#CD ripper

[oldgamemags]

CVG #175, June '96 - Review of 'Ripper' on the PC CD.

[patheticperipatetic]

NOT IN ACCURATERIP???

Are you people seriously not buying CDs

Of the over thousand CDs I ripped, I never had one from a big artist not already be logged, even if it was brand new.

[anemia-rp]

Pleasure is the law, you know that I been misbehavin' Black night, wicked grin, gotta fill my cravin' Because what's right and wrong? Pleasure is my law Yeah!

[tom2tec]

redumper ~ Byte Perfect Disc Dumper

redumper is an advanced byte perfect disc dumper. It supports incremental dumps, advanced SCSI/C2 repair, intelligent audio CD offset detection and a lot of other features. Everything is written from scratch in C++. github.com/superg/redumper

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

You may have seen photos of him before, such as this one from 1886, when he (on the left) was already 50 years old:

It just struck me today that in his lifetime he has lived through the invention of photography itself, as well as moving pictures, television, VHS tapes, DVDs, BluRays and streaming; the first sound recording, 78rpm shellac records, 8-track tapes, CDs and MP3s; bicycles, cars, motorbikes, zeppelins, airplanes, helicopters, spaceships, satellites, the Moon landing, the Mars rover; the telephone, the internet, the smartphone, lasers, plastics, cellophane, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, electric ovens, microwaves, atomic bombs; the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and JFK, the American Civil war, the Boer War, WWI and II, Vietnam, 9/11; Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, impressionism, surrealism, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Jazz and Blues and Rock & Roll, Disco, Punk, Hip-Hop and Grunge; Charlie Chaplin, Oscar Wilde, Harry Houdini, Sherlock Holmes, Gandhi, Jack The Ripper, Sigmund Freud, Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid, Communism and the Soviet Union.

None of these things existed before him. Yet he's still alive today, walking around and eating grass.

[child0feden]

˖◛⁺⑅do you have any favorite songs? (metal or non-metal, both are cool!!)

also, i love your account. your writing, even when you're just answering asks, is so good!! 🫠

is writing something you study, or is it more like a hobby for you? i always get inspired whenever i read your stuff tbh.

seriously tho, your whole vibe is so sweet (｡･･｡) just wanted to say i really appreciate what you do here! 💖

oh goshhh… i have so so so many favourite songs! you have unleashed a demon through this question lolol! hopefully you don’t mind that i am about to put quite a damn few hehe

despair by trembling void ( just a genuinely gorgeous black metal song, the drums and guitar really do something for me, not to mention the vocals! but to be honest, the whole album is very very very good and i would recommend you check it out )

sorcières by darvulia ( another black metal song where the instruments are just… so good! along with the vocals, of course! very amazing song, love their band logo too )

where restless souls wander by sarastus ( the first time i heard this song, i was absolutely gobsmacked at how much my brain loved it! i think i’m very easy to please but everything about this one just hits right for me, the drums especially )

odin killer of nazis by nuclear hammer ( the horn blowing and drum banging in this one just wowww, my brain loves it for some reason! vocals are of course very good too )

pines and mist by old tower ( arghhh, i just love some good atmospheric music! another one where you should definitely check out the whole album )

xtal by aphex twin ( who the hell does not love some aphex twin? just got this album on cd a couple days ago, love it )

siccmade by brotha lynch hung ( you just cannot go wrong with some lynch! the friday the 13th “ ch ch ch ah ah ah ” in the background of this song is just… chefs kiss! i find myself saying “ oh what a bloody mess ” every time i get my period because of this song )

unshaken by d’angelo from the red dead redemption II soundtrack ( just such a beautiful song, damn near makes me cry every time i hear it! his live performances of it are always just amazing too! his voice is just jaw dropping to me )

snake eater by cynthia harrell from the metal gear solid V soundtrack ( another just absolutely beautiful song with an even more gorgeous voice… her live performance of this in tokyo was absolutely fucking incredible! just one of those “ must listen to at least once in your life ” songs )

promise by akira yamaoka from the silent hill 2 soundtrack ( this song, to me, belongs to mary… whenever i think of this song, i just think of mary and the end of the game! the remake version of this song is just so so so good too, it played during the credits and did i cry? yep, like a fucking baby! the guitar work touches my soul so deeply )

okay, those are all of the reasons i’m going to give but here are some of my other favourites! just to keep this post at least a little short lolol! i could keep this list going for so long…

isolation by jute gyte - exhibition by corentin brasart from the decarnation soundtrack - involuntary disturbance by avith ortega - all or none by pearl jam

i am the black wizards by emperor - straighten up and fly right by the andrews sisters - frankensteina strataemontanus by carach angren

a world of madness by akira yamaoka from the silent hill 2 soundtrack - blood on my swordblade by godkiller

contempt by entombed - you’re not here by akira yamaoka from the silent hill 3 soundtrack - flesh ripper by hellripper - thunder of darkness by immortal

she’s my witch by kip tyler - to hell and back by venom - no care by daughter - blood spattered banner by carcass

we’ll meet again by vera lynn - my dark subconscious by morbid - day of suffering by morbid angel

you spin me round by dead or alive - every day is exactly the same by nine inch nails - necromancer by mortuary drape - goatcraft torment by urgehal

thank you so much! i’m super glad you love my blog… still find it hard to believe, even months down the line of creating it! awh, thank you again! sometimes i worry about my writing not being the greatest but then you guys come in and just shower me in so much love, more than i could ever feel worthy of…

writing is just a hobby for me, at least at the minute! i’m not studying anything right now, just kind of getting my life back on track after years of mental health issues and so on… learning how to live normally again, slowly! maybe later down the line i’ll go to college or something but we shall see… i would like to go into writing professionally if it was an option, my mother thinks i would make a good game or tech reviewer lolol! ever the supportive mother, though it’s kind of my whole family at this point… i think my dream career paths would be a game reviewer, music journalist or photographer! having one of those jobs would certainly make me happy

i’m so glad to hear that you feel inspired when reading my writing, you don’t know how happy that makes me! if you want to get into writing yourself, i could not encourage you more to try it out… i only started writing fanfiction early this year! i had never ever wrote fanfiction before then but i just kind of threw myself into it… and now here we are! really just let yourself try it out, let yourself sink into it and see how it goes :)

thank you once again for this ask and message, honey! you’re flattering me all too much here! you guys have always been nothing but beyond sweet to me, i would hate to treat all of you any different… you deserve nothing less than to be treated with love and respect! you appreciate what i do and i love doing what i do, more than i could ever ask for <3

[pfhwrittes]

Hey P! It's me, Charlie (of SentientCave fame). I would love to see a little Retail hell AU (I've got the B&Q blues because it's been so long since I've seen our favourite boys in orange). Pick your poison:

The lads get their hands on the store playlist. What do they want to listen to?

Does Dear Reader ever bump into the lads outside of work?

Thanks P! Love you xoxo

charlie of @sentientcave fame! hiya friend! excuse me while i send you hearts for a sec because i am in LOVE with your writing. that instalment of retirement party? sheeeeesh! also my eternal love goes to ripper from rugby au as always.

ooooh retail hell au, i've missed these guys too! charlie, as you've given me the choice of two prompts i'm going to pick the first one to answer (and pop your other prompt in my brain soup document because i think it would be very funny to have our resident B&Q babe (the reader) run into the lads from store 141 while she's out and about at various points).

so for your first prompt i'll need to give you a bit of B&Q lore to start with.

when i worked there, B&Q were too fucking tight to pay for a licence to play live or recorded music in their stores (this might've changed in recent years but i doubt it) so they'd use a particular CD sent from the head office with "licence free" music and adverts to play over the tannoy system. the licence free music was basically some band that sounded nearly like the artist they were covering singing nearly the correct lyrics.

as a music lover, it was painful. as a retail gremlin, nothing would give me more joy than breaking into song and shimmying at my coworkers to the horror of management. i got written up for it once because a customer complained. fun sponge.

anyway, that CD had to be played during store opening times at all times, no exceptions. however, outside of those times the duty manager would take over the tannoy system. if you got a good manager they'd play their playlist, if you got a shit manager you'd be left wandering the store in silence. if you got a really shit manager, you'd be subjected to the dreaded CD for however long you were there for. ugh.

sorry that got longwinded.

to answer your prompt: the only people that would get away with changing the store playlist would be price or simon as neither johnny, kyle or our resident B&Q babe have duty manager privileges (boo!). i mean technically simon doesn't have duty manager privileges officially but he's usually the first one in with price on a morning or running the night shift by himself so fuck it, acting duty manager privileges count.

as for what they'd play? i don't have a clue but i suspect they both share a fondness for rammstein, slipknot and oddly enough gerry cinnamon.

[bjsmall]

05.09.24

Linux laptop project 2024.

I decided to upgrade my old laptop by making it a Linux dual boot system. I had never done this before. I downloaded the ISO files for Linux Mint 22 'Wilma' and Ubuntu 24.04.1 'Noble Numbat' LTS.

The selected files include the standard desktop environments for each, Cinnamon, for Linux Mint and GNOME for Ubuntu.

Then using the built in USB disk creator on Linux Mint, I created bootable USBs, one for Linux Mint and one for Ubuntu. I decided to install Linux Mint first. The installation includes creating partitions and I used the installation partition creator to create a 25 Giga-byte partition in which I installed Linux Mint. The installation went ahead smoothly, and when it completed, I booted up Linux Mint. It looked perfect.

See screenshots below.

I then installed GParted, which is a more powerful partition manager to create the additional partitions I needed. I created a 25 Giga-byte partition for Ubuntu, two other 25 Giga-byte partitions and I hundred Giga-byte data partition formatting them all using ext4.

I then installed Ubuntu. During the installation, I selected the extended install, rather than the minimal install, so I had a full Ubuntu desktop installation on the second partition on my laptop hard drive. This all went well and at the end of it all I had a system which could boot either Linux Mint or Ubuntu.

After installation, I booted each system up individually and updated them with the latest updates available, and then I installed necessary software that I wanted such as the Google Chrome Browser, Audacity, VLC Media Player, GIMP, Asunder CD ripper.

I also reinstalled the Chrome web apps for Microsoft Clipchamp and Trimble SketchUp web.

The majority of software bundled on these Linux distros is already preinstalled. I then had fun tweaking each install and making them look how I wanted.

Here is a list of some of the tasks I did in both installs:

- configuring the desktop environment to my liking, e.g. background, theme colour, dark theme (Ubuntu) mixed colour scheme (Mint). - added Bluetooth devices (headphones, Mini-Rig speaker) - added the printer device - dual booted into each one to check them out!

-

After this, Dad wanted to finish the set-up in such a way that I could link my local laptop Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Video folders directly to the data partition, which would mean that I could access those folders automatically from any installed Linux distributions, however this didn't quite go to plan and messed some things up, so we decided to re-install both operating systems again and I repeated all the previous steps and left out the folder sharing part for now.

-

The images underneath show the final desktop installs with my various theme and desktop personalisation's applied and all the installed apps.

Here is a screenshot of the 'GNOME image viewer' in Mint and Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Linux is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a web post.

See link below:

https://ubuntu.com/20years

For more information about the Linux laptop project, search 'Linux' on my Tumblr blog!

[mappingthemoon]

Music 2024

Top Artists:

The Orb

Opium Jukebox

Four Tet

KOKOKO!

Quintron

Girl Talk

SUSS

Dax Riggs

Fatboy Slim

Funki Porcini

Top Albums:

Four Tet - Parallel (2020)

Opium Jukebox - Bhangra Bloody Bhangra: A Tribute to Black Sabbath (2002)

Dax Riggs - We Sing of Only Blood or Love (2007)

KOKOKO! - BUTU (2024)

Various Artists - Dekmantel Ten: A Decade of Dekmantel Festival (2024)

Electric Six - Fire (2003)

Moby - Play (1999)

Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians (1998)

Girl Talk - Night Ripper (2006)

The Orb - U.F.Off: The Best of The Orb (1998)

Top Songs:

Fatboy Slim - "Role Model" (ft. Dan Diamond & Luca Guerrieri) (2024)

Har Mar Superstar - "We Don't Sleep" (2013)

KOKOKO! - "Mokili" (2024)

Marlowe - "Mayday" (2018)

The World/Inferno Friendship Society - "Addicted to Bad Ideas" (2007)

Gorillaz - "DARE" (2005)

Gorillaz - "O Green World" (2005)

The Weeknd - "Blinding Lights" (2020)

Boogie Hill Faders - "I Need You to Walk This Way Tonight" (2010)

Electric Six - "Improper Dancing" (2003)

[Links go to Bandcamp pages when available, or YouTube videos.]

I don't always like the way Last.fm calculates top artists/albums/songs based solely on play count. For example, SUSS only hit my top 10 because I heard they were an "ambient country" group (!?!) and listened to nearly every one of their albums available on Bandcamp over the course of just a few days. That Dekmantel Ten compilation, I only listened to twice all year, but it's 43 tracks so it's counted as a lot of hits for top album. I was definitely obsessed with the new Fatboy Slim song, though, I played that all the time. (And the video for that song is, so far, the only time I've seen an apparently AI-"enhanced" artwork and felt that it was actually an interesting use of AI as a creative tool.)

In recent years, my most common thing to listen to (besides ambient drones) is an infrequently updated playlist called Kitchen Dance Party, which I play while I'm cooking and/or cleaning. It's mostly dance pop/rock, hip-hop, and mashups, obvs. Occasionally I add or remove songs as my interest wanes or I discover something new, but most of the tracks on that playlist are perennial faves always guaranteed to boost my mood, and as such they also totally throw off my Last.fm stats (e.g., Electric Six's album making the top 10 even though I only listen to a couple songs off that record that are on my Kitchen Dance Party playlist).

Other new-to-me stuff I really liked in 2024 but which did not make the Last.fm cut:

Dax Riggs - "deceiver" (2024) [NEW DAX ALBUM COMING JANUARY 25 OMFG]

DJ Latinchat - Tagadá EP (2024)

Indian Ropeman - Elephantsound (1996)

GAS - GAS (2024)

The Olivia Tremor Control - "Garden of Light" & "The Same Place" (2024)

PITRELEH - PITRELEH (2013)

Various Artists - Meditation: Classical Relaxation [this is a 10-CD set I found at America's Thrift for $5.99! In completing this entry, I noticed that Last.fm hadn't counted all these plays under the same album title, and when I edited the metadata, this actually became my #1 album of 2024, even though I only listened to the whole thing (101 tracks) once lol]

Various Artists - Tandava vol. 2 (mixed and compiled by Pathaan)

[mayonaisalspray]

Ace Attorney character named Jack T. Ripper who’s really suspicious and you think he might be the culprit cause of his name but it turns out he just likes to extract music files from cds to make mixtapes

[dirtbag-linecook-kyloren]

UPDATE ON THE MP3 PLAYER I MAY END UP WITH T W O

In which case the black one will be for my more metal leaning music and the pink will be for my pop and folk. I cannot stress how cool I feel, I’ll have to buy a usb cd ripper and start getting my cd collection on my computer

[zappak]

Carl Lindh [listening with the tips of my finger]

Release date: September 01, 2024 Catalog no. zappak-018

Bandcamp Page: https://zappak.bandcamp.com/album/listening-with-the-tips-of-my-fingers

[Tracklist]

sound becomes word becomes sound

a certain lack of consistency

Excerpt: https://soundcloud.com/zappak/zappak-018

Both tracks were recorded live at Underjorden in Malmö. Mastered by Andreas Tilliander at Repeatle Photo by Kota Sake Thanks to: Andreas Tilliander, Kota Sake, Pär Thörn, Karin Askagården, Maria Lindh, Brian Nolen and Magnus Thierfelder Tzotzis for supportive and critical eyes and ears.

---

Carl Lindh is a sound artist in Sweden, and he usually performs using primitive electronic devices. This work includes two recordings of his performances. In these recordings he also uses primitive sound devices, however, their sound variations are rich that there are delicate noises emanating from the equipment, repetitive rattling sounds, feedback-like sounds, sometimes metallic and sometimes harsh noises there. And by delicately controlling sometimes multiple sounds simultaneously and sometimes just one sound, he creates multi-layered sound spaces and evolving flows.

Carl Lindhはスウェーデンのサウンド・アーティストで、普段はプリミティヴな電子機器をもちいた演奏をおこなっている。本作ではそんな彼の演奏の録音2つを記録したものである。 ここでの演奏でもプリミティヴな機器をもちいており、しかしながら鳴らされる音のバリエーションは非常に豊かである。機器から発せられる繊細なノイズの音、カタカタという反復、ハウリングのように鳴る音、ときに金属的でときにハーシュなノイズ。あるときには複数の音を同時に、またあるときにはたったひとつの音を繊細にコントロールすることで、多層的な音の空間や展開のある流れを創出している。

---

Carl Lindh

Carl Lindh is an artist based in Malmö, Sweden. Through a diverse range of mediums, practices and forms of presentation he explores themes and subjects such as listening, improvisation, site specificity, time, slowness and stone. His recorded works are mostly distributed in handmade and very limited editions. He often collaborates with other artists and musicians on short and long term projects one of them being with the Swedish poet and musician Pär Thörn. Carl Lindh operates from his studio Underjorden (the Underworld) in Malmö where he also organises semi-public listening events of different kinds. He is also the co-director of SIGNAL – Center for Contemporary Art in Malmö.

【Reviews】 Noise Not Music: Unless I’m missing out on even more than I thought, listening with the tips of my fingers is Carl Lindh’s first solo full-length. The Malmö-based sound artist has released a small handful of material, mostly as splits with various Swedish noise acts (including a C30 that pairs a Pär Thörn collaboration on the A side with a Heinz Hopf ripper on the B), but this handsome CD on Tokyo small-batch label zappak feels definitive. Two lengthy live tracks feature Lindh’s tabletop potpourri of devices and circuits, which he nimbly controls with simple touches and taps. The infamous “cracked everyday electronics” of legendary Swiss duo Voice Crack are a clear influence, not just on the approach but also on the music itself, which hums and buzzes with both mechanical dispassion and natural fluidity. Neither “sound becomes word becomes sound” nor “a certain lack of consistency” mine soundscapes as obtuse or oblique as Möslang and Guhl’s uneasy improvisations, though; there’s something strangely accessible about the sound Lindh is experimenting with here, something that’s especially apparent when the vocal elements crop up. I have no idea if they’re his contributions in the moment or preloaded samples being triggered just like the rest of the electromagnetic haze—I lean toward the former because of how unstructured yet deliberate they feel. His description of another recording applies here as well: “There are no big gestures in this performance. Instead I let the sounds perform. I let them fill the room and resonate with it. I listen and I follow. Loud continuous sounds create a sensation of comfort within me. It makes my mind empty and my body calm.”(written by Jack Davidson) https://noisenotmusic.com/2024/09/28/review-carl-lindh-listening-with-the-tips-of-my-fingers-zappak-sep-1/

Vital Weekly: It seems I missed out on a few releases by the Japanese Zappak label. This new CD by Carl Lindh is their 18th release. I reviewed a CDR by Lindh before in Vital Weekly 907, and I have no idea how one sounded. I read my old review while playing this neww release and wrote him working “with hearing-aid devices, paper, controlled feedback, record player (spinning ‘Sounds From Insects’ from the 1960), effect pedals and PA”. As per information for this new one, Zappak writes, “he also uses primitive sound devices. However, their sound variations are rich in that there are delicate noises emanating from the equipment, repetitive rattling sounds, feedback-like sounds, sometimes metallic and sometimes harsh noises. And by delicately controlling multiple sounds simultaneously and sometimes just one sound, he creates multi-layered sound spaces and evolving flows.” In this case, I see the title as a technique of using his fingers to control and manipulate devices and objects. Straight from the opening piece, ‘Sound Becomes Word Becomes Sound,’ he starts with feedback and noise, but it’s different from your average storm box manipulator. There is a tactile approach in his music, which is controlled and uncontrolled simultaneously. In ‘A Certain Lack Of Consistency’, ten minutes longer than the other one, 30 in total, he continues this approach, and at fifty minutes, this is, sonically, quite a burden on the ears. Maybe because Lindh avoids easy noise, it is all a bit much. Even when, at one point, he uses his voice, it sounds like good old fashioned power electronics; it’s quite funny, but still a lot to carry through in one go. In terms of noise and something different, this is a great release, a kind of highly brutal musique concrète. (written by Frans de Waard) https://www.vitalweekly.net/number-1462/

[toastedpopsicle]

fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper with support for various popular formats and encoders. It converts freely between MP3, M4A/AAC, FLAC, WMA, Opus, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Monkey's Audio (APE), WavPack, WAV and other formats.

With fre:ac you easily rip your audio CDs to MP3 or M4A files for use with your hardware player or convert files that do not play with other audio software. You can even convert whole music libraries retaining the folder and filename structure.

The integrated CD ripper supports the CDDB/GNUdb online CD database. It will automatically query song information and write it to ID3v2 or other title information tags.

[crabadonk]

just watched "SE7EN (1995)" for the first time. that movie was never meant to be in theaters, it should have been a point and click fmv game that came on seven cds. "SE7EN (1995)" is set in the same universe as "RIPPER (1996)"

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 07/02/2024

Battle Emergency

Season 4 Episode 2 Featured on: Paper Jams - A High​-​Quality Album ~ The First Fold

Ripped by Cryptrik

Requested by circunflexo! (@circunflexonoa)

Over its life, there's been a lot of projects on SiIvaGunner where it's easy to tell they were driven by individual rippers' passions, moreso than satiating the hunger of a wider audience. There's of course Jass' excellent Genesis renditions of the soundtrack to Sonic CD, as shown in Collision Chaos Good Future JP [CD Beta Mix], there's ShonicTH's push for Kingdom Hearts content to be on the channel with rips like Trial of the Heart, and of course Chaze the Chat's legendary infatuation with pop music sensation Sean Kingston in Take You To The Desert - with no particularly strong feelings toward any other music artists of the 2000s. Yet of these projects listed, I don't think any of them felt quite as prominently featured on the channel as the three-part Paper Jams project.

Prominent channel member PinkieOats, of Live and Ooooooooooooooh, was once on an episode of the now-ended SiIvaGunner interview podcast series "The High Quality Podcast" (which, ftr was a huge inspiration for me to start this blog!). From just that one hour of time spent listening to PinkieOats alone, I could tell that the guy REALLY loved the first two Paper Mario games - hell, his profile picture since time immemorial has been of a pink Boo enemy rendered in the Paper Mario artstyle. Just a few months after said podcast episode, SiIvaGunner revealed "Paper Jams - and it thus came as no surprise to me to learn that it was a successor to a 2015 project by PinkieOats and Nape Mango, five whole years earlier. The goal of Paper Jams? To, across a collection of album, rip *every single track* from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

The tracks wouldn't all be ripped by PinkieOats and Nape Mango this time, of course - they now had the entire SiIvaGunner team collaborating with them for this rather ambitious event, and the results of that collaboration are evident as clear as day with Cryptrik's Battle Emergency. I've covered Cryptrik's work in the past with rips like Maroonbound and Give Me the Fantasy, and it was actually my coverage on the latter rip that prompted today's requestee to suggest yet more of the guy's rips for the blog. But it really cannot be stressed enough just how effortlessly Cryptrik is consistently able to make his rips just sound flat-out FUN, in large thanks to his mastery of utilizing large amounts of pure *noise* in rips. It would not surprise me one bit if I learned he was an actual DJ, but his influences are immensely clear regardless - dude rocks, basically.

Battle Emergency straddles a fantastic line in my eyes between succumbing entirely to Cryptrik's noise-driven style and still maintaining the original charm of The Thousand-Year Door's music - a balance that I believe is important to have in mind whilst working for a tribute project like Paper Jams in particular. The whimsical, energetic vibe of the Battle Theme lying underneath it all doesn't get lost, but is coated in an absolute barrage of mostly funk-related songs - primarily led by FUNK EMERGENCY, but joined by parts from Walk the Dinosaur, Uptown Funk, and the ever-memorable melody of Black Betty (bam-ba-lam), really just letting Cryptrik go wild with his signature style.

And yeah - it all works to excellent effect! The rip often reminds me of rips like Everybody's Special Course or Memey Hell in how the amount of noise and scattershot sources only aid in giving the track a fun, exciting feel - like you're at the center of two concerts playing at once and having the best time of your life. Its the kind of rip that almost leaves you exhausted after you're done listening - yet also the kind of rip that's endlessly relistenable as a result for how many phases it goes through in such a standard runtime. Althewhile the positive energy it instills also serves to spills over into my impression of Paper Jams as a whole - it truly sells the idea that, though the project was started by PinkieOats and his own passion, it is one that so many others of the SiIva team love just as much and want to celebrate just as loudly. Because really - moreso than colleagues, isn't the SiIvaGunner team really just a bunch of musicians who love jamming out to one another's music?

[kmze]

Dry-ass (Sorry not sorry) didn't just cause damage to SC.She caused damage to the characters as well.Caroline and Bonnie were established as self-empowered women in s6.By the end of s7,they both were in a devastating state,emotionally, psychologically and physically.As for Stefan,the damaged,layered,dark yet intelligent and intutitive Stefan was gone.Instead,he was acting more Damon-like.While Damon played the bad guy for kicks,Stefan enjoyed being bad when he wanted to but he chose to be compassionate and showed empathy too. His IQ level had dropped severely and was getting easily outmanipulated,despite being a great social manipulator, although whether by choice or not that is up for debate.What happened to the "Better Villain"?Was it actor's choice?

His story was so close to that of Tyler's in s4-big bad with British accent,dumb revenge schemes,mom's death,keeping caroline out of the loop,going on the run.In fact,there were a couple of scenes which were similar to that of TC e.g When Stefan was watching Caroline from outside of her house like Tyler did in s2 possibly.The only difference was this time Caroline was with that low-life.Another was when Stefan and Caroline had a heart to heart.TC had a similar conversation in s2.The dialogues were so similar that I just didn't understand what the hell were they even trying to do.It's like playing out an old relationship using different actor and maybe creating a slightly different circumstance not for any narrative purpose but just for drama which was blatantly manufactured.No wonder Stefan's choices didn't make any internal sense for him.And since you mentioned about Stefan's ripper gene,I remembered how that was like Tyler's werewolf gene.Both were unaware of it until they were informed by a family member.I know the mythology may not be similar in any way but I think the writers had simply lost control over what and how much they would recycle.At least Klaus being a 1000 year immortal hybrid banishing Tyler made some sense.Why and how were all the century old vampires so scared of Matt F***ing Donovan banishing them from Mystic Falls???Just snap his stupid neck!!!With Tyler they never bothered to show how he broke the sire bond.They just told it.With Stefan,the phoenix scar was such a terrible plot device to separate SC.It reminded me of Elena being sired to Damon in s4.Hell even the tvd half of the crossover was unnecessarily contrived and melodramatic.They had Klaus tell Stefan something along the lines of- misery,paranoia will strip you off your desire to live- which was similar to what he had said about Tyler to Hayley after banishing him from MF.Klaus was giving unsolicited advice to Caroline and restricting her identity to simply being a mom while the narrative was desperately trying to convince that Stefan lacked emotional intelligence and wisdom to be in a real relationship.He was making unilateral decisions while Caroline was a whole another story. However,the TO half of crossover was much better written keeping the history of Klefan in mind.Not sure who wrote it but they gave the respect to SC which they deserved in just one episode that their own show didn't in 22 episodes.

Sorry this got so long.Talking to you brought back so many memories.

LOL Dry-ass I forgot that well deserved nickname *snort*

Yeah anon I agree, S7 was such a letdown season because I just don't think CD is capable of writing things she doesn't personally like, I remember even the first episode SC felt "off". I mean they were very cute but some of it lacked substance and the dialog didn't feel like them (except the last scene) and it was written by her (should have been my first clue about that season). Whereas 7x04 was vintage Steroline, the dialog, the chemistry even the story of teaming up to "babysit" the murderous heretics was so them (they love playing the game).

That's a really interesting comparison to Tyler in S4 though that I never really thought of, I'm getting into Tyler and Caroline's story in S2 so I'm going to look at for what you brought up in comparison to SC in S7. It doesn't surprise me that CD would do that either, like I said I don't think she cared enough about the S7 characters (her favorite was Katherine IMO) so going back to older seasons and rewriting it fits her MO. I absolutely agree on him being outsmarted that season like ugh, I felt a lot of that was CD making a concerted effort to not have minimal Lily and Stefan interaction and she never continued the ripper-gene talk (and yes the werewolf gene is genetic too). I also don't think CD cares about the character of Stefan outside of him being Katherine's prize. The revenge plot wasn't out of character for him but Julian was very *snore* it felt like murder-Thanksgiving was much closer to how Stefan usually operates as the "better villain to beat the villain". I just remember Dries talked sooooo much before the season aired about Damon/Lily/Stefan being the new "triangle" and we got like 3 scenes of that and then she was dead by episode 8!

I probably need to rewatch S7 to really remember how the storyline really played out, it's been a while so my memory is foggy but yes like WHO CARES WHAT MATT SAYS! Moron shot his fiancée accidentally and I'm supposed to believe supernatural creatures care what he says, please. I was more bothered by the show trying to undermine how much Stefan knew Caroline and vice versa, that was all Dries and I'm glad JP tried to fix it in the second half but still, I hope CD steps on a lego everyday for her transgressions.