#Pulp Musicals Theory

[its-short-for-jackalope]

click for quality, she's just a wee bit fuzzy :')

Now that we know exactly when episode 3 is coming, I think it's time to reveal this goofy little thing I've been working on for... a while. 😅 (with tons of feedback and suggestions from the wonderful, incomparable @man-down-in-hatchet-town, of course!)

I think I've seen people make bingo boards like this for other fandoms, and I've been so psyched for TGOA and having an absolute blast tossing theories back and forth in me & Brooke's dms—and sharing some with the rest of you in unreasonably long posts—that I thought it would be a lot of fun to make a little Bingo card with my own predictions for episode 3! some of these I'm really rooting for, but I'm just so excited for a new episode in general.

obviously space is limited, so i had a tough time choosing what to put on here. (special shout-out to "oops... somebody falls off the boat!" which I swapped out after we got the cover art. thanks, Jackie 😂💙) I also feel like some of my selections here might be a little too obvious/guaranteed, but look, guys... I wanted to make sure I had a decent chance of getting at least some of these right, okay???

what, do you think you could do better? 🤨

/jk but, really, I've got a blank card AND a .png of my little anchor stamp below the cut if you want to make your own and play along!!!

and hey, since I've got this handy dandy readmore, I'll also give a quick rundown of how I plan to do this light-hearted lil game.

Unless we do get another transmission or smth that completely confirms/disproves any of my current predictions, my card is locked in. I'm probably not gonna change anything between now and the 24th, and I DEFINITELY won't be changing anything once episode three starts broadcasting.

I'll repost my card before part 1 airs and (hopefully) start a reblog chain with stamped updates after each part goes up. The post will be tagged for spoilers right off the bat!!!

If anybody else wants to fill out a card and play along (please? 🥺💕 it would make my day), y'all can use whatever rules you want, I'm not ur dad lol. get silly with it, make a card full of guesses about what your fave gets up to and no one else, make the craziest guesses, whatever you want! also feel free to tag me! even if it's to show off that you're much better at guessing than I am, lmao. 😁🖤

and hey, maybe I'll do this again with future episodes? even if it's just me and Brooke playing along, lol. making this was fun!

now, without further ado, the blank card and the stamp, which mostly exists because I'm extra and I personally wanted to be able to do more than 'x' out stuff, lol:

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Pulp Musicals and... Thoth??

I would say apologies to all of my followers having to deal with my incredibly wordy Pulp Musicals melt-down this morning, but mostly I just want to say "please please listen to these I promise you want regret it."

Now back my regularly scheduled wordy meltdown. Spoiler alert: I think I figured out what the green statuette on top of MAIA is!

So this morning I posted my analysis of the default MAIA drawing (here) and talked a bit about the green statuette, and how I couldn't figure out exactly what it was but suspected that it somehow linked to Samuel. I also mentioned that it looked vaguely Egyptian. @its-short-for-jackalope then put in the notes that Samuel is after all a writer and reporter, so the statuette could perhaps be an Egyptian scribe. I googled Egyptian scribe statues and none of them really looked right, so I then looked up the Egyptian patron God of Scribes.

His name is Thoth. He's often depicted as just a guy with a bird's head, but there are several depictions both from ancient times and from more recent eras (which doesn't bother me, as Pulp itself takes place way after Ancient Egypt... so far) where he wears a certain type of headdress and looks like this:

And here is once again the blown-up image of the statuette from the MAIA drawing:

I mean... I might be crazy but there's a definite resemblance there. It's a front angle, so our view is pretty odd, but could the blue smear I previously called a beard instead be a long, hooked beak? It's a definite possibility, and I did say there was something inhuman about the face (though at the time I went with "dog" oops).

So I'm pretty much convinced that the statuette is Thoth.

And here's the kicker: in addition to being the patron god of scribes, Thoth is the God of sacred texts, mathematics, science, and magic, as well as the master of knowledge and the messenger and recorder of the Gods. And, maybe most importantly of all, he is the God of the Moon.

So, yeah. Good enough for me.

So what does this mean if each item represents an episode or member of our quartet?

Well, one interpretation is that Ancient Egypt, and perhaps her Gods, will come into play as a central element of a future episode. This would mean that Samuel is instead represented by the globe (unlikely as the Earth is much more within John's line of symbolism), the rocket (unlikely for young man from 1835), or the crack in the wall (also not likely but by process of elimination nonetheless the least unlikely...which is terrifying), or else I'm completely wrong about each of the four protagonists having their own symbol (which makes Rose and Margaret having their own objects when the boys don't very, ah, weird and interesting).

But personally I think the Thoth statuette could still represent Samuel. Thoth is the god of scribes, after all, and that's what Samuel is. And just as Thoth is the messenger and recorder for the Gods, Samuel accidentally woke something inside of Margaret, essentially sending a message from the moon to her latent "divinity" (let's be real, by Ancient Egyptian standards Margaret and the Traveler would be Gods), and is now in a position to record for posterity what he sees and learns of these godlike beings. I'm also working on a theory that Samuel is literally the key to Margaret's gate, and I think that would fit with him being represented by Thoth, especially if the gate ends up being in/on the moon. But more about that after we've finally gotten to see Episode 3...

Unless that Episode completely discredits that theory before I even have time to post it. We'll just have to see.

But that statue is almost definitely Thoth, yeah?

[archerygun]

Blood Brothers needed two hours to say what Pulp said in 3 minutes.

[solunstell]

Notes I've taken from Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen

On the cover, it looks liked dazai and chuuya are both balancing on strands of Rimbaud's hair??

In the third full color illustration, chuuya's eyes look brown

Chuuya's hair is described as reddish brown

Dazai saying that he was gonna join a quit the PM and join rival organization. The next paragraph points out that he isn't even a member of the PM lmao

Also, "do you have any idea how much you've put me through this past year?" Like what? I sooooo wanna know abt dazai age 14

Mori and dazai are "bound by a common destiny"

"Dazai showed flashes of brilliance one moment, but the next moment, they were gone. As soon as he seemed to have it all figured out, he'd confuse everyone by talking about his bizarre, meaningless fascination with suicide." Excellent characterization note

Mori can disarm a bomb

"'Why do you want to die?' / Dazai seemed puzzled as he looked back at Mori, like he genuinely didn't understand the question. Then, eyes full of youthful innocence, he responded: / 'Let me ask you something instead: Do you truly believe there's value in living?'

Dazai involving Hirotsu (who he just met) in his self convo by telling him not to use a painful method next time hirotsu plans on killing himself. Hirotsu saying he'll... keep that in mind.

Goodness I need more hirotsu and dazai moments

The fact that Chuuya's kick sends Dazai so far, despite the fact that Chuuya's gravity would disable upon impact, kinda proves my theory that Dazai's ability would not stop the momentum caused by Chuuya's ability in motion. This is later confirmed in another sentence

Chuuya calling dazai kid even though he's the same age

Chuuya and dazais first moment meeting having chuuya laughing :)

Dazai watches his hand being crushed quite easily, despite not liking pain. That's interesting. However, when kicked next, he does react

Hirotsu going 'back in my day I was just like you' lmao

Chuuya calls dazai: a twig, mummy boy, kid, bandages, slimeball

Dazai calls Chuuya: pip-squeak, a fairy, a schoolboy

Chuuya is described as having never lost a fight in his life while talking to Mori. That's interesting cuz he was just captured by the enemy

There's the love confession!

"'If only I'd been in the middle of that [explosion], I would've had a quick and painless death...' / 'Yeah, yeah. I'll beat you to a pulp as many times as you want later, so focus on the mission right now, okay?'"

Dazai acting like a blubbering scared child when caught by the enemy

Chuuya telling dazai to put on hard rock for a fight

Also seems like chuuya's ability no longer affects an object as soon as contact is cut.

"Even Dazai had forgotten to breathe as he watched the storm that was Chuuya decimate the battlefield."

When dazais talking to the dying man: "Dazai's expression was calm, but there was a faint twinkle deep within his eyes. The kind of twinkle a boy who wants to grow up to be a firefighter gets in his eyes when he sees his hero in the flesh."

Actually, the entire paragraph set of Dazai's break is really fascinating

Dazai brings wood for Randou's fire. Also, either he or Chuuya or both cover a draft hole for him.

Mori forbade them from violence to solve their problems, so of course the first fair thing to come to their heads is arcade games

They played close to a hundred matches. Fun date!

Dazai trying to give chuuya head pats

Chuuya is an excellent actor

At the party prep, dazai is playing playing modern pop music

According to chuuya, arahabaki doesn't have a mind or a personality

"The shield protested" dazai is the best shield lol

The boss saying he wishes he could chat abt old times with dazai. What old times? Dazai shouldn't have known him before his death? Unless he did

The mere thought of killing a child breaks rimbauds heart, with the child being dazai, but he's okay with killing chuuya? Rimbaud only sees chuuya as an ability to gain, it seems to me.

Skk calling each other by their first names for the first time (outside of around other people) when working together in a fight against rimbaud

"'Hmph...anything goes when you're a skill user from Europe, huh?'"

Dazai asking abt rimbauds final wishes

Q is put into dazais hands to figure out their ability. Q asks to play, and dazai says when q is older. I am now waiting for this playdate in canon

Also, dazai and mori both not knowing q's gender

Dazai is a cheater at games

The chuuya newsletters

Omg hiiiii verlaine

[postpunkindustrial]

Stewart Home - The Assault On Culture

Stewart home - Cranked Up Really high

Stewart Home is a writer, artist, cultural critic, something something, something.

Because I am lazy here is a brief description from his Wikipedia page:

Kevin Llewellyn Callan (born 24 March 1962),[1] better known as Stewart Home, is an English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist. His novels include the non-narrative 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess (2002), and the re-imagining of the 1960s in Tainted Love (2005). Earlier parodistic pulp fictions work includes Pure Mania, Red London, No Pity, Cunt, and Defiant Pose which pastiche the work of 1970s British skinhead pulp novel writer Richard Allen and combine it with pornography, political agit-prop, and historical references to punk rock and avant-garde art.

What I have here is a couple of his books for your perusal.

The first is The Assault on Culture: Utopian currents from Lettrisme to Class War

A history of the What followed the Surrealist movements and how it affected culture.

From Stewart Home's Website where you can also read this for free:

This book was written in 1987, things have moved on since then (both for the author and in the world), so please bear that in mind....

Anyway If you want to read it you can get it from my Google Drive HERE

The Second Book is CRANKED UP REALLY HIGH: GENRE THEORY & PUNK ROCK 

The title is pretty self evident but here is the blurb from Goodreads:

A lot of ink has been split on the subject of punk rock in recent years, most of it by arty-farty trendies who want to make the music intellectually respectable. Cranked Up Really High is different. It isn't published by a university press and it gives short shrift to the idea that the roots of punk rock can be traced back to 'avant garde' art movements. As well as discussing sixties garage rock and the British, American and Finnish punk scenes, Home devotes whole chapters to deconstructing Riot Grrl, Oil and the sorry saga of Nazi bonehead band Skrewdriver. This book champions the super-dumb sleazebag thud of The Ramones, The Stooges, The Vibrators, The Art Attacks, The Snivelling Shits, The Lurkers, The Queers, The Germs, The Child Molesters, The Ants and The Blaggers.

Also you can read this on his website or you can get it from my Google Drive HERE

He has his own spin on things but if you find these things worthy of reading about he is worth reading.

[vainvenus]

⌲;꒰ Billy Showalter Headcannons! ꒱

Random Billy headcannons bc I love him sm!!

→ His favorite color is red and he everything he owns is that bright fucking red (His jacket, notebooks, water bottle, pencils, etc)

→No matter how hot it is he won't take off that damn letterman jacket, it could be 100 degrees and he'll still wear it

→Everyone wonders why Billy wears a letterman jacket even though he doesn't play a sport and he always like; "It looks cool"

→ If he had a crush on someone who wasn't in his usual route for the paper he would wake up extra early just so he could add them into it

→One time he hit Vance in the face with he newspaper on "accident"

→His hair looks honey blonde during the summer but when winter comes around it gets noticeability darker

→Watches Scooby-Doo every morning before school while eating cinnamon toast crunch

→One time he tried to cut his hair on his own and had a bald spot for three weeks

→He takes special care or his hair, washing it every weekend with cherry or strawberry shampoo and conditioner

→He got put in a vote for best hair at school and got ranked at 3rd, Vance got first and Robin got second.

→Was in Boy's Scouts for three years

→Moved from California to Denver

→He's 5'5 but tells everyone he's 5'6 or 5'7

-He's a morning person

→He listens to all kinds of music but he really hates country music

→Doesn't like necklaces because he forgets he's wearing them and freaks out bc he thinks its a bug or snake

→Animals are just attracted to him, on his rides to school he'll most likely be followed by a stray cat

→He's scared of snakes and bugs

→Prefers Fall over all the seasons

→Doesn't like pumpkin spice nor does he get the hype about it

→He loves chocolate and mint like mint chocolate chip ice cream or thin mint cookies

→Prefers French toast sticks over waffles and pancakes

→He doesn't eat the crust when he eats pizza

→He doesn't like onions, if they're on his burger then he won't eat it even if someone tells him to take them off

→He hates sour candy, says that something sweet shouldn't taste sour first

→His favorite kind of candy are jolly ranchers, blue raspberry and cherry are his favorite flavors

→If he splits something in half he's letting you have the bigger piece

-He doesn't like orange juice with the pulp

→His fave soda is Root Beer or Cherry Coca-Cola

→He got his dog for a birthday gift after begging his mom for years

→ His dog's name is Arlo bc I said so!

→He has to have Arlo sleep at the foot of his bed, claiming that he can't sleep if he's not there

→When he takes Arlo to the dog park he pets every dog there and tries to remember them if he sees them again when he comes back

→He uses Arlo as a pillow whenever he's doing his homework or reading comics

→Him and Griffin are best friends

→He takes Griffin on his bike rides to deliver the papers, letting him ride on the back of his bike

→Billy hates olives and Griffin loves them! The Olive Theory <3

→He swears up and down that he has the strongest immune system and then he gets sick as soon as the first day of winter hits

→He doesn't like flying, airplanes make him feel anxious

→He's really good at remembering names, like even people who probably don't know him he just knows everyone

→Whenever he goes shopping with his parents he always wonders off somewhere and has to be called back over the intercom

→Went fishing with his Dad and ended up falling in the water because he couldn't hold onto the fishing pole

→He's really into cars, being able to name any model he sees

→Can't play chess or checkers for shit he's really good at card games his fave to play is blackjack

→He broke his ankle once while riding his bike down a hill

→Really likes ladybugs, rolley pollys and fireflies

[motley-cunt]

MOTLEY’S THEORY CONGLOMERATE

Disclaimers: Take all of this with a pile of salt, I am an insane person. Sweeney Todd is required reading. Long ass post.

The Rose Theory

The cover to bleeders looks like it’s shaped like the head of a red rose. Yes it a blood splatter, but it definitely looks weird right?

Red roses are commonly known as symbols of love and passion, while you could argue Sweeney Todd is a fucked up love story, I think the “passion” in the rose is more referring to a parallel between both Andy and Sweeney’s craft. Andy’s passion for music is basically a given, but what’s important here is how complete dedication to a craft could drive someone mad.

Andy’s matching his experience with music to Sweeney’s character ark in the play. So, passion for killing, passion for music, and that passion manifesting in a tool you can use to enact revenge is clear. Especially with the constant mention of the aspect in the Minidoc

Now the other rose I wanna mention is (what i believe to be) the black roses in the “”Sweeney Biersack”” photoshoot

Take this with a grain of salt but looking at what black roses symbolize,

That’s pretty fuckin Sweeney Todd isn’t it? Yeah? It’s basically fitting pieces into a puzzle at this point. It could be just to represent the gothic vibe of it all. But y’know, everything means something.

Judge Turpin, Villainy, and Sumerian Records

One of the blatant themes in Sweeney Todd is people in power taking advantage of the vulnerable. If you’ve seen the movie, the play, or just kind of skimmed through the plot summary you catch onto this. I think this aspect means more to Bleeders than I initially realized

I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that Sumerian Records treated BVB like shit, especially Andy like shit. I’m pretty sure someone’s out there consolidated all of the shit they’ve done to them better than I could, but I know I’m not an idiot for saying that a power struggle was probably apart of that. When BVB signed to Sumerian they were damn vulnerable. We all know the band was almost torn to shreds and buried into an early grave. A record label is a record label when you’re at that point.

Labels want money, they’re a company. But bad labels are greedy. Especially to passionate artists with extremely dedicated fanbases. Sumerian didn’t want to put in the work to support BVB as a label but liked the money they accumulated. It’s unfair, right? That’s the point. They suck. People in power taking advantage of the weak, those below feeding those up above.

Black veil brides has been fucked over a ton. Wouldn’t being fucked over so much make someone just a little bit angry? Make them wanna go apeshit? You can only be nice for so long, right? You beat someone to a pulp for long enough they’re gonna hit back. Hard. I think this is definitely a project about hitting back, not punching down, but hitting the fuck back. While I marked Sumerian as the “Turpin” in all of this, I theorize it’s the big “fuck you” that the band deserves to put into song. They are finally the villain in all this, but it’s important that they’re the villain with a purpose. Just like Sweeney is.

Directed Anger

Now that’s not to say black veil brides has just made sunshine and rainbows music before, there’s a lot of things that Andy is directly angry at. But some of the songs off of The mourning EP (Devil and Better Angels) seemed like it was the first mark in a clear minded and artistic recounting of a person that’s hurt him and the band. This isn’t God Bless you, where a drunk 18 year old is throwing paper balls at the Catholic Church (even though I still love that song), this is a man frustrated with being fucked over so much and he knows exactly who did it and what he’s gonna do about it. All of this frustration has a target, all of it has a reason. It’s not being *hindered* by anything. It’s a clear shot. Bleeders is just as much about Sweeney Todd as it is about the balloon of anger that’s been building up in this band.

Conclusion? Andy’s an artsy little bastard.

[alienelvisobsession]

The Quentin Tarantino Connection

When he was a teenager in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Quentin Tarantino was by his own admission way into ‘50s rockabilly music. “I was like the second coming of Elvis Presley. I dyed my hair black. I wore it in a big ole pompadour”, he said in an interview. In his recent book Cinema Speculation, he writes about discussing cinema with his mom’s black friend Floyd, who was into blaxploitation. He loved hearing Floyd’s first-hand accounts of being a black Elvis fan back in the 1950s, also rebuking claims that the King of Rock ‘n Roll was racist. He even included “Elvis impersonator” in his early résumé and it must have paid out because he was cast as one in an episode of the sit-com The Golden Girls in 1988. Incidentally, Tarantino was born in Elvis’ home state of Tennessee, where his mother is from, and as a kid was even left there for a year, describing his family as “hillbilly alcoholics”.

Elvis often comes up in his movies. For example in a deleted scene of his now classic film Pulp Fiction (1994), Mia Wallace uses a hand-held video camera to interview Vincent Vega with either/or questions. She explains the game as follows: “There are only two kinds of people in the world, Beatles people and Elvis people”. Mia has no doubts about Vincent’s allegiance. With his swagger, callback to “Grease” and dance moves, John Travolta is an Elvis man through and through.

Of course, Mia and Vincent later go a to ‘50s themed diner called Jack Rabbit Slim’s, where they have the famous twist contest dancing to Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell”. The waiters are all dressed like dead stars from the 1950s, such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Buddy Holly. Even though, as Vincent would put it, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll must have had the night off, in Mia’s words “an Elvis man should love it”. Tarantino said that the design for the diner, where the guests sit in booths made like ‘50s vintage cars and the dance floor looks like a tachometer, was partially inspired by the nightclub with race car motifs in one of Elvis’ movies, Speedway (1968).

Tarantino references Elvis here and there in his work. In the novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that he wrote, for example, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie) is described by his agent Marvin (Al Pacino) as having spent all his career “running pocket combs through his pompadour”, which by 1969 not even Elvis has anymore.

His biggest Elvis homage came very early on in his career, though. As a matter of fact, to finance what would become his first movie, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Tarantino auctioned a script that he had written, True Romance. It was made into a movie by Tony Scott and it ultimately came out in 1993. True Romance begins with a casual conversation about pop culture in the style of Mr. Brown with his infamous “Like a Virgin” theory in Reservoir Dogs. Clarence (Christian Slater) is at a bar, chatting up a girl. Like Tarantino, Clarence prefers ‘50s Elvis and praises Jailhouse Rock (the movie not the song) where Elvis was everything that rockabilly was about: “Mean, surly, nasty, rude”. And then, obviously interested in picking up the girl, he continues: “Elvis looked good. I mean, I ain’t no fag, but Elvis was prettier than most women, you know. Most women. You know, I always said if I had to fuck a guy – you know, I mean, had to – if my life depended on it, I’d fuck Elvis”. Tarantino establishes the rules for his story right away: just like you have fantasies where you wish you were Elvis or as cool as Elvis, or you wish you could fuck him, this movie is a whole fantasy where you wish you were a hero who had a crazy adventure and passionate love story involving pimps, drugs and guns.

Clarence, an alter ego for the author, falls madly in love with Alabama (Patricia Arquette), a call girl. Clarence loves martial arts movies, comic books, hamburgers and Elvis, just like the film director. He also wears Elvis glasses and drives a purple Cadillac. Throughout the movie, Elvis pops up several times, in magazines, on T-shirts and on furniture or posters. The most striking appearance is obviously when Clarence sees Elvis (Val Kilmer) in the bathroom mirror, dressed in his gold lamé suit but anachronistically sporting his ‘70s big glasses. Elvis tells Clarence that he has to kill Alabama’s pimp, and there the adventure begins.

In Cinema Speculation, which sits halfway between film criticism and memoir, Tarantino goes back to Elvis several times. He writes that Elvis could have been the biggest movie star of the 1960s, if it weren’t for Colonel Parker’s greediness and for the weight of his own enormous success in the music business. He even mentions excitedly that Elvis was considered for the role of Sundance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) opposite Warren Beatty, before the roles went to Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Tarantino has always took a liking for B movies, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that he’s not dismissive of Elvis movies as a whole and writes about a few of them in detail. He considers Flaming Star (1960), for instance, to be “a truly great fifties Western, and maybe the most brutally violent American western of its era.” According to him, the film director, Don Siegel, who would go on to direct Dirty Harry (1971), was a master when it came to film fistfights and chase sequences. This was because of his background in editing and his penchant for violence. Tarantino also praises Don Siegel’s unexpected use of shocking bouts of violence, of which there are several in Flaming Star. His protagonists, including Elvis’ Pacer, were often at odds with the society they lived in, which reflected the way Siegel felt around film executives and producers. “Pod people” is how he called them, in reference to his movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and in this category he included Elvis’ nefarious manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

Tarantino recognizes that Elvis movies weren’t real movies but “ElvIs movies”, but he’s a fan of Roustabout (1964) nevertheless. He describes it as: “a pretty entertaining little picture chock-full of cool elements, Elvis entering the movie on a motorcycle—dressed head to toe in black leather […], a strong Big Valley era Barbara Stanwyck as his colead, a one-line bit at the beginning by Raquel Welch, the best soundtrack of any of Elvis’ color films, including a rarity for the King on film—Elvis singing a cover of somebody else’s hit, the Coasters’ Little Egypt, and the only film where Elvis gets to demonstrate his Ed Parker-taught karate moves.” Because of course Tarantino loves martial arts movies, just like Elvis did. And blaxploitation, hamburgers, comic books and being over the top. They would have been great friends.

Read here my previous posts on Elvis connections. So far I’ve written about Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol/Bob Dylan, the Clash and Jim Morrison.

[emisirrelevant]

WORKIN BOYS IS FINALLY HAPPENING?!!

Oh my god, Starkid fans we are WINNING!!!

Just when I'm still not over Pulp Musicals, and we're still waiting for the Nerdy Prudes proshot.

They give us the ultimate TRIO and say "here it is, workin boys is finally gonna be in your eager little hands"

THEY KNOW WHAT WE WANT.

I freaking love being in this fandom.

Now to get my headcanons/theories ready.

[girlreviews]

Review #438: Parklife, Blur

In some ways this review is going to be like the antithesis to the one I wrote for Pulp’s Different Class. In that, this album features songs that are so important to British culture, and individually to my formative years, that I can’t ever be mad to hear them. However, unlike my ongoing and steadfast admiration for Pulp as a band, I have way more complicated feelings about Blur, and about this album in particular. Okay, so some context and education first. Blur had success in the UK with their debut album, Leisure, but had really dug themselves into a financial hole through poor management. They owed the taxman a lot of money. As such, they were essentially forced to go on a long, arduous tour of the US to promote their successful album. In theory this would be great. But it wasn’t great. They were touring tiny towns and venues that had never heard of them. The grunge scene had just exploded out of the Pacific Northwest and literally nobody Stateside had any fucks to give about Blur, British Music, or what they were doing on this tour. The band themselves have described the space and time immediately preceding the creation of Parklife as pretty bleak. Miserable. Oppressive. They felt backed into a corner, exhausted, downtrodden, underappreciated, and homesick.

Where they sort of lose me on this is where they express feeling as if they were shamed for being British and they were resistant to just create a record that adhered to the current trend of music. They returned to the UK with a concept in mind: a quintessentially British album, about British culture, that makes a statement: British music is a thing of its own, and it’s worth your time. I mean, I don’t disagree with that. I just fail to see how grunge being a popular genre at the time meant that they weren’t able to be proudly British, and proudly produce whatever music suited them. Artists make art for the art, and if someone likes it, that’s great. But they were young men at the time and I imagine egos and the lures of chart success influenced their feelings about it. You don’t get into a tabloid frenzied ongoing rift with the Gallagher brothers because you’re a really chill bunch of guys that only care about the music. There’s an irritating overtone of testosterone and national pride that has an icky vibe to it. It’s too easy for it to be co-opted. And it was! And it still is!

So let me just get the following points off my chest and then I’ll work my way through them:

1. Parklife is and was an important record in British music

2. It’s also not Blur’s strongest album by a BIG margin, but it’s managed to persist as somewhat of a defining album for them. I’m glad they shook it off, and we didn’t just get record after record of Parklife from them. That’s honestly how a lot of people would have done it and I can respect their commitment to art as a band: we’re going to do something different than what you just loved, and if you don’t like it that’s a you problem. People did like it.

3. Parklife also paved the way for an obnoxious marketing/PR ploy from the music industry surrounding British Indie/Rock artists, that created a ridiculous craze and wave that was surfed by bands ranging from incredible and deserving, to absolute dogshit. Ladies and gentleman, I give you: Britpop. If you were there you know what it was like, and you understand all the nuance and resentment surrounding it as a “genre”. We’ll get into this more later. In hindsight it all worked out okay and we live in a world where – at least to my knowledge – you can appreciate and criticize both Oasis and Blur for their talents and their fuck ups without it representing some massive class and cultural divide. This was absolutely not always the case and it was, for some reason, a really big deal, and it mattered to everyone, a lot. Blur or Oasis? I was 7 turning 8 years old at the height of this manufactured-turned-real rivalry, and it genuinely caused me stress. As a child! I loved them both. But I felt forced to choose. I chose Blur. I understand how ridiculous it sounds, but I wish I could go back in time and refuse to choose. It mattered, and it also really didn’t. They don’t sound similar enough to compare or compete? So why did we have to? But WE DID. It was on the news. It was the biggest thing going on at the time. It dominated the papers. Bookies were taking bets on who would be #1 between the two of them. Blur won that battle with Country House. I don’t think anybody won the war. I think everybody got bored, gave up, and went home.

So Blur kicked off Britpop with their return from this grinding US tour and they made a full blown concept album about being British. And it was good. But all of a sudden there was just this… Overwhelming influx of bands who were banking their success solely on this “being British”, thing. It had a look, it had a sound, it had a style, it had a location. The same thing happened with the Indie wave in the early/mid-2000s. It’s so annoying to me though. You end up just having to sift through a whole bunch of fucking garbage to find the stuff that is legit, and would be legit with or without the “scene”. Parklife is legit. It’s just responsible for the aftermath and onslaught of bullshit. Is that their fault? No, but they definitely participated in it all for a bit. There was a lot of great music that technically fell under the Britpop genre, but essentially looking back most of it isn’t Britpop – because that was just made up. It was just good music from various genres, and they all happened to be British artists. That’s not the same thing. It was just a music industry scheme and boy howdy did everyone buy-in.

The song Parklife, is pretty genius, still. Damon Albarn, unable to commit to the concept with a cockney accent, enlisted well-known British actor, Phil Daniels (of Quadrophenia fame) to deliver the lyrics. This was both creative and super novel. People went pretty nuts about it. They still do. It’s got the same pull as Common People. If you want to see an entire nation lose their shit over a song – you might stick on Parklife. It’s just deeply entrenched into the fabric of British culture and it’s as if it was from the moment it was released. It just is. I actually saw Parklife live at Reading Festival when I was 16 or 17, and they brought Phil Daniels out. The most memorable thing about the whole thing, was that Damon Albarn fell off the stage. I guess the most surprising thing about the wider record, is that you expect it to be more of Parklife the song. And it actually isn’t. It’s just a Blur record, and a not bad one at that.

It's just so weird how a regular album took on this entire life of its own, turned into a cultural phenomenon, and produced this era of music that for better or worse is part of history now. Some of the subsequent singles from subsequent albums honestly seem like they were more “Britpop” than a lot of the tracks on Parklife. Maybe they were running with it for sometime to bank on its success, but ultimately they grew tired of it too and changed directions. I’m glad.

I guess the other thing about Blur, is the individuals its made up of. They’ve been indie darlings forever. Graham Coxon was a nerdy little weirdo, he left and came back. I think Britpop almost killed him if I’m being honest. Damon Albarn was a pretty-faced front man and has gone on to produce some absolutely insane albums for other artists and with other bands. He’s got something, that’s for sure, but it’s not always good. Some ego and misogyny always sort of leaks out and it would make my life easier to enjoy his creative output if he just kept his mouth shut. He seems to have a problem playing nice with successful women and insists on tearing them down publicly, only to be forced to admit that he hasn’t actually worked with them, met them, talked to them, or even listened to the music that he is loudly criticizing. That’s fucking annoying, but, is also par for the course regarding male opinions being inexplicably important and accepted even absent of any actual valid perspective or input. Damon, you have a lot of great things to say with your music. That doesn’t mean you have to say something, about everything, all the time.

Alex James, floppy-haired and handsome bassist, for a time was the biggest darling of them all – attracting praise for being so quirky and unique by establishing a cheese farm. Over the years, I have come to suspect he’s really just hidden in plain sight and really what you get with him is a basic man, with basic opinions, who loves some attention. I can’t ever really quite put my finger on it with him but there’s something deeply off putting about his whole persona. I’ll just say it. Whatever image he puts out and however quirky and cool he makes himself out to be: he’s just a fucking Tory, man. With that comes everything else: classism, racism, misogyny and fucking over everyone worse off than you, so long as you get yours. But hey everyone, who cares right? He makes cheese! Isn’t that so weird and kooky? He’s gotta be a cool guy! It was this exact fucking line of thinking that allowed Boris Johnson to take advantage of the comedy panel show circuit for years and years and years, elevating his reputation among liberal young voters. Everyone thought Boris was a funny joke, so let’s vote for him! He goes from MP, to London Mayor, to high-ranking cabinet member, to the fucking PRIME MINISTER. And it wasn’t a funny joke then, was it? So let’s pay attention to the things people actually say and do, and not just the music that they make and the cheese they produce. The other guy in the band, whose name I can literally never remember – Dave Rowntree – he’s just the drummer, who brought nothing to the band visually, and was just sort of along for the ride. Seems like a nice enough guy, it’s just that nobody cares.

If you’re interested in making more sense of this review, I will recommend that you turn your attention to Netflix series This Is Pop which does a pretty decent overall rundown of Blur, Oasis, and the Britpop era. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good, and I appreciate that it gives a voice to the women in that music scene at the time, who were treated like shit and had to deal with all of the masculine national pride shit that came along with it all. It’s pretty clear from listening to them: Oasis, literally didn’t give a shit – about anything – and that was pretty hilarious. Blur, despite being genuine talent with good music to offer, bought into the hype and acted like a bunch of pricks publicly. They were all pricks, it’s just some of them were more authentically pricks than others. Ha.

I guess all I can say is this: I love Blur, and I hate Blur. I don’t know that I’m inclined to agree with Parklife’s inclusion in the Rolling Stone Top 500, but I can also appreciate that I’m talking from the inside and the majority of listeners didn’t also absorb the cultural moment as it was happening. If you happened to be there, you know it was all kind of nonsense. It’s kind of wild watching documentaries or reading write-ups of a particular time in music that you were actually present for in real-time. Like how I imagine people who were at Woodstock, or when Bob Dylan went electric, or the original British Invasion of America with the Beatles. It was a whole thing, and if you were there, you remember.

[its-short-for-jackalope]

New Characters Ahoy!

Thinking about Captain AJ Griffin, Morgan Reese, and K̵̨̦̝̰̣͕̞̘͗̀̏̚a̵̜͈̗͕̫̪͌̐̃̓̉̇͌̚l̷̨̯͈̼̱̥̩̿͑̋̇̓͒͐ aboard the Ellen Austin

hello! I am FINE and NORMAL and have been very CALMLY and very CASUALLY thinking about episode three and the new information we have about the characters our beloved quartet will be sailing with next month. 😇

...Yeah, I didn't believe that either.

Let's just get right to the unhinged rambling part of the post, shall we?

Sike! The post is still hinged for a minute while I give you a quick rundown of each character.

⚓️ AJ Griffin, the Captain

voiced by Jeff Blim

rigid leader, fiercely loyal to his crew

Civil War veteran haunted by the past

@man-down-in-hatchet-town's favorite

⚓️ Morgan Reese, the Bosun

voiced by Huck Walton

first appears at the end of episode 2

kind, adventurous, friend to all

fairly good guitarist

⚓️ Kal, the Passenger

voiced by ???

will change the story forever

???

???

Yup. That's them. I can't wait to hear what they get up to when the episode comes out. But in the meantime, I've got a brain that won't shut up and a pal to throw half-baked theories and wild speculation at, so here's some stuff we've been talking about.

Before Matt starts introducing us to these characters, we're presented with some questions:

Who is in command? Who will have our backs? Who can we trust when things go sideways?

The first answer comes to us easily enough. We can assume that the one in command (at least at the start of it all) is Captain AJ Griffin.

The second answer is also pretty clear. Morgan Reese is the man who's meant to look after everyone. It's literally his job, and he's already helped (will help?) Samuel, Rose, Margaret, and John by getting them aboard the ship. So he probably has our backs.

The third answer, if we follow the pattern & use the process of elimination, would have to be the last named character: Kal. Except the only thing we know for sure about Kal is that they're a passenger who will impact the story in a big way. So can we really trust them? (Perhaps more importantly: can we trust Matt when he says/implies we can trust Kal? He's already proven to be pretty sneaky...)

Actually, can we/the quartet trust any of these characters? We know a little bit about them now (2 out of 3, anyway) but they're not going to exist in a vacuum—there are so many other things we don't know about the adventure they're taking part in that are going to influence what these characters do and whether they'll be allies or antagonists. Not all Bad Guys™ are bad guys, and not all good guys are Good Guys™, if you know what I mean.

The way I see it, there are a few different ways this could go...

⚓️ Captain Griffin is already haunted, so he's vulnerable to whatever dark powers are at play, and Morgan Reese will be left to try and hold the ship together and keep everyone (including his captain) safe.

We're told that AJ is a strong ally, but that he "casts a heavy shadow" and is "weathered by the darkness of men." "Echoes of his past are always right beneath the currents, rippling, rhyming. And it will haunt him once again..."

When we hear about Morgan, there are no references like these. Instead, we're told about how the bosun is everyone's buddy, a friend to all. He stands in pretty stark contrast to the tragic, noble but melancholy picture of AJ we're given.

If the captain is overwhelmed by ghosts—his or someone else's—the bosun's heart and positivity could potentially hold everyone steady, at least long enough to sort out the trouble. Sea shanties are for morale, after all, and Morgan's fairly good at guitar.

⚓️ Captain Griffin is hardened by the past and can handle the pressure, but Morgan Reese is unprepared and could end up inadvertently spreading darkness and fear throughout the entire ship.

You know, like exposure therapy; AJ's already borne witness to some awful, awful things, so maybe he has a tolerance for it. He's already been managing his own darkness, so we could have a same captain, different ghosts sort of situation. If you think about it, it might be a little easier to deal with someone else's ghosts instead of your own. It's less personal.

Morgan, on the other hand, has no tragedy in his past as far as we're aware, but we do know that he "doesn't match AJ's level of precision or experience." If he's never had to face true darkness before, he might not know how to keep it from snuffing his light out. And since Morgan is described as "the perfect conduit" I'm pretty sure that means whatever's up with him gets passed on to everyone. If he loses hope, maybe the Ellen Austin does too.

⚓️ Morgan Reese as a character is actually way too good to be true so he's actually a Big, Lying, Liar Pants who will give me trust issues and break my fairly-good-guitarist loving heart because he has ulterior motives.

Brooke (you meanie /jk) had to go and scare me by pointing out how weird it is that we keep getting hints of how dark and spooky this episode could be, and AJ is revealed to us as a tragic, sad veteran, but then Morgan is just this ray of sunshine in dark waters who is fairly good at guitar. And I hate to admit it because I was immediately besotted with this character the moment I heard about his quite-good sea shanties, but that's a valid point.

Maybe Morgan is playing a long game, one that required him to have "endeared himself to all," and now that he finally has the trust of his captain and the ear of his shipmates, he's ready to kick things off and conspire with some spirits. Does he "have our backs" in the sense of oh what a lovely place to store my knife ??? 😱😥 I hope not!!! But now I have to emotionally prepare myself for that possibility, lmao.

"Oh, but Jack," you say, "what about Kal? You went and made their name all funkyspooky in the header and everything, so why haven't you mentioned them yet???"

First of all, aww thank you for noticing! I had to scroll through [redacted] open tabs on Firefox to find my cursed text generator for that, so I'm glad it was appreciated. <3

Second of all,

✨️drama. ✨️

Whatever's up with Kal is vital to the story and probably the biggest contributor to my current lack of hinges, so of course I had to save them for last.

I have two primary theories revolving around Kal that I'm struggling to choose between...

⚓️ We should be scared of the dark, actually, because Kal is—or controls—the dark.

⚓️ Kal is actually totally fine and chill and a friend, and the actual dark forces are making them seem threatening on purpose.

MAIA's transmissions for this episode have been pretty spooky. Something is getting into MAIA's room and interfering with the broadcasts, first by cracking a pane of glass in the window in transmission 10 when we were being told not to fear the dark, and again by shattering the lightbulb in transmission 11 right when we were going to hear about Kal. ("It seems that some inhabitants of the Pulp universe are less forthcoming than others.") Then, when the broadcast ended, there was a swirling shadow outside the window. Niiice and ominous.

"Margaret is not the only one awakening," Matt tells us in the trailer. "Our heroes will find that the light of discovery can bring forth shadows darker than anything they could have ever imagined."

I would venture that whatever's awakening is probably doing so in response to Margaret—her light is bringing forth the shadows. Maybe the shadows were already there in the Sargasso Sea, "this place where the water itself is haunted, where the air is thick with spirits," and the light is just deepening them. Maybe they're everywhere, and they're feeling threatened, so they're attacking MAIA's room to prevent us from learning their secrets and to remind us that we should be scared of the dark, actually, because dreams may start there but so, too, do nightmares.

I spent a lot of this time convinced that Kal is the source of the shadows, starting with a conversation my sister and I had the instant we both watched the transmission.

behold, the first reference to the anti-Margaret

Kal, as the anti-Margaret, could be another seemingly human person with strange powers, but instead of the Radiance, their magic is something else, something darker. Maybe they can spawn limbs of shadow the way she can produce light, and maybe they can conjure ghosts the way the Traveler brought a whole jungle paradise into existence on the Sagitta.

I don't believe it's a coincidence that the transmission was interrupted right before we were going to learn about Kal. My first instinct was that this must have been Kal's doing, that they're the one who doesn't want to be known, but after re-examining the transmission and the question about trust, it makes me wonder. Maybe we should trust Kal—after all, what's a bigger sign of trust than giving it when there are still so many unanswered questions? Maybe the quartet will be faced with the same struggle as us.

If the shadows/dark forces aren't Kal's doing, then they could be trying to sabotage Kal because of how important they are to the quartet's story. If Kal is the one to trust when things go sideways, then the shadows might want to do all they can to keep Kal obscured, hidden and silenced so our heroes can't get their help, or won't trust them enough to accept it when it's offered.

I, for one, think either option would be very fun and exciting to listen to. Or neither!

Now, I think this post is long enough, so I think this'll be it for today. and while I may be suspicious of Matt's little hints and teasers about the new episode, I definitely trust him to take these characters and tell a really good story with them.

...man, I can't wait for September.

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts on anything I've rambled about here! Hope this was a fun/interesting/not totally confusing read for you! 🖤

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Pulp Musicals Theory: MAIA Artwork as Foreshadowing And Character

Okay, so in between my real life and the First Wedding Ever, I suddenly had a huge realization about the art used for the Pulp Musical MAIA broadcast. Guys, the different items in the room specifically represent the characters and episodes of Pulp! I may be the last one to figure this out (I seriously can't explain why I've never thought to really look at the MAIA drawing before) but damn if I don't think the whole story has been right in front of us this entire time. Full theory under the cut!

Okay so here is a screenshot of the main MAIA drawing, with all the non-MAIA items of interest circled.

Numbers 1, 2, and 3--an issue of The Sun, a pair of bricks, and a model ghost ship, respectively--obviously represent the first three episodes in order. Numbers 4 and 5 are pretty obvious as well, a giant vase of roses for Rose Stratford, and a portrait of the historical figure Margaret Cavendish for, well, the character named Margaret Cavendish (I reverse google image searched the drawing and it turns out its from the real Cavendish's book).

So that's three of our episodes, two of our main quartet, and four symbols yet unaccounted for. It's safe to assume that two of those objects are for Samuel and John, leaving the other two as clues to upcoming episodes (also, could this be confirmation for us non-patreon-people that Pulp is gonna be five episodes long? I feel like I remember Matt Dahan saying something somewhere about five episodes, so it seems likely to me).

If I were a betting woman, I'd say that the Globe is most likely for Sir John "and the Earth" Herschel himself. And Samuel is most likely symbolized by the green statuette beside the vase of roses ("Samuel, as always, stands beside her"). What I can't figure out, though, is just how the little green figure represents him. Here's a blown-up image:

He's a little green fellow with a large silly hat that has something blue sticking out of the top, what looks like some sort of pack slung over his back, something else I can't identify in his arms, and maybe even a blue beard? Honestly up close, he looks kinda' like either a Pharaoh or a dog. Anyone have any ideas just what this is? This is the one part of the riddle I just can't figure out and it's driving me up the wall.

And that brings us to the crack in the wall and the rocket ship, which could perhaps symbolize the last two episodes (assuming, of course, that the crack doesn't somehow symbolize Samuel... we've just gone from Zero Fears to One Fear, folks). The rocket ship seems like a fun grand finale, and proves that our Quartet will definitely be time-traveling further into the future (!!!!!!!!!!!) (most likely into a pulpy Jetsons-esque far future of 2189 or something of the sort) (!!!!!!!!!!!). But I could honestly see the crack being the final episode as well. A little bit ago, @its-short-for-jackalope and I started tossing around the idea that the Gate that Margaret must one day go through is hidden within the Moon itself. After all, Margaret has always felt connected to the Moon, and it would be a fun way to tie the overall story back into Rose and Samuel jump-starting everything with the claim that there's something alien on the lunar surface. So when I pointed out that the various features of the room were clues to episodes and characters, Jack suggested that the crack could be representative of the Gate (maybe a literal crack hidden inside of the moon, anyone?). And we know Margaret confronting the Gate is likely to be a massive climatic moment at the end of the story, though I suppose they could pass through at the end of Episode 4 and have to survive on the other side--in a rocket ship--for all of Episode 5.

Alternatively, maybe whatever happens to Margaret in Episode 3 could trigger memories of the Gate that manifest in her starting to hallucinate cracks in places, such as walls, where there aren't any? And she spends Episode 4 decoding these visions until reaching the realization that they have to go to outer space in episode 5. (Though why she won't be able to simply zap them there like the Traveler after unlocking the secrets to her powers is anyone's guess).

Either way, assuming the crack does stand for the Gate, episodes 4 and 5 will likely deal with the discovery of the Gate and also the process of getting there/going through. And I'm excited to come back to this drawing after Ghosts of Antikythera to see if there's anything more I can glean...

[michellemisfit]

TAG GAME TUESDAY!!

Thank you, as always, to the incomparable @celestialmickey for providing the Tuesday fun!

Thanks for the tag @gardenerian, @tanktopgallavich, @energievie, @deedala

And thanks @deedala for providing the easy copy & paste version of this for my silly mobile only using self

Name: Michelle

Age: Why do I have to stop and do the maths every single time?? Memory loss age, clearly!

Favourite Colour: Rainbow 🌈 (also anything in the berry family)

Beverage of Choice: Water, Chai Latte (hot or cold), Hot Chocolate, Dark Spiced Rum (attach suitable occasion to each at your own leisure)

Do you have push notifications turned on for tumblr? I have certain people and account on flag alerts. I have a lot of things on flag alerts. I live with constant FOMO.

Opinion on Fireworks? Pretty in theory. Practically a massive waste of money, bad for the environment, endanger and scare wildlife and pets, so it’s a no from me.

Favourite Childhood Toy? I had this stuffed mouse toy that had rainbow coloured ears and a music box inside it. When you pulled its tail all the way out it would play a song while slowly winding the tail back in. I loved it and thought the tail was so fun and I would wrap it around my arm and let it run over my arm as it wound back in. And then I’d put it around my leg and let it run over my leg as it wound back in. And then I wrapped the tail around my neck and nearly died… luckily my mother turned away from her phone call to check on me, finding me blue in the face and close to unconscious, and managed to get a pair of scissors and cut the tail just in time… so that’s that story lol

The store you shop at the most: I hate to say it but these days it’s Amazon. Urgh. I’m the worst.

Do you swear a lot? I feel like I’ve spent the last two days discussing the finer science behind swearing!! lol Yes and no? I use swear words in casual conversation, because English swearing doesn’t mean anything, since no one ever taught me those words are bad… but I don’t swear in anger.

Favourite Trope: Slooooooow burn. Especially for good reasons, not just hilarious high-jinx type misunderstandings.

An album with no skips: PULP - Different Class

If you could play any instrument, what would you choose? Fiddle. I love watch bands that have a fiddler, it’s the best!! I would also get a kick out of being really good at playing the spoons!!

Your biggest pet peeve: Oh, I have so many! Like, I love people, but I also really hate people, y’know? lol Getting to the bottom of an escalator and stopping!! In rush hour!!! With no regard to the pile up that’s about to happen behind you!!!!! Yeah, that’s a huge one. Get the duck out of the way people! Move to the side, then stop and chat!!

Favourite time of day: I’m naturally a morning person! But also the closer it gets to noon the more I start to think of the day as being ‘basically over’ and then I start to fret over all the things I was going to do today that I’ve now failed to achieve, and then I waste some time hating myself for sucking… did I mention that I’m very neurotic, also? 🤦

And finally, did you drink water today? Yeah. It’s summer time which means there are half full bottles of water in my freezer at all times, so I grab one in the morning, top it up with water all day long, and my water is always cool 😎

Also, I’m a water goblin. I hoard bottles of water in every room I ever spend time in. And then when I go to the kitchen to get myself or snack or something I think ‘Oh! Do I have water??’ And because I’m not sure I bring a pint of water just in case… to add to my other 5 pints of water already in the room LOL

It me 👇

I’d like to tag @ms-moonlight-inn @jrooc @grossmickey @harrowhark-a-vagrant @too-schoolforcool @tsuga-of-mars @thepupperino @vintagelacerosette @crossmydna @faejilly @junemermaid @juliakayyy @southsidestory @grumble-fish @creepkinginc @depressedstressedlemonzest @rutherinahobbit @rereadanon @lupeloto @francesrose3

[littlegirlwiththeblueribbon]

MY SPECIAL INTERESTS:

✸ Cryptids, Cryptozoology

✸ Aliens, Abduction Phenomena, UFOlogy

✸ Ghosts, Paranormal Phenomena

✸ Fortune Telling, Psychic Readings, Tarot

✸ Astrology, Zodiac, Horoscopes

✸ Alchemy, Past & Present Chemistry

✸ Astronomy, Space, NASA

✸ Oceanography, Marine Biology

✸ Dinosaurs, Fossils, Paleontology

✸ Speculative Evolution & Biology

✸ Lost Civilizations, Cultural Extinction

✸ Animal Classification (Taxonomy)

✸ Taxidermy, Animal Death Studies

✸ Birds, Especially Corvids & Birds of Prey

✸ Passenger Trains, American Railroads

✸ Passenger Ships, RMS Titanic, Queen Mary

✸ Nuclear Power, Radiation, Radioactivity

✸ Radios, Radio Waves, Radio Towers

✸ Conspiracy Theories, Denialism

✸ Government Scandals, FBI Cover-Ups

✸ Urban Legends, Folklore, Internet Hoaxes

✸ Religion, Catholicism, Cults, Scientology

✸ Doomsday, Apocalpyse, Pandemics

✸ Meteorology, Weather Patterns, Predictions

✸ Petrology, Mineralogy, Faceting Gemstones

✸ Botany, Herbalism, Horticulture

✸ Mycology, Mold, Penicillin

✸ Toxicology, Poisons, Neurotoxins

✸ Historical Crimes & Unusual Punishment

✸ Elizabethan Era History, Fashion, Culture

✸ Shakespeare, Plays, Musical Theatre

✸ Theatre Design, Stage Management

✸ Filmmaking, Cinematography, Sound Design

✸ Composing, Soundtracks & Scores, Lyrics

✸ Theremins, Synthesizers, Electronic Sound

✸ Figure Skating, Artistic Roller Skating

✸ Fonts, Typefaces, Typography

✸ Graphic Design, Advertisements

✸ Defunct Amusement Parks

✸ Antiques, Appraising, Restoration

✸ Clocks, Watches, Pocket Watches

✸ Puppetry, Muppets, Vintage Puppets

✸ Stage Magic, Escapology, Mentalism

✸ Dime Novels, Pulps, Westerns & Sci-Fi

✸ Postmodernist Literature, Dystopias, Utopias

✸ Hellenism, Greek Mythology, Greek Classics

✸ Portuguese, Basque, French, Latin, Greek

✸ Secret Codes, Ciphers, Shorthand

✸ World War I, World War II

✸ Horses, War Horses, Lusitano, Friesian

✸ Cowboys, American Wild West

✸ Pirates, Golden Age of Piracy

✸ Vexillology, World Flags, LGBTQ+ Flags

✸ Sapphic, Lesbian, Queer Women History

✸ Fado Music, Women’s History in Portugal

✸ Book Translations, Translators

✸ The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

And, apparently, organizing things nicely in list.

Ask me about any of these, I love to share!

Of course, I have many other interests that I don’t consider my special interests; just these are the ones I study religiously and devote the most of my time to.

UPDATED 12/9/23.

[subternia]

enough biting and killing listen to these for me ( flutters eyelashes )

Tom and Jerry - Laughing like Muttley ( has some of my favorite breaks. like seriously. )

Source Direct - Exit 9

LTJ Bukem - Music ( Peshay Rework )

Tom and Jerry - Dancer ( fav )

Todd Edwards & Matt "Jam" Lemont - Waiting for the Light ( fav )

Underground Resistance - The Theory

Shy Fx - This Style

Johnny Jungle - The Devoted Drummer

Undercover Agent - Oh Gosh!

MA2 - Hearing is Believing

MA2 - Rollers Music ( fav )

Asylum - Base II Dark ( 2017 Remaster )

F. Tate - Concentration

DJ Dexterous & H Pee - Hot Flame ( Fujiwara Remix )

DJ Flash - Pulp Fiction

[0bfvscate]

I have another book!!!! That's right, two books in one season!

This one is available at Malarkey Books and can be bought basically anywhere, but the picture is linked to the publisher's website.

BACKMASK is written in the style of 60s horror pulp. Inspired by pop music history, BACKMASK is the fake history of a conspiracy theory surrounding the Satanic agenda to control children's minds.

Nicholas Hush, 1960s record producer, has a vision for the future of pop music. After a series of prophetic dreams he wants to combine occult imagery with upcoming trends to create a new, groundbreaking look. His secretary, Valerie Chill, is tasked with finding consultants and funding while he crafts the perfect album. Quickly their project becomes entangled in other, larger machinations, and two teenage pop acts become responsible for international intrigue, brainwashing, and an occult massacre. Taking inspiration from the lives of Joe Meek, Phil Spector, and Timothy Leary, BACKMASK is a speculative look at how hidden messages got into pop music. KCSAMKCAB YUB