#'cos BOY i have a feeling i will write a lot. just 600 words on the intro before 'kill them all'. so y'know. a wordy little thing... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

evelhak · 6 months

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Old art #26: More KnB OCs

I reposted some of my girl OCs with more description some time ago, so here are a couple of other characters too who I like to give attention.

Here's Bailey, who still lacks a surname. They were born because I remembered I had made some random sidenote about Kagami's old middle school crush from America, and at some point I realised it would serve the plot well to turn that thought into an actual character. (Like about 600 000 words afterwards.) Not the least because I do like to give people non-basketball related friends. (My fic series isn't called The Other Things for nothing.)

Bailey has existed in the background for longer than I've actually had a chance to write them. It was relevant that they would naturally seem like the kind of person Kagami would get attached to, so I wanted Bailey to have some traits that resemble Kuroko and some that resemble Himuro, but in a way that it wouldn't be obvious exactly how. That was just the general air I wanted to give, and I didn't know much else about Bailey until I got to write them, and in that short while I discovered some more things, like that they want to study orthotics and they are agender.

They are easy-going, don't like to make things too complicated, and approach most things with a twinkle in their eye. They can be quite goofy but in a chill, introverted way: they don't so much express it with their face or body, but in things like funny stories and doodles. They don't have very intense feelings, but they are kind of jealous of people who do, because they would like to experience things like world-shattering hate towards someone, or falling madly and suddenly in love. It's like they are unable to be consumed by things, and it leaves them a little dissatisfied.

Then we have Sato Aki, who is a twin brother of Mika who was introduced in the other post. Aki was born to fill several things I wanted in the story. Most notably I wanted 1) Finnish characters, 2) someone who could bond with Kagami about living elsewhere a long time, 3) someone to succeed Izuki in making weird jokes, and 4) a trans guy in the team.

I always feel like I have to explain the name thing: Sato twins have goofy parents (Finnish dad and Japanese mom) who, at the time they were still under the assumption that they had twin girls, thought it would be so funny to give them Japanese girl names which are boy names in Finnish, and cause confusion in everyone. (They lived in Finland until the twins were 16.) So, growing up, Aki was thrilled, Mika not so much. Out of solidarity to his sister who grew up with the "wrong" kind of name for their entire lives, Aki was prepared to be the one to bear it once they moved to Japan. The surname is also not their mom's but their dad's name, and it means crop/harvest in Finnish. Conveniently, it's also a very common Japanese name. Yes, I really wanted a chance to toy with names because there are so many that Finnish and Japanese share, but mostly the connotations are entirely different.

Aki is very extroverted, sociable, likes to do things for the heck of it, and can be very ruthless about pushing people when he thinks they need it, for the better and worse. He's definitely a team player, but he has a very low tendency for co-dependency. Everyone has their weak spots of course, but in general he's very difficult to manipulate emotionally. Your drama is not his drama, in a healthy way. He's caring, but he knows where the line goes and doesn't get emotionally invested where he shouldn't. He's very verbally talented and a great debater. Doesn't necessarily come off as a nerd, but he's into video games and books with a lot of lore. When really pissed off, he can be surprisingly cold, even cruel, and he doesn't shy away from using violence when needed, but it's calculated, not an outburst. He's not one to easily lose control. However, the verbal thing takes him far and always comes before fists. He is very rational, but can be too quick to jump into conclusions about people because he relies on his own judgement so strongly.

I have more new guys at Seirin, but I haven't drawn them, and they aren't nearly as significant to the story, so for now my OC introductions end here.

#knb oc #repostober #trans characters #digital art #fan art

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canonicallyanxious · 6 years

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WIP challenge????????

So @crazyheartfics tagged me in this WIP challenge thing which tbh I’m not like entirely sure what it is lol but it looks like you basically just talk about all your WIPs??? Seeing as i haven’t properly written anything in a few months my current list of WIPs are less WIPs and more “half-baked ideas that I really want to exist but that i don’t want to put the effort into making exist” [rip] but like i do have some outlines i can talk about, both fic and original, and who am i to pass up on an opportunity to ramble on endlessly and egotistically about my own writing/work?? So uh. Here it goes i guess

You’re gonna sing the words wrong - SKAM, Even/Isak, US high school marching band AU. So as some of y’all know, I already posted the first part as a meet cute oneshot with vague hopes of returning to it one day, but i do actually have more extensive plans for it that I really would like to make into reality one day because this AU is so dear to my heart [seriously, have i ever written anything this self-indulgent, i don’t think so]. My original plans for this fic involve making it into a 5+1 - my outline specifically calls this fic “5 times Even caused Isak secondhand embarrassment and 1 time he didn’t” - and feature such stellar, brilliant scenes like Even serenading Isak with Careless Whisper on the tenor sax, Even screaming “MY MILKSHAKES BRING ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD” at a football game, and Even rescuing Isak after the loser gets himself stuck in a porta-potty [all based on true stories, fun fact]. i actually have the next part and a half written, but I thought if I’m going to be giving up on this fic the first part works best on its own. However the story was also going to deal a lot with Even and Isak’s experiences as not-quite-first-gen children of immigrants [this fic is embarrassingly semi-autobiographical, wow] which is a theme that’s very personal, and for that reason i really would like to revisit this fic in the future.

Living life like a kite - SKAM, Even/Isak, AU in which Isak is a kindergarten teacher and Even is a secretary at the same kindergarten. So if i end up having the time/headspace for the Evakteket christmas challenge, this will be what i write for it. I got the prompts “office Christmas party”, “figure skating”, and “snow globe” and thought, “wow these actually work incredibly well with an already existing outline i have???” I mean, seriously, can you imagine Isak throwing a Christmas party for his tiny four and five year old kids, my heart would melt and so would Even’s. It also is going to deal with themes of feeling aimless and scared shitless about the future [wow gee i wonder why my “about to graduate in less than a month” ass wants to write about something like that hahahHAHAHAHA] which should be interesting to explore. I have an outline and 600 words of the first scene; what i don’t have is the time. INFINITE SIGHS.

Endless hues and shades - SKAM, Even/Isak + Eva/Noora + Adam/Mikael + Jonas/Mahdi [basically the ensemble fic of the fucking century]; everyone is in a rock band AU. Yeah so I’m aware there are like a million other band AUs in this fandom and this isn’t very original but after very extensive and detailed conversations with @call-this-a-mask and @boxesfullofthoughts [who I’m hoping to co-write this with!!] about it i became thoroughly enamored with the idea of Jonas/Isak/Eva/Even/Mikael being in a rock band together, with the mysterious super gay indie folk darling Noora as their opening act and Sana as their ruthless but compassionate manager [Vilde is Noora’s manager!! Chris designs the merch!!! Yousef produces their music!!!]. Imma have to make myself stop there because if i don’t i will actually reveal all of our secrets but yes!! Lyds and i are super super excited to work on this, it’s gonna be multi-POV [Isak/Eva/Even/Noora/Sana] and it’s gonna be SO GOOD. Plans now are to start writing next year which, by then the SKAM fandom may or may not be dead but who the fuck cares i will Make This Fic Real if it’s the last fucking thing i do.

Project “make MNC into lesbian culture” - original i guess?? So this is just a thing I’m doing for fun, making my fic making new cliches into a story about wlw in color. I don’t have any plans to post/publish it anywhere and i’m probably gonna end up rewriting a lot of it but I absolutely adore the OCs i created for it - Joy, Korean-American pole vaulter, pan as fuck, PUNK ROCK AS FUCK; Syd, black aspiring musician whose parents want her to go to med school, super gay for Joy - and it should be interesting to see how it turns out.

The In Between - original, affectionately nicknamed “Delinquent Lesbians”. I don’t really have much to say about this one mostly because i haven’t really made much progress beyond some vague plot and character outlines [and i’m kinda too tired to explain the concept oops], but i do really like the main characters [who are wlw of color as well, are you sensing a theme in what i like to write my original stories about] and i hope i can make them real one day, or at least as real as fictional characters can be.

Super top secret collab project - another collab with the fabulous boxesfullofthoughts, this one being an original story we came up with earlier this year. can’t say too much about this one [iT’S TOO EXCITING] but basically i would sum it up as including: some good ol’ best friends to lovers [because like who do you even think I am], high school girl/girl friendships, a spunky aro-ace badass as one of the leads, as few white male characters as possible, and Dream Shenanigans.

Some honorable mentions of ideas that will probably never become a real thing but that i still love anyway - internet long distance relationship AU in which Isak is an amateur movie blogger and Even is an amateur youtuber; olympics AU in which Isak and Jonas are beach volleyballers and Even is a tennis player; queer boy squad in which all the boy squad members realize they’re gay [or bi or pan or ace]; Isak and Even’s sex binder.

i’m sorry I have no idea who’s done this challenge already so i’m just gonna tag some of my fave writers slash human beings. Love y’all <3

@boxesfullofthoughts @call-this-a-mask @pronouncingitwang @hotchocolatenthusiast @bechnaesun @minyardv @rumpelsnorcack

#sarah does writing #sure i'll do a thing #sarah.txt #RIP THIS IS SO LONG I'M SORRY #if you want me to add a cut pls just lemme know #long post-

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fancypantshoodlum · 7 years

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ALBUM REVIEW: HAIM ‘Something To Tell You’

The wait is over! HAIM's second album is here, but it's not like they've been completely off the radar.

There was that collab single with Bastille which was fun, 'Pray To God' with Calvin Harris - a leftover from the 'Days Are Gone' sessions that I'm hoping the original pops up on an anniversary reissue in, gosh, 2023, 'Holes In The Sky' from the soundtrack of the 2nd Divergent movie that I wasn't feeling at all, and their cover of Tame Impala's ‘Cause I'm a Man' which is BETTER than the original (sorry Kevin).

While all this was happening, they were making an indelible but overlooked mark on the pop and cultural landscape - which I’ll elaborate on in seven topics

TRENDSETTING

I started hearing their inventive brand of polyrhythmic synth guitar pop crop up in tunes like Shura's 'Touch' (lowkey soulful icy synth HAIM), 'Emotion' by Carly Rae Jepson (Latin Freestyle HAIM) and most recently Paramore's 'Told You So' and 'Forgiveness' (all of the above).

Just like The Strokes East Village thrift was hugely influential back in the day on Mens fashion (what Spin magazine hilariously described as “part Bowery Boys, part CK One hotties”)

HAIM definitely popularized a uber long hair, leather jacket and cropped shorts LA boho look that was practically everywhere in 2014/5 (or maybe just in the hipster places I hang :P )

There is an actual website called What Would HAIM Wear?

DAYS ARE GONE MARK II

Now here we are with 'Something To Tell You' - not a repudiation but builds on 'Days Are Gone' - a sequel and clear step forward that's more confident and audacious in its approach and teeming with new musical ideas and different sonic textures.

While still largely stuck to love songs, the lyrics represent a quantum leap in terms of thoughtfulness and maturity.

THE INTERPRETATION GAME

The first glimpse of this record we got was 'Right Now' which came in the form of a video filmed as they recorded a take - giving an instant impression of muso credibility. a down tempo, foreboding ballad, not really a summer jam but hot on it's heels came 'Want You Back' the euphoric banger if there ever was one.

Lyrically they could be two sides of one story, 'Right Now' a tempestuous rebuke against an dishonest ex whose come crawling back. Like an argument that evolves into a full on row , the song builds and builds with each incrimination like thunder, a guitar squalls, Taiko drum patterns rumble - and then it all explodes. 'Want You Back' the ex, having gone back into the dating world, realises that they miss the narrator, apologises '' I’ll take the fall and the fault in us. I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you''.

'Want You Back' has the wistful wisdom of a folk song which makes complete sense when you learn that it was originally written as a much slower song on an acoustic guitar. I remember John Lennon saying on The Beatles Anthology Documentary (or it could've been from Ian MacDonald's Beatles book 'Revolution In The Head') that whatever instrument a song is written on influences the flavour of the song, and its defo left its mark.

I really love 'Night So Long' though. The desolate blend of echoic harmony, ambient guitar twang & weeping melodies gives it a real nocturnal, countrified, dark night of the soul vibe to it. a lovelorn hymn that's really evocative of post break up, being lost in quiet despair, resigned to another crack around the merry-go-round of Love - for the narrator Romantic Love is a Sisyphean act

I could get really SAT English Literature with my interpretations of these songs but I'll spare you the pain lol

STUDIO AS AN INSTRUMENT

One of the common critics of HAIM albums, especially this sophomore release is that it's over produced. To be honest it's no more heavily produced than a classic Neptunes track or Timbaland one a decade before and Trevor Horn back in the 80s.

The Daddy of them all being Phil Spector whose Wall of Sound approach was a dense aesthetic that included an array of orchestral instruments—strings, woodwind, brass and percussion—not previously associated with pop music, characterizing his methods as "a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids".

Brian Wilson, a huge Spector fan, used a similar recording technique, especially during the Pet Sounds and Smile eras of the Beach Boys, the most recognizable examples being "God Only Knows", "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and especially, the psychedelic "pocket symphony" of "Good Vibrations"

Wilson says "Before Spector, people recorded all the instruments separately. They got great piano, great guitar, and great bass. But he thought of the song as one giant instrument. It was huge. Size was so important to him, how big everything sounded. And he had the best drums I ever heard."

‘Something To Tell You’ (and ‘Days are Gone’ too) is very much in the spirit of Spector but with a modern vernacular. ‘Ready For You’, ‘Want You Back’ and the title song are really sonically dense and defly work in a lot of elements.

The dichotomy of the synthetic, adventurous interpretation of the songs on the record compared to the more reigned in, organic live version isn’t unique to HAIM.

Led Zeppelin live were, as legendary rock critic Lester Bangs described them, 'a thunderous, near-undifferentiated tidal wave of sound that doesn't engross but envelops to snuff any possible distraction' or in Robert Plant's words it was a "very animal thing, a hellishly powerful thing,". In contrast Page's production on the records gave their songs a sense of auditory cinema to what could have been, in a less-imaginative producer’s hands, simply bombastic rock songs.

There’s all sorts of panning and added the effects, echo-chambered voice drops into a small explosion of fuzz-tone guitar, including using Low Frequency Oscillators on tape machines that was really startling to hear at the time.

I had qualms about the use of pitched vocals that are at the start of ‘Little of Your Love’ and in the call back in the chorus of ‘Right Now’, because in the latter I thought it undercut the poignancy by having something so alien sounding in something so human, and the prior I thought a synthetic touch in something so throwback was jarring – like T Pain at the start of Springsteen’s ‘Hungry Heart’ – but maybe not a teenager who hasn’t grown up with sounds being rigidly compartmentalized in genres the way people did in the 20th century.

SIDE NOTE: In fact it could be argued that auto tune / vocal pitch shifting (techniques for deliberate misusing of programs designed for correcting pitch as a way of colourizing the human voice with distortion) is the musical signature of the 2010’s the same way a Wah-Wah pedal makes you think of the 60s or the sound of a Fairlight CMI is very 80s. Which if true makes Cher’s ‘Believe’ ridiculously ahead of it’s time – the pop equivalent of what The MC5 were to Punk?

SPOT THE INFLUENCES

Critics love to play ‘Spot the Influences’: X sounds as if The Reminder-era Feist fused together the acoustic riffs of ‘I Don't Want to Know’ and ‘Never Going Back Again’ – it weirdly reminds me of families gathered around a new-born baby talking about how it has it’s mother’s eyes but grandfathers nose – all these are just cosmetic judgements that are useful to introduce the uninitiated to artists they’ve never heard about but music, like babies, are more than the sum of their parts.

When critics would name check Fleetwood Mac in reference to HAIM in 2013 it always felt tenuous though I knew what they meant – the songs didn’t sound like Fleetwood Mac in the autonomy of the song structure but in the emotional resonance. People hadn’t heard a guitar pop band sing about relationships like that, in a style like that for a long time – since probably Fleetwood Mac and so made the connection – but the fab ‘You Never Knew’ completely pastiches the gossamer textures of Tango In The Night era Fleetwood Mac in its production to its detriment I think because every time it starts I’m half expecting Christine McVie to come on and tell me sweet little lies.

NO GENRES

I once stumbled on a useful insight about art criticism from an article that the writer and journalist Janet Malcolm wrote in response to vitriolic critiques on J.D Salinger's writing made by literary luminaries such as Updike and Didion: ''negative contemporary criticism of a masterpiece can be helpful to later critics, acting as a kind of radar that picks up the ping of the work’s originality''.

Now, I’m not saying this record is a masterpiece - It's really good - but unpacking and investigating the critiques have lead me to some interesting places, like this douchey one from the Guardian.

‘’…Haim were swiftly co-opted by the world of mainstream pop, which seems less interested in their place within a lineage of classic Californian rock than their way with a honeyed melody.’’

From the off this is not true because they did tour with Florence and The Machine and play the big pop extravaganza that was Chime For Change before they even dropped an album. This smells more like a Luddite Gen Xer hang up about transgressing the dividing lines between musical genres.

Music critic Lizzy Goodman on the promo trail for her excellent book ‘Meet Me In The Bathroom’ a thrilling 600-page oral history of New York’s Rock renaissance of the 2000s - brought up a fantastic point on a podcast about the analogue kids of The Strokes generation and their Post Napster successors Vampire Weekend, Grimes and HAIM etc.

Listen to that podcast here (it’s brilliant)

https://soundcloud.com/the-watch-podcast/lizzy-goodman-on-the-rebirth-of-rock-n-roll-in-new-york-city-from-2001-to-2011-ep-153

but here’s the paraphrased version of what I want to highlight:

Interviewer: The time between ‘Is This It?’ and Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut is 7 years – one was the beginning of something and one was the end of something.

LIZZY GOODMAN: You could imagine The Strokes debuting in 2008 but you could not imagine Vampire Weekend happening in 2001 because there is no Ezra brain without the internet.

Interviewer: When I interviewed Ezra for Spin, I became the most oldest man in the universe! I was so angry, I was like: ‘’how dare you go to an Ivy League school, be white and like Hip Hop’’ says the guy who went to an Ivy League school, was white and loved Hip Hop, but how dare you talk about it (so well) and have fluency in all these different worlds and jump between things and never break a sweat.

LG: He’s literally like ‘I don’t know what you mean?’

This is normal to a Millennial but to a Gen Xer that level of musical sophistication is unheard of because they didn’t have the access to everything ever recorded pooled together in one space that the internet is. This Age of Musical Plenty has freed people up from the rigid lock of genre and toward an eclectic palette which is also reflected in the music they make.

BAND BY IT'S COVER

I LOVE ALBUM ART! (I'm also a keen linear notes reader *did you know there's a Grammy for best linear notes? musicians take note lol*) when done right they're great windows into the tone of the record inside. 'Days Are Gone' & 'Something To Tell You' are really cool to contrast.

'Days Are Gone' was the start of a huge career for the band. The album offered listeners a look into their sunny, romantic lives and the cover art too reflected HAIM's bright prospects. Seated in three fold-up chairs on a big green lawn (suburban kids) the heads of the HAIM sisters are turned to the left, eyes averted and covered in shades (future's so bright, I gotta wear shades)

They followed the Spice Girls’ template of being a charismatic group, whose individual styles all added to the bigger picture - their meshing of high street and storied, thrift store pieces gave them an indie rock relatability. They looked like regular joes with great personal style.

On the flip-side 'Something To Tell You' is the glam fulfillment of that promise. It's like a souped up version where the pastoral suburban LA setting of 'Days Are Gone' gives way to more traditional iconic rock images of LA interspersed with glam fashion editorial-like images and (my fav) the quirkier bold coloured zoot suit-y David Byrne-esque stuff.

'Something To Tell You' is a clear step forward, artistically and career-wise. You can hear adventurous enthusiasm in how they approach every song and from the lyrics you get that too that the uncertainty that was a motif in a lot of the songs from their last LP is gone and not only do they finally know what they want from life but are racing towards it. Record #3 is going to be an exciting listen.

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mass-and-volume · 7 years

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EPISODE 24 | THE WORK (with Joycelyn Wilson)

The summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, I went to a summer program called the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program (GHP). Basically, if you were particularly good at a subject (ranging from traditional subjects like Language Arts and Science to offerings like French, Fine Art, an instrument, or Dance), you lived on campus at Valdosta State University for 6 months with 600 other highly-passionate nerds. I was there for Math (probably the least passionate and most nerdy sub-group), but nearly all of my memories that summer come from some place other than the 6-8 hours each day I spent learning about new kinds of mathematics. Most of what I remember is from the two guys I spent the most time with on my hall: my roommate, Dallas, and my best friend that summer, Colby. Each had a lasting impression on me in a distinctly different way. And every single thing we did that summer was soundtracked to hip-hop.

When I walked into my room for the very first time, Dallas was blasting Biggie. Life After Death had just come out, and Dallas was all about it. I was more of a lighthearted listener of hip-hop - OutKast was my group, I knew all the words to “Regulate,” and I had some favorites off E. 1999 Eternal, but I had no real exposure to and New York or LA rap. Dallas made sure to learn me. He played a steady dose of Biggie and Tupac, explaining to me the history of both coasts, the sampling techniques, the rivalries. While we were at Nerd Camp, No Way Out and The Art of War both released, and I’d later go home and buy them for myself. Dallas’ biggest contribution to my life - one that still lives on today - is introducing me to “Mo Money Mo Problems” (sidenote, what a glorious video. So weird, though, that Puffy’s caddy didn’t pull the pin for him), one of the top songs of my life and the one that will always make me break conversation and beeline to the dancefloor.

Colby’s sensibilities were drastically different. He was also a Math major, but the type of kid who scared me: loud, brash, inappropriate, and disrespectful to authority. At the time, I didn’t know how those qualities could co-exist with an affinity for mathematics. I’m not sure why he paid me any attention, but we found ourselves in conversation on the first night of GHP and were close to inseparable for the rest of the summer. One of us mentioned OutKast at some point - it’s difficult to believe there was a pre-Aquemini world, but this was… somehow pre-Aquemini. And even though we were in Georgia and it would have been weirder for someone to not know OutKast than to love them, this connection was the keystone for our friendship. It opened up the world for our summer in Valdosta: sitting in hallways, cafeterias, or laundry rooms, playing Spades as ATLiens blasted, front-to-back, from the AIWA boombox I’d brought. Colby turning me onto Pete Rock and CL Smooth while we worked on a math project. Debating whether or not the next album should be Goodie Mob or The Roots.

That summer changed my life in a lot of ways, but the one thing I’ll never forget is how it sounded. And how it bounced. And because I was taking in so many new experiences (first or new definitions of independence and romance and connection), the values I underscored for each were shaped by the stories I heard day and night. Hip-hop became one of the primary lenses through which I see the world, and it remains the form of art or media that excites me most to consume, absorb, investigate, and understand.

After that summer, my path traveled through Bad Boy and Bone Thugs, 2Pac's Greatest Hits, and The Roots' catalog in between OutKast releases every 2 years. After Stankonia, I drifted more into the crossover and/or R&B side of rap (thank you, TRL): Nelly and Murder Inc. and Aftermath and Snoop and basically anything Neptunes-produced along with a lot of stuff from the South: Cash Money, Ludacris, T.I., Jeezy, and others. Around the time I moved to LA, it was all Kanye and The Black Album all the time. And then Drake. So much Drake. Still here for all the Drake.

And it's with this backdrop that I now see the dilemma.

It's an easy listening path from Nostalgia, Ultra to Kaleidoscope Dream to House of Balloons to Late Nights to I Am Not A Human Being to anything-DJ-Mustard-produced... and in what is a very natural sonic progression, the messaging of romance goes from "here are the ways I want to love you, if only I could" to "I'm going to do x with y and you’re gonna z," the variables substituted for words that make most folks (but not the President) very uncomfortable. For pretty much my entire life, I had no interest in finding that line of demarcation.

The song I reference in the podcast is 6LACK's PRBLMS. It occurred to me that I can't stand up the way I want to stand up in the world while fully embracing certain messaging in music, film, television, or otherwise. And while lyrics and storytelling are open to interpretation and speak to that artist's experience, language, or expression, I have to draw my lines. As Dr. Joyce said, that's the work. But I see now that the art of storytellin’ that drew me in and built so much of my world led, years later, to a collection of music I enjoy but doesn’t present the art nor the storytelling I want to present to the world.

As part of an experiment, I thought I'd share a handful of some (previously) favorite tracks by some of my favorite artists. These are artists (or songs) I listen to weekly, if not daily, and have appeared on many a playlist I've made and shared. Some of them have issues because of the year in which they were written, others because of the genre they fall in, others because of the writing itself. But, regardless:

HIGHLY PROBLEMATIC SONGS I USED TO LOVE

Ray Charles - “I Got A Woman”

She's there to love me both day and night

Never grumbles or fusses, always treats me right

Never runnin' in the streets, and leavin' me alone

She knows a woman's place is right there now in her home

Yikes, Ray. And yet debatably less problematic than the anthem it inspired.

Dean Martin - “I’ll Buy That Dream”

Imagine you in a gown white and flowery

And me thanking Dad for your dowry

[Later]

Imagine me on our first anniversary

With someone like you in the nursery

Sounds like Dean’s got all the roles scoped.

OutKast - “Jazzy Belle”

In this dog-eat-dog world

Kitty cats be scratching on my furry coat to curl

Up with me and my bowl of kibbles and bits

I want to earl cause most of the girls that we was liking in high school

Now they dyking…

This one breaks my heart, as this was my first favorite Kast track. I guess for every Sasha Thumper there’s a Suzy Skrew, for every Ms. Jackson, there’s a Hootie Hoo.

Drake - “Shot for Me”

I'm the man, yeah I said it

Bitch, I'm the man, don't you forget it

The way you walk, that's me

The way you talk, that's me

The way you've got your hair up, did you forget that's me?

And the voice in your speaker right now that's me

That's me, and the voice in your ear

That's me, can't you see

That I made it? Yeah, I made it

First I made you who you are and then I made it

Another one that cuts deep. This was a longtime favorite for several choice lines in the 2nd verse.

Jay-Z - “Bitches and Sisters”

Sisters get respect, bitches get what they deserve

Sisters work hard, bitches work your nerves

Sisters hold you down, bitches hold you up

Sisters help you progress, bitches will slow you up

Sisters cook up a meal, play their role with the kids

Bitches in street with their nose in your biz

I mean, the entire conceit of the song is trouble. But in the second verse, after a sample says, “Say Jay-Z, why you gotta go and disrespect the women for, huh?” this is how he defends his point.

In the words of Dr. Joyce on the podcast, “Who wants a sexist social activist?” That’s the work.

-Scotty

Subscribe to Mass + Volume on iTunes. Check out our new website and visit our Patreon page if you feel so inclined.

Show notes:

Dr. Joyce (website | twitter | instagram)

Four-Four Beat Project / Hip-Hop 2020 (website)

Bring The Noize by Dr. Joycelyn Wilson (Bitter Southerner)

In this episode, we referenced:

Big Gipp Details Future's Dungeon Family Background; Rapper Was Known As Meathead (HipHopDX)

Future Describes Dungeon Family Ties And Purposely "Dumbing Down" His Music (HipHopDX)

The Art of Organized Noize documentary (Trailer on YouTube | Watch on Netflix)

Blues People: Negro Music in White America by Leroi Jones (Amazon)

The Making of OutKast's Aquemini (Creative Loafing)

Bad and Boujee Civil War lesson (AJC | youtube)

Migos Rapped A Children's Book. It's Funny, But It Makes Perfect Sense (NPR)

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Amazon)

Why Is My Life So Hard (Freakonomics podcast)

Music

“SpottieOttieDopalicious” by OutKast (YouTube)

“Synthesizer” - OutKast (YouTube)

“It’s Okay” - Slimm Calhoun feat. Andre 3000 (YouTube)

“She Lives In My Lap” - Andre 3000 (YouTube)

“Coldest Winter” - Kanye West (YouTube)

“Street Lights” - Kanye West (YouTube)

“Made of Glass” - Lil Yachty (YouTube)

“Pretty” - Lil Yachty (YouTube)

“Belly of the Beast” - Da Connect (YouTube)

“March Madness” on Saturday Night Live - Future (YouTube)

“Mask Off” Remix - Future feat. Kendrick Lamar (YouTube)

Soul Music - Tr380 the Future (SoundCloud)

“I’m The One” - DJ Khaled feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper, and Lil Wayne (YouTube)

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j2littleshits-blog · 7 years

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Kourtney’s submission

I love the latest meditating picture(1) she shared, the caption was perfect as well. I’m all for promoting what you love and whatnot but she comes off as a phony, ya know? I don’t care if celebrities share their gym experiences or like when Le@ Michele shares 900 green juice photos (gross!) because it’s just them sharing what they love. But with G it always seems like she’s sharing the picture to show off how much better she is than anyone else but in a subtle way. I’m always thankful, meditating keeps me sane, I use a 600$ blender because it gets my kids to eat their vegetables. It’s never just a simple “I mediate because I like too” or “We put vegetables in smoothies so the kids will actually eat right”. There’s always some underlining meaning to her captions and it’s mind boggling that people can’t see that. Or they see it and they’re choosing to ignore it for the sake of a peaceful Tumblr experience.(2)

Her need to share Girl Power and Girls Run The World is getting old. I’m all for unity and bringing each other up rather than tearing each other down but she’s going about it the wrong way. Your daughter needs to know the sky is the limit and she shouldn’t be held back just because she’s female but she doesn’t need to know that she’s better than another person because she’s female. Her two boys don’t need to grow up thinking they need to step aside so there sister can shine and she doesn’t need to grow up thinking they should step aside for her because she’s female. G is teaching her that she’s entitled all because she was born with a vagina. Again, I’m all for being a feminist and teaching girls AND boys that we’re all equal but I’m not about to get behind someone that wants her daughter to feel better than her own siblings just because she’s a girl. It’s wrong.(3)

Not even going to lie but when I saw the picture she shared of her and T with the caption “This was snapped right before a 🐝 headed right in our direction…. 🙃 thanks to ___ and ___ we have an apiary. Who wants some P@dalecki honey? 🍯” (4) my knee jerk response was to roll my eyes. I’m all for doing our part to bring back the bees but getting an apiary in your backyard seems a tad extreme. I just imagine these kids going to school and being asked what they did over the weekend and them talking about the pictures being taken.(5) Kids don’t have a filter so I can’t imagine what T has to tell his teacher after a weekend at home or whatever. The funniest part of the photos is that she couldn’t even be bothered to change her top or anything. It’s obvious that certain pictures were taken on the same day and others on another.(6) But generally speaking they were taken all around the same time because the bump is pretty much the same size. I will say that with T she gained weight throughout her body. She wasn’t fat by any stretch of the imagination! But her cheeks were fuller, she looked a little more tired and honestly pulled off the being pregnant look better with him than she did with the other two.(7) If you look at the pictures of her doing yoga you can see the outline of the photographer being reflected in the window. And then if you look at the picture of them in bed with S being held over her head you can again see the photographers shadow!(8) We all knew the photos were done by a professional but that just made my a little nauseous because it just seems so wrong to put your kids in their pajamas and create a wonderful family moment like that just for a blog or whatever. Jessica @lba owns her own company, has a website and an Instagram for said company but never once has she used her kids to promote her things. Yeah over Halloween she did her daughters makeup using her product but that was it. Promote your project and perfect life all you want but why add your kids in it like they’re props? It’s just wrong.(9)

Speaking of websites, I’m not sure if you know this but G actually had a website before!(10) It was a fan dedicated website that this one girl ran and G approached her about it. They met up a few times and the girl made sure that all content on the website was completely true and even got G to do a Q and A video. G ended up co-running the website with her until it was taken down because the girl just didn’t want to run it anymore and I’m assuming G realized how odd it would be for her to run her own fan dedicated website. But yeah one day the girl asked G if she could do a meetup and maybe meets some fans, G agreed and they went to lunch. Wanna know who made a surprise visit during lunch? J did!(11) It was such a surprise too, I mean it’s not like G asked him to come or anything. Yeah, I don’t believe that either. That’s why I was surprised that she was creating another website because I didn’t think she had enough of a life outside of J to actually have one just as her own. That sounds really harsh and I apologize for that but if you look at her life she has nothing that’s just her own. It always comes back to J.(12) I did see her new website before it became password protected and I truly hope people take what she posts with a grain of salt. There were sections for parenting, recipes, fashion, lifestyle and a couple others. I’m all for giving advice but I don’t want a first time mom going into her blog and taking everything she says for fact. She talks a lot about things (home birthing, organic living) like she’s an expert and that’s not good.(13) G does have people that look to her for advice and take her word as gospel so I hope she keeps that in mind and puts somewhere in her blog how she’s not an expert on these topics.

I forgot last post but I wanted to say I agree whole heartedly about J and D sharing photos of the kids lately! What is up with that? J actually told the paparazzi in Vancouver he did not want little J photographed.(14) They could photos of him and D all they wanted but his daughter was off limits. They very rarely shared pictures of her and when they did it always came from them, not a family member or friend because they didn’t want it to be stolen. Fine, I get it, you want her to be shielded from the media and the crazy side of the fandom. But now it’s like here’s a picture of the twins, here’s a picture of J, here’s a picture of us being happy together, here’s a video where you can actually hear little J’s voice. Which, again, wouldn’t be weird had they not been so protective of her. That situation has honestly thrown me for a loop and I can’t think of a reason for the sudden love of sharing pictures of their kids.(15)

I’ll tell you about my theory as to why she remained silent on the A_F campaign in another submission so you don’t have to read an essay because I didn’t realize how long this was until I started writing this! Hahaha, sorry!

I hope you have a nice weekend!

Yo Kourtney, happy to see you again! Sorry for the wait, I should’ve post this earlier. Always with something bumped in when I was going through your “essay” ;) And I don’t quite follow G so it took me some time to run through her things *ouch*

Here’s my little side notes (according to the numbers I added above) :

Yoga class?

Peaceful internet platform behaviour. I agree with “phony” but it’s like a basic foundation for business accounts, so I won’t be easily brainwashed by… WAIT. THIS IS THE POINT. I don’t care how fake her IG is because I never consider myself looking at a real life journal wtf! Holy shit! How should I tell her fans about this, Kourtney?! My mixed feelings all the time is explainable? Her business heavy IG with heavy charity promoting? Is she taking my money or is she helping me to donate my money? How about Jay’s part? Why is he there?

I’ve talked about this with my professor IRL on ppl’s misunderstanding and media’s misleading portraying to feminism. Tricky topic.

Cute muffin T is scared of bees aww

Only when kids involved I’m a little mad

Stocked photoshoots I’ve no problem with that *proud*

Asking for science, any mamas out there gained weight with some babies and none with others?

Wait! Some fans say the photos are taken by Jay! ;)

Imagine if these was done by non-celebrities. Normalizing everything is THE TREND in 21st century, sadly

I know! Now we have a similar /dress-like-g______/ *insert eyeroll here*

Oh wow this is new to me omg

Who would pay attention to her if she’s not his “wife” honestly sorry

Life-related reminder alert. Although I’m not a mom, I can sense how ridiculous her advices are

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!!!

Can someone write a meta for this? jk lol

Thanks for this informative submission again, sweetie! It’s really long, I survived lol. Please don’t hold back to talk why she isn’t supportive in A/_/F, and please don’t hold back to write it long! You become an important role here you know? I can’t make quality posts on my own! Have a nice day and hope to see you soon, XXOO

#submission #beard talk #kourtney submission

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canaryatlaw · 7 years

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Today was pretty awesome. So small group sign ups for my church went live at 7:30 am and they always fill up really fast, so I set my alarm for 7:30 so I could do that and then go back to sleep until 9 when I had to get out of bed. Originally I thought I wasn't gonna be able to do one again because of all my night classes which I was sad about, but being that the mock trial team is heading to one of their competitions this week my Thursday nights will probably be empty now, so I managed to make one of the co-Ed groups work. It's not the one specifically labeled "20s and 30s unmarried" but there's also a whole other section for married couples, so hopefully not everyone in the group will already be dating? That's been my issue haha, everyone at my church is already dating someone, I swear. So my alarm goes off and I go to log onto it on my phone, but the damn page is down, probably because a ton of people tried to log onto it at once. I tried for like 7 more minutes before being like fuck it, I'm going back to sleep so when I woke back up at 9 I logged on again and snagged the last spot in the women's sign ups for that group (they separate it by gender to try and have a balanced number of both in each group) so that was good. Got ready, headed off to church and got there just a bit early, so I ran up to the nursery to make sure things were going alright. It was almost at the end of the 9:30 service at that point, and the 9:30 is always the busiest so I was a little worried about only having two people signed up, but apparently it was a first serve day which means there was a bunch of other people in there belong which was good. So then I went back downstairs and into the 11 o clock service, which it was really nice to be back in. I haven't actually been in the service since before Christmas break, so like a month now, which is just way too long (I just get too easily caught up in wanting to stay with the babies, lol, and then I was home for several weeks too). As I mentioned earlier my awesome pastor went out of his way to say how awesome he thought the women's March was and how he loved that many from our church participated, and very explicitly stated that "if you weren't aware, the church you're attending is not one that allows women to lead, it encourages women to lead." And I mean his wife is the co-lead pastor with him so they definitely live that out and oh my god it was so refreshing to hear something like that actually come from the pulpit. My parents themselves probably wouldn't have had a problem with those comments, but if they were said from the pulpit (or in any context) in their church there would be droves of angry churchgoers banging down the pastor's door and demanding his resignation (and I'm not even kidding). So it was really cool to be reminded just how different this church is and how it makes me feel that much more at home there. He also said that in addition to a full sanctuary we had filled up 4 overflow rooms this service, which is insane given that it's just one of then4 Sunday morning services they have. It's obviously booming and it's so full of young people in a time when all I hear about is young people leaving the church, so they're obviously doing something right. The service was about a passage in John where Jesus is taking about being the vine and God being the gardener, who cuts off branches that don't bear fruit and prunes those that do so they'll be more fruitful, which for a song from my crazy bible song childhood stuck in my head lol but it was good. After the service I headed back up to the sanctuary for the 12:30 service I was working. We ended up with 4 babies and there were two of us, so it was a good balance really. We initially had another girl but she hadn't made it to the service earlier so we told her she could go watch it instead. The baby composition was interesting, haha. There was a little girl, 6 mo the old, named like one of my favorite names that I want to name one of my daughters, and she was mostly complacent for the whole service, no crying so that was appreciated haha, she was cute. Then there was another little girl who was screaming bloody murder when her parents left and was totally inconsolable for a good 5 minutes before becoming distracted and deciding not to cry anymore, though for most of the time she just kind of sad there and wouldn't respond to anything we tried to get her interested in even though we knew she could understand us, lol. They had some bubbles this week though (in spill proof containers, of course) and that captivated most of their attention for a good chunk of the service. Then I finally got to see my tiny girl again, who I haven't seen in like 6 weeks so that made me happy and she's just so freaking cute I can't take it. She was again refusing to let me put her down, but was also like, getting upset when I'd go to play with another baby and pull her back to her haha and when I was trying to get the formerly crying little girl interested in some of the other stuff I would be like "can you go through that side and show her?" and kind of motion with my hands and she did exactly what I asked, when I'm not at all sure she knew what I was saying haha so I was impressed with that. And yeah, she was just typically adorable. She was calling me "mama" at various points, which is curious only if because I know she calls her mom "mommy." She doesn't really have a whole lot of speech right now, just a handful of words, so I was trying to encourage her to say "Rachel" but that tends to be a mouthful for babies just learning to talk, and my name usually gets designated a shorter version until the child can fully pronounce it (I know my little brother called me "shell" for a while, and my sister, inexplicably, called me "hatoo" for a solid six months) so I knew that probably wouldn't work. She also has this super cute habit of pointing some of the other kids and being like "baby!" even when they're like, older than her haha but she gets all sweet with the little babies and gah it's so cute. I'm trying to remember if she did anything else particularly cute, but be probably bored you all by this point so I'll move on. The fourth and final child in our care was a boy who was 23 months old, so about to move up to the toddler's classroom, and he was pretty big compared to the others. Strangely, he didn't cry when his parents left and was totally fine for the first half of the service, then just out of nowhere insisted on standing at the gate and looking out the door saying he wanted his momma and he just would not move, despite our many attempts at comforting/distracting (we did get him away a few times, but not for more than like 5 minutes before he would go back). He wasn't actually crying most of the time, but I would go up to him and try to comfort him and he'd just kind of collapse into my arms (it was so sweet) and cry a little and oh man, poor kid but it was really the sweetest thing. So I kept promising him his parents would be there real soon since there wasn't all that much else I could do. They did arrive soon enough, and I told them about how he was acting and his dad said he had gotten a really small amount of sleep last night (and that he was walking around Walgreens with him at 5:30 this morning trying to get him to fall asleep) and that would definitely do it, so hopefully it's just that because I know he's been in with us before with no problems. But yeah, most of it passed without a problem, which was a giant relief compared to last week's fiasco, the crying was kept to a minimum thankfully. Headed home and when I got here I knew I had to jump into my LARC assignment, which I had this feeling of dread about because LARC stresses me out like nothing else, and this was no exception. A big part of it was researching and finding cases to use, but it's not a terribly specific issue so there's a ton of cases to sort through, though very few of them are actually on point, so that was irritating. I spend a while searching through those and compiled a list of 5 because our prof said if we sent her 5 cases by midnight Sunday she would send us 5 back, so I got those in but then I didn't want to do anything on the case front until I get her answers because those will probably be the best cases to use. So I tried to do the other pieces, but kept getting caught up in the "legal writing" vs "LARC" problem. I'm good at legal writing, I do it all the time, but LARC is an extremely specific type of legal writing where every sentence has to service a specific purpose and there's no room for anything else and it's very difficult to make every case fit into that formula when not all cases were built for it. Plus in all likelihood it's not anything that would be required of us on that level in the real world, so it's not really worth much. I tried to write the pieces not involving the cases but kept getting caught up in the different pieces and what to put where that I eventually just got too frustrated and stopped. I have about 2 pages done, a little under 600 words, with a word limit of 1750, so it's a decent dent at least. I'm not happy about having to continue working on it during the week because during the week my time is very limited, but I can't do much else at this point until I get the cases back from my prof, so that will she to do for now. Sigh. I had set out some chicken to defrost in hopes of making a meal I could use for lunches/dinners throughout the week, so I grabbed one of the Campbell's skillet sauces, creamy Parmesan chicken, and I'm about to sound like an advertisement but holy fuck people, this stuff is so good and it's ridiculously easy. All you do is cook the chicken, at the sauce, let it boil for a few minutes, then mix in pasta or whatever else you want and you're good to go, and it just tastes so fucking good I can't even tell you lol, I was very pleased. Once that was done I moved on to the tv, I didn't necessarily want to start a new show because most of my shows are coming back this week and I'll be occupied by catching up with them (weeknight classes) for most of my weekends from here on out, so there wasn't much point in starting a new show, so I figured I'd knock off one of the movies on my list and went with batman v superman dawn of justice, just because I love superman (even if I don't love THAT superman) and I felt like a bad fan for not having seen it yet. It was interesting. It was a decent movie, but not a great one. I don't think they develop Clark enough as a character beyond being superman, and for most of the movie I didn't have much of an idea what the hell was going on in Bruce Wayne's head. The supposed doomsday monster at the end felt like a cheap shot, because it was literally just some random monster they tried to slap the doomsday label on in an attempt to tie it to canon, when it's just a fucking random monster. I did like Clark kicking ass to find Martha, and how Bruce immediately changed his tune after finding out Lex had her, even when he had spent most of the movie plotting against superman. Any sadness I would've had over superman's death is pretty much tempered by the fact that I know there's an upcoming justice league movie that he will undoubtedly be in, so there isn't much chance he'll be dead for long. But yeah, fine movie, but not one I'd love for such an iconic character (two iconic characters, really) and nowhere near on the level of the marvel movies (and I say that while being a DC girl through and through). It's a shame they can't seem to find the dynamic in their movies that they've found in their tv shows....if they were smart they would do what marvel is doing and tie in the tv and movie universes, which would be soooooooooo easy to do because they've already introduced the concept of the multiverse and different characters being from different earths, like it would be incredibly easy to introduce them as different universes that are now converging. Sigh. I know it's never gonna happen, but I can dream right? The other exciting thing that happened today was that I officially purchased my ticket to the Heroes vs. Villains Fan Fest in Chi at the end of March which happens to fall on my birthday, because Caity Lotz and a ton of other awesome people will be there and doesn't that sound like an awesome way to spend your birthday?? I have a kickass cosplay in the works (and by that I mean I'm buying one because I have no artistic skills whatsoever) so stay tuned for updates there. Okay, this is long and I'm tired and it's almost 2 am, so I'm gonna go to bed now. Goodnight loves. Hope your Monday doesn't suck.

#daily journal #January 2017

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preciousmetals0 · 4 years

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Sprin(T)-Mobile; This Dish Is Bananas

Sprin(T)-Mobile; This Dish Is Bananas:

The Un-Network Is Now THE Network

And then there were three…

The wireless market got a touch smaller and far more interesting this morning. A U.S. federal judge ruled in favor of the $26 billion merger between Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile US Inc. (Nasdaq: TMUS).

The ruling shut down a multistate challenge to the deal’s approval by both the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. According to Judge Victor Marrero: “The resulting stalemate leaves the Court lacking sufficiently impartial and objective ground on which to rely in basing a sound forecast of the likely competitive effects of a merger.”

Marrero continued that the states failed to convince the court that a combined company would “pursue anticompetitive behavior.” Furthermore, the judge noted that, if left alone, Sprint could “cease to be a truly national [mobile network operator].”

New York Attorney General Letitia James is considering appealing the ruling. “From the start, this merger has been about massive corporate profits over all else, and despite the companies’ false claims, this deal will endanger wireless subscribers where it hurts most: their wallets,” James said.

The Takeaway:

Let’s start off with a great big “Well, duh!” for Attorney General James. Of course this deal is about massive corporate profits. All deals are.

Corporations exist to generate massive profits. That’s their job. That’s what they do. (They’re like the Conway Twitty of the business world — yes, that’s a country song reference, y’all.)

I won’t comment on the antitrust implications of the Sprint/T-Mobile deal … or whether it’s ultimately bad for customers or not. I’ll leave that to Banyan Hill expert Ted Bauman, who’s sure to comment on this merger sooner or later.

By the way: Feel free to let me know your thoughts on the Sprint/T-Mobile merger by dropping me a line at [email protected].

What I will say is that this deal is big trouble for moose and squirrel … er, rather, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). The pair have dominated the wireless world for years, gobbling up subscribers left and right.

Now, however, there’s a serious contender to deal with.

After AT&T failed to take over T-Mobile back in 2011, the latter used the $3 billion in breakup fees to launch a serious bid to dominate the wireless market. However, T-Mobile lacked in spectrum — i.e., the wireless airwaves that connect your devices.

Sprint has oodles and oodles of spectrum, including a broad swath of 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum that’s critical for 5G wireless. Unfortunately for Sprint, it has no cash to take advantage of this spectrum.

That’s what the Sprint/T-Mobile merger is all about, Charlie Brown: spectrum. And now, T-Mobile has both key 5G spectrum and the cash to further its nationwide 5G rollout plans.

What’s more, the new company is truly a pure play on the wireless market. There’s no debt-burdened Time Warner content or streaming package like at AT&T, or failed AOL/Yahoo content like at Verizon.

Just pure, unadulterated and unfettered wireless.

So, while AT&T struggles to pay down the cost of buying content and Verizon rides the fence on what to do with its media division, the new T-Mobile will solely focus on rolling out 5G to the world.

That focus is truly great stuff for investors. I look forward to seeing how the combined company’s stock trades once the merger is complete. It’s certainly on Great Stuff’s future watch list.

In the meantime, there’s work to do to bring 5G to the masses.

I mean, you can have all the G’s you want, but without a ground network to transfer that signal from the tower to the internet at high speed … well, you’re SOL.

That means fiber optics, and rolling out such a network doesn’t happen overnight — unless you’re out there unspooling cable … you aren’t, are you?

So, let’s stay crafty and find some real 5G profits.

And boy, are there profits to be had! The great wireless migration could generate over $12 trillion in new industry wealth … from telecoms to consumer 5G devices and more.

Many Great Stuff readers know Ian King and his incredible eye for picking tipping-point tech trends. The 5G explosion is no different. Ian just spotted one company that’s at the forefront of the 5G transition.

If you click here now, he will show you just how huge the 5G trend is … and why this tiny stock is setting up to clutch that $12 trillion windfall.

The Good: Hasbro Ain’t Toyin’ Around

After nearly a year of dominance by plastic figurines and bobble heads bobbleheads, actual toys are back!

Hasbro Inc. (Nasdaq: HAS) reported that net income skyrocketed to $2.01 per share in the fourth quarter from just $0.07 per share last year. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.24 per share, blowing past the consensus estimate for $0.91 per share.

(Pssst … net revenue was a little light at $1.43 billion, versus Wall Street’s target of $1.44 billion … but no one’s talking about that.)

Driving Hasbro’s success were strong sales of partner brands such as Frozen 2, Star Wars, Spider-Man and the Avengers. The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) toy sales — ahem, I mean “partner brand” revenue — spiked 24% to $1.22 billion for the year.

“We’re incredibly excited that ‘The Mandalorian’ season two will come to Disney+ this fall,” said Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner.

Umm … Mr. Goldner? Maybe you could get some freakin’ Baby Yoda merch on the shelves soon, please? Honestly, your revenue could’ve been millions higher already!

The Bad: M-m-m-my Corona

What do you get when you cross a Chinese pandemic with a struggling “premium” athletic clothing retailer?

You get a hot mess, that’s what you get. Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UA) not only missed Wall Street’s fourth-quarter revenue target, it also lowered sales guidance for 2020. The company expects revenue to fall between $50 million and $60 million for the first quarter … and that’s just from lowered sales expectations.

Sure, Under Armour has about 600 stores in China, but about 60% of the company’s products are manufactured in China, Jordan, Vietnam and Malaysia. With the exception of Jordan, the rest of those countries are smack in the middle of coronavirus central. That means lowered productivity and potential supply disruptions as this epidemic grows.

And as for that “premium brand” thing: “We believe prior promotional activity has impacted the consumers’ willingness to pay full price for our brand to a higher degree than we originally anticipated,” said CEO Patrik Frisk.

So, part of Frisk’s excuse is that customers don’t want to pay full price for the company’s stuff? I think the market is telling you something, man.

For now, I’ll avoid Under Armour stock like I avoid paying full price for its clothes.

The Ugly: Dish Is a Mess

Did you think I forgot about Dish Network Corp. (Nasdaq: DISH)?

No, sir. Dish is crucial to the whole Sprint/T-Mobile merger. As part of the deal with the Department of Justice, Dish will buy Sprint’s prepaid wireless business — aka Boost Mobile.

Let’s make no bones about this: Dish is getting screwed. The company already struggles with falling subscriber numbers for its pay-TV business. Dish’s old-school satellite service is worse than cable, after all. It’s all the content you’ll never watch (but still pay high prices for) … all bundled up in a service that screws up in the rain.

The bright idea to fix this is for Dish to buy Boost Mobile — a 4G mobile service on Sprint’s old network in a 5G world. Why not just start rolling out Betamax tapes as well, Dish?

Not only does Dish get the short end of the stick on the wireless deal, it’ll also soon face serious competition from Starlink — Elon Musk’s new satellite-based internet service.

I know, you’re thinking: “Starlink isn’t a pay-TV service, why should Dish worry?”

The answer’s simple: video streaming. The only thing that prevents some customers from moving away from Dish is the fact that they can’t get shows any other way. With Starlink and a Roku Inc. (Nasdaq: ROKU) player, all that changes.

I have to think that the only way Dish survives in the new Starlink and 5G world is for someone to buy out the company. Although, what company has such poor judgement that it’d even consider buying Dish? (No AT&T, don’t even think about it!)

5G! 5G! 5G! All we ever hear about is 5G! What’s so great about 5G anyway?

I mean, sure, 5G has never had its picture on bubblegum cards … so you’ve got me there.

That said, today’s Chart of the Week details some of the key benefits that the average smartphone user will notice right away when switching to 5G:

Now, if that doesn’t mean a whole lot to you … let’s just say that 5G is stupidly faster than your current 4G wireless service. That real-world speed of 100 megabytes/second is faster than most people have from their landline-based internet provider.

In other words, if you aren’t a data hog like yours truly, you might even be able to ditch your internet landline, just like you ditched your phone landline years ago. (Please tell me you don’t still have a phone landline…)

When it comes to 5G, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re in a Big Data world now, and Big Data needs high-speed transfer rates. As you can see from the chart, 5G has all that covered and more.

Great Stuff: Marco?

It’s that time again!

That’s right, it’s time to feed the Great Stuff beast!

This week, we’re focusing on the Sprint/T-Mobile merger — surprise! Be sure to write in to [email protected] and let us know your thoughts!

Here are some of this week’s topics:

Do you think the Sprint/T-Mobile merger will have a negative or positive impact on the wireless market?

Do you have any antitrust concerns?

Are you itching to invest in the combined company?

Which wireless carrier do you believe is the better investment: AT&T, Verizon or Sprint/T-Mobile?

Now, you know the drill. You have about two days to drop me a line at [email protected] to make this week’s edition of Reader Feedback.

In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Great Stuff on social media. If you can’t get enough meme-y trade war goodness, follow Great Stuff on Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing

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goldira01 · 4 years

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