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steve0discusses · 3 years

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S4 Ep40: Fixing Dartz By Not Actually Fixing Dartz

Yo Merry Christmas, I’m quarantined as hell, so I’m just streaming and playing video games until my problems get vaccinated away.

So lets just write about Yugioh because hell a lot didn’t go as planned this year (can you believe my 2020 goal for this blog was to finish ALL OF YUGIOH?) but although my goals were halved and quartered--With this blog I don’t freakin care anymore, and somehow...that’s how it’s one of the few creative bastions I have left standing.

Wild.

I’m so done with the internet, I’m not even updating twitter right now.

But hell yes, lets update the Yugioh blog.

So onward, with the last episode of this season. We last left off with Yami getting devoured by a hate tornado which is just...a lot of 2020 energy. This whole season, in a nutshell is just...2020 energy, honestly. And this tornado is just twitter. It’s just twitter incarnated.

Rather than try to save himself and consequently fix his ghost problem, Yugi has decided to keep himself haunted by fixing Pharaoh’s inner emotional problems. Really is something, isn’t it? To do low key therapy for the ghost that basically...put you in therapy? Yugi can help fix his problems but like...he’s still a mess of problems because of it. Now Yugi shouldn’t walk away, of course, that’s effed up, but it is a little irony there.

Pharaoh, of course, has decided to submit to the hate tornado, and sees it as a manifestation of his own anger and bad vibes.

Isn’t that’s the real problem we have when we have to confront the feelings we don’t want to confront? Where we tend to feel guilt and hate for being upset, which is just sort of a thing humans naturally tend to do--instead of actually working on controlling what you do with those feelings so that way we stop lashing out and setting everyone on fire in the burger restaurant?

Like Pharaoh should be learning to count to 10, not trying to just remove his anger. This has sort of been his problem for a while--he assumes he can just...delete his rage. That’s not a thing. You can’t do that unless you have very specific medication through a doctor, and that’s why he keeps failing at it.

And this goes back to S1 when he “fixed” Kaiba and like nothing really happened. Pharaoh’s decided to wipe himself and like...it’s up to your own interpretation but like...in my book that Pharaoh brand clean cycle does freakin nothing. It gets reversed like constantly.

(read more under the cut)

So Yugi decides to hit up Plan B, which is, honestly? Not a great message. But it’s the anime trope that we keep going back to because it’s the catch-all to make any anime protagonist into the good guy.

Like...

...

.......Yeah I’m gonna talk about it.

this is a trope that is so common it’s sort of ubiquitous with the genre. You gotta have the protagonist give up on their own strength, and be lifted up by their pals at the very last second--it’s like the anime hero’s journey.

But I really don’t like it. I don’t like the power of freindship. I’ll say it.

Because there’s some things you have to handle on your own. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have your main character show strength and show character development by doing things by themselves at the last minute. We already know that Pharaoh’s a good pal and believes in his friends--but like...does he believe in himself?

I can’t tell you if he does by how this episode goes, that’s for sure.

The whole point of this tornado is to see Yami discover his own strength and overcome his weaknesses...and yet he still relies on that good ol chestnut, friend powers.

Like last episode I feel like they did this already and it was way better--other people offered their help willingly, then Pharaoh got to have a big ol fight solo in the clouds to prove he was strong on his own as well. We finished the whole season last episode, so what are we accomplishing now other than a last minute secret boss fight?

Why would Yami doubt himself now? It’s weird. Yugi’s right to have mentioned “yo didn’t we figure this all out in desert hell???” because...we did. Yami is retreading old territory.

And that’s a thing that happens when you write, PS, when Yugi was saying “we already did this!” Yugi was reminding the writers of the show “we did this already. Like guys. We did this.” and sometimes when you’re writing, your characters will do that to you, and you should always be paying attention to cues like that.

Anyway, he vanquishes the hate tornado by thinking fondly of all of his buddies, and then the storm that should have been over the Atlantic Ocean, as according to the dub, parted in the sky above California.

GEOGRAPHY, the secret final boss of this season of Yugioh. And they failed. In a big way.

Yugi holds out his hands in real life, and pretends to hold a ghost that isn’t there. Now I want all of you to do this position IRL. Like that. OK. It looks like Yugi is holding onto a pair of ghost boobies.

Meanwhile, actual and very literal ghosts with very real bodies show up and start picking up Dartz and like...

...The ending of Dartz’ storyline is a TRIP! Lets just get into it!

This cursed dog. I can’t stand how this dog is drawn. I hate it so much that I actually love it, and if I saw this in a thrift store I would impulse buy it and hang it over my fireplace mantle in a golden gilded frame.

AHHH????

WHAT????

He electrocuted you with LIGHTNING! He killed your...everyone! He killed EVERYONE!

Also girl, how are you HERE? Like Physically??? I saw you die! TWICE!!

Yugioh is on SOMETHING with this one, and I think that “something” is called “we weren’t allowed to give you a PG-13 sad ending.”

This is just the freakin weirdest thing. We have a character who is worse than Darth Vadar, and this show has pulled so many dark things in it’s history, but it just...

...it can’t punish Dartz at all, and I don’t know what they were thinking.

They have been poetic before--Pegasus got his eyeball gruesomely ripped straight out of his face, nearly got murdered by Bakura, and was not able to resurrect his wife. Noah hella died, had to give up his plan to rule the world and be a real boy, and had to murder his own Dad even, the moment he finally made a bond with his brothers. Marik had to lose all control of his body, live helplessly inside Tea’s bod for an entire season and accept the fact that he murdered his Dad and now has to live on without any of the magic that ever made him powerful in a broken world and a broken family he will never understand.

Dartz though?

If he does get some sort of poetic retribution, it will be off-screen because we don’t have time for it.

And that’s kind of a bummer because this is usually something Yugioh is kinda good at! I enjoy when this show goes dark, this is a great opportunity to do it...and they didn’t.

It was just the wettest fart Yugioh has ever played on me.

Just the wettest. Nice knowing you, Dartz. Glad you were here to murder everyone on Earth and then totes get away with it because we’ll just pretend like the Orichalcos was a totally different person--although it’s not. Because Yami JUST told us that it doesn’t work that way. Yami JUST told us that the Orichalcos was using his own pain and his own hate against him.

It’s not a separate person, it’s the same!

And to suggest that Yami vanquishing that hate tornado somehow cured Dartz of all his sins, is some upper level Jesus stuff that I don’t think this show would normally want to tread on. Straight up. Yami is a pretty poor stand in for Jesus Christ, and I feel I can straight up say that because it’s Christmas.

...what HAPPENED in the writing room with this one? Did they just run out of episodes? There are less episodes this seasons than other seasons have been.

Was it edited for the English version? Because I...kind of doubt they could edit that much to make it that drastically different.

I’m just boggled. Like usually I’m of the opinion to let the writers do whatever they do because I do not know what was going on behind the scenes, and I’m still of the opinion that they did the best of what they could do with the resources they were given.

BUT, this episode just feels...hella sus. I feel like they just had to make an ending. Any ending. Get an ending on there and finish the season before the power goes out and then run away with whatever paycheck you get (because in entertainment--you might not get one).

Seto and Joey made it completely back to the KaibaCopter before Tea was like “I mean it’s been 15 minutes, guys, you really didn’t hear him behind you? You really lost his tiny pitter patter of his little shoes? The little shoes that make a little tinkly noise like a kitty cat’s collar? A little kitty cat collar that he also wears around his neck? His neck that has a golden pyramid held by a tow chain that makes a little clanky clank when it hits his two belts covered in metal rivets that makes a little singsong clippity cloppity noise every time he so much as breathes? He’s a walking talking Bell of Notre Dame, you lost him?”

and Seto was like “Oh damn it, I know he’s the same size as Mokuba, and so I should be really good at not losing this kid but also have you noticed how many times I’ve lost Mokuba???”

Joey just looked into the distant tomb hut and said “......You’re kidding me.” and decided to immediately run back because Joey Wheeler knows what’s up.

Had Joey Wheeler actually made it back to Atlantis, he would have seen Dartz and his entire family hugging it out and would have immediately socked the guy straight in the dick and it would have been a great way to finally give Dartz just one single consequence for murdering everyone on Earth but you know, I did not write this episode.

I’m really glad that in the same episode that Yami called upon the powers of friendship, his friends hella ditched him to vanquish in a watery grave.

This is wild!

Seto’s words were “Good riddance” as the island went down, and you could not tell if he was talking about the island or about Yugi.

That and Kaiba Really Hates Islands. LOVES watching an island go up in smoke (or underwater, in this case). Loves nothing more.

Seto, your powers of friendship were just used to save the world.

Apparently the standard for friendship power is...not much. But they did just make Yami, of all people, do a literal Jesus in Gethsemane so...the bar for morality is just not very high in this anime.

Did the Great Leviathan stitch Weevil Underwood’s body back together or something? This is...

...Yo Weevil are you immortal now? Are you the big bad in S5 that comes out of nowhere and kick’s Bakura’s ass back to the Shadow Realm like Marik in S2? Because I’ll accept that.

I won’t like it, but I’ll accept that.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

look at those toddler shoes worn by a full adult! Weevil Underwood is so over-designed for a super low-level miniboss and I low key love that they love Weevil Underwood this freakin much.

Of all people, Weevil Freakin Underwood.

Listen, listen, listen.

If Mikey was still alive, he’d be older.

He’d have been older in that Leviathan tummy, he’d be Alister’s age but he’s not. He’s uh...

Yo show that got real dark. Show this is what you should have done to Dartz. I love this sort of dark ending for a rude asshole who is going to try to put his family back together although it’s completely impossible--this would have been a good Dartz ending. But...whatever. It’s fine.

We’ll...let Dartz have his family back, it’s fine.

Meanwhile, in the first actual picture of California that really feels like California, Valon immediately accepts the fact that Mai left him.

This is also a great dark ending for Valon. To accept that the people in your life have moved on and that you, too, must move on, even if it’s alone. This would have been an excellent ending for Dartz.

And then Mai just bounces. She does not seek out Joey Wheeler, because she’s like “I have to fix some stuff, I have some serious problems, and it’s going to take a really long time before I can get over my toxic past.” and just freakin leaves us. Sorry, anyone who was hoping Joey and Mai would smooch at any point, it’s uh...it’s not legal yet.

And TBH I don’t even know if Valon is legal either, and the show decided to not reveal that to us, or allow them to smooch.

And as for Raphael? Uh...

They didn’t bother, I think. I didn’t cap it, at least. But we did get at least one person washed up on a beach.

It would be Kuribo.

I talk about 2020 energy a lot in this season but like...wild 2020 energy here, to be so freakin chill and can I say--delighted--to be stranded on an abandoned island.

The show does not elaborate any more on if the cards are dead or alive, or if the games we are playing are with actual people forced to play these horrible games for us. It’s best that they don’t tell us. Just like Mr Mime. No one wants to know.

Mr Mime as in the Pokemon Mr Mime, PS, I just realized that there is a mime in this universe and he’s just...I don’t really want to know about that guy, either. All mimes honestly, I don’t want to know anything at all about all mimes.

Luckily, for Yugi, Kaiba didn’t fly very far from this island, and so we don’t have to have some sort of weird season cliffhanger where we guess how long Yugi can live off of coconuts (2 hours. he would last 2 hours on this island)

Although it would be such a cliffhanger to wonder what Yugi’s hair would look like after that. the same, right? Like it’s the same amount of grease and nasty stuff? He’d just have his roots growing out?

And there they go--goodbye Dues Ex Machina Cards. Either the show can’t keep you on board because you’re hella broken, or the three dragon warriors died, or retired, or whatever it is when a card is like “I’m done with humanity, please leave me alone and never call me again.”

Did Seto low key just break up with his side piece just now? Tragic.

Remember that time that Yugi was so bouyant he was armpits out of the water in S2? It’s crazy how bouyant Yugi Muto is. Like if someone did one of those anime cross-sections of his anatomy, he needs like 3 or 4 duck shaped pool floaties in there.

Now, full disclosure, I have written the ending to this post 3 times because tumblr keeps deleting this post out of my drafts folder (I shouldn’t be writing this in my drafts folder, being real, it’s been really buggy lately, and I’m gonna have to make a different solution to this) So I’m just...

...gonna end on this note. This exciting note that Bakura is next. Finally, Bakura (JK of course, because apparently Bakura doesn’t show up for half the season. Bro told me this and offered that we should skip that filler and of course I told him that is not the point of this blog and we will be watching all of that gruesome filler piece by piece. Because for someone, out there--that filler is their favorite episode. I don’t know who you are--but get ready for filler.)

Now Yami could just...call up Bakura at any point at his house and make an appointment to end the world...but maybe S5 will go a different direction? We shall see.

Anyway, that’s it for this Season! Thanks all for sticking with us when I just...didn’t have an upload schedule for this entire year. It’s been a YEAR. But, I’m hoping for good things in the future, and that things will adjust back to a normal upload schedule and that...hopefully tumblr won’t die or something weird like that.

I’m gonna finish the Full Metal alchemist Live Action movie next (we’re like halfway through) and then after that--onward to to S5! See y’all there!

Stay safe!

(and here’s the link to read these in chrono order if you’re new here:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#ygo #yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh #yugi muto #yami muto #joey wheeler #tea gardner #seto kaiba #tristan taylor #mokuba kaiba #alister #valon #Mai Valentine #Weevil underwood #Dartz #Rex Raptor #S4 #Ep40 #Yo I cannot believe these ruthless writers just let Dartz off the hook wowowow

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manicdragondreamgirl · 3 years

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I haven’t had chemistry since like 2008, and I’m also an idiot who likes to make my friends upset, so I rated the periodic table in order to tilt my friends:

Hydrogen - this is like your childhood friend who has always been with you more or less and always will be down to get a drink and chill even tho you haven’t spoken in years. Solid bro imo 7.5/10

Helium - always down for a good time, even if probably created Alvin and the Chipmunks which in some places is considered a war crime. 4/10

Lithium - Gives me bitchy vibes and is flammable as fuck if I remember. Skinny bitch with an attitude 3/10

Beryllium - idk this sounds like a sailor moon villain lol for that it can have a 6/10

Boron - more like BORONG amirite ha ha wait no seriously I have no idea lol 5/10 clean neutral rating

Carbon - *screaming* 2/10 I will not be taking questions

Nitrogen - cool cool cool tight tight tight 9/10 Nitrogen just is the cool hot chick you wish you were

Oxygen - kid who takes up all the glory for the group project even tho you did all the work, 4/10 for natural charisma

Fluorine - lol what are you knockoff chlorine lmfao bitch 3/10 reminds me of the dentist

Neon - I can vibe with this boy for his contributions to signs which cause my eyes to scream 8/10 modernized Art Deco thanks you

Sodium - 10/10 this is me and I won’t be taking questions next element

Magnesium - magnesium is a close relative of magnificent and therefore I think the case is closed folks 9/10

Aluminum - 10/10 for providing a home to my Diet Coke addiction I’d be dead without you

Silicon - 6.9/10 :smirk:

Phosphorous - This has a very soundly name and it’s welcome to do that but idk, not a fan, seems like he’d be smelly, 2/10

Sulfur - 1/10 pretty sure that dog farts are purely comprised of this and as such if I was leaving negative ratings I would

Chlorine - 7.8/10 for being in pools so we could swim without brain eating amoeba in the south you a champ

Argon - he seems like a nerd jk this guy has a good color 9/10 for just being himself

Potassium - I hate bananas and this word gives me the physical sensation of biting into one but only by thinking of abstract letters and making them into something which we can nutrientise from bananas and to me that shit is bananas, b a n a n a s — 3/10 for making me sing hollaback girl thru adhd word association

Calcium - hm my brain went to mega milk so you get a 2/10 today bud I don’t make the rules

Scandium - pretty sure this is fake lol what’s next faxdium, e-Mailite and copinium? 5/10

Titanium - this song’s a banger and also is the only thing that lets me wear earrings 10/10

Vanadium - if your erection lasts for longer than like idk it’s supposed to then don’t take vanadium wait what do you mean it’s not an ED treatment 4/10

Chromium - decent bloke shame the browser eats all your memory 5/10

Manganese - if a weeb tries to tell me how to pronounce mayonnaise one more time... 1/10

Iron - excellent tool against the fey, in your blood, what a bro, 10/10 this bitch slaps

Cobalt - has a powerful energy; I respect him. 8/10

Nickel - if I had a nickel for every time someone made this joke lol 5/10 he’s doing his best

Copper - taste bad 3/10

Zinc - isn’t that the dude in the green tunic and white tights who saves premcess Lelda or something lol 7/10 those games are good

Gallium - seems like a prick 4/10

Germanium - sounds like a child pronouncing geraniums which are superior 3/10

Arsenic - bad vibes coach 1/10

Selenium - isn’t this just sailor moon lol 10/10 love this bitch

Bromine - farmine wherever you aremine - 9/10 I love a good bro

Krypton - he’s okay I guess 5/10

Rubidium - yet another Steven universe villain who will be redeemed I imagine 4/10 seems a bit dull

Strontium - I feel nothing when I see this lad’s name and that seems like a shame 1/10 I don’t like it

Yttrium - this is an atrium in Yharnam, or something 8/10 would love to sit in one and make contact with higher beings

Zirconium - oh wait THIS is the sailor moon villain from the dead moon circus! 9/10 I enjoyed that arc

Niobium - seems sassy, I like that in an element 7/10

Molybdenum - I hate this one, rancid. 1/10 for making me have flashbacks to difficult Ancient Greek vocabulary there is no fucking way that sound combination is anything but Beta and Delta borking and then Latin being like oh imma steal that

Technetium - 6/10 decent name but seems a bit forced

Ruthenium - 5/10 kindly old lady element I guess lol

Rhodium - 10/10 this ain’t my first rhodium babee this lad has good vibes what a name what a king

Palladium - 10/10 for making me think of paladins

Silver - 12/10 I’m breaking the rules for this silver is the best it is so cool and also it is the other best tool for dealing with supernatural creatures when iron has failed you highly suggest Even if I am extremely allergic to it going into my ears...wait hold on

Cadmium - 2/10 sounds like a total douche

Indium - 8/10, i just think it’s independent and neat

Tin - 10/10 good ear sounds when involving rain and roof shapes and automatically reminds me of Nora Jones’s come away with me album which is also 10/10

Antimony - 7/10 decent protagonist good name all around seems rad

Tellurium - tell ur mom what? That’s so early 2010s league of legends humor bro 2.5/10

Iodine - strikes fear in my soul from having it poured on my wounds but this is why I have more pain tolerance than god 5.3/10

Xenon - I think this is a declension of Xena warrior princess which is a win in my eyes, 8/10

Caesium - kind of has a cunty Latin name, 4.5/10

Barium - yeah boss, bury’im! 7.5/10 I love a good mobster gag

Lanthanum - A bit pretentious on the Tolkien spectrum sorry bud 3/10 sounds like you’d be the dickwad elf everyone hates

Cerium - 6.5/10 I like this one, gives me a clean vibe

Praseodymium - the fuck who sneezed all their alphabet soup onto the paperwork and called it an element Christ we can’t keep doing this 1.5/10

Neodymium - oh my god what did I just say 1/10

Promethium - thank Christ we’re back to greek 9/10 Prometheus was a Chad I could get behind

Samarium - 5/10 gives me boring wizard vibes

Europium - 4.5/10 don’t rename opium chrissake can’t take these nerds anywhere

Gadolinium - 5/10 it’s a starship knockoff but it’s trying to be bold with the G sound

Terbium - 2/10 I don’t vibe with this one

Dysprosium - sounds like an antidepressant that has a lot of shitty side effects 3/10

Holmium - sounds like someone anxious asking their beloved to hold them 8/10 I like hurt/comfort fics

Erbium - you can’t just describe something as herby you daft bastard 2/10

Thulium - sounds like a spell I like it 8.5/10

Ytterbium - macguffin in a shite sci-fi show that gets highly overrated because BBC produced it and superwholock stans emerge and go utterly feral 1/10

Lutetium - bards are an element I agree 10/10

Hafnium - sounds like a river (my dog) sound and has a cute vibe, I’d offer it head pats 7/10

Tantalum - noooo you can’t be sad yuor so sexe haha 6.9/10 tantalizing

Tungsten - 10/10 this is a lad with history

Rhenium - 5.5/10 it’s ok

Osmium - 4/10 I wasn’t a big wizard of oz fan

Iridium - 9/10 sounds like iridescent and that’s in my top 10 favorite words and concepts

Platinum - 10/10 best Pokémon game

Gold - 7.9/10 all that glitters and all but it’s still pretty on some people, silver is better tho

Mercury - yikes 8/10 so it doesn’t kill me

Thallium - sounds like the brother character in a ps4 exclusive western rpg that oddly falls under the radar in terms of reviews and gets shafted at awards for no reason 7/10 I’ll support you tho

Lead - 2/10 that’s gonna be a no from me dawg pretty sure I still have lead in my hands from stabbing myself with my mechanical pencils

Bismuth - 6/10 sounds good in mouth and reminds me of biscuits for some reason, I’ll take it

Polonium - to thine own self be true so stop trying to act like the arts don’t influence science jk pretty sure this is named for Poland but hey that’s where we get the Witcher so you get a pass 6/10

Astatine - 1/10 I don’t even know what you are

Radon - 7/10 this motherfucker knows his shit and how to party, rad is right

Francium - I bring you francium...and I bring you myrdurdium... 7/10 for a good vine

Radium - killed the video star probably 9/10 I can get behind her

Actinium - as opposed to passtinium I prefer actinium in the voice of writing 8/10

Thorium - overrated Norse god 5/10 because lightning is still cool

Protactinum - sounds like some pretentious condom brand 4/10 wouldn’t do it with a dude who bought these

Uranium - I always thought she was a hot sailor scout 10/10

Neptunium - same for her I knew they weren’t cousins you couldn’t lie to me 4kids 10/10

Plutonium - sounds like a macguffin unfortunately 5/10

Americium - I read this with a pivotal letter missing and nearly died, 7/10 for the laugh

Curium - 10/10 gives me Curie vibes and also reminds me of curiosity which reminds me of—[old yellered before the association could set in]

Berkelium - what I shout when I want Burke (fam dog) to slaughter innocents and raze territories 2/10 world was not meant to know his commands

Californium - 1/10 California is cool with geography but probs could stand to chill with the ego sorry to my friends in Cali

Einsteinium - 6/10 it’s alright but we’re really running out of ideas huh

Fermium - 3/10 this one is porny

Mendelevium - 1/10 my brain didn’t like parsing this and I stand by my earlier statement of running out of good names

Nobelium - 0/10 you didn’t name any noble gases this cowards this gas can’t be a noble oh wait it’s NOBEL I take it back 5/10 seems an alright chap

Lawrencium - fear the old blood my sorry dead hunter’s ass I’ll never get back my life from the hours I spent trying to beat this lava shitting bastard 2/10 for being a boss who eats Taco Bell specifically before being challenged to have fresh lava shit with which to punish you for having the audacity to exist in his space

Rutherfordium - my god what a snob 4.2/10 I respect him a little but only because he sounds like a right lad

Dubnium - DROP THE BASS 10/10

Seoborgium - not sure about this one but it can have a 7/10

Bohrium - as an American English speaker this sound combination makes my pathetic throat become a black hole as I try to properly create the sound of it 10/10 I love when my body becomes a massive void in the universe

Hassium - lazy 2/10

Elements 109-118 can go fuck themselves I hate them all, collective 6.66/10 for their general demonic vibe

#the periodic table #made by an idiot #it’s me your manic dragon dream girl #long post

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astro-pioneer · 3 years

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Anyway thoughts about Dain and others. I'm gonna separate this into different parts since it's probably gonna get confusing. Might do a second part for certain parts of this.

So to get as accurate as possible I did search for more information about The Abyss and Khaenri'ah

OK so I'll give a little back story before diving into my thoughts: Khaenri'ah is an underground unreleased section where, in Dain's words, "the gods' gaze does not fall". It is the origin of Khemia, a type of alchemy heavily focused on the creation of life that ultimately destroyed it. Also, for the Sword Cemetery, that is a result of a war between Mondstadt and Khaenri'ah.

Khemia

Anyway thought time - so since Knaenri'ah has very little fauna and plants they have to find a way to survive and get food and whatnot - hence the creation of Khemia. Now, since there's no information on the aftermath of using Khemia on let's say a human, we're going to make assumptions.

So obviously altering with human life is bound to have it's backlashes, right? My three main bully victims are going to be Kaeya, Albedo, and Dain. Kaeya first: he was sent to Mondstadt as a last hope for his original homeland (I got too lazy to type it continuously) so I'm gonna assume that, before he was dropped off at Dawn Winery, he went through some alterations.

Kaeya

And you guys are gonna get mad but I'm gonna talk about his eye patch. Now, my assumption with the backlash is that it does something physical to the person undergoing Khemia. And yes, while Noelle does say she prepares Kaeya's eye patch, that doesn't necessarily mean that she puts it on him and has seen him without it.

Seeing as though Khemia isn't well-known by the common folk and is concerning to the gods (at least to Venti - thoughts on this later) it's best to hide any evidence of it when around people. That might be Kaeya's case with his eye patch, especially with the issue with Diluc and his father.

Albedo

Listen I hate myself for even starting this but I'm too far deep to give up so we gotta talk about his sexy ass. Now, his diamond. If that's a birthmark then holy hell that's one gorgeous mark. BUT I don't think it is. Since he's the one who practices Khemia, he probably knows how to manipulate the placement to be somewhere hidden or so small you can't see it.

Lmao that kinda contradicted my diamond topic but my thought behind that is that he got that from his teacher (I REFUSE to type that long ass name ok) before he knew the art himself. Him knowing the practice and Venti's wariness of it makes more sense now - will be explained soon.

Dain

THIS BITCH- Ok I need more content of him so I can understand him more but I hate him so muuuuuch. So since he admits that he saw Old Mondstadt before Dvalin resided in it, I immediately thought to the battle at Sword Cemetery even though it doesn't fit with the geography (be honest though nothing matches the geography since the "Wolf of the North" is in the wEST) and you can't see it even from atop the logs (before anyone says anything, yes, I did check with the tallest character I have and yes, I did blind myself at one in the morning just for that.)

Anyway we're getting off topic what I wanted to talk about is the galaxy thing right over his heart. This is going to be short since there's not a lot about him but it's very obvious that it's not natural (well duh) and it reminds me of the particles that erupt from Paimon and that appears out of Aether's hand for an idle animation (I, personally, chose Aether for the MC so I will be using him most of the the time). However, there's noy a lot on him and his attire so this is all I really have.

Venti and Khemia

So a little while ago someone found out that in front of Venti's statue in front of the cathedral it says "Gate to Celestia" backwards. And I do love the theories from many others about how the game might end right where it started, aka Mondstadt. Khaenri'ah dislikes the gods and is not under rule of the Seven and, with Kaeya as a "last hope" so to speak, I feel like (if he doesn't get too attached to everyone) Kaeya and possibly Albedo as well, is going to lead the hilichurls and possibly the Abyss to Mondstadt to open the gate to destroy Celestia.

This is probably why Venti is wary of anyone who knows Khemia or is a known member of Khaenri'ah. This is far fetched but what if he knows of a possible ending without the traveller that is Mondstadt and possibly Teyvat as a whole being destroyed? It's obvious that history and stories are told through songs and, as Venti said in the archon quest, he knows songs "from the past, present, and future."

The Abyss ft. Khaenri'ah & Dain (again)

This is probably going to be the biggest since there's a lot of parts to it. So it's been confirmed that the hilichurls, the people of Khaenri'ah, are being controlled by the Abyss. My thought process was that the Abyss was once a part of Khaenri'ah but there was so much Khemia practice on them that they became less and less human. On a similar note, Instagram user natrya_art made her own theory based off of the Abyss and the chambers just off of the opening screen itself (also one about Dain, Durin, and Alberich (Kaeya's last name) that's still on her story :D).

You guys are probably like "Astro where are you going with this" so I'll stop adding random information and get on with it. Dain specifically only mentions Lumine with "her" and "she" along with "is" and similar present tenses, meaning that she is still alive during whatever time he comes from (as he will decide fate himself if "Albedo were to make a single wrong move using Khemia" (possibly opening the gate) and that's the only time he'll interfere). It's obvious he knows Aether, as he's very easy to talk once he mentions being a traveller. Now, when have you ever heard anyone in genshin mention traveller that is not about Aether/Lumine? Exactly, barely ever if at all.

I mention this since Dain's interest isn't peaked when Aether introduces himself as an adventurer but only after he says he's a traveller looking for his sibling. I, personally, think that Dain was a travel buddy for Lumine since, branching off of Natrya's theory about the Abyss, she was probably brought to the Abyss when they were fighting on one of the paths in Celestia in the beginning.

Since Lumine is trying to redirect Aether from finding out anything about her plans, it shows that she does not want him to either catch her trying to destroy the world or get caught in the crossfire and die. In the time where Dain comes from, though, that's probably what happened and the Abyss wins in the end. So Dain, already knowing where Lumine and the Abyss went, brings Aether to every location that he can remember.

During the old timeline, let's call it that since it's obviously going to change with Aether having help from Dain and Friends™, Lumine most likely talked about Aether and what happened to them. Maybe Dain was just trying to see if he was the real Aether during the tavern scene? No one knows right now honestly (other than the voice actors and creators honestly but they can't say anything.)

It's also obvious that he knows how far Aether is on his journey, as he mentions the Contract to End All Contracts but not why it was made or what the Tsaritsa did with them all while knowing about Venti being Barbatos and the Stormterror battle. This could just be blamed on his failing memory but that's not the case, as he says that he doesn't lack time and will wait to talk about Rex Lapis. However, it's obvious he only knows one side of it, as Aether and the player know of Zhongli being a player in the Rite of Descension but Dain doesn't, as he questions his attitude towards it.

Prophecy

This is copied from Dain's profile on the genshin wiki: The confluence between the past and future. The original calamity had been overturned, yet the island in the sky set the earth to burn. Chalk pursues gold, in this time inopportune, the eclipse is swallowed by the crimson moon. The future must atone for bygone mistakes, as the bond familiar falters and breaks— of the same blood, elders and the youth... Such is the cycle of the world, in truth. Dain, what is that strand of blonde hair to you? Someone you must kill? Or the object of your penitence? - Self-proclaimed prophet

I changed the colour of the parts I want to talk about. The first line is obviously referring to Dain and his connection with going back in time to change the future he came from. "The island in the sky" is Celestia, and the line about setting earth alit could be talking about the gate opening or the gods thinking it'll be best to destroy earth to save themselves.

"Chalk pursues gold." THIS LINE. This one line is what I want to talk about a lot. Gold is not referring to the alchemist who destroyed Khaenri'ah, as it's not uppercased as all names should be. Instead, it's referring to Aether. (Note: the game is actually supposed to take place as you playing as Aether, which is why he's always in the trailers as the protagonist and is more expressive). Aether has multiple gold or gold coloured parts to him, including his hair, parts of his outfit, and it can even be argued that his eyes can be included too. Chalk is, obviously, Albedo, which connects to the quest about him where he's called the Chalk Prince when Dragonspine was introduced. Speaking of Dragonspine, Durin (the dragon that died there) actually came out of Khaenri'ah. Weird how Albedo is almost always in Dragonspine right? The pursuing part can go two ways: his ending line about how if he [Albedo] destroys Mondstadt, will Aether be there to stop him OR to make sure Aether is there to watch him destroy it. A third side is that Albedo pursues Lumine to help with her plan of Destroying Mindstadt/Teyvat.

Crimson moon is obviously about one of the trailers, where I think Lumine is seen walking on the path where her and Aether fought the god in Celestia with a red moon and sky in the background.

"Bond familiar falters and breaks - of the same blood, elders and youth" Aether and Lumine. I feel as though one of them (Aether most likely) will feel the most betrayed and he will lose all trust and love in Lumine and what's she's doing/done. Elders and youth is interesting. It can be nodding at the gods and the people of Teyvat or the gap between Lumine and how she's grown old while Aether died when he was young.

"That strand of blolde hair." English classes and teachers do not teach this enough!!! So I'll say it: blond, with no 'e' is masculine and is used to describe males. Blonde WITH an 'e' is feminine and for females. The use of blonde instead of blond eliminates Aether, Albedo, and Dain. The only blond we really encountered? Lumine. And I can already see the "well what if they didn't know the difference between e and no e" but we're talking about a game where a god dressed as a bard speaks in rhymes and riddles while Dain speaks like hes a poet. They know what they did. This might hint to him being the former travel companion of Lumine and any possible feelings he had that might get in the way of stopping him from helping everyone to stop her.

The Three Questions

When talking to Dain he asks three questions in order to see how similar your thought process is to Lumine. "Who do you think was the key to stopping the Stormterror incident" or something along the lines is the first question. Your answers are Barbatos, yourself, or the people. I will try to go off of memory with my answers, as his quest has yet to be added to the completed quests, as it's in chapter four which hasn't been released yet. I answered Barbatos for this question.

The next one is about Liyue and who will take care of it since Rex Lapis is no longer there to protect it. I said the people of the harbour, which was the third question. The last one is about Visions and who are more important in the eyes of the gods. The three answers are people with visions, without visions, or neither. I answered neither, giving me the dialogue of Aether's answers being similar to Lumine's.

Vision Question

The one about Visions struck me as odd. Visions are given by gods to people that they have acknowledged, yeah? Khaenri'ah isn't acknowledged by the gods and isn't run by any of the Seven. So that means that no one who resided in Khaenri'ah were never helped or were given visions. So why would Dain ask about them? I think it's due to Aether and most likely Lumine being able to weild the elements without a vision. There's also two certain dialogue options that are in the form of thoughts (I do not remember what quests they're from however) and the first one is like "(I'm getting back to my original strength)" I think it was in regards to getting geo too or something while the other one is "(I wish to get the powers of the gods)" or something.

When I first got them I paused for a second. Original strength and the powers of the gods... This obviously means the fact that with one touch of a statue we can switch to that element and can be "blessed" so to speak without actually being blessed. Also I've been meaning to talk about this ever since I leveled up Venti's statue but so far both Mondstadt and Liyue have an extra oculus. This is probably going to be for every region. I found that interesting, since you usually almost always interact with the statues with specific oculi, making it more powerful and giving you more stamina in the process. I think we have to use the extra one to fully harness the powers of that god in order to beat the final boss (probably Lumine.) They are also under the "Precious Items" tab in your inventory which is somewhat significant as well.

I'm gonna end this theory here for now since it got extremely long lmao. A part two might be coming though!

#ೄ sage #genshin thoughts #genshin theory #genshin impact theory #genshin impact thoughts #genshin #genshin impact

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mzenvs3000 · 3 years

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So does this make me an interpreter now?

If I am honest, I feel I have had a love hate relationship with this course over this semester. Coming from a more scientific background, I have found it slightly difficult to find the motivation to write and put together “my thoughts” on the topics we discuss in class. I am so used to having explicit facts and having to write about those from a scientific approach, so trying to put together a post about my thoughts with such freedom has been a challenge. I have appreciated though throughout the semester how writing got a bit easier, and that we were able to talk on subjects that were interesting to us. I will definitely be taking some skills away from my time in this course.

One of many photos taken of water and rocks (Lake Ontario) as it is another huge love of mine. Photo taken by myself.

Like many who are taking part in this class have a love for nature, and are probably coming from a major with some type of nature encompassed in it. This is true in my case, as I am a wildlife biology and conservation student. Wildlife biology and conservation is just one side of my love for nature. Others include marine studies, geology, and geography/landforms. This would open up so many doors in the nature interpretation field for me. I also have passion for the care and protection of animals, species at risk, climate change, plastic pollution, and how humans interact with nature in their everyday lives, similar to Jacob Rodenburg who wrote the article, “Why Environmental Educators Shouldn’t Give up Hope.”

A shell fossil found in a rock at the Elora Gorge while on a field trip with my geography class in third year. We were trying to interpret the history of the area, guessing it was a marine environment from all of the marine fossils found in the rocks. Photo taken by myself.

As an interpreter, I feel there is a certain responsibility I have when working with an audience. The first responsibility being the need to deliver creditable information that your audience can trust. This struck me as important when we were learning about nature interpretation in history. This is something I always seek out when learning about different things because I want to make sure what I’m learning is true and has some merit behind it.

I took my Alberta friend on a Hamilton waterfall tour as she did not believe me when I told her Hamilton was the waterfall capital of the world. An example of one of my first “interpretation tours.” (She was impressed). Photo taken by Jenna Stetz.

Another important responsibility is for the interpreter to put their own spin on their presentation and make it personal. I have lost count of the number of presentations I’ve had to listen to when someone is just reading off of a slide or a card. I don’t know about you, but I feel like when I hear these kinds of presentations, the presenter doesn’t really care too much and doesn’t seem to care if their audience gets a good experience or not. I always learn better and pay attention the most if someone shares a personal story that relates to the content. An example of this was recently I was in a course that was preparing me to apply to be a fire ranger this summer. I could instantly tell that my instructor was passionate about his job as a fire ranger with the number of stories he would tell. One story was to emphasize the importance of safety. He told the story about him and two other crew members messing around while chopping down some small trees to kill time, and they made a competition around it. His crew leader decided to take part and wasn’t paying attention and ended up getting an axe in his shin. He made this boring 2 hour long safety module more interesting and engaging by telling this story. When putting your own spin on it, it allows the audience to engage much more, as well as being relatable.

One last responsibility I feel is of importance is that as interpreters we have almost like a duty to pass on knowledge of certain things, not allowing them to be forgotten about. I take great pride in this, knowing that I might have an influence on the future “me’s” one day to share this information with others. We have to remember we are not just passing on knowledge of the environment and nature, but also cultural beliefs and practices too. I mentioned in a previous post about how it is important to learn from the past, and we cannot do this unless we actually know what happened in the past. I personally love just even sharing my scientific and nature knowledge with my friends and family who do not have this as a background, and take pride in the fact that I am able to help educate them on this subject.

Photo of my mom and I at the cottage, as she is making sure I was exposed to the outdoors as early as possible. Photo taken by my dad, Dave Zarnke.

An approach that I would make sure to include in my interpretation is to be able to share with a diverse audience. This would include different age categories, different cultural backgrounds, different knowledge backgrounds and understanding on the subject, as well as learning styles that people possess. This is important to consider because knowing these different factors would affect how you would conduct the presentation to make it the most effective. With different ages there is a different level of understanding so when I would present something to a younger audience, I would make sure to use lots of examples and simple terms they could easily understand, compared to an older audience where I could potentially use more complex terms and concepts. Knowing the cultural and knowledge backgrounds may also determine the content you wish to speak on and the approach you take.

Personally I am a visual and tactile learner, and find it easiest to teach and interpret in this way. During an interpretation I would probably include many visual aids such as photos, videos, and live models to share with the audience. I would encourage the audience to take part in demonstrations and actively participate throughout the presentation. I have also found that through my school life I learn best when examples are given, or thought provoking questions are asked. When information is presented in this way it helps me to compare an example to real life and make those connections, and the thought provoking questions challenge me to take time to digest and organize all that I have learned to put it all together.

Something I think that may set me a part from many interpreters is what I believe and my faith. I am a christian (and like to think of myself as a christian scientist) which can be quite difficult at some times trying to study my major in a secular setting due to different beliefs. The main one would be how the world was created. I believe that there is one true God who created this world, everything in it, and the species we see today are the same and looked the same when the world was created 6000 years ago. This belief and faith of mine plays a huge role in my life, influencing most and if not all of my decisions, so it would be important to me to include this in my interpretations. I would not share or teach others something that I don’t believe in. This would probably lead to me interpreting to a different audience or have a different approach in my interpretations as these beliefs are not the same as what secular science believes and teaches, as well as most organizations. If this were to be a career of mine I would have to work for an organization whose beliefs are the same.

Photo of the Oakville waterfront taken from a walk with friends one afternoon after church. Photo taken by myself.

I believe that as an interpreter, I would ensure to create programs specifically directed towards kids because I have experienced the benefits of taking part in these programs personally. We have learned a bit about how technology is a double edged sword. On one hand, it can be a great tool for nature interpretation, playing sounds, videos, or even in our case currently creating podcasts we can share over the internet. The downfall is that they are also causing people and especially kids to be very disconnected these days. I have lost count the number of times I will see kids with their parents just out and about, completely ignoring their parents just fully consumed in what is on their screen, and these kids are as young as even four years old. I didn’t know what a computer was til I was way older than that, and never received one myself until even later. I think it is so important to raise awareness of these environmental issues to kids and get them involved so they gain interest early in life and can be a part of the solution for their generation.

Before this course I really never pictured myself ever leading an interpretation or even writing about nature as I am more of a research oriented person and not so much as a writer. Taking the time I have to write this post and reflect on what this could look like for me really opened my eyes and allowed me to picture myself actually do this. I reflected back to many memories when I was growing up and took part in nature interpretations as a kid (and honestly never made the connection that I was taking part in an interpretation), just emphasizing one of my points about the importance of getting kids involved. I think nature interpretation can be for anyone to take part in, either leading or listening as we all see things differently with a different lens. This has been a great opportunity and I will definitely be taking these skills I’ve learned with me as I continue in my own nature interpretation.

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poetrex · 4 years

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I was tagged a while back by the very lovely @pinehutch to list 10 niche interests. I hope she will not regret asking, because—brace yourselves—I am 98% nautical-themed niche by volume, and I will pounce like a pistol shrimp on every chance to infodump! If anyone fancies frothing at the mouth about nuclear SLCMs or New START or whatever, I encourage you to visit my Twitter—I'm not very active there but it's peak esoteric. I've also tacked on some "Ask Me Abouts" in case anyone wants even more specific infodumping! Consider this the Internet Sleepover Journaling Party: Extra Niche Edition—tagging all prior ISJP participants to list 10 of their own niche interests, ask me about one of these, or ignore this tag completely with no hard feelings! @wordrummager @definegodliness @drearydaffodil @viola-cola @lunaragent and @caffeinatedkaboom and anyone else who wants to join in!

1. Weapons proliferation, international collective security, and arms control agreements. I.E. missiles, missiles, and more missiles—except ideally, fewer missiles. Also the history of 19th and early 20th century naval arms races and treaties—especially the 1921-22 International Conference on Naval Limitation and how it affected ship design. Contemporary arms-racing behaviour with regard to anti-ballistic missile systems, anti-ship ballistic missile systems, artificial intelligence, and hypersonic weapons. Autonomous nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missiles and torpedoes (I hate them, thanks!). Cruise missile proliferation is of particular concern as it tends to fly under the radar (I know I know, bad joke). Ask me about strategic ambiguity, nuclear posture, and why "escalate to deescalate" is a fever dream of western analysts and not actual Russian doctrine!

2. Open-source intelligence and geolocation. Adding to this the buzzwords "citizen science", "crowdsourcing", "hiveminding" etc. (deceptive terms—the "crowd" is increasingly atomized and unrepresentative). I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole a few years back where I spent a lot of time on Google Earth, wikimapia.org, marinetraffic.com and flightradar24.com watching areas of interest, and assisting some patriotic Taiwanese in locating PLA rockets and radars across the Strait using historical satellite imagery and other sources. Ask me about Strava Heatmap, or the Red Bird Express!

3. Military applications of electromagnetic and acoustic waves in the maritime domain, including: the early history of naval radio communications and signals intelligence (SIGINT); the effects of sonar on marine mammals; the military use of marine mammals to detect mines using biosonar; LIDAR seabed mapping; ELF and VLF radio waves as a means for communicating with submarines at sea; high-frequency direction-finding using circularly-disposed antenna arrays or CDAA (one of the last two AN/FRD-10s in operation is in nearby Gander, Newfoundland!); but especially the history of the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), still extant in a reduced capacity called the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS). Ask me about Soviet submarine shenanigans on the eastern seaboard!

4. Civil Wars in media and memory. And here I count the American Revolution and the War of 1812 as a kind of 3rd and 4th English Civil War transplanted to the New World. I'm fascinated by the political dimensions of Civil War reenactment, particularly in the United States but also English and Russian Civil War reenactors. Ask me why I loathe the "Lost Cause" mythology!

5. Old English, Old Norse, and Medieval Icelandic prose and poetry. I loved Old English in university and even thought about taking a Masters in Medieval Icelandic at Reykjavik University (my grades weren't good enough). Ask me about Grendel's mom and monstrous femininity in Germanic lore!

6. The environmental and ecological history of warfare. The lasting scars of conflict on terrestrial and human geography: craters; minefields; cemeteries; demographics, etc. How "an army marches on its stomach" and its fighting capacity waxes and wanes with the produce of the land. Ask me about Abandoned Military Installations of Canada!

7. Civil-military relations and the history of military coups and revolutionary naval mutinies. I'm especially interested in the intersection of civilian academia with professional military education, and the public outreach of institutions such as the Royal Military College of Canada, US Naval War College, US Naval Postgraduate School, and the Office of Naval Research. Ask me about US vs Canadian Officers' Oaths, or the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946!

8. Fin-de-siècle music hall performers, drag kings and queens, circus strongwomen, and bearded ladies. Also, historical ideals of feminine and masculine beauty, gender roles, and the modern history of fashion design in western Europe. Corsets and stays, crinoline, stockings, etc. The fetishization of various body types and parts over time and across cultures. Um, there's a lot to unpack here. Ask me why I have Mixed Feelings about Eugen Sandow!

9. Canadian maritime territorial and economic disputes: Arctic sovereignty and the northwest passage; The 'Turbot War' between Canada and Spain; the Hans Island dispute between Canada and Denmark. Ask me why that last one is Really Dumb!

10. Reading and writing fanfiction. This is a new one! There's so much great stuff out there, and it's been a good way to test the waters of fictive prose using ready-made characters and settings. Just the Dragon Age series so far—I’m such a romantic slut for these characters—but I’d like to branch out into some Good Omens or maybe even indulge some nostalgic TNG daydreams. Ask me how fandom Changed My Life!

#niche interests #internet sleepover journaling party #extra niche edition #i know i went a little overboard here #this is clearly more than 10 niches but I COULDN'T CHOOSE

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lovemesomesurveys · 4 years

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What is a recurring thought on your mind today? lol it’s 5 in the morning and I’m thinking about getting more egg rolls for lunch. I had been craving them for awhile and finally had some last night and now I want more. Have you had any confrontations with anyone lately? No. What is the last charity you donated to? A cancer research charity. Do you feel all fuzzy and good when you do a good deed? It does feel good to do good. Don’t ya just hate foot cramps? I wouldn’t know, but I get stomach cramps and they’re not fun at all, so I imagine a foot cramp isn’t either.

Would you say you have an infectious laugh? I don’t think so. Shouldn’t you be doing something else right now? Sleeping, but c’mon when do I ever go to bed before 7 or 8AM anymore? Do you have anything planned for the summer? Couldn’t do anything this summer. I’m so glad we’re in August though and summer is almost overrrrrr. What is something you worry about often? Health related things. Constantly. Are there any mountains nearby where you live? No. Did you like to collect frogspawn as a kid? No. Do you walk fast or slow? I’m a fast wheeler I’m told. Do you keep birthday cards or throw them out? I keep them. I don’t get very many anymore, though. Would you consider yourself healthy? Both mind and body. Nope, not in any way. Do you play any team sports? Nope. If so, which position do you play? - Does sitting in waiting rooms drive you insane? Yes. I’m very impatient and the waiting just makes me more anxious. What form of public transport do you use most often? I don’t take any public transportation anymore, but I used to take the bus sometimes in college. Would you consider yourself an adrenaline junkie? Ha, no. Do you ever go onto ‘failblog’? I’m not familiar with that. Have you ever been arrested? If so, why? No. Do you ever put sticky notes around the place to remind yourself of things? No. I use the reminder app on my phone and/or write it down on my marker board. Would you eat a spider for $50? Absolutely NOT. Nopeeeeeee. Would you rather be a kangaroo or a koala? Koala, I guess. What is a common slang word from where you live? ”Hella” used to be a very Californian thing, but everyone says it now so I don’t know. Do you keep your fingers on the home keys when you type? I don’t type the proper way. I’ve been on the computer and typing since I was a kid, I even took a typing class, but I still don’t type the proper way haha. How I type works for me, though, sooo. *shrug* Are you easy to talk to? People have told me that. Can you juggle with more than two items? I can’t juggle. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I tried to juggle. Has anyone ever assumed you can’t speak English? No, but people have assumed that I speak Spanish. Do you live in a rural or an urban area? Urban. At airports do you ever worry your luggage won’t arrive? It crossed my mind. Do your parents ever call you ‘pet’ or ‘sweetheart’ etc? Not those two specifically, but other terms of endearment. We have our own that we’ve made up for each other as well. If so, does it annoy you? No, not at all. Do you like jalapenos? I loved ‘em, but I can’t eat spicy food anymore. :( What other windows have you currently got opened? Just this one. What woke you up this morning? I haven’t gone to bed, yet, but when I get up it’ll be well past morning. I don’t even go to bed until the morning. :/ Who else is in the same building as you? My parents, brother, and doggo are home as well. Would you like a penny farthing bicycle? A what? Your name? Stephanie. Would you ever consider visiting Ireland? Sure. Would you like to visit Venice? Yes. Did you ever eat leaves when you were a kid? Uh, no. I wasn’t the kid who played in leaf piles or played with/ate dirt or anything. What is the largest body of water near your hometown? California is near the Pacific. Do you have any flags in your house? Yes. Are there any ‘keep off the grass’ signs where you live? Not in my neighborhood that I know of, but yeah some public places in town do. Have you ever walked on the grass with such a sign? No. Are you double-jointed? My thumbs are. At school which area of science did you prefer: biology/chemistry/physics? I managed to get by in science, but it wasn’t my favorite. Which did you prefer between geography/history? History. Have you ever had a main part in a play? No. Are there any musical instruments in the room you’re in? No. Can you name a difference between RNA and DNA? Uhhh. I’m blanking. Do you know anyone who owns a farm? No. Have you ever driven a tractor? No. Does the smell of the countryside bother you? It’s quite pungent, ha. I guess if you live out there you get used to it, but anytime I drive through the country I just gag. Do you drink more water or juice? Water. I don’t drink juice at all.

Sweater weather or tank top weather? Which do you prefer. Sweater weather, most definitely. Have you ever kissed a Zachary? No. Do you hate when people try to embarrass you? Uh, well yeah. Do you like in October when a bunch of haunted places open up? I don’t go to any, but yeah. I just love spooky season in general. Did you tell someone you loved them today? Not so far. Do you watch the show Ghost Adventures? No. My dad watches it, though, so I’ve seen parts of it here and there. What color are your curtains in your bedroom? Dark blue. Are you superstitious? I do the knock on wood thing, but I think that’s really just out of habit. Is there a cat in the room you’re in right now? No, I don’t have a cat. What’s your favorite thing to do on the weekend? I don’t do anything different from weekdays. All my days are the same. Do you have your license? No. Do you still watch cartoons? I still watch Rugrats, Doug, and Hey Arnold. And animated movies. Do you like to cook? Only ramen. Do you drink? Nope. Do you smoke? Nope. Where do you buy your clothes? Hot Topic, Boxlunch, Adidas website, and Kohl’s. Do you enjoy going to the movies? Yes. I miss being able to go. Are you still in school? Nopeeee, I’m done. Do you like cupcakes? Yes.

What makes you sad? A lot of things. I’m also just a sad, sleepy, sensitive soul as I like to say. Are you an animal lover? Yes. Are you hot-headed? I’m not quick to anger, but I do get irritated and frustrated quite easily. Do you have any siblings? I have 2 brothers. Are you afraid of snakes? YES. Do you have any pets? Yes, I have a doggo. <3 What color are your eyes? Brown. How bout your hair? I dye it red, but it’s naturally dark brown. How tall are you? Like 5′4. Who do you live with? My parents, brother, and doggo. Is there anything you want to ask anyone right now? No. Do you have kids? No. Do you love your family? Yes. They’re my world. What color hair do you prefer on the gender of your choice? I don’t really care. How bout eye color? Blue and green eyes are gorgeous. Do you have a job? If so, what? No. What is your dream job? I don’t have one. :/ What did you “wanna be” when you were a little kid? A teacher. What’s your favorite kind of movie? Psychological thrillers, horror, drama, romcoms, comedy, some action/adventure, /sci-fi... I like a variety. Are you gay, straight, bi, lesbian, asexual, or not sure? Straight. What kind of music is your favorite? I like variety. Do you play any instruments or sing? What kind? No. Have you ever been to a concert? If so, what was your favorite one? Yeah, several. I enjoyed them all, concerts are just awesome. It’s a cool experience. Are you more negative or more positive? Negative. Well, for myself. I can be positive for others. Have you ever been depressed? I have chronic depression. How are you feeling, dear? Tired and crappy. Mhm and how’s the weather where you’re at? It’s 6AM and it’s already 64F. Okay and have you been healthy lately? No. Are you in middle school, high school, college, graduate? I’m done with school. What is/was your favorite class? English was always my favorite and then in college I was able to take psych courses, which is also what I majored in, so I liked those. Have you made any life altering decisions lately? No. Where is your favourite place to get pizza? This local place.

Do you have any physical traits that are bothering you lately? My hair.

What is the closest store to you? A grocery store. Do you have any songs currently stuck in your head? Not at the moment. Have you made a CV? No. I had to Google what a CV was. Where is the last place you applied for a job? (If you have) I haven’t. Are you photogenic? Nope. Are there any concert venues where you live? Yes. Are you annoyed at anyone these days? I’m always annoyed with myself. Which continent would you most like to travel to and why? Europe. There’s a ton of places I’d like to visit. Have you ever/would you ever do volunteer work? I’ve done a lot of volunteer work. Do you know anyone that has died in a road accident? No. Do you know which career path you want to follow? No. Are there a lot of tourists where you live? No. There’s not shit to do or see of interest here. My state is a touristy state, though. Any plans for your next birthday? This year I obviously just stayed home, but my family made it nice. My brother got me coffee, breakfast, and a coffee cake from my favorite place, my mom, brother, and I watched this new creepy movie, You Should Have Left, then we just hung out until dinnertime, which was my fave, Wingstop, and then I opened presents.

Do you have to use public transport often? Not at all anymore, but when I was in college I had to take the bus sometimes. Does your house have an alarm? Yes. Have you ever asked someone out on a date? No. Whose grave did you last visit? My dog, Brandie, is buried in our backyard. My dad made a really nice gravesite for her. What’s something someone can do that makes you melt? A guy that can play the piano. What are you listening to right now? An ASMR video If you won a lot of money on the lottery, what would you buy first? The first thing after paying off debts would be a new house for my family and I. What’s your greatest fear? Death, disease, bugs, clusters. <<<< SAME. Gaaaaah the last one just made my skin crawl from seeing the word. Those are just a few of many fears for me. Has anyone upset you in the last week? Yes. What’s the best thing about you? I like my cheesy, corny sense of humor. What’s your favorite drink? Coffee. What are you going to do tomorrow? Same stuff I do everyday. What are you craving? I want more egg rolls like I had last night. How did you sleep last night? I don’t ever feel like I slept well. I never wake up feeling well rested. Does that really happen for people cause I can’t relate.

What was the first thing you thought this morning? I haven’t gone to bed, yet.

If your favorite food gave you pain, made you have acne, etc., would you still eat it? I’d just have to eat it less often and less of it. Unless it made me really sick or something or was very intense and unpleasant. Like I can’t have spicy food at all anymore except for the weak hot sauce that has like less than 2% of anything, but even that I can only have a little bit of. I can’t drench my food in it, just light dips. It sucks cause I used to be obsessed with spicy food, and I used to eat really spicy stuff.

Have you ever been judged on something you wore? Yeah.

Are you a timid person? Yes.

Think QUICK what word begins with c? Coffee!

Are you a funny person? I think I have my funny moments and now and then and trust me, when they happen I make sure to own ‘em cause they’re rare haha. Be honest, do you go for looks more or personality? Personality is the most important, looks only go so far. Personality goes on a much deeper level and who a person is matters a lot more to me than their looks. That being said, I can’t say looks don’t matter at all. I also want to add that a good personality can add to someone’s attractiveness.

Ever been so upset but didn’t understand why? Yeah. I get these moody moods that are sometimes triggered, but there’s a lot of times where they seem to just come on out of nowhere. I suppose it’s the depression, but like I can be having a decent day and then suddenly I’ll feel my mood changing and nothing in that moment changed that would seem to cause the sudden change. I just feel it coming on and once it does, I can’t stop it. My emotions very much control me.

Are you a flirty person? No. I can be if I’m interested in someone and I’m comfortable around them enough to be flirty. Though, it’s probably subtle.

Are you homophobic? No.

Ever had a rumor spread about you? No.

Has anyone ever pulled your pants down in public? Nooo.

Ever had the ‘birds and the bees’ talk with your parents? Yeah.

How would you react if someone said you ruined their life? Wow. I would feel extremely bad and shitty to say the least.

Are you a sympathetic person? Yes. I’m also very empathetic.

Ballet dance or hip hop dance? If I could, I would have tried hip hop. What’s currently bothering you right now? My stomach.

What is the most athletic you’ve done? When I had to participate in my adaptive PE classes. That’s literally the only time.

Do you remember the first conversation you ever had with the person you currently have feelings for? I don’t have those kinds of feelings for anyone at the moment.

Do you like to drink herbal tea? Yeah, now and then. I’m not a big tea drinker.

If you’re home alone, do you still close/lock the door when you use the bathroom? No.

What your favorite thing to have on toast? Butter.

Has anyone ever hung up on you? Yeah, but only like telemarketers and wrong numbers.

Have you ever been to a concert? Several. Hasn’t this come up a couple times? Maybe I’m getting the surveys confused, I’m tired.

Can you speak more than one language? If so, what other language(s)? Not fluently, just some Spanish.

Are you talking to anyone right now? No.

If so, how do you feel about them? -

Do you know anyone who skateboards? Not anymore.

Do you ever sing when you’re alone? Yeah.

What’s the stupidest song you’ve listened to today? I have’t listened to any stupid songs. I don’t listen to music I’d consider stupid. Are you listening to music, currently? No.

How do you feel about the song? - When someone teases you do you frown or give an amazing comeback? My family and I playfully tease each other and sometimes I’ll come up with something funny and clever to say, but there’s times where I’m just like -____- and say like, “har-har very funny” haha or something lame like that. Do you think you can sing? I know I can’t sing well at all, but I still like to anyway to myself.

Do you have any talent? No.

Do you think you’re better looking than some other people? No.

Do you like dancing? I like head bobbing and moving my shoulders/arms/hands, ha. And sometimes I attempt (very badly) to do some TikTok dances haha. Privately, though. I’d never recored myself and share it with the public, major yikes.

What’s your favorite zoo animal? Giraffes.

How is your hair currently styled? It’s up in a messy bun.

How long are your showers (on average)? Like 30-40 minutes.

East or West? West.

What did you do last night? Binged some Step by Step on Hulu until 1AM-ish, then I made my ramen and watched some YouTube videos while I ate, then I played some Animal Crossing for a bit, and then I scrolled through Tumblr for awhile, and then I did some surveys and listened to ASMR, which is what I’m still doing now.

Do you like your music loud? I like it at a comfortable volume. Some songs I have a little louder than others, just depends.

What are you allergic to? Tangerines. I also have seasonal allergies.

Do you ever stay up late just to be awake I have insomnia, but yeah I do stay up later than I should. Like, I could attempt sleep a little sooner than I do.

What do you want to name your children? I don’t want to have kids.

Would you ever write a letter to someone you haven’t met yet, like your future spouse? Nah.

Did the last movie you watched make you cry? No. It was a psychological thriller, it was trippy.

Are you a good swimmer? Nope, I can’t swim.

What are you always thinking about? Health stuff.

Is science your favorite subject? Well, psychology is a science. When you’re really worked up, what do you do to relax? Listen to ASMR.

Would you rather spend the day watching movies or on an intense hike? Uh, watching movies. Definitely. I can’t go hiking anyway, but I wouldn’t want to do anything intense or outdoors.

Did you ever try the cereal Special K? Yeah, there’s nothing special about it.

Think of the last person you kissed, was it memorable? Yeah.

You have the choice of being poor but happy, or rich but miserable. Which is it? Poor and happy.

Do you think girls with short hair are less good looking than those with long hair? Uh, no? There’s a lot of beautiful people with short hair and there’s a lot of beautiful people with long hair.

#personal #text #survey #surveys #long survey

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it-begins-with-rain · 4 years

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Tagging Thing

I was tagged by: @meishallaneous, thank you!!

Are you named after someone? Not really. My parents heard the name “Kristen” and liked the sound of it, so they went with that.

When was the last time you cried? I don’t know, to be honest. I repress my emotions to a scary degree. It isn’t unusual for a single tear to slip out, but a genuine cry is exceedingly rare. I mostly stare at a wall and imagine beating to death the part of me that feels inconvenient emotion.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Quite a bit, actually.

Do you have kids? I do not, but I would love to some day!

Any special talents? I am talent-less.

Scary movies or happy endings? Either, so long as the storytelling is solid, doesn’t fall into cliches, and the movie does NOT qualify as torture-porn, slasher, gore-fest, jump-scare, rom-com, chick-flick, or even just the romance genre in general.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their hair, mainly if it’s clean or dirty. I am terrible with faces, I recognize people mainly by their hair (and god help me if they ever change their hairstyle).

What’s your eye colour? Dark stormcloud blue

Where were you born? Alaska

Do you have any pets? I have 2 wonderful dogs (who are a mix between sociopaths and dumbasses).

What are your hobbies? Writing, diamond painting, and playing one of the 6 computer games I’m actually good at (Oblivion, Skyrim, The Sims 3, Might & Magic VIII, and Pharoah & Cleopatra).

What sports do you play/have played? When I was very little and my parents still had hope that I’d be coordinated I played t-ball. In 5th grade I won a first-place ribbon for shotput at a city-wide event. And there’s a fierce debate on if it counts as a sport or not, but I did Winterguard in 8th grade before we all finally agreed I’d just be a nerd and stay indoors.

How tall are you? 5′6.5″ (169 cm)

Favourite subject at school? I was the Junior Classical League (Latin Club) president for my entire school district for my last 2.5 years of High School (and on the state board but that’s beside the point). Absolutely hated the language, but I LOVED studying the history, culture, geography, and religion of the classical world. In college I would throw a classical mythology, history, or culture class in for a bit of a brain-break each semester. 2 weeks before graduation I got a call from the Classics department asking if I was aware I had earned a minor ^_^

Dream Job? Writer- either of novels or for television (script continuity editor would be right up my alley if I was not one of the main writers).

I’ve come to realize that if you have a job you love in a bad place and/or for horrible pay, you’ll grow to hate everything you once loved about the craft. More than the specifics of the job itself, who you work with (and what you’re paid) matter more than anything else. So when people ask what my dream job is I typically just say “somewhere fair, with the right people, and in the right environment” rather than throwing out a specific job title.

I don’t usually tag people, but if you’d like to do this feel free to tag me in your answers so I can read yours!

#ask #ask thing #tagging thing

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retro-tenshi · 5 years

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Writing

I hate formally planning stories so much, but I l know it’s gotta happen. So I’m organizing my thoughts on it. Not a proffessional or published author, but I don’t think you need to be to have good thoughts on this topic. Not a lot of new information here, but it could be helpful.

Disclaimer: Endgame spoilers

As I see it, there are two things you need to start: setting and character.

Setting

Start with genre. When I started writing at the ripe young age of 6 years old, I always began book ideas with only a theme. I wanted to write about knights or pirates, and went from there. Personally I wouldn’t start with the type of book as opposed to the very specific topic.

My favorite book series as a child was Narnia. One thing C.S. Luis was good at was fleshing out his world. He really made it come alive. This is the way I started planning my book. I basically wrote a history of this land. Bad idea. Do NOT pull a Tolkien. Its all well and good for someone who can literally just invent an entirely new language, but your story will get nowhere fast. In Narnia the titular kingdom is not the central focus, but in Tolkien’s work middle earth (and surrounding areas) is the central focus. As much as we adore frodo and bilbo and gandalf, it’s not about them. It’s more about what happened in the history of this place, and he pulls it off well. It’s really hard to write a history textbook and call it a good story. Focus on geography, and don’t think too hard on what you’re going to write into your story. History and myth and legend and politics are all good things, but don’t expect that to be your story, there won’t be enough interesting content that flows well from one to the other.

Characters

Characters are the most important part of a story. Come up with at least 5-10 characters and write down a really short backstory, and want their biggest ideal is. What is their perfect self/world? Start an outline. Point one is one to three words that define your character at the beginning of the story. The final point will be one to three words that define them at the end of the story(how they reach or change their ideal). Each subpoint will describe in detail how they achieved this status, the repercussions of them reaching this status, and what they are trying to do now they’re here. Fill in similar points to describe their journey and once all your characters have at least five-ten points, your story is practically written. Conflict is generated by conflicting interests between the characters, and they will naturally ally themselves with the most advantageous people. Also remeber it’s okay for your characters to fail at any point. Since this is fresh in everyone’s mind, let’s use Iron Man, Tony Stark fron the MCU. Spoiler for Endgame ahead.

Tony Stark

The son of the genius inventor, Howard Stark, Tony Stark is the fun-loving ceo of Stark industries.

Ideal: He idealizes the ability to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

1. Arms Dealer

A. Tony inherited Stark Ind. from his father.

B. The company is prospering like never before under his guidance.

C. He is always looking to have a good time with whoever is physically closest to him. He does what he wants.

2. Avenger

A. Tony becomes a founding member of the Earth’s mightiest heroes by flying a nuclear missile into a wormhole above new york. Also for paying for everything, and making everyone look cooler.

B. The Avengers are at the top of their game and are defeating every threat that presents itself.

C. Tony wants to do better. He wants to Preemptively stop any threat that comes, terrestrial or extraterrestrial. He wants to put “a suit of armor around the world.”

3. Sacrificial lamb

A. Tony failed to save the universe from Thanos, but found a way to try again. He eventually takes the infinity gauntlet from Thanos, and proclaims “I am Iron Man.” one last time before eradicating Thanos and his army.

B. He saves the universe at the cost of his own life.

C. Dead

*Stops sobbing* Okay. You can see here how it works. Now all you need is to write out the details.

Tl;Dr: Setting and Characters are literally the only things you need and the plot will practically write itself.

Final disclaimer here: I am not an expert, feel free to add or criticize and discuss. Discussion is how progress is made.

#writing #creative writing #books #authors on tumblr #tips for authors #book planning #novel writing #book research

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voidsettle · 5 years

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Birthday in Venice

October 2018

Everyone suggests you should get lost in Venice. Funny thing is, you don't actually have a choice. First thing you do when setting foot on land is completely lose your sense of orientation, map or no map. Venice is as welcoming as a labyrinth of water and stone can be. Oh my, did I have fun with its feats!

Venetian masks; a lucky shot I got from the storefront at night after spying a random guy taking similar picture on his phone

This year, I've made the decision of spending the Big Day in a different country, away from people I know and love. My mom said there are three things you should never hesitate to spend your money on: food, books and travel. I heeded her advice, like the obedient daughter I was.

As (yet another) birthday present, I finally bought myself a DSLR camera. Photos aplenty!

Prepared by my solo trip to Rome, I was relaxed and at ease. Venice met me with sun through clouds and sparkles of water.

Confused Rant (Skip at Will)

Accademia Bridge between San Marco and Dorsoduro

Before I start praising the beauty of the place, I need to vent out my disappointments and be done with them.

The biggest shock I got during this trip was upon realization that Venice is not Italy. It's completely separate; Venetians hang out the winged-golden-lion-on-red flags of their city not the country they live in. They boast their history, they live engulfed in the past magnitude of the Venetian republic, the dominion dictating its will to the region if not the whole ‘enlightened’ world.

‘Venetians’ are only those living on the cluster of islands; mainland (deprecatingly referred to by true Venetians as Mestre) is a completely different thing.

They are pridefully blindfolded by the achievements of the past - which are impressive, no doubt. But.

Venice doesn't seem welcoming. It's a fascinating place, for sure, but it's not one I'd chose to live in. It's slowly dying, despite the flocks of tourists crowding the tiny streets. Not just drowning, although this is a real problem - but losing its touch with reality, completely dependent on the inflow of money brought by tourists yet also soaked with condescending disdain. As if asking you to leave your money and get the hell out of their islands, thank you very much (Venice is surprisingly expensive; in a day, you get the habit of taking out a wallet when entering a church).

Venetian gondolas, wharf at Grand Canal

Unlike Rome, oblivious to your presence, living its life, Venice wears its colorful, gaily painted hospitality mask and a painful scorn underneath, struggling between the need to please you and get rid of your presence. This is exactly my problem with tourist towns - they need tourists, but the feeling of silent, woeful aversion toward non-locals is ever-present and oppressively strong. Thanks, I hate it.

However, this is also a puzzle piece that makes Venice unique. I'm not exactly an inexperienced traveler, yet I rarely feel this strongly about places. The contrast here is stark (especially when emphasized by a short trip to Verona - this, a definitely Italian town), and it makes the place even more vivid in my memory.

Lost in Venice: The Labyrinth, the Moments, the Rhythm

Venice is one of those cities known around the world. Its history, its geography, its multitude of symbols and names (La Dominante, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Canals, City of Bridges, City of Masks). It became the appellative to other cities around the world. It astonishes at first glance; it's unique

The infrastructure of Venice is impressive. The city literally is built on swamps, the marshy land that sinks underfoot, not to mention the weight of stone and brick buildings. To strengthen the soil, long wooden piles were installed to reach the firm clay underneath sand and mud. The wood used is still argued to be either alder trees from southern Baltics or Russian pines (probably the former). Either way, the wood is water resistant, given its century-old age and excellent preservation state.

To boot, Venice, surrounded by the sea, had no source of fresh water. Today, it is delivered from mainland. In the days of Venetian republic, a system of water cisterns that collected rain was constructed - hence the huge stone socles of wells on nearly every campo.

There is an anecdote roaming among the tour guides that some of these stone wells were stolen by insane tourists as souvenirs from Venice.

Venetian water cistern. The most unbelievable part is that, in the wells, the preserved water is probably still drinkable

The unusual geography gives way to even less usual architecture. Usually I'm pretty decent with maps and finding my way in a new city. Venice shattered my confidence to shards when I spent nearly two hours for a walk that should've taken no more than 15 minutes, and after finding myself going in circles. That was a start! The first day I arrived, I didn't have plans but wanted to have a bite and then get to San Marco - well, good luck with that. An hour later, despite living in 10 minutes walk from the piazza, I found myself in the middle of Castello, a completely different neighborhood of Venice - actually further from the destination.

Venice has 6 neighborhoods (sestieri): San Marco, San Polo, Cannaregio, Castello, Dorsoduro and Santa Croce.

San Marco is the only piazza in Venice. Although the place doesn't lack squares, they're all called campos, literally fields, since were used as such when Venice was built. The houses faced water, and it was the only way to get from one island to another (hence boat transportation system). Naturally, every island needed somewhere to grow food, and a church for the people living on each separate island. That's the trademark of Venetian urban planning: a campo with a church and a well for rainwater.

The house located on the peak of the island but looks like it is the island

I cannot remember the last time I was this fascinated by the way a place is built. It's literally a labyrinth, with dead ends of tiny private squares (never closed; you can get anywhere and knock on any door if you wish) and steps leading into water. Even with a clear idea of a direction in mind (and a first couple of turns you need to make remembered), you are bound to get lost. There are little to no identifiers (if you don't count the names of streets and campos, which tell you precisely nothing), with pointed signs reserved for major attractions like San Marco and Rialto.

Campos are often named after the churches that are or were standing here (signified by letter 'S', e.g. Campo S Maria Formosa).

Besides, some of the street names repeat (like Via del Forno, or literally Baker Street - specifically because bakers were important for every island, so most of the islands have one of those). It's best to avoid making appointments without specifying the sestiere.

Despite how scary this may sound, I relished in this feeling of being lost and aimless (control freak, present). It's a rare sensation of freedom, unobtrusive and calming, when you forget everything and just wander around with only a vague understanding of your final goal: food, coffee, sites, excitement!

I was cautioned GPS goes nuts in this water-stone labyrinth; it's not always the case, but having a paper map on you is still not a bad idea. And throw in an umbrella to the kit: Venice enjoys being rainy.

San Marco is (obviously) the busiest, most chaotic among the Venetian sestieri. Always full of tourists - even near midnight, even in its narrowest, smallest of streets. In comparison, Cannaregio and most of Dorsoduro look empty, almost deserted. The rest of the sestieri are relaxed, drowning in quiet slumber.

Every city is different and beautiful in its own right - there are people that make them unique. There are moments to witness in the quietest sestieri - and in the busiest of crowds.

A nun dressed in white descending the stairs of a half-blocked bridge, with a dove scared away from her feet. A group of middle-aged tourists abstrusely discussing the architecture of a baroque church in some incomprehensible language. A couple of elderly friends having a cozy chat at the bench on a tiny campo, with cigarettes smoking in their lazy fingers. A woman walking her minuscule dog along one of the wider canals near Rio dei Mendicanti. A colorful boat that looks like a toy bobbing on the busy waves of Cannaregio. Doors with quirky handles at the center of the frame, scattered all over the city. White-necked, grey-winged seagulls crowning the chimneys of old houses in desperate need of repainting.Colorful enjoyably shaped masks crowded in the shops. A couple sitting on the pavement at the water's edge, the woman going through the contents of her bag while the man smiles at passersby. An intricately cut wooden paddle in the showcase. An artist's workshop on full display with floor-level windows - or a woodworker's, hidden at the back corner of a narrow street. The most peculiar style of windows made of bottle bottoms (this can be seen all over Venetian region, in churches, palaces and old houses). Small crooked bridges with fragile rails. Gondolas hidden among the forest of striped palines, and gondoliers in striped shirts and straw boaters with red ribbons - smoking, chatting, singing. A kitten playing on the windowsill among the plants in pots. People sitting on marble stairs of the churches. Traditional hexagonal Venetian lamp posts of pink glass. Students sketching hastily in their notepads. A guy with the sun stuck in his ruffled dark hair photographing the lagoon. A group of men in acid-orange lifesavers' jackets smoking during break near their ambulance boats. A policeman bowing his head to a Madonna in a dilapidated wooden shrine. A messy old bookshop with human-high stacks of multi-colored books felled outside the door.

At times I think I've seen less than I could - because I kept getting lost in streets and thoughts.

The rhythm is everywhere. The lulling tempo of residential houses with their rounded windows. The dignified cadence of lofty Renaissance palaces (especially evident on Piazza San Marco, with its Doge's Palace and the Procuratie). The clear pulse of campos, churches, water wells and - most distinctively - bridges, small, grand, wide, connecting two or even three islands, crossing Grand Canal, leading into stores and homes.

What to see in Venice:

San Marco sestiere:

piazza San Marco

basilico di San Marco

St Mark's Campanile

St Mark's clocktower

palazzo Ducale

Bridge of Sighs

Procuratie Vecchie and Procuratie Nuove (Museo Correr, Venice National Archeological Museum, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana)

chiesa di San Zulian

chiesa di San Moise

campo San Luca

chiesa San Luca

Rio Tera dei Assassini

Scala Contarini del Bovolo

chiesa di San Salvador

Rialto bridge and terrazza panoramica

chiesa di Santo Stefano

Museo della Musica

campo Santo Stefano

Instituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti

basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore (Isola San Giorgio)

Dorsoduro sestiere:

Accademia bridge

Santa Maria della Salute

fondamente Zattere ai Saloni (fondamente dei Incurabili)

chiesa del Redentore (Giudecca)

campo Santa Margherita

Santa Croce sestiere:

Constitution bridge

Venetian subway (3 stops in total)

San Polo sestiere:

chiesa di San Giacomo Apostolo (hosting musical museum)

San Simeon Piccolo

Cannaregio sestiere:

Santa Maria di Nazareth (Gli Scalzi)

Ponte degli Scalzi

La Maddalena

Madonna dell'Orto

La Scuola nuova di Santa Maria della Misericordia

chiesa dell'Abbazia della Misericordia

Ca' d'Oro

chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli

Castello sestiere:

Scuola Grande di San Marco

basilica of Saints John and Paul

chiesa di Santa Maria Formosa

chiesa di Sant'Antonin

Venetian Arsenal

Sotoportego e Corte Delfina

basilica di San Pietro di Castello

Cimitero di San Michele (the island of St Michael)

The Brighter Side of Islands

Burano

Before getting here, I planned spending my birthday roaming aimlessly around Venice, getting lost in its streets. But that is every day in Venice, so instead I bought a 24-hour public transport pass and went to see the islands.

The public transport in Venice is water-based. Aside from the trademark gondolas, there is a variety of yachts, motorboats, and, local signature vehicle, vaporettos. These come in different configurations depending on the routes - the best, in my opinion, have seats on the front, in the open air, serving partly as a tourist transport.

Throughout the trip, the weather in Venice was a bit moody, although thankfully not rainy. Saturday, the 13th, however, happened to be the sunniest day of the trip. Standing outside, wind tangled in my hair, barely able to see anything as sun threw handfuls of golden sparks into my eyes, I intensely enjoyed the feeling of speed, scent of salty water and marshy earth, the old stone and red roofs covering the patches of land scattered here and there.

Sunglasses come handy during such water-trips, unless temporary blindness is a viable option.

First stop was Murano, historical area dedicated to glass factories and, today, featuring numerous showcases of artists that are not unlike museums full of oddest, most peculiar and wondrous glass sculptures. Walking along the quay, it is possible to find an artshop that has free tours on glass sculpture production.

For me, Murano was the area's first glimpse of a true Mediterranean palette: bright whites, pure blues and fresh, light greens. Waiting in line for the tour, I delighted in the view of the lagoon. Festive, clean yachts, all white gleaming surfaces and polished wooden panels the color of dark honey with even darker veins. Neat paths and lanes covered with white smoothly round gravel. Soigne yards with delicately trimmed bushes. Blue-and-white striped mooring posts (aka palines, another one of Venetian symbols on par with gondolas and bridges).

Pomegranate tree full of red fruits - looks just like Charles Demuth's 'Plums' (1925)

The inner Murano has a different feel than the seaside: it's much wider. Besides, Murano has much less canals - I saw literally one, the rest is all streets and inner patios, quiet, serene, bathed in sun and empty; the closest place in Venice must be the northern side of Cannaregio, closer to the old Jewish quarters.

Waiting lines to get out of Murano are enormous. Be prepared to spend at least half an hour, whether you leave for Venice or for Burano, the next-favorite stop.

You can skip Murano if not very interested in glass and in order to save some time. Skipping Burano, on the other hand, is a sin for any traveler.

The houses of this small island are unique: each has its own designated color, which is ruled by the local government to preserve the look of the town - truly a museum under the open roof. Burano is a study of cheerful, bright colors. It's fun catching people in front of houses the color of their clothes.

Burano is widely known for its textiles - the main street running inland from the wharf is covered in the assortment of shops selling lace umbrellas (souvenirs and human-sized), fans, corsets, scarves et cetera. As the shops give way to homey cafes and quaint restaurants, the crowd thins out, flowing along the splitting canals.

Real-life drama broke out on the quay. A Japanese girl dropped her phone into one of the canals - and she actually managed to fish it out using a scoop-net provided by some compassionate local. I was observing while pity and mirth dueled to be plastered all over my face.

Behind the Burano main streets, a much quieter area runs along the quay at the murmurous accompaniment of a street singer playing something sweetly romantic. This is an enchanted area for picnics - spacious green lawns under the rich crowns and low branches of firs, warm pale-yellow sun, cool stone parapet, sprinkles of light glistening off the waves and drops of water from the tumultuous waves, seagulls touching wings over the waters and fast motorboats passing by.

Take off your shoes to enjoy the fresh breeze and let your feet some rest. Have a glass of Prosecco and a seafood salad on the central square of the island, near chiesa di San Martino. Awe at the leaning tower protruding from the colorful rooftops (actually, Italy is full of those; Pisa is just the most famous).

Torcello offers little in comparison - just an old church of Santa Fosca (XI-XII centuries), an even older cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (639 AD) surrounded by the garden of ancient sculptures (including Trono di Attila) and its belltower with the view of the marshes of the Venetian lagoon (truly makes one imagine what this place was before an empire was built upon the morass). Leisurely crowds stroll to visit the ancient sites, passing by Ponte del Diavolo, an unfinished bridge remarkable for its lack of handrail.

Panorama from the top of Santa Maria Assunta belltower, Torcello

Way back to Venice (and Lido, my final stop on this island run) was marked with sun hovering over the horizon, throwing a haze of pink-blue blanket over the lagoon. In this tremulant light, the dark shadows of palines protrude from the soft waters, ragged and cankered.

Palines mark the waterpaths like the posts of highways; grouped in three, weathered, dark from time and water, partly rotten to the point of only the upper half remaining. They are bizarre, surreal as they bask in the translucent dusk, a mirage reflected in the water amalgamating with the sky.

Lido gained fame for its long beach. Facing the open Adriatic sea, it makes a wonderful case for both sunrises and sunsets. Pity, I was 10 minutes too late for the sunset (I blame the unhurried vaporettos), and instead only caught the last glimpses of it

Staying in Venice, you forget about such integral part of modern life as cars. Not even bicycles make sense on the islands connected with innumerable bridges, most of which have stairs, the tiny streets that at times allow only one person, and the crowds that flock them. For this reason, on Lido, I caught myself staring for consecutive five minutes at a bus, feeling something was wrong but unable to pinpoint what exactly. Until it hit me: people were standing at a crosswalk waiting for the car flow to subside. For a person living in a metropolis, this is a weird feeling to experience.

Lido sports the ambiance of a typical tourist resort near the sea - very unlike the deeply historical, proud and arrogant Venice.

The final touch of the day was dinner at La Colombina, a Michelin restaurant found on the side street of Strada Nova. I relished in the sensation of being cared for: an assortment of traditional Venetian dishes by the recommendation of maitre d'hotel and a glass of white wine offered by a sommelier followed by black coffee served as good as in Sarajevo.

Bridge near San Zaccaria station, Venice

Venice is the water-borne city, and experiencing it from water is an integral and wholesome experience, whether a gondola ride or a trip down Grand Canal (better not to mix those, traffic on the central Venetian waterway is competitive). A night vaporetto shows off the lighting wonders, from the rigorous black-and-white facades to the flirtatious pinks and warm yellows of palaces turned posh hotels.

Getting home from the vaporetto station, I decided I should be able to find the way on my own, without being glued to the screen of my phone. I was wrong, obviously; after an hour I caught myself staring at a vaguely familiar balcony that I passed under ten minutes ago. That was when I realized I've uncovered the true character of Venice and finally let go of all hope finding the way on my own in this city. A profoundly enjoyable awareness.

What to see on the islands:

glass factories and artshops (Murano)

Cometa di vetro (Murano)

chiesa di San Martino and leaning belltower (Burano)

Ponte del Diavolo (Torcello)

chiesa di Santa Fosca

cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and belltower (Torcello)

Museo di Torcello (garden of sculptures)

Trono di Attila (Torcello)

beach Lido de Venezia

Verona: Consistency Through the Ages

Ponte Pietra, river Adige, Verona

At first I planned on visiting Padua, but a girl at my hotel's reception was surprised enough to convince me to change the destination to Verona, a small, well-preserved medieval town an hour inland away from Venice.

It is my guess that most people come to Verona because of one minor play by some insignificant English playwright. Naturally, I was prepared to pay my respects to Juliet's abode, yet it wasn't the best place I've seen in Verona (it didn't even cut to top ten).

I am weak toward cities that have a clear route encircling all the major attractions, as if it was built for exploration. Verona uncovers historical layers through its architectural milestones. Pre-Christian era is embodied in Roman edifices including the local colosseum, Arena di Verona (third biggest after Rome and Capua), Porta Borsari (ancient gate in the city wall surrounded by medieval houses and oleander bushes) and Teatro Romano, a grim, gray structure across Adige river and up the hill. The Romanesque Cattedrale di Santa Maria Matricolare featuring two reconstructed Paleo-Christian churches and one of the oldest functioning libraries in the world is a study of several ages of early Christianity. The Gothic Arche Scaligere is so intricate one can spend days studying its decorations, and the red-brick Castelvecchio, the powerful square construction of war explains the military aspirations of the Medieval Verona.

Piazza delle Erbe (literally Herb Square) features statues and fountains of different eras dating back to Roman rule through the Middle Ages. The market in the middle of piazza is still selling fresh vegetables and herbs, the epitome of integrity (a pleasant change from modern inconsistency)

In the train, I by chance overheard a conversation by fellow tourists who were also going to Verona and discussing the places to eat. That's how I got my lunch destination. It appears, in Verona, horse meat is a thing.

There's much less people compared to Venice; a breath a fresh air (both figuratively and literally). Quiet old streets, paved in uneven stones, lead to the tumultuous Adige and the white Ponte Pietra.

Compared to Venice, this is real Italy: a river across the town, enchained in high stone walls, manacled by elderly bridges; motley planes along the quay, dappled in summer sunlight; old red brick castle with Gothic merlons along the walls

The walk around the city is calm, warm and fits in the span of several hours. Quite an enjoyable detour.

What to see in Verona:

Porta Nuova

piazza Bra

Arena di Verona

palazzo Barbieri

palazzo della Gran Guardia

Casa di Giulietta

piazza delle Erbe

Madona di Verona

Torre dei Lamberti

piazza dei Signori

Arche Scaligere

chiesa di Sant'Anastasia

Ponte Pietra

Teatro Romano

chiesa dei Santi Siro e Libera

castel San Pietro

cattedrale di Santa Maria Matricolare

chiesa di Sant'Eufemia

Porta Borsari

Castelvecchio and its bridge

Arco dei Gavi

Coming back to Venice, I managed to catch sunset at San Marco. The seagulls here are fierce and beautiful creatures; it's not always a good idea to carry food around

What to eat:

cicchetti (bite-sized snacks common for bacari, traditional Venetian bars)

sarde in saor (pickled fried sardines with onions)

baccala mantecato (cod cream)

risotto al nero di seppia (black rice and seafood)

risi e bisi (rice and peas soup)

bigoli in salsa (pasta with onions and salt-cured fish)

fegato alla veneziana (liver and onions)

moleche (fried small crabs)

scampi alla veneziana (shrimps)

caparossi a scota deo (clams)

scampetti con polenta (baby shrimps served on polenta)

baicoli (biscuits)

fritole venessiane (sweet pastry served during Venetian Carnival)

pincia (sweet pastry)

buranelle (sweet biscuits)

zabaglioni (egg dessert)

What to drink (alcohol is important in Venice - drink your days away):

Aperol Spritz (Venetian signature cocktail, refreshing and fun)

Bellini

Prosecco (white wine, commonly sparkling)

Soave (white wine, good with fish dishes)

Orto di Venezia, Venissa (white wines)

Valpolinella and Amarone (red wines)

vino della casa (homemade wine, usually less expensive and rarely served in traditional wine glasses)

Final Word

Sunset at piazza San Marco

Venice is a city of its own character, sometimes oblivious, sometimes arrogant and condescending - but it surely has the right to be so. Hit some sweet Vivaldi, order a glass of Aperol Spritz at bacaro - and let yourself get lost in this bizarre, lovable chaos.

#venice #murano #burano #torcello #lido #verona #italy

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secret-diary-of-an-fa · 3 years

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Crash Bandicoot 4: Better Than You’d Expect (a Review)

Right, you horrible lot. I promised you a review of Crash Bandicoot 4 and, as I appear to be the last stable person and/or thing in the chaos of modern Britain, I suppose I had better deliver. I would say something about Xmas, but what with this being International Year of the COVID Virus, there sort of wasn’t one. With that in mind: Crash 4- what, why and is it any good?

As a kid, I used to really like the Crash Bandicoot games on the old PS1: the levels were beautiful and imaginative (although, to this day, the ‘Road To Nowhere’ level and its sequel in Crash 1 can fuck right off), the characters were funny and compelling and the move-set was entertainingly bonkers. Naturally, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (and yes, that is the real title) pushed my Nostalgia Button even faster and harder than I’d push Boris Johnson down and endless flight of stairs, given half a chance. It helps that it’s superbly well-made by a developer that clearly cares deeply about the games and not just the selling power of their brand name.

The game is a direct sequel to the original three Crash games and sweeps the intervening efforts from lesser developers under the great rug of history. For the most part, this is probably wise considering that their quality usually hovered somewhere between ‘sewage’ and ‘being trapped at a Beyonce concert without a cyanide pill’ (yes, Internet, I still hate Beyonce. Just because I haven’t mentioned it in awhile, doesn’t mean I’ve warmed to the catawalling bint or her irritating ubiquity on otherwise-acceptable supermarket mix tapes. That would require a frontal lobotomy and the removal of my ears, but I digress). I do think it’s a bit unfair on Crash: Twinsanity, which at least had an interesting core gameplay concept and some funny dialogue, even if it wasn’t very well-realised on the mechanical level. But ho-hum: I can nit-pick later during the loose ‘what I didn’t like’ section- these early paragraphs are meant to be mainly praise.

The actual plot concerns an escape attempt by Neo Cortex and N. Tropy, who were apparently trapped at the beginning of time after the events of Crash 3. News to me: I guess you had to collect all the hidden extras to see that ending and, while the 90s were a much slower decade, I still didn’t have time for that shit, even back then. Anyway, they break back into the timeline, in the process shattering reality itself and forcing Crash to make his way across the multiverse and different worlds at different points in history in order to stop them. There’s not a lot of complexity there, but as a justification for having the levels all be radically aesthetically different and providing a jumping-in premise for fan favourite characters, it’s a plot that does its job. Despite it’s simplicity, it’s also offered up with a surprising number of twists, fun cut-scene asides and surprising little narrative flourishes. The re-introduction of Tawna (Crash’s girlfriend from the first game who was tastefully removed after the original developers fired Kevin The Furry from their team) is kind of sweet and handled pretty neatly. And I mean that in the sense of ‘aww, that’s sweet’ not ‘Ah, sweet, bro’, just to be clear. She’s obviously not the same character from the original games, but the developers have taken care to give her enough quirks and entertaining lines that she’s not just the standard ‘Badass Action Girl’ trope made flesh. The levels that where you get to play as Cortex and get into the head of a cartoon evil genius are fun, too, even if they don’t tell us anything about the character we couldn’t have figured out for ourselves.

As with the original games, the worlds and levels have a really idiosyncratic and stylish look. Just looking at the scenery is a blast. My personal favourites are a level clearly based on New Orleans in the middle of Mardi Gras, the planet Bermagula and basically all of the levels set in a Crash-ised version of Feudal Japan.

As nice as the levels are to look at, they’re mostly pleasant to play through, too, with a staggering variety of different gameplay elements coming together to create intricate challenges. That said, I should stress that the phrase ‘mostly pleasant’ comes with a massive, throbbing caveat, which brings us neatly to the designated gripes and nitpicks section of this review.

You see, while the levels are mostly well-designed, there are individual platforming challenges that just lump too much together for any normal person to keep track of and then demand that you solve them at speed and they break the delicate, wafer-thin boundary between ‘fair challenge’ and ‘taking the piss’. Actually, the incidents of this phenomena towards the start of the game take the piss. By the later levels, they’ve graduated to demanding other bodily fluids, too, such as tears and blood. I feel like the developers were a bit too in love with the original games’ reputation for punishing difficulty and got into a bad habit of opting for design choices that emulated it over design choices that were fun.

I also feel that, considering the game takes place across a time-shattered multiverse, the levels might have been a bit more varied. Don’t get me wrong, there are some gorgeous and brilliantly creative worlds on offer in Crash 4, and every level is a visual blast. However, with the single, solitary exception of Bermagula, every alternate universe you visit is ultimately a reflection of something familiar from our own world or culture. N. Sanity Beach is… well, it’s just a tropical beach with generically tribal ruins a bit further inland. The Hazardous Wastes are just an off-brand post-disaster planet Earth that owes more than a little to the Mad Max franchise and where you’ve definitely seen every individual component before (even if they’ve never been assembled in such a Crash-y way until now). Then there’s the made-entirely-of-pirate-tropes world, the Japan-but-not-really world, the Inevitable Fucking Ice World (which keeps getting included in games despite the fact that uncontrollable sliding is even less fun in precision platformers than it is in real life) and the Generically Futuristic City world, because the old Crash games had them so this one has to as well. None of these worlds are bad- like I said, I enjoyed all of them, and the others that didn’t quite merit an honourable mention besides. It’s just that I feel like greater flights of fancy could have been taken: we could have seen some truly alien geography and architecture; viewed whole of evolutionary timelines, all through the lens of Crash’s brilliantly slick, cartoony art-style. The only truly ‘out there’ world we visit is Bermagula, which takes up precisely one fucking level, then that’s your lot: it’s back to Crash-y versions of Earth locales.

I’m also not a big fan of the ‘gems’ system. Yes, it’s great that developers chose to use the gems that were such a big part of previous games to unlock funky little cosmetic bonus costumes for the playable characters. On the other hand, the outfits you unlock should be tied to the number of gems you have overall, not your ability to collect certain numbers from specific levels. That way, your wardrobe would be a measure of your general skill at the game, not of which levels’ platforming challenges you were most willing to put up with for multiple play-throughs.

I’m tempted to compare all this to the superlative one-two punch that was Rayman: Origins and Rayman: Legends- two of the best platforming games ever made. With the exception of a couple of fuck-off unreasonable boss fights, the platforming challenges in those games were perfectly, legitimately fair. Insanely tough sometimes, but fair. Their level and world design also nailed the ‘weird-as-fuck flight of fancy’ vibe as well. Even the Inevitable Fucking Ice World in those games had the decency to throw in some giant cocktail umbrellas and slices of lemon to make you feel like you were ice-skating your way through the world’s biggest Martini while a fucking dragon in a chef’s hat tried to bit a mountain in the background. They also tied cosmetic unlocks to overall performance.

None of this is to say that Crash 4 isn’t good, it’s just that it doesn’t quite measure up to the gold standard set by the Rayman: Origins and its sequel. If it helps, think of it like comparing The Talos Principle to Portal. Yes, the former is good, but it’s never going to outshine the latter’s star. I recommend Crash 4, but if the last platformer you played was the undeniable high water mark of either of the Raymans, just remember to adjust your filters going in.

Before I go, does anyone else find it funny that these games have such colourful, kiddy-friendly aesthetics and characters yet demand a level of competence and coordination that’s usually only achieved by more seasoned, grown-up gamers? I mean, there are challenges in Crash 4- admittedly optional ones- that might one day be completed only if a being comes into existence that has the reflexes of a supercomputer crossed with a surprised feline and is made entirely out of thumbs.

And on that horrifying mental image, I must say goodnight. Tune in next time for my usual end-of-year roundup.

#Secret Diary of a Fat Admirer #Crash 4 #Crash Bandicoot 4 #Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time #game review #review

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vocalpmh · 6 years

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about me! (it’s another tag...)

tagged by the angels @minnyhyuk @shinigamibutterfly <33

tagging some mutuals i want to get to know better!!:

@dalkkong @moonbeams-and-sanshine @astro-lovelies @dong-minie @heybinnie @jinjangled @mirojung @parkj-nwoo @jinjinwooz @taesea

Appearance: i’m chinese (teochew/chiuchow to be specific!) born in australia, and i’m very... v E RY short, i won’t tell you how short, but i’m tiny!! something i’m trying to accept and like about myself but when you have tall family members and tall friends, it’s difficult. apart from that, i have a little over shoulder length dark brown hair and brown eyes, i’m a little squishy in some areas but overall i think i’m average sized and my skin is fairly tan/olive coloured. i had hella crooked teeth when i was younger, i even had a little snaggletooth (year six hayley used to match with park woojin :’)) but i got braces in year 7 and took them off at the end of 2016 :))

Personality: i’m an ambivert, as i’m an extrovert in the sense that i do gain energy from being with other people, but there are certain times where i get sluggish and tired from hanging out with others. i’m quite outgoing, always happy to make new friends and make people feel welcome and comfortable! i tend to try and be funny (it works maybe half the time on a good day..) but if i’m not trying to crack some quality jokes or puns, i’m usually tripping, knocking into things and if i’m not injuring myself accidentally, i ask stupid questions without thinking about them first and that also makes people laugh :’)) i’m not an outspoken person (usually) but when there’s a topic i’m particularly passionate or have strong feelings about, my mouth literally doesn’t know how to close. i only usually rant animatedly with close friends but i find that it’s a good outlet if i need to blow off steam or fangirl about something, whether it’d be about astro, or world war ii and climate change (your girl is a history + geography nERD)

Abilities: i’ve been learning how to play piano since i was five but i stopped doing grade exams after i finished grade two (the pressure was too much and i almost always cried before every exam i had ahfakhfshfjffd) so now i play piano leisurely and get my piano teacher to teach me songs that i want to do, like kpop songs or classical pieces/movie soundtracks. i enjoy creative writing (like fanfiction, check out my ao3 huehuehue), it’s an outlet as well as a major hobby of mine and i’m trying to improve with every new word doc i create! i also know how to speak three-ish languages which include my own dialect teochew, it’s a bit shoddy not gonna lie but i can understand and vaguely speak it! i’ve also been learning how to speak french for three years at school, i can also vaguely understand and speak the bare minimum (french people just speak really quickly!!) and of course english :) i want to pick up a few more ‘abilities’ like skateboarding and learning how to watercolour but for now this is what i can do!

Hobbies: reading, listening to music (my youtube playlists, soundcloud or spotify), writing, catching up with v lives on the treadmill, writing any thoughts or ideas or what happened in the day on paper, making people laugh or smile, skyping my close friends from school, organising/doing half clean-ups of my desk LMAO, binging astro ddocas and astro plays or vlogs (wahlietv!!) and of course, trawling through tumblr and instagram!

Random stuff: i got into kpop when i was quite young, my first song being lollipop by bigbang and 2ne1 but i slowly got into it when i was six or seven? because my sister listened to it, i being the easily impressionable kid and thinking that everything my sister did was super Rad™, listened to it as well, and here we are 10 years later! i listen to music almost 24/7 whether i’m in the shower, washing dishes, vacuuming, doing homework or studying, brushing my teeth - my parents hate it and scold me often but it’s become a habit and i’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing /uneasy smile/. my major pet peeves are when people complain without actively doing anything to solve their problems or if people use the wrong ‘you’re’ or ‘your’ (same with ‘their’, ‘they’re’ and ‘there’ oh my goD). apart from that, i have a pet rabbit, she’s fearless and literally scared of nothing, a little chubby but she’s super adorable i would cuddle her endlessly if she didn’t have razor sharp nails and if i wasn’t allergic!!

#this was super fun omg!#i spent a good half an hour on this and i hoped you liked learning more about me???#i can't wait to see other people do this tag as well :))#i was also considering making an about me page on my blog #and i did for like a week????#should i?#or nah...#tagged

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empyira · 4 years

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1-29 uwu

hello, i’m not from the us!! // @krystallius

1. favourite place in your country?

my cooooouch ~ …..nah, i actually love the alpine region of bavaria and around the bodensee. best places for a healthy vacation uwu

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?

hmm, it depends. as long as i get to see some good culture / history stuff, i will be happy.

3. does your country have access to sea?

yes to both !!

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

borscht ( russian ) and potato salad ( german ). mmmh, great content ~

5. favourite song in your native language?

i love this one here. the beat, the lyrics….. aaaah ~

6. most hated song in your native language?

oh looord… there are so many. basically, i have a thing against those 50′s - 70′s songs my parents danced to on discos.

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

oh god... i think the only word i really like is ‘ desoxyribonukleinsäure ‘ ( dna ), probably simply because i can pronounce it properly c;

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

not really. some people do, however, not believe that i’m russian.

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

the benelux countries !!

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language?

i actually prefer not to swear in speech, so i usually use ‘ ёпрст ‘. it doesn’t really have a translation and is more meant as an exclamation, similarly to how ‘ shit ‘ and ‘ fuck ‘ is used in english. btw, it’s pronounced yo-pe-re-se-te.

11. favourite native writer/poet?

i’ve grown up with pushkin !! i love his russian fairy tales in poetry.

12. what do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?

haven’t read those to be honest. why should i if i can read the original?

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

hmm… one rather weird superstition is that whistling can cause poverty ( i, as a passionate whistler while driving, get this every time as a pun ). another thing - sort of a tradition - is regularly drinking tea… and with that we mean spending legit hours in a nice circle of friends with a lot of food and sweets and of course the tea.

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

when it comes to russian cinema: partially, yes. i absolutely love old soviet comedies and animations, i basically grew up with them. some modern movies are quite okay, too ( my current passion is a documentary series about crimes in soviet union ).

as for german cinema… no.

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

ooooh, there are a lot of such in the russian language, many of which come from old movies. pretty much old quotes - even single words - that have received a new meaning ~

an example: “to live is, as they say, very good” - “and living well is even better.”

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

oooooooh, welcome to the rant !! probably the biggest stereotype that pisses me off is that soviet union = russia. ( as a historian, lemme say: the soviet union is a union of nations, there’s more than russia ). or this bears on the street / ushanka hat / balalaika stuff. it’s really just a stereotype, you won’t see that in russia much, or not at all.

though i do agree to some extent that russians are oddly superstitious ( going as far as employing both their orthodox church and stuff like chinese ‘ magic ‘ or feng-shui for their luck ) and that the streets are awful as all fuck.

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

absolutely !! the best example for that is elize; she is based on the figure of princess tarakanova, a mysterious character of 18th century russian history.

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

neither for both, though for german, there’s a little tint of swebian i acquired as a child at school which is very natural for my peers.

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeh.

20. which sport is The Sport in your country?

definitely soccer. *remembers the times of any championship and suffers softly*

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

hmm.... probably a piece of prose / literature, food and a can of tea.

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

i’m honestly very proud the secret genius that resides within russians. there are just so many completely unusual, but oddly practical ways to solve problems… gosh

but at the same time, the very same people are horribly neglecting towards their very land. it basically drowns in filth, both real and moral. best example? my hometown. dies out faster than my tea in the cup.

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

it’s beer for both… though, befitting the stereotype, vodka is quite loved in russia.

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

russians joke ( no joke ) about just anyone, especially about americans.

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

answered here !!

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

....no idea, in all honesty. i’m one of those few souls who doesn’t care about hollywood and doesn’t watch their movies to begin with.

27. favourite national celebrity?

putin, i guess? haha, but in all seriousness, no idea. i’m not really deep in the russian celebrity stuff. though i can say that the people highly love and respect the old soviet stars ( actors, singers ).

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?

to be frank, i have rather scarce knowledge of russian geography. but in germany, i live in a rather hilly region and and we have some lakes around. also, refer to question one c;

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

*nervously giggles* i’ll just skip that question… just gonna say that neither has been the purest angel on the world map.

#krystallius #❛ 𝙼𝚄𝙽𝙳𝙰𝙽𝙴 ⋅ 002 ‏» inquiries.#long post tw #(( lord almighty mia what the heck ))#(( this was a lot ))#(( yOU LEGIT MADE ME ANSWER THE WHOLE THING ))

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impediamenta · 7 years

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for the fanfiction virgin (part two, AU)

Welcome back! If you have persevered thus far, you have more determination than I do. I honestly have no idea why I’m still writing this.

If you haven’t read part one, you’re going to need to, and then come straight back here.

This is going to take a long time, and I will by no means explain every single type of AU out there, just because there are so many, so let’s jump right in.

THE SORT-OF-CANONS

Also known as canon divergence fics. Most often the sort-of-canons start out in the canon universe and then by way of either time travel or vague dimensional travel device they wind up in an alternate universe. Other times, the fic starts out in the canon universe but then the author reworks the entire thing to their liking via a sort of deus-ex-machina scenario. These AUs are really rather simple and require vary little explanation on my part for you to get the gist of.

SOULMATE

The soulmate AU is many people’s first foray from the world of the canon and sort-of-canon and into the realm of firmly AU stories. Soulmate AUs often take place in a world where most everything is the same, except every person has a person that was chosen by the universe to be their soulmate. These almost always include a “soul mark”, usually a tattoo that shows up on the body and is used as an identifier for soulmates. Sometimes they are sentient and react when near a soulmate, sometimes they are just a name on a wrist, sometimes the soulmarks are like a communication device, showing the thoughts of two soulmates. There are dozens of other types

Expect everything from tooth-rotting fluff to the angstiest of angst with these fics. The logic and science of these AUs are usually vague at best, with everything from “chemicals” to hormones to straight up magic (though, again, exceptions for the HP fandom, who are usually the outlier for these kinds of things). Tropes for the soulmate AU include:

- Perfectly matched side characters to go with the angsty main character who hasn’t found their soulmate yet (looking at you James and Lily Potter, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, yada yada yada, you know the pairing for your fandom. You’ve got it in mind).

- The “late bloomer”. Often the angsty main character. This character doesn’t get their soul mark until much later in life than is considered socially normal. Expect angst.

- Unmarked side character that can often be found betraying the other friends.

- “I hate soulmates I won’t let the universe control my life!” Spoiler alert: they do. They always do.

Soulmate AUs are such an overused AU type, but they are one that I hold dearly to my heart because they entertain me. People either love them or hate them, and there are great debates about this, and I urge you to participate.

THE NORMAL PEOPLE AU

This is another uncomplicated one. Basically, any special aspects are stripped away from the canon world and the characters are thrown into the current, modern world. These are not hard to find, but they fall under many different names (tags) because of the varying fandoms. Often, they are called things like Non-magic AU, Modern AU, No Powers AU, Real-World AU, etc. Also under this general umbrella category is the University AU, the High School AU, Police AU, Teachers AU. Basically, any situation that two characters could get into in the real world, and there will be an AU for it.

HISTORICAL AU

I think there are like three people who like historical AUs, and I am one of them. These AUs are usually also Normal People AUs, just set in a past period of time. They get interesting when you deal with things like homosexuality in a past time period, but there are not very many of them because they are both hard to write and hard to read if you are not like me and are not a history/English/geography nerd. That said, if you find any historical AUs that you really love, hit me up.

ALPHA/BETA/OMEGA AU

Oh, boy. So.

Have you ever heard of wolves? Yeah, it’s like that.

This is a vastly complicated AU that has become really popular in the last few years, and I’m not going to explain all of it to you, but I will give the key points.

1. There is so much cock. So much. Not advised for the beginner fanfic reader, because, as I have mentioned, they are usually under the age of fourteen. Things tend to get a little bit rapey. See, the A/B/O AU is based on the idea that everyone has a mating rank (class?). Omegas are like baby makers (even the dudes, see point two), and when in heat (wolves!) they give off hormones that the alphas can smell. This makes the alphas go all sex crazed, and try to have sex with the omegas. All the time.

2. Mpreg. Male pregnancy. The biology here is questionable at best, and I’d rather not think about it. Point is, Assbabies (the slang term for the result of mpreg. Assbabies). This is basically the point of all A/B/O fanfiction.

3. Three-somes. A lot of the time there are threesomes.

If you for want to know more, there is a wonderfully informative essay here. It has charts. I’m done explaining this one, because try as I might, I am a nerd in all facets of life and cannot. get. over. the. biology. Seriously, mpreg freaks me out.

AFTERLIFE AU

The afterlife AU is exactly what it sounds like. Often found when one or both halves of a ship are canonically dead, and they have a “yay, we’re both dead” reunion. Usually fluffy, even though everyone is dead. Avoid if you super religious (why are you here?) and will be offended by the notion of a vague and secular afterlife.

CROSSOVER AU

I mentioned crossovers in the first part. They tend to work one of two ways. Either a) both the characters and the universes of two different works of canon are merged in one mega-universe or b) the characters of one universe are transplanted into the universe of another, but without that universe’s canon characters.

Examples:

a) The Marvel Universe and the HP Universe merge together and work to fight a common enemy.

b) The characters from HP are placed into the Marvel Universe, and the Marvel characters are taken out.

FAKE RELATIONSHIP AU

In the fake relationship AU, one person of the ship usually ends up making a bet with a side character / needs a date to a family event and find the other person of the ship, who pretends to be their significant other. Then, as they are wont to do, feelings happen.

COFFEESHOP AU

A very specific type of normal people AU. Usually one person is the barista. There are a shit ton of coffee shop AUs out there for some reason.

CONCLUSIONS

I literally cannot think of any more of these god damn things. Why am I doing this to myself.

Next part: How to write fanfiction and why you probably shouldn’t, just yet, thanks.

PART ONE PART THREE

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auskultu · 7 years

Text

The Golden Road: A Report on San Francisco

Paul Williams, Crawdaddy!, June 1967

SITTING IN THE window. Sixth Avenue, Greenwich Village, flirting with the girls going by, the Grateful Dead very loud on 4X speakers somewhere in the room behind me; 92 degrees, a week short of summer, a week back from the Coast, San Francisco. Now, three thousand miles away, what do those words mean? Was I ever anywhere but here?

The geography of rock. There are a half-dozen LPs sitting by my New York City phonograph, at least two from San Francisco: Moby Grape and Grateful Dead. Rock Scully, a Dead manager, just walked by; the Grateful Dead are at the Cafe Au Go Go, two blocks from here. The Moby Grape are midtown, playing at the Scene.

We speak of a San Francisco Sound because these groups developed there. They may not come from there (Skip Spence is a Canadian, the Steve Miller Blues Band got together in Chicago); they may not even live there (Moby Grape is technically a Marin County group; Country Joe are #l in Berkeley, but half a dozen local bands get better billing in San Francisco). But San Francisco—the Fillmore, the Avalon, the Trips Festivals, the Diggers, Owsley's acid, Haight Street and Ashbury and Masonic and Golden Gate Park, the Straight Theatre, Herb Caen, the Barb, the communication company—these have been and are and will be the environment and influences that have shaped the music of many of the best bands in America.

More specifically, the several aspects and influences of the San Francisco area have created a community; out of this community has come a feeling, an attitude; and it is this attitude that has imparted a unity to the music coming out of the Bay Area. It is this attitude that is most commonly reflected in the San Francisco Sound.

There is a geography of rock; San Francisco is different from New York musically, different because the music made by the Grateful Dead would be different if they had developed in New York, playing the Night Owl or Action City, trying to get a master sold, living on East 7th Street and maybe dealing meth for rent money, padlocking their front door and freezing in the winter and worrying about the air and not having children till they can afford the suburbs, reading the New York Times and having maybe two dozen friends that they see once every two months or so, never considering that they might find a manager who wasn't just an adversary, never thinking that there was much more to it than making the charts, never wondering about the empty girls with too much make-up and an unshakable confidence in this best of all possible nothings... probably hating each other after a while and wondering why people shat on them for doing just what everyone else does.

New York is New York, and it's very good for some things. The energy it generates is second to none; nowhere in the world is there as much activity to dive into every time you turn around. Some people thrive on that. I do, much of the time, and that's why I stay here; but I don't think it's a place to make music. San Francisco is.

The trolleys run along Haight Street pretty often; the tourists snarl up the traffic a bit, but still you can get from theOracle office to Fillmore Street, change, and arrive at the Fillmore or Winterland in less than twenty minutes. At fifteen cents for the entire journey, that's not bad at all. The Avalon is a little further away, but just as accessible, and nowadays often more worthwhile.

But the ballrooms have lost their importance. They were vital once; without Bill Graham, and the hard work and business knowhow he threw into the Fillmore when the scene was starting, there might never have been an SF Sound to talk about. Give him credit, and give Ralph Gleason credit, without whose enthusiastic columns in the SF Chroniclethe city would have no doubt shut down those psychedelic superstructures before you could say "building inspector." And Ken Kesey, the man whose Trips Festivals irrevocably tied together rock and roll and light shows and the head community. The Family Dog, illuminator Bill Ham, the Charlatans, the Matrix, and Jefferson Airplane, all those originators who now cling to their place in history with alarming awareness that after two years the past is buried in the dust of centuries.

The ballrooms have given way to environments even more closely knit into the community. The great outdoors, for one; the Panhandle is only two blocks down from Haight Street, and on an average weekend you'll hear everything from Big Brother & the Holding Company down to the local teen group playing top 40 hits off-key. And it's all free, free not just from admission charges but from walls and stuffy air and hassles about coming and going; free so that the music is as much a part of your life as a tree in blossom. You can stop and embrace it, or pass on by.

The Panhandle is the San Francisco Sound today: the music of the street, the music of the people who live there. The ballrooms, obsolete in terms of the community, have been turned into induction centers—the teenyboppers, the college students, the curious adults come down to the Fillmore to see what's going on, and they do see, and pretty soon they're part of it. They may not go directly to Haight Street with flowers in their hair (though many of them do), but they change, they shift their points of view, their minds drop out of Roger Williams and into the Grateful Dead.

Back on the Street something is happening that may be even more important than the music in the park. The Straight Theatre, long a cherished vision, has burst into reality. The Straight is an ancient movie house, an imposing structure capable of taking some 1700 people out of the center of Haight Street and into whatever it feels like presenting. The property includes a theater, which will be used for concerts, gatherings, poetry readings, etc., a dance workshop, another smaller theater for experimental drama, a photographic studio and darkroom, various storefronts, a backyard mall, and more, all of which is being lovingly shaped by devoted hippie artisans into what should be the model for future art centers all over the country.

And in the air, another major change: KMPX-FM, not just radio for heads but rock radio for rock heads, a station that totally ignores the top 20 (because you can hear that stuff any time you want on seven other frequencies) and just plays what it feels like playing. KMPX is run something like a college radio station; the people in charge know much more about rock and roll than they do about radio programming, how to talk jock, how to sell an audience, or any of that other crap. They make mistakes—records go on the turntable at the wrong speed, careless comments go out over the air—and everyone loves them. There are no mistakes, because they can do no wrong. They're human, and they love the music—and that's what's been missing in radio till now.

If you examine San Francisco closely, you'll find major changes taking place in almost every aspect of city life. New attitudes towards jobs, towards education, towards entertainment and the arts. Basic shifts in the relationships between man and his environment, shifts that have affected every facet of that environment, changes that best can be communicated not in words but in music: Big Brother & the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Steve Miller Blues Band, Country Joe & the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead.

Consider the albums. The Airplane was first—and second, too, for that matter. The San Francisco Sound on records begins with those first two notes of 'Blues from an Airplane', and a more noble beginning would not have been possible. Regardless of how many better albums have been recorded since Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, that album still glows with the beauty of the first trip, the birth cry of a new era in music. Between the Buttons was the definitive last statement of an earlier age; JA Takes Off is the first of a new generation of rock albums, of which Sergeant Pepper is only the latest and best.

Tim Jurgens, Ralph Gleason and Marty Balin all used the word "love" in their attempts to pin down what made that first Airplane album different. It is much easier now to understand what they were getting at. Jefferson Airplane Loves You with what has been disdainfully referred to as "potato love"—the indiscriminate love for all people simply because they are people. This attitude enriches their music. Compare Revolver with Sergeant Pepper, do you really think the Beatles loved you when they recorded the earlier album?

Surrealistic Pillow, the Airplane's second, is a definite bringdown; certainly the worst LP to come out of the current Bay Area scene (not considering such piffle as the Sopwith Camel, who ceased to be an SF group when they met Erik Jacobsen). The problem with Pillow is mostly that it's not an album; it's a collection of tracks that neither feel good nor sound comfortable together. The Airplane, of course, were the first SF group to record a second album, and it is likely that at least one other good Bay Area group will flounder on their second try. And Pillow, despite its disunity, has half a dozen fine tracks which prove that the group is better, even if their LP is worse. Sometimes progress is not reflected in quality—and this is often the fault of fate and the A&R man more than the group.

At any rate, the Airplane's first LP is easily as good, in context, as that of any other Bay Area group so far; and how well other groups do on their second albums remains to be seen. It's always kind of lonely to be first in line.

The Grateful Dead's first try is pure energy flow. West Coast kineticism has developed into a fine art; the first side of this album rolls with a motion so natural that one suspects the musicians have never listened to the Who or the Kinks or even the Four Tops—they have developed their own kinetic techniques without reference to the masters in the field. With one exception: this album has so much in common with The Rolling Stones, Now! as to be almost a sequel.

Of course, I'm not complaining. Now! will always stand as one of the great rock albums, and by giving us the New World, sun-rising-over-the-Pacific-Ocean version of that album the Dead have unquestionably added to the quantity of joy around. And the Dead's LP is much more first-hand: where the Stones glorified the mythical American South rock joint in 'Down the Road Apiece', the Dead give you the feeling that that kind of wonderfull abandon is a part of their daily scene ('Golden Road'). The Stones assume the persona of Chuck Berry driving down the New Jersey Turnpike (which they've probably never been on!) to convey their personal energies in 'You Can't Catch Me'; the Dead do a song with almost identical impact ('Good Morning Little Schoolgirl') but they don't need to think of themselves as Sonny Boy Williamson—the song goes out direct to every teenybopper in the audience, and by the time they start into the fourth minute or so, every member of the band really feels every word that Pigpen says. Musically, the Stones' performance is as good (in fact, better) than the Dead's; but where the Stones confront a mythical highway cop, the Dead confront the actual members of their audience. Hence the Grateful Dead LP, though not quite as good as Now!, is at times even more effective.

(The Stones do, of course, confront their audience in 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love', but it's not emotional confrontation. It's great showmanship, posturing—similar to the Dead's terrific posturing when they "do" the whole Kingston Trio era and its approach, in 'Cold Rain and Snow'. I'm comparing the Dead to the Stones not to show a preference for either, but to point out the fascinating similarities in the impact of their music and in the music itself—play 'Schoolgirl' after listening to 'You Can't Catch Me' to appreciate the extent to which the Dead resemble the Stones in their concept of what music is and how a rock band should perform.)

The first side of the Dead album is one song, unrolling its varied but equivalent delights at top speed. 'Beat It On Down the Line' ("That's where I'm going to make my happy home") moves into the certainty of 'Good Morning Little Schoolgirl' with the ease and impact of Jean-Luc Godard. Garcia smiles, Pigpen squints, and you're on your way. And you can't turn back. "See that girl?... Well, she's coming down the stair—and I don't worry, I'm sitting on top of the world." (Appropriate J. Garcia guitar run here.) Breathless.

The flip is something else: introspective, more like a journey than a joyride. 'Morning Dew' conjures loneliness, pain, uncertainty, courage; pleads, asks, questions, denies; and finally, "I guess it doesn't matter anyway." Apocalyptic. Or just resigned. "I thought I heard... " ? And whatever it was, you'll find it in the song. Beautiful, with a kind of intense detachment. San Francisco isn't known for its vocalists, but this song could change all that.

'New, New Minglewood Blues' serves as a sort of bridge in the context of the album, which is not at all the nature of the song in live performance... and no doubt this is one of the many things about this LP that disappoints fans of the live Dead. The more you've grown to love Grateful Dead live performances over the years the more difficult it must be to accept an album which is—though very beautiful—something completely different. Only 'Viola Lee Blues' has any of the fantastic "this is happening now!" quality of, a good Dead performance; only 'Viola Lee Blues' takes you away as far as the longtime Dead fan has grown accustomed to being taken. It's an escape song—a prisoner for life dreams his way to the dim edges of space and time—and if you don't think you're a prisoner, surrender to 'Viola Lee' and see what happens.

When the Country Joe album arrived at the Crawdaddy! office, it was immediately inscribed "This record is to be played on special occasions only," and certain factions suggested that it would be in poor taste to even review such a sacred work. Sacred or not, this album does seem distantly removed from anything that has been previously associated with rock and roll. Indeed, the staunchest hard rock supporter on our staff can find no redeeming musical value in it at all. He's wrong, of course; or, to be more accurate, he's somewhere else. For many people, this album is so exactly where we are, it's frightening. To be played on special occasions only.

Words should be applied to this album with extreme caution. Like a kaleidoscope, it's easy not to appreciate—all you have to do is stare at the toy instead of into it—but if you do dig it, you may suddenly find it very hard to decide which of the sliding multicolorous worlds all around you is your own. It's perfectly fair of me to especially dig 'Flying High' because I'm a long-time hitchhiker; but when I decide that 'Section 43' is without question a midsummer thundershower, and then realize that the storm is outside the window and not in my head, perhaps I'm too involved in the music.

Background music is an old concept; this album, at last, is in the foreground. It is Joe MacDonald's world, and you are invited in. Does it seem strange that the introduction to 'Flying High' has nothing to do with the song, or that Lorraine's first name is really Martha? Not at all—remember, we are guests here. This is Berkeley 1967, Fish Street, residence of Country Joe—we are invited to see, hear, feel, smell, but not participate. 'Grace'—that's not a singalong. This is music at its most sensuous and least analyzable—sounds, unidentifiable, flash at you, words evoke pictures but no meaning, you never hear the same thing twice. But you always feel the state of grace.

'Death Sound' ("I see the minutes chasin' the hours"), that homicidal tambourine, schizophrenic lead guitars. It's all in the impact; if it doesn't scare you, I can't talk you into fright. 'Section 43'—simply the most satisfying, evocative piece of music I know; I could wander its paths forever. It's a concert performance—no individual virtuosity can be found and praised; each person did his job precisely and flawlessly, up to (and especially) the feedback and few tinkling notes at the end. The brilliance is in the composition; and in a subtle way we should consider this whole LP a composed rather than a performed work, because every note seems to have been firmly in place in every song long before the actual recording of the album. On 'Love', a mistake is met with "Aw, come on," as if nothing could be more ridiculous at this point than doing something wrong. Indeed, a perfect Fish album: it had to be this way.

'Masked Marauder' is utterly delightful; instant movie soundtrack for whatever is going on around you. (Theme music, not background stuff.) 'Superbird' would be instant #l if radio stations weren't so sensitive. It's the only rock and roll song on the album, and of course it's perfect. "Drop your guns, baby..." Wow! Everything on the album is one-of-a-kind, as a matter of fact; like Sergeant Pepper, the only thing linking these songs is that they like to be heard together.

'Sad & Lonely Times' is a ballad, very simple, very warm—pretty. 'Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine' is a totally different type of ballad: Berkeley Gothick, cynical, respectful, overpowering. Even affectionate; few people who've heard this album could really describe this song, but every one of them could describe Lorraine. And though every description would be different, each would be thoroughly respectful, thoroughly correct. David Cohen (organist) is magnificent.

And 'Bass Strings' is the invocation of the Muse. "Hey, partner, won't you pass that reefer 'round?... I think I'll go to the desert... Just one more trip now, and I know I'll stay high all the time." If you want to understand the Bay Area, 'Bass Strings' will give you a fair start.

Well, it took me a long time, but I finally figured out who Moby Grape remind me of: the Everly Brothers. Also Buddy Holly, Buffalo Springfield, middle-Beatles, Byrds, New Lost City Ramblers, the Weavers, Youngbloods, Daily Flash and everybody else. Above all, the Grape give off this very pleasant sense of déjà vu. Rock has become so eclectic you can't even pick out influences—you just sense their presence. I don't really know why the Grape remind me of the Everly Brothers. But it's a nice feeling.

Moby Grape is one of those beautifully inextricable groups with four guitarists (including bass), five vocalists, five songwriters, and about twelve distinct personalities (Skip Spence alone accounts for five of them). The Grape is unusual for an SF group in that it does not have an overall, easily-identifiable personality. It is without question schizophrenic—which is nothing bad, because the group is extremely tight and they simply shift personality from song to song. Their music is always unified; it's their album as a whole that's schizoid. In fact, much as I like it, I enjoy the songs even more one at a time (for your convenience, Columbia has issued almost the entire album on singles—which is particularly nice because the mono mix is far better than the stereo, which must have been done too fast).

Skip Spence's two songs make it clear that he's the most talented—though not the most prolific—songwriter in the group. 'Omaha', to my tastes the toughest cut on the album, is one of the finest recorded examples of the wall-of-sound approach in rock. It surges and roars like a tidal wave restrained by a sea-wall. Moby Grape is a particularly violent group—not in the sense that they want to do harm to anyone (it is a huge misunderstanding to think violence is inherently evil, or that it necessarily causes harm—there is violent joy, and this album is proof of that), but in the sense that almost every song is attacked with great force and abandon. Moby Grape assault their audience, bathing them in almost unavoidable joy. Jamming it down their throats, in fact.

The other Skip Spence song on the LP, 'Indifference', is another screamer, a well-constructed, brilliantly-executed shuffle number, to be sung on the street, loud, early in the morning, or listened to in the afternoon with your fist pounding the table.

Peter Lewis is second in the hierarchy of Grape writers, and probably the most sensitive. He shares with the other Grape members the ability to create extremely appealing melody phrases, chorus lines, and rhythm riffs; this ability, combined with the resultant concentration on structure, tightness and brevity, is what makes all the Moby Grape songs sound like good singles. Lewis, in 'Fall on You', puts together a number of catchy little themes into a very nice, very fluid song, vaguely reminiscent of 'One More Try'. In 'Sitting by the Window', he waxes almost eloquent, with just enough restraint to make the song both illuminating and unpresuming. The guitar-work is really excellent; the three Grape guitarists work together with exceptional taste throughout the lp.

But describing each song is not really the way to write about Moby Grape. They are elusive; you detect a thousand moods and changes, but you never quite hear the words, never know who's singing, never are certain who's playing lead. You can't pin them down, can't get too close; you learn to forget, learn to absorb their music, learn to stop trying, submit to it—and sooner or later it all comes clear. Country Joe, the Dead, are very clean; this group never lacks for tightness, but they get fuzzy 'round the edges. They aren't involving, but you dig the changes; they aren't involving, but you listen for the words; they aren't involving, but there's something going on here—and slowly but surely the depth in this music (which at first attacked you but seemed so uninvolving) swallows you up, and you feel the complexities it invokes.

Moby Grape is an almost ideal example of a "rock and roll" group, and their emergence now, as the historical concept of rock and roll seems on the verge of disappearing into a music too complexly-based to fit a general description, is both surprising and quite pleasing. The Grape play short, melodic songs, complex but straightforward, tightly structured with careful drumming and rhythm, experimental (but not "far out") bass, exciting, well-thought-out lead guitar (no fooling around) and early Beatles- or Everlys- style group vocals. A given song ('Mr. Blues') might draw on C&W and blues traditions, Otis Redding phrasing, Keith Richard restrained lead guitar, 'Captain Soul' rhythm progressions, etc. And every note is proper, polite. It's enough to make you nostalgic; nothing is more refreshing than the unexpectedly familiar.

These are the major rock albums to come out of the Bay Area thus far. However, there is a very important, very good album recorded by a San Francisco group in the new vein prior to the Airplane's first LP. I haven't mentioned it because the group is not generally thought of as a rock group. They are classified under jazz, which is fine; but I think at this time we can also add John Handy's Live at Monterey album to the list of great SF rock LPs. Listen to it, study its structure and its changes, and I think you'll understand why.

Rock is not a term that can be or that wants to be defined. San Francisco rock is an even more elusive concept, particularly when one removes the obvious geographical limitation and includes the Who's Happy Jack and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. One specifically San Francisco, or New World, trait is the inclusion of open acts of kindness toward the listener within the body of the album. Throughout Sergeant Pepper you feel that the Beatles are with you and understand where you're at ("we'd love to take you home with us"). The Who in their comic operetta 'A Quick One' bathe the listener in the repeated assurance that "you're forgiven." For everything. And the gentle applause at the end of each side of the John Handy album is a subtler application of the same effect.

Geographically, the San Francisco groups have the common heritage of the Bay Area '65-'67, and all the influences present there; most specifically, they have all been reared by the same audience, the Fillmore/Avalon crowd, the first good rock audience in America. This audience is responsible for, in addition to the Airplane, Handy, the Grape, Country Joe, and the Dead, at least three other fine groups as-yet-unrecorded: Big Brother & the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Steve Miller Blues Band.

Big Brother is in many ways the most exciting group in the Bay Area; and though they are all white, Sandy Pearlman has correctly called them "the best spade band in the country." Their arrangements, their control of what they're doing, their material all indicate that under the right conditions they could produce the best SF rock album yet. Steve Miller is the most creative of American white blues bands at present, which says a lot for the San Francisco influence. Quicksilver is a fine example of a group that would have gone nowhere were it not for the SF audience egging them on; they're still in the growing stage, and not yet ready to record, but there's good reason to believe that the moments of brilliance they now enjoy will soon become hours of brilliance. Outside of San Francisco they wouldn't have bothered getting better because they wouldn't have needed to.

Above all, the San Francisco Sound is the musical expression of what's going down, a new attitude toward the world which is commonly attributed to "hippies," but which could more accurately be laid at the feet of a non-subculture called People, earth people, all persons who have managed to transcend the superstructures they live in. People who have responded to the reality of the industrial revolution by requiring that they run the system and benefit from it rather than be made part of it. In very small print between the lines of 'Naked If I Want To', 'Grace', and 'Cream Puff War' is written the following message: There is a man, me, and there are Men. These two forces will and must interact as smoothly as possible. Everything else—concepts, objects, systems, machines—must only be tools for me and mankind to employ. If I or Man respect a system or a pattern more than ourselves, we are in the wrong and must be set free. "Nothing to say but it's okay..."

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