#also: what lockdown does to a mf

[skitskatdacat63]

why is he like this

[wheretheeternalare]

there are many ways in which my adult life has turned out to be very different from what i thought i desired as a teenager but one of the most dramatic differences is i went from wanting to live completely alone above all else to feeling sooo lonely when i'm on my own for like. 24 or more consecutive hours.

[bawkrya]

Uuuh something something flag (i want to hear about cdramas)

ok HI well you caught me at the most devastating time where im fixated on the worst of the three cdramas i rotate in my brain (or ginal sin again) LOL, im going to force yall to sit down and perceive my hyperspecific version of chi zhen (my girlfriend) in my brain

SO! if you have the patience take my essay length "summary" of OS/and how i perceive it to have more context for who chi zhen is and what he does

my transgender king. and NOT in the way u wld expect. chi zhen is like. Removed from a lot of things, but i think she esp wld be for LGBT stuff & similar topics. like he didnt know what a bisexual was until one of the girls at his club explained it to him removed. If you put this man through covid 2020 lockdown he would come out trans in some way which is WHAT I DO TO HIM!

ive kind of given her my gender which is no gender but in the opposite way where hes transfem vs me being transmasc. she still aligns with more masculine things but also sophie called him her 'favorite pretty girl' as a joke once and he had to sit down and dissect the feelings it put in his brain. i literally use she/her or he/him for her depending on what flows better with the sentence in my brain.

if i do commit to the rewrite though it wld be very very subplot that IS noted, but he literally wouldnt even have time to properly think about it in depth bc hes u know, trying to kill someone, someones trying to kill him, etc............ but also for the rewrite i am wanting to do 'spinoff' where i jst invest some writing into 'downtime' story for like. character development. Filler basically but its not being injected as to prevent the rewrite from getting too long bc I Promise You It Will.

2. going 2 go over this before my actual next point i wanted to go over but this mf has autism. he wears sunglasses p much everywhere & honestly jst seems like he has a sensitivity to light. the way he goes about certain social instances in the show. and i dont think we were shown Much of how she is in the courtroom but she very much seems to be a patterns sort of person when it comes to solving situations.

also i am autistic.

3. the actual thing iwanted to go over: herspecial interest is colognes/perfumes and he can identify a VERY good portion of such jst by smelling it. i literally dont know why this is wht i chose for him but hes Definitely like insanely prissy about personal hygiene and (covers the show with my hand) dresses herself well and i just think he shld have a cologne/perfume collection.

chi zhen doesnt really have too many REAL personal belongings, hes been in jail, where he lives is very purposely hidden so he doesnt really have an Option to keep many personal items. But. I think he wld have a pretty decent collection of different cologne/perfume. which is fueled when people give him such for birthdays/holidays

i dont think she wld specifically have a preference bc different perfumes suit different people, on top of different styles of perfumes and all that. ipersonally dont know enough abt perfumes to even go in depth for it but she would kno the intricacies. She would.

its not smth he like talks abt all the time bt by god u ask him one (1) thing related to it and it can turn into a good 45 minute conversation b4 she realizes whats happening and immediately goes :| BC IT GETS HIM EMBARRASSED ........... but he likes it a lot and of the ppl who kno abt her interest they usually ask her for suggestions on it bc she likes assigning certain scents 2 people. like a planned filler scene i got is based on her getting like really suddenly angry/antsy while trying to go over a case and its literally bc lu li unexpectedly changed colognes w/o saying anything and he fucking lectures him for it

but yeah um i thikn that is all i am goign to willingly post abt publicly for my hyperspecific hcs for this guy bc 4 some reason i think the cringe police will come and kill my ass if i go into anymore depth. i lvoe this mf so fucking much i want to dissect him like you would tear off a young branch from a tree and split its bark in order to see the stringy inside

[vicea]

Sapnap’s alt stream on February 04, 2021 (for those who missed it or can’t watch the entire stream. It’s more informational and random facts than anything)

sapnap is letting sylvee help ministate his karl’s and quackity’s marriage ‘cause she wants a license LOL (ty anon for fixing my mistake)

sapnap called “bullshit” on the height guy who got 5′9″ for George’s height (he live reacted to the tik-tok)

sylvee and sapnap argue about whose cat is better for a while. After a bit, Dream comes in coincidentally and Patches follows and they start praising Patches and how she’s the best cat.

patches doesn’t shed that much, she likes her fountain water, she has very soft meows. Patches will meow at you if you look at her and talk to her

sapnap chugged some hot sauce out of fucking nowhere when dream pointed out how nice and organized his set up was but then there’s just a random bottle of hot sauce. he then eats celery with hot sauce and likes it...? (dream judges him hard in the bg LOL) 

sapnap and dream wants to do a just chatting while eating spicy hot wings on monday night (no facecam) (dream can’t even handle spice)

Dream said that it’s likely Sapnap and George are just the same height and that he’s for sure the tallest  

sapnap wants to eat the chicken soup dream’s mom made for dream because dream was saying it was the best cs ever LOL

dream sits crisscross on sapnap’s floor when he goes into his room

dream likes peanut butter - has not had it for 3-4 years now

“dream vs sapnap who would win? if I had a gun, I would win” -sapnap

dream loves takis over hot cheetos- but he only eats very little b/c he can’t eat spicy for the life of him (he needs melk otherwise) sapnap does not like takis as much though

sapnap and george were being “annoying” and wanted to do a adlib for dream’s song - like a “hey” in the bg or something lmao

sapnap and dream plan to live together for the rest of 2021 

if you could only have one food for the rest of your life-- sapnap answered with burger and dream got real analytical with his answer: pizza

dream was praising Moe’s queso 

DREAM TEAM WILL RELEASE COLLAB MERCH. the podcast is not priority, they’re sort of taking their time with it but it will come out! and sapnap has a facecam video possibly coming out in March

apparently dream does not wear his own merch and does not own any gnf and sapnap merch smh

dream has pictures of patches in a reindeer outfit >:(

the original plan was supposed to just drop roadtrip completely out of nowhere at 12 am EST but fans found out LOL

Drista is apparently pretty tall-- up to Sapnap’s shoulders (holy crap)

sapnap: “what’s bts?” - Dream said that Sapnap would like Dynamite because it’s like a good entry into kpop since normally, people would not listen to it since it’s in Korean

sap and dream can see themselves getting their ears pierced

sapnap has the biggest dumptruck

sap and dream agree that strawberry milk slaps. dream also likes banana milk 

george joins the stream and before he could even speak, dream correctly predicts what he’s going to talk about, then george immediately talks about the height tik tok -> sapnap mutes him right after 

sapnap was afraid of leaking Dream’s song before it dropped LOL

Sapnap’s Very Important PSA “I want a reassessment [of his height], Kentai_Haven. This is a message from Sapnap. That water bottle you used was incorrect. I would like a reassessment. If you want, I can find the right water bottle for you. I’m formally asking for a reassessment.” 

SAPNAP WANTED TO MEASURE PATCHES INSTEAD OF HIS HEIGHT

Sapnap and Dream are strictly obeying COVID guidelines by not going out at all :]

dono: “what do you think of gnf?” sapnap: “gnf is okay.” dream: “oh that gogy guy?” sapnap: “yeah that weirdo.”

dream hasn’t had melk on its own in a while (but he’s had drank it on its own in the past)

Sapnap misses Texas :( He says Texas is better than Florida. But Dream is saying that Florida has a lot more to do, it’s just COVID making it uninteresting. They will do a lot of stuff together when lockdown is over.

Dream’s PSA: “Stay inside and wear a mask” 

HHN - Halloween Horror Night !! Dream wants to take sapnap there :D

Sapnap doesn’t remember anything from Spanish class

Dream took 3 years of Italian (or French) mf doesn’t remember anything either

sap plays chess against randoms with the help of dream + george who helps sapnap get check (btw dream does not hear sap’s audio)

sapnap knows Nothing about kpop but Dream Does :D

Nothing is messy in the house thanks to Dream’s mom LOL

sapnap calls patches patchie sometimes

sapnap watches subbed anime

bbh joins and compliments chat and helps sapnap out with chess too

dream leaves and says to “stream roadtrip” 

sapnap jams out to roadtrip so much <3

sapnap stalemate in bullet chess against a rando and finally plays against george -- sap wins b/c george wasn’t properly trying. They go again, George wins this time. for the third game, george won but sapnap didn’t let the chat see his defeat (anon mentioned that george won 1st round. i’m not sure tho)

george tried singing the chorus lmfao but he doesn’t know the lyrics to dream’s song

I might’ve misheard or missed out on some info so apologies in advanced for that!

[starsarestars]

Rocco HCs because I love writing manifestos and redemption arcs for my green eyed long haired men with no tact whatsoever:

Post show was rough for the poor bastard - he was completely lambasted by the press and social media and I’m ngl it definitely did a massive detriment to his confidence and sense of self. I think he hammed up the whole laddish lothario thing because he thought that was what he was supposed to do, but his mum raised him differently and when I tell you her being disappointed in him for it has him hurtin 😢 Like obviously he’s immature and a bit of an arse, but the fall out from that is arguably worse than what happened after he dropped out of Uni and changed his name because his Mum is VERY much aware of the type of shit Rocco has essentially put himself within the scope of. I can imagine her to be a sensible, middle class slightly older woman who’s probably got a stable career in something cushy and raised Rocco with the mindset that the best thing he can do is seek out stability and find a job that’ll be enough to get him a house just to make it so that the rug isn’t pulled from under him and that he’s not going to struggle. To say she’s surprised by what unfolds when he drops his student loan on a fucking van is a complete understatement, but there was sort of an inclination towards it because...

Rocco was that fucking emo cousin! Not only did I make Rocco’s fc Aaron Taylor Johnson because I think that mf is a baddie, I also did it because holy shit!!! Emo Rocco content!!! I just know that motherfucker wails along to I’m Not Okay in his van on the road. My king was cyberbullying and trashing Henrik’s Halsey tumblr blog all the way back in 2015 because he’s an OG emo trinity purist and spent his spare time either losing his mind over copies of Kerrang! or absolutely fucking his hair up straightening it to a crisp. Rocco being a reformed emo tracks and I won’t accept constructive criticism.

*skip if uncomfortable by mention of Pandemic etc.*

Lockdown was a turning point, I think. I know we all kinda joke about him being an Anti-Vaxxer Covidiot who doesn’t believe in masks or the proper measures being put in place but more conversely what if Rocco, having known more than anybody what it’s like to deal with isolation and how anxiety inducing it is, actually uses his platform and the means he has to do good? What if he offered care packages and food deliveries for vulnerable people who weren’t able to leave the house and was just really advocating for people’s mental health during lockdown on social media? It’s not exactly uncommon for islanders to raise awareness (I.E Doctor Alex) but I’d like to think that it’s been a time of reflection and growth for him, he’s bettering himself and he’s even taken up counselling via Zoom to break toxic habits and to finally seek help in a way that has him addressing his problems rather than running away from them.

My main gripe with FB and how they handled Rocco was that they used him as a punchline all the while giving him this really compelling backstory. Lottie ignoring him and trying to make the others push him out is completely reminiscent of what made him spiral mentally and I can’t believe it was even a choice for MC to partake in that knowing just how detrimental it was to him. Is he a bit immature and thottily inclined? Yes! But does that make him a bad person worthy of ridicule 25/8? NO! Also I kinda thought that the part at the start if mc says she likes Marisol the most where he goes “maybe that’s something I’m interested in too.” And looks at the lads was inferring that he was Bisexual? Maybe I read it wrong but yeah Rocco is bisexual fuck Fusebox.

[trainsinanime]

Trains in Miraculous Ladybug - Part 1: The Metro Train

Part 1: The Metro Train (you are here)

[Part 2: The Metro Station]

[Part 3: Startrain]

[Part 4: The Gare du Nord]

[Bonus: The Bus]

Time to finally put this blog’s URL to use again. I’ve been putting this off for literally almost a year now. All the real pictures here were taken when my sister and I were in Paris in March last year, which was interesting, since the lockdown there really started on the last day I was there.

Anyway: “Miraculous - Les Aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir”, or Miraculous Ladybug in short, is a French-Korean-Japanese animated TV show (close enough for my purposes) set in Paris, which sometimes features trains. Let’s review them. Since there is a lot to say here, I’ll split this into several parts. This one is about the Metro train, the next will be about the metro station, and then after that probably the Startrain.

The Metro is the most important mass transit system in Paris. It is huge. How huge exactly?

[Image description: Identical screenshots with different language subtitles. Chat Noir explains to Ladybug in French (first picture) or English (second picture) there are 200 km or 140 miles of subway tracks in Paris.]

[I’ll add image descriptions for everything unless I’m describing the image in the surrounding text anyway, I hope that’s okay.]

Nerd. He’s right, by the way, as of the airing of the show, but this figure is going to double over the next ten years (if everything goes according to plan), because there is a massive project to build more subway lines especially in the outskirts of Paris right now.

(Why does he know that? Maybe he likes random trivia. Maybe just because. Maybe for this kid, who can’t drive cars, and who is locked in his home by his abusive father, the Metro represents freedom, moving through the city at will, something he desperately craves…)

In the show, the Metro is a repeated location for quite a few episodes, which the fan wiki helpfully lists. I’d make fun of them but it’s been really useful for this post. Though you are, of course, free to make fun of both of us.

It’s not something that any of the main characters use daily, but it keeps coming up. As a result, it has been the site of some of the show’s most important moments.

[Image description: Screenshot, featuring Ladybug and Chat Noir in a metro train; Ladybug has fallen onto Chat Noir; subtitle says “purring”]

The show likes to reuse its 3D assets, so it features only one metro train, this one:

[Image description: Metro train with open doors; Marinette is running to catch it.]

In other shows, this might have been a completely fake invented train, or something that vaguely looks like a train, but Miraculous Ladybug is actually fairly accurate here: This is a good representation of an MP 73 train. Here is how it looks in real life:

Correct color, correct numbering, mostly correct details, they actually did really well here. From the angle of the screenshot, the train could also be an MF 67, since they have basically the same body:

That’s actually quite clever of the show’s writers, since this means their train can stand in for trains on quite a number of lines (not that the show ever gets specific about lines). To tell that this is an MP 73 and not an MF 67, we need to look deeper, literally: At the wheels. The MF 67 runs on steel wheels (MF - Matériel Fer - (Rolling) stock with iron (wheels)). The MP 73, on the other hand, runs on tires. Seriously.

Some of the lines of the Paris Metro use a special system (invented here, but also used in a few other places) where the trains don’t (normally) run on steel wheels, but instead on what are basically truck tires. It looks like this:

As you can see, underneath the end of the train is an assembly that has two wheels with tires, running normally, and then two smaller wheels lying essentially flat. The smaller wheels are touching special guide bars next to the rails; this is what guides the train.

If you look at the track (see below), you will see that there are essentially normal railway tracks, but then next to that are bars (made out of steel or concrete) on which the rubber wheels run.

This system was invented to build trains that accelerate better, are quieter and more comfortable. According to reports, it succeeded at that, but I think that really says more about the old trains (the historic Sprague-Thompsons) they replaced. In practice and compared to other, newer Paris metro lines with normal rails, the MP 73 are very noisy and their ride is very bumpy. The noise, which is a constant rubber screeching, is very distinctive though.

A number of lines in Paris have been converted, and others built like that, but right now there are no plans to convert the remaining lines, and the new lines being built on the outskirts will all use normal rails.

Anyway, all this is relevant to Miraculous Ladybug because the show’s creators actually made sure to portray this correctly. We can see this best in Queen Bee. There we see the train from the front, with the horizontal guide wheels plainly visible:

We get close-up shots from underneath, again showing the guide wheels, and showing that the train still has normal steel wheels as well - which is accurate, that’s what they use to guide the train through switches.

We get close-up shots of the tracks, showing both the running beams next to the tracks, and the higher guide beams a bit further out.

There’s even a close-up of the wheels, glowing orange for some reason.

This is a delight. They portrayed everything important correctly on screen. The tunnel, by the way, is also accurate, those really have these red and white and stripes and those tight curves.

The only problem with Queen Bee (apart from Chloé’s actions) is that they didn’t add in the proper sounds. I have no idea whether they didn’t bother, whether the sound editors didn’t know, or whether they purposefully decided that accurate sounds would be too confusing. I’m also not sure where that orange glow is coming from there.

On the inside, the train is also really well modeled. I would say it is essentially accurate. That is what they and the closely related MF 67 really look like.

[Image: Screenshot, interior of the MP 73 subway car.]

They do include the windows you can use to look into the next car.

[Image: Screenshot, Alya waving through a window, while Marinette is hiding behind her.]

They also accurately portray the fold-down seats that are attached to the normal seats next to the entryways.

[Image: Screenshot, Marinette sitting on one of these folding seats, even though lots of regular seats are free.]

[Image: Screenshot of other people sitting on these folding seats.]

When I first saw this episode (Backwarder), I thought it made no sense that Marinette would sit down there instead of the fixed seats. Turns out that everybody who uses the Metro ends up doing this, including me. It just saves you a few seconds if you’re not planning on going far, I dunno.

In a few episodes, we also got shots of the cab, such as in Queen Bee, when Tom Dupain tries in vain to stop the train:

[Image: Screenshot, Close-up of the controls of the cab, with a finger pushing a button]

Similarly in Puppeteer, when Adrien uses it as a convenient transformation spot:

[Image: Screenshot, Adrien standing in front of the cab door while the train driver is running away.]

I’m afraid I don’t have pictures of the cab myself, but you can find some on Wikipedia. And based on that, I would say the cab seems generally like a good representation. There are certainly details, like a few buttons in a wrong position, but overall, really close. Note that Tom Dupain is pushing the wrong button to stop the train (he’d have to pull a handle which is out of shot, which is what the train driver actually does eventually), but that is realistic here: He has no idea what to do, after all.

As someone who is used to animators just not caring about trains (because none of the viewers, other than me, care), this whole thing is a breath of fresh air. The creators of Miraculous Ladybug have created this fairly minor detail with far more care and attention to detail than they needed to, and I can only thank them for that. 

But obviously, this is the internet, and love is boring. So let’s nitpick some.

An easy thing is when they just make things up, like when they add huge advertisement screens in Queen Bee and Prime Queen.

[Image: Screenshot, Ladybug standing inside a metro car, which has huge screens at the end wall, and long smaller screens at the long walls at roof-level.]

While newer trains are getting screens, they’re not getting that many, and the older trains just don’t have any. That said, this episode adds lots of pointless unrealistic TV screens everywhere, so it is not that surprising that the metro suffers from this as well.

Another thing in the same episode and a few others is that while the cab is accurate, the gauges are not. In Puppeteer, the big black round thing here:

[Image: Screenshot, showing the cab, with a speedometer that goes up to 120, and labels reading both mph and km/h, and what appears to be a tachometer display. Also, Plagg.]

The speedometer is in the right place, but why does it go that high? The MP 67 can only reach up to 70 km/h (43.5 mph). I’m also fairly certain that it doesn’t have this odometer in this location. That looks like they took a graphic of a car speedometer display and inserted it here. And if all of that isn’t inaccurate enough for you, note that in this scene, the train is stationary, but the speedometer is reading about 35. That is obviously a bit incorrect.

Another few inaccurate gauges come from us courtesy of Queen Bee:

That thing on the left is a gasoline car rev counter, with two hands for some reason. Next to it appears to be… another one of those, but with only one hand and only reaching up to eight. Barely visible on the right is what appears to be a voltage gauge for 12 V batteries.

Meanwhile Prime Queen gives us a completely different speedometer, but one that is also wrong:

Note how it is both mph and km/h, with the miles bigger, and how it reaches up to 160 mph or 250 km/h. There is no reason why a Paris metro car would have miles, and moreover, why it would have a speedometer that goes that high. The speed that’s shown here, a bit under 90 mph or 150 km/h, is about twice of what it can actually reach. It would have long derailed by this point.

Too nitpicky? Okay, there are also some things on the outside. For one, the doors are flush with the body, and open outwards. In real life, they doors are instead inset a bit, and they move into a slit between the outer and inner wall of the car body. Metro cars with doors that slide out like this do actually exist; in fact Marseille and Lyon have ones based on the MP 73′s technology (though looking very differently) that work like this. For Paris, it’s wrong though.

On the front, they have a very interesting mistake: The dark gray area has a crease in it. These trains did indeed have this crease… until they got repainted and got the dark gray area; during that work the crease was covered, for some reason. So the crease is correct, and the paint scheme is correct, but the combination of both is wrong.

Another issue is that the actual MP 73 has tiny wheel arches, while the MF 67 doesn’t. This one here lacks the wheel arches as well.

The biggest problem I have is probably with the windscreen. The windscreen of the real car reaches all the way to the roof, and has an area to show some random numbers here. The MF 67 actually shows its destination in the upper windscreen area, but the MP 73 doesn’t. This is probably because the MF 67 is used on lines that have forks with some trains going to one station and others to others, so you need to know where a given train is going, while all trains on the line 6 (where the MP 73 is mostly used) just go to the end. In the show, they removed the upper part of the windscreen, and have curved the roof down. I have no idea why. It makes the whole train look too wide and makes the proportions seem off, when they actually are (as far as I can tell) completely accurate.

All of these are really minor niggles in the end, though. There’s a lot of criticism of the show, some of it valid, a lot of it… well, not quite. But the metro train is really solid work, and they can be proud of that.

If you want to ride an MP 73 for yourself, they run mostly on the line 6 (there is also one on the line 11). Much of the line 6 is above ground, though it does have a few underground stations. The line 6 is also the only metro line from which you can get a good view of the Eiffel Tower, between Passy and Bir-Hakeim. Its more common normal-wheeled sibling, the MF 67, can be found on lines 3, 3bis, 10 and 12. Both will probably be replaced by the end of the decade. It is possible but in my opinion not that likely that they’ll be repainted into a livery with white, gray and light blue before then, which is currently slowly being rolled out across all of Paris’s mass transit.

Next time, we’ll discuss the station infrastructure. That should probably not be quite as long.

Part 1: The Metro Train (you are here)

[Part 2: The Metro Station]

[Part 3: Startrain]

[Part 4: The Gare du Nord]

[Bonus: The Bus]

[kurtanaaa]

Hi I love your chatfics please could you give me a list of the new directions’ private stories and who can see them?

YES I CAN AND I CAN ALSO GIVE YOU A KISS ANON I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU THANK YOU FOR ASKING ME THIS

okay this is going under a cut bc i am going to talk A LOT!!!! oh i am so excited jfjdjfjksls

so i’ve made a list of what i thought their private story names were before but that was before i really started writing chatfics regularly so this is a great chance to do it again!!!! lets get into it!! this isn’t gonna include the newbies bc i’m setting this before s4 :/// sorry yall

Brittany: my private story -miss girl doesn’t really like private stories with weird names. they confuse her :/ how is she supposed to know what it is if it’s named something weird like 99.9 virgin radio? that’s just a radio station babe! -everyone in new directions is on her story, along with lord tubbington (she made him a snapchat account), a bunch of vocal adrenaline kids she made friends with by accident, some of the haverbrook kids, a couple warblers (trent. she likes him a lot), and most of the cheerios! lauren zizes and matt are also on it!!! -she has banned all football players except the glee guys from her private story. they don’t get her fun times.

Santana: real lesbian girl shit -she’s a megan thee stallion fan and also gay. not much else to it!!! -again, all the new directions are on it, except occasionally she removes finn just to test his patience. she also has lord tubbington bc she loves her girlfriend. all of the cheerios are on her story and she uses it to make announcements to them sometimes (every time a cheerio leaves the squad she boots them from her story). she does NOT have lauren zizes (still salty over the hallway fight) but she does have matt!!! that’s pretty much it tho she doesn’t like to be too public with her crap

Mercedes: TOTS -bitch loves her tots and she made the story when she and kurt were bitching at each other about them. she won’t change it ever. -EVERYBODY is on cedes' private story bc everyone loves cedes. she’s got lauren, matt, most of the warblers that she met through kurt and blaine, a bunch of haverbrook kids, a good chunk of mckinley that she’s met through classes and such, sunshine corazon, even a couple girls from that all girls acapella group at season two nationals. unique is on her story too!!! she keeps up with everyone!!! -she has ALSO banned most of the football players. it is a point of soreness for the majority of them that they don’t get the privilege of being on her story.

Kurt: i diagnose you with gay -he saw a meme that said this once and laughed his ass off so he had to use it -kurt has a surprising amount of people on his story. he’s got all the warblers who were at dalton when he was, he’s got all the new directions plus lauren and matt, all of the cheerios who were on the squad when he was, a bunch of haverbrook kids, sunshine, a few mckinley students he made friends with, unique for SURE, and even some of the nicer football players. he also has karofsky on his story (bc hes too nice for his own good), sebastian smythe (so he can post pictures of him and blaine and make him jealous) and jesse st. james (so he can bully him directly). for some reason coach sylvester is also on his private story. no one except kurt and sue know why and they’re not revealing their plans to anyone. it is terrifying.

Sam: The Blackbird -he named it after the plane the x-men fly bc he is a Geek Bitch. -anyway sam is ALWAYS posting to his private story. every day there's five new videos of various hudmel shenanigans. he likes to record things just in case he has to leave again and he needs memories of his friends. -since he’s a sweetheart and doesn’t like people to feel left out, he’s got a fair amount of people on his private story. obviously the new directions and lauren (and matt! he met matt through mike and they hit it off), and some students from his old schools. he’s got some warblers, a chunk of the football team, some mckinley students, and lord tubbington. it’s a good time!

Puck: VIP ZONE -this idiot just likes everybody on his private story to know that they are SPECIAL and APPRECIATED if they’re there -he posts the most wack shit on his story bc he’s always getting up to something stupid so he keeps the amount of people on his private story low so he doesn’t get ratted out -so pretty much only the new directions are on it, plus matt and lauren and a couple of the more tolerable football guys. he has jake on his story too!!! (in my glee cinematic universe they met earlier and they’re bros) he also has jeff the warbler on his story for reasons known to no one, not even jeff and puck.

Rachel: 🌟Rachel Berry Exclusive🌟 -do i even need to explain this one. -rachel does NOT understand the concept of a private story. pretty much everybody who has her on snap is on her private story at this point. she does not give a shit she wants everyone to know what she’s up to all the time. this means that practically everyone she’s ever met is on there

Finn: cooler than puck's -this man is always competing against puck a lil i know it. puck thinks its hilarious. -not a lot of people on finn’s story! he’s got the usual suspects plus some football guys, and david warbler and wes warbler. they hang out sometimes!!! he thinks they’re fun dudes. he also has jake on his story bc he’s met him a couple times through puck and he seemed chill. also jesse st. james so finn can make him jealous bc he’s a little shit

Blaine: Sometimes Turnt -his story posts are usually very basic but when this man gets drunk he goes off the RAILS on his story it’s crazy -blaine’s another one whos got pretty much everyone he knows on his private story. all the usual suspects and all the warblers are on there. he doesn’t have jesse, lauren, or matt, but that’s bc he just. doesn’t know them. he’s got a couple people that he made friends with at mckinley on there too!! -cooper is NOT allowed on his private story. he is explicitly banned.

Tina: former goth bitches anonymous -’nuff said. -tina has the BEST stories. everyone wants to be on her private story - except for when she’s having a breakdown and keeps posting screenshots of sad songs on spotify. but the thing is she keeps her private story on LOCKDOWN. she’s got her new directions and lauren and matt, she’s got a couple haverbrook kids, some warblers, a goth guy she met at a hot topic, and sunshine!!! but NO ONE ELSE. everyone else is PROHIBITED. NO FUCKING ENTRY!

Mike: The Fuck -mike didn’t know what to name it :/ so he decided to name it after what he’s thinking every time he posts a video of his friends doing something stupid -everyone loves mike. everyone is on his story. thee whole mf gang. the new directions, lauren, matt, jesse, sunshine, the whole football team, all the cheerios, haverbrook kids, warblers, vocal adrenaline dancers, the works. he doesn’t know how they all wound up there considering he hardly ever posts, but he just keeps making friends with people and they’re like "hey you’re very sexy and hot. want to be on my private story" and of course he has to return the favour!!!

Artie: Artie's Priv -short and simple! -everything he posts is edited RIDICULOUSLY. like with stickers and filters and video edits, the works. everything. -he doesn’t have a lot of people on his private story mostly because he usually uses his public one, so he just doesn’t think to add people to his private story. but he’s got the new directions, he’s got lauren and matt, he’s got a few other mckinley students, and... that’s pretty much it. he just doesn’t think about it!

Quinn: Don't let my Catholic guilt see this -this one. i haven’t gotten to use it in a fic yet. but i will. its also fairly self explanatory -quinn is another gal who keeps this shit shut DOWN. almost nobody gets in bc a lot of her stories are just her RANTING about feminism or her life or SOMETHING that's pissing her off that she needs to vent about -she’s got the new directions, she’s got lauren and matt, she’s got some cheerios, and that is IT. nobody else gets to see this shit.

THIS WAS SO FUCKING FUN TO WRITE OUT OH MY GOD I AM SO PLEASED!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING ME THIS I HAVE NOT FELT THIS MUCH EUPHORIA IN A LONG TIME!!!!!

[4dtk]

also sorry anon i did general mark hc’s too!! after those are the mark as a bf headcanons :^) the hc’s are all over the place hhhhngnd i apologise

general mark headcanons:

scrunches his nose when his glasses are falling off his face

scratches his head excessively when he doesn’t know what to say

can’t sleep with the air-conditioning on bc he’s sensitive to cold ;;

likes it when you praises him, he’s subtle about it though

randomly strikes poses in the middle of conversations like… mark wth

BITES into his ice cream (theres this super old video of the boys visiting an ice cream shop in the US but i forgot what he did so i headcanon that he does that)

loves to act out the bohemian rhapsody guitar solo when he’s alone in his room

has a cup he brings around everywhere that has water or like… herbal tea or sum idk he’s used to carrying around this one cup anywhere in dorms

thrashes around A LOT in bed

has weird fucking dreams all the time

proceeds to narrate out said dreams to the 127/dream group chat…

the hyungs mostly leave him on read, taeyong is adamant on finding out the meanings of the dreams and jungwoo reacts with a cursed emoji

johnny and haechan shouts across the dorm to acknowledge his dream but the dreamies seem to be into it

they have a ‘mark hyung’s weird dreams’ archive

this mf never cleans his room it takes like having to have lost an important thing to motivate him to clean up but then it just goes back to how it was until the cycle repeats

mark chews with his mouth closed like a gud boy

breaks out in freestyle rap when he’s stressed or excited

occasionally checks out the fans’ fanfiction and he likes the fluffy ones but the dirty ones always make him cringe and make weird noises like he always does

mark as a bf:

always mf nervous when he holds your hand, not sure why

he likes the feel of his hand in yours

he likes your kisses too

mark has the habit of whining when he doesn’t get something when he’s with the members and it increases tenfold when he’s with you

no cuddles? whine

no kisses? whine

no attention? of course the mans whining

but you find it rlly cute and mark will be caught dead before the members find out how much more whiny he is with you

gives you the last watermelon on the plate

likes basketball dates where you both fail to make the hoop

“this one’s for y/n!” [mark misses]

“mark this is for you!” [you miss way worse than mark, going over the basketball post]

kisses on the forehead

kisses on your neck

kisses on your fingers

helps you to paint ur nails if you do!!!

you two also do impulsive things together

exhibit a: dyeing your hair together

exhibit b: cutting said hair together

mark offers to do a undercut for you but his hand is too shaky that you ask him to stop immediately

the man hates horror but can sit through thriller movies with you, although thriller still has those… jump scare elements

he likes detective/action movies

mark takes you to this outdoor restaurant once, kinda like that hit the states vid with haechan in dallas

there’s fairy lights and soft music playing and the food is really good too!

the ambiance is really beautiful and you can see the stars above you

it’s your favourite date with him to date

mark’s favourite date of yours was the first time you “went” out

he had busy schedules the next day and couldn’t stay out late so you two had to stay in the dorms for a first date

you opted for movies and maybe a small cuddling session to find our your boundaries and you two ended up liking it a whole lot

mark was very flustered which was the reason why he wanted to be hugging you form behind when watching the movie

the members left you alone, mostly

johnny wouldnt stop “accidentally” coming in for something he forgot just so he can update the others on what you two were doing

he doesn’t mean any harm, he’s just stoked to see his friend having someone more intimate to confide in other than the boys

mark plays the guitar for you and does a little jam session for you as well, but mostly the two of you hung out and talked about what you liked and disliked

mark would’ve loved to be at your place if he couldn’t go out but his manager said it might be better to stay in for fear of paparazzi and stuff like that

he also wished he could’ve introduced the boys a little later bc he wanted you to himself but he can’t always get what he wants

the members are nice to you but everyone’s ultimately a stranger to you so the next day you decide to stay in for another night for a movie night with the boys

its their off day the next day so its ok

mark has his hands in yours and squeezing your hand so tight bc he doesn’t want someone to see how fond he is of you

he’s shy please understand uwu

he becomes more comfortable towards the end of the night despite the teasing and when the movie ends he turns off the tv and leaves the boys be

and you two sleepily walk to his room

they blame him for all the unnatural cramps in their bodies the next day

the auntie who cooks for them is fond of you too

when you help its like delicious food galore part two

you can only do a few dishes tho, but it’s still delicious

mark likes to pepper kisses over your face when you’ve just woken up

his kisses are soft but his hands love to wander

his lips are very soft too

facetiming when he’s on tour/on lockdown/after a show

usually he’s in the car back to the hotel or washed up on his bed

but either way he looks really good

sleepy, raspy voice which always makes your heart beat faster

failed pickup lines that make you smile

mark likes to go on picnics with you, too

you met via a picnic, actually

your mats were across each other and the members were celebrating someone’s birthday and they decided to do it at a not-so frequented park bc they missed being out of schedules

your friends just wanted a day out

the ball they were playing with… landed in the brownies and you were ready to throw hands for your friend who was so excited about bringing those brownies

(she said it was ok she brought two trays of brownies)

you took one look at mark and swallowed your words, not knowing what to say

you shoot him a glare, more harsh than you intended and handed his ball back

mark had to get his hyung to say that he didn’t mean it bc he was pretty scared of you

and yes that’s how u met

all in all, mark loves you a lot and wouldn’t trade anything

mark loves all of you and isn’t afraid to show it behind closed doors when he’s kissing you with both your laughters laced into it

[fakerbatch]

Alright putting my tinhat on. A while ago I somehow ended up reading abut bearding in the entertainment industry, and how it's something talent agencies do all the time. Creative Artists was mentioned as one of three agencies that's known for doing it aggressively, and guess what - it's MF's new agency starting late 2019 early 2020 (which is when TO seemed to have disappeared from view /sightings for a while) and that lasted till June, which was when we first saw RM (although she does have a photo on her IG from April 2020 as she claims and it looks like it was taken in MF's house). So I wonder whether the switch to CA meant he was asked to be seen with a girlfriend, esp in front of the paps, explaining his strange behavior about this. Ahead of the paps RM obviously put everything in order on her online presence - changed into a brand new IG account (she had an older one she deleted that can still be seen tagged by others), professionally edited her IMDB, deleted tons of old posts etc. Bearding practices include long term arrangements including living together but in separate 'wings' of the house. They also mentioned in the bearding thread that if the two actors are represented by the same people then it's a dead giveaway of an arranged relationship (and in this case I don't think they are but who knows how these things work). Maybe in order to hide or avoid any questions about TO or whatever, the agency demanded that sort of thing.

And if that's the truth despite the many speculations, and not a triad like other people suggested in previous asks, then it's a little sad for everyone involved and frankly a bit disappointing coming from MF who everyone thinks is this proud bi, and claims to hate industry practices.

Well I’ve never bought the proud Bi thing for a minute and yeah that’s all possible. She was actually first seen out with him June-ish of last year. A story in Dec when the spate of pap pics happened claimed she’d been with him since just before the first lockdown (briefly met his friends apparently which amused me picturing her with a bunch of old mod men). That was always a bit suspicious to me though since he’d been in California for the month or so prior, came home very late like at least mid March, so how did he start a brand new relationship in London right then?

[greaterlandscapes]

My Dean Blunt Rotation aka High Fidelity Left A Bad Taste in My Mouth

For the past 2 to 3 months, my listening habits were teetering to an end; mostly via burnout by spontaneously listening to local artists daily and less likely of a musical discovery drought, whereas my interests of a certain artist or genre hasn't found its, sort of, "eureka", moment per se. I've been feeling less enthusiastic over the things i listen to since my friends have gradually lost their flare when it comes to discovering/exploring untapped parts of the music realm. Thus, in return, my enthusiasm not being reciprocated. It leaves an empty feeling from someone who has been yearning social interaction, may it be media being latched on the topic - it's a feeling that's been guilt-tripping me ever since I was stranded in the other end of the metro. I feel closed off, exposed to the crippling loneliness the lockdown has punished us: a defacto solitary confinement in a national level. Our act of staying online is also an act of staying alive outside.

To be fair though, it's a valid move to not boomerang compliments/gripes over an art you haven't consumed due to someone's autonomy. Your able body being to consume the art you wish to finish with free time is a luxury in of itself. The art is then failed to serve its purpose to reach its goal: You have squiggly lines heading straight to oblivion rather than swirling in the earlobes of a wandering cyber nomad. We, eventually, need to find something that could help us exit, rather than escape, from capital. We, in return, do not shut ourselves from the outside. Instead, we then tend to avoid the stress of protocols and outdoor fascism; Not avoid the indoor liberalism that is eating us alive and online. It's a capital punishment we never knew we signed up for ever since the onslaught of the virus and the state. Art for art's sake is nonexistent now, always has been, it seizes to ever since we went inside. Feeding off of a holographic meatloaf coming from a glowing screen. We have a real-life Karen acting as a nightlight in our rooms.

The COVID lockdown made us listen to music — both for better, for worse. For one, it made us pass most days. You could say the same for any sort of media: film, mixed media art, or whatever pre-Covid activity that sprung up during our time in isolation. For music, however, there was an uptick of new listeners that made others Wheel-of-Fortune the fuck out of their music discoveries in sites like RateYourMusic, Bandcamp, or even Sophie's Floorboard. We've continued to expand and became more open change of opinions and be less of a jackass towards someone else's opinions. On second thought, our opinions have been catalogued, leaving more notes than actual footprints of our previous listens. Our new discoveries made new bands and re-emerging bands, bands who faded to obscurity, crawl back in the surface with newfound interest from younger listeners (ie Panchiko, Jai Paul, and Dean Blunt) and this glowing, previously unseen and unexpected overwhelming support from fans of departed artists (ie SOPHIE, MF DOOM)

For the other, we've hogged gratuitous amounts of media, resulting into losing our primary direction as to how we want to consume our media based on the preconceived notions of what we want in our art. There is goodness in becoming directionless when you think about it, but there comes a cost to our identity as music listeners. Instead, we end up widening our tangents, falling in endless rabbit holes, having zero chances to emerge from the surface. In fact, i refuse to call it a "rabbit hole" instead i'd rather call it a "pipeline" of sorts — transitioning casual music fans into a full on, different, unique versions of themselves that would define them when laws and protocols have eased in the outside world. Our act of staying online has either made most of us break our character or enliven our past selves. The music pipeline is now more apparent, stretching the norms of what was once alienated by a silent majority, but now accepted as an acceptable form of expression. The more music we are exposed to has made casual listeners stranged out or react in ways that our personality have betrayed us or deemed not as acceptable to them. Still, not changing anything that was prominent pre-pandemic. Liberal cop behavior is stronger, now more dangerous than it ever was once perceived by the outside world.

HIGH FIDELITY? NO, THANK YOU.

Imagine a situation inside of a record, pre-pandemic of course, where you do not feel like lifting a record out from the shelf, instead, you window shop just for the sake of windowshopping. Capital and media made us think that going to record shops is a semi-productive activity. The age of discovery has died ever since High Fidelity romanticized and normalized the incelage of horny record diggers. Does this movie age well, yeah sure it does, for old 90s nerds at least. But did it translate well over in the past 20 or more years of events and tragedies that unfolded in pre-9/11 America? No it didn't. It was an age of free expression, only liberals would dream of whenever they take a sip of Guinness beer in their favorite dive bar.

Mind you, over a couple of months ago, it was my only chance in seeing why this movie was the talk of the town back when it was released. There's music, yeah, and attractive leading leadies, yeah, it has everything a 90s kid would love to salivate and drop their gonads over while they watch this movie. I obviously did not live to see the movie on opening day but i could imagine the scent that came out of that movie theater with attendees donning windbreakers and The Who shirts with popcorn dressing stains on their plastic cups. If there was a Filipino counterpart to this movie, i'd bet corporate champions Eraserheads and Rivermaya would soundtrack their music over and have either Tado or have Boy 2 Quizon, but i sense it to age like milk more than it could age like fine wine due to the senseless jokes one can execute in a Cubao or Cartimar record store.

John Cusack is obviously the incel in question here: a damaged, vengeful ex who constantly fails to live his partner's expectations and weaponizes his personality over the situations that has nothing to do with his interests. I spent the entire time being absolutely disgusted over the spineless responses of John Cusack's leading character. The movie then treads on flashbacks with John Cusack's failed relationships and what he could do to move on from each and one of them. If i could stand a SONA for 3 hours then I can't stand John Cusack being the dull entry point to incel, making more reasons why you should hate record store clerks who don't give an iota of shits to someone's inviting rapport. High Fidelity is opium for massive music circle jerks who can't take a single breathe of fresh air or a single quota of touching grass. There's more targeting weak and inferior guys and hot women who dump dumb overconfident dudebros more than the actual "music recs" in the entire movie. The more I think about this movie, the more I realize how our personality is in line towards Dick, the record store being unmercifully dunked on by the movie's two leading characters. He's an angel in the world of cynical bastards, witnessing both demons pitchforking record store customers in the ass while they're purchasing the latest Sonic Youth album.

I believe that Jack Black, the dark horse of High Fidelity, has a pleasing personality more than an irritating demeanor due to this behavior in the record store. In fact, outside of the record store, Jack Black doesn't seem to take the business is your pleasure act pretty seriously. Unlike John Cusack's character he brought his obsession over involving a record in an important memory/point of his life. There is so much stuff that has happened outside of the record store, so much for Rolling Stone and NME being the bible of music at the time, endlessly christening and shilling artists that believe to become the second coming of the Beatles. The music references here however are treated as fluff than it is a mechanism that would drive the senseless plot forward. If anything, there are events pointed out in the event that doesn't have anything to do with the life of the characters.

If anything, this movie did a great job at capturing the feeling of music bros being dumped on the wayside by a mature set of characters and how their current conditions aren't perfumed by the studios' liking of having to Cinderella story the shit out of a bunch of normal record store owners. The reality is in the reaction of one's social capital being invaded and we're here to witness how those reactions panned out in 2021. This is a villainous depiction of music nerds being the salt of the earth, the bane of all media discussion, still reflective of the insufferable salt of cyberspace found in music forums like 4chan and RYM. High Fidelity is a pipeline of 90s musicology, a dreaded fever dream of an owner waiting for the decade to end, trends ossifying and re-emerged by the hands of nostalgia-savvy individuals. It was, at its time, every music-movie nerd's excuse equivalent of Scott Pilgrim VS. The World. There are memories worth remembering and cherishing, and this movie isn't one of them.

DEAN BLUNT, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

In the past two weeks I've been fancying myself into sitting down and listening to different projects from the ever elusive, UK-based sound artist Dean Blunt. The first time i chanced upon his music wasn't too long ago - albeit a recent one in the time of COVID - was when I randomly stumbled upon his records at a Spotify recommendations section under John Maus (yeah lol i know the implications whenever his name is mentioned) - but then i was enamored by his online presence so quickly I put everything down and dedicated an hour or two researching about this man's music.

Other than the fact that his album "The Redeemer" wasn't the best record to start off in journeying through his discography: ending up disgusted and borderline bored even and I was more likely to lambast this record's aimless, pretentious art-pop inflections. By the end of the day, it was a preference long solidified by his undying fanbase. According to his hardcore fans, the music isn't really music, evaluating it as a free form of sound art, rather than sticking to a structured and conventional cues; the genre is nullified by most analysts of the arts. The growing interest of the general public towards Dean Blunt's pranks and antics have long appealed to my tastes as a chaotic neutral individual. Pranks that are well executed to piss off UK gallery connoisseurs and entertain ironic attendees who'd shit on the art piece rather than participate in it.

More of the resources I've found about Dean Blunt online: numerous aliases and collaborations that lasted around almost 2 decades. The most notable of all them, at least for my money, are either Hype Williams, a duo consisting of Dean and frequent collaborator Inga Copeland, and Babyfather, an art performance parodizing the pirate radio culture in the UK. I have not delved enough in Blunt's body of work to evaluate everything and what i could synthesize from it. For now, I enjoyed it as a form of entertainment. Well, color me impressed because Dean Blunt isn't clowning around, he, in fact, makes blissful and transcendental music from left to right.

Dean Blunt was the only few artists that made me want to binge on their discography. His movements in his music has attracted this pesky listener who thinks that being mysterious is a plus. I mean, look at me who thinks The Paul Institute, Panchiko, and Burial are the greatest artists that have walked the face of the earth.

The most I've enjoyed from Dean Blunt's discography are his mixtapes and collaborations: preferably his Soul Fire and ZUSHI, both of which were packaged as B-sides or supplemental releases rather than major releases such as the Babyfather project or the Black Metal releases. His knack for blurring the lines between genres still fascinate me as of this writing, and it continues to amaze me how he doesn't seize to compromise his art, he's here to prove a point and it sells quite well despite the lack of direction in his music. Blunt's music has more aggressive and hazy texture than the hollow, wide, soulless structure of art-pop/hypnagogic pop released today. He creates terrains from the rubble of his country's current shortcomings. The music overlaps the actual intentions with abstract concepts, becoming deconstructed down the line. In Babyfather, noise music coincides with Blunt's amateurish rapping. In Black Metal, Blunt isolates himself along with the assisted skeletal guitar playing. Both projects throwing all tropes in a vaccum alongside Blunt, who he himself would sought to become a personification of a musical void.

--

(Excerpt from the Babyfather album review in TinyMixtapes)

--

Dean Blunt is an entity that wishes to become one person, but no, this isn't a figure in a specific art form; this isn't Banksy, this isn't Bob Ong, this is made by one person, clearly it is if you listen closely, and it's been entrancing me ever since his presence was felt on the horizons of the internet. Dean Blunt, what the actual fuck.

[indecisive-v]

NINJAMUFFIN DOING ANOTHER AMA ON TWITTER, HERE'S MORE SHIT FOR YA! keep in mind i'm just sharing the funkin related stuff, though i am including WAAAAY more than what i shared before 👍 go check out ninja's twitter profile for questions about stuff like ritz! questions in blue, answers in orange. if yall don't wanna read everything i MIGHT make a version of this post where i replace the answers with my own summaries of em (and if the questions are long, those too)

and here's a link to the ama tweet itself! dunno if it's still goin

Q: I figure the answer will be yes but do you have more plans to implement more guest appearances from people in the newgrounds community into FNF? Or are you all gunna focus on OG lore and stuff going forward

A: for guest appearances, I think we have always seen it as getting a healthy mix of both. PERSONALLY I'd like to lean towards having more OG stuff than guest stuff, BUT it's all a matter of what other boys think of that as well. I'm not the sole person working on game!

Q: Are you gonna release the full FNF game or are you gonna be releasing week after week? Like, are you gonna release week 8 or are we gonna wait some years until The Full Ass Game comes out?

A: Release plan for FNF right now is a few more updates or whatev to the 'demo' we have out right now, and then a long silence of probably no updates whatsoever until the full game is done (which will likely be a few years). That's partly why we made kickstarter for game.

Q: Hey so like, how much will Fnf cost after it's finished? And when will you ask the supporters what they want the game on?

A: It's all subject to change, but right now it prob gonna be standard 15-25$ lil steam indie game.

We will ask Kickstarter pledgers and whatnot what they want the game on SUPER close to when its released, to keep options open if we get onto anything like a console people want.

Q: 1. how was your day

2. are you releasing a week 8 song early like week 7, or are you goin full lockdown

A: I am doing GOOD today, and I think recently I've been good in general.

up to the mood, but so far we doing good about not having anything leak or whatev, so I think it'd be fun to have update come out with people not knowing what to expect at all. Build dat intrigue

Q: Will fnf ever get official plushies?? Seems like an untapped market

A: FNF plushies will prob happen some point, we have a lot of current merch stuff on our plates already though! (Mostly kickstarter type stuff, shirts, pins, posters, and all the physical OST stuff) Its a lot to sort out, but in time more and more stuff will happen. We r jus 4 boys!

Q: did you ever expect your game to blow up as it did? what was your first reaction to seeing it become super popular

A: FNF never had a humble moment, literally day 1 before the prototype even came out, the vid on twitter had like 5K likes overnight. Then when ludum dare version came out, it got 5K likes again, like it wasnt just a fluke. Was crazy, and def felt like somethin was different wit FNF

Q: Do you plan on getting other people to come in to help with the music? That seems like a lot of work to dump on one person, what with the erect mode and whatnot.

I guess the question could apply to all aspects of development. Will you be bringing on more people to help?

A: We definitely are getting help from other people. We are always keeping an eye on people for various different things. In terms of programming, already I've gotten 2 people (MtH and Geokureli) to help with certain Week 7 stuff (charting/polish, and loading stuff). Shit like dat

Q: Oh, also, will the Steam version be Workshop compatible? That'd really help streamline the process of downloading mods.

A: Steam version of FNF will likely NOT be Steam workshop compatible, because we want all the mods to NOT be spread out through different places. There WILL be modding support that is as streamlined as Steam workshop though. Mainly for non-steam versions of the game!

Q: Are there any chances that the game will have a physical release? Also any updates on a switch port? I remember one of you guys talking/joking about it.

A: Not impossible for FNF to get a physical release. We would want to see how far we could go with it though. I think it'd be super easy to do something wit people like LimitedRun games or whatev, but I think stuff like that can only go so far. I wanna see Funkin in mf Walmart!!!!!!

not that LimitedRun isn't going to be an option! Just we consider and pursue many different things! FNF release is years away, so we have time to think about everything. Whole mindset can be different just a few months from now.

Q: Out of curiosity, how are you dealing with all the popularity? It blew up so fast id barely be able to handle it if I was in your shoes.

A: The only way I've been able to handle it is having the other boys on the crew and being able to talk to them about all the overwhelmingness.

Part of it feels very lonesome, feels like NO ONE can come close to comprehending exactly how I'm feeling, except them. also other PALS!!!

Q: Do you own any of the bootleg FNF merchandise? Like any bootleg plushies or anything?

A: i dont, i genuinely think they r a waste of money, and I know any bootleg shit that gets made, we can prob go about and make it, and make it 100x cooler because we actually put effort into shit. bootleg shit just in it for the coin, so they aint gettin that from me

Q: How did you go about getting in contact with sr pelo for skid and pumps vocals?

A: Pelo i think was familiar and pals wit PhantomArcade a bit thru various Newgrounds things and collabs and whatnot.

pelo retweeted the first OG FNF posts first ever, and brought a LOT of attention to it. to pay him back, we put skid and pump in game! ask dave for more info prob

Q: what's the plan for having the full ass game open source if it's gonna cost money? couldn't people just download the source and compile the game for free?

A: when FNF is fully released, the full source code will be released as well.

the game will be DRM free so it will be way easier for people to redistribute the released/offical .exe instead of compiling it, so that's not the issue anyways. people will pay for things if they like it

Q: What are the chances of it getting on consoles like switch or Playstation, ps5 would definitely be my preferred way to play

A: it'd be a matter of hiring someone to build out backend stuff for those specific consoles. someone who knows their way around all the wacky code stuff, AND knows console hardware stuff. Then its just a matter of hittin up those console manufacturers (Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo)

the CLOSEST one is SWITCH. pretty much all of that backend is already made, so it just a matter of gettin all that access and shit.

i think in any case though, there's a lot of NDA stuff required, i dunno how much we'd be able to talk about it even IF we get that stuf sorted

Q: any ideas of releasing it on epic store or another platform?

A: Right now, the only thing that is 100% confirmed and WILL happen is a Steam version, itchio version, and mobile versions on respective app stores. Other storefronts aren't out of the picture though, but we don't want to spread ourselves too thin with it.

Q: Will you continue using HaxeFlixel to make the rest of FNF?

A: yes, because it is what I'm the most technically proficient in, and generally is VERY flexible. just a matter of ME becoming a better coder. It's ALL open source, so if I need something done a certain way, either I can do it, or we can hire someone to do it.

Q: have you seen game theory's videos on your game yet and if so, what do you think about them? (not talking about his predictions because i dont want spoilers. i like mystery)

A: it is always good silly fun to watch the Game Theory vids about Funkin with some pals, and see what matpat thinks of the game. i lov the vids, but wish he used my face less! Or at least used a cuter pic of me like this one!!

Q: Ok so: What does the future of FNF look like to you?

A: future of FNF is a rhythm game that not only exceeds every expectation that people have of it, but subverts most expectations and conventions as well.

Q: Do you plan on retouching on older weeks once the game is fully out? Like reanimating sprites, redoing some charting, updating the background, etc

A: retouching and probably overhauling certain aspects is almost definitely gonna happen. Everything is fluid and can be changed (and should be changed when necessary). i dont think anything should be too attached to, especially this early on in development

Q: I honestly do not care if the answer to this is vague as hell to keep surprises and shit lol but… Since Week 7 was the closest we’ll get to a playable girlfriend (still bf controlling tho), do you have plans to make girlfriend playable in spin-off things or just freeplay?

A: wouldnt be out of the picture for a playable GF, i don't think we've had some hard thing AGAINST it. just a matter of what we want out of the game, and what sort of story or whatev we could do with that concept

Q: How do BF and GF manage to meet famous newgrounds characters (such as pico, tankman and the others to come) like is this all in one universe/ timeline or are they being brought in?

A: i think they are all just there existing. i think there's a lot of wacky things in other media that try to justify crossovers, like MULTIVERSE bullshit or TIMELINE shit, but i dunno, its like subspace emissary. Captain Falcon and Olimar from Pikmin just hang out. Shit like dat

disclaimer that all lore shit is in phantomarcade head pretty much and maybe there is wacky dimensions or somethin

Q: Will the game have dlc?

A: its not too unlikely that we'd have expansions of some sort, but i mean right now we plan on packing in as much as we can into base game, and trying to make that as pure as possible.

if there is ANY dlc, i would personally want it to be 100% free updates

Q: How did you meet Phantom Arcade, Kawai Sprite, and EvilSker? And what do you think about the community and its controversies?

A: me and phantomarcade been fukin around NG for years so years and years ago we naturally crossed paths and became pals

about 2 years ago i found kawaisprites music on NG, and started talkin wit him, made Ritz wit him and we fell in lov

and evilsk8r i met cuz of FNF!!!

quik elaborate on evilsk8r, wanted artist for gamejam FNF was for (ludum dare), and OG person i asked wasnt available, so he referred me to evilsk8r, who I have never met or talked to before ever.

[triplejy2k]

Custom Monsters (How to make your players actually enjoy fighting a complex boss) P2

So previously I mentioned the Biometal Slime being the boss of the dungeon, well that’s partially true because it went through a transformation off-screen. Meet the Biometal Abberation, an enemy so complex that it takes up an entire fucking page of a google doc to explain all of its powers properly.

This mf has some pretty nutty abilities, all designed around the idea of making a boss that can “deal with” an optimized party with maximum efficiency without being TOO bullshit. (Feel free to DM me asking for the stat blocks and icons for the slimes and this guy if you want to use em in a campaign)

The main idea behind this boss fight is that it spawns a set amount of extra clones over the fight (clone spawns near player that broke the health threshold meaning that they end up EVERYWHERE). Mana Discharge was essentially designed to be able to also slow down the fight 2 times to allow both it and its minions to trigger Targeting Systems’ effects constantly during a fight on the squishies. I’m really proud of Targeting Systems, like almost unreasonably so, mainly due to the fact that I wanted to be able to pressure the Psion PC to worry about keeping themselves safe from dying due to constant pressure on the enemy turn as well as having a way to hurt other players while the tank had the boss on lockdown. Having “reactive armor” like Serrated Flesh is really important for your tankier enemies or glass cannon 1 round type monsters because it allows them to take hits and cause chaos and rather than making your players unable to hit foes, which honestly in a game like DnD where you can use most attacks once per fight and once per day kind of sucks. One thing I learned that players hate is bosses/enemies that are fully resistant to forced movement, cause it fully prevents funny shenanigans and party attack setups. 

The party managed the fight very well, however the Warforged had an idea. You see he was fighting the boss next to a massive well, of which they did not know how far the bottom was down there. So when he decided to push the boss into the well it sank down into the darkness. The party began laughing... then the boss reappeared right behind the bard out of a pool of magic sludge. To describe what happened next requires a bit of formatting and explaining of the parties setup.  Damian is a hexblade with incredibly high damage attacks, to the point where if he can crit he easily can take off 80 ish health at the stage of the campaign they fought this thing at Sylvia is a bard and has the ability to boost the base value of a d20 roll by 3 if she does a basic attack.  Cal is a psion that has a ton of crowd control and forced movement abilities Vectr is the parties tank and has a really high strength value. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHVqoiG0CUU I also humbly request you listen to this while reading because it captures the mood of this moment PERFECTLY.

What followed the bosses rather abrupt shift was Cal moving them into a better position between the party, VECTR throwing Damian because Damian’s base movement was not fast enough to reach the boss on his own, Sylvia boosting Damian’s attack to be a guaranteed crit, and then Damian subsequently killing the boss upon dealing 73 damage to it and then action pointing to deal an additional 24 damage to finish it off. 

Both the parties reaction, and my own, can only be captured as the hype of describing one of the hypest attacks I have had the privilege of being able to describe. “Damian jumps into the air and performs a massive Blazing Doom of The Void on the boss, then spins and slashes his blade down the Biometal Abberation, bisecting it in half exposing metal refuse and what appears to be human bone and its form collapses to the cold flagstones and pools of magical refuse”.

This was a fucking awesome encounter and I still have so many more to rant about. 

[onestowatch]

99 Neighbors on Vermont, 99 Radio, and Their New Singles “QWOP” and “Basement” [Q&A]

99 Neighbors has been disrupting current notions of what band and rap collectives look and sound like. Hailing from the unlikely city of Burlington, Vermont, artists HANKNATIVE, Shane Kaseta, and Sam Paulino met Somba and Juju to form what soon became the ever evolving 99 Neighbors. Later, members Connor “Swank,” Jared “JFear,” and Aidan Ostby joined the group, all adding their own new unique perspective.  

The group’s debut project Television showcased the group as one not afraid to take risks and defy genres. 99 Neighbors are now breaking their 2020 silence with the hard-hitting singles “Basement” and “QWOP.”

We had the pleasure of connecting with 99 Neighbors via email to talk about coming up in Vermont, their creative process, new singles, and more.

Ones To Watch: How did growing up in Vermont influence your music?

AIDAN: Vermont is a beautiful and secluded place. Young people can grow up feeling a disconnect between their lives and the culture/creative output of the mainstream. Kids in New York can go to so many places in the city to see exciting up and coming artists in-person and really get a feel for who they are and what they’re about. That sort of culture does not exist in even the most populated areas of Vermont. If you want to connect with artists and gain knowledge about music, it's either all on you or it's going to come down to word of mouth. Despite it being tough to connect deeply with influences compared to places with more contact with big artists, Vermont also provides (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful places to be creative in the country. I’ve never felt closer to the essence of my own life than when i was biking in Burlington, and kids in Vermont are so lucky to have access to that scenery and that very same seclusion that can seem limiting at times. Vermont is a wonderful place to be creative and a horrible place to be expansive.

What are some places to visit for someone going to Burlington for the first time?

JUJU: For a first time visitor, I’d recommend grabbing some food from the homie Kujt at his cart “South End Sliders” on Church Street marketplace. From there it's a short walk down to the waterfront where you can get a creamie at Burlington Bay and enjoy the view of sunset over the lake!

How has the creative process changed since signing to a major label?

SOMBA: At first I was worried about being consumed by the process of making accessible music for a wide audience. Luckily at this point I’m really happy to be learning new ways to communicate our ideas (as bold as they may be) through the internal accessibility and communication of our narrative structure’s composition. As opposed to some looming, speculative silent majority that is the music market, I focus on the building block mechanics to our songs & just keep the label-y shit in mind as I go. To elaborate, our sound design, and vocal performance in combination with lyrics and musical composition all have to have a conversation with each other and you. For me the Warner helped show me that the industry-buzz-word of “communication” actually goes a long way. It’s much better to try to clear up anything in the way of greatness than to focus on some vague goal of being great.

Where did you get the idea to start 99 Radio?

JARED: Sam and I had the idea to start 99 Radio during the first COVID lockdown in early March. We missed the experience of partying with our homies on the weekend, and we knew a lot of our fans did too, so we wanted to try and capture as much of that energy as possible through a livestream. Twitch was the perfect platform to host 99 Radio on because of the dope community we already had built up there, as well as not capping our broadcast at a certain length (we typically go for 3-4 hours).

Being stuck inside for a long ass time has had a pretty heavy toll on my mental health, but having a way to break up the monotony of quarantine life, as well as a new reason to look forward to the weekend, has been super beneficial during this pandemic.

With so many members, does it become difficult to create a singular vision or sound?

SWANK: Sometimes having multiple members can be a struggle when opinions differ but for the most part, we have organically grown better at making music together just by going through life together. With everything we been through, we have learned many things about each other and how we work so we can move forward in ways we think will be successful. A key thing for that is communication. We still got ways to go before we perfect it but right now we doing alright !

What do you hope fans will take away from listening to “QWOP” and “Basement”?

HANK: I want it to be an intro to who we are for people who don’t already know. The playfulness of the duo, combined with the serious aspects kind of serve as the setting. We’re some young people enjoying where life’s taken us since we started our journey, but at the same time there’s an air of seriousness. This all matters...

It also serves as a great representation of our last year specifically. We took this mf from the basement apartment we were crashing in and Burlington, and it’s a wild ride.

How is the upcoming release different thanTelevision?

SAM: I think it's smarter to compare these singles to our previous single run last year, given Television is a full body of work!

The process of making QWOP and Basement was similar to the creation of songs like Fuck No, Bangarang, Ripstick and Mercy II. Creating with the sole purpose of having fun and letting whatever happens happen. A carefree feeling with intent, if you will!

Who are some of your Ones to Watch?

99 NEIGHBORS: BKTheRula, Mavi, Ovrkast., Spit Infinity, Dijon, Will Keeper, and Serious Klein.

[thrufiyah]

Midnight Sept 28 2021 12:30am

Midnight thoughts

Finally got babygirl to go to sleep hopefully she’ll stay asleep. Homeboy over here dont even know I got up or that I’m sitting up typing rn ha smh. Anyway... honestly... lately been feeling lonely but with support if that makes sense...

Lots of paperwork here to fill out reg benefits, insurance, etc but it’s working out gradually. might be able to get a cabin soon for my own lil fam so we’ll see how that works out and we plan to move next year so we’ll see how that works out too... 

kinda leaning towards going our own way bc its a lotta hands involved and the left doesn’t always know what the right is doing or diff views on everything kinda confusing rn but itll work out

def an adjustment period. but just kinda feel lonely bc not rly anyone to talk to about honest thoughts? honestly? sometimes doubting... but excited in planning? now that were officially getting our own room to fill up w our own stuff is kinda sorta cool but not sure how it will go when the weather is bad

just gonna just keep typing as i go until i get rudely interrupted. lol

kinda bummed that i won’t be able to do this once lo arrives bc thatll be two bebes to constantly watch and never have time for myself

i always told myself not to have kids until i was financially stable and i broke the one promise to myself...... the one thing i didn’t want for my life..... but GOD you make a way when there’s no way

what else... worried about bebe growing if she’s ok normal all parts eating enough growing enough just idk.. always gonna be wondering... 

ill even be wondering when both kids grow up and things will come up like disabilities along the way and that scares me. not in the fact that i can’t handle it but how their life will be as they grow up

just hoping they have everything that they need and grow up happy and feel loved all the time and able to express themselves....

my patience does run thin these days but maybe its my hormones? but again maybe not lol haha

wow everytime i come back here i feel different and im always at a different stage in my life. 

missing my family in the way of how they remind me of who i am and where i came from they say ive grown up and that im independent but idk how much of that is really true

what else... dont rly talk to anyone much either... if anything it’s hb’s mom and then hb and even that isn’t much

daylight savings time is diff - sun didn’t go down until 7pm-8pm and it felt different. finally found my favorite grocery store that gives me a little piece of home and got to see a new side of town with the shops near the mall.. that was exciting lol

it’s really such a trip how much of a stop life is at the moment rn but i guess its a way to tell me we got to slow down hashtag cashaley haha

teddyswims and allenstone were dope on that yt video though lol

i oughta listen to more music to mellow out! haha. DEF need my own headphones or earpods... which HB didn’t give away my freakin mpower flames... lol. but headphones be hurting my ears but also i be needing them sometimes to chill or watch a movie

idk what the future holds but im holding on jesus lol im holding on....

hmm what else. lately ive been WAY TOO addicted to chocolate... and hmm what else... i need a journal just for notes like shopping lists, to do lists... etc.

glad im back in the tumblr and pinterest world lol. but pinterest to me seem like fleeting dreams and a whole lotta money mama does NOT have haha

hoping my work visa comes in soon so that i can apply for the residency one in december as soon as baby is born lol. 

i can’t believe i dont remember if i bled a lot or not after giving birth last year... but last year was such a year of turmoil trials and tribulations... so to me i get it.. but yeah anyway

it’s weird... i feelike im here and not here.. maybe bc of lockdown and now in level 3 but a lot of empty dreams happening! but goals are def being met and worked on and completed so i can’t complain about that

i get worried everyday if bebe in there is still kicking so many horrifying and sad stories around the world its just no way to protect your kids idek

as far as self care... i was kind of doing it but at least im cleaning more and helping around the house more? i just hope im not slacking where it’s most important

what else.... hm.... what else is on my mind tonight. body be SORE LIKE A MF. from having to be a 25/8 366 day arm pillow, having huge ass legs to lay on my side, damn i miss my side lmao, to having to share a freakin blanket lmao.

idk just a lot going on and not rly any outlet to do. this mf still aint notice im sitting here lol anyway

what else is on my mind.... for some reason i really wanna find more haircare stuff lol. i need pa’us lol and rubberbands, scrunchies, bins, what else... idek but i need it alll please and thank you lol

babygirl is kod rn so cute but baby just dont move sleep peacefully by yourself for now haha

anyway we’ll find out this week if we’re gonna move to the next chapter and hopefully nana approves of our new plan idek

what else... i swear i clean up and two seconds later its a mess again in here

trying not to be too paranoid about stuff in here but it gets to me when they all start to puss ugh yuck fkn gross man but well get by maybe the nzbugs aint used to american fat skin haha

fitness is something im def looking forward to out here... kinda need to go for walks more often whether its just down the street or the small park nearby which here is called the bush lol

dont even get me startttttted on vocabulary... lets see what ive learned so far here...

bush / wop wops - foresty tree area, gumboots - rainboots, jumper - jacket or longsleeve? dairy/superette - small convenience store not connected to a gas station, what else... rubbish - trash... idek cant think of anything else... oh chocolate is specifically chocolate and lollies are gummies and others i guess... newspaper rolling for all food leftover or compost i guess... idk thats all i can think of for now

what else..... that was GROSS bruh. haha tay said don’t lose your venacular... lol. maybe if i keep listening to throwbacks that remind me of home...

ok i feel better i guess now that i wrote down some thoughts gonna try to put these clothes away and then get some rest for tomorrow

kbye!

[swedna]

Indian equities have bounced back but equity fund managers may not be in a mood to celebrate. Market polarisation, the uncertainty created by the pandemic and a liquidity-driven rally have made managers' task difficult.

Analysts and fund managers seem to have discounted Financial Year (FY) 2020-21 and they are betting on stocks based on projected FY22 and FY23 numbers. Consensus estimates peg NiftyNifty EPS growth of 10 per cent and 39 per cent for FY2021 and FY2022, respectively, according to Credit Suisse Wealth Management, India. A nationwide surge in Covid-19 cases, states going under lockdown and limited fiscal support, however, could pose significant downside risks to these estimates.

"There's a bit of disconnect between market and macro reality. The former is driven by excess liquidity, hopes of economic activity returning to normal together with a Robinhood effect in the form of huge retail participation," said Navneet Munot, chief investment officer at SBI Mutual Fund.

Getting clarity about earnings estimates will be challenging for fund managers this year. Price-to earnings-multiples for FY21 are almost irrelevant because profits dropping across sectors. Managers believe companies should be assessed by looking at their earnings two or three years down the line.

“Taking FY19 as the base, one can arrive at a normal growth trajectory for a particular sector over the next three to four years. Based on that, predict what the earnings will be in FY22-23 and try to value the company on that basis, ignoring FY21 numbers. Also, look at price to book value and see where it is compared to historical averages," said Mahesh Patil, co-Chief Investment Officer at Aditya Birla Sun Life MF.

Indeed, metrics like P/B value, market cap to GDP and solvency ratios have gained currency in the current environment.

Market observers believe that companies with high debt and/or leverage may not be able to withstand the pressure on their balance sheets. Companies that innovate, have liquidity and robust risk management will emerge winners.

"It's not market cap or size of physical assets that will determine a companys resilience but how nimble and agile its management is," said Munot, adding that high frequency data from various agencies, alternative data from search or social media and mobility trends have become important during the pandemic.

Feroze Azeez, deputy CEO of Anand Rathi Private Wealth Management, said analysing the Altman Z-score of companies may be a better way to predict impending defaults and bankruptcies rather than credit ratings given by ratings agencies. Another way to gauge resilience would be to go far back into history, say 10 or 20 years, to assess how companies have fared in recessions, political uncertainty, or catastrophes, said Siddhartha Rastogi, Chief Operating Officer & head of sales at Ambit Asset Management. Historical data, however, may not be relevant for sectors or businesses that will see a new normal and are significantly impacted by the pandemic.

Taking cash calls wont be easy. Setting aside 5-10 per cent of cash would seem prudent given the limited upside for the markets in the short term. But large cash calls could backfire if the liquidity-driven rally continues.

Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, for instance, has decreased its equity exposure in asset allocation funds to 65 per cent levels from about 75 per cent before the pandemic. SBI MF's Munot says the fund house does not take large cash calls in equity funds, where the focus continues to be bottom-up stock picking. The fund, however, may take tactical calls to hold more cash in hybrid and asset allocation funds.

And while valuations are not as cheap as they were in March or April, fund managers insist there are enough opportunities for stock picking. "Stock selection was much easier two or three months ago; we have to be much more discerning now," says Patil. "But we don't mind holding on to companies with a clear visibility of recovery and steady growth in the coming years, even if they are slightly expensive.”

Large cap funds or strategies, however, may find it difficult to beat the benchmarks given the polarization and weak earnings growth seen in the past three to five years. Experts say investors should temper their returns expectations given the sharp run-up since May and spread out their investments to tide over market volatility.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Wilma Archer Interview: A Balm for Bespoke Anxiety

Photo by Steve Gullick

BY JORDAN MAINZER

After 9 years, producer and multi-instrumentalist Will Archer has finally come into his own. A Western Circular, Archer’s debut full-length under the moniker Wilma Archer, released last month on Domino, is a half-instrumental, half-lyrical collection of tight, yet atmospheric tracks. It’s got a definitive aesthetic, often combining lush strings with zooming, yet controlled synth counterparts, all over gentle, yet confident percussion. Each track has a standout musical element, from the thudding drums of the title track and the limber, jazzy bass of “Scarecrow” to the puppeting orchestration of “Last Sniff” and warped keyboards and horns of “Cheater”. The voices that appear on the album, too, are essential: MF Doom delivers unsurprisingly vivid verses on “Last Sniff”, while Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring provides his unmistakable pit-of-the-earth baritone to “The Boon” and “Decades” (contrasting with Laura Groves on the latter). And Sudan Archives’ coo steadies “Cheater” in a manner that’s unparalleled on the record. 

Yet, Archer’s running the show this time. He used to release music under the name Slime (two EPs, a mixtape, and an LP, from 2011-2015) and has offered production chops to the likes of Jessie Ware, Nilüfer Yanya, and Sudan Archives herself. (Archer produced two tracks on Yanya’s Miss Universe and many on Sudan Archives’ Athena, two of our favorite albums of last year.) Under the name Wilma Archer, he first dropped “Like a Hunger” in 2017, which featured Amber Mark but felt more like an Amber Mark song than his. He also released Burd, a collaborative record with Odd Future’s Pyramid Vritra, under the moniker Wilma Vritra, last year. A Western Circular, though, feels like the beginning of a unique, dynamic, and long-lasting individual statement.

I caught up with Archer over email to ask him about A Western Circular, including what it meant to start with a new moniker, the inspiration behind the lyrics, sequencing, and album art, and the importance of the various voices on the record.

Since I Left You: Does A Western Circular represent a true starting over for you, or can it be construed as a continuation of the work you've done as Slime or with Pyramid Vritra, Jesse Ware, Nilüfer Yanya, and Sudan Archives?

Wilma Archer: Its different to anything I’ve done before. Rather than helping someone else write, produce or finish their album, I was only ever helping myself with this album.

SILY: Some of the songs on A Western Circular were released before this record was announced. Was it that you were always planning to include them on a record? Or if not, why did you feel like they fit with the newer songs?

WA: They were made in the the same time period, and therefore the same unique set of circumstances, so they were a natural fit.

SILY: The album deals with your experiences of life and death, two things ever-present in existence. On "Cures & Wounds", the main refrain is "Love wounds and love cures." Would you say that's a similar idea or even a microcosm of the themes of the record?

WA: No. The lyrical content throughout the album is intentionally vague, loosely based upon the actual theme that was only ever communicated without words.

SILY: What's the inspiration behind the sequencing of the album?   

WA: Starting and beginning with essentially the same musical passage represents full circle, completion. The content of these bookends is an intentional mix of harsh dissonance and beauty: two ideas that are normally seen in the often undignified process of birth or death.

SILY: What was your general approach in coming up with the record's instrumentation?

WA: To use as much cello as possible, symbolizing things the west values: perceived sophistication, wealth, individualism.

SILY: How and when do you know that a song needs lyrics or even a voice and when it can remain instrumental?

WA: I am most moved by instrumental music, so deciding how and when to seek contributions was not taken lightly. Being able to gauge an imagined audience’s attention span is useful--being honest and highly critical when I felt something was lacking.

SILY: For songs with a voice, how do you decide whether to have a voice that blends in with the instrumentation, like Sudan Archives, versus one that stands out among it, like Sam Herring's?

WA: I think a quick glance at timbre would let you know what to put in front or behind of the main event. That would be more difficult with a bland vocalist.  

SILY: How important was it to have two contrasting voices, Laura Groves' and Sam's, on "Decades"?

WA: Vital. Going either way would have been instant overkill on that song.

SILY: Was it important to include at least one person you've worked with before on the album (Sudan Archives)?

WA: No, not important. Faster, perhaps, because after working with Sudan on her record I knew exactly how to go about working together on “Cheater”.

SILY: What's the story behind the cover art?

WA: I looked to find something that represented pure anxiety: a bespoke, deeply personal brand of anxiety that is handcrafted to make you feel as bad as possible.

SILY: Are there (or ere there) plans to perform these songs live or on a live stream?

WA: There were major plans with a 9-piece band that were just coming into fruition before lockdown. Hopefully, they can begin again at some point. Live streaming is not for me.

SILY: Is there anything you've been listening to, watching, or reading, either before or during quarantine, that's inspired you, comforted you, or caught your attention?

WA: None of the above. Watering plants has helped.

A Western Circular by Wilma Archer