#And it's like the first time Sonic's referred to Nine as a best friend of his so Nine gets this soft heartfelt smile like it was touching😭

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Movie!Tails 🤝 Nine

Getting all 😳😊 when Sonic says that he considers them a friend

[libbytwq]

wowie i did it! I drew sonic designs for if he were in each shatterverse!

Im very proud of them, they look so skrungly

Also this was a challenge for me, i just kinda made up their designs as i went along with no references and no premade color palettes

Heres the post where i first made the idea:

Anyway, closeups + character info below

(Keep in mind, these characters exist in a timeline where the prism was never shattered)

Renegade Blur, the Sonic of the New Yoke City Shatterverse

I took some design element inspo from Knucks, with the scars and the lil spine dent thingies

He is incredibly reckless and very loud and overconfident (his scars are from being reckless and stupid)

He is kinda similar to Chaos Sonic tbh

He stops at nothing to defeat his enemies, even when his body cant take another hit

He can be a lil bit overbearing, but when it counts, his heart is usually in the right place

He works with Rebel and Knucks, and sometimes they don't get along but they can trust Blur usually

Loves races and is a sore loser

He's also never met Nine, but if he were to meet Nine, he'd be able to get along with him, but would side with the Rebels and agree he can't always be trusted

Very violently aro/ace, he do his own thing and doesn't like the idea of being bogged down by another person he has to take care of

Quill, the Sonic of the Boscage Maze Shatterverse

Took some design inspo from Gnarly and Thorn, as well as the facepaint from Prim

He can be a lil nervous and underconfident, and doesnt know he can run fast (hes a lil bit klutzy - if he runs too fast he trips on something and falls over, so he doesnt run too fast typically)

He loves his friends! He hates getting abandoned

He typically hangs out with Prim, Gnarly, Hangry and Mangey above the forest, but he does hang out with Thorn occasionally below the treetops (the rest of the group has no idea)

Thorn scares him a lot. He is so afraid of her, but he sticks around cuz they do actually care about each other, but they refuse to admit it

Quill is usually the one that the group sends below the forest, cuz he is able to grab some food without immediately getting sent up by Thorn and Birdie

If Thorn ever catches him taking berries, Quill is usually able to explain himself, and Thorn usually lets him off the hook

Quill and Thorn like each other (shhhh dont tell anyone i said that, not even quill knows he likes her)

Mangey is one of his best buds! They get along so well and no one knows why

Has never heard of the idea of relationships, but he has these weird fuzzy feelings for Thorn that he cant identify, hm must be nothing

Sexuality? Whats that?

Aklesh, the Sonic of the No Place Shatterverse

This one was my fav to design. I took a lot of inspo from a lot of the No Place characters, and "Aklesh" is Sanskrit for "Swift Lord"

The shiny rings and accessories are the colors of his friends - Red for Dread, Yellow for Sails, Pink for Black Rose, and Purple for Batten

His bandana on his head is yellow to go along with how Sails's bandana is blue

He just loves vibing with his crew, he gets along well with everybody - Sails and Dread are his besties tho

He's perfectly fine with being lazy and not doing anything everyday, but when the time calls, he's more than happy to be a swashbuckling pirate

Surprisingly, he is not afraid of water

He loves his colorful shiny accessories and is a bit of a collector

The peacemaker of the group, he settles disputes and suggests that the answer isn't through violence - but if the answer is to use violence, like if another pirate ship raids them, he won't stop fighting until he is victorious

Kind of unofficially unspokenly the second in command to Dread

Raging pansexual. Kind of a slut, with how he keeps his shirt half open /j

Aklesh thinks Dread is very very neat (and they were crewmates wink wink). Dread has no clue

ok thats all i needed to say, hope ya like it

[cherrylng]

Coldplay Interview 2009 - Chris Martin and Will Champion [ROCKIN'ON (April 2009)]

Exclusive long interview in Japan! New champions Coldplay conquer Japan!

Interview: Shino Kogawa / Interpreter: Akiko Nakamura / Photo: TEPPEI

Coldplay's first tour of Japan was nine years ago, in August 2000. The memorable first performance was at the first Summer Sonic, the second stage at Fujikyu Highland. At the time, "Yellow" was gradually becoming popular in Japan, but they were early and there was not a large audience at that stage, which was dim and damp. Yes, Coldplay were never a band that made a spectacular debut in Japan, and even when they later took the world by storm with "A Rush of Blood to the Head", they were still struggling in Japan. But nine years later, Coldplay has finally, finally conquered Japan once and for all. That was the mood of absolute invincibility that pervaded the band's Japan tour. This is their first arena tour, having brought with them the best-selling Western album in Japan in 2008, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends", and just before their visit to Japan, they made a stop in LA to pick up three Grammy Awards. Even though the foundation of their success had already been laid by last year's Summer Sonic headliners, the scale of their breakthrough and the breadth of their fanbase on this tour was remarkable.

Needless to say, no other band has had as much success as Coldplay in the last decade. Moreover, they have walked a completely different path from the monster bands of the past, bridging the mainstream of pop royalty and the alternative side of rock. Recall that the song "Viva La Vida" that defined them was a non-rock song built almost entirely from sampling and drumming. Coldplay's sound and attitude shines far away from the past image of the 'rock band', which has been represented by a rigid ego. An immeasurable universality, like the 'light' that becomes colourless at the end of absorbing all colours.

Chris was as suspicious as ever during the show. He was running around with gestures that might be called dancing, and when he got tired of singing, he simply let go of his own songs. It was as if Coldplay themselves were playing with Coldplay's music. Coldplay's music is theirs, ours, and ultimately nobody else's. The band Coldplay, for the first time, sat on the transparent throne of the 2000s, wearing a bizarre sense that 'nothing' and 'all-powerful' are equally connected. Here is an exclusive interview with the band on their visit to Japan. -Shino Kokawa

First of all, congratulations on winning three Grammy Awards. Chris & Will (hereinafter referred to as C & W, respectively): 「Thank you.」

What was your first thought when you heard your name called out there? W: 「I was really surprised. We never thought we would win an award like that. Because we didn't think we'd be in a place where there were so many extraordinarily talented people. There was Paul McCartney there, and then……」 C: 「Dave Grohl was there too.」 W: 「Yeah, Radiohead were there, and when your name is read out in that context, no matter how stubborn you are, no matter how cool you are, you can't help but get excited.」 C: 「For us, the Grammys are like the Olympics, like when 400m runners and high jumpers win gold medals at the Olympics. The awards mean that much to us.」

In the last interview, you said that 'Viva La Vida' was a new chapter album, a new beginning, with the previous three albums as the first chapter. I think you were prepared for both sides of the argument. How do you perceive the actual reaction from fans and the public? Was it as you expected, or was it unexpected? C: 「I understand it this way now. I mean, whatever we do, some people like it, some people don't like it. Really, it's like anything we do, whether it's an album, an interview, a concert, even a single movement when we're dancing - everything is subject to criticism. But we just do what we do in the hope that there will be people who like it, even though there will be criticism. That's why we don't think about what anyone else thinks anymore. After you've been established as a band for a few years, it's normal to get a lot of things said about you.」

Now let's talk about ‘Prospekt's March’. This mini-album forms a pair with ‘Viva La Vida’, but when did you start coming up with this concept? W: 「We had a strong belief in what kind of album 'Viva La Vida' should be. We had a pretty clear idea of what kind of journey we wanted it to be, that it should be concise, that there should be only a specific number of songs in here. As we were working on the album with those ideas in mind, we realised there were songs that didn't necessarily fit in there. Not because the songs weren't good enough, but for the reasons I just mentioned, because we had a very clear idea of the music we wanted people to hear on 'Viva La Vida'. That's where the idea of ‘Prospekt's March’ came from. I don't know what it is…………… I don't want to change 'Viva La Vida', but there's still something here that I want people to hear. I wanted 'Viva La Vida' to remain 'Viva La Vida,' without changing it at all, but I still wanted people to hear the songs in ‘Prospekt's March’. So I guess when we came up with the idea was when we realised that there were songs that we couldn't put on the album, even though we were happy with the quality of the songs.」 C: 「In short, it's like a salad served alongside the main dish of 'Viva La Vida'. It's there for the dedicated fans to discover, that's why we put it out quietly, with very little promotion. Something like a little dessert or salad.」

The live show is also very conceptual, as the first song starts with ‘Life in Technicolor’ and ends with ‘Life in Technicolor II’ from ‘Prospekt's March’. That's how much the ‘Viva La Vida’ session is a work that is so full of imagination that it can't be completed in one album…… C: 「Exactly!」

You just called it a salad (laughs), but did you feel that you were finally able to create a world by twisting such a concept? W: 「Maybe so. We were aiming for an album full of ideas. But it was also important not to go overboard with the ideas. We didn't want to overcook it and make it mushy. We didn't want to overdo it, so we kept it concise, short, and powerful. So I think what you've said sort of illustrates that nicely.」

It wasn't so much that you finished ‘Viva La Vida’, but rather that it was an album that you really had to finish, schedule-wise. C: 「Yes, it was.」

"I feel like I've reached a good starting point. A starting point to make something beyond ‘Viva La Vida’. I think ‘Viva La Vida’ gave us the time, grace, and freedom to take on new challenges."

So you couldn't listen to it objectively at the time, what about now? What do you realise only now? C: 「On the contrary, it's only now that I can think, "I don't need to change anything about that album". I thought, "Oh, I'm sure we'll have finished it by then". Of course parts of it could have been better, it could have sounded different, but I personally feel very at peace with that album now. I'm happy with the way it was, and now I can think about what's next. When I had just finished it, I was very confused and a bit perplexed, but now that I've spent a bit of time on it, I can see that I'm happy with it.」

What do you think would have happened if you'd still had time and kept working on it? W: 「If I'd kept on doing it like that, it probably would have gotten longer and longer and worse and worse. We would have moved away from where we wanted to be at the beginning and we would have failed. So I think for us it's better to have a closure.」 C: 「Oh…… That's for sure (laughs).」 W: 「Sometimes you need someone to tell you when to stop. Sometimes the end comes naturally, but if we had been given another six months or so, I think we probably would have continued making the album as it was, and we probably wouldn't have been able to bring out the qualities of this album that we think we have now.」 C: 「In our case, we want to get the album out before the summer. That's why we always have a deadline at that time of year. At Christmas time, everyone is releasing albums all the time, so it's a bit…… I feel like there's too much competition (laughs). So before the summer, Will's right, this band is a tight deadline kind of band. It's the same in your line of work.」

(laughs) Yes, that's right. What impact do you think ‘Viva La Vida’ will have on your careers in the future? W: 「I feel like we've reached a good starting point. A starting point for something beyond ‘Viva La Vida’. Yeah, it really felt like the start of something again. Thanks to that album, I think we can try something new again. I don't know what that is yet. But I think it will inevitably be something completely different. The way we listen to music is changing, and we want to take that into account and try to make music that goes beyond everything. To make music that is completely original and new… There's a lot of work to be done for that, but I think 'Viva La Vida' has given us the freedom we need to do that. I feel like that album gave us the freedom, the time and space to take on new challenges.」 C: 「Now we have a place called the Bakery, which is the band's home. Now that the album has been fairly successful and we've been able to maintain that place, which is our home, we can experiment further. It's really fun to be there. Friends and musicians come to visit, we do very creative environmental paintings, we do interviews there, and of course we eat there, we do everything in that building (laughs). Thanks to ‘Viva La Vida’, I think we can pay the rent there for about three years.」

(laughs) Did you feel a sense of crisis before releasing ‘Viva La Vida’, as if the band would eventually come to a standstill if you continued with the same methodology as with ‘X&Y’? C: 「Yeah…… But all the bands we like, all the people we think are really great, whether it's Radiohead, U2, Bruce Springsteen or PJ Harvey, they've always changed. And they've always anticipated our expectations. It's not an easy thing to do. But we've learnt from them and we know that you can't just keep doing things the way you like them, you have to change. You have to change with every album.」

What I thought was interesting was that U2 teamed up with Brian Eno to make 'The Joshua Tree'. I think they were in exactly the same situation as Coldplay when they made that album. They were trying to break out of their initial shell, and Eno came along. I thought that the process, or the inevitability of the encounter, was very similar to the relationship between Coldplay and Eno in ‘Viva La Vida’. W: 「I think it's really similar. Brian is a very interesting person to work with. It doesn't matter how successful the band is or how well they make their music, he says, ‘Sure it's good, but you guys can do better’. The moment you hear it, he can point out five things that are wrong or need to be changed. And he does it in a very pleasant way. He's not sarcastic at all. He's motivating, or whatever you want to call it….. He's not afraid of failure in the slightest. He really enjoys trying things out, and if they end up sounding terrible, that's nothing to be ashamed of. He's done a lot of work, but I think to put that much work out there, sometimes you have to be prepared to be a laughing stock. Sometimes you produce great things, and sometimes things don't work out. It's important to just try and do whatever you can. If we were afraid of being total idiots, we wouldn't have been able to create so many masterpieces. He's a really amazing person and certainly someone you should definitely tag-team with when you want to make a change.」

The only promise you guys made during the recording of ‘Viva La Vida’ was that you would leave no stone unturned. C: 「Hahaha, exactly.」

I think it was probably a new way for you guys to do things in such a place without all kinds of preconceptions and taboos and with tremendous freedom, but in the process, please tell us about any new things you noticed, such as the individuality or strength of the band that you discovered for the first time after more than ten years together. C: 「There is one thing, however, it's not so much that I noticed it for the first time, it's more that over time I've come to understand what it is that makes this band so special. It's the chemistry within the band. It's between the four of us, and also between us and Phil (Harvey, manager), who is the advisor and fifth member of the band. It only gets more special the longer we keep doing it together. We have to cherish this bond. I hope we can continue to grow in that relationship, both personally and for the other members. Of course, I think every member has the ability to grow individually. But at the same time, I think the power created by this relationship is what always makes this band special. Radiohead, for example, has always had the same members since they started the band. We started out together and we've been on the road ever since.」

U2 is the same, isn't it? C: 「Yeah, U2 is the same, we've all grown together. If a new member comes in halfway through the journey, they join the journey with a different mindset to the members already there. Like, it's the first album for that person, but the band is working on the fifth one. Anyway, I'm very happy that the band is still intact.」

Did you sometimes feel that sense of returning to your roots, like the pure enjoyment you had when you first started the band was reawakened? W: 「I think there was. I think it was a feeling that was as close as possible to the early days of the band. The reason we built a new studio this time was because we wanted to evoke that kind of feeling, and there was definitely a feeling of a new start. It was like a young band, proving ourselves from the ground up, like when we used to get together in Jonny's room and make stuff, and get everything under one roof. We wanted to try everything, and we wanted to do it all on our own. We wanted to remember how we felt when we wanted to prove ourselves and when we didn't have any baggage, just energy and passion. I think it was great that we had made three albums prior to that. Every time you make one album, it gives you time to make the next one, and you get credit for it. We worked really hard on all three, and then with the fourth one we were able to start afresh, feeling like a new band.」

"I don't think the size and quality of the band is the same. We've certainly had success in the last ten years, but that doesn't mean we think we're the best. I always feel like I'm second best."

This year marks the first decade of the 2000s, and of all the bands that debuted during that time, there is no other band in the world that has been as successful as Coldplay. I think Coldplay has become a band that represents the first decade of the 2000s both in name and reality. W: 「Did I imagine it…… No, I mean, I might have at least had a dream. But actually, my expectations for the first album were very modest, and so were the expectations of the people around the band. We had no idea that the album would be released in the US or Japan or anywhere else. We thought it was really just a small band making their own album, that's all. So it was just a dream, like we wanted to play shows in different places around the world, or in big arenas, or at festivals, and so on. So it wasn't until the album actually came out, seven or eight months later, that it became a reality that maybe we'd get a chance to do a second album, which would be great. But that's why…… Yeah, it was a dream.」 C: 「I don't think, you know, the size of the band and the quality of the band are the same. There have been a lot of great artists in the last ten years, and this band has certainly succeeded in that, but that doesn't mean we think we're the best. Of course, we're still allowed to make music and we're really grateful for that, but I think it's partly because we've been consistent and we've gained a certain reputation. Sometimes other artists do great things for a little while, while we've been like a long-distance runner. For example, when we did our first album, The Strokes were really great, and when we did our second one, Franz Ferdinand was there, and when we did our third one, Arcade Fire came out, and then The Killers, and now with this album, there's Kings of Leon….. Anyway, that's how we do it every time, competing with new great stuff. I feel like we're always second best……」

You're being modest (laughs). C: 「I'm not, because that’s actually the case.」

So you still have the ambition to be number one in everything - quantity, power, size, and quality? W: 「That's the ultimate best.」 C: 「Yeah, although we haven't got there yet.」 W: 「At the moment I think quality is more important than quantity. The environment for making music is changing rapidly at the moment, both the economic situation and the music industry are undergoing major changes. So I think quality is becoming more important than ever. It's no longer possible to survive on quantity. From now on, unless you have the best songs, the best videos, and everything you make is of the highest quality……」 C: 「The world is moving so fast.’ W: 「Yeah, so I think if you don't make something good, people will turn away from us.」

Now for the last question. It might be a bit difficult. C: 「Yeah, okay.」

I think the world surrounding pop music has changed radically since 2000. The way music is sold and bought has changed, the way it is listened to has changed and the listening environment has changed. The situation surrounding pop music, both in terms of hardware and software, has changed drastically, which is both good and bad for bands, and I think we are now living in a very transitional situation. Under these circumstances, what do you think Coldplay, a band that is close to the best in terms of quantity and quality and is listened to by many people, represents the atmosphere of this era of the 2000s? C: 「……I don't know if it's specific to this era or not, and this applies to other bands as well…… What we symbolise is something like a strange combination…… If you're lucky enough to put together a group of people who have the right chemistry together, you can achieve much bigger and better things than you could on your own, I guess that's what it's about. So for me, this band is a symbol of teamwork. There's a saying in Britain that goes something like "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts", which means that when you work together you have more power. That's what this band is about. We may not necessarily have the ability to be called great performers, we may not be able to write the best songs in the world, but here we have the only, unique, human-to-human combination.」 W: 「Another characteristic of this band is that we work extremely hard. We work hard until we give it all we've got. I think that's a pretty British trait, and I'm proud of that. And as Chris says, what this band does is something that only four people in the world could do. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, it's unique and I don't think we should let that go to waste. I mean, that kind of uniqueness and working hard at something, I think that's what this band represents.」 C: 「Yeah, hard work!」

So that's what you're still going to be doing then? C: 「Of course. We're just about to take a big leap forward. I promise you that.」

Translator's Note: This is almost like a sequel to the previous interview article that I posted previously. So more or less a 10-month gap here. I sometimes wonder if the band ever got surprised when they encounter such in-depth questions outside of the UK and USA that it REALLY makes them think of what to say in their answers. Did they enjoy being able to answer stuff outside of what they expected?

Next up to finish dealing with will be the live reviews of their 2009 performance at Saitama Super Arena.

[inkedkoi]

Connections: Part One

Continuation of "Hold On To “What If”: Overanalyzing and Rewriting Sonic Prime" essay

[Once Again, spoilers for Sonic Prime, all media here belong to their respective creators.]

✨//🌻//✨

Looking at the series as a whole made me theorize about possible connections between characters and how it all came back from EP 1.

Sonic's Old Friends vs. Nine's "Look-Alikes" Argument

(Most of this was written before S3 premiered and edited due to seeing it after)

I’ve seen people referring to each of the Shatterspace characters as a personality variant or clone of Sonic’s friends. In the show, it was Sonic who made that same mistake. To be clear, they aren't. They do admittedly look similar in appearance but they are completely different characters by their morals, backstories, and personalities — “look-alikes” as I call them.

💬 "But some of the characters share the same names..."

Well, think about it: people in real life could share the same surname, and full name if by chance. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they are related or are the same person entirely. Or think about identical twins/triplets/etc, just because they look around the same, doesn't mean they have the same personality or habits. Sure, they might share a couple of things but they are their own person in their own right.

Comparing the "look-alikes" to the OG cast strips them of their individuality, the same argument that Nine in the S2 finale. Some people believed that Nine's betrayal came out of nowhere, and I'm here to clarify it. Let's start from the beginning:

[S1 EP1]

After Sonic saves Nine, he attempts to explain their backstory, assuming that Nine is Tails. Nine tells him on the contrary, growing up in a cold environment.

Confused by the situation, Sonic says:

Transcript:

Sonic: “You are Tails, but you’re not. Here, but gone?”

At this moment, Sonic was starting to wonder whether or not Nine was Tails.

That was until Nine asked,

Transcript:

Nine: “So… so what else did we do?”

The use of “we” was interpreted differently for Nine and Sonic. Nine used “we” to say, “If I wasn’t bullied from where you came from, what was the life I didn’t get to have?”

Sonic heard “we” and believed that somewhere within Nine is Tails.

One, that brings some comfort for Sonic who just lost his friends, and two, deep down, he wanted Nine to be Tails. It wasn’t to replace Tails or anything, but he wanted his best friend back, the one who was always like a brother to him.

Transcript:

Sonic: "Well, first of all, you have the coolest plane."

Instead of saying,

“The Tails I knew had the coolest plane" or

"A version of you from my world had the coolest plane” or

"There's a friend of mine who kinda looks like you/reminds me of you, and he had the coolest plane"

He went with "you". This is the first instance Sonic mistakes Nine for Tails. It could be Sonic not getting used to New Yoke City’s "look-alike" of Tails or believing that Nine must've "lost his memory" or not understanding the concept of multiverse, but it could also be what he subconsciously wanted, Nine to be Tails. Again, it wasn't his intention to hurt anyone.

Meanwhile, Nine was surprised with the revelation. This complete stranger, who claims to know him, was telling stories about these supposed adventures they had together. It sounded insane, but the same stranger was the one who saved his life. He grew up in this cruel environment, forced to fend for himself, and this was the first time someone cared for him. He doesn't completely let his guard down, he just met this guy a couple minutes ago. But hearing about these adventures, intrigued him.

After this interaction, everything began to change. As much as Nine keeps his guard up, he does open up when Sonic is being genuine with him, just Sonic being himself. Nine isn't used to this, having to build a spiky exterior to protect himself emotionally and physically, but seeing that Sonic isn't a threat, he allows the hedgehog to hang around. Notice how during their interactions whenever Nine is around Sonic, his robotic tails stay idly instead of being on guard.

Transcript:

Sonic: "I, uh like them, by the way." Nine: "Those ratty old sneakers? Obviously." Sonic: "No, I mean, I always thought your extra tail was cool, but the metal ones? Man, you're amazing." Nine: "Uh, sure. One last touch..."

Again, Nine isn't letting his guard, at least not completely, but hanging out with Sonic was a(n arguably nice) change of pace for him.

Now, let's switch back to Sonic's POV, based on their interactions. For our sake, I'm not gonna put every single screenshot so we'll stick to certain lines:

After Nine gave Sonic the tech to stabilize his Prism energy:

Sonic: "Thanks, Tails. I mean, Nine. Time for a test drive."

When Nine warns Sonic about the Council and advises him to keep a low profile:

Sonic: “When you get your memory back, you'll remember that low profile isn't my thing.”

When the Council decided to perform tests on Sonic, and Sonic attempted to refuse, only to stay for Nine's safety:

Rusty: "Do not fight them. It will only end badly for him." [...] Sonic: "Okay, Let's start the test... The sooner we do this, the sooner we do this, the sooner Nine and I can get out of here."

[S1 EP1]

All of this within the first episode, it shows several things about Sonic. Now it can be argued that, yeah,

💬 "Sonic is just not used to distinguishing Nine from Tails, being he just got there and the two are very alike. Plus, he didn't know about the whole Shatterverse concept yet until later on in S1."

However, we should still consider his first impression of Nine because, without it, we wouldn't understand his way of thinking later on. In episode one, Sonic believed that he was transported into a timeline in the same world where Eggman won and met "Tails" who somehow must've lost his memory. As if Sonic was taken from the supposed equation. Still, he wants to set things right and perhaps try to help "Tails" return back to normal. Even if "Tails" grew up with a whole different life and name, Sonic wanted to try.

It wasn't until the end of the episode, that he learned the truth: this wasn't a different timeline, this was a whole new universe. A new world, one he accidentally caused. By then, he's beginning to understand the multiverse stuff, but he can't move on to the exception that "Tails=Nine". Well now, instead he believes that "Nine=a clone of Tails", believing that the two are identical in personality and intelligence. As Sonic told Shadow later on, Nine may be angsty and have a few changes in appearance but he is just like Tails. As such, he still treats Nine as if it was Tails.

Neither of the two is at fault here, they are simply interpreting what is happening to them based on assumptions. As Nine once said, all of it was still a mystery for the two of them.

[S1 EP6]

Transcript:

Nine: "Welcome to our bright new future."

[S1 EP6]

Deep down, they wanted a home, for two very different reasons. If they were at fault for anything, it's them not taking the time to communicate this calmly.

I've heard several people say:

💬 "Nine didn't care about Sonic and is just using him for his own purpose."

That is not true at all. Look at this scene in EP6:

Transcript:

Nine: "The perfect place to start over and get the world right. With the proper fortifications and enough Shard Energy, it could be home. The one you lost. The one I never had. I can make that hope a reality for the both of us."

Why on Earth would Nine want to include Sonic in his plans for the Grim? This is the most vulnerable he has ever been, his tails off-guard and his expressions being genuine. If Nine had been capable of being his own for years, then he would've been able to travel to the other worlds and take their Shards. He doesn't need Sonic. But he does want Sonic to be part of his "home". Again, he values ACTIONS over WORDS. Sonic is the first one to ever be his friend, the first to show care towards him. And in return, he opens up and cares as well, having Sonic be put into consideration for his decisions. He knows Sonic completely lost his home, Green Hill, so he wanted to surprise him with this, a new home for just the two of them.

Sonic however remains with the same mindset. Of course, the discovery of Prism's potential is incredible, Tails has done brilliant things in the past so Nine would be no different. But Sonic, as a hero, couldn't leave the Rebellion to fend for themselves against the Council. Since Tails would understand a situation like this, surely Nine would too. Right?

Transcript:

Sonic: "Look, Nine, it's incredible but it's not going anywhere. Come with me. Help me finish the fight."

Unfortunately, he doesn't.

Transcript:

Nine: "That city never brought me anything but misery. I owe it nothing. I'll help you get back..."

I'll talk more about this in my next connection, but I want to say that Sonic doesn't understand Nine. After all, Nine did tell him that he isolated himself from everyone for the sake of self-preservation. No one stopped to care, to protect. It was every being for themselves. So Nine doesn't see anyone who deserves to be saved, if they're just going to respond with hostility. (Not that Sonic ignored what he said, just set on the mindset he had.)

Well, this isn't Nine hating Sonic for wanting to go back, it's more that Nine doesn't get the point of why on Earth Sonic would like to save them. He does let Sonic go, and Sonic hopes that Nine will come and help him. After Sonic leaves, Nine shows a bit of hesitation. Again, he's perfectly fine without Sonic, and yet his friendship with Sonic made him second guess. He may not know why Sonic would want to save those people, but if the Council happened to capture Sonic again, Nine wouldn't be able to help him. Sonic trusts him, and he's not going to lose his first-ever friend.

[S1 EP6]

To be continued...

Previous Part || Next Part || Masterpost

[dalekaiken]

how did u come up with the initial ideas for ur fics ?? :3

I'll reply with my current multichapter fics bc my oneshots are mostly... Sudden ideas I get, such as Keeping Promises being a fic I wrote in one sitting after finishing Unleashed bc I was inspired. XD (Or I wrote the first draft in one sitting but you know-)

DNA Collision: I absolutely adore when people draw Shadow with more alien-like features, such as giving him yellow scleras, tiny scales, or a third eye! But the fanart made me think... What if there was a reason Shadow looked like that/more alien, especially considering that he didn't originally even know he's half alien. My original idea was that Eggman would do something that would make him mutate, but then I thought it might be a bit of a lazy choice, plus then fixing it would be a lot easier because they'd already know the cause. My bestie came up with the idea that it would happen suddenly while Shadow was racing/using Chaos Control, and I liked that idea. (I can't tell how/why it happens since that's a spoiler, but you'll find out eventually ehehe). I like aliens, sci-fi, and body horror (although I don't wanna make the body horror parts too graphic in the fic but still. It's a part of it), but there's also metaphors etc. in it. I'll probably talk more about those once I finish the fic, because for now I want readers to make their own interpretations and speculations >:3

Prophecy of Chaos: The ship I was super obsessed with before Sonadow was Catradora, and since I tend to like certain types of dynamics, I kinda noticed lots of similarities between them XDD (I mean, they're a snarky hero with a heart of gold and their former enemy with a traumatic backstory) I think I also saw a tumblr post where someone pointed out that the way Boom!Shadow acts is like a bitter ex/former childhood best friend, and that made me think... What would Sonic and Shadow be like if they had been childhood best friends who had a falling out? I think I jokingly told my friends like "what if I made an AU that's kinda like the premise of She-Ra but with Sonadow" but then I actually got invested in it. It just works so well with Sonic characters and Sonic lore, with the whole chosen one thing and friendship being a big theme in both series. My bestie @tillytilli had lots of suggestions for the AU, and then I asked if they'd like to be a co-creator. Plus with two people working on it made it possible for us to make several illustrations for each chapter; usually three art pieces for each chapter, one by me, one by Tilli and one being a collab between us. So yeah, the premise and some elements are inspired by She-Ra, but the plot will differ a lot since we didn't want it to just be a retelling of that story, we wanted to also make it our own story. Plus we haven't really assigned the characters certain roles (except the obvious ones, like Sonic having Adora's role, Shadow Catra's, Infinite Shadow Weaver's, and Eggman Hordak's. But even some of those are a bit mixed, especially between Sonic and Shadow) because we felt like it would limit the characters too much, and we wanted them to be themselves first and foremost if that makes sense? (So like. You don't need any knowledge of She-Ra to read the fic. Sonic knowledge is more important since there's lore and references XD)

Impactful Skip: I came up with the idea around the time the sneak peek of Sonic and Nine in Sonic Prime came out. Since Nine was a traumatized child because he never met Sonic, it made me think... How would Tails turn out if he had had Sonic, and then lost him? Because he would know what he was missing. Sonic and Tails are so close that I feel like neither of them would be the same if they lost each other. I think I was also subconsciously inspired by that one episode of Futurama where Fry has to test the time machine with Bender and the Professor so he's late from his date with Leela, but the time travel goes wrong and Leela thinks he's dead. (This scene especially always BREAKS me) I didn't like... Actively think about that episode while thinking about the premise, but then I remembered it after a while and was like OH. Another inspiration for it was that one tumblr post I can't find sadly but it was like... "Why would you tell a post-apocalyptic story if not to show the kindness of humanity?" And it's a big part of Impactful Skip, because while Tails has turned against all his friends, his friends still stick together and try to find hope and kindness towards one another even in a world with barely any hope left.

Thank you for asking! I'm really enthusiactic about these stories so I'm always happy to explain about them! ✨✨

[merrilark]

Welp, that's it for S2. I have mixed feelings about it. Overall, it's solid enough, but oh man is it repetitive with some serious pacing and characterization issues. The first episode and last two-threeish episodes make the season better, and I loved the finale, it's just a shame that you have to wade through so much unnecessary padding.

Overall Pros:

The animation is smooth.

The concept is interesting.

Sonic's new voice actor is fantastic! He reminds me a lot of a really pleasant blend between Jason Griffith and Jaleel White.

Love the game references (and very subtle SatAM references?)

Chaos Sonic was a breath of fresh air; he should have been a threat sooner and lasted longer

Dark!Sonic??? 👀 I suppose he'd be Prism!Sonic, but I loved that reference and the shard sound effects every time he flickered were cool.

The Prism Titan was actually terrifying to me.

Shadow finally gets more accurate characterization.

SEGA also remembered that Shadow can use his Air Shoes to hover and propel himself around space. Whoever was responsible for supervising Shadow's writing knew their stuff and really did a good job.

Knux was cool and it was nice to see Knuckles finally being portrayed as competent again.

Sonic's characterization grew on me, and I think he's really charming now.

Everything about Nine was pretty good. I enjoyed the build up with him.

Shadow and Sonic are at their peak whenever they're on screen together.

The Predator references (?) in space with Shadow were VERY good.

It was fun seeing Knux and Dread fight together.

Speaking of Knux, I loooove that Knux/Rebel is basically canon. 7 yo me shipping Knouge would be so happy.

Also I am now pretty sure I ship Sonadow. Romantically or as just platonic soulmates? Somewhere in between? I have no idea yet but I'm feeling things.

The finale almost made everything in the middle worth it.

Really good bones for a show. It has so much potential.

Overall Cons:

Spoonfeeds some things to viewers that feels unnecessary at best and a little patronizing at worst. I know this is a kids' show, but... c'mon, give the viewers a little more credit lol we don't need so many flashbacks, do we?

The pacing is terrible. There were so many moments where I kept thinking "okay, we get it" or "not this again" or "did we really need that scene?" There's a lot of good scenes but unfortunately they're all sandwiched between a lot of pointless stuff.

Too many robot fights that felt exactly the same.

Too few worlds. The concept of traveling to other universes could have been so fascinating to explore but all we got were four new ones in two whole seasons, one world of which is empty and still unexplored.

I'm not a fan of most of the characterizations. Knuckles being stupid is tired and inaccurate, Rouge has been watered down into what feels like the designated Mom Friend™ and just doesn't feel like herself at all, and I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but Amy has lost a lot of her charm. Big is fine, but he feels like he's just there and doesn't really serve much purpose.

The Chaos Council. I can't stand any of them. I think it would have been better if New Yolk's big bad had been a retro Robotnik. These guys? I just don't care about them and I don't find them menacing in the slightest. The baby makes me homicidal.

It wasn't as glaring this season, but the number of duplicate background characters with little to nothing to distinguish them from the others was extremely distracting and took me out of the story almost every time.

I don't think I liked or cared about any of the alternates except the ones in NY. I liked Dread at first but he got annoying pretty quickly. Feels like a lot of wasted potential.

Rusty Rose exists but you mean to tell me that the Chaos Council DOESN'T robotize it's citizens??? Isn't that what she's alluding to since she's clearly not 100% a robot? I know Robotnik/Eggman roboticizing animals has already been done a lot, but that's because it's good! It's scary! It's body horror! It could totally be freshened up if they wanted.

Kind of annoying that the S2E1 emphasized the need for Sonic and Shadow to work together, actually had them say that out loud, and then... just? Kinda didn't give Shadow anything to do for another whole season? All he did was nag Sonic a bit, kick some space rocks around, and then help fight a little at the very end. Maybe I'm biased because he's my favorite, but it's a little tiring to see Shadow constantly being used in newer stuff as just a vehicle to draw a crowd because SEGA knows fans love him, yet not actually giving him anything substantial to do.

This is such a minor thing in comparison to Prime's actual issues, but I didn't like anyone's new voices except Sonic and Shadow. Although, if I'm honest, Shadow's voice sounds almost more fitting for Knuckles. It's better imo than Thornton's Shadow (also a great VA just not my taste for that particular character), but it's def more a Knuckles voice than a Shadow voice. Tails is also fine but I can't stop hearing Rainbow Dash pfff. I don't like Amy, Rouge, and Knuckles' voices at all (Knux aside; the Brooklyn accent somehow makes it better and really suits him LOL).

Anyway, I really don't know how to feel about Prime. The idea is so so good but the execution could use a lot of work. Somehow I'm still excited for S3 and looking forward to it, assuming it gets a third, so I guess that means it isn't all too bad. It's just a pity that it still hasn't seemed to find it's footing. S1 and S2 could have been trimmed and condensed down into one season easily, I think, and been a much tighter show.

[jonismitchell]

A track by track review of 1979’s reputation, one of the most critically acclaimed pop/rock albums of all time. Dive into enigma Taylor Swift’s hits with top reviewer Alice Lam… and maybe find a fresh perspective on these old songs.

PRELUDE: This prelude sees Swift angrily repeating ‘people like a show’ while compatriots at the recording studio read negative headlines aloud. It is a sonic mess with a loud guitar backing, hitting a mix of sound that effectively portrays both chaos and clarity. It is not a song but a minute long intro, at the end of which the sound cuts out, Swift stops whispering, and there is a silent moment before she whispers ‘reputation’ and the album begins. 

SO IT GOES: “We’re on the precipice of a good time,” Swift sings on her album’s opening track. She brings clever detail and confessional songwriting to a story of lovers who meet in a bar and quickly turn on each other, holding and losing in tandem with the crashes of music in the background. This is Swift’s first proper rock song, and it’s clear that she’s chosen the best of the bunch in terms of producers.

DON’T BLAME ME: While largely overlooked on its original album debut, ‘Don’t Blame Me’ quickly became a classic after the theatrical performance it gained on the accompanying tour. In it, Swift screams about “love making her crazy” at high notes she had previously never attempted in her career. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest examples of her vocal performance, even if she didn’t quite have the range of certain soprano peers.

I DID SOMETHING BAD: This sardonic ode to the witches in Salem has a distinctly powerful and feminist quality with Swift’s biting lyrics. While a first draft of the song features snippets such as “I never trust a narcissist, but they love me” and “this is how the world works, you gotta leave before you get left,” the final version serves as a scathing critique of men in general. This was a recurring theme in Swift’s late work. 

THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: This Gatsby-esque experiment in camp brings Swift at her melodramatic best, biting subtly at the celebrity feuds most thought she would address more directly. Even though the song claims that Swift is enamoured with ‘looking for her Daisy,’ one gets the sense that she could rather be curled up in a corner with a book and the lover she toasts to.

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO: A sharp pivot from the giddy laughter of the previous track, Look What You Made Me Do shows Swift as vengeful and scorned. As her voice soars over the lyrical density of the chorus, the accompanying strings evoke images of a scorned goddess in tandem with the Nine Muses and Aphrodite references. This came later, but as Swift herself would say: “there’s nothing like a mad woman.”

INTERLUDE: This largely instrumental interlude starts with a continuation of the strings in Look What You Made Me Do’s outro, but fades from that rage and intensity into a simple melody on the acoustic guitar. As the strumming continues, one can hear Swift say “isn’t that so pretty to think? That all along, we were going somewhere?”

GETAWAY CAR: While the kingdom established lyrically in the first half of reputation is fraught with fear and change, this nearly perfect pop song takes place in an extended metaphor of running away with a lover. Swift seems to know the relationship won’t last (“should’ve known I’d be the first to leave, think about the place where you first met me”) but revels in it all the same. At the very end of the song, you can hear Swift’s car actually pulling into a motel. This song is a fandom favourite and of the most well-known Taylor Swift songs.

CAROL: Although Swift never explicitly confirmed the subject of the track, its title and lyrical content suggest that it draws inspiration from the 1952 novel ‘The Price of Salt.’ It drew hot debate in coming years due to the fact that it is explicitly sung about a woman, (as was 1982’s ‘betty’) but was dismissed alternately as a male perspective and a fictional story. Nevertheless, the emotional details of the song prove Swift’s salt as a songwriter.

GORGEOUS: This acoustic song set at a bar goes through the drunken emotions of meeting someone and being instantly attracted to them. “I go through phases when it comes to love, I’m nothing that you want, but can I just say… you’re gorgeous,” Swift almost whispers, tentative in this first declaration of love despite her reputation. This is the first truly stripped song on the album and is beautiful in this regard.

DELICATE: Picking up exactly where ‘Gorgeous’ left off, ‘Delicate’ deals with the growing emotions of a relationship complicated by outside measures. “My reputation’s never been worse,” laments Swift, but brightens as she sings “so you must like me for me.” With equal measures of misery and hope, ‘Delicate’ is an oft-covered tribute to first love.

END GAME (ft. Lorde): Swift collaborated with Ella Yelich O’Connor (more commonly known as Lorde) for this track about believing that your lover is the last one for you. Originally cut with rapper Future and singer Ed Sheeran, Swift was forced to politely explain to the former that she “did not want to ruin her status as a talented artist by including Ed Sheeran on a track.” The version that was recut with Lorde featured backup vocals from future and the indie singer’s trademark incisive metaphors.

DRESS: Yet another ode to falling in love with your best friend, the breathy and sweet production brings a classic love song to the table. The hook drew attention for being decisively more sexual than Swift’s prior work, much to the artist’s surprise. “There’s a reason I put ‘So It Goes’ at the beginning of the album,” she told AMK Magazine in 1980. “Did people not get it?”

KING OF MY HEART: The second half of reputation alludes to a new kingdom with the lover, but none so explicitly confirm it as this acoustic celebration of Swift’s unnamed lover. Using an extended metaphor of pieces in a chess game, she declares that she would die to keep the secret of her love and that she believes it is “the end of all the endings.” Fans celebrated the heartbroken songstress’s supposed happy ending in 1979, but quickly fell to pieces once Swift confirmed her breakup on 1982’s folklore. Still, no one knows who this song was about. 

DANCING WITH OUR HANDS TIED: Building upon the secrecy theme, this song features Swift, her guitar, and a trembling voice that packs in syllables as if trying to finish so the owner can cry in a corner. Indeed, rumours claim Swift cried extensively before recording this song. It’s easy to see why: the trial and tribulation of loving someone in spite of deep fears is never better rendered than in this miserable song about almost-lost love.

CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT: “My castle crumbled overnight,” sings Swift, “I brought a knife to a gunfight.” While slightly more produced than the last several offerings, ‘Call It What You Want’ is a calm love song about moving past fears of what those might say. Swift finally casts aside her bad reputation and invites listeners to comment on her supposed relationships, almost casting the audience an eye roll in the comfort of a stable love.

NEW YEAR’S DAY: The album closer is a simple piano offering, but features beautiful lyrics that are played consistently on January 1st. “Please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere,” Swift entreats her lover, acknowledging her fears and her hopes in the same breath. It feels almost too private to listen to - and in a way, that seems exactly as Taylor Swift wants us to do. reputation makes it clear that no matter how much she tells us through her music: we still won’t know her at all.

BONUS SONGS (2015 CD RELEASE)

SYLVESTER SKY: As of 2015, no one has seen Taylor Swift for more than thirty years. (“Good for her,” grumbled Goran Stelkoff, longtime correspondent at AMK Magazine.) This so-called new song was played by Swift at several clubs in 1980, although never to more than a couple dozen people at a time. This nearly-flawless recording is a rare find. The lyrics are classically Swiftian, filled with anxiety for the future while revelling in the love she enjoys at present. “We’ve got to get back to that Sylvester sky,” she croons, wondering at a heaven where she and her lover can exist without fears. It is a thematic companion to the album’s ‘Dancing With Our Hands Tied.’

BOTH SIDES NOW: Citing this as one of her favourite songs from the moment it was released, Swift covered Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ dozens of times on her reputation tour, presumably as an ode to her new perspective of fame. Several quality recordings have been spliced together here to form a haunting effect. As you listen to this song, imagine Swift sitting on a stool in front of her legions of fans and strumming a guitar, quietly singing the lyrics she knew by heart.

[owenshire]

Robert Muhlbock (virtually) Inducts Nine Inch Nails into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2020

Nine Inch Nails. One band, and often one man, with a computer (and guitar) against the world. Oh yes, Nine Inch Nails have added members for live performances and gained members (well, a member) for studio compositions, but from this “band-like-musical-entity’s” earliest days, it was just one person—one person who combined pop-hooks with industrial whirs, and harrowing rage with uncomfortable vulnerability. And his name is Trent Reznor.  

No one should claim that Nine Inch Nails invented a genre. They didn’t. But they sure as hell popularized and perfected it. Electronic, Industrial, ‘Disco Death Metal’—whatever you want to call it, the labels don’t really matter.  In fact, I think the genre should just be called “sounds like Nine Inch Nails” which is compliment enough on its own, right?  

Nine Inch Nails are one of the most important, vital, inspirational, talented, and unique of musical artists. I love them. And now I’m going to tell you why…in a lengthy video essay, so settle in.  And if you don’t have the fandom or attention span for what I’m about to say, go back to consuming shitty tweets and dumbfuck Instagram posts because you’re not wanted here anyway.

                            _______________________________

My first introduction to NIN began like so many others: by catching the iconic video for “Head Like A Hole” on MTV—the band rocking out amidst electrical wires and magnetic tape, until it seemed like the entire writhing mess would consume them whole.  It’s an image as potent today as it was some 30 years ago.

However, my real introduction to NIN was originally steeped in urban legend. I was in grade 10 and I heard Pretty Hate Machine played on my school bus on the way home. The owner of this cassette tape, a “cool girl” who shall remain nameless, told me that the album was “out of print” and “unavailable.” In short, she assured me that I would never be able to find a copy, but, guess what, I did.

In a trade with former MMA coach Shawn Tompkins—and in my grade 10 art class no less—I swapped two ninja stars for a box of his old cassette tapes, and Pretty Hate Machine was one of them. This was my own NINJA moment, if you will—does anyone get that reference—anyway, upon witnessing said trade some random guy in my art class immediately offered me $25 for the Pretty Hate Machine cassette tape—a king’s ransom in 1990—but of course I wouldn’t sell. I knew it was valuable—and in more than one way. Instead I played the hell out of the cassette in my Walkman. I was 14 years old. “Terrible Lie” was my favourite song from the album. And it still is.

And then—poof—like that, NIN dropped out of my life. Where’d they go? Well, I guess they were making a name for themselves during Lollapalooza 1991, white chalk dust and all. Not that I knew any of this. Pre-internet I had no idea what was going on.  In fact, I wouldn’t hear any new NIN music until almost a full year later when one of my friends with a penchant for industrial music introduced me to the Broken EP. As he handed me his CD for borrowing, he warned me that it was “pretty extreme.” And he was right. The Broken EP is why album warning stickers were invented: it was a fist to the face, a kick to the face—it was even an ass to the face.

Anyway, the Broken EP was my real introduction to the seemingly bottomless rage of NIN. When I heard Broken I was just starting to get into so-called “heavy” music, but nothing could have prepared me for the lyrical and musical brutality of “Wish.” While Reznor’s litany of profanity was extreme—at least to my sheltered 16 year old ears—what truly staggered me was the song’s main riff (you know the one I mean) the one that is so distorted, so disturbing, that it sounds like a guitar being burned alive while flailing in a wind tunnel.

I’d never heard anything like it before—it wasn’t cock-rock; it wasn’t fake satanic rage done for laughs, theatre or to impress--no. Instead it was the audio embodiment of complete destruction and utter despair. And 30 years later, it’s lost none of its power.

                          __________________________________

These same sentiments must be applied to The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nail’s career defining work that launched the band into mainstream success. Too often discussions of the record get bogged down by emphasis on “Hurt” or “Closer,” or, to some extent, “Heresy.”

Yes, “Hurt” is the perfect album closer and expression of pleading vulnerability, and, yes, “Closer” and “Heresy’s” choruses were brutally raw and shocking in 1994 (and, it should be said, still above average shocking  in 2020), but I feel the album is best presented as a whole. This was the beginning of NIN’s discovery that (to paraphrase one rock critic) just as much tension can be generated with a whisper as with a scream.

Dynamics have always been a huge part of NIN’s’ sound, and The Downward Spiral stands as a defining moment.  The album, as all of you know, begins with “Mr. Self Destruct” (well, that’s not entirely true—the album actually begins with the audio of what appears to be a man being beaten to death while submerged underwater)—but anyway, “Mr. Self Destruct” was as sonically astonishing to me as “Wish” was two years prior. As I listened to the verses of “Mr. Self Destruct” I kept asking myself “Is it supposed to sound like this? I can’t hear what he’s saying”—it was such a cacophony of meticulously detailed and layered noises, but of course not without substance or a melody: its quiet refrain of “And I control you” buried so deep in the mix, it mirrored the subconscious itself.  

“Mr. Self Destruct” gives way to “Piggy”—again a haunting track that’s almost tender and such a shock in sequence given the song that preceded it. Again. Dynamics. Surprise. Making the atypical typical in the best non-traditional way. Does that make any sense? Anyway, I felt the same way about the mini-piano solo/ lyric pairing of “now doesn’t it make you feel better” before the dramatic pause in “March Of The Pigs”—I don’t think any of us saw THAT coming. I was literally shocked when that phrasing appeared out of no where, emerging like a tiny ironic rainbow out of the whirlwind of thrashing drums, crazy guitars, and “stains like blood on your teeth” screams the preceded it.  

Speaking of screams, the title-track of The Downward Spiral still stands as a monument to vulnerability, despair, and pure abject horror. It’s the only song I’ve ever heard that I am afraid to listen to. When I listen to The Downward Spiral, I wait for the song the way a child hides behind a blanket awaiting glimpses of a film monster: I know it’s coming, and I know it’s going to be horrifying…and it always is. So why do I subject myself to it?

                                     ______________________

That’s a fair question. Let’s be frank here: Nine Inch Nails isn’t for everyone. It takes a certain personality to fully appreciate the band’s complete package of black, blue, and bleeding, “but you can dance to it!” Still, NIN is more than mere nihilism and hopelessness. Those who label the band in such ways, kind of miss the point. To me, NIN has always been—lyrically at least—about catharsis: I suppose ALL music functions as such—a tool of understanding, and a mechanism for coping. Trent Reznor once commented on the vulnerability of his lyrics, saying in an interview with NPR that his topic of choice was less about vanity than it was about delivering a performance with honesty and integrity. The only topic that mattered—his emotional struggle—was the only subject he could speak about with authority and with conviction.

However, it just so happens to be a struggle that millions of other people share. When Trent Reznor sings “Now you know/ this is what it feels like” on The Fragile’s “The Wretched,” he is inviting his audience to share in his pain. Whether he intended it this way or not, his is a gesture borne or isolation but ending in comradery: many of us certainly know what “this” “feels like.” And many, many more of us can certainly relate to the words “Dear World, I can hardly recognize you anymore.”

In short, Trent Reznor’s lyrics, as personal as they are, speak for us: his fans. He speaks for me. He still does.

Interestingly, themes consistent in NIN’s best work offer a type of almost emotional ambivalence: caring, but not caring; wanting to be helped, yet rejecting help; and most importantly, wanting to be alone, yet desperately wishing to connect with others. The songs “We’re In This Together” and “The Fragile” perfectly illustrate these sentiments.   To me, it is no coincidence they are sequenced side by side on the “some-critics-didn’t-like-it-at-the-time-but-have-since-come-to-their-senses-album” The Fragile.

                                      _________________

Musically, however, NIN is best known for three distinct styles of music: computer chaos, groovy beats, and symphonic soundscapes. I’ve touched on the first—and will return to it—but for now, let’s discuss the second. I’m not a huge fan of the term “death-disco”; however, NIN’s long list of ass-shaking beats, should not be overlooked. What began on Pretty Hate Machine with “Sin” and “The Only Time,” pleasantly resurface on “Into The Void” only to be perfected on “The Hand That Feeds,” “Only” “Capital G,” and “Discipline” not to mention a large portion of Hesitation Marks.

But back to computer chaos—or maybe just chaos in general. I can think of no better example to illustrate my point than the final coda to the song “The Great Destroyer” on the fabulous dystopian opus Year Zero—one of my favourite albums of all time: the sound of things falling apart—wires frayed, systems destroyed, screens cracked: static humming and ‘please stand by’ messages flicking forever. The Eater of Dreams. “All we ever were—just zeros and ones.”  

                                           ____________________

The final cornerstone of NIN’s musical contribution is soundscapes and instrumentals, and what a can of worms THAT is given all that’s transpired since 2011.  Anyway, when The Fragile was released in 1999, more than a few fans bemoaned its inclusion of no less than 7 instrumentals, and yet these contributions have always been a signature addition to NIN’s body of work: from “pinion,” “help me I am in hell,” “a warm place,” the deeply personal “La Mer,” to Ghosts I through VI, NIN’s experiments with sound have always been integral to their songwriting process—a willingness to experiment and a love of discovery which surprisingly, yet somewhat inevitably, lead to NIN’s work in soundtracks. Beginning somewhat inadvertently with Tony Scott’s Man On Fire (look it up), and then deliberately on the video game Quake, this creative direction eventually resulted in (as we all know) various Oscar and Emmy nominations and wins for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and yeah, while technically not “Nine Inch Nails” releases, I think we can all agree it’s hard to separate the two sometimes because as we all know, the line begins to blur, amiright?  

The point is this: Nine Inch Nails were and are no strangers to pushing boundaries musically, visually, and artistically. Some defining unconventional moments in the band’s career to me are as follows:

·  The 97 one-second tracks on the Broken EP before its final two songs; the infamous Broken film itself—a movie I found on a bootlegged VHS tape and rented for a mere 1 dollar at the time—and then proceeded to wish that I never did.

·  Moving on, there is of course the band’s seminal 1994 Woodstock performance, where the musicians arrived on stage in a foggy haze, caked head to toe in mud, and bringing the apocalypse with them;

·  Next we have the Alternate Reality Game developed around the release of Year Zero,

·  There was the free download of The Slip; and the free downloads of Ghosts V and VI some years later

·  Who could also forget about the NINREMIX website where fans were invited to remix the band’s songs and post them for all to enjoy, and copyright be damned.

·  Um, there was also that time they said “a heartfelt fuck you” to the Grammy’s.  

·   And finally we have Nine Inch Nail’s unexpected live appearance on the rather toned down Austin City Limits.

And the list goes on. Trent Reznor once explained such actions in the most self-aware terms possible: he likes pushing himself (as well as his fans) out of comfort zones, to flirt with mainstream conventions but to approach and execute them as only Nine Inch Nails can: with integrity and—to borrow Trent’s appraisal of the late David Bowie—“uncompromising vision.”      

                               _______________________________

Speaking of integrity and uncompromising vision, NIN’s humility is one of the band’s most inspiring and endearing characteristics. In Reznor’s case, we’re talking about an accomplished artist who admitted publically that he still feels he has so much to learn about his craft—that he’s barely scratched the surface regarding his mastery of sound and songwriting; a man that mocked his own starry eyed expression upon receiving an Oscar by pairing it with the caption “I see unicorns” and inviting fans to provide similar self-deprecating taglines.  A man who speaks in measured tones about his opportunities and successes in his life—and does so, repeatedly I might add, quietly, humbly, and gratefully.  

Such self-awareness is extremely rare in show-business let alone by a band that’s achieved as much as Nine Inch Nails.

And guess what? Here’s the thing. I think there’s no stopping them. With Nine Inch Nails—particularly, Trent and Atticus no matter what they call themselves and until they are inducted into the IHOR as solo artists, anything’s possible:  

·  Scoring a children’s movie? The upcoming Pixar film Soul? Why not? Let’s have some more. Give me a children’s album!

·  Creating a vintage jazz ballad (the unparalleled “The Way It Used to Be”) in a week and making it indistinguishable from other songs of the era? Of course!

·  Winning a Tony Award to become part of the EGOT club—I say sure. In fact, prediction: before the end of the world (so basically, in about 30 years) Nine Inch Nails will get an EGOT.  There. Prove me wrong.

                                       ______________________

In 1997 Spin Magazine once hailed Trent Reznor as “the most vital artist in music today,” while in that same year Trent Reznor appeared on Time Magazine’s list of the top 25 most influential Americans.

These accolades were well earned; however, I prefer a statement made by some music magazine critic whose name escapes me in their review of a Nine Inch Nails album whose name also escapes me: they said, “we can only hope something else pisses him off,” sentiments which I’m sure are echoed by many, and to which I reply…there seems to be no worry about that.

                                      ____________________          

Nine Inch Nails encompass a facet of popular art that is as necessary as it is compulsory: they remind us that the world is not pleasant; tragedy is inevitable; the game is rigged; faith is a lie; and everyone you know will abandon or disappoint you.

But guess what? If you’re lucky, the way out is through, motherfuckers.

I am honoured to induct Nine Inch Nails into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  

[thisyearingaming]

1997 - This Year in Gaming

Muggins here was born in ‘97, and can’t really remember much of it, natch. But there were some good things released this year - I’ve played every one of these, and have missed so many more.

Diablo - Windows, January 3rd

We start with dungeon-crawl-em-up and well-loved out of season April Fool’s Joke, Diablo. I’ll be totally honest - I don’t like Diablo that much. It’s absolutely fine, I just can’t get into it. The writing, setting and characters are all very good especially since this year only marks the beginning of games being seen as a bit more adult and intelligent. Check out this gameplay from Hour of Oblivion on YouTube, and marvel at the faux-Scottish accent on Griswold the blacksmith.

Mario Kart 64 - Nintendo 64, February 10th

Compared to its more recent versions, Mario Kart 64 is a veritable bloody relic of the past - solid controls and a quirky style mean it’s still a crowd pleaser to this day, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone right now that would die on the hill of it being their favourite single-player racing experience. It’s also got some of the deepest, impenetrable lore in any medium known to the human race - why exactly is Marty the Thwomp locked up here?

Blast Corps - Nintendo 64, February 28th

February’s position as most boring month of the year is shaken up a bit by having a uniquely designed Rare game slammed into its 28-day long face. Blast Corps is the puzzle-action game where you take control of several vehicles to destroy homes and buildings in order to prevent a nuclear warhead exploding in the coolest incarnation of Cold War politicking ever seen in a video game. Calling Blast Corps a “hidden gem” these days is like calling Celeste a hidden gem - it impresses nobody and makes you look like a dick. 

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - Nintendo 64, March 4th 

The N64 was home to a surprisingly large number of above-average shooters despite its muddy graphics and small cartridge space - Turok is one of these, a great FPS game where you shoot the SHIT out of dinosaurs. Brett Atwood of Billboard said it was like Doom and Tomb Raider mixed - Doom Raider, if you will. I say it isn’t - there’s no demons, and there’s no polygonal breasts to poke dinosaurs’ eyes out with! 

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Sony PlayStation, March 20th

What is a retrospective? A miserable little pile of opinions. I’ve only recently played through SotN for the very first time on a TOTALLY LEGITIMATE copy with a CRT filter. Bloody good (geddit?) game, that takes the repetition of its predecessors, improves on it in basically every conceivable way, and combines it with special effects and graphics that even 23 years later had me going “ooh, that looks quite good!” Symphony’s music and audio design are wonderfully paired with a deeply enjoyable experience that’ll have you saying “mm, maybe just one more room?”

Tekken 3 - Sony PlayStation, March 20th

Also releasing from the Land of the Rising Sun that day was Tekken 3, which many believe is still one of the best fighters ever made. Tekken 3′s combat is so fast and responsive that it’s better than some games made today. T3 is also the best and easiest way to knock seven shades of absolute shite out of your friends without risking a massive head injury or a trip to the headmaster’s office... where you could also challenge him, but only if he plays as my favourite Not-Guile-or-Ken character in gaming, Paul. 

Sonic Jam - Sega Saturn, June 20th

The moment Sega realised that re-packaging old Mega Drive games would net them serious cash - although unlike later collections, this is a strictly Sonic affair, and has a neat little 3D world to run around in as a sort of hub world. Sonic X-Treme proved that Sonic Team would have to work hard at getting the fastest thing alive into 3D space properly: Jam is the sort of test ground for it too. It features some genuinely good emulation work for 1997, although it’s basically the gaming equivalent of going round to your grandparents at Christmas only for them to give you the exact same gifts you got in 1991, 1992 and 1994 but wrapped in a bow to make you think it’s different. What are you lookin’ at, you little blue devil?

Star Fox 64 - Nintendo 64, June 30th

So there’s this German company, right, called StarVox. Nintendo look at Europe and say “shit, we don’t want another lawsuit... after all, we’ve done three this year!”. So they give us in the PAL region the exciting title of Lylat Wars which as far as I know means absolutely fucking nothing in the context of the game. They’re still called Star Fox in-game too so what was the point? Anyway, fun 3D shooter with graphics that’ll make you do a barrel roll off the sofa and onto the power button to make the brown and green blurs a little easier on the eyes. Hello 2007, I’ve come back to make old references with you!

Carmageddon - Windows, July 30th

The game so scary it was BANNED in the UK! More like the game so fucking shit it was banned. Carmageddon is so deeply boring to play on PC that I can only imagine that Stainless Games made it tasteless by 90s standards simply to ramp up demand - much like another game we’ll be covering soon. 

Herc’s Adventures - Sony PlayStation, July 31st

“And they said Kratos was the best hero? Shish... they got it wrong, sister! Hercules is clearly better... he even has a coconut weapon.” A surprisingly fun overhead action game that most people only know for... well, I’ll just embed it.

Mega Man X4 - Sony Playstation, August 1st

A few years ago I tried playing every Mega Man game there is - I gave up at X3 because I was getting bored. Even still, Mega Man bores me - but at least the level design is good. Stay away from the Windows port. Pictured: me in the background yawning.

GoldenEye 007 - Nintendo 64, August 25th 

The name’s Intro. Overused intro which I also managed to fuck up twice through the deeply editable medium of text. GoldenEye is like the Seinfeld of console shooters - playing it nowadays you’re unlikely to be amazed but holy shit there’s some absolute greatness in this game. Every sound and every piece of music in GoldenEye is permanently seared into my brain - sometimes I’ll just hear Facility or Frigate in my head alongside the door opening sound and the gentle PEW of the PP7. I mean come on, fucking listen to this and tell me Grant Kirkhope isn’t cool as all hell.

LEGO Island - Windows, September 26th

The first open world experience I ever had was LEGO Island. It’s still quite good today, utterly deranged animation from the likes of the Infomaniac and Brickster - a cautionary tale for children that giving pizza to high-profile criminals is disastrous for the human LEGO race. 

Fallout - Windows, October 10th

War never changes, but franchises do. Fallout’s legendary status in the industry is exemplified in how different it feels. Yes, we had the game Wasteland nine years prior, but until September 97 there was nothing quite like Fallout. From the chilling introduction sequence showing the ruins of the United States to the tragic ending, Fallout is an exercise in pure human misery with the brightest spots of hope it can possibly muster thrown in for good measure. What begins as a tedious isometric point-and-click RPG ends as a minigun-wielding power fantasy, before your entire worth is stripped from you at the finish line. You have 500 days to find a water chip before it’s too late, but you’re constantly being fought by terrifying Super Mutants, irradiated animals, and the biggest monster of all - humanity. See what I did there? If anything, humanity in Fallout’s setting would be the greatest unifying force possible against the horror of the outside world. But how is it? It’s dull, it’s sluggish, and it’s really hard to get into even if you’re already a fan - but push through that and it’s worthwhile to see exactly how far the series got before Todd Howard said “eh fuck it” and had the whole thing dipped into an FEV vat.

Grand Theft Auto - Sony PlayStation, October 21st

To put it simply, the first in the GTA series is now nothing but a novelty. It has an irritating camera, wonky controls, poor graphics and deeply repetitive gameplay. But thank fuck it exists, because without it the Rockstar story may have been very different indeed. It’s quintessential cops and robbers gameplay, spanning across Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas in one game, but with maps so far removed from their modern incarnations they may as well be named “Not New York, Possibly Bristol and Orange Town”. People really fucking hated Hare Krishnas in the 20th Century, didn’t they?

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - Sony PlayStation, October 31

A hard one to talk about, honestly - it’s more Crash and better than the first one. It looks great, and Crash controls so well compared to his first outing. It’ll also keep you playing for 100%, fiendishly addictive and unashamedly difficult. Had a weird cover that moved with your head. 

PaRappa the Rapper - Sony PlayStation, November 17th

Type type type the words into the box! (Type, type, type - uh oh - the box?)

PaRappa is a gorgeously stylised rhythm game about rapping to steal the heart of the girl of your dreams - which involves learning karate, getting your driver’s license, selling bottle caps and frogs, making a cake, desperately trying not to shit yourself, and finally performing live on stage. Every one of its segments is so well-produced that they’d genuinely sell like ghost cookies in this era of shite rap. Notable for producing the greatest Jay-Z backing track ever made.

Sonic R - Sega Saturn, November 18th

Sonic R is absolutely FINE with vibrant textures, interesting levels, neat gimmicks and decent controls. But I’m gonna talk about its fucking AWESOME soundtrack by Richard Jacques and T.J. Davis, an eclectic mix of Europop and New Jack Swing - even thinking about it is bringing tears of absolute joy to my eyes hearing Super Sonic Racing in my head. You’ve got the main theme, Living in the City, Can You Feel the Sunshine, Back in Time, Diamond in the Sky, Work It Out and Number One - all of these are absolute club bangers and genuinely wouldn’t be out of place in a 90s disco. 

Tomb Raider II - Sony PlayStation, November 18th

Lara Croft returns to single-handedly endanger every species on Earth. TR2 is really good, the exploration and puzzle-solving aspects of the first game expanded upon here and the gunplay remaining just as punchy. Lara’s got a fully-functioning ponytail which absolutely boggles the fucking mind - a lot of work went into Lara’s hair for the 2013 reboot, so I can’t imagine the amount of man hours it took to get fluid(ish, come on, it’s the PS1 we’re talking about) hair movements in 1997. 

And really, that’s all I played from 1997. I’ve left out big hitters like Quake II, Gran Turismo and Diddy Kong Racing, but I simply haven’t formed an opinion on them yet. Maybe in a future post. 

Thanks for reading.

[mobius-prime]

124. Sonic the Hedgehog #71

Heeeyyy, is that a pair of green eyes I see up there? Have we finally reached the issue where Sonic's eyes become his trademark green? Guess we'll have to dive into this "strangest issue ever" to find out…

In the Beginning…

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Barry Grossman

Hey, why is the secondary story being told first? Hm…

Amy has led Tails to the same part of town she and Dulcy explored several issues ago, when they looked around the Mobotropolis Library for Kirby books. Tails is a bit nervous, but Amy excitedly leads him inside, and happily greets a Mobian dog sitting on the floor surrounded by books. But who is this person?

So yeah, no telling how this guy somehow survived ten years inside Robotnik's own city without being captured, or how he kept the library in such pristine condition since then, but as you may have guessed this is the guy who made the noises - accidentally, due to creaky doors - that scared Amy and Dulcy off the first time. But now, in the intervening time, Amy has returned and made friends with him, and has been getting access to all sorts of Kirby books to read. Tails takes the book Jeremiah is holding and discovers it to be a book of the history of Mobius, which Jeremiah claims his grandfather had been working on right up until Robotnik seized power. He doesn't bother going into the issue of, say, whether Kirby is even still alive after the war, but Tails jumps right into the book, reading it aloud for Amy to enjoy as well. In the beginning of time, life evolved after a meteor struck the planet, eventually branching off into different species. The most advanced of them all was apparently the echidna, because even when Kenders isn't working on his own pet sister series, he still has to make the echidnas, like, the best ever. One day, a squirrel named Alexander decided he wanted to unite every Mobian species to advance knowledge together and build a stronger society. The only ones who refused him were the echidnas, who went off to build their own society, and the Overlanders, who were too violent and acted with aggression when offered this choice. However, with nearly every other species agreeing, the building of a kingdom began…

This oddly seems to conflict with the history of Mobotropolis we were given just a few issues ago, where it was stated that it was built to commemorate Nate inventing ring technology and bringing the kingdom out of the medieval era. I mean, I suppose the beginning of the Acorn line could have coincided with the construction of Mobotropolis, but it seems odd, then, that Nate would have been omitted from such an important piece of history. It would also basically make King Max only the second Acorn king ever, since Nate was essentially an adopted uncle to him, which incidentally also makes the king's line about Sally being the "first female Acorn" to be immersed in the Source of All kind of silly if there were only two males before her. Even more ridiculously, this simply would not leave enough time for the echidnas, after rejecting the offer of multiculturality, to go off and found Albion, split off, build Echidnaopolis, raise the Floating Island, and go through like six hundred more years of history with the Brotherhood of Guardians before reaching the present day. Honestly, I think this is just a genuine continuity mistake, but it's not really a big deal, as one could suppose that, say, Mobotropolis was merely rebuilt to the standards of modern technology when Nate arrived. This is somewhat supported by Tails' next line, which references the beginning of the Great War with the Overlanders… dun dun duuuunnn!

And now is when I add the title, writer, penciller, and colorist for the next story, right? R-right?

Oh, we're just jumping right into it, are we? Well okay then. Sonic indeed has his green eyes now, as well as shoe buckles which are important to Sally for whatever reason, but we don't even know the story behind it. Well, we were promised a bizarre issue, and we're getting one - this entire story is told in reverse! We essentially have to follow the events backwards to figure out what caused everything we're seeing. So jump backwards twenty minutes before the above page, and everyone in Mobotropolis is celebrating that the energy beam that was about to destroy reality has vanished, with Nate crediting Sonic using his speed, along with a super emerald. Sally, in Knothole, feels woozy, but then reasons that if she's woozy, she's alive, which must mean Sonic succeeded. Uh… succeeded in what, though?

Sonic essentially starts pulling a Superman-style time reversal, running insanely fast around and around the entire globe, which begins to force him into shifts of alternate forms - first Super Sonic, then Ultra Sonic from when he fought Naugus. Then, passing through the desert near Sand-Blast City, he begins to experience never-before-seen forms, beginning with Solar Sonic, which turns him a brownish-orange. In the Southern Tundra, he becomes Polar Sonic with white-blue fur, and in the Great Rainforest he turns into Eco-Sonic. The glowing time-beam, which he is attempting to attract to him with his speed, turns and begins to follow him, and before he can get away from it, it strikes him…

Back to thirty minutes prior! Sonic is in Mobotropolis, staring at the beam from the palace along with Nate and the king. The beam is focused on Knothole, causing it to slowly shift back to its proper place within the flow of time. However, if left unchecked, the beam will eventually screw up time all over the planet, destroying it. Sonic asks Nate how they'll handle it, and he suddenly pulls out, presumably from his own anal cavity since it's never addressed where he was keeping this giant thing, a white Super Emerald.

Back up ten minutes! Sonic has just broken through the time barrier around Knothole separating it from the rest of the world, but Sally, to his surprise, isn't with him. He tries to head back in through the Great Oak Slide to find her, but the slide is glowing so brightly - three times more brightly than when he entered - that he doesn't want to risk blindness. Instead, he races off to Mobotropolis to find help.

Rewind eight minutes, and Sally and Sonic have just entered Knothole. Everything within is incredibly bizarre, and things seem to be moving backwards, even people's speech.

Just in case you have trouble reading backwards, by the way, Jules is saying "Where on Mobius is our son, Bernie? He's been avoiding us for weeks now," to which Bernie responds "I'm sure he'll communicate with us when he's ready, Jules, my darling," which is totally how people talk to each other. Sonic and Sally, realizing that time is even more messed up here than it already was before with the whole three-hours-ahead thing, try to leave the village so they can find out what's going on, but the odd glow surrounding them, somehow protecting them from the backwards flow of time, also prevents them from interacting with anything in the area, including the Great Oak Slide. Sonic gets a crazy idea of how to escape anyway - just go through the time barrier!

Well now we know why he was surprised that Sally wasn't with him before, but say, what was happening ten minutes before now? Well, Sonic and Sally were sliding down the Great Oak Slide, of course! It's filled with a blinding yellow light, which Sonic reasons must be connected to the bright light he saw a few minutes ago. What bright light? Well, going back seven minutes should give us the answer! Sally and Sonic are walking around in the forest, discussing his previous disobedience of the king's order not to go after Nate. Sally reassures him that her father wasn't actually angry, just had to keep up appearances, and after a brief discussion of Queen Alicia's static state and Dr. Quack's continued efforts to find a cure for her, the topic turns to Sonic's own parents, and how Sally thinks he hasn't been spending enough time with them as they've been worried about him. Sonic, somewhat stunned, realizes she's right, and claims he "still hasn't got this parent thing figured out yet," which is… honestly really sad. Remember, this kid, since he was five, believed that his parents were dead, and not long after that lost the only other person he could see as a parent figure when Uncle Chuck was captured and roboticized. He's been so long without real parents that now that he suddenly has both his mom and dad back, he has no idea how to really interact with them. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted, however, by a flash of light from the entrance to Knothole…

Back to fifteen minutes ago, and Sonic, Elias, and the Secret Service have just returned to Mobotropolis, bringing Nate with them safe and sound. Despite Elias and Sonic sharing a broment together over their success, the king chews them out for jumping into danger despite his orders.

Well, the only unanswered question we have now is - where did the time beam come from that almost destroyed everything? The answer comes, of course, in the form of another satellite sequence which happened fifty-nine minutes earlier, with an O-SAT unit activating, focusing on the planet's surface, and ominously firing.

Because this issue is so confusing when read backwards (although I do admit to liking the dramatic effect it creates, especially with the final page showing the satellite firing), I'll just summarize in chronological order what happened, just in case anyone's head is reeling. While Sonic, Elias, Nate and the others were on their way back from West Robotropolis, the satellite fired a time beam towards the surface. The king ordered Sally to escort Sonic back to Knothole, where they witnessed a beam of light emit from the entrance. After entering, time was running backwards, and they attempted to escape to figure out the cause, but only Sonic managed to get out. He ran to Mobotropolis for help, where Nate concocted a plan to use Sonic's speed along with a Super Emerald to attract the beam to him instead. Sonic was hit by the beam, and as Knothole resumed an ordinary flow of time, Sonic's appearance changed to include buckles on his shoes and green eyes. Somehow, no negative effects came of this, and everyone lived happily ever after including Sonic, unfazed by his new form. Funnily enough, Sonic is the only character they bothered concocting a story for to explain how his eyes changed from black to green. Every other classic-styled character from the games who started with the black eyes just randomly, without any fanfare whatsoever, starts to develop colorful eyes as the issues progress, as we've already seen happening intermittently with Tails and Knuckles. I guess since Sonic is the main character, he gets special treatment? Eh, doesn't really matter. Oh, and of course, we've forgotten one more thing - the title and credits that were missing from the beginning of the story, but appeared on the final page in keeping with the whole reverse theme! I'll just go ahead and reprint them here exactly as they're spelled out in the issue itself…

Colors: odrailgaG knarF Pencils: reltuB nevetS Writer: srelloB lraK

Retro Activity

Oh, yeah. They went there.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Sonine Prime ... Part 3

Hi, everyone and welcome back to Sonine Prime! The part of the show when I come out and talk about Sonine (and a bit of Sontails) in Sonic Prime!

Last time we finished up the set of scenes starting with their meeting and ended with Sonic and Nine's capture by the Chaos Council. This time, we're hoping to get to move on to the next episode before moving on to the next part😂

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<< Part 2 | Part 4 >>

(Essay/thoughts/analysis under the cut)

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Starting out with an honerable mention of a moment!

"Nine! Is that you?"

Nine: You're just wasting your breath.

Sonic: Omg Nine👀😊

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And then, just before Sonic is put through a series of grueling diagnostic tests, Nine is used as collateral to get him to comply.

"Do not fight them. It will only end badly. For him."

"Nine!"

"Okay, let's start the test. The sooner we do this, the sooner Nine and I can get out of here."

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Another small thing:

The way Nine tenses up furing the first test, as Sonic risks being shot by both laser guns (another tick in the "Nine cares a surprising amount about someone he just met" box)

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Hmmm, and the little things just keep coming, don't they?

Sonic loses his footing in the giant hamster ball filled with spike balls.

"Sonic!"

Which of course, makes Sonic palpably annoyed

Hmmm almost reminds you of when Eggman insulted Tails, doesn't it?

"You wanna test me, Eggheads? Question. How do you tick off a hedgehog? ANSWER. Mess with his friends!"

Hehe. Interesting.

"No one messes with my best friend!"

vs

"How do you tick off a hedgehog? ANSWER. Mess with his friends!"

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Sonic begins to "hallucinate" as he says, and we're treated to another flashback

Amy: I guess he didn't hear the stick together part.🙄

Knuckles: Does he ever?

Tails: No. But he also hasn't let us down when it really counts! You know Sonic. He'll catch up at some point.😊

No comment about how everyone else is at least mildly annoyed at Sonic and Tails stands up for him in a way that redirects their attention from what Sonic did/is doing to the fact that he'll be there when they need him.

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Good bye Season 1 Episode 1 of Sonic Prime, hello Episode 2!

"It's not about the zigs or the zags... It's about the friends we made along the way."

Sonic looks at Nine, has a flashback/vision of seeing Tails and Shadow before the shattering. Then, he looks at Nine both after being confused and still a bit out of it

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Okay, so aside from that funny little moment (Sonic's face), there are some little things to piece together from Nine's end after the council brings out the energy extractor.

First, unlike Sonic's repeated winking afterwards, Nine winks at him smoothly. He doesn't change expression as he does so, and it happens in a singular smooth motion. This makes sense as to why the message Sonic received from the wink was a sort of "I have a plan". While we can't know exactly what he meant, what is clear was that the wink at Sonic was deliberate.

Second, the way he plays off the earlier wink. I think it's pertinent to mention that he's at the end of two Eggforcer's weapons, and Sonic hasn't exactly been subtle this whole time with the winking. His fairly loud whisper to Nine about a plan isn't exactly subtle either (and Nine isn’t exactly the confessing to caring about someone type), so it makes sense if he plays the earlier wink off as having dust in his eye. There is a real contrast begin the smooth wink before and the way he rubs his eye when he says he just has dust in it. That also being said, they did just meet still, so even if Nine cares about Sonic a surprising amount, I think it can be true that his earlier wink was him trying to tell Sonic that he's thinking of a way out of this just as much as it's true that Nine might prioritize making sure he'll live at least if Sonic's not going to survive the extractor. And since this is all about talking about ways certain bits in this series can be interpreted, anyone want to talk about how "I just had dust in my eye" is commonly used by characters who are pretending they're not tearing up due to the display in front of them? Nine has been watching this display of a hedgehog's last words with...an interesting expression on his face, I'll say. Is he...confused? Just thrown off by how Sonic’s acting here? Dumbfounded? Who knows. All we know is that the camera cuts to Nine quite a bit to show us his changes of expression as Sonic speaks, and that after Sonic looks at him for a prolongued amount of time (after asking if he has a plan), his expression instantly changes. This is to say, even though he clearly wasn't tearing up/betraying sadness in that moment, what if Sonic looking at him then, asking if he had a plan, sort of made him feel laid bare? What if he was afraid for a moment that his expressions betrayed his thoughts and feelings on the inside? I mean, imagine meeting someone for the first time and caring about another person for the first time in years. Imagine you've been lonely and isolating yourself for years of your life, and this hedgehog you've barely met uses his last words to call you one of his friends. Imagine he's begging on what could be his death bed for a plan, and you haven't worked anything out yet (even though earlier you'd winked to make him feel better, feel like there will be a plan). He could die, you don't know what to do, you're still not sure why you care, why this makes you sad. You just met him didn't you? He looks at you for a while, asking for a plan, and for a moment, as you're afraid something will happen to you as he mentions plans to free him, you're also coming to terms with the thought that this hedgehog *could* die. Playing it off as just dust in the eye doesn't just save you from another nasty shock, but it protects you from feeling like the hedgehog is staring right into your soul, seeing your conflicting feelings.

Third, after Sonic says "looks like this is game over" and seems to accept there's no way out, the extractor closing in, the camera cuts away to Nine again, zooming in on his face. There's a subtle shift in Nine's face right then and he looks...almost sad, or like he finds it hard to believe that this is real. Then, when it cuts away from Sonic again, after he says goodbye, Nine's eyes are wide.

Actually, on Nine's expressions during what he and Sonic both believe to be Sonic's last moments, I may have hit the picture limit, but I can at least embed a clip here so you all can watch Nine's expressions.

All I'm saying is that if Nine wasn't having feelings about all this in some form, the creators would not have chosen to keep cutting away to Nine's expression, bidding the audience to see and wonder how he feels about all of this. And I think the fact that Nine is reacting at least a little, not looking bored or uncaring or as if he's trying to get this over with, tells us a lot about Nine and what the creators wanted the audience to focus on.

More evidence to the "Nine cares a surprising amount for a hedgehog he just met and doesn't only care about him out of curiosity/what sonic can do for him" box

Not to mention that just after this, when Nine gets his chance to slip away, he frees Sonic right after freeing himself. This is one of these scenes that *is* arguable, as there's really no point in him leaving Sonic there to die. But, we know that Nine has the capability to go on the offensive (not just because of the entire fight scene from episode 1, but also from the fact that he destroys/dismantles an eggforcer at the computer without even needing to turn around) and Rebel and Renegade are there. So it personally tells me a lot that Nine didn't leave Sonic there to fend for himself (especially since he'll later weigh his options and choose to leave Rebel, Renegade, and Rusty to the council over the chance of saving them and losing the red shard).

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Wooo! Season 1 Episode 3, everybody, let's go!

Now, this episode starts with a pre shattering flashback. Just like in episode 2, Sonic's friends talk about how annoyed/frustrated they are that Sonic isn't yet fighting with them. After everyone says their piece, Tails again stands up for Sonic, telling them that Sonic will arrive at some point and that he knows he will.

(We'll come back to these flashback bits with Tails standing up for Sonic while others don't trust/believe in him or are annoyed at him later)

And back to the present, Nine just manages to take control of Rusty Rose in time to save Sonic.

Now, as there are a couple things I'd like to bring to everyone's attention with the aid of screenshots, until part 4, everyone!

Next time we'll hopefully get to tackle the rest of episode 3, and there should be smooth sailing til the last few episodes of the season after that.

[meiloorun-notthefruit]

classic, nine-oh, boom, and fuzz

This AU was inspired from @lyricstomb ‘s drawing of the Sonics defending movie!sonic and I saw that and my brain went ahead and made an entire AU. Btw this is the drawing.

Anyways this is more of a background post than anything else.

This is AU can be simplified as different versions of Sonic all living together in the real world. Think of them like how toons are actors in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, except for video games.

There are different versions of Sonic that exist in the first place because character redesigns are expensive and Sonic's been 'overhauled' several times in the years he's existed. But in this world, it's super expensive to redesign a character so SEGA -- whose already experienced financial hardship -- just decides to makes "new" Sonics each time a new design is ever needed.

Anyways, having different versions of someone running around the place -- especially someone as fast as Sonic -- is hard to keep track of so SEGA eventually lets them all out of their care, emancipating them all, leaving the four of them to fend for themselves. This decison was made only by the higher ups, not by the actual ppl who worked with them.

The four Sonics (they can’t be all called Sonic) are referred as:

Classic Nine-oh Sonic or Boom (it really depends; he’s stubborn, spiteful, and tired with everyone’s bullshit and refuses to give the name up, even if it trademarked.) Fuzz (movie sonic, named Fuzz at first as a joke from Nine-Oh — “cause you’re a fuzzball and because you’re working with the fuzz!” — and to distinguish him from Boom (“don’t call me that!”) but the nickname caught on.

***

~ Classic is technically the oldest out of all his brothers and if you refer to them as anything but his brothers — chaos help you if you call any of them clones, shams, or anything close to that — he’s the first to react violently; a spin dash to the face will suffice. His appearance is deceiving and most assume he’s the youngest. He’s non-verbal and communicates via sign language and exaggerated facial expressions and body language.

~ Nine-oh is the first Sonic to be 'born' as a redesign; he's "nineties' Sonic", so he's had his ups and downs career wise. He's the only one of his brothers to have been actually been through a 'costume change' himself -- the Sonic Adventures series and the (infamous) Sonic 06' -- and he doesn't really recommend it at all (when his brothers get him to talk about it), the most he says about it is that the ensuing identity crisis is not fun. Nine-oh has the hardest time expressing his emotions and he's also the one whose had the longest career. The latter attributes to him being not as good with his feelings -- the industry is not as kind and it only seemed to get worse as time went by. He hides his true feelings very well, tho it's not as easy to hide around his brothers.

After 06', he became really good friends with Elise (no romantic feelings between them tho) but because the game wasn't popular at all, when it was rebooted and removed from canon, she ceased to exist. Nine-oh is devastated.

She's not entirely gone, but he just doesn't know that.

~ Boom, as said before, hardly responds to Boom -- he's claimed Sonic as his name and refuses to answer to anything else -- only his brothers can call him that and even then not by much.

Sonic is tired most of the time and he really doesn't give much thought to what others say; when he was revealed to the world, he was greeted with several several harsh comments and other things, but whereas Nine-oh hides his reactions, Sonic either 1) processes them and then lets its be -- those ppl aren't worth his reactions and also that's effort -- or 2) his temper gets the best of him if it's a particularly rude/inappropriate comment. especially if it's against his family.

~ Fuzz is a nickname given to movie!sonic after he's been broken out of the Paramount movie vault. He looks nothing like what the media and PR has been advertising -- this boi has the looks of his brothers, just tad more hair/quills and lots of sass.

ANYWAYS, Nine-Oh is the one who gave Fuzz his name. He also suggested Pointy -- cause he's got more individual tiny quills than all of them -- but one exasperated look from Classic shuts him up because poor Fuzz is still reeling from all his surroundings, because he's been locked in the vault for who knows how long -- Fuzz doesn't know but it's been awhile.

Apparently Paramount was waiting for the right moment to 'reveal' Fuzz, but the moment seemed to never come and lo and behold, ya boy's claustrophobic now.

~ Fuzz is the youngest, very jumpy, and boundless energy, even for a hedgehog who runs at the speed of sound. He's a bit of a hoarder when it comes to collecting things, like shoes and other things that grasp his attention.

He likes just about everything that has to do with being outdoors.

He eats the most out of all the hedgehogs, which none of them thought possible because Classic can out eat anyone in a food contest.

His description best fits that of a 'gremlin' and 'troublemaker'. Despite his past circumstances, Fuzz is generally the one to trust people/humans first.

***

they all get along very well with each other -- yeah sure they're all sonics but they don't see it at they way; they're each their own person and are insanely protective of the others. Found family, they all found each other -- Classic, Nine-Oh, and Sonic -- after SEGA put them out and then they lived their lives the best they can with what they got and when they heard there's another sonic -- another brother -- out there alone (and being exploited) so of course they're going to go get him out.

Classic willingly gave up the name Sonic to Nine-Oh when Nine-Oh first came into existence -- as a sort of passing along the torch sort of ritual. When Boom came along, Nine-Oh more or less yeets the name Sonic at him -- 9-O doesn't want it anymore and Boom/Sonic gladly accepts it and stubbornly sticks by it. Fuzz, similar to 9-O, sees negative connotations associated with their 'true name', so he sticks to his nickname.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

INTERVIEW: Iskwē

In a world where we are constantly defining the sum of our lives through the filter of another’s gaze, genuinely unchained artists like Winnipeg-bred Hamilton-based singer-songwriter IsKwé (pronounced iss-kway) are becoming a rare breed.

IsKwé (which means ‘woman’ in her native language) is fostering an unmistakable sound that weaves together her Irish and Cree/Dené roots with poignant politically charged lyrics, dark soulful R&B rhythms, electronic flourishes, and trip hop breakbeats.

Bridging cross-cultural aesthetics while exploring her own struggle to both fit into and breakaway from modern Western archetypes has been an important part of IsKwé’s artistic vision since the release of her self-titled debut album in late 2013.

Unafraid to challenge the convictions of her detractors by honouring her heritage, standing steadfast in her viewpoints, and embracing her sexuality, IsKwé’s artistry knows no bounds. Blending soulful, breathlessly delivered lyrics that are coloured by the many shades of human nature with a sonic palette that takes its queue from the shadowy atmospherics of the 1990s Bristol sound, IsKwé’s music revels in her strength of self and that is her true rallying cry.

IsKwé has just released her new album acākosīk and we had a chat with this incredible artist all about it as well as what kinds of things she takes inspiration from, her creative process and much more. Read the interview below.

You have just released your new album acākosīk. What can you tell us about the record?

"This record is a journey. It was written as a narrative meant to take us through a passage of time, lyrically, and sonically, showcasing some of the roadblocks, while highlighting so much of the beauty I feel exists within the indigenous community. Some of the songs do touch on tough conversations, as this is still the reality we live in, but when you peel back the layers, there are stories of the sky people, stories of love and friendship, as well as self-discovery."

acākosīk is your third album. How does it compare with your first two, iskwē and The Fight Within? How has your sound evolved?

"This album is definitely leaning more on the alternative and traditional sonic influences, with the electronic vibes being more in the secondary role. I'm not entirely sure how/why this shift evolved this way - but it naturally fit with the narrative and sentiment as I was creating, so I ran with it!"

Please take us through your songwriting/creative process.

"This is a tricky one to answer, as I don't feel I have any one particular process. There are times songs seem to fall from the sky and use me as a conduit - where I blink and the song is written, sometimes with me not have a clear memory of the process, while other times I can sit and work on a tune for months, massaging and trying new sounds, etc. It's a bit of a crap-shoot, in terms of which way presents itself each time I sit down to write!"

You have such a unique and mesmerizing sound. What/who do you take your inspiration from?

"Well thank you! I pull inspiration for all sorts of people and places. I find sonically, I'm inspired primarily by orchestral sounds paired with crunchy, inorganic synthy bass type sounds. I love the blend of classical with grit - so artists like Björk, Portishead, Nine Inch Nails. But then I'm also drawn to my love of 90s grunge/alternative, and the melancholic sounds of vocalists like Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) and finding ways to subtly reference these influences. Honestly - I pull from so much. I grew up listening to EVERYTHING, and feel no need to limit myself to any one particular sound."

And how do you incorporate your atmospheric soundscape into your live show?

"I try to keep it ever shifting and evolving, so that folks get to be excited at the start of each show and think "what is she going to do THIS time?". This can range from what sort of orchestration I include on that tour (sometimes I have powwow singers, sometimes I have string instruments like violins and cellos, etc), but I'm always looking to build on what I've done in the past!"

Is there anything you like to do outside of music that contributes to your musicality? For example a hobby you turn to in order to rejuvenate your creativity?

"Ah! Well, actually - I was a dancer before I ever went into music as a career, and I really LOVE this art. It is such a passion of mine, and even though I'm not as strong at it as I once was, I make sure to get myself to class from time to time, and to always let music move me - whether in my kitchen, on stage, or if I go out dancing with friends! I also love to cook, which is my best stress reliever. I'll put on some delicious jazz or classical music, and dive in. Yumm!!"

If there was one thing you could change about the music world today, what would it be?

"I'd love to see the art of the album come back into rotation - when we got excited about an artists release because we hadn't heard from them in a while, as they were taking their time writing and creating in order to release an album with a ban! The constant need to pump out new material every few months in order to stay "relevant" is taxing and feels a bit oversaturated, so I'd really love for us to venture back to the idea of anticipation and delayed gratification!"

You collaborated with the brilliant Tanya Tagaq on the song 'The Unforgotten' last year. Is there anyone else you would love to collaborate with in the future?

"I'm going to shoot for the stars and put it out to the universe...I'd love to work with Trent Reznor next!!"

Now that is a collaboration we would love to see! Finally, what would you say has been the biggest highlight of your career so far and what are you looking forward to in the future?

"Oh jeeze - I've been lucky enough to have a whole wack of really cool things happen along the way for me so far! I'd say the most current highlight would have been performing some of my songs alongside the National Arts Centre Orchestra for the Golden Gala 50th Anniversary of the NAC. My songs had been arranged for the orchestra, so it was just me and the orchestra - and it felt incredible! There was a moment, when I was standing on stage looking up to the huge spotlight shining down, hearing the musicians build up a big moment in my song 'Little Star,' that I thought to myself - oh! This is like that moment in ALL the movies!! It was total magic."

acākosīk is out now.

[fionaapplerocks]

Chris Connelly: A "welcome back" seems in order, doesn't it?

Fiona Apple: Yeah, I guess so. It felt like coming back when I got to the airport, and I heard somebody be, like, "There she is!" and then there's a camera with a light and stuff, and I just kinda felt really weird. I was all, like, airport gross.

Connelly: Was it hard to want to re-enter this thing? Did you want to take more time off, or were you ready to go back in and start working when the time came?

Apple: When I got off the road, I took, like, six or eight months where I didn't do anything, and I didn't, like, really play piano or anything like that, and I just didn't think about it at all, 'cause I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I wasn't sure I wanted to come back. I wasn't sure, I wasn't sure, and I took some time, and I didn't really think about anything like re-entering it, and then, after a few months, you just kind of forget what it was like. So I just kind of naturally started writing songs again, and then once I wrote songs the decision is made, 'cause if you write songs and you're proud of them, then you kind of have to do something with them.Connelly: What sort of image do you think you had when you left the road that time? What did people think of you?

Apple: It depends on where they were looking. If they were going to a lot of shows and not really reading a lot, then they probably had a lot truer view of me.Connelly: What was the wrongheaded view of you, in your mind?Apple: That I'm just, like, a sad brat with no sense of humor, you know?Connelly: You could sort of sense that out there from the stuff you would read and from the response you would get to people?Apple: Well, yeah. Didn't you? [Laughs]Connelly: I know what you're referring to.Apple: It's a really weird feeling to be, like, reading a piece on yourself, and then see the letters that come after it, and kind of agree with the letters, because the way you came off in a piece was kind of like a moron, or kind of ridiculously. But man, that was not my fault, you know? I can talk two hours in an article, there'll be like two quotes to corroborate whatever the writer was going to write anyway. And that just happened with me a lot, and I don't really know what the reason was.Connelly: Did you feel very exposed on the basis of your personal history? Did you feel you had given a lot of yourself away?

Apple: Yeah, but that was mine, that was my... I mean, I did that. So the things that I've done that, like, kind of slap me in the face, I can deal with that. That doesn't give me any anger. But I've had cases where, like, I've just been set up, because it's like, "We're going to do this issue of our magazine, and she's a great one to make into the little terror child, and I'm sure we can get her to say something we can blow up into a pull quote. I'm sure we can rile her up." And it could.

Connelly: Did you, any part of you, sort of enjoy being a little provocative, though, in the things you would say publicly towards the end of your run last time?

Apple: No, but cause I was honestly not doing it to be provocative, I was, like, being selfish for everything. I have selfish reasons for doing anything that I do, and my selfish reasons are just to teach myself lessons. Speak when I have something to say, just so that whether I'm in this business or someplace else, 20 years from now, that I've trained myself to be outspoken.

I didn't really read the press that came after what I would say for a long time. I just kind of was like, "Oh, if I get into that head, I'm just gonna become fake." And so I wouldn't read it, so I didn't learn what would happen, and then when I started reading it, that's when I kind of see that it doesn't matter if you have good intentions. If someone else doesn't, then you are in their hands.

Connelly: When you look back on what's happened over the last few years, do you have any regrets about stuff you've said or talked about or did?

Apple: No.

Connelly: Why is that?

Apple: Because I learned my lessons from 'em, and because, man, I don't see why I have to be perfect all the time and, like, not embarrass myself sometimes. I'm talking about, like, somebody who's trying to do something and just kind of gets it wrong a little bit, and then, and then you see them get it right, I just... you don't see anything develop in anybody, you don't see anybody really, really being human. I just kind of feel like everything's so rehearsed. And also I learned a lot personally for myself, whether or not I'm in this business. I did what I wanted to do, and that's something to be proud of. Who cares what happened? Who cares if those other people were idiots and somebody wants to pick on me?

Connelly: So you were happy to leave that behind for a good six to nine months for a while?

Apple: Yeah.

Connelly: And then how did the songs start to come?

Apple: Just the way that they always came, just because I would get pissed off and I'd just be like --

Connelly: [Laughs]

Apple: 'Cause I just feel like [there are] certain times in life where you just feel that you have an argument and you just want to make a point, but there's really no point in making that point to someone. You just kind of need to make it for yourself, to figure out exactly how you feel about something. I'd just be alone in my house and be like, "Ahh, piano," and it just started to be the way that I would deal with things. It was the way I deal with things three or four years ago, when I was writing songs for the other album, and then it kind of stopped being the way that I would deal with things. I would kind of deal with things then by just saying things to people a lot, 'cause I wasn't around the piano a lot, except for doing the shows. But after some time away from the piano, it started to become attractive to me again.

Connelly: Your last record, though, seemed to encapsulate a lot of your personal history.... Is this record more of a snapshot of what your last three or four years have been like?

Apple: I wouldn't say it was a snapshot. It's not a snapshot for other people to see my life. It's a snapshot of mine that I've taken of my life, but I'm the only one who could really understand it. The "you"s in my songs are really just similarities that I've noticed between many people in my life, and [I] just made those similarities a character to speak to. It's all autobiographical, but I'm not revealing anything truly. It's all disguised.

Connelly: What sort of things were you working out, though, as you wrote those songs? What kind of emotions were you dealing with in your life? The big things?

Apple: The big things, yeah, I guess. What do you mean?

Connelly: Well, were you in love, were you not in love, were you angry at people? What kind of things were playing against your head?

Apple: All of those things. All of those things.

Connelly: Has it been a happy time, or kind of unsettling [or] troubling the last few years?

Apple: It's been a happy time. I've made a home for myself. I have friends. I took all that time working last time to kind of figure out [how] to make my own place in the world, and then now, once I had my own place and I kind of knew what did with my life, I knew what I did for a living, and I had that knowledge about myself. It was great to kind of settle down for a while and make friends, now that I was an actual person.

Connelly: People are often very intimidated by making that second record after a big success the first time. Sounds like you didn't actually have that problem once you started writing.

Apple: No. 'Cause I started without thinking, "I'm going to start trying to write now for a record." I just started because it was at that moment, "I want to write something down." I think people run into that problem because they pay way too much attention to it early on. I think they start going, "Okay, well, this is going really good. How am I going to top this? What is my public image? How am I going to top that?" I didn't need to worry about topping my public image, and I'm really proud of the songs that I write [and] that I've written for this [album], and I was proud of them when I was writing them, and I knew they were good when I was writing them, so there was no worry about that. If I hadn't been sure that they were great, I just wouldn't have made the album.   Connelly: How much did you hear the different sonic textures of these songs as you were writing them?

Apple: When I write on the piano, I write a lot with the rhythms in mind. I guess it's all there. I guess it's all represented in me playing the piano to it, because it's all come out the way I had it in my head, give or take a little bit. I don't see it that way when I'm writing it. I'm just kind of on the piano, and I have those things on my mind.

Connelly: How did you decide who to produce the record? That must have been a big decision.

Apple: It's a big decision, but I knew right away. I mean, if you've ever like seen Jon Brion play, I mean, he was a really good friend of mine, and he's the best. He's so talented, he plays, like, every instrument. If you look on the inside of the thing, it's like "Fiona: vocals, piano. Matt Chamberlain: drums. Jon Brion: everything else." If you know anything about Jon Brion, that's the answer to the question. He's brilliant.

Connelly: You finish the record with what I think you described as the first happy-ending love song you've ever written. How did that one come about?

Apple: Um... just felt it. Just felt like that. Just felt it. I don't know.

Connelly: Well, it's just striking, because that ends the record. The cover of the record has you smiling on it.... Is that something kind of intentional? Do you want people to feel like you're not misery girl anymore, if they once thought that way about you?

Apple: No, no, I don't. I don't want it to seem that I meant it like that, no. I just liked the still for the front, and I liked the idea. If I had had a happy-ending song on the first one, I would have ended it with that. I don't even remember what ended the other one, but, like, I would have had a happy ending song on that one.

Connelly: Is it important to say the album's title in a particular way?

Apple: No, it's not important to say it.

Connelly: How'd you come up with it?

Apple: [Laughs] There's that piece in "Spin" [where] they did this cover story on me, and they decided they were going to do something -- you know, the editor back then apparently does not like me -- and [they] decided to take one area of me, like, ranting after I'd just come down after a photo shoot, where they were like trying to put a negligée on me, and I was really sick of that stuff and started ranting at the writer, John Weir, who was really nice, and I had a good time with him. He wasn't there for me getting upset at this photo session.

I was so mad when I came downstairs, and I was just ranting, "Okay fine, this is how it's going to be, I'm going to make another album, I'm going to die." And they blow it up and cut out everything else that I ever said and just use everything from this rant that I did make. I did say those things, but come on, I'm not going to die, you know? So anyway, I had forgotten about that.

I had like a week off from being on the road, and then I got back on the bus, and as soon as I am talking, as soon as I sat down on the bus, I saw this "Spin" magazine... Bjork is on the cover. "Oh, I hate Fiona, Fiona is the most ridiculous thing in the world." And I started crying and I was so upset, and then I started going, "Okay, this is just wrong, because I am... I have no bad intentions, I never did anything for a wrong reason." I am always honest and I never hurt anybody, and you guys are going to do this to make your issue more spicy, and it's going to affect me like this? I'm sitting there crying and feeling like an ass, just crying. It's just so frustrating, it's just so frustrating. Why would you want to do that to do somebody? Why would you want to take a girl and tear her to shreds on purpose and mix her words around so her friends think she's a fool? Why do you want to do that, and why am I going to let that affect me? Why does it affect me? Why am I sitting here crying? Why does it still affect me?

When I'm going through something and I'm pissed off at home and I go to the piano, I write a song to clarify my own point for myself, to make myself feel a little bit more sure footed. But I didn't have a piano then, I wrote a poem... and it just helped me. I would just read it to myself. Remember the sentiment, and it would help me. And so in re-entering all of this stuff, I kind of figured that was a good way to start it off and to remind me of all this stuff: it will be the cover of my album. Originally I thought, "Screw doing that picture on the front. Screw it and the photo shoot for it. I don't want to do the photo shoot. We'll have words on the front." And it's just really funny that it's the thing I get made fun of [for] already.

Connelly: How has it been, doing videos now with [boyfriend/"Boogie Nights" director] Paul Thomas Anderson?

Apple: Really great.

Connelly: Has that helped you sort of keep control over some of these issues that you're talking about now?

Apple: I have no problems. I don't have to say no to anybody. I can do whatever I want, I can wear whatever I want, I can not wear makeup if I don't want to, and I can have input to what the videos are, and all the guys that work on the videos are the guys that have worked on his movies, who I've been hanging out with the past two years, so everyone's my friend. It's a really fun experience now, rather than, like, this rushed thing.

Connelly: How did you guys work together to come up with that last one?

Apple: That last one was really rushed, actually. We didn't really have an idea.

Connelly: [Laughs]

Apple: He just knew he wanted to use [a] camera from 1909 and just figured that, like, if we do some gags [tricks] with that, it will kind of be like a modern thing with the gags, but kind of keep[ing] it acoustic. Like, the song does all these kind of gags in it, but it keeps it kind of acoustic, with no, like, techno stuff, but [it] is beat-driven and stuff. Using the 1909 camera, it was kind of like doing gags with the tape and the lenses... along the same line as what the song is, because it's done with this old camera rather than computer gags or something.

Connelly: Where do you place yourself emotionally when you sing some of these songs live now? Do you drop yourself back into the state of mind you were in when you were writing those things in your diaries, or are you somewhere else when you perform them?

Apple: It changes. Just because I write a song about something doesn't mean that I've, like, exorcised it out of my system. I'm still vulnerable to the same things that I was vulnerable to when I wrote the songs, so, I can still feel those things. But they just kind of change, because I've used a combination of different people. I can still use a combination of different people. I can sing the song to a different person every night in my mind depending on what's going on in my life right then. That's just something that happens naturally, but it also keeps it interesting.

Connelly: Are you looking forward to playing these songs live, these new ones?

Apple: Yeah. Yeah, of course.

Connelly: Are they more challenging?

Apple: I think I'm singing a lot more and harder on this album, so I don't know how it's gonna affect my throat every night. That's the only thing that I'm worried about, but I think it'll be okay.

Connelly: How did that come about? Did Jon just sort of say, "You can really go at this," or did they just sort of feel that way coming out of you?

Apple: No, I'm just more confident as a singer. When I made the album the first time, I hadn't ever sung before, and then I went on the road, and that was when I kind of actually started learning how to sing, and so then making this album, I wasn't as shy with it. When I did the [first] album I'd never been on a stage, so I was kinda like in [the studio] with the [headphones] feeling really insecure. And then this time, you know, I didn't care.

Fiona Apple -  feeling gravity's pull MTV  ·  Nov  '99  by Chris Connelly

[truthbeetoldmedia]

Doctor Who 11x01 “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” Review

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting and watching whiny white boys make Reddit threads about a female Doctor ruining the entire genre of science fiction, we have a new season of Doctor Who! And, to be honest, it feels like a whole new show compared to the recent dark and moody seasons that were much too interested in their own perceived cleverness than making television that’s actually enjoyable. We have a new Doctor, three new companions, and a new showrunner; the possibilities are endless. I’ll jump right in by dividing my review into two sections: what I enjoyed and what I didn’t.

What I Enjoyed

Jodie Whittaker

My first impression of Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor is a good one: she’s funny, quick witted, and she already seems comfortable playing this new character. Fans of Doctor Who know that first impressions are crucial for a new version of the Doctor, and the nature of the show doesn’t make it easy. The Doctor has just regenerated, not quite her old self but not yet fully transformed into her new self, either. Whittaker has to play an established character and a new one all at the same time, with the added pressure of being the first woman to do so. She has to transform from an echo of Peter Capaldi’s twelfth Doctor into her own, which she does masterfully.

And, personally, I’m looking forward to a young Doctor. At age 36, Whittaker is the third youngest to play the Doctor after Matt Smith at 26 and Peter Davison at 29. There’s something really effective about a two-thousand-year-old time lord staring at you from the eyes of someone in their 30s, and if we’re lucky enough to have a great actor in the Doctor’s shoes, that will shine through in more dramatic scenes and add real depth to the show. Matt Smith did this better than anyone, and you can fight me on that.

The most recent seasons of Doctor Who have been quite dark, with the Doctor being played by a shouty, fed up British white man in a constant state of angst. Peter Capaldi did a good job playing the Doctor during the past three seasons, but it can definitely be argued that this three season long trend was a bit too long for this kind of Doctor. Every season had at least five moments that all were framed as “the Doctor’s darkest hour,” trying to add depth to the story which instead was interpreted by many as the show being too obsessed with it’s own “cleverness.” Steven Moffat’s show Sherlock is guilty of the same thing, and it’s easy to see how Doctor Who was able to join Sherlock in the way of being a little too pretentious; a little too dark for the sake of attempting to be clever, and the show suffered for it.

Now, with Whittaker (and new showrunner Chris Chibnall), echoes of a more balanced Doctor Who are once again the core of the show. This new Doctor is cheerful in the face of danger, quick to defend her friends (or anyone, really), with the ability to be stern when the moment calls for it. This episode also allows Whittaker to shine through as the Doctor without a grand story or circumstance: she has no TARDIS, no sonic screwdriver (until she fashions one herself), and there is no travel in time or space. It’s just the Doctor on her own with a group of unassuming humans, trying to save lives.

It can be difficult for the audience when someone new plays the Doctor; there’s always a bit of a transition from the version of the Doctor that we’ve learned to appreciate and have grown used to. It’s a testament to Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall that when she finally declared, “I know EXACTLY who I am. I’m the Doctor,” I not only believed it, I was already cheering for her.

 The Companions

As with a new Doctor, new companions sometimes need getting used to, especially if the previous companion was a fan favorite. In this episode we’re introduced to Ryan (Tosin Cole), Yaz (Mandip Gill), and Graham (Bradley Walsh). We learn that Ryan and Yaz know each other from school, and Graham is Ryan’s step-grandfather.

We’re introduced to our new companions when they’re struggling; a classic introduction and a perfect way to introduce the Doctor into their lives. Ryan is struggling with a disorder that affects his coordination and is working a dead end job, knowing he’s not satisfied with his current circumstance but not knowing what to do to fix it. Yaz seems like she’s the most successful of the bunch, working as a police officer, but we learn early on that she’s been assigned to working traffic disputes and is met with refusal when she asks her superior to put her on more interesting cases. Graham, who has been married to Ryan’s Nan, Grace, for only three years, is finding it hard to connect with Ryan.

These three (and Grace) all work surprisingly well together in this first episode, and I’m already excited for their dynamic. We learned the most about Ryan this week, but I’m ready to learn about the others as the season progresses. I’m especially intrigued by Yaz; she’s extremely clever and I can’t wait to see that translate into adventures with the Doctor.

Choosing When to Address a Female Doctor

We all know that Jodie Whittaker’s turn as the Doctor is a historic one, marking the first time in over fifty years that the Doctor won’t be a British white man (she’s still British and white, mind you). Immediately following the announcement that the Doctor will be played by a woman, hoards of distraught men threw what can only be described as a tantrum. We all know what white men throwing a tantrum via the internet looks like, so I won’t go into detail. I will say that I’m THRILLED at the treatment that this historical casting got in the season premiere.

The Doctor’s gender is only mentioned once, quickly, and then immediately pushed to the side in favor of the actual substance of the episode. The Doctor hasn’t seen herself since regenerating, and when Yaz refers to her as “Madam” her response is a simple “Am I? Does it suit me? An hour ago I was a white haired Scotsman,” and then moves RIGHT on. Yes, The  Doctor is a woman. Women belong in science fiction. A woman INVENTED science fiction, and there won’t be any kind of justification needed for a female Doctor.

The only other time the controversy surrounding Whittaker’s casting was addressed was later on in the episode, indirectly, and by the Doctor herself while giving a signature uplifting speech during the climax of the episode. She says that “We are all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve while still staying true to who we are. We can honor who we’ve been, and choose who we want to be next.” Honestly, I was waiting for her to pull a Jim Halpert and stare right into the camera.

Back to the True Essence of Doctor Who

I mentioned this earlier on in my review, but it is such a relief to watch an episode of Doctor Who that actually feels like Doctor Who. The show has definitely gotten away from what made it special in the first place: extraordinary events in a perfectly unassuming location with ordinary people, and an alien that happens to have two hearts.

When I’m trying to explain Doctor Who to someone who hasn’t watched it (a tough job, I know), I always feel like I have to include that line from Season 1 when the Ninth Doctor (played by Chris Eccleston) says, “Nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the best part about Doctor Who is the notion that the ordinary is extraordinary. Doctor Who is best when it’s simple, when it uplifts everyday people, and when it doesn’t try to be some grand display of cleverness. The Doctor makes her new sonic screwdriver out of Sheffield steel. She calls herself “just a traveler.” We haven’t seen this show like this in awhile, and I’m grateful.

What I Could Have Done Without

As you can tell from the first part of this review, there wasn’t a lot that I didn’t like. There is, however, one major event I take issue with, and that’s the death of Ryan’s Nan, Grace.

Grace is a part of the group that joins the Doctor early on in the episode, and she ends up dying while fighting the “monster of the week,” an alien dubbed “Tim Shaw.” It seemed so unnecessary, especially for a season premiere with a new Doctor, a new showrunner… something like that sets the tone for a new season and a new era, so it’s an odd choice to put in this episode. Fans of Doctor Who know that the show is no stranger to soul crushing sadness, but that’s usually reserved for the exit of a companion or a season finale. They even went so far as to show the funeral, touching upon death in a way that the show hasn’t done before.

We all know that good people die, but this seemed like an odd choice. It’s also pretty evident that Grace’s early demise was a way to push her husband, Graham, into being a better person, but it’s never a good choice to sacrifice a woman to insert meaning into a man’s emotional journey, especially since we only just met Grace and she didn’t have a chance to do anything else. Her relationship with Ryan seemed much more important, but we were robbed of that as well.

Overall, I really loved this episode. I’m genuinely looking forward to the new season, something that hasn’t happened for me since Matt Smith left the show. Here’s to hoping this season is Doctor Who as it should be.

Alyssa's episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

[theghostpinesmusic]

Some Notes On Fire and Rain

Last but not least, I'll write a bit here about the creation of Fire and Rain. This is the final album in the cycle, the "winter" one. I wanted to end with an album that felt like winter, like a loss of hope and a sacrifice of the sunlight of summer to darkness...but that also acknowledged that, in the end, the wheel will come back around. It's a cycle, remember? Not a line. So, that was part of the inspiration behind this album. The other part was Ryan Adams' album 29. I've sort of personally "cancelled" Ryan Adams from my musical cosmology, for reasons that I've written about on this site before, but that you can also read about in the New York Times. But, way back when, at the height of my Ryan Adams fandom in 2005, he released three albums in one year, and that trilogy ended with 29, a massive tonal and sonic departure from the other albums he'd released that year (and, arguably, anything else he'd ever released). Even by Ryan Adams' standards, 29 is dark, like, really dark, stylistically inconsistent, and badly in need of some trimming. But that's why I love(d) it. Ever since, I've wanted to make an album like it, and for better and worse, with Fire and Rain, that's what I did. I consciously kept from editing myself on this album, unlike on the others, to the point that I'd planned a twelve-minute album closer which, upon recording, ballooned to twenty-nine minutes, and I just left it that way. That's not to say there wasn't quality control or thought put into the album, but just that I wanted to make sure the usual, sensible limitations I put on a song or album wouldn't hold me back from seeing how dark I could go. If that makes you want to hear the album, you'll probably love it. If it makes you want to never listen to the album, you'll probably hate it. Stylistically, I'd say it shares the most DNA with Ride, actually: there are a lot of jammy, instrumental passages, weird sonic experiments, and the like. I struggled sometimes recording Ride while trying to keep track of all of the separate tracks bouncing around in my Audacity projects, but the size of the project files on a few of the Fire and Rain tracks were absolutely enormous compared to the Ride songs. There's a lot going on sonically here, at least by my standards. And did I mention lots of the songs are weird? Like, pretty weird? There are only three songs here that sound to me like anything else I've written, and two of those ("Please Don't Let Me Go" and "Blackbird Girl") are the saddest breakup songs I've come up with, ever, while the third one ("Fire and Rain") is nineteen minutes long. I'm lucky if I can play a third of the songs off of this album without having to look up the chords and lyrics as a reminder first. That said, while I feel like I've grown immensely as a songwriter, guitarist, and producer through the process of making all of the albums I've put out this year, Fire and Rain is the one that has had the most impact on me, and makes me the most excited for what I'll write next. Coming through the darkness and finding yourself on the other side definitely allows you to see the world in a new way, though that's about all I can say to recommend the experience. Anyway, to the song notes! I got it into my head at some point that I wanted to write a story song about a haunted ghost train and a battle between good and evil where evil wins. I mentioned a mariachi band in the lyrics, and then thought "What if I actually played the mariachi band's song within the other song?" Suddenly, "Badlands" was nine minutes long and felt like the perfect way to open this ridiculously long and convoluted album. In my head, "Ghosts Of The Highway" and "Fear" have some sort of strange, symbiotic relationship. This existed before the fuzzed-out static that punctuates both songs was added; in fact, it's why it was added. "Ghosts" is a new song, written during the Triptych sessions. "Fear" is a song I adapted from a poem that I found in an old notebook during the sessions. A decent amount of the Triptych songs were initially written over snippets of music

and chord progressions I'd written and/or recorded without lyrics randomly over the last fifteen years, but "Fear" is the odd song where the lyrics existed first and about fifteen years after I'd written them, I sat down and wrote music to go with them. I really like the way it worked out, and should probably try writing more songs this way in the future... "Neal's Jam" used to be called "Crazy Stairs," and was renamed as a tribute to guitarist Neal Casal, who is a huge influence of mine and who passed away while I was recording the album. The main riff in the jam is actually paraphrased from a riff he played during a version of The Cardinals' "Off Broadway" performed live in 2009. So, it's "Neal's Jam" in more ways than one, I suppose. The jam has always been paired with "Enemy," which is a song about how bad things can get when you don't get out of your own way. "Blackbird Girl" was a phrase and an image that came to me while out on a run (where a lot of song ideas come to me, strangely enough). I wrote this song from the perspective of someone who might have cause to address it to their own "blackbird girl," who had flown away and never returned. It was called "Haunted Heart" at one point and "Blackbird Song" at another. "Ice On The Mountain" came from a dumb idea I had to inspire a new song: I wanted to try to write a song called "Ice On The Mountain" because it was the opposite of "Fire On The Mountain." This is the song that resulted, inspired in part by an accident I'd recently experienced while out mountaineering. "Amie" was, weirdly, the first song I wrote after writing "The Light" in 2016. It didn't make it onto to Asphalt Ghosts, though, because it didn't fit with the rest of the material and because the picking pattern was really hard for me to play reliably at first. So it got shelved until this album came along, when I resurrected it, rewrote some of the lyrics, got the picking pattern down, and changed the title from "Salmon" to "Amie," a reference to the nigh-unattainable woman in Chretien de Troyes' medieval romance "Lanval." This story has some parallels to that one. "Kurzweil Transmissions" is named for the scientist who first conceptualized the AI singularity, but this is basically just a brief instrumental written in A that randomly finds its way into the middle of songs like "Caroline" and "Palace," as well as covers like Bob Dylan's "Isis" from time to time. The "Not The One" > "Fire and Rain" > "(Rise)" sequence certainly has enough lyrics and music to speak for itself, but if you're interested in my thought process behind putting it together the way I did, here's an excerpt of an email I wrote to a friend a few weeks ago attempting to explain it: "I feel like I've been in an apocalyptic mood since March of 2020, and only now, as I'm hitting summer break in 2021, with COVID not quite the looming specter it once was, and a little time to do something other than work in my office, am I able to look back on the last sixteen or so months with anything approaching objectivity. I feel like it was/is the most dystopian time I've ever lived through: massive systemic failures of our corroded institutions, collapsing of personal relationships, deaths of friends and family...you know, all the hits, but all at once and with the overwhelming sense that all of this is in all likelihood just the beginning of something even bigger, rather than an isolated string of "bad luck." I think we'll be forced to de-industrialize, de-technocratize, and de-globalize whether we choose to or not, after much longer. One of the more indulgent portions of the huge pile of new music I dumped onto my website the other day is actually about this...sort of? You might enjoy it, you might find it a bit too meandering, but it's the only real sonic monument to the last sixteen months that I've recorded so far, so maybe that will serve as a better response than my hammering away at these keys for five or six more paragraphs..." And that's the best I can do to sum up Fire and Rain.