#Also I figured out that it's exactly 80% transparency

[zosonils-art]

ohhh can we hear more about sweet woman 🥺

we totally can!! infodump about this gaslighting gatekeeping girlboss is under the cut as always

sweet woman was commissioned by a super classy french dessert restaurant called the orgueilleux pâtisserie [orgueilleux being very poorly google translated french for elitist/snobbish lmao], acting as both a chef and a mascot! the gimmick worked wonders for the restaurant's popularity, with rich people coming in droves to experience the novelty of food prepared with a robot master's help, and she was quickly promoted to social media manager as well as her original duties. despite her cutesy demeanour, she's much smarter than she looks, and is equipped with an in-depth understanding of chemical reactions and inhumanly accurate sense of timing and spatial awareness. she knows hundreds of recipes and most of them cost several hundred dollars to make

her personality is more deliberately engineered than most robot masters, designed to fit her appearance and be marketable. she's unwaveringly cheerful, incredibly extroverted, and just silly enough that it's cute rather than grating. she plays these traits up a lot for the cameras, exaggerating her energy and playing dumb when it'll appeal to the masses, but even when she doesn't have her public image to consider she's a bubbly and energetic goof. she's a stubborn optimist, and if she can't find a bright side to look on she'll take out a flashlight and make one. her optimisim makes for a good workplace morale boost and an even better social media presence, although when combined with her ditziness and being a bit out of touch from almost exclusively interacting with the 1% it often makes her come across as insensitive

since she's in the spotlight a lot, most of sweet's hobbies and interests outside of work are still carefully selected to match her public image and look good on an instagram post. she has a passing interest in shopping and fashion, and enjoys going to parties and gatherings and what have you to meet new people. she also loves to experiment with cooking and come up with new recipes, some of which end up on the orgueilleux menu. she does, however, have a private interest in chemistry! as mentioned earlier she knows a fair bit about it already, since cooking is just chemistry with a restricted set of substances, and in her own time she ended up getting curious and reading into the sort of reactions that arise from chemicals she doesn't work with. she rarely mentions this interest herself, but she gets super excited if someone brings it up or gives her the excuse to talk about it, and it's probably listed as super secret trivia about her on the pâtisserie website

unlike other robot masters, sweet has an acute sense of both smell and taste! [since robots seem to only use e-tanks for fuel, there's not much benefit to smelling or tasting things, so i personally believe that most of them don't have those senses unless it'd directly benefit their job.] being able to actually taste the food she cooks makes it much easier to tell if she's doing it right, especially if she's trying to come up with something new. she's also capable of replenishing her energy by eating - it's less efficient than e-tanks, but she thinks they taste gross so she always opts for actual food. fittingly, she has a massive sweet tooth, but she's accustomed to only the highest-class dining and dislikes cheaper or less 'refined' tastes

her magical girl vibe, brought to you by someone who has watched maybe 4 episodes of anime that weren't sonic x, is entirely an aesthetic and marketing gimmick rather than serving any functional purpose. she'll play it up for promotional videos and photoshoots, twirling her fork-trident thing and striking dramatic poses and calling out thematically appropriate attack names like 'sparkling sugar swirl' and 'cinnamon whirlwind' whenever she does anything, but it's mostly for show. while she genuinely enjoys the shouting and posing and twirling, she massively tones it down when she's not performing, maybe occasionally saying an attack name at a reasonable volume while she works. her fork-trident thing isn't even a real weapon, magical or otherwise. it's just styrofoam with metallic paint on it

sweet's weakness to harpoon shot was decided before i figured out exactly what tide man's weapon would be, going on the idea that getting food wet tends to make it sad and gross. this logic doesn't quite carry over with harpoon shot being, well, a harpoon rather than something specifically water-based, but i imagine shooting a cake with a harpoon would also be a very one-sided battle so this weapon wheel makes sense i promise. i guess you could also make the argument that it's because sweet is only experienced with a fake pronged weapon made of foam and would be completely blindsided by a real one? maybe it's that tide is so staunchly anticapitalist that his weapon inherently vibe checks her? i'm grasping at straws a bit over here but listen, if mega man 5 can insist that water is elementally weak to trains, i can insist that it's elementally strong against the french

i think her stage could be some kind of factory! lots of conveyer belts definitely, maybe some crushing hazards, definitely a few mets. the idea there is that she's seized a major food processing plant and is using that position to wreck the regional supply chain. even when she's evil, she basically keeps the exact same personality she shows to the public with only a noticable capitalism upgrade. she has pretty much no combat abilities on her own, but at her own suggestion she was upgraded to shoot a specially formulated icing that's acidic enough to burn through thin metal, finally putting her interest in chemistry to use. her fork-trident, on the other hand, was not changed in the slightest. still just styrofoam. i think it'd be pretty good if she opened her battle with it but even if it hits mega man it only deals one point of damage and the second it touches something it snaps in half and she never pulls out a new one

designing sweet was pretty fun because she's pretty different from my usual taste in character design! my experience with the magical girl genre is that i read about half of sailor moon when i was 12 and absorbed everything else through pop culture osmosis and tv tropes pages, so it was definitely fun to draw what i think a magical girl might look like. i also don't use oranges and yellows much, so picking out her colours made for an agonising exciting challenge! she didn't change too much from the initial microsoft paint sketch, although she lost a skirt layer along the way because i didn't feel like figuring out how to draw another one, and her weapon was originally just a big fork that probably would have been a ksjfjhkjhfillion times less cumbersome to draw. oh well. live and learn [HANGIN ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW]

that about wraps it up for sweet woman, i think - thank you so much for asking about her!! here's the transparent art and the version without 15 different filters on it to make it look kinda like an 80s anime screenshot

[aropride]

hello i would like to hear about otherkin history from you! and maybe even your kins!! i wanna know more :D

ok so!! basically the otherkin community started in the 1960s when elfinkind- people who spiritually identified as elves from lord of the rings- created a community thru mailing lists and the like, specifically the elfinkind digest. towards the 70s and 80s, more species than just elves discovered themselves, and the world otherkind became common use. this became the word otherkin thats used most commonly today. in 2004, the word otakukin was created, basically ppl who were otherkin of character from anime. this was changed to fictionkin to allow ppl from a variety of sources to use the same word. the word mediakin is also used, albeit less commonly, by those who dont want their sources to be called fiction. as for what otherkin / fictionkin is, the term combines a couple of experiences, with the msot common one being that you believe you were a character in a past life due to the multiverse theory*. (tho theres also the. i want to say colloquial but i feel thats not the right word? so. the often-used meaning of the term, which is “character u relate to.” & relating to characters is fine but thats not the actual meaning of the word- synpath, copinglink, mirrorlink, kith, and otherhearted all exist for that purpose) *(the multiverse theory is basically the theory that theres infinite alternate universes. its rlly fun to watch youtube videos abt when ur on a bunch of pain meds after getting ur wisdom teeth out kjfgfk) as for me & my kins: i figured out i was kin in. early 2018 i think? id known abt otherkin for several years, full transparency i would look up "otherkin cringe" on pintrest in 2016. & 2018 was around the time that kff ("kin for fun" - synpaths/copinglinks/etc using the word kin, basically) was taking off but i still understood the word by its original definition. anyway. yknow when u suddenly get a super strong memory that u havent thought abt in years? i had one of those except it was for sure not of something that happened to me, and it was for sure something that happened to jared kleinman and i was kind of like. Well thats weird. wow that sounds exactly like that otherkin thing ive heard about im sure it has nothing to do with that though. (spoiler alert: it did) for me & for a lot of ppl we'll have a LOT more memories from one canon (canon meaning timeline, essentially) than another- my personal explanation of it is that i feel those are from closer universes/less time ago. other ppl probably have different interpretations tho ^_^ this is getting long im gonna share some random fun facts from some of my canons and then im done i prommy. umm in my jared canon i was nonbinary!! i used he/ae prns. in one of my c!tommy canons i had wings :D!! in my origins!tubbo canon ranboo used she/he pronouns. i was transfem in my jeremy heere canon! my name was jada (<- you know im not making this up i have a HATRED for when trans characters have the same first letter in the deadname and chosen name). im also otherkin! i was an ice dragon one time that was cool <- saying it like that is extremely funny to me sorry

ok im done now :D thank u 4 asking i love talking abt this stuff ^_^

[sophiemsmsmsmgallery]

I’ll tell you who SOPHIE was - she provided me with the soundtrack to my existence.

SOPHIE - a futuristic goddess, an ingenious music producer, ethereal visionary, a trans icon.... just an icon generally speaking - tragically passed away at the age of 34 in Athens, Greece after falling off a rooftop whilst attempting to capture a picture of the full moon. Her gut wrenching death brought me to tears. This is the first time a famous person’s death has affected me so deeply. Her bold, hyperkinetic approach to producing musical art was so impeccable and refreshing considering so much of modern day’s music tends to sound incredibly predictable. Whilst alive, visionary SOPHIE generated a following of intensely adoring, dedicated fans. Honestly, don’t EVER mess with a SOPHIE fan. Trust me!

She worked with the biggest popstars, rappers, K Pop groups, rappers and upcoming artists but still remained so humble despite her enormous talent. However, she hadn’t reached household name status during her life. Sadly, many people only had heard of SOPHIE after her tragic and unexpected death. This motivated me to write a piece dedicated to this beautiful and timeless mastermind. I do acknowledge that its been exceptionally challenging to summarise how SOPHIE impacted my life onto only a few pieces of paper. However, its the least I can do. Therefore, I present to all of you my written tribute which shall focus on how her extraordinary music has featured during key moments of my lifetime and expanded my initially narrow knowledge of beauty, gender and identity like never before.

Let’s commence this written tribute by travelling back in time to when I had just turned 15. During that time period, my disposition was extremely introverted. In all honesty, like almost all teenagers suffering the displeasing side effects of bloody puberty, I was barely approachable. I adopted the entire persona of a full time punk kid wearing a thick leather jacket whilst applying extremely heavy kohl eyeliner and dying my hair jet black - which looked devastating. I would also scribble quotes associated with the punk ideology and act like some pretentious snob towards anything that was unrelated to punk, industrial or rap music. That was the most rebellion I exuded at the time (trying not to feel complete despair as much as possible for my former teenage self)

That captious mentality caused by teenage angst was erased the minute I listened to a snippet of the musical force of nature named ‘BIPP’ by SOPHIE on a Swiss MTV sponsored advert. The high pitched vocals singing ‘However you’re feeling, I can make you feel better’ provided by Marcella and overall catchy, hyperkinetic production mesmerised me like there’s no tomorrow. Nothing had captivated my imagination like the timeless ‘BIPP’ did so I typed aggressively and rapidly into the Google search engine straight away. I had to know who the mastermind lurking behind this masterpiece was. I had to know of the mastermind who provided me with this pivotal musical epiphany. Then the capitalised name ‘SOPHIE’ popped up right in front of my eyes.  

After listening to ‘BIPP’ in its entirety on repeat, I instantly began to read up on SOPHIE and stumbled upon her 2013 interview on BBC Radio 1 with SOPHIE where she concealed her identity by having her 5 year old niece respond to the host’s questions instead of herself. At the time, I assumed Sophie had implemented a voice changer to project the voice of an infant. SOPHIE’s dry humoured response, namely ,,I’ve got a cough!’’ to the host’s bewilderment over the child sounding voice stood out for me. Earlier in her career, SOPHIE’s anonymity prompted much speculation in the music industry and press. I always perceived this bizarre, hysterical act of Sophie’s as a ‘two middle fingers up’ to our environment fuelled by mainstream culture, especially how so many people obsess over notable figure’s personal business and public image instead of their artistic accomplishments far too often. This has to be the ultimate moment my own curiosity for Sophie’s ingenious musical productivity became insatiable. Later on, I would await the 2015 McDonalds commercial anxiously to have my ears blessed with her gratifying track ,Lemonade’ over and over. The synthesised sounds that fizz like pop rocks. Nabihah’s crisp vocals which repeat ‘Candy boys, c - c - candy boys’. The overall ear worm appeal of the track. Flawless!

In the meantime, I discovered that Sophie happened to be a very well known affiliate of the divisive,unique PC Music label based in London, England. During the time period, I was - to be quite frank - not an avid bubblegum bass or hyper-pop listener in the slightest. I worshipped bands such as The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Rammstein,Tool, The KLF and additionally adored rap music ranging from N.W.A to Eminem. They totally divert  from the hyperkinetic, exaggerated take on the pop genre embraced by the PC Music label. However, my teenage idols and SOPHIE objectively share something fundamental in common - Through their trailblazing musical output, they push every single barrier possible and deconstruct what constitutes as ,normal’ in modern day society. Even just after releasing her first full length album ‘Product’, SOPHIE embodied a bold form of rebellion against society’s conventionality and unforgiving temperament by incorporating lyrics alluding to a mostly genderless nature and sexual fetishes eg BDSM. As an extremely naive, self conscious teenager, all of this completely perplexed but intrigued me. Any glimpse of art connected with an attitude of non conformity resonated with me in practically seconds and continues to even at 22.

This longing for anything unorthodox traces back to my own childhood.  To explain some details about my background, I grew up in a rather small, very conservative village in Switzerland from the age of 9. Even uttering anything LGBT related would illicit responses ranging from loud gasps to shocked faces at my high school. As a non Swiss resident, the educational setting demonstrated to be more than challenging at times. One incident that stands out to me especially is when a classmate ranted about his disapproval of non Swiss inhabitants receiving Swiss pass and then continued with yelling ‘All my family voted for the SVP kick all of (you fucking foreign scum) out!’.Just to clarify, the SVP is the largest party in Switzerland and leans very far right politically.   As you can presume, I was utterly distraught by this disconcerting interaction and confess to losing any fragment of self confidence remaining in that moment. Luckily the Swiss MTV channel existed, which was far more on trend with the times and embraced marginalised communities. I will forever cherish Swiss MTV introducing me to SOPHIE’s impeccable, lawless music and being a form of escapism in my bedroom from the racist, homophobic climate prevailing in my village.

At the age of 17, Graduation finally arrived at the door which was an absolute relief. A few hours later, the celebration party took place in a secluded barn and my boyfriend immersed himself into the role as DJ for the night. Towards the end, he sneakily included Product era classics including ‘Vyzee’ and ‘Hard’. I could barely contain my excitement. We all almost choked on the horrendous party smoke, spilt our cheap beer on each other’s outfits and chanted ‘Shake it up and make it fizz!’ and ‘I get so hard.’ Ironically, I believe my Swiss colleagues didn’t exactly recognise the discernible sexual connotations exhibited throughout the song which causes me to giggle ever so slightly looking back. However, it felt liberating hearing SOPHIE’s fiercely electronic, transparent music and seeing my classmates enjoying it - especially as all you would hear on most music outlets there was either dreary Indie or Luka Haenni - the Swiss equivalent to Justin Bieber. That’s the most I’m able to recollect from that peculiar night - aside from a trampoline burning to the ground due to someone placing a candle on it. After all that jazz, a thrillingly new chapter for myself - and even for SOPHIE - would unfold.

At 17, I returned to my place of birth, England, and enrolled at Sixth Form in the South to complete my A Levels. I initially felt extremely elated to move back to England and finally entering the era of adulthood in my life. However, the atmosphere at Sixth Form and in the South of England seemed ... so unfamiliar to me which was heartbreaking. My mind had totally adjusted to a Swiss and my mind endured unsettling feelings of anxiety during the entire first year at British college. However, SOPHIE’s music once again presented itself as a form of therapy for me. She released the ethereal, stunning ballad ‘It’s Okay To Cry’ during this time period. After watching its music video and deciphering the lyrics I realised... Oh my goodness, SOPHIE just came out as a transgender woman! I recall being touched by the exquisite, idiosyncratic song featuring 80s style synthesised arrangements. SOPHIE’S bravery mesmerised me. I knew in that moment, Sophie would revolutionise the music industry, especially the habitat of music production dominated by cisgender, heterosexual men. She proved my initial predictions right - and on many occasions.

The day after SOPHIE released ‘Its Okay To Cry’, I overheard an energetic conversation carried out by a few of fellow openly gay and trans classmates who I’m still acquainted with to this day. They couldn’t contain their excitement about SOPHIE.

Despite the crippling anxiety having affected me so severely at that point, I intervened and expressed my admiration for everything SOPHIE. I felt blessed attending a sixth form alongside gay, non binary, trans classmates who took pride in their identity and sexuality. It put my mind at ease being surrounded in a more progressive environment compared to the intolerant ambience pervading my village in Switzerland. SOPHIE’s music had connected me with such a progressive, solicitous and just simply amazing group of friends. They agreed with me that SOPHIE’s courageous move will impact the music world in such a striking manner and encourage more LGBT people to pursue their goals no matter how extravagant, especially an acclaimed music producer igniting the music industry like SOPHIE. Then all of a sudden they mentioned the track ‘Yeah Right’ and how it blew their mind away due to SOPHIE’s ‘badass as hell instrumentals.’ With all the shame in the world, I confessed I hadn’t heard it yet. Their facial expressions conveyed so much disappointment. One of my classmates quickly plugged their Bluetooth speaker into his laptop and then pressed the play button. From a personal perspective, ‘Yeah Right’ featuring Vince Staples and Kendrick Lamar perfectly stands out to me despite SOPHIE’s extensive and majestic discography to her name.

I contemplate the masterpiece as a pivotal moment in rap music history. Even during 2017,  Sophie began exhibiting red lipstick, latex gloves, tight clothing corresponding  to a more feminine image which totally distances from the aggressively macho image attached to the rap industry. From the moment Vince Staples commences with his lyrically cutting verses to Kendrick Lamar proceeding with his gripping and more than memorable cameo - I realised that a 3 minute long but significant moment music history in general simply named ‘Yeah Right’, had occurred. Her production on the track astonishes me due to its avant grade and timeless edge. To me, it is a masterpiece that echoes the the extremely distant future of music. I reckon we’ll be dancing to ‘Yeah Right’ at the club in 2137. For 4 consecutive years, ‘Yeah Right’ has been reigning champion of most listened to song on my Spotify account and can express with all certainty... it’s my all time favourite song. In all honesty, it cured me of my severe feelings of apprehension and anxiety at Sixth Form.

After regaining my confidence and FINALLY passing the dreaded driving test - after failing three times in a row - the first song I blasted on my speakers in my cheap, run down car was ‘Yeah Right’ and rather fittingly, Sophie’s live version of the officially unreleased ‘Burn Rubber’ whilst driving to university I was about to attend. I genuinely cried all the lyrics to the song whilst driving on the mundane roads of Southern England and FINALLY felt like a free, independent adult. Even during brief chapters of my life such as passing my driving test, SOPHIE made a crucial and ravishing appearance.

The last three years of my life have played out in a rather turbulent style. Towards the middle of 2018, the year unravelled in a fashion that I certainly hadn’t anticipated. I’ll summarise it to the best of my ability even thought it is extremely difficult to. My longtime best friend, the closest person to me, sadly died to long term chronic illness. I couldn’t articulate my utter grief into words and sadly still struggle to this day. It was a sudden blow to the heart which couldn’t be paralleled to anything else I’ve felt in my short lifetime. A month prior to her untimely passing, SOPHIE had released her acclaimed, gallant debut album ‘Oil Of Every Person’s Un Insides.’ Although OOEPUI is a extravagant, historic work of art, I shall describe how the tracks ‘Is it Cold In the Water’ and ‘Faceshopping’ impacted me.

I perceive ‘Is It Cold In The Water?  as a hauntingly riveting piece of music, with vocals sung Cecile Believe that send shivers down my spine. The lyrics ‘Earth shaking, I feel alone’ encapsulated on a personal level how I couldn’t envision an existence without my best friend by my side mocking my naturally deep, monotone voice, her showing me a piece of clothing she had just designed herself as she was an aspiring designer and hurting with laughter whilst impersonating certain celebrities.  My raging anger against the world intensified. I placed my formerly devoted belief in a higher existence under the microscope - a belief system that I unfortunately haven’t revisited ever since. ,Is It cold in the water’ epitomises the dilemma and hardship of entering unknown depths without any inkling of what overcoming the ‘cold water’ and how its aftermath would materialise, metaphorically speaking. I realised I had to place my feet in the cold water in order to heal and adjust to coping with my best friend’s death despite how petrifying the concept as such seemed at the time.

And then there’s the outstanding ‘Faceshopping.’ I’ll confess... when I originally listened to this track, I was rather, dare I say, baffled afterwards. The experimentally electronic provided by Sophie galvanised me as usual. However, as a cisgender woman who has dated men right up to the present moment, I was initially under the very ill informed assumption that I couldn’t identify with a lot of the album’s content produced by an trans woman. That display of shambolic ignorance was quickly put to rest when I analysed the lyrics of ‘Faceshopping’ with an open eye. It clicked that the song could symbolise more than one meaning. It examines the age of the internet and the lengths modern day go to in order to pass as beautiful, especially in the name of personal branding. Furthermore, the powerful track demonstrates SOPHIE’s mesmerisingly fervent opposition against what traditional values regard as beauty which is unquestionably ingenious. I feel the lyric ‘My shop is the face I front’ denotes a person’s individual freedom of complementing their psychical appearance - whether through simply makeup or plastic surgery - and evolving their true gender identity shouldn’t be shunned. As someone who has been extremely self conscious about my appearance since the tender age of 12 caused by several factors eg bullying at school, ‘Faceshopping’ uplifted my spirits and enlightened me that no influence other than my personal self shall control how I beautify my own body.

Skipping to 2020, the world has been transformed to a severe extent due to the Coronavirus infecting and heartbreakingly taking millions of people’s lives. With this almost dystopian nightmare occurring, I felt extremely poorly - physically speaking -  which had been affecting me since October of the same year. Ultimately I was rushed into hospital in December. After countless physical evaluations and days passing by whilst lying in a lonesome hospital bed, my doctor informed me that due to the severity of my current condition, the likelihood of permanent infertility is extremely high. The news put me into a state of shock. After my doctor left the room, the tears couldn’t stop streaming down my face. I had always envisioned raising my own children. Forgive me for the hyperbolic language but in that moment I felt defeated.

With the prospect of my womanhood being affected forever, I put my headphones to shut out the continuous ambulance sirens blaring outside. I pressed Shuffle Play on my SoundCloud and the first song that appeared was SOPHIE’s ‘Heav3n Suspended Livestream’ version of ‘My Forever’. Cecile Believe reiterating ‘Everbody’s got to own their body’ so ethereally, and the song as a whole proved to be therapeutic in the moment. After pressing the repeat button 20 times - at the very least - I had ANOTHER epiphany: no establishment should dictate what constitutes as femininity or womanhood. Even in the modern day society, childless people continue to be stigmatised, often branded as ‘selfish’ or ‘undesirable’ in many communities. I applaud the progress we’ve made in terms of tackling stereotypes associated with infertility. However, more work still needs to be carried out on this matter.  Although it’s only my individual interpretation of the song given the circumstances of my poorly health at the time, the lyrics reassured me that everybody’s - without a doubt -  GOT to own their body. Gosh that sounds so rhetorical!

After this pivotal awakening, I was rushed into surgery which lasted about two hours. The next day - feeling extremely lethargic - I woke up to the fantastic news that the doctors saved my physical health from infertility. I will always be so grateful for their treatment of me and my painful condition. Two weeks into recuperation post surgery, I had no choice but to exercise to boost my mental state caused by inactivity and to get my blood circulation going. As a lifelong, passionate dancer I conceptualised and performed a dance routine to SOPHIE’s club inspired, sublime ‘Take Me To Dubai’. - in front of my cracked bedroom mirror, ironically. Still, dancing again and no physical illness bringing me down felt like a individual rebirth. I was anticipating how 2021 would spell out for me - despite Covid 19 still permeating globally. 2021 finally arrived and not even a full month into the ‘glorious new year’, SOPHIE died.

I recall waking up to numerous messages and notifications capitalising the words: SOPHIE HAS DIED!’. In all honesty ... I froze. It didn’t register for about an hour. Afterwards, I couldn’t disguise the heartbreak and shock that SOPHIE was no longer with us - especially given the cause of her death. It’s been two weeks and I’ll acknowledge that I haven’t overcome the sentiment of anger and upset yet because of her untimely passing .The soundtrack to my existence is gone.

Whether SOPHIE’s musical stylings resonate with you or not, you can’t underestimate her fearless disposition and overwhelming talent. She inspired so many fans to embrace their true identity even when their environment was striving to silence them. She challenged our establishment’s shallow interpretation of beauty, gender and identity. Despite coming out as an trans woman and transphobia still being prevalent globally, SOPHIE didn’t let this form of prejudice stand in her way of achieving her dreams. Her revolutionary mark she left on the industry shall never be underemphasised by so many of us.

SOPHIE,

Thank you for everything. I will never ever forget you,

ROBS.

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: My first video about Depeche Mode--and it’s about their first album! I think it’s pretty good, but a lot of people HATE it. Are you intrigued? Take a listen, or read the transcript, and see where you fall!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be looking at the somewhat rough start of one of the most iconic bands in the history of electronic music: Depeche Mode, and their 1981 debut, Speak & Spell. While Depeche Mode are certainly a beloved band, many of their fans actively revile Speak & Spell. What’s wrong with it? Well, it has songs that sound like this.

Music: “Just Can’t Get Enough”

“Just Can’t Get Enough” isn’t exactly the kind of song Depeche Mode are associated with--though it did make an entry in the charts, and remains fairly well known today, largely thanks to its use in advertising. The band’s “classic run,” spanning roughly from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, saw them achieve substantial mainstream adulation, as a pop act peddling dark and gothic themes, and maintaining a substantial electronic element to their music, without ever becoming inaccessible to rock listeners. They were even “rock and roll” enough to consistently break America, which is no small feat for, essentially, a synth-pop band from England. That synth-pop heritage dominates the sonic palate of Speak & Spell, and it’s hard to imagine a die-hard rock fan vibing with upbeat, almost saccharine pop ditties like “What’s Your Name?”

Music: “What’s Your Name?”

Of course, “What’s Your Name?” has another big problem besides favouring bright, chirping synth riffs over the guitar-based chug of tracks like “Personal Jesus.” Its seemingly homoerotic lyrics might be said to constitute the first instance of Depeche Mode engaging in what we might call musical “queer-baiting.” Thumbing their noses at norms of sexuality and gender presentation have earned the band a substantial queer following throughout their career, but it’s not such a smart move if you’re trying to attract macho rock listeners, and get yourself into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Part of the reason why Depeche Mode were ultimately able to do those things, later in their career, is that they had a pretty handy scapegoat: Vince Clarke. Clarke was a founding member of the band, and as the chief songwriter for all but two tracks on Speak & Spell, he was unequivocally the creative force driving the album. Conveniently enough, Clarke not only departed from Depeche Mode immediately after this first album, but went on to serve as an integral member of two unequivocally poppy duos, Yazoo and Erasure. But as easy as it is to simply blame Vince Clarke’s interest in cheerful pop for the apparent failures of Speak & Spell, this hypothesis doesn’t hold up. Some Clarke-penned numbers, like “Puppets,” are at least as gloomy as anything from the mind of Martin L. Gore, who took over songwriting duties on every subsequent Depeche Mode LP.

Music: “Puppets”

“Puppets” is pretty far from a feel-good song. Those fairly bright synths remain, but here, they feel more like a tense crescendo of violins, as something goes poorly in a horror film, and a serrated synth stab answers them from below. Dave Gahan’s semi-whispered delivery of the vocals, which narrate the perspective of a manipulative and controlling partner, add even more to its sinister ambiance. Given only a minor aesthetic facelift, “Puppets” could fit just fine onto most other Depeche Mode albums, even if Clarke did write it. I actually think the softer, poppier touches this track DOES have serve it well, and make it feel a bit insidious--like a lover who seems loveable and charming at first, before revealing their abusive tendencies over time. Another track that really benefits from creating tension between pop fluff and things macabre is the striking “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead.”

Music: “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead”

“I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead” features an almost gratingly toylike synth riff, that reminds me a bit of those custom cell phone ringtones from the 00s. Its lyrics are also almost painfully chipper, at least at first, as is Gahan’s infantile delivery of them...but there seems to be some irony there. While that provocative title doesn’t actually appear, the song seems to be obliquely telling a story of someone dealing with a breakup, albeit cloaked in this eerily sunny music. International editions of *Speak & Spell* would remove this track in favour of the non-album A-side “Dreaming of Me,” presumably targeting it for its inflammatory title and short runtime of just over two minutes. “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead” is a powerful reminder that just because something has a shiny pop veneer doesn’t mean it’s disposable, or that it lacks in artistic complexity.

Still, if you’re in the market for something that feels more like “classic” Depeche Mode, Speak & Spell can deliver on that front as well. Look no further than Gore’s contributions to the album, such as “Tora! Tora! Tora!” With its frantic refrain, and troubling themes of nuclear holocaust, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” feels more like Depeche Mode’s classic run than just about anything else on Speak & Spell, prefiguring iconic tracks like “Leave In Silence” and “People Are People” quite well.

Music: “Tora! Tora! Tora!”

Speak & Spell’s cover is certainly strange and a bit opaque, showing some sort of bird in its nest from a very low angle. The background is almost entirely a lurid, artificial-looking pinkish red, with no other recognizable figures to ground this landscape in reality. Between the chaotic textures of the nest, and the surreal emptiness of the scene, it comes across as a sort of nightmare world, albeit one populated by only this fairly non-threatening creature...that we know of. If we look closely at that bird, we can start to see what looks like a transparent veil covering its neck and head. I like to interpret this image as a representation of the natural world, destroyed by human callousness: an animal suffocates under a sheet of plastic, while the sky behind it glows red with bombs “raining from the sky,” as in “Tora! Tora! Tora!”

Despite the title, you won’t hear any samples of the titular toy on Speak & Spell--though Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark would famously incorporate some on their album Dazzle Ships, a few years later. The title “Speak & Spell” would seem to suggest the album’s light, playful tone, and sense of pop novelty. A Speak & Spell is, of course, a fun and entertaining toy, which repeats the same handful of things over and over, as a pop song might be played *ad infinitum* on the radio. Perhaps the way the songs sneak a darker emotional undercurrent past their listeners is parallel to how the toy covertly educates children in basic spelling, while also being amusing to fool around with.

After Speak & Spell, it took several more years for Depeche Mode to really find their footing, and launch into that classic period of theirs where they released most of their best-loved material. Despite the absence of Vince Clarke, their sophomore LP, A Broken Frame, is stylistically rather similar to Speak & Spell, and pairs somber tracks like “The Sun and the Rainfall” and “My Secret Garden” with some very upbeat ones like “The Meaning of Love.” If the fact that Clarke could write “Puppets” didn’t sell you on my assertion that he isn’t the singular problem with Speak & Spell, the fact that Martin Gore wrote “The Meaning of Love” should serve as proof that the desire to make catchy pop tunes didn’t rest solely on any one person’s shoulders.

Music: “The Meaning of Love”

My favourite track from Speak & Spell is the opener, “New Life.” “New Life” was also released as a single and made substantial headway in the charts, though it doesn’t seem quite as well remembered as “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Like “I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead,” “New Life” is almost disgustingly catchy and hooky, but hides some surprisingly dark lyrics. But I’ll freely admit that I don’t particularly have some sophisticated, intellectually justified reason for liking this song the most, besides just thinking it’s a real toe-tapper. While I’ve gone to great lengths to dispel the idea that Speak & Spell is nothing but cheerful pop, I’d also like to point out that simply being cheerful pop isn’t exactly a musical sin. Whether you like it or not, it’s certainly far from easy to write a great pop song that stands the test of time, the way tracks like “New Life” and “Just Can’t Get Enough” have, and simply pointing out that they’re not as morose as later Depeche Mode songs isn’t a worthwhile criticism of them. While I enjoy a lot of more gothic music myself, I think a work of art that elicits the emotion of joy has as much of a shot at being a Great Album as one that wants to make us angry, sad, or afraid. On that note, I’ve reached the end of my video--as always, thanks for listening.

Music: “New Life”

[ajw720]

Actually, everything looks about right to me. Awful, but not unexpected at all. I figured on a hard push around this movie role. D is trying to land another movie role, I am sure, to complement his Quibi and Netflix shows and his Broadway play. He will be a hot commodity if he can also land a decent movie role or two. D was typecast as Blaine, so they don’t mention it here, PLUS they are catering to an adult audience, not fangurls, which is where he want to go in the next stage of his career.1

2. Vog/ue even re-posted The “Wedding” again, including the comment that they have “so many memories” in NOLA, according to D. Yeah, she was fired from Scre/am Que/ens BTS promo there, D probably had some convos with RM and BF there about AC/S Vers/ace and possible filming, maybe even some filming in NOLA, they got an eyeglasses contract there, and I actually remember he once was king at one of the Mardi Gras parades there. You would think Chicago, UMich, San Fran, even Palm Springs have more?

3. So let’s do some comparisons of where I think D is heading, based on some similar celebs, some Sun/shine Sa/chs clients often mentioned alongside D at the same events and in the same articles and magazines. I watch The Voice. It is no coincidence that both Adam Levine and Blake Shelton were voted People’s Sexiest Man. Now John Legend has been chosen. Nick Jonas will be the next host on that show. At least three of these folks are in D’s “P.R.” Pals circle. John Legend has an EGOT, too.

4. Just sayin’, Jonas or Legend will probably ask D to sit in as their “guest judge,” on The Voice next season, helping to shape the singer’s performances. Both are SS clients, or at least share some representation with D. Then Jonas will be set up to follow in Adam’s footsteps, if JoBr/os continue, while D would be more in the Legend lane, IMO. And two more “Sexiest Man” winners are funneled into the pipeline. These tired old formulas work, it’s why they use them. Same with bearding.

4. Or is it 5? About bearding contracts. Ju/stin Th/eroux was “fake married” to Jen/ifer Ani/ston, even though many celeb mags still talk as though they were real. Their “marriage” lasted exactly 30 months, then they announced that they were still “best friends” who would still hang out, but chose to go their separate ways. The contract probably started at least six months earlier, maybe 12 or 18. Both An/iston and Th/eroux each landed some plum roles recently, and nice paychecks to go with them. 

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

I want to start this by saying, I respect your opinion @rougedraconteur and I am confident there are many that agree with you, but I still don’t and nothing has happened to sway me or change my mind. I am publishing as I think all opinions should be heard and I welcome other commentators who want to debate on this thread (please don’t send me anons because this is my opinion and until I see change from Team utterly useless or D, it will not sway at this moment. As I have said repeatedly HW to me will be when we see if real change occurs or not).  So please do not take offense and I think you know by now, I enjoy conversing with you.  But you sent it to me so I have to respond:)

This is my opinion based on really watching this nightmare unfold for 9 months.

First, to erase the queer, they have to erase 80% of his career to date, not just G/lee. That move is to eliminate C.  The rest simply cannot be erased. Nor can the G/lee frankly and D clearly doesn’t want that or he would stop publicly associating with all of his co-stars, not just C. The fact that it was mentioned in the new video is indicative of how D/ARREN feels about it.

Second, if they want to even attempt to sell straight, they need to eliminate M.  Since the wedding, it has only getting worse.  It is beyond transparent, there are too many holes, a complete power imbalance, the GA doesn’t really buy it, and too many people know the truth.  And D has absolutely no interest in selling it. He is so bad at it, that they are desperately trying to use the people around him to sell it to make her legit.

Third, you are comparing M/ia to P/riyanka and J/ennifer?  No, just No. She is so unremarkable that they had to praise her for ONLINE SHOPPING SKILLS because there is nothing else she can be praised for. Nothing.  We cannot insult the former two (2) women by even attempting to compare them.

Fourth, M is a liability. I know I am a broken record, but that bar is offensive af and D should not be associated with it in any manner and any team that cared about him would remove him from that situation or require her to not use derogatory and misogynist themes.  No it is not woke, it is degrading and disgusting and any person who defends it, truly has to review their morals and values.

Fifth, D doesn’t have a record contract or an album beyond 2 EPs that I love, but are not well known. So a guest on The Voice, maybe, but a judge?  he doesn’t have the credentials.  I think he is a brilliant musician, much better than the JB (no comparison in my opinion), but that doesn’t get him a spot on that show with multi-platinum selling musicians.  

Sixth, D has yet to prove he can play a romantic leading man cast opposite a female.  In M/idway, I absolutely bought that he was in the Navy and he was very straight passing, but not a female insight while on screen.  S/mitten is frankly an awful film (and he knows it) and in G/irl M/ost L/ikely he played a guy who was in a boy band cover band. Need i say more? The video released yesterday?  it is funny, but it didn’t sell to me straight at all.

Seventh, R/oyalties is a throw away show that no one beyond his established fandom is going to watch. It was produced to pay out 10,000 obligations including to the jumping jackass, F/ox (they are still producing it), SK, Other Algorithm winners like JS and JC, and apparently M as she has some role.  I look forward to hearing his music, but i think it will be a small blimp on the radar in his career.

Eight, A/merican B/uffalo again has no females, and is not at all going to succeed or fail based on him being straight.  It stars 2 A++ list actors and D, who is climbing his way up the ranks and is going to depend on a theater audience to sell tickets, not teens that care about his sexuality.  This is serious show and b/roadway theater goers simply don’t care, I have been among them for years. His challenge, deliver another performance of his life time.  That will cement his place among the elite.

Ninth, we know little to nothing about HWood beyond that fact that it will have heavy themes of closeting. even if he plays the only straight character, he is not distancing himself from queer. He is choosing another project that is about gay/queer culture.  That is a statement in and of itself. As I said above, the marketing for Hwood is when my opinion may shift and not really until then unless i see a drastic change in course

Finally, they only way they will ever sell to me that they have committed to straight, D is on board and it is not just about making her legit and erasing CC from the narrative, the thing that petrifies everyone involved the most, is pairing him with a classy, ambitious beard that would generate positive press. M sells to her base, that is rapidly dwindling in numbers despite her prominence in his life and are irrelevant to d’s forward progress in his career.

my opinion, everyone is free to disagree:)

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Americans hit hard by layoffs worry about homelessness (Yahoo Money) With unemployment claims at historic highs as the pandemic grounds the economy to a halt, many Americans are struggling with diminished savings, unpaid bills, and worries over homelessness, according to a new study from Varo Money shared exclusively with Yahoo Money. One in 4 renters who lost a job or income due to the COVID-19 outbreak worry they could become homeless, while 1 in 7 homeowners with a mortgage said the same, the survey of 1,234 lower and middle-class Americans earning up to $75,000 found. Among the renters who have lost their income, 2 in 5 expect to make their rent for a maximum of three to four weeks and 1 in 4 expect to be able to afford their rent for one to two months. “Many of these people actually fear if they will be able to cover the rent, and homelessness is becoming a real issue,” Varo Money’s CEO Colin Walsh told Yahoo Money. “We’re talking about people that do not have emergency savings, they really don’t have any backstop.”

Reopening Has Begun. No One Is Sure What Happens Next. (NYT) Politicians and public health experts have sparred for weeks over when, and under what circumstances, to allow businesses to reopen and Americans to emerge from their homes. But another question could prove just as thorny—how? It isn’t clear what, exactly, it means to gradually restart a system with as many interlocking pieces as the U.S. economy. How can one factory reopen when its suppliers remain shuttered? How can parents return to work when schools are still closed? How can older people return when there is still no effective treatment or vaccine? What is the government’s role in helping private businesses that may initially need to operate at a fraction of their normal capacity? “We live in an economy where there are lots of interconnections between different sectors,” said Joseph S. Vavra, an economist at the University of Chicago. “Saying you want to reopen gradually is more easily said than done.”

Advertising adjusts for a new reality: Sweatpants for staying home and toilet paper that cares (Washington Post) “Just stay home” seems like an unusual sell from a hotel-booking service, but these are unusual times. Companies large and small are figuring out how to make ads that don’t seem insensitive or as if they’re from a different time, when people took beach vacations, ate in restaurants and wore shoes. On television, brands are switching to reassuring platitudes, telling viewers, “We’re in this together,” or in the touching words of one toilet paper company, “Together, we’ll keep America rolling.” On social media sites like Instagram, more advertisements are targeting those shut in, with extremely to-the-point messages shilling sweatpants, wine and food delivery, DIY hair dye kits, and home-office gadgets.

Foreign Students Stranded by Coronavirus (NYT) When universities abruptly shut down last month because of the coronavirus pandemic, many students returned to their parents’ homes, distraught over having to give up their social lives and vital on-campus networking opportunities. Graduating seniors lost the chance to cross anything but a virtual commencement stage. But the campus closures have created much greater calamity in the lives of the more than a million international students who left their home countries to study in the United States. Many had been living in college dorms and were left to try to find new housing, far from home in a country under lockdown. A substantial number of international students are also watching their financial lives fall apart: Visa restrictions prevent them from working off campuses, which are now closed. And while some come from families wealthy enough to pay for their housing or whisk them home, many others had already been struggling to cobble together tuition fees that tend to be much higher than those paid by Americans. As their bank accounts dwindle, some international students say they have had to turn to food banks for help. Others are couch surfing in the family homes of their friends but don’t know how long they will be welcome.

Skip college this fall? (Miami Herald) With time growing short and the future uncertain, many high school students are considering skipping college in the fall. The coronavirus pandemic has left many universities uncertain whether they’ll be able to welcome students to campus after summer, and many students don’t want to pay for top-flight universities if they can’t get the full in-person experience. Some say they may skip a year. Some may opt for cheaper alternatives like community colleges. Either way, the coronavirus could leave its mark on higher education long after the pandemic fades.

US senator Lindsey Graham believes Kim Jong Un ‘dead or incapacitated’ (The Independent) US senator Lindsey Graham said he believes North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is “dead or incapacitated” following unconfirmed reports of his demise. Rumours of Kim Jong Un’s death have swirled since he missed the commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, ten days ago. North Korean authorities have said nothing to counter media reports that Mr Kim is unwell, prompting concerns about who is next in line to run a nuclear-armed country that has been ruled by the same family for seven decades. South Korean and US officials have repeatedly indicated that there have been no unusual signs that could indicate health problems for Kim. A US official told Reuters the latest rumors about Kim’s health had not changed the US assessment of the information as “speculation.”

A pandemic of corruption mars the coronavirus response (Washington Post) When officials in his home state began giving food boxes to families hit by Colombia’s coronavirus lockdown, lawmaker Ricardo Quintero was struck by the exorbitant prices being paid to the vendors. So he armed himself with pictures of the coffee, pasta and other goods and went down to his local grocery store. There, he bought the same products for roughly half the supposedly bulk-rate prices being paid by the government of Cesar state. The comparison shopping prompted one of what is now 14 coronavirus-related criminal probes in Colombia. The South American country is one of many around the world now seeing a surge in corruption allegations. Countries large and small are shelling out trillions of dollars to combat both the coronavirus outbreak and its brutal economic fallout in what analysts are calling the largest financial response ever to a single global crisis. As governments race to source everything from food aid to face masks, they are prioritizing speed over transparency, dropping competitive bidding and other safeguards to keep pace with the pandemic. Most have no choice. Given the speed of the still unfolding crisis, it’s either buy quickly or put millions at risk. But concern is rising about the percentage of the taxpayer dollars—and euros and yen and pesos and more—lining the pockets of corrupt bureaucrats, crony contractors and crime syndicates.

UK PM Boris Johnson returns to face growing virus divisions (AP) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is returning to work after recovering from a coronavirus infection that put him in intensive care, with his government facing growing criticism over the deaths and disruption the virus has caused. Johnson’s office said he would be back at his desk in 10 Downing St. on Monday, two weeks after he was released from a London hospital. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has been standing in for the prime minister, said Sunday that Johnson was “raring to go.” Britain has recorded more than 20,000 deaths among people hospitalized with COVID-19, the fifth country in the world to reach that total. Thousands more are thought to have died in nursing homes.

Kids in Spain relish outdoor hour as virus lockdowns ease (AP) Shrieks of joy rang out Sunday in the streets of Spain as children were allowed to leave their homes for the first time in six weeks, while people in Italy and France were eager to hear their leaders’ plans for easing some of the world’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns. The sound of children shouting and the rattle of bikes on the pavement after the 44-day seclusion of Spain’s youngest citizens offered a first taste of a gradual return to normal life in the country that has the second-highest number of confirmed infections behind the United States. “This is wonderful! I can’t believe it has been six weeks,” Susana Sabaté, a mother of 3-year-old twin boys, said in Barcelona. “My boys are very active. Today when they saw the front door and we gave them their scooters, they were thrilled.”

Japan challenged in working from home amid pandemic (AP) When the Japanese government declared an emergency to curb the spread of the coronavirus earlier this month and asked people to work from home, crowds rushed to electronics stores. So much for social distancing. Many Japanese lack the basic tools needed to work from home. Contrary to the ultramodern image of Japan Inc. with its robots, design finesse and gadgetry galore, in many respects the country is technologically challenged. But the bigger obstacle is Japanese corporate culture, experts say. Offices still often rely on faxes instead of email. Many homes lack high-speed internet connections, and documents often must be stamped in-person with carved seals called “hanko,” which serve as signatures. So many Japanese really cannot work remotely, at least not all the time. A survey by YouGov, a British market researcher, found only 18% of those recently surveyed were able to avoid commuting to school or work, even though a relatively high 80% of people in Japan are afraid of catching the virus.

Netanyahu ‘confident’ US will support West Bank annexation (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is “confident” he will be able to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank this summer, with support from the U.S. Netanyahu says President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan envisions turning over Israel’s dozens of settlements, as well as the strategic Jordan Valley, to Israeli control.

[journey2maya]

Narratology: Essay First Draft

Analyse your chosen narrative with close reference to the Hero’s Journey or another appropriate template.

When people think about My Little Pony they often cast their mind back to the 80’s- 90’s film and various TV show iterations that were mainly made to sell toys. Therefore, anything that’s even remotely My Little Pony related will have that edge of nostalgia. I’ve always been a fan of My Little Pony, the 2010 reboot of the show, of which the 2017 movie is based on, means a great deal to me which is why I’ve chosen to analyse the movie for my essay.

The movie was produced by DHX media in collaboration with AllSpark pictures, using Toon Boom Harmony production software [ ] which specialises in integrating 3D elements with 2D characters. [ ] What’s also interesting is the ponies received a ‘slight makeover’ in the art style department. The art style from the movie is different to that of the show. This can most notably be seen with the character rainbow dash.

Fig 1. Rainbow Dash from the movie

Fig 2. Rainbow Dash from the show

As you can see, Fig 1shows  the inner ear shape is different and the ears themselves are slightly pointed. This allows the ears to be more expressive and to be more akin to real life horse ears. The line art is thinner and is a darker tone of the inside colour to increase appeal and ease of animation. The eyes were given sparkles and transparent highlights as opposed to the harsh white ones in the show style. This adds emotion to the characters and requires less detail in the line art stage.

There is a deleted scene that was set to act as a prologue to the movie. It gives a bit of exposition to those who aren’t familiar with the shows lore using beautifully animated and designed stained glass windows

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=58gHan8imw4

The plot of the movie is undoubtedly that of a quest. To give an overview; the menacing Storm King invades Canterlot with with intentions to steal the magic from the four princesses. It’s up to the mane six, they must make a journey that takes them outside the borders of equestria for the first time, travelling through a seedy town, an undersea world and engaging in a thrilling race to save Equestria from the Storm King’s rein.

At the start of the film we see the ponies preparing for the first ever friendship festival in Canterlot, Equestrias capital. Everything is exciting and happy. We get miniature introductions to the rest of the mane six, including spike, to show a little of their personality. This is important because it makes the characters seem more real. They’re not just an accessory to Twilight's adventure, they’re individuals and they’re part of it in a big way.  Twilight Sparkle, the unofficial leader of the friend group, is being true to character and is worried that the festival won’t be perfect. As the Princess Of Friendship the pressure is all on her to make sure that everypony has a good time. Twilight’s friends rally around her in an attempt to reassure her that everything will be fine in the form of a song. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b29_SumLQv8

The song ‘We Got This Together” prooves to be very important during the movie. It represents the code of teamwork and relationship between the mane six. It is called back to throughout the movie. It is also important because the song ends when Pinkie Pie launches a giant 5-tier cake which lands on top of Twilight, spilling out everywhere because the ‘easy bake confetti cannon’ didn’t go exactly as planned. We then get the first stage of a classic quest story; the call.

Dark clouds loom over Canterlot, blackening the perfectly clear sky. Normally this wouldn’t be anything to worry about but in the lore of MLP, Pegasi ponies can control the weather. Twilight even gets frustrated because she “ordered perfect weather.” It’s a huge contrast to the start of the film. Morale was high and everypony was happy, enjoying the facilities. The sky was clear and bright, colourful and pastel.

We are introduced to our first antagonist. Tempest shadow. The Storm Kings Loyal henchman/ bounty hunter.

Fig 3. Tempest asks for surrender

Tempest instantly stands out as a character. Hwr colour palette is darker than normal, most characters in the film and tv show have a Pastel or bright colour palette. It is often only the antagonists that have the darker look which is why Princess Luna despite being one of the protagonists, has a darker palette as she used to be the tyrannical Nightmare moon but bass reformed by the mane six. Tempest is also a unicorn with a broken horn, making her even more of an outsider to the audience.

When the princesses refuse to surrender their magic an army of airships emerge from the fog and the Storm guards jump down from Tempest’s skiff to terrorise and capture the ponies.

Fig 4. The Storm guards reveal their existence

Tempest turns the three princesses, Celestia, Luna and Cadence, into obsidian statues.

Fig 5. Princess Cadence has been affected

Fig 6. Twilight saves Princess Luna from smashing to pieces

Before Celestia is completely encased in this prison she tells Luna to fly south and seek help from the queen of the hippogriffs but is cut off and only manages to say hippo. Twilight over hears this and managed to escape with her friends by going over one of the waterfalls that make up caterlots architecture.

This scene is recognised as the call because it sets the journey in nothing and gives us a need for one. Princess Celestia is Twilight’s mentor and therefore acts as the wise old man figure in the film. She gives the mane six the goal of the quest which is believed to be the task of finding the queen of the hippos and that was all Twilight heard.

The next identifying factor of a quest story, perhaps one of the most defining which is certainly present in the movie, is Twilight isn’t alone in taking this journey towards her new-found goal. Twilight is accompanied by her friends who each have their own virtues and abilities that contribute to the success of the adventure.

The first of Twilight's friends to show this is Rarity, the element of generosity. The ponies are trudging through a desert, exhausted and near hallucination until they come across a city and we’re introduced to our first key location; Kludgetown.

The city is run- down. It’s dark and made of sharp angles and shapes where as Canterlot is very round and picturesque. This contrasts with the mane six also. It reiterates that they really are far from home and makes them seem very small as the world has now because much bigger and more unknown.

Fig 5. A comparison between Kludgetown and Canterlot exteriors

Pinkie Pie inevitably draws attention to the mane six by asking directions. This gets the mane six cornered by the locals who try to buy the mane six's' possessions such as spike, and Rarity’s hair.

At this point we are introduced to our first helper character, Capper, an anthropomorphic con-artist cat

This iteration of my essay was far too long. It was well over the word limit and I hadn’t even got to the conclusion yet. I went into far too much detail and gave too much context where it wasn’t needed. Some of images were also unnecessary.

[ear]

PLEASE share your vld reboot ideas aja the show canon is garbage and your mind is so galaxy brain

OK OK ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!!! alright so idk what kind of. earth landscape this reboot occurs in…. like yallve got this retro 80s/90s neon future verse going on but i didnt think my reboot version would fit into that so yall go wild with whatever hc for this earth reboot thing u want cuz im not creative and i didnt really think that far ahead

ALRIGHT here we go. this is so long i HAVE to put this under the cut but i hope yall enjoy the creations of my MIND……

- akeno “KEITH” shirogane: (age: 19) [gay] hes japanese/black/galran. hes still half galra in this reboot bc i fuck with that honestly but hes got more visible galran traits. his bottom canines are larger than usual and poke out from his bottom lip so he wears a mask to cover his mouth and his eyes r still purple but instead of his sclera being yellow(tinted), hes just like. got some odd golden flecks in his eyes. he normally wears a dirty mechanics jumpsuit with the top half tied around his waist and a black or white tank top underneath (hes still a high school flunk out so he works full time at a car repair shop so hes able to buy food and shit at LEAST + hes still got his motorcycle to keep in shape). his casual clothes r just regular grey sweats, hoodies, and adidas or whatever brand is closest in their future lol. hes blood related to shiro who ill get to in a second.. shiros blood related to him as his uncle (brother of keiths dad) ALSO his hair isnt long in this reboot, hes got a short messy head of hair that he mostly just pulls back into a TINY little pony tail on his forehead (like in the game show ep) so it doesnt get in his face while hes working. he also has goggles bc thats the one thing from yalls reboot ideas i actually like (endgame lion: he momentarily pilots black during shiros disappearance but his permanent and stationary lion is red)

- fal’allura “fala, ALLURA” naguna’ephy: [lesbian] (age: 21 or close to that in alien standards) shes altean on her fathers side and teem (what we’re gonna call nymas race) on her mothers side. she bares more altean features except her eyes are solid yellow and shes only got four fingers on each hand. instead of crescent shaped facial markings, she has painted on red and golden lines across her nose and her upper lip. her hair (very dark purple with silver highlights and literal glowing, twinkling stars) is VERY long, brushing the floor as she walks except and (now bear with me cuz this might be hard to explain) her hair, the farther down u look kind of fades away? like it becomes semi to absolute transparent… idk how else to explain it but i hope u understand…. she does wear a crown but its more like a headdress.. (imagine beyonces headdress).. she doesnt wear it often, usually only on diplomatic missions to greet other worldly rulers bc its heavy and it makes her neck hurt :/.. her dress! looks like this! but a little more spiffy .. u know.. her casual/training clothes are just…. idk imagine a royal looking sports bra and leggings?? i guess … ALSO ALSO ALSO she can still shape shift but instead of limiting her shifting to just the changing of skin tone and height, she can completely mimic different alien species but only humanoid races.. like she can have those indented looking knees and huge ass horns and all that but she cant like. turn into an earth lizard u know what im saying. also also also also she still speaks with an accent just… not a british one….(endgame lion: no lion. she keeps leading and piloting the castle ship until destruction, where she leads and pilots the atlas)

- alejandro “LANCE, ale” reyes-leon: (age: 19 ½) [bi] hes cuban/black/vietnamese. his dad is black and vietnamese and his mom is cuban! hes got longish afro textured hair he keeps back in a pony tail most of the time like this or a bun when training bc hes too lazy to put any actual effort into styling it. hes got a couple moles/freckles scattered across his face and hes got sectoral heterochromiaaround his left pupil so theres a little bit of blue in one of his other wise dark brown eyes (like this).. i havent really figured out what his clothing style is.. i thought about keeping his clothes close to vld canon like his jacket (bc that was a really good jacket) but im gonna go a little wild here so hold on. he wears one of those surfer type looking skin tight turtleneck shirts underneath his heavy bomber jacket.. he wears just regular ripped jeans and hightops like in canon…….. hmm……. he wears a pink bead necklace under his shirt that was made by his little cousin just a couple weeks before he was shot off into space and he hasnt taken it off since…………. he also has a tiny stick and poke tattoo on his ankle he did when he was thirteen bc he thought it would look cool but it turned out kinda lop sided so he never takes his socks off in embarrassment (endgame lion: blue to red (during keiths reign as black paladin) then to black when shiro leaves voltron to lead the atlas alongside allura)

- takashi “SHIRO” shirogane: (age: 31) [gay] hes japanese/black. hes keiths uncle and the only family keith really has .. his design doesnt really change much except hes got long hair (like kuron) but its pulled up into a messy bun or pony tail.. in MY canon hes still gay and married to adam (whos name isnt adam i just cant think of a new name for him yet) (and adam lives dont worry) and theyre working on adopting a daughter before shiro has to leave for kerberos. shiro usually dresses in work out outfits so like. gym shorts… tank tops.. leggings.. imagine those white blonde dudes who always wear a man bun and only eat vegan and drink chai from starbucks bc thats exactly how shiro acts but ONLY ironically ……… when shiros abducted on the galra freighter and forced to fight in the ring, his hair streaks white but instead of just a clean scar across his nose, he has multiple long scars scattered across his face from a one x one between his face and some debris thrown at him by a gladiator. his prosthetic looks and remains kinda the same i guess but this time its decked out with claws on the finger tips so it looks a little more galran yeah? (endgame lion: no endgame lion. he pilots the atlas alongside allura)

- francesca “frannie, frankie, PIDGE” eleonora: (age: 15) [trans girl lesbian] shes . just italian i guess. so anyway shes not gonna be an asshole bitch like canon pidge.. shes gonna be the caring sweet but KINDA mean little sister we always wished we had.. the little sister who would tell u, with all honesty, that ur winged eyeliner was smudged before u hit the town with the girls and made a fool of urself……. ANYWAY shes still gonna be the ‘hacker’/computer geek techno girl but not as much ykno? shes JUST a little girl so she just kinda does her own thing. i rlly like all the fanart i see of her wearing overalls and stuff SO thats her canon design…… she wears faded overall jeans over a short sleeved pale pink tshirt w a dog one it and scuffed up chucks. she wears glasses but instead of just taking them from matt she has an actual prescription and is basically blind without them. i literally cannot stress this enough but shes such a nice girl like the team pretty much adopted her as their little sister the moment they boarded the castle ship. idk what else to add on to her!!!! i literally did not put any thought into pidge at all! (endgame lion: permanently green)

- opetaia“HUNK” tuitama: (age: 19 ¾) [bi] hes samoan/black. hunk was adopted and has two moms and three other siblings, all of who are younger than him. im not sure about his fashion other than i KNOW deep down in my heart that he would wear cargo shorts…. i cant find it in me to get rid of his bandana thing so i let him keep it except he uses it to tie his hair up instead of using it as a head band thing….. HUNK in my au is more of a tech freak/engineer than pidge so he handles most of that stuff with the occasional help from pidge (like wiring… she has tiny fingers that can grab the wires easier) hunk probably wears the crocs/sandals with socks combo but just because he loves hearing lance bitch about it whnever he struts into a room. hunk also looks good in his vest so im gonna let him keep that but it looks more modified… like it has a bunch of pockets and stuff to keep bolts and nuts and other stuff he needs to work with.. thats also why he wears cargo shorts; just for the pockets.. (endgame lion: permanently yellow)

also ur probably wondering “if lance is in black and keith is in red and allura doesnt pilot a lion, THEN WHOS PILOTING BLUE????” …….. heh… peep this………..

- ADAM elsammak-althani(thank u mal @fuckvld for ur gorgeous arabic adam hcs..): (age: 32) [gay] i dont have much to say about him other than read mals hc lists and that ADAM LIVES IN MY REBOOT and he also joins the voltron team and pilots the blue lion (i FIRMLY hc that hes a very free/wild spirit and just loves to make jokes and is just.. a really fun guy to be around and obviously blue would open up to him in a SECOND. dont even @ me) (endgame lion: BLUE!)

[nickgerlich]

More Cowbell

My father taught me many lessons about doing the marketing. That’s an old-school term for grocery shopping. He was the purchasing agent in our family for everything we ate, and took his work seriously.

After all, he was an accountant. He could squeeze blood out of turnips, I tell you.

One thing I remember quite well is his admonition to shop where the best cuts of beef could be found. I guess he figured that anyone could handle chicken, turkey, and ham, but it took a special skill to do the beef right. And in the absence of any decent supermarket beef, he would just go to a butcher shop. That’s how serious he was about it.

Many years ago, the butcher’s union in Chicago had a grip on their business, and when they went home at 6pm, no meat could be sold. Period. They rolled out long sheets of butcher paper and covered up the meat, just like some stores close off the liquor section on Sunday.

That was then, though. Soon enough the unions lost their grip, and meat became something you could buy along with toilet paper at 10pm.

When my parents moved to Florida back in the 80s, they quickly settled on Publix as their preferred supermarket, one among many choices, but the one that had, in Dad’s estimation, the best beef. By default, they got the rest of his business.

Apparently Publix understood this, too, because even to this day they employ numerous butchers in each store to make sure they have freshly cut beef ready to take home and grill. Dad was not alone in his buyer behavior, and Publix obliged nicely.

Which may explain why Walmart just announced it is getting into the beef business with a unique partnership with four other companies in three states, including Mc6 feedlots in Hereford TX. Their press release says it’s all about transparency and other Marketing buzz words, but the truth is, they are establishing their own supply chain for 500 stores, and making a major effort to build consumer confidence in their meat department.

While I won’t be buying any for personal consumption because of my dietary preferences, I will certainly buy it for my family. Furthermore, this is a serious move, one more piece in the puzzle as the grocery wars continue to heat up. Amazon may be busy building its logistical supply chain, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if I see Jeff Bezos standing knee-deep in you-know-what telling us he just bought a feedlot.

If there is one thing that Walmart hasn’t exactly been known for in its grocery section, it is meat. There isn’t a butcher in sight, and even though there still won’t be any in the future, at least Walmart will be able to say it has a quality private label of beef. You can count on them beating this cowbell loudly.

I’m also sure the four partner companies...two in Texas, one in Kansas, the other in Georgia...are also happy with this arrangement, as it will certainly boost their sales, and hopefully signal an expansion of this initial market test. There are a few thousand more Walmarts around the country that could be served, which means these companies are probably all a little bit giddy right now.

And if Dad were still around, maybe he would change his mind about Publix and give Walmart another shot for his grocery dollar. If anyone knew the answer to that old advertising question “Where’s The Beef?” it was him. We could always count on him to bring home the best.

Job well done, Dad...literally, and on your plate.

Dr “Make His A T-Bone“ Gerlich

Listen: https://soundcloud.com/nickgerlich/more-cowbell

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite? - Part 4: BLACK DOOM

There are some villains I like. And there are some villains I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a new mini-series of mine, in which I’ll be going into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the villains in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves in the game(s) they featured in. Keep in mind that these are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, we'll be helping the brave-hearted hero take on the black-hearted evil as we discuss the alien threat of Shadow the Hedgehog's spinoff, and champion Dr. Claw impressionist: Black Doom.

The Gist: Remember Shadow? Thought he died? Well he didn't apparently, as he was discovered by Rouge in one of Eggman's compounds like it was no big deal. Though he was generous enough to help out with fighting bad guys alongside Rouge and the rejected E-Series juggernaut, E-123 Omega, there was one thing that was troubling him. Namely, he couldn't remember a goddamn thing outside of his name, his abilities, and possibly his favourite colour.

“Maybe it's the dead girl I just thought of... Wow, maybe I DON'T have amnesia.”

So one day Shadow was contemplating who he was, reasoning that sitting on his ass would be more beneficial than actually asking the other characters for information on the subject. When suddenly, right on cue, a bunch of aliens fell from the sky and started asserting their bad guy dominance via fucking shit up.

“We remembered to take the parachutes with us, right?... right...?”

The Ultimate Lifeform was initially unconcerned about something that he probably would have sorted out without a second thought if he were actually in-character, but his undivided attention was soon caught by the presence of the alien leader, Black Doom. This fellow, who already knew Shadow on a suspiciously familiar basis, made the benevolent promise that if Shadow were to find the Chaos Emeralds for him, he in turn would help him discover the truth of who he is, and maybe give him the extra cash to buy a PS4 or something.

“If he says the blue hedgehog is evil... then like it or not, I have to believe him.” - Knuckles the Echidna

Things from here onwards... got complicated. Due to the nature of Shadow's game, you could go through all sorts of expertly constructed paths depending on whether you felt like being a heroic gentleman, a villainous swine, or somewhere in-between. This meant that one moment you could be up in space, figuring out how Black Doom was involved in your past, then the next minute you're back on Earth, questioning if you're an android made by Eggman. The progression of Shadow's story was - in a word - tangled.

That said, we do find out some pretty important things thanks to Doom. About 80% of that is what we already knew in Sonic Adventure 2: scientist creates Shadow, girl makes friends with Shadow, bang bang girl is dead, bang bang scientist is executed. But if you felt it wasn't enough for Shadow to be a biological creation made by a kindhearted scientist who eventually went apeshit over his granddaughter's death via the incompetent military and subsequently concocted a devilish (and loophole-filled) plan to take everyone with him posthumously... well, get ready, because it turns out he's part alien too!

How is this so? Bad writing. As it turns out, Professor Gerald Robotnik made a deal with Black Doom prior to Shadow's completion. He needed that extra spicy flavor to make the Ultimate Lifeform worthy of that title, so he figured making a deal with Literally Satan™ was morally and logically sound. And we're supposed to believe this was before he went insane.

“Maybe he'll renounce his evil ways if I wear these fuzzy blue slippers in front of him.”

Gerald wasn't completely braindead however, as he created the Eclipse Cannon to do away with the Black Arms in the event that they turned out to be moustache twirling fiends. Still makes you wonder why he made the deal in the first place though, seeing how he had many other options to choose from in a universe filled to the brim with sources of power and/or immortality.

Also, making a giant cannon in space is dangerous.

Someone could use it for malicious purposes.

Which is exactly what happened.

Twice.

It happened in this very game, even.

By the alien it was supposed to be used against.

“Thanks for the free weapon, dumbass.”

Say what you will about Eggman's mistakes, at least his goofiness gives him an excuse.

Anyway, Shadow is naturally distraught about being the son of Literally Lucifer™, but he decides to stick it to his dad and kills him in a climactic battle anyway. Sonic and chums would have helped, but they got taken out of commission via Doom's paralyzation gas, which was never brought up at all before this point and was clearly only set up so that Shadow could be the only one to save the day. You would think everyone else WOULDN'T be affected since they DON'T have Black Arm DNA inside them, but what do I know about deus ex machinas programmed by actual aliens.

“You all failed. I didn't say Black Doom Says.”

So Shadow defeats Literally Beelzebub™, and subsequently uses the Eclipse Cannon to destroy the Black Comet, the aliens' home domain, before deciding to put his past behind him once and for all. We're thirteen years on, and we haven't seen a single Black Arm since then, so we can safely conclude that Shadow drove an entire species to extinction. Hurray!

What NOW, Attenborough?

The Design: Doom's design is looking a bit wise, man.

*seal laugh*

“One, two, three! THREE fingers! Three, two, one! ONE dimension for my character! Ah! Ah! Ah!”

I mean, credit where it's due, at least it's its own thing and not a recolour of another character in the same franchise, even if he did steal a page from NiGHTS. But on the whole, it's not a great design for a Sonic villain, because he doesn't even look like a Sonic villain. He looks as though he could have jumped out of any run-of-the-mill product involving demons, aliens, or demon aliens.

His Devil Doom form is not much better.

Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry™ Series

When the only impression Doom's design leaves me with is the question of how he gets his head through small doors, you know it's not looking good.

The Personality: He's evil.

And he's evil.

He's also evil.

By the way, he's evil.

Not a lot of people know this, but between you and me, he's evil.

And you know what else? He's evil.

Evil.

Yeah, there's not a lot to say here. Shockingly enough, the villain they decided to name Black Doom doesn't have much of a personality beyond his villainy. While there is a hint that he wants to expand his race, he's mainly in it for the evulz. About the closest thing to him having a trait outside of that is the curious implication that he doesn't know what lightning is.

The Execution: Black Doom is presented as a serious villain, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, because everything about him is completely half-hearted. His design is generic, his lines are full of tired cliche after tired cliche, he doesn't really do an awful lot outside of commanding Shadow's actions, and his voice is less “scary and imposing” and more “I smoke twenty a day”. They tried so hard to create someone so serious, yet they ended up doing the opposite and made one of the most unintentionally brilliant comic relief characters in the entire franchise.

“Oh no. He teleported me to some ruins. This is suffering.”

And yet, because of that... I actually can't bring myself to hate him. Whereas villains like Mephiles and Eggman Nega simply annoy me with their own issues, Black Doom is so one-dimensional, so transparent, so accidentally comical in his attempts at being cool, that I can't help but have an ironic fondness for him. Granted, it probably helps that he actually is regularly mocked by everyone and never gained a massive undeserved fandom like Mephiles and Nega did, but still. You really would be forgiven for assuming that Doom is a masterful parody of one-note villains.

But I'm not blind to the reality. He's not a masterful parody. He really was intended to be cool, badass, menacing, and everything he ended up not being. Objectively, he's a failed concept, and while I personally believe that Shadow's backstory as established in canon was messy from the beginning, the inclusion of aliens nonetheless complicated it even further, and it's highly unlikely that Shadow will be living down the events of his spinoff in-universe or otherwise, all thanks to Ten Packs a Day Man.

He's a shit father, is what I'm saying.

Crusher Gives Black Doom a: Thumbs Down!

[bxebxee]

Why Cinderella Is Important To Me, an Informal Essay

There are some feminists who are vocal opponents of Disney princesses like Cinderella. Before I really go into why Cinderella is important (to me), I think it’s important to recognize that without the work of the feminists of the 60s/70s/80s/90s...etc., the world would truly be a worse-off place, and I am FOREVER grateful for all of their contributions. The world is not perfect, and neither is feminism. Older feminists got (and continue to get) a lot of important, good things right, but some of their views concerning Disney princesses in general rubs me the wrong way. (The article linked is from 2006, so take it with a grain of salt. I will reference this later.) 

I think there are some key generational differences in feminist culture of women who were born in the 70s versus women who were born in the 80s, and certainly for all women moving forward. When we are born into a society with a set standard (whatever that standard may be), we respond in a different way, and our priorities/activist attention will be centered on other issues. I recommend that everyone read this really good take by Anne Marie Slaughter concerning women, the workplace, and living. This article does a better job at explaining this than I could ever possibly hope to do. 

I don’t like to block-quote, but this is POWERFUL stuff from Anne Marie Slaughter: 

I owe my own freedoms and opportunities to the pioneering generation of women ahead of me—the women now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who faced overt sexism of a kind I see only when watching Mad Men, and who knew that the only way to make it as a woman was to act exactly like a man. To admit to, much less act on, maternal longings would have been fatal to their careers. But precisely thanks to their progress, a different kind of conversation is now possible. It is time for women in leadership positions to recognize that although we are still blazing trails and breaking ceilings, many of us are also reinforcing a falsehood: that “having it all” is, more than anything, a function of personal determination.

Okay, now to the fun stuff. 

Let me summarize Cinderella:

Cinderella (Cindy) is a rich, privileged girl who lives with her single-parent father because her mother died when she was just a baby. Cindy lives in a de-facto castle with a Pony. Her dad is hella rich, and since he adores her, she’s probably the sole beneficiary. 

The dad feels guilty that Cindy doesn’t have a mom and then unilaterally decides to marry some woman for the sole purpose of having her act as a mother to his kid. Note: in the Disney movie, it’s expressly stated that Cindy’s dad went out looking for a mom replacement - nothing more. 

The dad dies. Cindyis then “abused and humiliated” by the stepmother and made into a servant in her own home. 

Cindy’s room is in the servant quarters. She hangs out with rodents and birds and basically lives at the whim of her terrible stepfamily. She has no life and does menial labor for people who make her life miserable. 

But One Day, there’s this Ball she wants to go to, and her stepmom is terrible human being who taunts Cindy by saying she can go if she has a dress. Note: this serves two purposes - (1) it’s a way of saying no; and (2) it’s a way of rubbing it in Cindy’s face that she has nothing and is nothing. 

Big theme that’s always repeated and is relatively true is that Cindy stays “kind and good” throughout all of this and perseveres through sheer “goodness” of her heart. Because she’s “kind and good” to the animals, they make a dress for her using the scraps luxury goods lying around the house. 

The stepsisters assault Cindy and rip the dress from her body. This is violent and humiliating, and tbh you should be locked up if you pull this shit! Anyway, they stepfam leave for the ball after twisting the knife and Cindy is miserable and probably at the Brink. 

Important: The Fairy Godmother makes an appearance and saves the day. I want to stress that it is not the prince who ends up saving Cinderella, but rather the Fairy Godmother. Without FairyG, you don’t have a happy ending. 

The Fairy Godmother is the one who presents the magical Deus Ex Machina for Cindy to get her life for one night. But FairyG knows that Cindy is a hot girl who’s been thoroughly sheltered for her entire life, so she gives a curfew of midnight. “The magic will wear out” is such bullshit tbh like just say you don’t want Cindy out too late. 

Cindy loses 1 slipper in her rush to get home, and that sets off the whole Find Cindy arc of the last 1/3 of the movie. 

The prince is so fucking into Cindy omg. He wants to wife her. 

Eventually, the search crew gets to Cindy’s place, but stepmom catches wind that Cindy might be mystery gal. Cindy gets locked in the tower but she breaks free due to the help from her animal friends!!

Stepmom trips the guy holding the glass slipper, causing the slipper to SHATTER so that Cindy doesn’t put it on. But stepmom is a cuck who doesn’t know Cindy is a real bitch with a backup plan. 

Cindy pulls out the spare shoe she has, puts it on, and we montage to the marriage scene and happily ever after. 

The supposed message that is distasteful to a lot of people is that Cinderella is a girl who doesn’t have a dream outside of marriage and aspires to being someone’s wife as her ultimate goal. She escapes one servitude for another. In THIS article, which I linked above as well, the author says this about Cinderella when she talks to her daughter: “It’s just, honey, Cinderella doesn’t really do anything.” 

Cinderella’s "Passivity” Explained: 

Now I agree with a lot of things in that article, but I am purposely pulling out that one quote because it Pisses Me Off when people categorize Cinderella as some jobless shut-in. 

Cinderella wasn’t like this by choice. Her dad died when she was too young to be independent, and her new guardian was a terrible human being who basically kept her around for inheritance purposes. Cindy was not financially independent, nor did she have any power. Let’s really consider her background!!! If her father thought that she “needed” a mother, he probably never taught her anything about finances or her rights (assuming we’re in an era where those existed). Like... I can see he loved her very much, but what it’s a very 1950s thought to assume your kid needs both a mother and a father. (Cinderella was released in 1950 LOL.) 

So Cinderella’s real problems started because her dad made incredibly poor choices related to co-parenting. And for all of the stepmother’s faults, maybe it pissed her off that she was only being wifed because this guy wanted her to act as a glorified nanny for his brat. The stepmother is still terrible though, no excuses. Anyway, it’s evident that Cinderella’s childhood and adolescence were not happy times, and she had very little time to adjust to this new world order. 

x

“Good and Kind” is Misleading: 

Cinderella is part of the union of Nice Princesses, the OG3 of Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora. You have feisty Disney princesses like Ariel, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Merida...etc., and then you have girls like Cindy. 

One of the main themes of Cinderella that they push really hard is that she’s a good person. She’s kind, hopeful, and doesn’t let the meanness of the world change her. Her purity is related to purity of spirit, where the negative circumstances around her do not turn her heart towards bitterness. Check out this song for the proof. 

I agree that she’s a good person, but throughout the movie you’ll see a lot of places where Cindy gets snarky and shady!!! I mean the FACES that she makes when her stepmother gives her ridiculous chores: 

(You can watch the full vid here. Also, can you believe how hilarious that this face appears right at 4:20? LOL) 

“Good and Kind” doesn’t mean she’s not sneaky when she wants to be. There’s this one scene where Cinderella drops a tray of tea in “surprise” at the news that the duke is going around testing feet sizes of all the maidens. Now, I’ve seen Cinderella balance three loads of laundry while avoiding a nasty cat who always tries to trip her. She didn’t look like she dropped it in surprise because she HARDLY jumped. I guess you can say maybe she was so out of it and surprised that nothing else registered, but my take is that she dropped it on purpose to eavesdrop on the stepmother. 

Cinderella’s version of sneaky is also kinda funny too because when she escapes the tower, she has that other glass slipper with her. A Real Bitch Is Always Prepared!!!! And she had the nerve to chirp “if it would help~~~”

I love her. 

x

Cindy is Not Perfect:

The one thing I will say about Cindy is that she is Naive. She is Naive as HELL. She does try to believe in the goodness of all people/animals, and she gives people the benefit of the doubt. But she’s terrible at hiding her emotions when she’s happy. She’s transparent as Glass whenever she’s in a good mood, and she gets Radiant. The stepmother cannot stand this, and it kills her to see Cinderella happy. 

The only reason Cinderella gets locked in the tower right before the duke shows up with the slipper she left behind is because the stepmother notices Immediately when Cinderella is happy. The stepmom has this sixth sense for it, and she puts together two and two to figure out that Cinderella was the Mystery Gal from the ball. 

x

The Prince is Irrelevant:

People also dislike OG3 princess movies because the prince “saves” the princess for her happily ever after. I want to stress that it was the Fairy Godmother who was the mvp in all of this. The prince is an Afterthought, and he was a happy accident for Cinderella, but the person who made it all possible was the Fairy Godmother. 

I will always say that Cinderella was craving a life, not a man.

But back up for a second because frankly... Cinderella getting with the fucking prince is Peak Revenge on her terrible stepfam. I mean you have Cinderella who has lived the better part of her life as an abused servant-orphan suddenly getting married to the prince, who will probably have political and financial power over these terrible people. Also, can the stepfam do any better than the royal family? Probably not. Even at the ending, Cinderella flat out kisses the king’s head as if he was a child. The duke is probably pissing himself over keeping her happy because she basically saved his life by pulling out that the shoe letting him complete his task successfully. She has EVERYONE in the royal family eating out of her palm.

x

Conclusions: 

On a personal level, I feel emotional fondness for Cinderella because she hangs in there. She endured a lot of bullshit, but she eventually got out. That’s the happy ending that gives me hope. Marriage/finding a man is not what drives satisfaction of that movie. We cheer because Cinderella gets to leave her abusers behind in the dust while living her best life. 

SHE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER! 

The End!

[lmfmp2021]

Experimenting With Composition And Improving My Front Label Design

Here, this post is showing that I decided to change the pattern around as my thinking behind this is that if I have the same exact same layout for each tile, apart from the flavour illustration, it’s going to look very boring and predicable. This then may lead to the viewers not properly looking at the design and just assuming its the same drawings, when in fact it’s now. So to avoid this, I thought that having each individual tile slightly different, making the overall repeat pattern look different. 

Below is presenting the pattern I currently have and thought I was going to use, although, I’m planning on rearranging the composition so that the layout looks very different to this screenshot. 

Beneath is now showing where I have done this concept. It was very simple, where I have kept all the illustrations the same size, but I have just rearranged the composition. This now shows a very different look and I’m hoping when I turn it into a repeat pattern, it will look even better. 

After that, this is then showing the process to turn this one tile into a repeat pattern. Like before, I went to ‘object’, ‘pattern’ and ‘make’, where this would bring up the tab showing in the top left corner. I changed the name to something that would be easy to find again and the ‘tile type’ to ‘brick by column’. Next, I played around with the ‘brick offset’, to which, I found 3/4 was the probably the most unpredictable. 

Here, I then decided to bring this new pattern onto my initial front label design just to get the idea of what it would look like. My thinking behind this is that if this looks effective with the pattern being in a different position, I could change it for each flavour. Also, from looking back at the post called ‘Testing Out A Packaging Idea From My Hand Drawn Initial Ideas’, I wanted to change the scale of the repeat pattern too. The reason for this is because I just realised as to how small each illustration is when its showing on the mock up. So from having it this small, the viewers wont actually be able to see what each object is, to which this is definitely not what I want as these drawings are helping the viewers to figure out the ideas and message behind my products. 

So below, is presenting where I have took this idea forward and have increased the scale so that the objects are much a a lot bigger in size. To do this, clicked on the rectangle shape that I drew to cover the whole page, and then went to ‘object’, ‘transform’ and ‘scale’. This brought up a new tab, where you would untick the box saying ‘transform objects’ and make sure the ‘transform pattern’ is ticked. You can then change the ‘uniform’ percentage to a certain number.  

Next, I have then opened up the same mock up as before, but I chose to replace the previous idea I had with this new one. This didn't matter that I was loosing the old design as this only because I wanted to test out an idea I had for the packaging. I remember that in this post, I mentioned how I hadn't lined the design up properly so that the strip going the whole way around the design was positioned closer to the top of the page, to which I wanted it to be in the centre. Another thing I have changed is the thickness of this centre strip too as I found that this was taking up so much space. Lastly, I decided to make this centre strip semi transparent. To do this, I simply just decreased the opacity down to around 80% or 90%. This then allowed the rest of the pattern to slightly show behind this shape. 

As well as this, now that I have changed the repeat pattern scale so that its larger, I think it looks so much more appealing. This is because you can now see the objects a lot more clearer at first glance, which is exactly what I need as the customers should then hopefully be more drawn to my products as they have an initial idea of what it is. 

Now that I have relooked at my design from before, I now feel more confident as to where my design is going and how to improve it even more. I think this little bit of reflection has also helped me to realised that my ideas are moving forward as I have been a little stuck for ideas at certain points of this project. I would say the main time that I struggled to move forward was when I was creating my logo design as I feel like I spent way too long on this element. This then almost pushed me back as I now have even less time than I could have, I got the logo design done quicker at the start. 

[dgsagasblog]

Twitter: A Digital Landscape of Opportunities!

Introduction

Your idea or business needs to be seen and heard in order to grow. If you find Social media  more lucrative than the conventional form of advertising, then Twitter  is probably the best place to be. With more than 80% of Twitter users mentioning a brand in a Tweet and the average Twitter user following five businesses, Twitter marketing is a growing place for brands to engage and build an active community.

I would like to call myself a curious explorer ,  an innovator, and a digital storyteller, who likes to connect with people and that is exactly how I began my journey on Twitter. It may sound clichéd, but Twitter opened a world full of opportunities for me.  It became a virtual window through which I could learn, share ideas, and  reach out to people – not just locally, but from all over the world.  For me, Twitter is an effective digital landscape that connects like-minded people and accelerates learning and individual growth.

In fact, the world of Twitter is so vast that whichever niche of business you pursue, marketing on Twitter, or simply building your personal presence on Twitter will guarantee an audience who can eventually turn into customers!

Why Take My Word for It?

Read the below statistics and watch out for yourself how Twitter can play a pivotal role in your marketing mix.

             Data says that there are 340 million monthly active users on Twitter

     Total number of Tweets sent per day 500 million

     Twitter is used by 22% of all online US adults

     It is equally popular with men and women (24% and 21% of online Americans respectively)

 77% of Americans who earn $75,000 or more use Twitter

 27% of B2B content marketers used Twitter ads in the last 12 months

 Twitter ranked 4th globally for web traffic in October 2020

 66% of brands with over 100 employees use Twitter for marketing purposes

 Twitter’s user base is predicted to grow by at least 2.4% in 2021

 Twitter is currently valued at $36.48 billion

 Twitter is the number #1 social networking platform in Japan

 Twitter ads can reach 5.8% of the world’s population over the age of 13

(source: @omnicoreagency.com, / @similarweb / @eMarketer )

So, before you Jump on to the Twitter  Bandwagon and try Twitter for Marketing here are few tips that can help  your business gain credibility:

 Use Powerful Content: Grab  eyeballs with powerful content. Sell your business’s credibility with  interesting and powerful ideas. Do not deviate from the truth but make  things as interesting as possible. Try to avoid the beaten track and use  the information to tell a story that captures the attention. For  instance, a video about robotics and how it aids our daily lives will  surely stop you in your tracks.

 Ensure Visibility: The age-old adage ‘out of sight, out of mind’ cannot be more apt while marketing your brand or business on Twitter. Twitter marketing  is all about staying alive and in action. The more you tweet and engage  with your followers, the more visibility you stand to gain. The’  tweets’ do not necessarily have to be related to your business or brand  promotion all the time. Build interest, by sharing interesting content  and when you have your audience engaged, then divulge your service or  merchandise. Research says you can post, tweet, or re-tweet up to 15 times a day.

 Building Twitter Community: As  much as broadcasting your thoughts and ideas about your brand or  business, marketing on Twitter is important. Twitter marketing is also  about establishing personal connections with an individual or  prospective customers. Earlier it may have only been about servicing or  networking in response to a particular tweet or request from a customer,  but now you can connect with anyone with your line of interest. You can literally track down tweets, post an interesting response and consequently expand your network. Building trust by delivering services,  maintaining transparency, and connecting with prospective customers can  surely take your brand credibility a few notches higher.

 Use Twitter Hashtags and Trends:  Blend in with the Twitterati!  As important it is to make your voice  heard it is equally important to be in sync with the ongoing trends and  hashtags. To comment on important topics and trends and engage with  fellow followers, trendsetters and influencers is an absolute must.  Sharing your point-of-view across, will help you gain visibility and  connect with prospective customers, influencers, who in turn can further propagate your brand’s message. Keep an eye out for the important days and events on Twitter- which garners phenomenon traffic and action, in-process giving marketing on Twitter a shot in the arm.

 Influencers can make all the difference:  Every social media has its band of influencers. In Twitter, you can  find influencers ranging from top-shot world figures to  micro-influencers specific to industries like food, fashion, travel,  technology, and so forth. Influencers with their millions of followers-  set trends, break news, endorse brands, and support causes. If you can  share your proposition with an influencer who relates to your brand or  product or is an industry thought leader, it can open a world of  opportunities for your business. Including Twitter as part of your  marketing will enable you to reach out to people who will be interested  in your product or brand.

 Ad on Twitter: Posting paid  advertisements on Twitter may be a good Twitter marketing strategy for  newcomers to promote brands or businesses. Your profile is promoted by  Twitter and can even be seen and found by people who do not follow your  brand, business, or hashtags. This is a great way to create visibility  with people who show interest in some type of products or services. For a monthly fee, you can get a lot of exposure that organic Twitter marketing may not reap!

All set to start your Twitter Journey? Here is how you can build a noticeable business account on Twitter:

Once you have signed up for a Twitter for Business account, you need to organize it and put your best foot or in case of personnel branding like @curieuxexplorer, don the best image forward to establish your brand.

 Profile image: The profile image should ideally be  your brand logo, make sure it is clear and fits well into the small circular space designated for the profile image. Remember this will feature as an icon every time you post a tweet!

 Profile Picture/ Banner: The banner image is the best visual representation of your company. You can put up your most recent activity here, a product launch or show you have hosted or the image of any up-coming product- anything that you think deserves to be known as part of your brand promotion. Make sure you upload photos that  are clear and high quality.

 Your Display Name and Account @ Name: Your account  name is what comes after the @. The Twitter world will recognize you by  this name. Everything you do on Twitter, your tweets, re-tweets,  follows- will be linked to this name. This name also appears in your  profile URL. It may contain up to 15 characters and should be directly  associated with the name of your business. The display name appears  right above the account name and can be changed at any time, unlike the  account name. Ideally, this name should contain your brand or business  name.

 Your Twitter BIO: This is your introduction to the  world. In about 160 characters you will have to put forward your pitch  and ideally pack in a punch about your brand or business. Your business  ideals, values, and what you have on offer are ideally the things that  should feature in the bio. Additionally, you should put in your website URL, location, and the business hours if you have a shop or a store.

 Your Pinned Tweet: The pinned tweet is the first thing a visitor will when they visit your tweet stream. This should be the focal point, the biggest piece of news you wish to display on the Twitter platform. This could be an upcoming product launch, a seminar you are going to conduct or even a charity you are raising money for- your pinned tweet should reflect your pivotal business interest.  You can post interesting images or videos in your tweets, even post important links- also make sure your pinned tweet does not stay stagnant  for a long time- schedule your posts accordingly to capture maximum  interest.

Conclusion

To sum it all up- if you are a small business or a start-up struggling to find your footing in the world of business or an established brand impacted by the COVID -19 situation re-thinking your business strategy – Twitter is the place to be. Twitter marketing is one  of the most authentic ways to build your business presence and connect  with a world full of customers. It may not be easy or a one of a task,  but it is hardly rocket science. Moreover, Twitter marketing is inexpensive and mostly organic. A little bit of patience, consistency, and well-thought-out Twitter marketing strategy can translate into phenomenal business success in the long run. Twitter is perhaps the only  place that allows you to go from Micro to Macro. Connect with your  customers or followers on an individual level, deliver appropriate solutions and grow your follower base to move on to the next level!

Source — https://dgsaga.com/blog-twitter-a-digital-landscape-of-opportunities/

[orbemnews]

Pfizer Begins Testing Its Vaccine in Young Children Pfizer has begun testing its Covid-19 vaccine in children under 12, a significant step in turning back the pandemic. The trial’s first participants, a pair of 9-year-old twin girls, were immunized at Duke University in North Carolina on Wednesday. Results from the trial are expected in the second half of the year, and the company hopes to vaccinate younger children early next year, said Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for the pharmaceutical company. Moderna also is beginning a trial of its vaccine in children six months to 12 years of age. Both companies have been testing their vaccines in children 12 and older, and expect those results in the next few weeks. AstraZeneca last month began testing its vaccine in children six months and older, and Johnson & Johnson has said it plans to extend trials of its vaccine to young children after assessing its performance in older children. Immunizing children will help schools to reopen as well as help to end the pandemic, said Dr. Emily Erbelding, an infectious diseases physician at the National Institutes of Health who oversees testing of Covid-19 vaccines in special populations. An estimated 80 percent of the population may need to be vaccinated for the United States to reach herd immunity, the threshold at which the coronavirus runs out of people to infect. Some adults may refuse to be vaccinated, and others may not produce a robust immune response. Children under 18 account for about 23 percent of the population in the United States, so even if a vast majority of adults opt for vaccines, “herd immunity might be hard to achieve without children being vaccinated,” Dr. Erbelding said. Pfizer had initially said it would wait for data from older children before starting trials of its vaccine in children under 12. But “we were encouraged by the data from the 12 to 15 group,” said Ms. Castillo, who did not elaborate on the results so far. Scientists will test three doses of the Pfizer vaccine — 10, 20 and 30 micrograms — in 144 children. Each dose will be assessed first in children 5 through 11 years of age, then in children ages 2 through 4 years, and finally in the youngest group, six months to 2 years. After determining the most effective dose, the company will test the vaccine in 4,500 children. About two-thirds of the participants will be randomly selected to receive two doses 21 days apart; the remaining will get two placebo shots of saline. The researchers will assess the children’s immune response in blood drawn seven days after the second dose. Updated  March 25, 2021, 12:03 p.m. ET “It sounds like a good plan, and it’s exciting that another Covid-19 vaccine is moving forward with trials in children,” said Dr. Kristin Oliver, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Oliver said about half of the parents she sees in practice are eagerly waiting for vaccines, and even to volunteer their children for clinical trials, while the rest are skeptical because comparatively few children become seriously ill from coronavirus infection. Both groups of parents will benefit from knowing exactly how safe and effective the vaccines are in children, she said. Children represent 13 percent of all reported cases in the United States. More than 3.3 million children have tested positive for the virus, at least 13,000 have been hospitalized and at least 260 have died, noted Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, who represents the American Academy of Pediatrics on the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The figures do not fully capture the damage to children’s health. “We don’t know what the long-term effects of Covid infection are going to be,” Dr. Maldonado said. Other vaccines have helped to control many horrific childhood diseases that can cause long-term complications, she added: “For some of us who’ve seen that, we don’t want to go back to those days.” Children often react more strongly to vaccines than adults do, and infants and toddlers in particular can experience high fevers. Any side effects are likely to appear soon after the shot, within the first week and certainly within the first few weeks, experts have said. Some vaccines are tested only in animals before being assessed in children, and have to be monitored carefully for side effects. “But this is a little different, because we’ve already had experience with tens of millions of people with these vaccines,” Dr. Maldonado said. “So there’s a higher degree of confidence now in giving this vaccine to kids.” Some experts suggested that the Food and Drug Administration may require up to six months of safety data from studies of children before authorizing the Covid-19 vaccines. But a spokeswoman said the agency did not expect six months of safety data to support the vaccines’ authorization. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized for children 16 through 18 years old, and the authorization for that age group was based on just two months of safety data, she said. Parents will want to know how the companies and the F.D.A. plan to monitor and disclose side effects from the vaccines, and how long they will continue to follow trial participants after the vaccines’ authorization, Dr. Oliver said. “I think everyone has learned throughout this,” she said. “The more transparent you can be, the better.” Source link Orbem News #Begins #children #Pfizer #testing #Vaccine #young

[perfectirishgifts]

2020 Political Ad Spending Exploded: Did It Work?

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2020 Political Ad Spending Exploded: Did It Work?

Video archives concept.

The votes have been counted, the certifications are nearly complete, and the biggest winner from Election Day 2020 was undeniably…political advertising. In a year that has been extraordinary in every conceivable – and inconceivable – way, it’s not a shock that 2020 would provide an unprecedented level of political advertising spending. But for all the tabulations of who spent what money where, the results of the election tell us that there is a lot more work to be done to figure out what worked – and what didn’t.

I went deep on this topic with John Link, a former head of political advertising for CBS’s VIAC owned and operated TV stations, and now a senior executive with AdImpact (formerly Advertising Analytics), which provides extensive analysis of the political advertising environment and just released its “2020 Political Cycle Review.” Link is a font of wisdom on this topic, and there’s a lot to unpack.

In the 2019-2020 election cycle, total political advertising spending reached $8.5 billion across TV, radio and digital media. This was 30% higher than the $6.7 billion projected earlier this year, and 108% more than spending in 2017-2018, which was a record at that time. We saw 9.3 million of TV ads alone in more than 4300 federal, state and local elections (I know, if you live in a battleground state it probably seemed like more). And none of this money includes the $299 million spent so far on political ads in the two Georgia Senate races, a total ultimately expected to be over half a billion dollars by the January 5, 2021 election date.

From the time I began my early career in politics and then the television business, it was a pretty safe bet that Republicans would raise more money and spend more money than Democrats. 2020 landed 180 degrees from that expectation as Democrats outspent Republicans $4.7 billion to $2.7 billion (remaining was independent expenditures). AdImpact noted that Democrats had a “commanding spending lead” in the general election, typified by Biden outspending Trump by 71%, $652 million to $381 million. In Congress, Democratic Senate candidates outspent their GOP counterparts $549 million to $319 million (almost exactly the same percentage gap as the presidential race), and in the House of Representatives Democrats outspent Republicans by $663 million to $511 million (a 30% differential). The quickest of glances at the election results will tell you that vote totals didn’t match these spending differentials.

Media analysts will home in on a few fascinating aspects of the 2020 political advertising environment that will have an impact on political advertising far beyond. First, 80% of paid advertising still went to broadcast and cable TV (aka “linear TV”). This is a lower percentage than in prior elections, but an impressive share nevertheless given that within even that last two years ago we’ve witnessed a significant drop in linear TV viewership and a significant increase in homes cutting the cord from cable or satellite TV. Unfortunately, it also meant that more and more ads reached fewer and fewer voters more and more frequently. How much is enough?

Underlying the growing (in total dollars if not share) spending on TV advertising is that there remains plenty of evidence that TV spending is a relatively good buy for the money compared to its competitors. In a 2018 report entitled “Stretching Political Dollars,” AdImpact and Nielsen focused on political advertising in four major U.S. metropolitan areas: Phoenix, Minneapolis, Tampa and Orlando. The report’s “primary conclusion” was “how efficient broadcast television advertising remains” in reaching “High Frequency Voters.” Of course just because TV efficiently gets the horses to the water, does it actually make them drink? Much tougher to demonstrate.  

In a familiar story for most in the advertising world, digital political advertising spending exploded in 2020. In the 2015-2016 election cycle, digital media accounted for roughly 2-3% of political ad spend. That jumped to 18% in this one. The roughly $700-800 million in digital ad spend in the 2017-2018 election cycle became $1.6 billion in this one. However, the application of the money still suggests an experimentation for what kind of ads work where. As AdImpact’s Link pointed out, 75% of Facebook spending was aimed at soliciting funds through campaign contributions or merchandise purchasing. A far smaller percentage was aimed at voter persuasion, which is still the focus of most TV ads.

As for the new kid on the block, Connected TV, its impact in this cycle was relatively minimal, capturing only 1-2% of the total political ad spend. As Link pointed out, there is far less transparency about political spending in this world than in linear TV, even for “established” CTV players such as Roku and Hulu. Still, remember that only four years ago all of digital political spending sat at 2-3% and today it’s 18%. You’d have to think there is a whole lot more experimentation and growth to come in CTV.

Another challenge for media buyers in this electoral cycle was that the percentage of undecided voters, particular in the presidential election, was at a historically low level. This makes influencing the election through advertising particularly difficult. And of course no 2020 story would be complete without a reference to COVID-19. As Link pointed out to me, the flood of early in-person and mail-in voting driven in part by the pandemic meant that many a planned media buy was delivered after a growing percentage of voters had already voted. We thankfully won’t have to be voting for President or Congress in the face of a pandemic again (soon), but it is very likely that expanded voting time frames and alternative means of voting are here to stay in some fashion. This in turn will force another complexity into the timing and messaging of political advertising.

Figuring out the most effective way to proceed in political advertising will demand a good deal of new thinking and new data analytics. I don’t know anybody who raises their kids to be political media buyers, but in a tumultuous economy I’d say right now it’s a pretty good investment strategy.

From Media in Perfectirishgifts