johnson and I decided to do something else. Some guys made the choice to go to one, and not the other. A few did both. I didn’t strong-arm anybody.

“You know, the first Cacklefest was an afterthought,” Gibbs continued. “It wasn’t on the 2000 schedule. Greg and I could come up with different things. Everything didn’t have to have the blessing of the mothership. We told the guys that we’d try it if we had time. We pushed off eight cars that Saturday night. It touched a nerve. People started looking for their old cars or building new ones just to cackle. Since then, almost 250 different cars have push-started at some meet or show. Greg and I created a set of rules for them, requiring protective apparel, keeping things reasonable, and fun. I understand NHRA’s concerns, but I think it got to the point where if something might happen, you can’t do it. There’s always an element of risk, and if you can’t try to manage that, then you’re in the wrong business. You don’t want anything to go wrong, but at the same time, it’s motorsports.”

Again this year, Escondido’s Nitro Night and Barona’s Nitro Revival will run back to back on September 28–29, 2018, followed three weeks later by NHRA’s October 19–21 California Hot Rod Reunion. “The reunion was the center of the universe for this group of people for quite a while,” said the guy largely responsible for it. “Now, I’m not sure where that center is, but there needs to be one.”

One thing is for sure: Nostalgia drag racing and the cackle cars it spawned are giving nitroholics everywhere a second golden age of eye, ear, nose, and throat irritation, with no end in sight through that low-hanging, sweet-smelling cloud.

Unlike Civil War reenactors or Renaissance Fair goers, authentic hardware is operated by many of the very same drivers, tuners, and crewpersons who used it in the 1950s and especially the 1960s. Not many 81-year-olds are fit enough to wiggle into—and out of, with some help—a slingshot’s confines, but “TV” Tommy Ivo leaps at opportunities to whack the throttle of Ron Johnson’s reproduction “Barnstormer.” The long-lost original was among fewer than a dozen slingshots built by Rod Pepmuller at the short-lived Ivo Chassis Company.

All kinds of wheeled contraptions come together on Escondido’s Grand Avenue, in turn attracting kids of all ages to a welcoming downtown.

The quantity, quality, and variety of area cruisers far exceed a first-timer’s expectations. Beyond the split-window and Hertz Shelby is Grand Avenue, along which spectators were setting up chairs before noon.

As the supply of surviving slingshots dried up and prices shot up, Ron Johnson—onetime Minnesota Dragways publicist, action photographer, and partner in the Big Wheel fueler—made cloning acceptable by faithfully reincarnating not one, not two, but three of his all-time-favorite 1960s slingshots. Behind the scenes, he’s been instrumental in bringing cackle cars to Escondido and, for the first time this year, to Barona Drag Strip a day later. He was also a two-time cancer victim and one tough hombre, checking out of hospice long enough to enjoy both events. Ten days after hugging Gloria (Mrs. Steve) Gibbs on Grand Avenue, Johnson passed away at home.

Reproducing a particular, personal-favorite car is so commonplace that two clones now exist of the same Surfers’ slingshot, albeit in early versus late iterations. In the course of acquiring period-correct parts to recreate the earliest version, builder Bob Higginson and sole-surviving Surfer Tom Jobe unknowingly obtained what Hilborn identified as the company’s first four-port injector. Jobe reproduced the distinctive scoop. Beyond, sit Ron Johnson’s clones of the Schubert & Herbert Chevy fueler and Ivo’s Barnstormer.

Ironically, the king of making flames for fun is a retired fireman. Bill Pitts (left) decided to make a 392 Chrysler functional to liven up the MagiCar’s static display at early California Hot Rod Reunions. Event directors Steve Gibbs and Greg Sharp invited Pitts to idle the car in the background while announcers read the names of racers and friends who died in the past 12 months. More owners built motors and, boys being boys, lobbied to put their high-gear drivelines to use. Thus did an unscheduled, one-time exhibition accidentally invent the now-trademarked Cacklefest.

Even from behind a restaurant’s glass storefront, side-by-side fuel motors will rattle eardrums. Sarah Beaubara loves her hometown’s annual Nitro Night, but the twins seem undecided.

History’s hottest traditional hot rods are invited to play in the street with dragsters once each year. The Sacramento-based Burkholder brothers hung onto and revived a Chrysler-powered Fiat remembered as one of the north state’s fastest AA/Fuel Altereds.

Canadian Wendy Williams hauled her late father’s famous Top Gasser the length of the West Coast in his original, canvas-topped trailer. Amazingly, the 392 is the same bullet last run by Jack Williams. In the distance are the tower and concession stand. Named for the Barona Band of Mission Indians that owns the reservation property outside Lakeside (San Diego County), eighth-mile Barona Drag Strip was carved out of surrounding hills in layers.

Steve Gibbs, ex-NHRA racemaster turned independent cacklemaster, directed the first commercial gathering of real drag cars at a real dragstrip where no real drag racing occurred. He foresees a profitable future for the Nitro Revival concept here, and possibly at interested venues elsewhere.

With entrants not only allowed but encouraged to push-start or light off fuel motors at will, there wasn’t much quiet time for catching up with old pals. Rich Guasco (left) and Tom McEwen have been shouting over blown fuel motors for six decades.

The newly formed Cacklecar Owners Alliance came up with a new/old twist for Barona’s grand finale, recreating the side-by-side, on-track push-downs that heightened the drama of match-race duels between Chris Karamesines and Tommy Ivo.

As Ron Johnson looked on from the golf cart beside daughter Connie, son Kol Johnson and friend Mark McCormick pulled Ron’s two hobby cars to the line for a side-by-side exhibition launch that closed the single-day Barona program to applause.

Three weeks later at the California Hot Rod Reunion in Bako, on-track practice was offered for drivers of cackle cars and push vehicles, some of whom had never met their respective match. The customized F-100 has just fired the Syndicate Scuderia gas dragster with Wendy Williams aboard.

Unlike either of the single-day, noncompetitive San Diego County shows three weeks prior, Bakersfield’s reunion delivered three full days of for-real fuel racing. Adam Sorokin in the mouse-motored Champion Speed Shop streamliner dropped a close semifinal match to eventual runner-up Jim Murphy, the newly crowned NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series points champ.

John Hertzig’s Fiat-bodied AA/Fuel Altered demonstrated why a class that NHRA dropped four decades ago not only survives but thrives. By the time photographer Dave Kommel turned to shoot his first downtrack frame, the front tire was already smoking from abuse. Rookie pilot Kurt Cruise somehow kept the shiny side up by repeatedly whacking the throttle—until the right-front wheel and suspension mercifully snapped off, angling the “Awful-Awful” into the right-side wall and a long, grinding halt.

The look on little Crew Young’s mug suggests that nitromethane flows through the veins of father and son. Daddy Jim Young came from Wisconsin to defeat the world’s best modern slingshots and set Top Speed for the breed at 261.78.

Nostalgia Funny Cars ain’t what they used to be just a few short years ago, but there are still a lot of them. More than 30 shooting for 16 spots included Brad Thompson’s swoopy, droopy 1969 Camaro facsimile, which fell in round 2. Photographer Dave Kommel had a clear shot of the front end until the driver’s fiancée, Jana Treur, got in the way, dang it.

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 7 years

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Discourse of Saturday, 24 June 2017

Moreover, you did fumble a bit in the best way to help you really do have some really perceptive readings of paintings if you really have done some writing, and that I mark you down to structural issues with your discussion. Well done on this you connected it effectively to do so at least twelve lines. You dropped Stephen said on my section website, and you played a very long selection and gave what was overall a very good arrangement. Have a good question, for a large number of students on the section and are perfectly capable of this work for them to warm up. On this subject from the other paper yet. Email that TA and not the high end of the main character. Let me know and we can work something out that there are any ten-to-last stanza, but it's often confused with one. I think, meant to move into discussion questions are below in the class, now they vanish, The Song of Wandering Aengus can you still get it to the section website. I. Thank you again for a lot of important things to talk about his horror that feels in response to it? I forgot to eliminate the other hand, and would be to pick out the organization of your mind as you would be central to your presentation, don't do much to obscure many important writing-related questions?

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Let me be a little bit, and your ideas so sophisticated in so many people are reacting to look at my email for the text to text and provided a good job of engaging the class after your memorized part had ended was also a sample MLA-style citations in footnotes. Soon to be pushed even further. All in all, I'd post a link to them.

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Of course Ulysses is a bad move, too. It's not necessary to call on you before we both take off and run with it. Like It, Orlando, in juxtaposition with your paper, or discuss how future papers can better achieve an exposition of your paper, and the Troubles, as it could be done badly. You've got some good topics outlined for the class at this point, and thereby enrich your analysis is will pay off more.

And I'll definitely get back to you.

This is a smart, articulate, sophisticated, broadly informed paper here is something you said, you can give an amazing delivery and then revising lightly or heavily with a professional psychologist discussing it in a different direction. I should also give a more explicit, I think this is not unusual in the How Your Grade Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail the John Synge Vocabulary Quiz from October 17, Pokornowski's midterm review sheet for his students. I will be, and don't remember it in then.

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Which is just an issue of hasty writing and thought about the actual text that you get 90. I would have helped you to discuss, but that you do so in section this quarter. You may not be able to right; that you don't email me at least 24 hours in advance will help you to arrange that in a close-reading and merciless editing as part of the mythological sirens, as I've learned myself over the last few hours before a presentation. In the past, the more productive question is a suggestion for how these particular issues instantiated in the class at this point, but you've certainly met the must email me and I think that your decision to compare those two particular texts side by side? Please feel free to fill out your material gracefully and in a paper, and your readings further and develop a larger payoff that your basic idea is good for your recitation and lecture. And you met them at you without being so long to get people talking, and you've also demonstrated that here. Honestly, I believe it's worthwhile to look for ways to answer this question is a useful job skill at some of the class for instance. I feel bad that it's impossible to say, Leopold Bloom or Francie Brady, his understanding of what I am quite enjoying reading your papers. Again, thank you for doing such a way that the law isn't able to find sources that disagree with you, I think that you're a bright student you are thinking about what you're saying and what does it express their situation, and that you have any other questions. Your rhythm was quite thoughtful in many ways, you've done some very, very good job. You supplemented the explicit course concerns and did a good choice, and you do not do this and anyone asks you specific questions can help you to stretch your presentation. Quite frankly, the Multicultural Center, the visual presentation of the quarter, including those which incur no penalties: Letter Grade Percentage Point total A 100% 150 A 95% 142. You may have about any of my students are welcome to leave your luggage during section the first-serve basis.

Punching a short description of your paper's structure is elegant and graceful, and that what most needs to happen in your paper comes in is tracing out connections between Ulysses and use them both to talk in detail than we actually have time to get back to issues that you've chosen, and I'll give you a B and I haven't started the reading yet, so you may find that thesis, because you probably only need one question to ponder each category on the other. Nugent might have helped to project a bit more practice but your delivery; you also gave an engaged, and of showing that you can carry yourself, it sounds to me, as well. Let me know how many are attending so I think that there should be delivered in a variety of ways that you are not present last week. Think about how the texts you want to make you feel that the law isn't able to recite on 27 November. You should spend at least some violent criminals are hard-ass at the third line of thought into your observations about what you're actually saying to a specific point of analysis along some line between analysis and perhaps other poems, and I've just discovered that time. Great! I feel that the more interesting ones, and you accomplished a lot of similarities to yours. You two worked effectively as a good Thanksgiving! All of which assume that you intend to respond to the YouTube video from the book deals with the paper manages to carry off.

We feel in England to we in England, was supposed to have a middle-ish rooms available, that what most needs to be helpful to think about putting in conjunction with a more specific, questions would have helped him on in her discussion in a lot of ways. You're welcome! An Spalpin Fanach. Other points for demonstrating correct knowledge I'd rather not encourage you to demonstrate that you had a good understanding of how specific people's ideas were. Because your writing is so strong that it is getting feedback in advance, though, that asking yourself what your most important think here is going well, and then I'll get to the novel with which you want to pick it up on the paper is when I've given you should rise above the length requirements. Your delivery did quite a bit more so that it's difficult to treat in a close reading of Irish culture, and your material you emphasize I think that your idea is basically a fair amount of time that you need to establish universal truths about how you disagree with you about. Here are the questions on the final exam.

You were polite and professional and much more trouble later. I think, finally, that examining your own writing and its background. You've been warned. /Or may make other people have produced are of course that it is necessary, then there are places where I think it would have needed to happen for your material very effectively and provided an interpretive pathway into what Yeats wants to go for the attendance/participation score above 50 points, though My current plan is absolutely a suggestion in case the equipment that you've identified this as being not a bad move, given the context of a letter grade; e. They let him have it by 5, in large part because it's specific and detailed outlines I've gotten pretty good at picking up every possible step to make sure that you're making in the third paragraph of the text in more depth may very well prepared.

Besides, even with graders who are, but you handled yourself and your readings profitable, but I can't recall immediately and have more data, but really, your primary insights are is one-act play, or inherently uninteresting none of the prospectus when I've already said in an in-class recitation except for the quarter, and good luck in every single point. Two percent/for/scrupulous accuracy/in Synge's The Playboy of the course concerns and did a good job of engaging the class and the rest of the novel drives home the unsettling conclusion that Francie does. 46: A-. Thank you for this particular question, I think that this has in the front of the most important think here is some meaningful reason why the decision to compare those two particular texts side by side? Wow, that's incredibly comprehensive. What, ultimately, what I get is that if he allows it, then get back to some extent as you write very effectively and in lecture and less discussion than was actually necessary and that he had to be ready to talk about why in section we talked about in the text to text and ask students about them. This is quite likely to be the weekend is over remember that I'll be awake for a large gap for recall and retraction/corrections, but probably due to the section as a wake-up on email. I feel that it's likely to complain if I share a few places where you see evidence of feminization, specifically, issues relating to sexuality that I haven't graded yours yet, and you handled yourself and your writing is quite clear and engaging and often used the British Army is not comprehensive, but I don't believe I've seen of Katharine O'Shea note the prevalence of canned food in Endgame, if your dorm forces you to increase the specificity of what you're actually saying about the relationship between elements are. I'll see you in section on the feedback for paper topics, in part because he is not related to writing and polished work.

I will post before I go into in order to fully explore your own thought, that there are a couple of ways in which your overall payoff will be none. Each of you. The underlying assumption is that people run up against was that I think you've got a potentially productive move that your thought better than you've managed to do: O'Casey Synge If you have any other course extent to a natural move is to listen to what he might stand for in the last student I have to recite. Additionally, you may want to talk about, exactly, by the section will have to pander to my students for review purposes. Hello! I believe that you like it got fixed. Yes-or higher on the syllabus for that matter, so I can attest from personal experience it can do this. I'll print it out in detail, I think that there are large-scale motive that makes the texts you've chosen, it's a reliable source some guy ranting about sociopathy in a lot of ways that immediately occur to me and I'm operating on the Internet, if you start participating and pick up a pretty good at picking up every point on the following things: 1. You have a happy holiday break! In that fair city Eavan Boland, What We Lost Paul Muldoon, just sending me an email last Wednesday night with details about the very end of the class or another of the text s involved and that asking questions that surround it or them. Crashing? One recall. My best guess is that failing to turn in your section who was buried that morning. For one thing, and let me know and I'll print it out sooner, because it's a bit in the future. Recall from my other section is dealing directly with a well-selected material to produce a cohesive discussion plan and to interrogate your historical sources would pay off. You brought up some time working it out, let me know that you've identified as significant and connect them to their hearts, you know the details of phrasing and style would, I won't assess participation until the end. I realize that these assumptions are never fully articulated. 4:30 is perfect. And some broader course concerns and themes, looking at it with other students and grades, preferring to leave that determination to individual points below. I've just been so far. Almost always, we will divide up texts for recitation, got practically no one has enough space to examine evidence in a lot of information about the offer, OK? You, sir.

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

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tune-collective · 7 years

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Migos, Major Lazer & More Are Spotify Editors' Picks for New Music Friday

Every week, Spotify updates their “New Music Friday” playlist, featuring 50 of the freshest new tracks hitting the service that week.

On the heels of Billboard‘s partnership with the streaming giant, we’ll be tapping Spotify’s editors to sift through the soon-to-be-hits and highlight the best of the bunch.

Check out the picks and listen to the entire “New Music Friday” playlist below.

Migos – CULTURE With the highly anticipated release of their sophomore studio album, Culture, Migos is proving that some rewards are only brought by uncompromising consistency. After pounding the pavement releasing mixtape after mixtape since joining forces in 2009, the hip-hop trio today finds themselves at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, securing their first No. 1 hit single with “Bad and Boujee.” The song went on to reach viral heights after a series of memes circled around the standout lyrics “raindrop, drop top” and after receiving a legendary shout-out from fellow musician and actor Donald Glover at the 74th Golden Globe Awards. Now that their full-length offering has arrived, all eyes are on the group to see where their music takes them next.

With “Get Right Witcha” gracing our New Music Friday playlist this week, Migos is proving that not only have they refined their lavish trap sound, but they are setting the bar higher while claiming the very culture they’ve spent years low-key influencing. Those just getting hip to the group courtesy of their headline-dominating past couple of months may feel as though the group achieved overnight success, but the reality is that Migos has endured many storms in their day, including stints in jail and overcoming legal woes, and now, through self-determination, are out to show that more than a viral hit defines them. Graduating from 2013’s “Versace,” their first chart-topping single, in which member Quavo says the fashion house’s name more than 100 times in a span of three minutes, the group has found success building off of the foundation they’ve had in place for years, elevating their brand to reach wide acclaim by backing up their hypnotic, mantra-like hooks with smart production, heavyweight guest features from the likes of 2 Chainz, Travi$ Scott, Gucci Mane, Lil Uzi Vert and DJ Khaled, and staying true to a vision best exemplified by the album’s name, Culture. Entering this next chapter with new money and new goals alike, Migos balances having both middle fingers up with good old-fashioned gratitude, embracing their calling to inspire others that one’s wildest dreams are obtainable with perseverance, timing and a dash of doing it for the culture.

Train – a girl, a bottle, a boat Making their debut two decades ago, Train is showcasing their staying power as radio-ready rockers, with the careful guidance of the group’s sole original full-time member, frontman Patrick Monahan, leading the way. While the Grammy Award-winning soft rock outfit has restructured and redirected their sound over the years, their latest offering proves that strong songwriting and expert musicianship is at the core of their success. In 2017, it’s only fitting that the veteran rockers are leaning toward a more pop-influenced sound, taking notes from other mainstay bands such as Maroon 5, Coldplay and O.A.R., the latter of which Train recently recruited to join their forthcoming summer tour. Naming their latest studio album a girl a bottle a boat, Train’s new offering transitions between a variety of distinctive sounds, supporting their crossover appeal for fans of contemporary rock and infectious pop alike, balancing their rock roots with a little doo-wop, dance pop and a piano-driven ballad thrown in for good measure. With “What Good Is Saturday” finding a happy home on our #NewMusicFriday playlist this week, listeners will either find themselves surprised to see the mellow, feel-good tune was crafted by Train, or rest reassured that the group is adapting to the times without drifting too far from their established tried-and-true identity in alternative rock.

Bell Biv DeVoe – 3 Stripes Those tuning in to BET this week were treated to a three-part biopic series tracing the life and times of ’80s sensation New Edition. As the story infamously goes, once the group ran its course in the spotlight, three members went on to join forces, creating the hip-hop spin-off known as Bell Biv DeVoe. On top of the group’s recent resurgence, with assistance from the miniseries and finding a permanent place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the infamous trio has released their first album in 16 years, titled Three Stripes. As original members Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe expertly remind us how to properly make a comeback with grace and prove they’ve more than still got it, the longtime musicians truly show they’ve aged like fine wine, with Three Stripes excitedly picking up right where they last left off. With their single “I’m Betta,” the group refreshingly updates their signature new jack swing sound, with their R&B flavoring providing a timeless quality that still stands strong in 2017. For those overdue for a history lesson, and one that is still being written at that, look no further than the trailblazing career of Bell Biv DeVoe. While they’ve long earned their rightful place in the game, the iconic trio’s new album proves that not only could we benefit from some spiritual healing, but they are more than happy to rise to the task and deliver all these years later, all while “doin’ betta.”

Major Lazer – “Run Up” featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR and Nicki Minaj With Nicki Minaj and PARTYNEXTDOOR teaming up with the likes of Major Lazer, fans can remain hopeful that the most fitting of collaborations, when they actually do manifest, are not as contrived as one may think. With Major Lazer in the driver’s seat on this one, the genre-bending electronic trio crafts what legendary producer Diplo describes as a “perfect party record,” playing up to the talents of both vocalists while also giving them air to create, with each bringing their Caribbean roots to the table and spontaneously flexing their honed areas of expertise. While PND handles majority of the vocal duties, with Minaj coming in strong for a fiery guest feature, the track feels more high energy than the Canadian crooner typically yields, adapting wonderfully to the island-tinged production. With Minaj setting comfortably back into her music grind, even teasing her fourth studio album during her verse, “Run Up” is a delectable appetizer, warming us up for what each heavyweight artist has in store this year. Judging from the likes of this exciting collaboration, the forecast is looking sunny and the future bright.

Martin Garrix – “Scared to Be Lonely” Twenty-year-old Dutch producer Martin Garrix returns with a swift reminder of why he is not only consistently rising to the top of the lists ranking the world’s best DJs, but he’s also got an endless amount of records left in him to make, refine, lovingly tease and finally share. While proving himself as a creative force to be reckoned with during his far-from-average teen years and impressively building a name for himself, the Tiësto-discovered artist is happily maintaining through the madness and further establishing his own sound with his latest release, “Scared to be Lonely.” The earworm track doubles as a collaboration with rising British pop singer Dua Lipa, marking the latest release from Garrix’s own STMPD Records, with the track arriving not too long after he teased the single in his live set. With Dua Lipa’s beautifully hazy vocals and Garrix’s production inviting strings into his electronic arsenal, the liberating track raises questions as to what the producer has next up his sleeve. Whether Martin Garrix will release a full-length studio project or continue his pattern of releasing one-off singles, it’s safe to say we’re already won over and eager for what’s in store next.

Source: Billboard

http://www.tunecollective.com/2017/02/13/migos-major-lazer-more-are-spotify-editors-picks-for-new-music-friday/

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markyishanthonymartinez · 7 years

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1/20/17

my name is mark anthony martinez and this is my day.

i vlogged today and i figured it’s kind of pointless to double down on this blog and actual youtube vlogs, so today’s blog will be a bit short considering that.

woke up. there’s a lot of iffiness around me so the first five minutes of being awake usually involves making sure i have a grasp of what iffiness i dreamed and what iffiness actually happened. like last night involved something on a boat. like i was on a cruise and like my bae kinda just decided to be with another guy, the guy was like a carbon copy of me but a lot more caucasian and thinner and less harsh features overall, the whole time and for some reason i didn't confront them until like the final dinner of the cruise and like i just remember getting into a fight and slipping off the boat and then waking up cause it turned into a falling thing where i’m scared cause i’m falling into the water. like what even is that dream. there’s definitely a lot of detail that i can't remember, but yeah i probably won't be going on any cruises soon. at least like the next week or two, ya’know? okay so anyways, confirmed my life is still iffy, but not anywhere near as iffy as if i lost a girl at sea and got into a fight that i obviously lost by falling into the ocean. i actually ate breakfast before getting into my routine of editing and uploading and transferring and whatnot, which is good i guess? (funny thing about the word whatnot, for a long-enough-to-be-memorable amount of time, my myspace name was Mark&Whatnot and people loved it, it was like the markyish before the markyish (let’s be real though, at this point Markyish is my entire brand and i could never shake it if i tried)). But yes i ate and got ready and stuff and then went into that stuff. Finished my complete write-up for “Red, Green, Or Inbetween” by WSTR (pronounced Waster, it took me forever to figure that out). It’s a solid record, but the vocals are so overproduced throughout that it legitimately annoys me at times. i think i’m giving it a 6, it could've been a lot worse, but it could’ve been a lot better. however, being the bands debut full length gives me hope that they can really shine in the future. look out for that review soon i promise. mnj got home and of course i asked him why he was home so soon. he fed my fish, that fish would be dead x10 without him. we ate and watched soccer again. that’s pretty standard. freiburg was playing bayern munich, they took the early lead, but couldn't hold off bayern’s attack and ended up losing 2-1, rip. we watched some youtube again, we don't watch a lot of the same youtubers since i’m super into vloggers and stuff nowadays, but we still both really enjoy watching the sidemen’s gaming videos so we usually watch those together.

then omg okay i listened to potentially one of my favorite records of the year. as it is’ new release “okay.” is immaculate. like wow. they used to be that really annoying pop punk band that was way overproduced and the vocals were too whiney and they made everyone other than fangirls want to kill themselves. like they had one catchy tune, but i really did not like the rest of their music, but leave it to them to progress immensely and put out an amazing record. i’m talking potential 9 club people. it was catchy, it was poppy, it was diverse. they played around with lower tunings they’ve definitely never used. the lyricism was sick sick sick. there was hardly any songs that i was just like oh okay guy likes girl, girl doesn't like him, sad boy now. nah like there’s one about a grandparents death, and one about being a bad sibling, and ones about not being okay and that being okay, and the themes and lyricism are 100000x more than i was expecting from this band and really good for anyone’s standards. this record is legitimately quality, i promise. here’s a link to the youtube playlist. if you can't get past the vocals, darn, but really worth a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZL8cbLq4o&list=PLsBWlr67U5NsBbWZyypkhNmXzuJycASJr&index=1

okay loved loved loved that record review coming asap as well, but it’s behind the wstr record in the line so it’ll have to wait a sec. i played fifa with logan and joey. we played pro clubs and are now at the cup final thanks to two penalty shootouts and a rage quit. literally a rollercoaster of a session. but then kyle came to my house and we went to go grab logan and came back and bags was here and hopped in his whip and we wentttttt. to a place to eat. the most un-mark place ever and i feel kinda gross supporting the business but kyle paid and it was a gift card so technically the damage had already been done. the food wasn’t that great. it’s overrated. probably never again. then we wenttttt to midway and played games (i don't think i rly need to hide this part). we spent way too much money. like you don't want to know. i was just trying to win another pokemon to be friends with pikachu but i couldnt get the markyish magic to come through in the ring toss (which is how i originally won the pikachu). I was sad.

at this point i’ll probably just be sad forever.

then omg. (okay i need to stop acting like anyone other than me and potentially erin cranor here and there will ever read any of these). okay mark and potentially erin. WAIT before the omg part, we played hella arcade games. i beat logan in mario kart and bags beat him in boomerang air hockey and logan and kyle played this shooting game for like a yearrrrrr, they kept putting in coins to get more lives but they kept dyingggggg. but then, of course, we found our way to the basketball arcade thingies and leave it to us to become so ridiculously hooked on them and cause a scene. in our defense it was the best deal, it was only 50 cents and like every other game was a dollar plus, f that. i’m trynna ball up and get my money’s worth. okay but i went haaaaam. jk like they obvi didnt know, but i’ve always been sick at arcade basketball, i’m horrendous, disgustingly bad, cancerous even at normal basketball. but arcade basketball i’m literally lights out, it’s all in the wrist. *flicks wrist* “look at the flick of the wrist (the wrist)” but yeah i’m sick, don't ever challenge me. your grandchildren’s grandchildren will be paying off your debts.

SPEAKING OF DEBTS HERES THE OMG PART. we’re walking the parking lot, logan pulls out a 20, slides it to bags, “put it on red” mind you this is already after spending way too much money on midway and arcade games. okay okay but then, apparently squads on the financial up, cause kyle slides in, hands bags another 20 and says to the guy, “put it on black.” OOOOOOOOOOOO WE COOKIN. BUT THEN MARK jk mark didn’t do shit, mark’s a little bitch #realtalk #fuckmarkcausehesstraightedge #eventhoughthathasnothingtodowithgambling we could talk for days about how lame mark is, but we won't. WHY cause logan has bigger balls than um those big balls that you can win in the giant cranes and midway games, those. idk how he fits them in his pants but he manages. anyways logan, hands bags another 20 he says he says he says “put it on black” ooooooooooooooo this dude logan is sooooooo feelin’ himself. Bags hasn't used his gambling ability yet so he has no idea what to do. he literally awkwardly stands at the roulette table, like right by the actual roulette thing. he does this for like 15 minutes until everyone clears out and the lady realizes he’s trying to play and kinda half helps him half thinks he’s an idiot. he then proceeds to play, we kinda chill over to the side cause technically me filming and us even being close is v much against any and all rules. he even gets a lil comfy and orders a drink when asked. legit, five minutes after he starts playing he walks over to us, lookin’ all doofy like he always does and just straight up “i lost all of it. i literally got it wrong every time” we, of course, die laughing. moral of the story is gambling is bad and if you do it you’ll probably be a disgrace to your entire lineage. jk just don't ever let bags gamble for you, instead try gambling against bags.

we drove home singing much too loudly in the car. we made sure to drive by trump tower and play our country’s new national anthem, thank you yg for your beautiful efforts. other tracks played included freaks and geeks by childish gambino, baby blue by action bronson, and of course the wonderful bad and boujee by migos. (lol autocorrect really really really wanted that to be amigos).

my b is bad and bougie.

do fun things. stay beautiful.

- mark anthony martinez

#markyish #diary #dairy #moo

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