#also this is not a proper representation of my music taste

[no-slice-of-serendipity]

Tagged by @bingus-bing-bong !!

rules: one song for each letter of your url, then tag as many people as there are letters

nxde - (g)idle

out the roof - chase atlantic

st. jimmy - green day

lady of gold - the tenmours

i heard it through the grapevine - the slits

change - one ok rock

ever gold - downssides

ode to britannia - seb lowe

fry's dream - akmu

sertraline - artio, straight girl

endurant - bloodywood

russian roulette - battle beast

english dream - lumer

nur sie allein - mark seibert / artus excalibur

dope lovers - dpr ian

i am a poseur - x-ray spex

pms - voice of baceprot

i still - leo

tricky conversations - nxdia

yeowch!! - candid faces

not going to tag anyone because my mind is blanking on even 1 person let alone 20, so if you want to do it pretend I tagged you

[dailytomlinson]

Jack Saunders, BBC R1

Louis: Hello, hello!

Jack: It's good to have you back, thanks for coming in!

Louis: Thanks for having me back!

Jack: Of course, any time, mate! You're in to get some fun, can't have enough, can you?

Louis: I love it, lad, love it!

Jack: Last time you were here, you were in 2019, [...] and we played this game, called "Keep or delete?". Do you remember what happened during that game?

Louis: Not specifically, I do remember the game.

Jack: Ok. Let's see if this docs your memory.

Jack: [replays the 2019 game which Louis says he would get rid of Arctic Monkeys' I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor]

Louis: I must've turned up drunk that day, I must have, honestly. That's a crime! What was The Strokes song? What was it again? Did you know?

Jack: Yeah, yeah, it was up against The Strokes, good memory, it was Last Nite, by The Strokes.

Louis: It's a though pick, but I don't imagine why I picked that? "I Bet You Look Good On The Dace Floor" is a super nostalgic song for me, to be fair.

Jack: Last time was carnage and we will hopefully get it tonight, especially with the end of your tour. You been super busy, man. Especially with this Indie festival you run as well, at Malaga.

Louis: Yeah, man, I mean, that's been a dream of mine for a long time to put out an event like that, to be fair.

Jack: Do you kinda of feel having a responsibility to, I guess, be a platform for your music fans, something that your fans might not normally experience?

Louis: Yeah, that's why I like doing those things and that's also why I like picking the right supports on my tour. You know, especially with bands like Stone, I don't know if any of my fans would've heard of them specifically if I had not brought them to the festival, for example. So those kinda of things are definitely fulfilling for me.

Jack: I'm glad you brought up Stone.

Louis: Oh, they are amazing lads!

Jack: Who else did you had on your festival?

Louis: So Voodoos opened up, then SunRoom who supported me American-in the US tour, then Hi? and then we had The Vaccines. I'm proper honoured, man, for them to play the festival.

Jack: So you didn't do this thing half, you went in full wag. Did you had a dream with them afterwards, as well? Did you get to hang out with them?

Louis: Yeah I did, to be fair. I think, not me finest hour, I went to club after, think I lasted about an hour before leaving quite drunk.

Jack: So, for your brand new music video releasing as well, and I think this was very evident with Walls, you clearly trying channel kinda your taste within your music [...] with BTM, feels like you've done it again, man. It's clearly something you're actively trying to keep going in the music, right?

Louis: Definitely! I tried to come up with something from the blocks that felt like a statement of intend, felt ambitious, it's got that big chorus and yeah, even the album as a whole, I think it's a much better representation of me, as an artist, and not saying the first one isn't, it's just... On your first album there's so much room for over thinking.

Jack: I mean, it's a different prospect being on your own compared to being in a band.

Louis: Oh, definitely.

Jack: You were finding yourself over there, on your own, so there's gonna be an element of development still going on. I'm glad you brought the chorus up as well, coz that's the first thing that I thought when I listened to the track. I was like 'This chorus feels so BIG'. For you, those kinda of like BIG and kinda of indie choruses that you think about, what comes to mind? The ones that you always hammer or sing along? That kinda of thing...

Louis: You know what, the irony is the first thing that comes to me mind in terms of a chorus that I can remember singing, is ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, which I cancelled the last time I was here, like an idiot!

Jack: [laughs] I'm not surprised, man, that is essential, a banger, isn't it?

Louis: It is, it is!

Jack: You worked with [producer] Mike Crossey on this one

Louis: [nods] Yeah

Jack: Now, look, I've got a list of the credentials to display. He's worked with Yungblud, [lists other artists], Arctic Monkeys - you can tell Mike you got rid of one of his songs--

Louis: No, no, I didn't it, I didn't it!

Jack: Well, you have been on tour for what we've talked about, you been pretty close to fans over the last few months and probably your whole crew, to be honest. Anyway... You should probably know them pretty well, do you agree?

Louis: I'd say so, yeah. I hope so.

Jack: Well for the first ever time on the Radio 1 show, Louis, we're gonna play a game of how well do you know your fans.

Louis: Okay

Jack: Okay. We've got self confessed super fan Ali with us right now, she's gonna post 5 questions about herself and her fandom view and all you gotta do is get the right answers, Louis. Is as simple as that!

Louis: I could be wrong, but I think I know Ali.

Jack: You do?

Louis: I think, I think if it's the same girl I'm thinking of--

Jack: Lets meet Ali.

Fan: [introduces herself] I travelled to see you all over the world, but how many gigs have I travelled to to see you as a solo artist? [lists options]

Louis: If she's asking the question, gotta be a lot, 50 is a lot, so let's go with 33.

Fan: What's the single longest journey I did to a show? [lists options]

Jack: You must heard of some fans travelling crazy distances to come and see you.

Louis: Oh, definitely!

Jack: What's the maddest or maybe longest you heard of?

Louis: I feel like there was a few people at the AFHF2 that came from South America, which is like... Crazy! I mean, shot in the dark, let's go C. I do think it was the girl that I thought it was. I can recognise the voice, I think so.

Fan: I've been holding up a thing at your gigs, what is it that I hold up? [lists options]

Louis: Now this just kinda confused me because this is not the girl I thought it was but there is someone, I should know the lyrics by now but some of the One Direction songs, I didn't sing all parts in it and I covered it and first few shows this girl held up the lyrics so I'm gonna go with lyrics.

Jack: I mean, have you seen many blow out flamingoes?

Louis: I haven't seen one, to be fair. So that's pretty random.

Fan: A fun fact about you is that you can do farts with your arms--

Louis: [laughs]

Fan: Can you guess a fun fact about me? [lists options]

Jack: Do the armpit!

Louis: Nahhh... A bit sweaty under there to be fair.

Jack: Cmon, do it

Louis: Nahhhhhhhhhhhh

Jack: It's too lubricated [both laugh]

Louis: So...

Jack: [Re-lists option A]

Louis: Surely no chance

Jack: [Re-lists option B and C]

Louis: I mean, even for a super fan, that'd be hard. Let's go B. Let's go B.

Jack: You think?

Louis: No sense of smell? I've heard of that about before to be fair. Yeah, so let's go with that.

Fan: Out of all the show's I've seen you, can you guess which one was the favorite? [lists options]

Jack: What was your favorite out of those ones? Well, what was your favorite show on the last tour you've done?

Louis: It's hard, it's kinda cliche but the last gig that I played, which was in Milan, right at the end of the tour, honestly for the first 4/5 songs it just felt like the whole year flashed before my eyes. It was a massive massive gig, that was by far the biggest gig of the tour--

Jack: San Siro? You're a football fan as well, that's gotta be like so!

Louis: Yeah, yeah! Honestly, honestly, really really really special, so that, for me, would be my favorite. Surely, is her favorite as well, I'm gonna go with that.

Louis, getting question #1 answer, wrong: That's crazy, crazy! What a legend! I played maybe 70 shows this year, so she must've come to most! That's madness. [Jack: 3/4 of the show] About right!

Louis, getting question #2 answer, wrong: Incredible, man, incredible. I hope I get one of these rights.

Jack: So do I, is not looking good right now.

Louis: I love my lot, I thought I knew plenty about them! Clearly not!

Louis, getting question #3 answer, right: [laughing] Nice, nice. I know who it is now, I know who it is now.

Jack: So she hold up at every single show?

Louis: Yeah, there's a couple of times where I feel [...] I don't remember and I'm like 'Who's got lyrics?' and I only had to look a couple rows back and she's there, man. What a legend!

Louis, getting question #4 answer, right: [laughing] That's pretty strong, to be fair!

Louis, getting question #5 answer, wrong: I should of [got that right], really. There's a sentimental aspect to that that I missed.

Jack: I was gonna say that, because the way she's describing it, it was a very special one.

Louis: It was, it definitely was! I think Milan just happened a couple of weeks ago and that's why it fogs the memory a little.

Jack: When you did the Wembley one, did you feel sentimental? Did you think about how far you'd come?

Louis: Oh, massively. My relationship with that venue, we were put there together as a band, that's where I did my first solo performance with Steve Aoki, I came back as a judge, we did a lot of the auditions there, so I spent a lot of time there in me career but the only annoying thing is I fractured part of me arm on tour.

Jack: How did you do that?

Louis: Honestly the stupidest thing in the world, man. I decided about 12 months ago, I used to be quick when I was 18, a quick runner, decent sprinter, and I decided that I could still keep up with that pace. But I can’t. Anyway, I challenged someone to a race, and it's jsut... Honestly I ran into a wall. I sound ridiculous but the finish line was just too close to a wall and I’d just gone right into the wall and fractured me arm.

Jack: At the Olympics, they have a cushion in the end so they don't do that.

Louis: Next tour I’ll be investing in one of them, definitely!

Jack: Louis, legend! You know, 2 out 5

Louis, upsetti: Is not great, is it?

Jack: I think you know your fans well, I think you are just from tour

Louis: Yeah, that must be it, good lad!

Jack: Thank you so much for coming in tonight, rockstar, as always! Round of applause!

Louis: Thanks, as always.

Jack: Louis, one more thing before you go

Louis: yeap

Jack: I'm gonna give you a chance of redemption

Louis: I like it

Jack: Would you like to bring it (I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor) back?

Louis: One hundred percent, man!

Jack: YES! YES! It's been a long 3 years without the song, but finally!

Louis: [ha ha ha ha] Thanks again man, cheers!

[fixedmoments]

my name is [ BELLAMY CAMPBELL ] … and i am from [ HELLTOWN, OHIO ] and i’m a [ ASSOCIATE AT CRIMINAL RECORDS ]. i lived in helltown for [ ALL HER LIFE ] because [ SHE WAS BORN HERE ]. i am [ 27 ] my pronouns are [ SHE/HER ] and i am [ CREATIVE, RESILIENT, DAUNTLESS ] though some may say i’m [ GUARDED, IMPATIENT , IMPULSIVE ]. i also hear i look a lot like [ MADELYN CLINE ] but, i don’t know if i see it. i’m here because [ I ALREADY TRIED TO LEAVE ONCE AND IT DIDN’T WORK OUT ] but, maybe there’s more to it than that. you never know with helltown.

ABOUT BELLAMY: She's impatient and I'mcomplacent with just a little taste of wasting time.

CHARACTER BASICS

FULL NAME: Bellamy Noelle Campbell

NICKNAME(S): Bell, Bells, Ella

AGE: Twenty-Seven

GENDER & PRONOUNS: Cis Woman, She/Her

FACE CLAIM: Madelyn Cline

EYE COLOR: Brown

HAIR COLOR: Blonde

HEIGHT: 5′6″

DATE OF BIRTH: November 18th

ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio

HOGWARTS HOUSE: Slytherin

OCCUPATION: Drummer // Sales Associate at Criminal Records

HOMETOWN: Helltown, OH

CHARACTER HISTORY [TW: Mentions of a Toxic Relationship, Illness, Cancer, Gaslighting, Abuse, Death]

Born in Helltown, Ohio Bellamy was always surrounded by music. Her father David often kept a guitar close by, finding his voice early on in Bellamy’s life to provide her with the musical childhood that would mold her future. It was something to pass the time after a long day, the stress from the tireless work of building and managing clients in need of a proper defense. From the time her hands were large enough to play each chord she fell in love, her mind racing until she was able to focus on the symbols displayed on the sheets in front of her. She couldn’t help but allow it to take a front seat to her studies, music became the constant in her life while her father traveled in attempts to keep the cash flow consistent and pay off her grandmother’s medical bills. Her grandmother was lost at an early age due to an aggressive form of spinal cancer, one where Bellamy was too young to remember, most of her days were occupied by her drum set and the neighbors next door. Her parents were constantly working to give her and her sister the lives they wanted. She met a boy named Axel when she was 17 and he wanted her in his band, this is when Bellamy realized she enjoyed sitting behind a drum kit and controlling the rhythm more than anything. His band took off during College, providing Bell with the desire to leave their hometown and tour around the country. Things started off great, seeming like it was plucked out of a Netflix romcom with their happy ending in reach. Axel changed, the fame and groupies caused him to nitpick every performance and blame every mistake on Bellamy rather than except responsibility. He would gaslight Bellamy into thinking she was the problem, yelling at her to release his frustrations instead of dealing with them another way. One day things escalated, Bellamy caught him backstage with a girl who’d been following a few shows of their latest tour . Axel backed her into a corner, punching the wall beside her head. He wanted her to believe her actions caused this and Bellamy was stuck choosing between her passion and her mental health. She didn’t have to think about it for long, mid tour Axel decided to leave Bell behind in the dust by ultimately deciding to replace her and remove the female representation from his band completely. He said a manager wanted a different look for the band but it didn’t take long for the blonde to put all the pieces together — his girlfriend needed to disappear so groupies would fall at his feet. He needed to remove all possible competition from the stage so he’d look obtainable. It disgusted Bellamy beyond belief and caused the abrupt end to their relationship, but she couldn’t help but blame herself for went wrong on the flight back home. The girl found herself met with tragedy, a week after settling back into her childhood home her mother, Evelyn Campbell, disappeared without a trace. The bowling alley she’d spent most of her life working at was the last place she’d been seen and the police didn’t have any answers. It was like she vanished. She needed to get her mind off of things and decided to take on a new career opportunity selling records. Since tour she was hesitant to play music again, but her desires wouldn’t let her put it down altogether; she found the perfect way to maintain some creativity with choosing the music that played throughout the store. She’s been back in Helltown full time ever since, determined to overcome her inner anxieties and find answers for her mother.

[dicerollsix]

Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye

Released December 15, 1978

As its 44th birthday approaches, Here, My Dear could be classified as an unsung hero in Marvin Gaye’s wide catalogue, in that a casual fan may not have ever heard of the album once in their lives. This catalogue is one that spans across decades – even posthumously – with several studio and live releases (or re-releases) being made from 1985 to 2022 following his untimely death in April 1984 at the age of 44, just one day shy of his 45th birthday. Through the consistent success and acclaim of albums in his repertoire, such as 1971’s What’s Going On and 1973’s Let’s Get It On which are both enjoyed by people of all ages and tastes, Here, My Dear often flies under the radar, despite it beginning to accumulate the recognition and acclaim it deserved from its very release over subsequent years.

Here, My Dear is a representation, a musical memoir of sorts, of Gaye’s turbulent divorce from his first wife Anna Gordy. Every song – with the exception of Anger, Everybody Needs Love, and Sparrow – was written solely by Gaye himself (sometimes on the spot), and through his vocals the emotions flow with no bounds – from pen to paper, from speakers to ears. Even outside of the context of the album, without music being put to them, the lyrics are a much-needed and undoubtedly eloquent outpour of the gritty events that troubled its writer, and are pure poetry amongst an already rich genre that was 1970s era Soul. This album, in fact, could be considered a testament to what Soul is truly about at its very core. Or perhaps it’s a testament to Gaye’s soaring ability to be brutally honest and open in his writing, creating landmark tracks like When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You that delved into his mindset at the time and captured emotional turmoil in its purest form through a stunning bittersweet ode to his ex-wife that covered love, eventual loss of love, and God’s judgment, in just over 6 minutes.

Marvin Gaye’s iconic buttery-smooth vocal delivery is now cut with an additional edge of rawness – and the pleasing, textured instrumentals on the record (complete with bells and whistles like the saxophone in Sparrow and the scattered, glittery keys in Anna’s Song) are only part of what makes this album memorable. If you were to lay out each and every nuance it would take hours, and surely, Here, My Dear is one of those special albums where you could pick out something new that you hadn’t previously heard or appreciated before with every listen.

The commercial failure of the album discouraged Gaye heavily – with it reaching only 26 on the pop charts (and becoming his lowest charting album of the 70s) – and he cut promotion early while also juggling the failure of his second marriage to Janis Hunter. The last few years of his life are a heavy account of their own, filled to the brim with emotional issues, an increasingly detrimental addiction to cocaine, and mental health crises. 

One may see it that if one thing was owed to him in his final years, it was to be able to witness the dishing out of proper accolades for Here, My Dear, one of the most painful yet utterly real glimpses into a superstar’s life to date.

DR6

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: the first hint that Cabaret Voltaire had a future on the dance floor, and weren’t meant to make hissing tape noises forever. Find out how The Crackdown took them from the industrial underground and into the (relative) spotlight. Full transcript below the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’m taking a look at Cabaret Voltaire, one of the most important acts in the development of “industrial music” in the late 70s and early 80s. They came up right alongside groups like Throbbing Gristle and Clock DVA, and their earlier work is strident and subversive, full of harsh, hissing textures, and dense compositions that almost dare you to make sense of them. This era of their career came to a head with 1981’s Red Mecca, an album inspired by political turmoil in Western Asia, and often considered their great masterpiece.

Music: “Spread the Virus”

While this earlier work was extremely influential, sowing the seeds of all manner of noise and industrial music to come, Cabaret Voltaire didn’t stick with this sound forever. That’s where their 1983 album The Crackdown comes into the picture. After founding member Chris Watson left the group to pursue a career in sound engineering for television, Cabaret Voltaire were reduced to a duo of Richard H. Kirk and Stephen Mallinder, and on this album, the two of them would push their sound into significantly poppier territory.

Music: “Animation”

Listening to the surprisingly bright synth effects on “Animation,” you can start to see why Cabaret Voltaire are sometimes remembered as more of a New Wave act, in spite of those rough beginnings. Much more focused on digestible hooks and melodies, The Crackdown saw significantly more mainstream success and appeal than anything they had done before. Still, it’s selling this album a bit short to position it as a straight-up pop record. It’s really kind of a transition point between their more avant-garde work and their more dancefloor-oriented output later in the 1980s. “Animation” is definitely a bit of an outlier, sonically speaking, and it’s also a bit buried in the tracklisting, only appearing at the end of the first side. By contrast, the album opens with “24-24.”

Music: “24-24”

“24-24,” and other tracks on The Crackdown, really lay out what I’d consider the “classic” Cabaret Voltaire compositional structure: they center around these repetitive grooves, which are quite funky, and catchy in a dark way, but also somewhat unsatisfying to listen to, never quite resolving like a pop song, but smoldering in the back of your mind. They’re just oppressive, smothering, lingering around like pestilent miasmas, weighing you down like something you’ve got to haul on your back. While a lot of the lyricism of Cabaret Voltaire tracks is pretty inscrutable, I’ve always thought of “24-24” as a representation of the withering grind of working life--where there once was “the old 9-5,” here we have the all-consuming “24-24,” a shift with no room for rest. There’s a similar theme of inescapable, constant pressure on the album’s title track.

Music: “Crackdown”

The title track of The Crackdown is also its closing track, and it’s yet another in the fine tradition of closing tracks that get to bask in a substantive runtime and spin an almost cinematic narrative. While “24-24” wears the listener down with its cyclical, repetitive, hamster-wheel structure, the title track is jumpy and uneven, giving it an unpredictable quality. Its theme appears to be that of the surveillance state, and the stress of living in a world of tension and paranoia, where the punishment of the titular “crackdown” could be lurking around any corner. Not only are individuals watched from above, by the force of authority, but also by each other, among themselves, enforcing conformity by ratting out their peers. But perhaps the most effective take the album has on that “oppressive” song structure is “Just Fascination.”

Music: “Just Fascination”

While tracks like “24-24” and the title track pit individuals against the larger mechanisms of society, “Just Fascination” translates that sense of struggle to something completely internal, portraying a battle between the superego and the id. The “private fascination” described by the song could be deviant sexual urges, morbid curiosity, or, really, any sort of vaguely heretical thoughtcrime you can think of. It’s pointing to a universal experience of nagging thoughts that hunt you down and refuse to leave your mind, and I think that deep relatability gives it a lot of power.

On the cover of The Crackdown, we see Kirk and Mallinder portrayed as photographers, and their lens is turned, quite defiantly, to look at *us.* This image plays with the roles of the observer and the observed, giving us a vision of artists who are not simply here to be seen and serve as entertainment, but rather choose to gaze back. When combined with the title, “The Crackdown,” and the theme of surveillance, one can read the tripod-mounted camera as an icon of the Panopticon, the classic symbol of authority’s watchful eye. The image appears both off-center, and washed over in lurid, unnatural colours, reminiscent of a photographer’s colour test printing. This effect adds a lot of general visual interest to the cover, and makes it stand out quite a bit more than it would otherwise, but it also casts Cabaret Voltaire back into the role of being observed, as the subject of photography themselves. It also hints at the way mechanical reproduction can fail, or be inadequate--the world doesn’t really appear in this colour palette, after all. Or at least not to human eyes.

Another bit of symbolism on this cover I find quite interesting is the compass, which appears on the right-hand side. While the compass visually rhymes with the tripod, it’s worth noting that it also has a long history as a symbol of God as the creator and architect of the universe, and divine order and symmetry. It’s also sometimes invoked as a representation of the need for proper conduct, and staying within the rules of good behaviour. Because of these associations, compass imagery has often been used by various ritual societies, most notably the Freemasons. Cabaret Voltaire’s usage of this symbol is probably as subversive and tongue-in-cheek as their use of the “all-seeing eye” of the camera.

Earlier, I mentioned that The Crackdown serves as a transition point for Cabaret Voltaire, and that their later works would see them push further into making dance music. If you’re in the market for more of that, and this album is still a bit rough around the edges for your taste, I’d recommend their 1984 follow-up, Micro-Phonies. Featuring tracks like their arguable greatest hit, “Sensoria,” Micro-Phonies puts more emphasis on that bouncy, funky, bass-heavy groove, and in many cases starts pushing closer to something like verse/chorus structure.

Music: “Sensoria”

My favourite track on The Crackdown is “Talking Time.” Between its whispering hook, “don’t touch,” a sample asking us to wait “five minutes,” and the fact that it ends in another sample that’s apparently clipped off mid-word, “Talking Time” really feels like a track that’s aware of the fact that it’s dragging us along as listeners, and toying with our expectations. It also has one of the bounciest synth sequences anywhere on the album, surprisingly enough. That’s all for today--thanks for listening!

Music: “Talking Time”

[mistaeq]

Guido Mista: Just For Fun?

TW // nsfw content !!

Sssooo... this had to be a fic due on Mista's birthday, but I got killed by work and assignments and stuff, and could never manage to finish, but tonight I took a little time and concentrated on it properly before it was really TOO late. Enjoy~ ^_^

Guido Mista having a SPICY time with a neutral!reader

WORD COUNT: 3.04k

It felt so good. Damn, it felt so good. You weren't even sure there was love for you, by his side. But you wouldn't have stopped him for any reason. The gunslinger had come to you to tell you about Bucciarati's orders for the day. You had to show up at Passione's headquarters in a couple of hours, so, just for the sake of not getting bored in the meantime, you invited Mista in your house to have a chat. Unfortunately, or maybe luckily, the two of you seemed to have other plans in mind.

The things about the man exploring your body with his gaze, wasn't new to you. You'd been noticing this before, at work, outside, and in general. And it wasn't like you weren't interested in Mista's attention, you just couldn't help but thinking that having relationships with colleagues wasn't the best choice you could make. Little did it matter in that moment, realizing the two of you would have had to make up a believable excuse for your late arrival at Passione's headquarters.

"G-Guido!" bringing your thoughts cruelly back to the present, the gunslinger thrusted inside of your spent hole for one last time, without either of you coming. It had been a strong thrust, without mincing words, not slow and definitely not gentle, rough enough to hear you raise your voice for him. You just liked this thing about Mista being so mercilessly rough, and you couldn't tell you weren't expecting something like this from a man like him. You had stayed still until you felt his shaft come out of your sensitive body. And despite that, you had remained folded on the bed, because you knew him, Guido Mista would have never let you in peace so easily. Oh, he still had so much to do, with your body, after so much time of waiting and pushing it back.

Just in general, he liked to insist and keep going, starting from the most absurd and almost useless things, in any situation, like telling everyone about the fact that Narancia - he had told about it at least five times, once for every Bucciarati Gang ​​member, him and Narancia excluded - had once scared him late at night during a sleepover by his house. The truth is, if we really want to keep a solid and actual comparison, that Mista guy's brains almost worked like his good companion's, Narancia. He probably soaked up some parts of his behavior, too. The most messed up ones, if I'm allowed to say that.

A kind of soul of the party, without them the boredom used to make itself easy to be felt, or in any case it made his absence noticed when nobody laughed or joked, but sexually speaking, to stay in the italian area, there is a valid and comparison with the loud mess you can find in Naples's markets and squares, too. People screaming, people yelling, someone laughing and a neverending music you don't even know where to locate. Oh, and food. Plenty of food. Don't ask an italian to skip a meal, folks. You were now being Guido's three course meal, rather than a snack.

You felt yourself being touched in a way that was anything but chaste by the strong hands of the curly, dark haired boy. It was the representation of a proper Gold Experience, to finally see the hair hidden under that hat of his, and you had to admit that sinking a hand inside of it was amazing. Plus, it perfectly represented his explosive personality. Mista's eighteen years of age - by now - surely influenced his amount of stamina and strength, he had arms that deserved the respect for which they had been designated by his genetic make-up, evidently. As if some foreplay and ministrations were necessary, after the previous hellish - or perhaps heavenly - hour in which nothing else had happened, other than the young italian roughly and ferociously pushing his length into your body, you felt his long and calloused fingers enter your needy hole, not so much time to waste and not many premises to make. Oh good lord.

"Guido..." your soft voice moaned, bending your head forward, then forced to pull it back up when you arched your back due to the sudden but perfect points that the boy's experienced fingers dared to touch.

"Right here...? You want it right here?" he teased. Oh, he had fun teasing. All the gunslinger wanted was to hear you beg for him to give you the pleasure you needed, and he knew where to touch to get you ruined for him. His fingertips grazed against a special spot, once, twice, and he laughed it over, looking at you curling up your fingers everytime, little moans coming out of your throat, your hands gripping on the bedsheets. "Damn tesoro, you're so sensitive..." he said in his hateful, proud, signature mocking tone.

"...O-Oh my god, Guido... this might be the third time you do it... right there..." but that sentence did not last long, considering the gunslinger's intentions, who bent down to use his experienced tongue where before only his fingers were. Fuck that guy and his stupid attitude. Fuck his behavior, fuck his warm tongue, penetrating your needy hole along with his fingers, leaving you speechless and breathless every second more. At least a dozen times, surely, you insulted him, cursing and groaning under the wet and beautiful contact of the boy's lips and tongue as they worked on you. You would have lied, if you said you hadn't dreamt of this before.

Given the position you were now in, when you were too quiet or too noisy for your dirty lover's liking, the size of Mista's hands came in handy, to spank you and startle you enough to react and oblige to his will. He wasn't very gentle, as a sexual character. Let's say that he enjoyed leaving his masterpieces incomplete. Like that orgasm of yours which was very little time apart from exploding, for example. When he withdrew his hands and tongue drom you, you couldn't hold back from complaining... probably too much for the man's liking. "F-Fuck! I was so damn close..." you squealed, disappointed, and let your tongue speak for yourself, shivering because of the current emptiness of your hole. "Why have I chosen to have sex with you... I could have paid someone from the street... or maybe a colleague of yours... hm?"

You had gone too far. At those words, you felt Guido grab your hair in a tight grip. Not too much to seriously hurt you, but enough to fuel your arousal even more. You can't say you haven't obtained exactly what you were looking for. "Excuse me, or better... excuse you, do you mind repeating what you just said, cara/o?" Damn, that turned you on so much. Obey him. Just obey him. You thought, until the brat part of you took over.

"N-no... I ..." you slightly turned towards him, and unexpected as it was, but incredibly hot, his member was right in front of the tip of your nose, right now. You stared at it, bouncing in front of you. Average length, but interesting girth, nothing to say. A good one. You wouldn't have minded to choke on it. "Nothing... I said nothing."

"Nuh-uh, I heard you, little fucker." he pulled you closer to him, his leaking tip now grazing on your cheek, leaving a slightly humid trail behind it. Mista's grip on your hair tightened. "Repeat for me, will you...?" he cooed, faking a soft and calm tone of his voice. Then, he clenched his teeth. "What could you do, you said?" For a split second, you thought about how Bruno was probably waiting for you at Passione's headquarters, and there you were instead, with Mista's cock hanging in front of your face.

"Nothing. I couldn't do anything..."

"Good. That's what I like to hear." with a further squeeze he made you moan and cry out, taking the opportunity to push his leaking member into your mouth. You felt yourself suffocate, Mista had no small one at all, to be completely honest, he was far from it. And you madly liked him, not only for that, also as a person. On a psychological and personal level. Nice, funny, serious when needed - maybe-, and absolutely beautiful. How many people would have sold their soul to the devil, to spend a single night with Naples's forbidden dream - or at least he said so. He probably made it up for his own self-esteem -? He also tasted good, to be honest. Details like those were important, too.

You soon understood that the only way to not to feel too bad with his strength and stamina, was to go along with his desires seriously, and thanks to this little thought that for an hour now had been helping you with Guido's sexual cravings, you brought a hand to the man's member, to help with your hands your work on him. You saw him start to move his hips towards your mouth and back, that choking sensation intensified even more due to the fact that Mista's hips thrusted forward as you bent down on him, yet as much as your eyes could water and tear up, the man's proud moans only hinted at how much it actually excited him, to see you struggle and choke on his length. "Dammit... don't give me those teary eyes... I'm gonna fucking cum." And, deep down, it was a good fuel to your own arousal. But you wouldn't have dared to tell Guido, or you would have made him brag for ages about it.

His movements got to a sudden halt, when the gunslinger reached his high, in the depth of your throat, as his own breath hitched with yours. "Fuck, y/n...!" It was very deep, and due to the choking sensation, your soft face already had two hot, heavy and salty tears running down your cheeks, not really from pain but from exertion, that guttural effort you usually make when you have to throw up, when you yawn and when you cough. Every action that, even if minimal, brings the eyes to that moist, thing layer that, straining even more those feelings, makes it become tiring and uncontrollable tears. You felt Mista's warm cum run down your throat. Still, you took the chance to taste it properly. It was so good. Another thing you wouldn't have told Guido.

It was a different sensation, compared to when you swallowed it down yourself. Or at least it was, in other experiences you had, but you were wondering if it wasn't Guido's presence, making you feel in some sorts of ways. Anyways, by swallowing down yourself, you were fast enough to not to feel the need to cough. But this way, the warm fluid flowed dramatically slowly, along the walls of your throat, down, while you only wondered when you would stop feeling it moving in your lower neck and upper chest. The satisfied look on Mista's face, who was now approaching you again, after having pulled his member out of your tender mouth, spoke by itself, and said a few simple and easily interpretable words on the line of "You will feel this warmth also somewhere else, soon." and perhaps you weren't even really complaining about it.

Even if you hoped for it to not to be that intense and strong. Too bad it would have been such, but Mista knew what he was doing, so you just chose to let him do his thing to you. "...If you do want it, it is." oh. The fact that he made sure you were still agreeing to it, caused a weird warmth to pop up in your chest. Dominant Guido was a good Guido, but respectful Guido was the best version of him. You just smiled, and quickly nodded. Of course you wanted more. You felt your legs get grabbed and opened by strong and calloused hands, you were still ready and sensitive for him, despite all the times you had come for him that evening. And despite all the times he had denied you an orgasm.

He slipped his hard length inside of you without hurting your sensitive hole too much, or maybe it was just you who were already too used to keeping that damned neapolitan inside of your body, for that night. And you thanked God for it, otherwise it would have been quite painful. A beautiful pain, in any case. First thrust, Mista groaned very loudly, clenching his teeth. One day you'll complain to him, about the fact that he'll be expecting too much time from you to dedicate to having sex. "But you can stretch your muscles like this," he'll insist, looking for a bright side or a diversionary way to respond to your grip on him against the wall. You held on the bedsheets and bit your lower lip, keeping a moan from coming out.

Second thrust, even stronger. You began to even pull on the bedheets because of the gunslinger's cock, grazing just on the right spots, the spots only him could brag about being able to find so quickly. Maybe you would have ruined or ripped your own bedsheets. Just maybe. Worse than that time when Narancia and him had decided to become the funny people of the situation, and by folding and shredding Pannacotta's bedsheets, they made some table doilies. Afterwards, Fugo didn't really want to punish them too much, to be honest. Just enough to cause the two of them three or four displaced fractures, but obviously Bruno and Leone wouldn't let him do that either.

Third thrust, Guido had started seriously moaning on his own breathy groans. He sounded like he had started to chuckle on his own voice, and that... well, that was kinda hot. "How... How do you keep on being so tight after all of this... you're just like I dreamt... or even better, I say..." you felt your arousal reach the stars, when you realized Mista had been dreaming of you. Well, you would have lied if you told him you hadn't been dreaming of him as well. But all you could do in that moment, was moan and chuckle with him. He was such a funny man, after all. You thought of that time when, together with Giorno, he had well thought about ordering a dick-shaped pizza for Abbacchio's birthday, the package labeled "For a pissing goth". How were you thinking of this while having sex? Oh my god.

Fourth thrust. You were now trembling, along with moaning. "Fuck, Guido... just like that..." you begged, clenching your teeth and not only. "Make me cum, please..." He was being so damn strong, Mista, in that moment, but thinking about that little, big, funny part of his personality, from the vicissitudes with the Gang - although he almost never admitted to be guilty of those - to his iconic tetraphobia, the fear of number four. This is why, he was pretty fast to thrust inside of you an essential fifth time. And the thrusts that appeared so strong at first, seemed now softer, slower. Slower. And frenzied, because of his own climax approaching him.

"Y-Y/n... cum now...! Fuck... cum for me." How could you even think about resisting to it? You let go and rode your high, followed by him. Witnessing such an intense pleasure and feeling of being filled in such a good way from the neapolitan gunslinger, your body trembled and shivered, your hands scratched and caressed the perfect and imperfect skin of the shoulders of Guido Mista, who, filling you with what was left of his tiredness, he let go and collapsed on your sweaty body. "Thank you... damn... thank you." in that moment, you really hoped he hadn't just took an occasion to have sex or to empty his balls. But your fear disappeared when he lay his head on your chest and let you sink a hand into his dark curls, which were sticking to his sweaty face.

For a while, you stayed there, hoping he wouldn't drift asleep. You wanted to understand what all of that meant for him. Because it genuinely meant a lot for you. You had been waiting for that. All you had to understand was if Guido had been dreaming of you to just get a piece of your ass or a piece of your heart. "Bruno's waiting for us, Mista..." you whispered, but your body language fooled you. Your voice sounded like you wanted to get up and get to Passione's Headquarters, but your legs wrapped around the man's waist told another story.

"I don't really care, if I really have to be honest." the gunslinger mumbled, with a sleepy voice. "I'd go there to just look like a mess. I can't possibly focus on anything else, after a good lovemaking." oh you liked the sound of that. You giggled, that was a hilarious answer, but mostly you chuckled out of joy.

"Lovemaking, huh..." you repeated, stroking his soft, curly hair once more. "So it meant something to you." at your words, you saw Mista's eyes widen and his head get up from your chest. He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I... I was lowkey scared you just wanted to get a good time with my ass and let go."

"Me? Just get a good time with your ass?" he pretended to be deeply offended and pouted, making you giggle again. You didn't even mean to express that much joy, but you just felt your heart replenish with feelings. "Who do you think I am? I'm a gentiluomo, I'd never just use a babe like you for sex and nothing more. I'm... a responsible man and shit." yeah, that's just the answer a responsible man would give. But you were satisfied and happy. And amused.

"You know what, Guido... let's just stay here and rest. Bruno can wait." Maybe it was too early to talk about proper love, but you would have had a lot of time, to talk about it.

That is, if Bruno doesn't kill the two of you first.

[punkbarbarian]

bad kids playlists breakdown

thanks for all the love on my bad kids playlists! at the request of people here’s some of my thought process behind each of the songs/artists on their playlists :)

these playlists are mostly made up of songs i think they would enjoy listening to, but there are also some that i personally associate with them :)

fig’s playlist needed to be mostly, if not all, female-fronted bands and artists bc she is 1000% a very active voice for supporting women in rock. paramore is personally one of my favorite bands of all time and their earlier stuff really strikes me as fig’s taste. mitski is an incredible artist and i KNOW fig would be obsessed with her. i threw a bunch of queen songs in there bc they’re incredible and i believe fig would take after their dramatics a lot in her own performance. chase petra is a small band from california that i found on tiktok and became obsessed with ever since. their music is incredible and is exactly what i think fig and the sig figs would sound like. taylor swift is on there bc she slaps and i refuse to accept that fig wouldn’t know every word to all of her songs, especially from her cheerleading songs.

similarly to fig, i wanted fabian to have primarily black artists on his playlist in honor of lou’s mantra of always playling black characters in dnd. fabian’s taste is a little outside of my own, so i took a lot of inspiration from my friends who were jocks in high school or otherwise reminded me of fabian. frank ocean was the first artist i knew i wanted on his playlist, bc his music just strikes me as so intrinsically fabian (also i have a hc that fabian is bi and would probably look up to frank ocean as a bi person). childish gambino is one of my favorite rap artists bc his songs are all very hype and this is definitely a hype playlist. i put harry styles on there bc fabian was definitely a directioner and then got obsessed with harry once he started putting out his own music. there are a few wildcards on this playlist (see the two sea shanties and musical theater songs) however fabian would listen to sea shanties all the time and is definitely a musical theater nerd. 

adaine’s playlist was super fun to make. i think when she was younger she probably didn’t get a chance to listen to music other than what her parents played (which i think was probably just classical or lots of piano music bc they’re ‘proper’) so i kept that in mind when choosing the songs. a lot of them have piano as the primary instrument bc i think even if she associated piano with her parents, she would find beauty in it as an instrument. as a departure from that, i put vivaldi’s four seasons on there because i can’t think of anything more properly ‘fuck you’ to her parents than listening to baroque music (i love baroque music, it slaps). i think adaine is a bit of an old soul in some ways, which is why i put some older songs on there (see: elton john, billy joel, the beatles, fleetwood mac). phoebe bridgers is one of those artists that makes me emotional when i listen to her bc of the weight in her lyrics, and i think adaine would seriously relate to some of her songs in a number of ways. florence + the machine is an artist whose music is completely ethereal to me, and that is the perfect vibe for adaine. monet issues by chase petra may seem out of place, but the lyrics are really what made me choose it for adaine’s playlist. it’s about letting go of your shitty family and choosing your own path and if that’s not adaine to a t i don’t know what is baby!

gorgug’s playlist is the most similar to my own music taste (as a former emo kid, i cannot escape). green day is usually a gateway for people to get into more hardcore/similar music that’s away from the mainstream so it was only fitting that i put them on there. nirvana is one of my favorite bands and i thought gorgug would love them both for their lyrics and dave grohl’s drumming. i stole some of the artists from my friend who’s in a punk band (descendents and misfits) but they still suit gorgug pretty well! i don’t know where the idea of gorgug listening to the mountain goats came from but i couldn’t agree with it more, so theyre on his playlist too! the vibe i was going for with gorgug’s playlist was chill rock mixed with some intense songs that could represent him going into a rage, and i think i managed that!

kristen’s playlist was the hardest to make, no contest. i wanted to capture her music taste from her helioic days and the music she would listen to as a queer teenager, which is why her playlist is absolutely a mess lmao. carrie underwood, bruce springsteen, and taylor swift are leftover from her childhood even though she still loves them (i can’t stand most country songs so there was a limited selection for me to be able to tolerate, i apologize country fans). i wanted a bunch of queer artists on here as well, so teagan and sara, frances forever, and girl and red were guaranteed. i don’t know why, but i think kristen would listen to 100 gecs and i think its hilarious so that’s why theyre on here as well. the last few hozier songs are mostly just what i associate with kristen (especially work song and foreigner’s god) so that’s why theyre on here. 

i love riz to death but there is nothing you can say to convince me that before he met the bad kids his music taste wasn’t god awful. i have a friend who almost exclusively listens to video game soundtracks and 8 bit songs (which aren’t bad, just not my own taste) and that’s where i got some inspiration for riz’s playlist from. the rest of the playlist was inspired from another friend of mine, who listens to soft rock AND video game soundtracks so that’s where the killers, cosmo sheldrake, and bastille came from. i put johnny cash on there with the idea that sklonda and pok probably liked him a lot and riz started to like him by association (and also as a way to remember his dad). the last few songs, like on kristen’s playlist, are songs that i personally think of as ‘riz songs.’ brave as a noun is definitely not something riz would necessarily listen to all the time, but i think its a really good representation of his character (or at least the one i think of him as having). there are also some orchestral pieces that i think adaine would have showed him! the planets is a personal favorite of mine so it was only natural to include it.

[watchathon]

Halloween Special: Coraline

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watchathon, a blog where I watch something and make a blog post where I write down my thoughts as I watch. Each new thought starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so.

Today, I’m celebrating Halloween with my favorite spooky movie: Coraline! 

I realize that it’s not actually a Halloween movie, and I’m hoping to do actually Halloween-themed movies in the future, but when I had the idea to do a Halloween special post, this was the movie that first came to mind.

It’s scary, funny, gorgeously animated, but I’m sure I’ll be getting more into that during the post proper. With that said, here are my thoughts on Coraline:

- Even the studio logos and opening credits for this movie have an unsettling vibe, with both the visuals and the background music.

- And that’s before we’ve even gotten into the scene of the doll being transformed slowly into a doll of Coraline by mysterious stick limbs.

- I know that when I move, I’d love to be greeted by the sight of a man doing yoga on the rooftop.

- Nice introduction to Coraline when we see her pull a stick off of a bush and use it like a dowsing rod. Really sets up her character as a kid who’s not averse to the weird. The kind of kid who might, say, make several trips through a mystical hole in her room that brings her to button-eyed “better” versions of her parents and neighbors.

- And here we see Wyborne “Wybie” Lovat, Coraline’s closest-thing-to-a-friend in her new town. He’s more logically-minded, able to tell that Coraline’s dowsing rod is poison oak, and even analyzing Coraline’s name (after he’s corrected that it’s not Caroline.)

- I like the transition from Coraline holding her ear to the well, to her washing her hands in the kitchen sink.

- And here we see that the Coraline doll from the beginning of the movie made its way to the trunk of Wybie’s grandma. Which is scary, as well as bizarre from Coraline’s perspective. You move into a new house, and it turns out your landlady (who doesn’t normally allow kids) owned a doll that looks suspiciously similar to you, including your outfit.

- I like the music during this scene of Coraline exploring her new house. It’s so serene and calm.

- Coraline just killed the bugs in the shower with her bare hands... Not much I can really say about that except: “Gross...”

- I know all too well the feeling Coraline’s dad has when his writing is erased. I said this is a scary movie, here’s the scariest dang thing. *shivers*

- The entrance into the Other World is the perfect blend of creepy, and beckoning, with the music and cool colors.

- As well as the first appearance of the Other Mother. There’s the buttons for eyes, and the very fact that she’s an identical copy of Coraline’s real mom in everything but the eyes, making her scary on simply the conceptual level. 

But she’s so much nicer to Coraline than her real-world counterpart, not to mention that she cooks much nicer-looking meals than Coraline’s dad, and resides in a nicer version of Coraline’s house.

- And then there’s the Other Father, introducing himself to Coraline with a nice peppy song about her. The lyrics are filled with foreshadowing, but it’s not like Coraline was going to dig that deep into it. Why would she? The Other World is giving her the family life she wishes she could have in the real world.

- I’d say that Coraline shouldn’t accept food from strangers, but I mean, it’s her parents. But not really her parents, it’s her Other Parents. But they seem to know her like they are her parents. But they don’t actually know her, because they’re not her parents. But they are alternate versions of her parents. But... Oh dear, I’ve gone cross-eyed...

- And the Other World is even complete with a way for her to talk to her old friends from Michigan! Granted, they’re not actually her friends, but they are exact copies of... Nope! Not jumping down that rabbit hole again.

- Coraline gets confirmation that the Other World was real when she wakes up to find that her poison oak has completely disappeared, without a trace. I remember when I first watched this movie, I was afraid it would turn out to be all just a dream, but this confirms right off the bat that the Other World isn’t just in Coraline’s head.

- I like that we’re getting introductions to Coraline’s neighbors, starting with the Amazing Bobinsky, who’s working on a mouse circus. And also misunderstands Coraline’s name to be Caroline.

- And Coraline gets her first warning about the dark secrets of the Other World from said mouse circus. Plus, as a bonus, the mice get her name right on the first try without needing to be corrected.

- Next up is Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, the former also getting Coraline’s name wrong.

- You’ve heard of crazy cat ladies, now get ready for crazy dog ladies who stuff all their dogs when they die!

- Second warning about the danger of the Other World, from Miss Spink reading Coraline’s tea leaves.

- One thing I never really noticed before: The cat’s already showing a personality of his own right now, even when he’s just Wybie’s cat friend who’s not technically owned by Wybie.

- Seems Coraline’s starting to grow fond of Wybie, thinking of him as a friend instead of the annoying kid who lives somewhere near her house.

- Looks like Other Mother is really trying to push the idea that the Other World is better than the real world, what with how she insists that the Other Father is the Better Father.

- The garden arranged into a picture of Coraline is so beautiful. And so impressive when you remember that this is a stop-motion movie, and that portrait had to be actually built for its few seconds of screen time.

- Another thing that the Other Mother offers to Coraline as a benefit of the Other World: A version of Wybie that’ll listen to her, that won’t change the subject to slugs or whatever.

- Plus a version of Bobinsky that not only gets Coraline’s name right, but trains his mouse circus to spell it out. It’s like the Other World is “fixing” all the things that bugged Coraline about her life in the real world.

- And all that temptation looks like it’s working. When Coraline’s mom buys her the same grey uniforms the rest of her school will be wearing, Coraline only responds that the other mother would buy her a better uniform.

- Looks like the cat’s kind of suspicious of the Other World when he sees Coraline crawling inside.

- And the cat’s the only living thing from the real world other than Coraline to come into the Other World. Or, well, the only still-living thing...

- The third warning about the dangers of the Other World comes from the cat, also the first warning given directly to her instead of secondhand or via tea leaves.

- This movie can be creepy in a lot of ways even before Coraline’s life is in danger. For example, one of tne of the “good” things in the Other World is Other Miss Spink and Other Miss Forcible’s skin peeling away to reveal that underneath they’re actually young beautiful women.

- Not everything in the Other World is just the Other Mother’s puppet. She created Other Wybie, but he’s still clearly concerned for Coraline, and needs to be implicitly ordered to keep up the cheery facade.

- And here’s the big wham scene where it starts to get real spooky: The Other Parents saying that they’ll need to sew buttons into Coraline’s eyes if Coraline wants to stay in their world and keep all the things she likes better about it. Luckily, Coraline’s smart enough to refuse and immediately decide she never wants to return.

- The Other Mother might not have total control over everything in the Other World, but she clearly wants to make it so she does. Denying Other Father the ability to speak, and as we’ll see later she’s sewn Other Wybie’s face into a permanent smile that he can’t ever move.

- “Mothers don’t eat... daughters.” “I don’t know. How do you taste?” The cat might not be on the Other Mother’s side, but he can be creepy, even if it seems like he’s just messing with Coraline.

-  - I like that the cat’s here to serve as a companion from the real world to Coraline, consistently on her side even after the Other World shows its true colors. In this case, he kills a circus mouse that was sounding an alarm. Meanwhile that idea didn’t even occur to Coraline, who probably figured it was just circus practice.

- “Good kitty.” You’re darn right!

- Oh, dang, I thought that the Other Mother’s monster transformation came later than this.

- I heard somewhere that in the book, the Other Mother just looks like this monstrous form off the bat. I have to wonder, then, why Coraline was so trusting of her. Maybe it was just a really good dinner she cooked?

- Here we see that Coraline isn’t the first little kid that the Other Mother lured to her world so she could take their eyes and keep there forever. Their ghosts still reside in the Other World, unable to rest in peace or even remember their own names, but able to give Coraline her final warning so she doesn’t share their fates.

- It’s so creepy to see Other Wybie’s face with his mouth sewn into a permanent smile. But even with that, and with his eyes being only buttons, it’s easy to see that he’s desperate to save Coraline from this world.

- Other Wybie even sacrifices his life for Coraline.

- As I said before, Wybie is more logically minded than Coraline. So, really, it only makes sense that he’d hear Coraline talk about the Other World and arrive to the conclusion that she’s crazy.

- It always brings tears to my eyes, seeing Coraline sleeping in bed with pretend versions of her parents made from the pillows and sheets.

- At least the cat’s still there for Coraline.

- The charming colors of the tunnel to the Other World have even turned to a dull grey. It’s like a visual representation of how the Other Mother has given up on luring Coraline into staying, and has moved onto the idea of forcing her to stay, even eating the only key that allows travel between worlds.

- You can tell how much Coraline doesn’t want to say that she’ll let the Other Mother sew buttons in her eyes if she loses. But she has no choice; the Other Mother wouldn’t agree to the game unless there was something she could win.

- It’s both creepy and sad to see the Other Father, forced into attacking Coraline and keeping the eye from her.

- It’s cool how Coraline used Other Spink and Forcible’s bat-dogs against them. Also unsettling like everything in this part of the movie, but really cool and clever.

- Other Father and Other Spink/Forcible were transformed into corrupted versions of themselves. Other Bobinsky? Erased and replaced with a horde of rats that had his voice come out of them.

- Again, good kitty. Even when Coraline thinks she’s lost the game, the cat’s there to lend a hand.

- Coraline even thinks of the cat as a friend!

- But the cat’s not Coraline’s only ally. The ghost of one of the other children advises Coraline to be clever, all too aware that the Other Mother wouldn’t keep her word.

- You’ve heard of throwing your SO, now get ready for throwing your stray cat friend who became one of your only allies in the Other World where your parents are trapped as well as the ghosts of children who came before you! *gasps for breath*

- The Other Mother’s now given up on any pretense of being Coraline’s mother, having gone full monster. But given how she still has that hairdo? I’ve got to imagine that she’s still not quite displaying her true form.

- It’s so sweet to see Coraline interacting with the cat. Even outside of the Other World they’re still friends.

- I understand why people are upset why they changed the climax from Coraline’s clever gambit to a battle with the Other Mother’s hand (and Wybie helping), but I think this works well for a movie adaptation. I haven’t read the book, so I could be wrong, but just from seeing the movie, I think this climax is good.

- I love this ending with Coraline and her neighbors having a garden party, Bobinsky even helping plant some berries. It’s so cathartic after all the trouble Coraline’s been through.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

To reiterate: This is my absolute favorite spooky movie! And my first pick when it comes to movies fit for the season.

The first Laika movie I watched was Kubo and The Two Strings, in theaters. Then I went back and watched Paranorman to celebrate Halloween. Then I watched Missing Link when that came out in theaters.

Coraline came last out of all the Laika movies I’ve seen, but it may well be my favorite, with its lovable characters, amazing music, and gorgeous animation.

It has just the right amount of scare for me, as someone who’s not generally fond of horror. And as a PG movie, it leans more towards scary and unsettling aesthetic than jumpscares or blood/gore, another thing that makes this just right for me.

This is the perfect kinda movie for the season, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a spooky movie to watch tonight, on future Halloweens, or just whenever you’re in the mood for something creepy.

[a-patheticapathetic]

Rishloo - Feathergun: Review

New year, new me. Let’s repeat that until it becomes true. 

There seems to be a pattern with how I discover music. At a very young age, I hear a song in a very specific circumstance. It has a big impact on me, but I make absolutely zero effort to check out any of the artist’s other music and instead meander onto another earworm. Then, years later, I have another chance meeting with the same song/album/artist and fall completely down a rabbithole that foundationally changes my taste in music. It happened with Radiohead (High and Dry as one of the default songs in the original Rocksmith), Queens of the Stone Age (Lost Art of Keeping a Secret in a stick figure animation), and Nine Inch Nails (Hurt (Quiet) on Spotify radio). Then, there was this strange song called “Scissorlips” that I saw on a very small Rock Band 3 drum channel. I showed it to my brother because of how fun the chart looked, and made the mistake of watching his reaction to the video. His disinterest embarrassed me enough that I never chased the music. That is, of course, until many years later, when I was introduced to Tool. The rest is history, and is frankly stalling me from starting the actual review. Let’s get to it.

Scissorlips - 8/10

The strange, dark jungle the album begins with is a nice representation of the album cover, although it won’t rule over the entire runtime. Don’t let the de-tuned guitar under the vocals deter you; the rest of the guitarwork here is beautiful. As we reach the pre-chorus, the percussionists may hear why I was interested in this song as a kid. This is also where the sonic background really opens up, swallowing you for a moment before the intro verse comes back. The lyricism here is also very abstract, yet isn’t impossible to follow. A couple of metallic bites taken out of the mostly psychedelic walls of guitars, then, the first of many beautiful delay effects. The build-up got me pretty good when I heard this so many years ago, and It’s still damn good. For the love. There are so many guitar lines here that just intertwine and enlace you. Then, something a bit heavier (yet oddly hopeful) to round the song out.

Turning Sheep into Goats - 7/10

This intro is more of what can be expected for the rest of the album, sonically speaking. A lone guitar with delay playing a complicated and alluring line in a strange time signature, then built upon. The path you may assume this song will follow is extremely suddenly changed at the chorus, the vocals really driving it home. Then, back into that nice opening riff like nothing happened. The next time that chorus comes thundering around, listen to that low guitar and the way it combines with the drums. Then drop out the ugliness into a floating mesh of palm mutes and synthetic strings. And don’t miss the fl

Systematomatic - 7/10

awless transition into the next song. Immediately, a new riff rises from the pond of reverb. You may not identify it immediately, but don’t worry, you’ll get more chances to. Very fast guitar-work that somehow doesn't sound so frantic, although the chorus definitely has a certain desperation to it. The mood gets heavy again, before quickly sliding into a strange, feverish haze. Some hits of percussion, then a recontexutalized and slower return to the riff at the start of the song. Weave us back into war.

River of Glass - 8/10

Now this is an ear-catching introduction. What seems to be a calm wave of delay is punctuated by war drums and a grimier lead. The mood builds, then crescendos into the song proper. The chorus is hear damn near immediately, and is extremely catchy for prog. This album is really just full of extremely memorable vocals, and the instrumentals complement them perfectly. We get two goes-around before we fall into these twisting and sliding strings. The drummer is also on his A-game here. Then, the guitars push into the clouds before coming back down with another short but heavy low. Then it all cuts out for a second, juts to make the burst into the final chorus that much more effective.

Keyhole in the Sky - 7/10

This one is simpler, but also very filling and peaceful. Unfortunately it does begin to showcase my only problem with this album; the vocals are mixed too loud at times. And while the singer is absolutely incredible, sometimes I’d like the instrumentals to breathe a bit more. The walls of high guitar come back around, this time feeling much more friendly and familiar. One last chorus, closing on a quiet note. Though it’s not over; an alien feedback loop and somber, echoey horn passage lead us into the next track

Downhill - 10/10

This song has two main phases, and is absolutely perfect throughout. An easy start; a relatively simple and serene riff fed through a pleasant delay pedal, with some subtle synth and bass backing. The vocals shine through, as clear as ever. And wave, goodbye. Then, like stepping through a portal into phase one. A very interesting, rhythmic and almost bluesy instrumental accompanies the title-drop. Then, we fall for miles down a well of piano. The bottom greets us with a moonlit key solo, then an incredible Floydian guitar solo. Hanging on the last note, phase two begins with an ominous drone and repeating guitar line. The drums rise, give a false start. then... perfection. I cannot do phase two justice with words. Just close your eyes, listen, and be swept away in what I believe to be one of the greatest vocal performances of all time.

Lost.

Feathergun in the Garden of the Sun - 9/10

Not to be outdone by the previous masterpiece, the title track opens with another wonderful soundscape, before the distortion comes in. The drums pick up the tension, bringing us into the pre-chorus. That riff is going to be impossible to tap your foot to at first, but the next ones should be easier. And here we have perhaps the best chorus on the record; extremely powerful in writing and execution on the parts of every band member. The second time around is just as good as the first, then the brdige begins. Ready, aim... The heaviest riff on the album, and an abrupt switch into the last chorus. Fade out.

Dreamcatcher - 7/10

A nice break from the intensity. This feels like a peaceful tidepool on an alien world, with creatures and colors beyond the world floating around my head. Short but sweet.

Diamond Eyes - 6/10

By no means bad, I do feel like this one may be the weakest track on the album. While it’s certainly beautiful, I feel like it doesn’t do a whole lot that’s new or interesting. Also, when listening at high volume (which is the proper way to listen to this album), the faults in the mixing really rear their ugly heads during the choruses. Still, there are some very pleasant rolling delay loops here during the bridge, and a nice and satisfying buildup towards the end.

Katsushika - 7/10

While the guitar opening this track may be the most straight-forward and least effects-driven riff we’ve heard so far, this song will eventually become the most alien one of the entire lineup. In a good way, of course. I can barely even decipher exactly what’s going on in the instrumentation during that build. The chorus also ends with a nice drop-off into the next verse. You may be noticing a pattern with the songwriting, where the chorus usually leads into the second verse, following the pattern of the first one but with more layering. I like it; it gives the ideas present more time to mature and develop. Anyways, here comes the bridge, where everything changes. Out of everything going on here, I feel like the drums and the background vocals are the most striking thing about this outro. What a fantastic progression and dropout. Beautiful monsters.

Weevil Bride - 8/10

The finale. This riff here is extremely well-done. The tone here is somehow piercingly bright and concerningly dark at the same time. The lyricals themes of the album also come to a head here. This chorus is another incredibly written and performed beast; just wait until it’s modulated. The second verse lays away with the subtleties and strikes at the head. And I just need to know that everything is fine, and everyone’s alright. This bridge also kicks ass, with its heart-pouding combination of guitars and toms. Then, comes the heaviest part of the entire album: Yes, please. Then we are snapped out of the masochism and lifted back to hear the main point of the album, before the intro riff carries us into an uncertain but complete conclusion. After the “true” song ends, there is a long passage of somber horns and a tranquil, almost lullaby-esque keyboard. There’s something extremely nostalgic about this outro to me, but I still can’t put my finger on where it comes from. This section almost feels like the music they play after the end of a play, as the lights come on and you make your way down the dimly-lit theater steps on slightly numb and shaky legs. The story is over; this is your time to reflect.

The main reason I wanted to write about this album in particular is because I feel like it hasn’t gotten the attention it’s deserved. It truly feels like a masterpiece worthy of widespread recognition and praise, but despite being released over a decade ago, few people have even heard of this band. It feels like injustice, not only for Rishloo’s efforts, but for the people who would connect with this album as much as I have. Also, there’s the slightly selfish hope that increased attention would incentivize the band to work on more new stuff, or better yet, remaster their older works.

In any case, It’s very late, my back hurts because my spine hates my nervous system, and I need to actually get to sleep tonight so I can heal the godforsaken nerve that wedged itself in my inner workings yesterday. On a scale from “Your all-time low just lowered again”, to “Want some? Yes, please”, I give Feathergun a “Oh, what beautiful monsters”.

[thesunnyshow]

EPISODE 4 BONUS ROUND: K-POP

NAME: Milly

WRITING BLOG URL(s): @bumblebeenct

What groups do you stan?

Too many, NCT/WayV (of course), Seventeen, Twice, Red Velvet, Itzy, Stray Kids, Day6, Chungha and the list goes on

Who are your biases?

I’ll stick with NCT because damn there’s a lot. Jisung, Haechan, Mark, Renjun, Chenle, Hendery, Jaehyun, Johnny, Kun.

If you could do one activity with your ult, what would it be?

I feel like going to an arcade would be a lot of fun and act as an ice breaker. I also love arcade games they’re fun.

Why do you think people love idols and their stories so much?

Idols make it so easy, there’s so much content for fans these days, not to mention they’re all incredibly talented. They are some of the most hardworking people in the music industry today and deserve all the support they garner. Liking the stories I think is a result of loving the artist.

Where do you think the line between fantasy and reality should be drawn?

Exactly as it is, between fantasy and reality. It is nice to have all these stories and fantasies about certain artists and people, but to imagine them mixing in real life can be dangerous. It is important to distinguish the difference between enjoying a story about an artist and actually wanting to live that story. It’s probably best for us to keep our fantasy of them away from the reality of them, especially with the trouble that they already have with sasaengs and crazier fans that act on their want to be with these artists.

What would you do if you met your bias in real life?

I like to imagine I’d be calm, cool and collected but I’d probably be really shy and have no clue what to say. I’d have to have been aware of it beforehand otherwise we have a very quiet interaction on our hands if any.

Is there a need for reform in the industry?

Yes, as much as i’ve grown to love K-pop and support the artists within it, it is impossible to do so appropriately without acknowledging that the industry itself is inherently problematic. From proper representation and promotion to mental and emotional support there are flaws in the system, and while the industry has grown a lot from where it started there is still a lot that needs to change. If I elaborate now this interview will go on for a while, but if you’re new to kpop or thinking of getting into it I’d say that it’s important to understand the industry, how it works and what still needs to be done.

If you could be a K-pop star, would you?

I don’t think I would. As much as I’d love to be a recording artist, I don’t think I fit the industry. Not only can I not dance, at all, but there is a lot of pressure put upon these artists and it takes an insane amount of dedication to actually be a part of this industry, and I personally do not think I have what it takes.

What would you do if you found out that [insert idol here] had read [this] fic about them?

I am assuming this will be nct and my fics? I think I would freak out a little, because as much as I love writing about them and creating these stories, it can be easy to forget they’re real people and I would just hope it didn’t weird them out. But if they mentioned one of my fics randomly I don’t think I’d reach out like “it was me!” so I’d be fine quietly freaking out in the corner.

Why did you choose to write for a real person vs. a fictional one?

I struggled with character creation and OCs before I joined tumblr, but for NCT it is so nice to be able to work on a storyline with characters that you already know so much about and love, they’re the inspiration. It also allows you to get more into the person, you do so much research for the stories that you end up finding more things to love and appreciate about these artists everyday.

Has K-Pop changed your life in any major way?

Yes, I am way more appreciative and understanding of other cultures. Before I really got into kpop I didn’t understand it, but now that I’m totally invested I have gained an understanding of what it is and why it’s so easy to love. It also opened me up to an interest in languages and the way different societies work culturally, it allows me to be more accepting and willing to explore different reasons why for different countries, societies and industries. Not to mention, it has changed my music taste quite a bit.

[sagebaileyspeaks]

The day is finally upon us and Hamilton has finally reached Disney+ and I just want to say: I’m glad they got this proshot right. 

My experience is limited to Cats and Spongebob but both of those left a few things to be desired. Cats is definitely bizarre and entertaining the lack of audience presence is apparent and gives the film a distance that doesn’t emulate live theater and in the case of Spongebob...listen I’m glad that they took the time to film this musical for the sake of posterity but the proshot of Spongebob is TERRIBLE. Especially if you’ve seen the show live or any of the slime tutorials that are floating around. That proshot suffers from the amount of material that was cut, the lackluster audience and the incredibly stiff direction. When you see the Spongebob Musical live there is so much ENERGY that the director just could not capture. And you can’t tell me that it was too hard to do, because they did it with Cats back in 1998 and they did it here with Hamilton in 2016.

Mini rant out of the way, I think this proshot is amazing and embodies both the experience of live theater and the sheer power of this particular musical. I mean just look at the trailer. I saw a video late last year, coincidentally about Cats, and how the proshot allows you to get those characters more personally and that is absolutely true here. 

Having seen a variety of slime tutorials (sorry Lin!) and the show live in SF, I can tell you with certainty that there are things you just can’t pick up because everything moves so fast in front of you. Facial expressions, slight movements of the hand, I NEVER realized the look of complete devastation on Burr’s face in “The Election of 1800″ but now I do! And in high definition!

In regards to what I think of the musical as a whole: I think that Act 1 is a great representation of the “Double Consciousness” and Act 2 is war of the assholes. And what I mean by that is that on the surface, you have a musical about how great the Revolutionary War and our Founding Fathers are and underneath you have a group of POC going back and forth about best way to approach an oppressive system.

You have Burr who is very much about respectability politics who embodies the, “if we just educate ourselves, talk proper and dress nice and not make too many waves we can rise in this system,” and then you have Hamilton who says, “Fuck that, burn it all down, revolution we get rid of the oppressor by force.” And in these times, lines like “this is not a moment, it’s the movement,” “I’d rather be divisive than indecisive,” “when you’re living on your knees you rise up,” have a lot more meaning than they previously held.

Act 2 on the other hand is when you see that one person who called for revolution get a little bit of power and then sell out the entire movement because it’s now below him. It’s tragic that Burr, Mr.Respectability Politics, can’t rise any higher until he starts acting like a revolutionary, but Hamilton, the self proclaimed revolutionary, rises high because he challenges the system and becomes apart of it. 

If nothing else, I see Hamilton as a musical about how POC in America navigate a system of oppression and work within it. Also Ham’s an asshole, Jefferson’s a snazzy asshole and Burr is a sympathetic - but murderous - asshole and I love it. I’ve read a few articles that say the musical is wrong for painting them as “heroes” but honestly...honestly...every single one of them puts their assholeishness on full display and they’re just fun to watch because they’re terrible people. Like, I don’t watch Jefferson and go “what an amazing job,” I think, “You entertaining son of a bitch.” But that’s just me.  

I think another element that added to my enjoyment was the fact that my experience with the musical live was not great. The actor who was filling in Burr did not have the vocal range required for the role, the person playing Lafayette/Jefferson was - in my opinion - hucking and jiving for white folks (shaking his Afro like JJ from Good Times,) and the audience had an audible negative reaction when a dark skinned Maria Reynolds appeared on stage. The other core numbers “Yorktown,” “Satisfied,” “One Last Time,” and “Schuyler Sisters” were phenomenal, but honestly even watching the slime tutorials weren’t enough to wash the bad taste out of my mouth - but this was! I feel like it was a great substitute for the live experience.

All around Hamilton on Disney+ is a huge recommendation for me ESPECIALLY if you have kids of color. 

[pass-the-bechdel]

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend full series review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

100% (sixty-one of sixty-one).

What is the average percentage of female characters with names and lines for the full series?

43.18%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Thirty-eight, so, more than half.

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 50% female?

Twenty-one, and a few of those were 60%+.

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

One.

Positive Content Status:

Ultimately, disappointing. There are definitely good pieces in there, and bad pieces too, and by the end I mostly felt too cynical about the way most of the good pieces were handled - as perfunctory, noncommittal brownie-points grabs - to be very impressed by anything. I think the show spent more time rejecting the branches of feminism that it didn’t want to be associated with than it did celebrating any branches it did want, and at the end of the day it had less progressive commentary to make than it thought it did (average rating of 3.01).

Which season had the best representation statistics overall?

Season four, in every category but the positive content, for which it scored average.

Which season had the worst representation statistics overall?

Season two dropped the ball on the percentage of female characters, slipping below 40% for the season average (and turning in that singular episode under 20%). 

Overall Series Quality:

If only it were as consistent as its Bechdel passes - unfortunately, it’s an absolute mess. I wish I could pretend that the rollercoaster of quality was a deliberate metaphor for the experiences of the show’s lead, but the show never has a strong enough handle on itself to pull off a feat like that; Crazy-Ex Girlfriend was rife with problems from the jump, and even as it resolved one thing (ditch a bad character here, finally achieve a less confusing narrative tone there), it always managed to wander off into some new mistake. The overall gives the impression of being poorly planned, and the show never settles down with itself or its characters in order to tell a cohesive story (hence the lack of payoff on almost any character arc). It’s a shambles, and while I did variously have a good time, by the end I was glad to be rid of it.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

Look, it’s no secret that this show caught me at a bad time. As I have pointed out, I have been pregnant for pretty much the entire duration of the viewing experience, and due to the various ups and downs associated with that, it took me something like seven months to watch a mere sixty-one episodes. I will readily admit, this show was not a good fit for me, possibly not at all (it’s...not my usual flavour), certainly not at this particular time in my life. I haven’t been very forgiving, and while I don’t feel that I’ve been unreasonable, I will allow that under different circumstances I might have enjoyed this show more. I did enjoy it, really, more often than it feels like I did on reflection; the bad taste that the show left for me, far too often, the irritation, the boredom, and the sense of unearned superciliousness I sometimes detected in the writing, it all left a stronger impression than the good, genuine moments, the insightfulness, the laughs, and the originality. There was more in the show worth seeing than what I feel when I think back on it. It wasn’t that bad. But, at the end of the day, I still don’t think it was very good, either.

(p.s. since writing that previous paragraph, I had a baby and many weeks have passed. This is not the ideal way to review a show).

I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes on this show - what they had planned from the jump, what was off the cuff, what changed, how much time they had to incorporate change into the story, etc - and I don’t really care to know either, since we are here to consider the product that was delivered, not talk about how it came to be that way. I don’t know if a colossal lack of fore-planning is the big flaw at the heart of this show, or if it’s just that what was planned was so basic it gives the impression of being half-baked. At any rate, I think a lot of the inconsistency in tone and quality and plot movement and narrative purpose can be traced to a lack of planning; the impression I get is of a ‘wing it and see what happens!’ approach which did not work for them at all - having everything locked down from the start isn’t always a good storytelling model since it leaves no room for improvisation as the narrative develops, but grow-as-you-go doesn’t work if you don’t have a strong sense of your moving pieces and their purpose, all you get is a disconnected shambles. It does not appear to me that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ever had an overarching plan for where it was headed, nor did it establish enough complexity in its players to pull off an unplanned narrative. I feel like a broken record and I’m not gonna harp on this any longer, but the moral here is that you don’t need to have everything figured out in a story when you start, but you do need a trajectory, and for the love of God, don’t just figure out broad strokes of who you’re taking on the ride; figure out the two-fold why. Why is this character here, and why does it matter? Too few of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s characters had good answers (if they had any), and that’s how you end up with such lacklustre or shoe-horned character conclusions. Even Rebecca didn’t end up with a good answer to the second why?, and that’s just sad.

ANYWAY, there are frankly too many angles I could come at in how I felt this show failed, and as I said early, I don’t think it was that bad, plus I think I’ve railed at it enough that I am just repeating complaints - I told myself I should try to talk about what the show did do well, but I find I’m a little stuck on the subject; everything I liked seems to have some failing attached to it. So, I’m gonna just try and list the good stuff without equivocating - I’ll run with the idea that I already wrote the complaints part elsewhere, possibly many times over. The good things: Josh Chan was everything that a ‘perfect guy’ character should be and never normally is on anything else that plays with the concept; Rebecca’s BPD was often extremely well-handled and a lot of their best work went on doing justice to that part of the story; they brought Valencia around quite successfully to make her one of the more enjoyable characters on the show after a crappy start; Darryl’s bisexual awakening in season one was handled way better than I’ve ever seen a show handle that kind of thing; White Josh existed; Paula was a refreshing change from the usual best-friend/sidekick archetype; sometimes the show had something meaningful to say on the feminist front; Father Brah also existed; there were some great musical numbers; the show definitely offered some things I’d never seen before; Rebecca’s home decor was pleasing; there was that big crocodile plushie...ok, look. This show wasn’t for me, we all know that. I feel a little bad about the way the reviewing process went (up to and including this one) because I know I was distracted and had significant breaks between episodes/seasons way too often (and even now I am holding an upset baby and typing one-handed; it’s not conducive to good evaluation). There was definitely proper analysis that I put in the ‘I’ll get to that’ pile time and again for this show, only to forget it completely when I finally had the time to write anything up; that said, I still don’t think this show would have gone over well with me under different circumstances - better, perhaps, but not well - and that’s because it has a LOT of flaws. A lot. Fun idea, poor execution, and it’s not the baby that thinks so. It was an interesting ride and I am sorry I couldn’t appreciate the good bits better, but it’s time to go now.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Movie Reviews: I’m In Lesbians With You

It occurs to me that i don’t have a proper review of Scott Pilgrim on here. I really should work through the current backlog of films that i still need to watch; Uncut Gems, The Lighthouse, Parasite, Ready or Not, but i f*cking love Scott and his shenanigans so... Scott Pilgrim it is! Considering how much i love this film and the fact that I’m just going to be gushing about it for however long this review is, let’s just get this out of the way immediately: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an excellent movie and you should go watch it right now!

The Outstanding

Yo, before anything, can i just express how much i adore this f*cking soundtrack? My taste in music is varies wildly but, at it’s core, my heart beats for the Indie and the New Wave and the Post Punk. For this soundtrack to be packed with so much excellent, underground, indie fair? Oh, my goodness! It’s musical sex to me. Shout out to Nigel Godrich. Motherf*cker did the best of jobs on this one!

Even more than that, the way all of this music is integrated in each scene s absolutely brilliant. There’s not one note out of place or out of line. It’s rare that happens, so deftly that i actually recognize it. Usually, it’s all background noise to accentuate whatever scene but i legit took in everything.

While on the subject of music, i want to take a minute to acknowledge the sound design as a whole. Scott Pilgrim is based on a graphic novel, which i also love, so there is a rather kinetic energy that needs to be conveyed. It’s chock full of all the spastic nonsense us Millennials grew up with like Mario token sound effects and obscure cartoon references. Integrating certain sound effects like the random game noises here or there is absolute brilliance. It lends an air of authenticity to this adaption.

While i can gush about all of the audible genius for years, i would be remiss if i didn’t speak on the goddamn eye candy of this film. Holy sh*t is thing gorgeous! And not just the Evil Ex set pieces, even though those are absolute chaotic bad-assery, this entire film is a work of art. It really is. You can frame almost every shot in this thing, it’s that gorgeous.

Speaking of gorgeous, these costumes are amazing. A lot of them are ripped right out of the comic but they’re like, real clothes. Nothing feels cartoony or comic book-ish, it all feels organic to the tone of film and characters therein. Like, i wear the same kind of sh*t Scott wears. It’s all graphic tees and jeans with me, much to the chagrin of my darling missus.

The writing in this flick is absolutely brilliant. Like, seriously, nothing feels out of place, the dialogue feels organic, and the plot is a pretty decent condensing of the graphic novels original six volumes. I have interactions like these with my friends. I legitimately talk like this. Of course, there is a little polish on some of these line but, overall, it’s pretty on point.

All of this standout awesome can be traced back to the vision of it’s director, Edgar Wright. No one believed in this little experiment so he had carte blanche to create whatever he wanted and he did just that. You can tell there was a real love for this material and while not everything from the books made it into the movie, he did an excellent job of capturing the major beats and important aspects with his absolute mad style of movie making.

The cast in this thing is weirdly perfect. All of them. Every one of them. Seriously, it’s like a who’s who of young Hollywood from way back when, almost all of whom have grown into proper A-list talent and i love it! Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzmen, Ellen Wong, Brandon Routh, and Mae Whitman are all excellent in their respective roles. There are, of course, standouts but before i get to them, i just what to acknowledge how great the casting is, overall, in this movie. You can feel the comradery onset and it’s reflected in the fact that there are no weak performances, at all, in this flick. F*ck, dude, there’s even a Thomas Jane and Clifton Collins cameo in this thing that feels absolutely at home!

This film would be nothing without the right person in the lead. Scott Pilgrim is a neuritic, self-centered, anxiety ridden, asshole of person but still lovable in a very dry and sarcastic kind of way. There are very few that can capture that energy so when i found out Michael Cera as cast in the lead, i knew this movie was in good hands. Every movie i have ever seen him in, Cera carries that energy expertly. He is he living embodiment of Scott Pilgrim. Like, this is MCU levels of casting, for real.

The second role you had to nail to make this work was definitely Ramona Flowers. You had a little more leeway with this one but i think they still nailed it with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I’ve been a fan of hers since way back when she was in Sky High (I actually love that movie SO much) and even further back with The Ring Two, but that’s more a deep cut than anything. Anyway, Mary is perfect as Ramona and one of the best things about this movie.

So the performances of the Evil Exes are spectacular, Particularly Schwartzman’s. His Gideon Graves was just so smarmy and condescending and disingenuous you couldn’t help but hate his guts. Dude was awesome, no doubt, but he was outshined by what Chris Evan was able to create with Lucas Lee. That’s right, Captain America himself was in Scott Pilgrim as the first Evil Ex and he f*cking killed it! I’ve loved Evans for years. Not Another Teen Movie is actual one of my favorites and he was easily the best thing about those first two Fantastic Four films but you can see him shine in this role, even if it was only a few minutes.

It’s no secret i love Brie Larson. I’ve raved about her performances in the past but it was this movie that made me take notice. Her interpretation of Envy Adams was pitch perfect. It’s melodramatic and over-the-top but at the same time, incredibly vulnerable. Natalie has one hell of an arc in the book and it’s a little short-changed in the movie, but Larson makes gold with what she has to work with. Plus, she actually performs the cover to Metric’s Black Sheep. Those are her vocals and i find that to be absolutely dope.

Of course, you can’t talk about Scott Pilgrim without talking about his gay roommate, Wallace Wells. Dude is one of the best characters in the book and is an absolute scene stealer n this film, thanks to the deft hand of Kieran Culkin. It’s hard for me to praise gay character in cinema because cats always right them as caricature but Culkin’s Wells feels real and grounded, none of that Hollywood gay bullsh*t. Dude is a person that just happens to be gay and i love that.

And last but not least, Aubrey Plaza. There’s a little picture of Julie Powers that is the spitting image of Plaza. Like, her casting is as perfect as Scott’s casting. Seriously, she is what Michael Cera is to Pilgrim. It’s rare a cast in a film is so goddamn perfect. Even the MCU has had some missed but literally every one in this film is absolutely prefect and Plaza might be best of all.

Also, all of the LGBT representation. While the movie didn’t capture all of the many, many, sexual presentations, they didn’t shy away from some of the most prominent. Pilgrim’s roommate Wallace Wells, is extra gay and he has a myriad of boyfriends throughout both the book and film. Nothing too graphic, but there are scenes with them in bed and one pretty heavy make-out sessions early in the film. Hell, they even included Ramona’s one female Ex, Roxy Richter, in one of the best Evil Ex fights of the entire movie. Bravo film, bravo.

The Verdict

I said this in the beginning and just in case the previous gushing didn’t give you a clue, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a f*cking great film, man. It stands on it’s own as a wonderful coming of age story but it’s so much more than that. It’s a love story to music. It’s one of the best comic adaptions i have ever seen. It’s an ode to the Millennial coming-of-age journey. It’s a nostalgia bomb for kids my age, who did sh*t like play video games all day then spend all night in coffee shops that had live music and f*cking waffles. It’s an amazing representation, and unique presentation, of those early twenties when you aren’t sure of yourself or your direction or anything and you just want to drift through life for as long as possible. It’s heartbreak and new love and learning about who you are, deep down, not some shallow representation or facade. I love Scott Pilgrim because it tells a great story. It tells MY story. And it does it with a banging ass soundtrack, too.

[siyeonrk]

hello, rookies! I’m a little late to the party as always, but hi, i’m abbie and this is seoyeon or april, my third muse! 

i’ll list some fun facts for seoyeon under the cut but overall, she’s basically a rich, slightly entitled eighteen year old who’s back in seoul as of last summer to look after her ageing grandmother! she’s seoyeon’s world so even though she liked it in boarding school in england, coming back really wasn’t a hard decision at all and thus, here she is! she’s working as a baker in a little bakery called mayflour bakery and aspires to have her own bakery one day. 

so yeAH, below the cut are some fun facts, a short rundown of her backstory, potential collabs and some open plots!!!! comment a number for a starter based on an open plot ( unless it requires some plotting, then i’ll im you! ) or an emoji for a random starter! i’m doing them for charisma starters but there’s no cap, so please take a plot or comment an emoji to your heart’s content!! alternatively, like if you’d like to brainstorm or you have a plots page for me to take a gander at! 

as always, thank you, rookies!! ♥

quick links: profile, background. 

fun facts !!

can’t swim!! at all!! kind of afraid of the water, actually,,

stans k.arma and convex in the rookies’ universe, but also sonamoo and oh my girl. her convex bias is sehun and her k.arma bias is sana!! she also loves vanilla acoustic and their discography is basically the Perfect representation of her music taste — soft and flowery and,,, often acoustic

will fight you if you trash talk her faves,, 

picked ‘april’ as her english name because of tmnt,, i wish i was joking 

would die for gordon ramsay

hates spicy food and pranks ( unless they’re wholesome, of course, but the traditional sense of the word— whoopee cushions, or the stuff you see on youtube ) 

backstory !!

her maternal grandparents passed down their luxury hotel to seoyeon’s parents, so the latter are quite absent from her childhood. that being said, they try really hard not to be, so it’s not like in all the movies and dramas seoyeon watches where the rich kid becomes resentful. not even close.

bc they’re so busy, though, said grandparents have a really strong involvement in her life growing up, so they’re her entire world! 

( tw death ) sadly her grandfather passes naturally whilst she’s away at boarding school in england. her parents had asked her to go and used the fact that they’d never asked her to do anything else ( such as study business to inherit the hotel,, for that she’s Grateful ) as leverage to make her go. her only regret doing so is that she didn’t get those last couple years with her grandfather. ( end tw )

but she comes back another year later because her grandmother is getting old and sick and she needs someone who can look after her, so seoyeon returns to do so. 

she highkey loves being back and living with her, though, even if it pains her to see her struggle. she loves spending time with her and it’s given her the chance to get working in a bakery. ( everywhere else rejected her but she loves baking so much and she’d been hoping for one of the bakeries she applied to to accept her anyway, so all is well )

she’s balancing both now and loving life and all is wholesome and great,,, For Now

plots & prompts !! 

turtle power ( around her age, 4/4 ) — her four closest friends! don’t necessarily have to be a friendship group itself, but just the four people she holds dearest. she’ll save each as one of the teenage mutant ninja turtles because she’s a little bit of a loser like that. she’s a loyal friend and she’s got a credit card, so if you’re looking for someone to give bad advice, yell at people for you and then buy you lunch, seoyeon’s your girl. ( leonardo: @rkyeji. raphael: @rkjone. donatello: @rkheejin. michaelangelo: @jinsoulrk. )

sink or swim ( 0/1 ) — seoyeon can’t swim and you take it upon yourself to at least calm her fear of water. it’s really nothing to worry about, after all, especially in a swimming pool. 

rkmakeover ( unlimited ) — seoyeon’s always up for a little fun experimenting with make-up or dipping in and out of charity shops trying on the weirdest outfits ( chosen for each other, of course! ). 

cat-astrophe ( 0/1 ) — you don’t like cats and seoyeon is determined to change your mind; by taking you to a local cat cafe, of course. 

experiment #56 ( taken by @rkhaechan ) — you’re her willing test subject for today, trying all the new creations she’s been working on lately. she thinks the balance in her ingredients might be off a little bit and maybe you wouldn’t know the difference but who says no to free food? 

whispered secrets ( taken by @rkyerim ) — whilst it’s not exactly top secret that seoyeon lives with her sick grandmother, she doesn’t really like people knowing the truth behind her grandmother’s state. she tries to pretend everything is fine but you know, you’ve known her grandmother for years, and now you’re probably the only one seoyeon can comfortably talk to about how stressed she gets when she really sees her grandmother struggle. buckle in, this is a sad one. 

i’m on fire ( 0/3 ) — people who really grate on seoyeon’s patience. maybe you just have conflicting personalities, maybe you’re patronisingly better than her at something she loves or maybe you’re just slimy, but the two of you don’t get on yet somehow keep bumping into each other. what kind of luck, right? 

thereby hangs a tale ( 0/1 ) — someone who listens to all her stories from boarding school, and hopefully has a few life stories to tell themselves. she doesn’t like to dwell but she does like to reminisce. 

recognition ( public trainee or idol, 0/2 ) — she recognises you out and about and takes a photograph of you going about your day to post on her social media. however, you catch her and approach— to ask why she’s being so invasive? to offer a proper photograph together? that’s up to you! 

“let’s binge watch the other avengers movies ahead of endgame and argue over who’s the best avenger, deal? also it’s scott and you can’t tell me otherwise. yes I know he’s not in any of them but he’s still the best” taken by @rkxsnh

“how can you afford to come here every day??? bakeries aren’t cheap, you know, and isn’t it unhealthy to be eating so much cake constantly?? you’re— you just come to see me? well, you should’ve just introduced yourself instead of wasting all that money— you better have eaten all those cakes, I lovingly made them myself!!!” 

“hey, seoyeon, can you help me carry these bags?” “no thanks” 

“did you just say k.arma sucks?? do you want to catch these hands?????” 

COLLABS GALORE!! seoyeon’s music taste is pretty much entirely softer acoustic songs and gentle ballads. if you’re looking for a partner for anything like that, hmu!! here’s a list of songs she wants to cover: 

spring with you — vanilla acoustic & 20 years of age ( vocals, 0/1 )

us on a young night — fromm & 9z ( vocals, 0/1 )

pieces of you and me — fromm & giriboy ( vocals, 0/1 )

lullaby — onew & rocoberry ( vocals, 0/1 ) 

stay with me — punch & chanyeol ( vocals/rap, 0/1 )

[salavante]

Grey Solidago!

(lol this one was from Jake but he forgot to turn anon off. I’m making ye way through these and will probably post the rest later today or tomorrow - I got Pat and Aesop to go and might just do one more headshot of my choice to make it an even number)

Full Name: Grey Solidago

Gender and Sexuality: Female & Bisexual

Pronouns: she/her

Ethnicity/Species: Grey is a half-Anubii (also known as a Zeke) and a hemilich. Her father, Jonquil, is a full blooded anubii, a race of odd, magically reanimated corpses of unknown origin, and her mother, Hare, is a human. Hare is also ethnically an Ashkenazi jew.  

Birthplace and Birthdate: Maybe sometime in September. Could have been born in either The Tidelands (ranging from coastal sage scrub to salt marshes and deltas/swamps) or The Green (temperate rainforest and boreal pines to taiga).

Guilty Pleasures: Definitely smoking, a bad habit she picked up from her dad. Not really a guilty pleasure, but I also think that her tastes in music are a lot more varied than people would expect, and she can probably find something she likes in any genre she investigates.

Phobias: Nothin really man! Grey is actually the most “normal” and well adjusted of the Solidago children, which still means she’s kind of creepy and peculiar by average standards. She doesn’t like feeling vulnerable or like things are out of her control, and she is good at compartmentalizing her doubts and anxieties. There is a certain, intense rage inside her that is kept under a cool exterior, and inflicting grievous harm on someone who she feels deserves it is not something that troubles her very much. I suppose she may fear taking things too far and doing something very cruel, because she knows she has the ability and emotional capacity to do it.

What They Would Be Famous For: Grey is a fine artist who does very big, lush oil paintings, and while not famous, is notable and has had gallery shows of her work. Grey’s usual job is accompanying adventuring parties to strange locals and then illustrating them in action and doing charcoal studies of ruins/landscapes/etc, as editorial material for the various publications on adventuring and dungeon diving. She’s become a handful of magazines’ go-to gal. Her work is mostly representational, and she seldom makes a piece without doing lots of studies first, but she leans heavy into chiaroscuro and has big, juicy brush strokes. Words often used to describe her work are “eerie”, “haunting” or “intense”.

What They Would Get Arrested For: Probably something really benign like trespassing or going somewhere without a proper permit, Grey is pretty lawful, both of her parents are in a law enforcement esque occupation. They run a very organized adventurer’s guild, effectively, that will cooperate with local law enforcement to catch run of the mill criminals in addition to tackling monsters or liches or what have you.

OC You Ship Them With: Wybjorn has a tiny baby crush on her because he gets crushes on anyone who’s moderately nice to him, but he’s a little too goofy for her, she’s not into it. Grey’s in an awkward bracket of characters because they are kind of our third gen group and there’s only so many of them in the 20-30 range (Grey is 23). She’s also kind of an intense lady, I keep using that word but it fits. Canonically, we’re going to see how Grey and Ozzy fare when we get around to Mindrunner II, the sequel to Ozzy’s original campaign. They weirdly hit it off during Godslaughter, I think they’re both very intellectual people and counterbalance one another very well. Ozzy has a partner already, their name is Rosemary, but Ozzy has two hands.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Jovix-Cailo, probably. He did kill Lysander and broke Grey’s leg. Otherwise she hasn’t really done anything to invoke someone’s ire. Jovix-Diocunigast might also kill her in the final fight, we shall see (I wrote this before the game was over, he didn’t!).

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Grey likes slow burn ghost stories, psychological horror, true crime documentaries, mysteries and thrillers. She’d like “I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House”, “Twin Peaks” and Agatha Christie. She probably reads short story anthologies and paperbacks when she’s on the road for her job.  Anything with well paced tension will hold her interest, but she may tolerate poor writing as long as the visuals in a movie or TV show are good.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: I honestly don’t think she’d treat something with disdain or vitriol like some other characters might, I think she’s pretty good at ignoring stuff that she doesn’t like in terms of media. Not a big fan of slashers or more fantastical horror, she has pretty well defined tastes, and dislikes your usual bouquet of mainstream film genres (romcoms, action, etc). I do think that one thing she truly does not like is any cartoon with singing in it, which is probably something she has to moderately tolerate because she has a young niece.

Talents and/or Powers: Grey has a mostly utility build with a focus on stacking debuffs and interrupting other people’s attacks. She doesn’t have any really big, damage dealing abilities, but she’s meant to support more potent DPS by wearing down bosses with status afflictions. In fiction this manifests as a handiness at weaving curses. As mentioned before, she is also a pretty skilled painter, with her preferred mediums as charcoal, ink wash and oils.

Why Someone Might Love Them: Strong willed, confident, intelligent and classy - Grey has perhaps had self confidence issues in the past, she was kind of a weird looking, gangly child/teenager, but she really owns herself now. She knows what she likes and dislikes and makes her preferences very obvious, and though she doesn’t make jokes very often, has a good sense of humor (which she got from her mom) though it can be kind of dry/morbid. She’s rather private and has an air of mystery about her and a slight eeriness that some may find enticing. She also refuses to stand idly by when there is injustice in her presence, for better or for worse. 

Why Someone Might Hate Them: She can come off as uncaring or cold, and definitely has a terminal case of Resting Bitch Face. Any hiccups in her success in the art world are caused by her being uncompromising with her integrity, and a reluctance to play nice peers and art directors just for the sake of networking or getting a job. Being disingenuous feels counterintuitive to her sense of ethics. And while that’s all well and good, it makes her difficult to work with, and has made her miss out on some opportunities she may have benefitted from. Her bluntness has made her unpalatable to many, and some may see her as being stuck up. She also does not react well to people approaching her with aggression or snideness, and will retaliate ferociously.

How They Change: Honestly, not a lot, she’s pretty stable. Grey has mostly functioned in an NPC capacity up until this point, so there haven’t really been any stories focused on her. Prior to her extra dimensional shenanigans with her half-brother, she had kind of a strained relationship with her mom, who’s she’s since gained a lot more respect and compassion for. They’re on much better terms now. She also started out not liking Ozzy very much and thought he was kind of a weiner, but, they’re very good friends now after having some pretty harrowing experiences together.

Why You Love Them: She’s my only character who’s actually an artist. I don’t tend to like making characters who, well, do what I do. I love illustrating but what I do is still a lot of hard work and I like to take breaks from it. Generally speaking, I prefer to insert my creativity and drive into characters that make things with their hands but don’t make visual art per say. It’s why a lot of my characters are scientists and engineers. So I think it’s a unique connection to have.

[thelibrarybat]

Get To Know Me Tag

Rules: Answer twenty-one questions and then tag twenty-one blogs you’d like to know better!

Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen one of these circulating on tumblr in forever. Thank you for the tag, @moremercurial!

Nickname: My name isn’t wonderful for shortening, so I’ve never had a proper nickname, which is a shame because nicknames are fun.

Star Sign: Pisces sun, Aquarius moon, Libra rising.

Height: 5’3” or 5’4”?

Last Film I Saw: Colette, and it was extraordinary.

Favourite Musician: I recently got Spotify, so I’ve been listening to lots of new exciting music and it’s thrown my understanding of my music taste into chaos. I’m not sure who my favourites are right now.

Song Stuck In My Head: Don’t You Dare Forget The Sun by Get Scared

Other Blogs: I literally just made a side-blog for posts related to the D&D campaign I’m DMing, which is completely empty right now. (If anyone’s interested in that feel free to ask about it).

Do I get asks? Every now and then!

Blogs Following: 131.

What I Am Wearing: Fluffy indoor trousers with earth-toned flower patterns on them, a pink BTLM t-shirt (from Ways2Raise) and a grey-and-black chequered cardigan.

Dream Job: I’d love to be a full-time writer for a living. That’s the far-off dream, since I know it’s super hard to live off your earnings as a writer. I’d also like to work in the publishing industry, maybe as an editor or a sensitivity reader. Whatever I do, I want to help increase diversity and representation in fiction.

Dream Trip: There are lots of places I’m dying to go. For someone who lives in the UK, I haven’t seen much of Europe, even though it’s not all that far away – I’d love to visit more of it. (I also, one day, would love to be able to do a tour around the UK, stopping at lots of different independent bookstores along the way).

Play Any Instruments: I have moderate guitar-playing capabilities, and I can tear it up on the recorder.

Languages: Thanks to the British education system, I’m only fluent in my native English, with dubious semi-fluency in French. I’d love to get properly fluent in it, and also Spanish if I get the chance.

Favourite Food: Chocolate.

Favourite Songs: Again, Spotify has really done a number on me. (But currently it’s Human by Ellie Goulding).

Random Facts:

1)     I finished reading Compass Rose today and it was amazing. (If you like f/f romance, sci-fi and pirates, this book is for you).

2)     Currently I’m trying to grow a collection of plants. So far I have a phalaenopsis orchid and three hyacinths in my care.

3)     I am both a student and a writer. In conclusion, I desperately need a nap.

I’m Tagging:

@aestrogirl, @angelicgays, @bee-lieve, @bucxys, @enimo, @fleurison,  @levrathan, @mactevirtute, @oylmpians, @plutonianbees, @red-fox-from-fairytale, @sapphires-sapphics​, @typicalwriter, and anyone else who’d like to join in. (If you don’t want to, feel free to just scroll by - I won’t be offended!)